So I've been practicing a lot in the last several weeks to get ready for a tournament, playing JSA. I'm unabashedly fond of the ninjas, so I've been using the Oniwaban as my LT. During deployment, I've been downgrading his TO Camo into Camo to hide among the Raidens that are also part of my force. Mostly I do not use his superior infiltration to as to not give any hints to my opponents as to what marker is what. He mainly shadows either a heavy weapon or objective to keep any backdoor shenanigans at bay. Would most of you Vets use him in this way or should he be more of an alpha striker with CoC backup? To me the Oniwaban is a real versatile piece as to not really make him one dimensional that your opponent would be expecting...OR I'm just nuts and I'm begging for a beat down. Been having some real bad rolls lately...
I'm not sure I'd mask them as a Raiden, but you do give me a few thoughts and considerations about masking them as Guilang in vanilla.
To hide the Oniwaban between the raiden/mine you must deploy it inside your deployment zone.... A piece of that cost and with an aggressive attitude like the Oniwaban is wasted if played so defensively. I'm more of a fan of the "alpha strike with CoC backup" Mask
There are certainly missions and opponents where having a Camo LT who can defend your DZ with close combat or a boarding shotgun are all valid. If you find that this works for you... Go for it. One of the great things about Infinity is that a "bad strategy" in one player's mind may work perfectly well for another player. I think you'll find most players use their Oniwaban aggressively though. TO boarding shotguns and CC with Monofilament are great assets.
Yeah, an Oniwaban is more like a heat-seeking missile - you take him and go murder something you need to murder. You're better off taking your 1SWC and taking the Keisotsu lieutenant, IMO. Still hard for your opponent to tell which is which, and your Oniwaban can do his job.
