Shrug - Ryuken do the same for almost half the cost. They can't claim the obj, but they can surely hold it down. I get that they offer the extra CC and the jumpiness... But when I'm list building, when I could get 2 Ryuken or 1 Shikami... I get 2 Ryuken.
Yeah it's that opportunity cost that's a big factor. In an ideal setting, a Shikami with a huge volume of Orders and nothing else to do can run all over the place. But games are never that neat... You need those Orders to do other things also, and JSA have some units with remarkable capability that are all equally hungry for Orders. The Shikami looks less appealing when you put it side-by-side with other units for the same cost.
Tried one again and it's definitely irritating. Would have been such a nice place to put a MultiMarksmanrifle, Shotgun, Smoke, Grenades, 6-4 Mov, MA4, DTW, secondary CC Mod, Infiltration/Mechdeploy, Hyperdynamics or anything else. Currently he is worse than a Ryuken in a shootout, significantly worse in CC than Saito/Shinobu/Oni/Yojimbo, a worse Specialist than Saito/Ninja, can't deal with Camo, lacks the ability to defend himself and Hackable. He still is a pretty useful allrounder when you need an extremely mobilie or defensive Datatracker. Overall I'd gladly lose Specialist Operative on his profile to get more killing power.
I feel like a boarding shotgun would be a great loadout. Even access to a camo state, making him like JSA flavoured Daofei. That being said, I find him a survivable data tracker, and a fair play at ZOC scoring missions. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
many of the tables I play on are rife with buildings totally surrounded by parapets. I've had many a game where I wish I'd taken a shikami in the moment - for the ability to jump shot models hiding on rooftops in zones. But these models are usually in marker state and by the time I walk a model with a DTW (domaru chain...) over to intuitive attack, I'm usually only spending an extra order or two (with some added surety) over jump+discover, jump+shoot.
Just wanted to share my latest experience with the Shikami... I lost the game, and I lost pretty bad (still trying to learn how to use the Sectorial), but had a lot of fun with the Shikami: By the time my oponent's third turn began, I had lost most of my army because I was unable to succeed a single ARM roll (even the Dayokai in cover failed them), so I was down to just three models, the Shikami, a Chain of Command Kempeitai (turned Lt. after the previous one passed away because of heavy lead poisoning) and a lone Keisotsu. My oponent decided to go after the Shikami, as it was my Datatracker. One turn later and many succesfull Dodge (and one Engage) rolls, my Shikami was just beside the enemy Lieutenant. And the Shikami just lost one wound on the process In my turn I just needed to spend a couple of Orders to kill the enemy Lieutenant. Hilarious. I lost, but we laughed a lot.
I short insight from a couple of my last games against ISS, Vanilla Aleph and Steel Phalanx (hard match up for JSA). Shikami, win games. Damn they are useful. ODD combined with Nimbus grenades means that they can really get some nice angles and basically ignore suppresive fire (2 dice at -12 or -9) and fireteam AROs. They really like eating up your orders, but are quite survivable and Climbing plus + super jump really helps to get into CC or find good angles for a back shot / do an objective. I realize the flaws you guys point out, but at the moment I'm having trouble with list building - I need to include at least one, and more often a Shikami DUO with Assault Pistols/Nimbus (we play with a lot of terrain so it also might influence my experience).
That's the key. If you don't have a lot of terrain around, the Shikami isn't going to do well. If you do have a lot of terrain, the shikami will be a god.
I have yet to assemble and play with my JSA, but I've really been looking forward to trying out the Shikami in game, just because they look cool and the fluff is great. Sad to hear that they're a unit looking for a little something else. I'll still give them a run when I put everything together, just with my expectations lowered
I have been running the Contender, Assault Pistol, Nimbus Grenade version, and have found it pretty useful as a 2nd or 3rd turn operative. I pair it in a full combat group with a Karakuri Mk12 and 2 ODD Ryuken-9. They are my first turn units, and then I bring him out to clean up where needed and score objectives. Saving him for a later turn is somewhat counter intuitive to how the rest of JSA tends to work, so it sometimes can feel like you are not getting your points worth.
