Well I'm at the point that I feel that it doesn't matter than I'm disappointed with it. We got what we got. Now how do we use it? Honestly I don't think I'll take him in Vanilla. But if I did, I'd probably take the AHD with Boarding Shotgun. The SO is nice but more missions can be done with the AHD.
Well, I'd actually take the 60pt drop trooper over the 70pt Hac Tao (who is stuck in the backfield anyway), but replacing the Daofei is the other obvious option. You could also take the drop trooper in place of the Yan Huo.
A 60 point AD HI that did something new would be worth taking. If they leaned in to it being a disruption/line-breaker that utilized Combat Jump as a primary tactic (something no AD trooper really does right now), then that would have been amazing. It wouldn't overlap with the Tiger (because the Tiger tends to drop in for mid-field work and button-pushing these days), it would be a new, novel take on the role found in other factions (and six months ago, ours). It would be something we've never seen before and even if it didn't end up being as good as a Daofei, it would have some place to actually work in both the sectorial and in vanilla. Frankly, Yu Jing still lacks good reaction pieces, so at least throwing us a bone with some kind of active-turn back-line breaker/disruptor would have been nice. Just giving us an AD troop that is immediately comparable (and actively worse) than the one we currently have is just sort of shitty, especially since the Tiger was also supposed to be in IA as well. I don't know what's worse. Getting two new units that are literally just worse versions of things we have had in vanilla since day one, or that those two things were the reason those better versions got left out of the sectorial. I mean, I'm so bloody salty about this that I haven't even had time to be angry about Zhanshi being in there!
I don't see the liu xing as a worse version of the Tiger. Even just assuming Explode LX is exactly like what the caskuda had. I will definitely be taking Zhenha in vanilla. can't wait actually.
I'm gonna give it a go, and let you know. ;) I like high risk/high reward pieces, so this is right up my alley. It's gonna be a lot easier to do in ITS 10 with a 25mm base than the Caskuda was with it's big base and no-terrain for whole template rules. Someone pointed out to me the fun choice of attacking those pesky prone hackers on rooftops. Make them choose between hacking transport aircraft and dodging the explode.
Mind if you share your idea? Im rolling my stones to find a role for Zhencha, and those Guilang and Daofei is beating him up.
I love Guilangs, they look cool, get things done and push buttons like Bond villains. However, they are not the best shots out there. One thing I like doing with them is placing them on rooftops and take other specialists with surprise shot. ... But once you put a lone wolf up there, he’s not coming down to do objectives. I think Zhencha has a place here, taking advantage of blind spots to take midfielders down and telling the tale afterwards to press buttons. Yes, Guilangs are better specialists and MSV1 makes them also better at hunting camos... And yes, Daofeis are better at killing everything while looking amazing... However, sometimes I want a secondary attacker infiltrated. And sometimes I want another specialist up there as well. I think Zhencha is a sweet little love-child between those two, and will gladly take it often. Bonus: Yu Jing 7 camo spam is a thing now! (Libertos). P.S.: I hope Zhencha gets Bioimmunity, but even if it doesn’t I still think it’s going to earn its place.
Neither do I. I do, however, see it as a poorly differentiated clone of a Tiger. And that's really irritating. Not only because so far I'm not seeing a reason to take a Liu Xing over a Tiger in Vanilla, I'm also not seeing a different role from a Tiger in IA. As long as they get Shock Immunity, I can see taking one, probably in place of a Guilang in the "YJ Roulette" role (Daofei, Guilang Minelayer, other Guilang, laid Mine, all deployed within 8" of each other). Adding another camo marker to YJ Roulette is also possible, especially if the Zhencha gets a KHD.
Don’t forget our new friend Libertos! 2x minelayering Guilangs, Daofei, Zhencha and the rebel fish. Seven markers looking dapper together.
Got to love how the most exciting development for Yu Jing vanilla so far isn't the two new units we've seen for IA... but a rebel fish person. Here's hoping the Zencha is just missing an immunity skill, because that would basically fix it. Sadly, I think the Xiu Ling is just going to end up being a dud profile that either gets used in meme lists or gets left on the shelf as a pretty, but flawed profile with no clear use or purpose.
