So I still haven't bought any kuang shi and don't really want to. How viable are 2 group lists without them as I seem to have trouble having more than one heavy hitter if I try to get up to 14 orders without them?
Well... that discards JSA (no KuangShi there). And Limited Insertion (where expensive profiles are what you look for). The problem is that YJ has few "middle grounders" when it comes to profiles. They are either too spread (pheasant...), too awesome (read: expensive, like Su Jian, Hsien...), too fragile (Bao) or too expensive (Onibawan). Infinity works best if you have redundancy, so it's better to have two different troops to do two things than one, more (usually more than the two combined) expensive troop able to cover both situations. With Aleph and EC I tend to feel fortunate if I have around 12-14 orders among both groups, frankly, and that's counting the 4 point Netrods/Imetrons!
Yeah trying to come away from what seems to be my crutch at the moment of Dao Fei LT with spitfire and Hac Tao XO with HMG. Generally so far only run single group lists.
It's viable, but you'll be doing a lot of legwork using REMs and the cheaper HI. Rui Shi is your go-to killer, Guilang FO is going to be your primary button-masher. The rest of your list will be filled with cheao order generators that are there to push Rui Shi and Zuyong forward. Once you have two Guilang, one or two hackers, a Zuyong LT, a Rui Shi you'll have to decide whether it's more important to fuel them or to diversify your troops, but 14 to 18 orders shouldn't be hard to put together once you get over the fact that you're sacrificing quality for weight of bullets. What's stopping you is that REMs are hard to hide, not that they are expensive.
I never played with kuang shis and i made some decent tournement list with 12-15 orders. But you have to be very meta taking a lot of multiporpouse models and avoid enought critics. I love Hsien and Hac Tao but usually i run yuan huo and daofei beacuse they are cheaper options and combined with a cheaper carry on a 5 orders second group can perfectly work ( for cheap carries i understand from rui shi, knauf, terracota hmg etc). Anyways without kuang shis you will need a lot of reactive distraction ( husong, dhaolin barrier) and zone control ( always madtraps with gui feng xi zhuang).
The addition of CSU to ISS mean you can get lots of reasonable 16 regular order lists with lots of toys without taking Kuang Shi. You're probably looking at a celestial link either defensive and take a Su-Jian, or put a crane in there with the celestials to make it more heavy hitting. These aren't tailored for anything in particular, but show that there's plenty of room to get what you need for two groups. Crane flavor: Imperial Service ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) CELESTIAL GUARD Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) CRANE IMPERIAL AGENT Lieutenant (X Visor) Spitfire, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 54) CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13) CELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) CELESTIAL GUARD Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 17) CELESTIAL GUARD (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) GROUP 2 6 NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29) YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31) WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) HÙSÒNG Yaókòng HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Su Jian flavor: Imperial Service ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) CELESTIAL GUARD Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) CELESTIAL GUARD Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21) CELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) CELESTIAL GUARD MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21) CELESTIAL GUARD (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) CELESTIAL GUARD (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13) SÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 59) GROUP 2 6 NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29) SOPHOTECT Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 31) YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20) 5 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army
Also... Kuang Shi are the best thing ever - but don't get me started on that. Can't wait for new models.