Fluff question: why do you like Yu Jing?

Well, back in the day some assholes swindled me with a lie about how the fluff was grey and there were no completely good nor completely bad guys.

But that was a lie! (apparently)

So I don't like Yu Jing? I guesss I don't.

The only reasons I still have to play Yu Jing are purely gameplay related. Some people enjoy playing pure evil, I don't, so I'm pretty much detoxifiyng from the whole lorefag thing and staying in the parts I like, which is the rules and the miniatures.

 

Before the "censored" that is uprising. Yu Jing were a faction that seemed to outmaneuver its opponents through a practical application of diplomacy, economics and intellgence operations. They were practical and eficient above all else leaving moral considerations as secondary to achieving their goals. That really appealed to me.

This is exemplified in their recreation. While Pano went for a full force combat ubermachine in Joan, Yu Jing went with a much more subtle but strategical mastermind.

 

Now that CB seems bent on making them Villain Mctwirly mustachio the faction is becoming less interesting with every release.

Exemplified by the fact that Sun Tze has become a trope. He says something, gets ignored, horrible things happen. Rinse and repeat.

 

They are an intriguing "alien" for the western standards nation, combining a logic we see weird and a perception to reality that feels odd to a westerner, the duality of their nature is also intriguing, legislation and power is in the partly law is in the empire, this makes an interesting separation between the real army and the internal police army.

Make no mistake Yu Jing are a monolithic, totalitarian society that views any deviation from the party line and imperial law as something that needs to be purged, on the other hand they provide to the law abiding and loyal citizens more than most other powers.

Their contradictions and odd behaviour (again for westerners) makes them intriguing.

 

They are fun to play.

But if you wanna read some engaging fiction about them... get a cryostasis device and waku up in 2021 or so when Svalarheima vs White Banner is a thing.

 

What you like is entirely subjective, so what you like?

 

@psychoticstorm As someone who grew up in a rural area of the US honestly a lot of YJ's behavior seems less alien to me than the corporatist/urbanized PanO.

 

I have no personal experience, on that, but from what "western world" is generally regarded a totalitarian state is kinda alien as a concept, especially one were the population is not generally regarded as slaves.

 

Do you mean PanO or Yu Jing behavior? I mentioned that some of Yu Jing's behavior seemed less alien than PanO's.

 

Well, you can read the most uninspiring faction pitch ever, that CB liked so much they wrote and put on their website.

PanOceania’s challenger, its perpetual opponent, the other great power, is Yu Jing (pronounced you cheeng), the Asian giant. The whole of the Far East, united under the banner of what once was China, has produced an integrated, but heterogeneous, oriental culture. Equipped with a blooming industrial sector, state-of-the-art technology and astounding economic growth, Yu Jing is ready and willing to demand the dominant position to which it feels entitled.

 

Fixed that for you. Totalitarian is dictatorial; authoritarian is...more complex, especially with Yu Jing. They're somewhat oppressive, but they're actually fairly far from the typical authoritarian regimes we'd generally look at from our past. Yu Jing has checks and balances in their government (eg, the two Imperial dynasties).


Personally, I very much enjoyed the shades of grey setting when I first started. Yu Jing was ruthless, but practical: pragmatic. They invested in technology and fully intended to maintain an edge in military power, but also had, as mentioned above, very effective subtle methods that weren't screaming, "We're psychotic dictators!" in everyones' faces.

Also, the appeal of a united Asian empire forging into the future was a really cool notion. Alas.

Now... Now, I only really like Yu Jing's aesthetic and general in-game feel, as their fluff aesthetic had been thoroughly ruined.

 

YJ does provide for their citizens (loyal ones that is) better than pretty much all the other nations. Pan-O has a huge wealth disparity due to the hyper-capitalist nature of their society (the ateks being a prime example), for example. They're still a very "grey" faction, but as other have stated morality when it comes to protecting the nation and it's people can be... Flexible.

 

Ah ok thanks for the fix!

They are by far not the underdogs of the setting, in the recent uprising they got a hit that for any other power in the setting except PanO and Yu Jing would be crippling and they shrug it off.

What I find alien in them is their mindset, how they think and react to situations, for example they took in Japanese and treat them as regular citizens, when the terrorist organisations that demanded Japan to be freed appeared in Yu Jing they downgraded the entire Japanese population as second rate citizens, because they treated the entire ethnicity as responsible for not outing out the terrorists among them and that was regarded as merciful.

Other odd ideology is for example Wu Ming a military penal unit that is also a heavy Infantry unit, they do not view penal legions as expendable, they will send them to do the worse,but make sure they have the possibility to survive the odds against them and if they make it get back to the society, who accepts them, no stigma, they served the state empire and are forgiven.

Quite odd concept of a society to have.

 

I agree with this: they were much more "Lawful Neutral" than "Chaotic Evil". They had a very "Judge Dredd" flavor: you will help the community, follow the law, and everything will be good.

Now a new book comes out where they do a lot of chaotic and evil things that don't really fit with the existing fluff (getting caught flooding cities, hanging out by the life support controls for days doing nothing, burning a city and filming it). I would say that CB had some clever ploy for this... but then they came out with the CBL lists today where they introduced a division that's basically the SS who instead of hunting Jews, hunt the Japanese.

As a Jew, I'm not a fan of this turn: they should have kept it as "political rivals" and "foreign spies" and not a specific ethnicity. Makes the whole setting feel dirty.

In short, I'm trying to ignore the whole "atrocities" aspect of uprising and focus on the good parts of it (theres 4 new factions in town, Yu Jing has to do something to rebuild their forces since they got pearl harboured, so we will see more remotes in links, etc)

 

Re: Wu Ming.
They ARE expendable, but they aren't pulled from the political prisoners and terrorists that get recruited into the Kuang Shi, they are deserters, triad members, and ex military that have committed crimes and are given a chance to redeem themselves. They weren't traitors to the empire, just criminals and the empire expects to get some use out of them beyond a sure fire excecution.

Edit: also, using Wu Ming in visable operations wouldn't get the attention of the concillium convention like the use of Kuang shi would.

 

I'm sure it has happened, but I doubt it's common. And the survival rate for them isn't nearly as high as other imperial troops as they get sent on the suicide missions. There was a great flowchart floating around for how YJ decides who to send on missions, I'll see if I can dig it up.

Edit: found it.