Hi everyone, Black Friday saw an offer I could not refuse so I (finally) started this game. There are half a dozen players in my area and in the local wargame-club but for a long time I resisted adding yet another game with models I needed to paint. Anyhow. A friend and I shared the Operation Red Veil +Beyond Red Veil expansion pack. On top of this CMON had some crazy discounts and I managed to get the ISS Starter pack and the Yu Jing support pack. My challenge is to build fun and newb friendly armies at the 150, 200 and 300 point levels with these models. Secondly; what would you recommend as the first purchases after this lot is painted? And why? Any help with this would be much appreciated. Cheers and happy wargaming.
Hello and welcome to the Party. You arrive at a time with a lot happening to core models, though "how soon" is a bit harder to tell you. Some of the primary purchases you'll want to do are; Kuang Shi box (indications this will get an updated model 2018), 2x Guilang with combi (indications this will get an updated model 2018), and probably a Su-Jian box (New model! Yay!). As you will see, the Yu Jing support pack is an old one (oldest models in the range) and the models won't match the Red Veil Zhanshi. Not sure I could say it was a bad purchase, though, since the models will be useful and I haven't read any indications that pack will get updated any time soon. Keep in mind that we're also expecting a fairly massive new release for Yu Jing next year with the release of Invincible Army and that this release will probably bring 5 new completely unknown units. My general advice is thus; sit tight, proxy a bit and buy any new model you like the look of (almost none of the new models are bad profiles (except the Zhanying Missile Launcher that you already own(which isn't bad just kinda meh(parenthesis for parenthesis god))))
Unless you play with Japanese (for which you would need to start anew, I think nothing of what you have goes with them), I'd say you will want the Kuangshi and the Su Jian boxes as next buys. Simply put, the Kuangshi are cheap regular orders, even needing a Celestial Guard with control device in the same group (and if you play ISS you can "link them" into a Squad to ignore the extremely Impetuous order, AND the Celestial Guard can fire 2 smoke grenades per order), while the Su Jian is THE assaul troop (usually with Spitfire). Both boxes can be used in generic, but the Kuangshi will require special care. Sun Tze would also be a very interesting investment, I'd go with the much prettier (and easier to transport, and sturdier both in the game and the box) Heavy Infantry version as a realiable Lt. A "fun" list would be in ISS, with a Fireteam: Core of Celestial Guard (control device) and 4 Kuangshi, a Fireteam: Haris of Hsien (HMG, may or not may be the Lt) with 2 Zhanyin (proxy the second one if needed, one will be the Haris profile, the other the Hacker profile), the Ninja with Killer Hacking Device, Su Jian Spitfire, and you still have 59 free points.
No. Do not buy Kuang Shi. Carlos confirmed resculpt coming early next year so wait on that the new models will be so much nicer.
re; Yu Jing support pack. I think it was well worth the €5,- spent. >_> re; Older models in general. Overall I feel both the current Kuang Shi and the support pack models are fine as-is.
I have no intent at the moment to go for the Japanese army. If only since I do not own any models. Thanks for this. Will most certainly look into this.
It is certainly possible to do so, and you can ask your opponent to be a bit lenient in order to use both models from the box, but I would rethink my options there, since Group 1 would be full already, and having one or two orders on a second group is not a great idea. Instead, I would try to fit models he already owns, like 3 zanshi and one or two models to reach those 59 points. I would suggest to try proxying a Garuda in that second group (use the Tiger), btw, for an alpha strike in turn 1 or 2, and eventually buy one.
ISS has access to Aleph models, like the Garuda, the Dakini and the Sophotect (with her own servitor bots). The Garuda has been resculpted recently for the Spitfire loadout, and the Boarding Shotgun option has been announced (the render is around here somewhere). The Dakinis... you can align 2 in ISS, which is a shame since the only sources are Aleph's starter (3 dakini combi) and a blister (1 dakini HMG); bets are that the Dakini will be resculpted soon, possibly with a special weapons box, followed by a "vedic starter" that will substitute the Generic Aleph one. The sophotect comes in a box with the servitors, and three antennas you can give to any Steel Phalanx player.
You really do have a solid start to the collection. I'd paint the models you have in the order you use them in the Red Veil campaign. From there, I'd add remotes. The Yaokong REMs are old models, but hold up well IMO. If you buy two boxes and magnetize the options, you should be set for just about anything (doing so will let you field two of any given Yaokong, or up to 4 of the unarmed 6-6MOV repeaterbots). Due to their MSV, the Yaoxie REMs are really good (and important support for the Japanese in particular). But I personally don't like the models, so I bought the Nomad Tsyklon and Lunokhod instead. They blend in quite well once they're painted in the YJ orange ochre. Baggagebots are probably the lowest priority of the REMs, but they are surprisingly useful on the table. Again, I'm not fond of the official YJ models, so I bought the Haqq Kameel bots instead. Like the Sputniks, they look like YJ REMs as soon as you paint them up like the rest of your army. I ended up with the YJ half of two Beyond Red Veil boxes, so I converted the second Guilang into a combirifle and the second Daofei into a hacker. I really like running a Daofei and two Guilang as the midfield core of my army. This gives me 4 camo markers in the middle of the table, all within 8" of each other. Two camo markers are squishy, one will blow up in your face, and the last is a 2W heavy infantry. Better guess well!
