Not really. You pay 4 points to go from 2 Burst in Active, 1 Burst in Reactive to 1 Burst in Active, 2 Burst in Reactive If it had gone from 2 Burst in Active, 1 Burst in Reactive to 2 Burst in Active, 2 Burst in Reactive I'd have used it, but as it stands I've got problems fitting it inside the budget of my lists. You tend to get out-manoeuvred way too much in reactive for this to be worth paying for, IMO. You need to look at Neurocinetics itself, not just the FAQ, which pulls you down to Burst 1.
This is getting really confusing now. The fact that the Yan Hou is the only unit with a TinBot C in the entire game, and only one of 3 with Neurocinetics does not help.
To be fair he's not wrong, the FAQ only actually says it modifies the reactive turn says nothing about the active and we are actually mostly operating off a collective agreement on how it works. I can see where he's coming from. We all thought Full Auto stacked with Suppressive Fire until recently too until CB dropped the bombshell on that.
Neurocinetics inverts Burst between Active and Reactive turns. Tinbot C grants Neurocinetics. There is a FAQ that states the bonus from Dual Weaponry works with Neurocinetics. The Yan Huo has a Missile Launcher (Burst 1) with Paired Weapons (so +1 Burst). That means the Yan Huo has a Burst of 1 Missile Launcher on the Active turn, and 2 Missile Launcher on the reactive turn. There are no other ways to look for an interpretation. Also, there is literally no sense to give Neurocinetics to a troop that has a Burst of 1 in both Active and Reactive, but then gets a +1 Burst on Active, so it's B2 on Active and B1 on Reactive. Specially since there is already a profile without the Tinbot-C. As to why Neurocinetics is so scarce, it's mostly because it's Total Reaction for non-"suffer -X to dodge" troops, so they are feasible to include (not too costly) and yet not broken (imagine a TR Sin Eater... BS 13, mimetic, PH11, HMG 33pts. Sure, no 360º visor, but...).
I challenge you to find this in the rules. Yes Yes it allows to use the twin weapons burst bonus during the reactive turn. What!! How can this be concluded with the elements preceding. And my interpretation is that : Yan Huo has burst 1 in active and reactive turn. He has the possibility to have burst +1 in active turn (optional) an Neurocinetics just allows to have the optional burst +1 in reactive turn (that is no allowed normaly)
Yan Huo is a hard big guy, but like everyone needs some support. Bao sniper? Just one can be ok, but it means you will lose 3,5 SWC only in two reactive troops. YH are meant to make the enemy spend orders to bring him down, and the Bao is quite soft. If you play a defensive strategi I find it fine. But you must be sure about what you are going to use to attack, and you will have only 2,5 SWC to spend. Alone the YH is a good threat, and it will make the enemy think twice where he will deploy his troops. If he is attacked with smoke combo you can try to dodge (and perhaps He will survive)
I'd personally try for a Guilang sniper instead of a Bao myself. Yeah, he has an inferior MSV level, but does come equipped with camouflage, some Antipersonnel Mines for close defense and can infiltrate, allowing it to find just the right sniper sight line for it. That being said, if the list had some reliable-ish smoke access, I can see the Bao being the better sniper option for supporting your Yan Hou.
I've run him twice now, once in Supremacy and once in Capture and Protect. In both games I placed him in an elevated position behind a parapet with command of two large fire lanes and a doctor's yaozao nearby. In both games he was shot down early in round 1, but survived and was revived by the doc and survived until the end of the game, having effects on the enemy's movement throughout. In Capture and Protect he went down in the first couple orders of the game, shot by a djanbazan HMG covered by smoke. The djan also got LOF on the yaozao and put it down in its second level of unconscious. In the third round I got an engineer in contact with the yaozao, repaired it, and used the yaozao to get the yan huo up again to defend my objective in the last turn. In the end, I still lost, but I was reasonably happy with the yan huo. In Supremacy he killed a linked keisotsu ML then went down to a ryuken HRL. I got him up for round 2 and the ryuken won the firefight again - I had better odds but he rolled better. I got him up again and he stayed up this time, killed the ryuken on my opponent's turn, and make my opponent spend a bunch of orders getting Saito over so he could get to a terminal under smoke cover. I won that game. I spent minimal orders on the yan huo's doc, he scored some kills, and made it hard for my opponent to move around, so I was pretty satisfied. I would still like to try pairing him with an x-visor bao, but it is an awful lot of points. On the other hand, it does seem to have a powerful effect on my opponent's plans. The key question is, does the opponent waste enough orders dealing with him to justify my expense?
