I agree with your conclusion but not with your reasoning. 25 points is 1-2 orders, another SWC oftentimes means another heavy hitter/big gun. You get 300 points and 6 SWC in a standard list, it's true, but that doesn't mean that the 1 SWC and 50 points are of equal value. IMO JSA gets the biggest benefit, followed by Yu Jing, followed by CA.
JSA and Haqqislam are going to be painful to play against with the JSA bonus. Any force with powerful alpha strike pieces (Oniwaban/Fiday and their character variants) is going to be able to just straight double-down on that tactic, knowing it will work every time (thus they can risk possibly grabbing a backup piece or two to make sure it goes off). Alhpa strikes are largely balanced mostly because you can't assume you're getting them. If you suddenly can assume that, then all bets are off. After that, I'd take the CA bonus over Yu Jing. +1 SWC can be good, but in a lot of cases most ITS lists are already running enough heavy-hitters and I can see that one going to waste more often than not. But 25 points? That's an extra mid-fielder, a couple of extra orders, or even just an ARO piece. In general, while it is 1 SWC per 50 points is the conversion, this doesn't mean 1 SWC equals 50 points (because I need points to buy troops, but I don't necessarily need SWC to do so). Points buy extra orders, upgrade specialists, and possibly allow me to fill out an expensive link team in a more lavish fashion. That extra SWC may get me a big gun or a specialist (though most good specialists no longer cost SWC), but only if I have points left for such a thing (because most of the time, an SWC cost also comes with a point cost bump). So for me, JSA allies obviously get the best bonus (reliably getting the turn they want), CA allies are the runners up because you can always use extra points to get something, while Yu Jing allies getting +1 SWC is actually pretty circumstantial as fitting in extra options via SWC requires being careful with point expenditures elsewhere (and also hilariously interacts poorly with the CBLs we just got to represent the unit that would involved in exactly the conflict being represented in this event).
Frankly it would make more sense for the CBL to have its own unique bonus to incentivize playing it instead of sharing the generic Yu Jing/ISS bonus.
I tend to hit the SWC wall first these days. 7 SWC Yu Jing lists without a Hsien tax are really powerful
if you look at my first post, I agree with you. although, 1 SWC can be the difference between sticking that HMG on a Heavy Infantry versus a Light. or maybe an extra TR bot. or maybe just even more smoke.
Yu Jing ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 DÀOFĚI Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 55) HSIEN HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 61) GŬILÁNG Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 31) GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) KǍNRÈN Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 29) RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20) ZHANSHI Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) ZHANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) ZHANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) TIGER SOLDIER Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) GROUP 2 2 2 SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) 7 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army It can work but I'm not sure how many people would like this kind of list.
Thx, but 9 orders main combat group(if we dont start with tiger), and weak aro in my opinion, i prefer lists about 14-15 green orders. Hm i think about 2 yan hou zuoyng, rui shi hacker, and kuang shi
Given how many ITS missions favour 2nd turn (for final scoring) that Japanese "bonus" may end up being half penalty.
If i not mistaken, they autowin initiative roll, and then they decide to go first or second.... And 4 inch bonus
Possibly a more appropriate Yu Jing bonus for Manifest Destiny, that is also CBL-compatible: Automatic Strategos L3 for the original Lieutenant. (This is a 4-point skill but with extremely high utilitarian value if it can be assigned to any LT, and thus hiding which is the LT and also making its utility available to LTs in fireteams. It would also work well as a counter to Banzai)
If we go to the Paradiso Campaign table, CA's +25pts bonus means 16 points invested on the +army points (3 buys). YJ's +1SWC means 2 buys (7 points) on the "must have" table (because its +3 per level to promotion rolls, which were what allowed you to access the other columns... first buy it's +3, second is +3 and+1SWC; third would be +3 roll and +1SWC). JSA's bonus is not really measurable, since they Win Initiative roll (so they can choose to go first or second), which is the 4th buy (30points) on the tree (+3 to initiative rolls, +3 to initiative rolls, always being able to select side to deploy, win always initiative AND deployment roll), but not 100%... overall I'd say it would be similar to CA's levels. As for usefulness, Haqquislam will love JSA's bonus indeed, but the other factions will go for points or SWC bonus (or JSA bonus) depending on what they want and what faction are they. For example, Vanilla Aleph's lists will love that +1SWC in a Marut list, but all will have the option of choosing because of the bonus they want.
I agree Pts are better, unless making a specific list that is SWC heavy where you want all SWC you can get and even better if you have a Lt option that gives you extra. In ITS Campaign Extra (based on Paradiso chart but capped at 7XP) you make the choice between +1SWC or +15Pts. I'll probably go for +25Pts most often, although auto-win initiative is very powerful (ITS Extra would be +6 Initiative but you must still make a roll) combined with +4" DZ could be great depending on table setup (I sometime had TAG bonus DZ not used because there was no good place to put him).
