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A Series of Useful Tricks For JSA Players

Discussion in 'Japanese Secessionist Army' started by Yugie, Feb 4, 2021.

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  1. Yugie

    Yugie Member

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    As the title says, this is simply a list of small tricks and strategies that I found useful while playing JSA. Some of this will be more obvious than others but I figured it might be helpful to include for newer players. Hopefully you get something out of it. Do chime in if you have tips on your own or spotted an embarrassing rules error on my part.


    1. Dodging into Berserk range

    Your standard 21 point E/M CCW Domaru will effectively trade up against almost any HI in the game with the power of Berserk. If their damage 16 DA-AP BTS rolls don’t knock out the target, it will usually at least Immobilize and Isolate them, allowing other units to walk in and apply additional unopposed fire to finish the job.

    Getting into the position to Berserk is simply a matter of using the Domaru’s 4 inch dodge movement to get into Line of Sight of the HI you wish to murder. If at all possible, try to stay out of the opponent's Zone of control to ensure they don't get to hide themselves with a Dodge of their own.


    2. Dodge - Move

    Keep in mind that declaring Dodge while out of line of sight will force any nearby opponents to declare an ARO or lose it, allowing you a relatively safe way of entering CC if your enemy is too far away or has too many other guns pointed at your point of entry. I say *mostly* safe because reactive units which manage to dodge will declare their dodge movement after the active player’s, allowing them to escape the clutches of your CC specialists.

    Similarly, in situations where all you have to do is round a corner to enter CC, it may be wise to disable Stealth on the first part of your move to provoke surrounding AROs before waltzing into them.


    3. Cautious Movement

    While your Heavy Infantry are susceptible to hackers, Cautious Move will allow you to waltz right past repeater zones supporting Sixth Sense hackers. Watch out for Sixth Sense units within ZoC though, as their cancellation of the Stealth rules will break Cautious Move.

    Additionally, units which are prone may choose to cancel the Prone state when declaring Cautious Move. They are considered to be out of Line of Sight at the declaration of the order, allowing them to use smaller bits of cover to close the gap a Cautious Move needs to get past.


    4. Non Stealth Units in a Dotanko link

    Since your Domaru-Tanko links are able to sport a Kempei or Yuriko, consider using their lack of Stealthy to force hacking AROs before acting with your Stealth units. This strategy doesn’t quite work if the enemy decides to speculatively declare an ARO on one of your Stealth units in case it acts, but should be kept in mind as it allows you more information in planning your movements.( For instance, if a Hidden Deployment hacker is nearby)


    5. Covering Fire in a Fireteam

    A reasonably effective way of getting your units across the map is to have a high Burst weapon in cover eyeing an enemy ARO piece while you move the rest of your link team up the board. Your enemy will be forced to choose to either deal with the scary CC units getting in range of them or giving you unopposed fire into their unit.

    This can backfire horribly if not properly considered. Enemies with template weapons ought to be treated with respect as the ability to catch multiple units in the blast might leave your high Burst unit the last one alive in the fireteam.


    6. Dodging out of Hidden Deployment

    I will preface this with the fact that revealing your Hidden Deployment ninjas in the reactive turn tends to be a extremely risky maneuver. Should your opponent have orders remaining, they will be able to simply leverage the power of Burst in their active turn to remove the threat the ninja poses.

    In the minority of cases however, using Dodge to enter silhouette contact with an enemy unit can be extremely powerful. Keep in mind that units in the Active turn get a second short skill to Move or Shoot if they’ve spent their first Move getting close enough to be threatened by a Dodge. Revealing yourself will allow them to simply leave the threat area, or shoot at you while you attempt the dodge. Neither of these scenarios tend to end well for the ninja.

    Your Magic Isekai Christmasland Dream scenario is where a unit with Stealth enters into your ninja’s line of sight on their 2nd Move or a unit out of Line of Sight activates so your ninja can dodge into silhouette contact with a closer enemy unit. This allows you to Dodge with zero risk to the ninja, though keep in mind what I said about Active turn supremacy.


    7. MSV & Smoke

    Placing down smoke on a MSV2 Kempeitai or Rui Shi will allow it to force -6 modifiers for shooting through smoke to non-MSV/ Sixth Sense units. While not often useful for dealing with defensive link teams, this allows you to handle other threats coming to your side of the board.