I'd say if your opponent wastes enough orders for them to have to change their plans and start cutting corners and compromising stuff, it was enough orders wastes. Plus, every unit you ''kill'' during your AROs won't be generating orders in the opponents upcoming turn.
My standard "ARO support package" involves liberal use of Flash Pulse cheap troops, usually the 8pts mimetic remotes and the Warcor to begin with, positioned in such a way that the enemy has to at least spend orders to pick them one by one. If the enemy has access to Smoke, I would use either a Sniper that can counter the smoke thrower (so the enemy has to bring at least 2 smokers to place at different positions of the table, since I can place my MSV2 troops facing either the single smoker or the single MSV2 enemy troop. In short? FAQ 1.3, page 6: Human Sphere page n3 35: Neurocinetics is an OBLIGATORY skill, so you can't choose not to use it (it would be a Total Reaction if so).
Yan Huo is a good deal. Of course bring him down is difficult, but not impossible. Bao Troops have a big problem: high cost, too soft and short weapons with a good equipment. The better option is a Bao sniper, but they cannot endure even a combi shot. Is not meant to be a ARO troop, only in a Haris, but spend a Haris for ARO is not the best idea. Yan Huo is simply: big weapons, hard enough to endure one, two or even three shots. Not cheap but enough.
One more time, the total burst of ML is 1 not 2 even with twin weapons. Neurocinetics is obligatory so you MUST use the full burst of 1 AND it allow to use the twin weapons burst bonus +1 in reactive. but this bonus is not OBLIGATORY. but is not the place for this...
@Shango here: https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/neurocinetics-and-twin-weapon.23271/ @xagroth has already found that thread. Please keep the rules dispute to that thread, it makes you much more likely to actually get an official clarification.
Yeah, we should get back on topic of ML Yan Hous and their support. Which begs me to ask... we have been talking a lot about the TinBot C profile, but... what about the regular Yan Hou 2x ML? Is definetely not a big ARO piece as it's TinBot C version is, but... it sounds like a rather solid artillery piece for the active turn. Two blast templates hammering into fireteam does sound like a solid way to clear them to me, at least at a glance.
It depends on what do you want and the mission you will play. For blowing up consoles and antennas you certainly need Antimaterial weapons, of which all profiles carry, but only the Missile Launcherx2 has a Burst of more than one... plus it's AP+EXP, meaning you can roll 2 dice, and each will carry 3 ARM/2 rolls! If what you want is to hunt enemy troops of almost any kind, the HMC is the way to go... However, that position is usually taken by the Hsien HMG Lt with some Smoke on top ^^U
Looking at the guns the Yan Hou profiles get, I am getting the feeling that the HRMC is the go-to "delete unit" profile ( I mean... Burst 5 Dam 15 AP ammo looks like something that could even rip a chunk out of a Jotum. ) out of the bunch, while the MHMG is more of a... all-rounder I suppose, since it looks like it could work both in active turn as basically a Shock or AP HMG and EXP ammo gives decent objective busting and ARO potential ( Since while it is simply Burst 1, it is a Burst 1 of Dam 15 EXP ammo, which should give some pause for reconsideration) ? Regular ML does seem like the premier objective buster and looks like it could do some good hurting if your enemy clustered some units a bit too close together. Which is why I made the guess it'd do decently for cleaning up Fireteams, since those, by definition, tend to stick closer together than most units do by themselves.
It's basically the best thing ever on The Grid, you can't do better in faction for that mission. Otherwise for active turn dice are king and I would run the HMRC.