Works if the Daofei is the AHD and Zhencha is the KHD, I like keeping my specialists forward, to spend fewer orders getting them to the buttons to push. If you're a real dick you can add a Ninja KHD there as another camo marker. I know, right? Yeah, that's my problem with it. I can't see how to use the Liu Xing yet.
Climbing plus my man. Allowing the zhencha to move up and down obstacles without losing camo is huge. It allows him to approach from unusual angles and avoid the normal ARO lanes and chokepoints where mines might be placed. He has mines, SMG and DEP which gives a few options for harassing which is great. I plan to use the model like a harasser, hit and run kind of tactics. Climb down, leave some mines, or shoot someone in the back, then skulk back onto a roof and recamo. Being on a roof in camo makes hunting him with units which advance with shock weapons will cost orders, and the risk they get left on the roof - easy meat for a hac tao or HRMC, even a linked zuyong HMG from the DZ is going to mince most units which currently come with shock. The extra wound means he can either eat those end of game desparate AROs to get an objective, or just allow him to wear through some bad luck or mince those damn warbands with his SMG. Its hard for a chainrifle warband to force a bad roll if you literally don't care about the chain rifle if it means you kill them. Guilang and Daofei I find very vulnerable to concerted efforts to hunt down, and the daofei tends to be expensive enough to warrant the order expenditure to dig him out. Guilang tend to be more the generalist problem solver or specialist. I can see in my lists where I take 2 guilang and I had included the 2nd guilang as an attacking/harrass piece I'll be switching to the zhencha. Their ability to use climbing plus means they can even go for a snipe on a squishy on a roof. If they're still alive come turn 3, they will make great last turn objective grabbers.
Although I'm really not a fan of Explode (what we currently know of it) that skill does appear to be the main niche the Liu xing fills. It got mentioned somewhere else on the forum but the way this skill seems likely to work would make an excellent threat to worry enemy hackers, those lists that love cheap hide-in-the-back Lts and remote heavy lists. In particular those unidron core teams. I'm singling those out because I've often seen a mixed fire team of 4 unidrons with a nexus (sometimes the Lt) who is usually a hacker filling out the fifth for a full core link. Now this presents potentially one of the better tricks that the Liu xing can do. Dropping down onto the table forces the nexus hacker to try and hack the aircraft, which means he either leaves the link, or prohibits the rest of the link from making any other kind of AROs without leaving the link. Remotes are pretty crap at dodging at the best of times so this could well result in a few casualties and you can certainly aim for the team leader. Regardless this tactic forces some difficult decisions and almost certainly results in the unidron link operating at less than maximum capacity for the rest of the turn. Even if you scatter, unless someone broke out of the link to ARO, they won't be able to shoot the Liu xing even if it lands right in from of them. (Because the hacker has effectively spent the whole teams ARO chance when the hack enemy aircraft came up.)
I think for Vanilla I'm hardly every going to use the Liu Xing but the same can be said for the Crane Agent in ISS. I'm not going to use some of things in Vanilla because of other options. Also, my Tiger would never see the table since he's not in any sectoral. But the Liu Xing does have some interesting things. I think I like the BSG because if I espeically am going to use the Explode, any survivors can be taken with the BSG at +6 range.
That's a good point, and it would help keep the cost down :P The MULTI Rifle one could be good, if you might want to drop it down to run a few objectives, as it has SO and D-Charges. BSG is probably the best throwaway Liu Xing choice - still got decent hitting power and it can attempt to get real close.
It's also on the Assault Hacker who can do a lot of the secret objectives. He has a good WIP and BTS so he's not bad at all as far as hackers go.
The possible existence of the Explode LX troop makes this troop valuable alone. You only have to drop him an juicy targets once in a while and your opponents will consider their deployment position because of this. Its like Shinobu or the Impersonation markers (although the last one is just too good not to take)