    8. Ryuken-9 & X-Visors

    The Ryuken’s combination of X-Visors and Mimetism(-6) make them very effective at making gunfights lower risk affairs. A SMG Ryuken in Suppressive Fire will impose a -12 modifier to a standard enemy’s roll while shooting up to 24” at 0 ranges. A HRL Ryuken in the meanwhile is able to make use of it’s X-Visor to deal with threats like TR bots by entering the bad ranges of those units. A combination of bad HMG rangeband(-3), Cover(-3), Mimetism(-6) and Surprise Shot(-3) will allow the Ryuken HRL to fire from outside of 32” at a TR bot without fear of getting shot back.


    9. Crazy Koalas & Mines

    Aside from being an amazing defensive tool, Crazy Koala’s present a serious problem for enemies in your Active turn. Placing them within range of enemy units you expect to face will force them into a no-win situation: either they choose to Shoot back on an active trooper and eat a DMG 15 ARM roll, or they attempt to Dodge and you get risk-free shots on the enemy. Well placed Baggage Pangulings will allow you to reload them and do it all over again.

    The same strategy, though slightly harder to execute, can be done with Mines instead. By placing a mine in trigger range of an enemy unit but with your unit out of line of sight of them, you’ll be able to force the same type of bad decision on your foe.


    10. Climbing Plus

    Shinobu and the Shikami’s Climbing Plus allows them to get into angles which other assassins would not be able to achieve. Always consider the possible angles before making your attack run, safer, more likely to succeed options might open up to you. Consider combining it with Dodges to get even more out of it. For instance, climbing up a building out of LoF and Dodging into an enemy unit on a roof.


    11.Speculative Fire E/M Grenades

    Most Domaru carry around E/M grenades. When combined with Link team bonuses, this can result in extremely dangerous Speculative Fire capability. As long as you’re within and 8” of the center of the template, a Domaru with link team is able to fire grenades on 14’s while the enemy suffers a -3 for out of LoS dodge.

    Keep in mind that since templates have a roughly 2.5” radius, your E/M grenades are able to stay out of range of pesky hackers and repeaters in the attempt as long as you manage to control the range. If they do manage to dodge into range, simply Cautious Move out of it and repeat.


    12.Lu Duan and Holoprojector

    Aside from allowing you to disguise a dangerous flamethrower unit as a humble Panguling, the Lu Duan’s Holoprojector makes it very effective at removing enemy mines and perimeter weapons. Simply walk the fake Lu Duans into your enemy deployable of choice and laugh as the mid-field is cleared up for your other units to move up.


    13. Impetuous Dodging

    Not having control over your Impetuous unit’s movements can be a leading cause of their demise, especially since the restrictions apply for both Movement Short Skills you declare. A small trick you can use to mitigate this is to instead declare Dodge for your second Short Skill.

    While there is a chance of failure, success will mean that you get to fully control their positioning for the Dodge without triggering AROs.


    14. Breaking Fireteams for Additional Orders

    While your Tankos are Impetuous, putting them in the Fireteam can negate it, allow them to function like normal troopers. There will be times however when you just need to squeeze as much movement or orders out of the remains of your army.

    In times such as these, breaking the Fireteam before the start of your turn will allow you to provide your Tankos with their Impetuous orders, allowing them to rush forward to clear the way.


    15. Coordinated Order Tankos & Friends
    A common problem JSA has issues dealing with is a linked overwatch unit with MSV2. While most maps will have a way of allowing you to spend orders to sneak past it, sometimes you just need that overwatch piece out of the way. In cases such as these, coordinating the various long range disposable weapons such as the Panzerfaust on Daiyokai, Karakuri & Yuriko or Blitzens and Flammenspeer from Tankos will generally deal with it as an ARO can only be declared against 1 unit, allowing you three unopposed shots at the target.
     
    #1 Yugie, Feb 4, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2021
  2. Eleather

    Eleather Member
    Warcor

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    This post could be very useful to the JSA community. Good job!
     
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  3. wuji

    wuji Well-Known Member

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    A useful tactic for Ninja Hackers against a fireteam is move up to a corner and then with a new order, declare hack, the team will choose to reset, then with the 2nd short skill move around the corner into silhouette contact. If they choose dodge expecting this tactic, you're 5% better odds than dodging into engaged state and a higher burst with some programs so...
     
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  4. Dragonclaw

    Dragonclaw Well-Known Member

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    That's a very good collection of tools.
     
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