How do you use this beefcake in vanilla YJ? I'm trying to make sense of where he fits in, as he comes at this weird points bracket that is still relatively cheap for what is essentially a W3 S5 HI, but it still competes with other critical units like Krit and Shang Jisus, or even Hulang and the Yan Huo if you are inclined to use those. So far, my game plan with this dude has always been to approach a critical spot and go into suppressive fire to obstruct my enemy's next turn. Engaging Skirmishers can be tricky depending on their positioning and vis MODs, so I often felt a bit hamstrung in actually getting stuff done. As a mere road block, the Mowang does work reasonably well, but then again I can have two Long Ya for 34 points, who bring Camo, FD and mines. The Multi Rifle NCO is considerably cheaper than other YJ "high tier HI" but I've had problems getting into +3 range without any sort of FD on him. It also has overlapping range bands with the Heavy Pistol, which is a bummer. Bringing the tried and tested Daoying LT2 somewhat compensates for that and I feel that this combo is pretty much necessary to make the Mowang work in vanilla. Do you reckon giving it a MMR instead would make sense here? How much more expensive are MMRs compared to Multi Rifles anyway? The Spitfire loadout is easier to handle is this regard, but I feel that spitfires have somewhat fallen behind in N4 and YJ has several high caliber units running around with N ammo Spitfires these days (Su Jian, Daofei, Crane, Tiger Soldiers, Liu Xing etc.), so maybe some of these could use the AP treatment or BS Attack [+1 DAM] to catch up the more recent units. The Red Fury does not spark joy for me, firstly because the alternate pose doesn't look nearly as badass, but also because the Spitfire issue is exacerbated here, with only DAM 13 and Shock not quite making up for that. In general, I'd want to give him something to help embrace that role CB has set for him. Any DTW would be great to contest things that ignore his Mimetism at least. For a unit that is meant to tank shots, the option to trade damage would be highly valuable. FD 4" would be useful for getting him into favourable range quicker.
Prior to N4, back when Total Immunity didn't protect you from massive amounts of epoxy and when the Mowang couldn't sneak, I used him quite a bit during a year of trying to make IA work. The Mowang was one of the elements in IA that worked back then, and I see very little has possibly changed to alter this as the Mowang is slightly more resistant to hacking than before and is a tiny bit cheaper while the new main competitor (Hac Tao HMG) is a unit I dislike using. The fact that SWC has also shifted down to make the SWC room the old Red Fury profile occupied be on the level of the new Spitfire preserves this status quo in my opinion. The big thing that's happened is that IA saw an increase in NCO which means that there's more, hungry, units competing for the same orders. Mowang is no longer the lone top dog for these orders, but I feel like as long as you don't need him to go punch a button he's gonna be as fine a receptacle for these orders as Krit. Krit brings more units along, Mowang brings a much smaller footprint in spite of being S5. Like you I am not a fan of the Multi Rifle. Simply put, since he didn't get any upgrades to speed, the time to get into range is simply too high and quite often I find myself outranged by a few inches if I do get close enough. The fairly harsh nerfs to Acrylate-Kanone also means the Red Fury profile is a lot less attractive even as a budget option while the Flammenspeer means your opponent has to be careful with those fireteams or they'll be teams on fire (hurhurhur) Not to be too reductive, but I see only one Mowang profile, really, and that's the Spitfire NCO. Still, the Mowang is competent and reasonably multi-purpose. The stuff that's missing to complete the unit would be a modern 6-2 movement for a modern suit of heavy infantry meant for night time ambushes - but even without that the unit works. It really does. Bring a competent partner for the Duo slot, such as a near-useless Panggolin (it's one of few matchups to get the Panggodoggo to shine). There's always a bunch of things you could do to upgrade a sectorial or upgrade a unit, but the question is going to have to be whether that's necessary. For the Mowang I don't know if I can answer in affirmative here. The sectorial is good, the unit is good, it's just outshone by fancier units. I think the sectorial can take the Mowang having small upgrades such as 6-2 MOV, Dodge+1", and allowed to join a Zuyong Haris, but any more than that and you'll start messing with the external balance - and really there are so many sectorials and units in greater need of updates than this.
I would play him in vanilla like I play him in IA. Daoying is a must. I prefer the Red Fury as a good balance btw cost and shooting. He is not the right piece to go on enemy HI, so I usually use him to flank and go for lone troops that has not too much visual mods, so I can make good use of his own mimetism. In ITS 13 he could be good in bike hunting which normaly have low arm. Its good to have another attack piece that draws attention away from him. In IA that can be a fireteam, but in Vanilla I would go for a similar priced piece like the Su Jian. A TAG could make the list too costly. When you look for punch, I think you should give the multi a try (I never did). It has good ammo, but the downside of B3 and - as you mentioned - he has a long way to walk. It depends on the targets you expect on the table. VS HI heavy lists It could be worth the walk.
6-2 MOV is a good call imo and probably the one change that is among the safer ones considering balance. It's weird that S5 HI is slower than S2 in most cases. Off the top of my head I can only point to the Gamma and Kiel Saan who do have 6-2.
How is the Mowang more resistant to hacking this edition? His number one issue was Oblivion and it gained AP and +1B this edition. That said to answer the OP, in a vacuum it's fine I can't really fault the profiles. The problem it has are really meta issues: Krit's fuckin insane value. You will never not find something to do with those NCO orders. Hacking is a bugbear, especially for IA but still so for Vanilla. Shit that links with Tinbots or hides under camo markers is automatically going to be more desireable, and in Vanilla's case where you can't do the former Krit is going to win out even more as he's harder to shutout by a hacking based opponent he can find jobs to do with his orders without needing to storm the enemy. For example, I played with Krit as my NCO guy into CJC on a modified version of Frostbyte this week. I could not penetrate my opponent's defensive line worth a shit and Mowang would've been utterly hamstrung trying to push in on turn 1 and 2 to do any real sort of damage. Instead Krit was just running around my DZ repairing REMs and planting mines to stop my opponent from pushing.
Because Mowang gained Stealth, making it possible to get past a significant amount of those AROs that the Mowang had to deal with in N3
Huh, could've sworn he always had stealth because of his fluff, checking human sphere though turns out he did not have stealth in N3.
Being hackable without a marker state is a pitcher magnet. I currently don't like playing with a lot of HI. I had a Mowang in my DZ removed in two orders by Nomads once. The enemy DZ is often overloaded with repeater bots, too. Even with stealth, you most likely get one shot off and then be bricked / targeted after that. Added that the Mowang has non AP B4 weapons makes me look more to the Ye Mao for that 24" SWC weapon role in Vanilla.
I was thinking he'd be great in vanilla but the hackable thing does suck. Does anyone ever take the EVO in YJ? I'll take it only if I happen to have the pts. and swc and have things it can actually do.
EVO is a good thing to bring in Yu Jing when running solos like that. Plus you can pretend to have Louies coming which'll mess with their deployment. Only issue is that you can't have Fairy Dust active during first turn unless you go first.
EVO is good, there's bots you can buff, Liu Xing etc. The main problem is it doesn't solve the issue of a long range alpha just smacking him or other high value equivilants off the table before you get a turn. Crippling alpha strikes are a significant design issue with N4 I've found tbh. They're often overly rewarding, and regardless of whether or not it's "OP" the main issue I have with it is if successful it makes for a very boring game where both players are often just going through the motions for the subsequent turns.
