Su jian. How to use him or her?

The well-known forum posters will have plenty to say about this, but one small point I would offer for your infinity career in general is that some profiles heavily suggest a particular role for a unit, which can make you want to fulfil that role all the time just for the sake of it.

What I mean by this is that the Su Jian is very fast and has some good short-range stuff, so it feels good to be offensive with it.

But it's one of the toughest things YuJing can possibly take--a lot of the time you'd be surprised to know that it's actually better to forfeit the speed advantage entirely and use it as an ARO piece for a bit. There's no reason it can't be saved as a very impactful piece for the late game.

Other than that general idea, just be more deliberate and committed with it. Choose between 1) letting it die, but doing as much damage as possible and then leaving it stranded, or 2) getting some kills but without being greedy, and keep track of how many orders you have left so that you can pull it back in a timely manner. Depending on terrain you can sometimes just run it on top of a building, go prone, and they can't touch it--even though it's in their half of the table.

 

Kill the dangerous aro piece. Eliminate moran etc. And leave it to kitty.
For me, it is the best "second round destroyer" in the game.

 

Don't bite off more than you can chew. It's tempting to go nuts but it's still just a spitfire or HSG. A spitfire allows you to stay away from things and the Climb plus lets you get to places that allow for you to get LoF. The Su Jian is best at picking off the weaker parts of the herd. He's not for fighting TAGs unless the opportunity for the panzerfaust presents itself. It's an order pool killer. Kill off the Fusiliers, Alquaciles, etc.

 

[QUOTE="Space Ranger, post: 447014, member: 3473" He's not for fighting TAGs unless the opportunity for the panzerfaust presents itself.[/QUOTE] B3 AP 15 in the +6 range can easily chew apart a TAG. And being a high mobility climbing plus unit is not so unfeasible to be able to position yourself in such range.

 

B3 AP 15 in the +6 range can easily chew apart a TAG. And being a high mobility climbing plus unit is not so unfeasible to be able to position yourself in such range.[/QUOTE]
Damage 16 in combat form. Yes the HSG is great for that but I wouldn't call it a TAG killer. Also, just an FYI for those that forget, the +1 Damage is only in the Combat Form. I'm not saying never to use it against them. Just that it can be very good taking out the weaker units.

 

The HSG Su Jian is amazing in a duo with Krit, and backed by a unit like Knauf/Blue Wolf/Shang Ji that can reliably knock out ARO pieces.

Krit can follow the Su Jian trailing about 8" back, power it up the table with 2 NCO orders from a DaoYing and keep it in tip top fighting kitty shape by engineering it back up. If you get good with this duo, you don't have to be afraid of E/M mines, repeaters or even a lot of regular damage - Krit can get you back up to full health in a couple of orders and cancel all status conditions. Being able to do that lets you make the most of your armor and ability to soak damage in close, and just land multiple templates right on top of units that choose to shoot you.

Of course, sometimes it does go badly wrong and it's possible to misjudge and over-extend the duo... but when it works it can do so much damage. Alternatively, things can just make boatloads of armor saves against you, like the Nisse that made 3 saves vs my 3 DAM 15 templates on Saturday. Sigh.

 

Krit is fantastic IF you are doing vanilla. It's still great in IS but he lacks that great support. However in both it can duo with a MBH or another Su Jian in IS! I've never done two SJ but I have it in a list for missions that need speed but have to deal with exclusion zones and Acquisition where they gain Super-Jump! The SJ HSG + MBH with Redfury can take on several ranges and targets.

 

Unfortunately, I think vanilla is solidly better than ISS for running a Su Jian right now. You have better gunfighters for removing long-range ARO threats, better board control in general, and the engineer & NCO duo. I'd like ISS to be the answer, but can't really make much argument for it without the extra AVA of Kuang Shi having an impact on the orders you might be able to spend on your cat.

That's not to say that a Su Jian isn't a powerful unit in the ISS roster, but to get the most out of it, try it in vanilla for now. It may be that the Spitfire Su Jian is really more useful in ISS, as it doesn't have to overextend itself and get into repeater or enemy template range to get work done.