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Yojimbo, and how do you keep him alive?

Discussion in 'Japanese Secessionist Army' started by geo67, Jun 6, 2018.

  1. geo67

    geo67 Well-Known Member

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    I've only played a handful of games, and last night was the first night Yojimbo survived the game.

    The mission was Deadly Dance, and I feel like this is a very winable mission with JSA, with our Oniwaban and Ninjas. The mission turned out pretty much in my favor, so I was pleased with that.

    My question is how do you guys keep Yojimbo alive? Do you spend orders to keep him from going Impetous? I activate him, move - smoke, and then if his NWI is triggerd I freeze him. Are there tricks i'm missing with him as far as impetuous, are ways to get around the Impetous Order(ie not moving the full amount)? Can you idle and then smoke, or do you have to move?

    I try to hide him in cover as much as his PhatAssBase will allow. I realize opponents are afraid of his CC, and he can make life miserable, so he is literally the first target.

    Maybe I just need to get used to the fact that he's going to be dead, usually on turn one. I'm fine with this too, as long as I get good work out of him and his Bears.

    Would love some feedback on some of your successful turns or tricks with Yojimbo.
     
  2. ambisinister

    ambisinister Broken Zoetrope

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    For me personally, I use Yojimbo as an aggressive attack piece that I don't expect to survive the mission. That's not to say that I throw him away on long shots or let him walk into fire for no purpose, but I don't mind losing him. Generally what I like to gamble him on the most are asymmetric trades (where he can kill more points than he's worth), tying a up threat that's holding back the rest of my strategy, or leaving him as a speedbump my opponent will be forced to spend 3 or for orders on getting rid of in order to advance.


    Probably the most useful trick I know of for boosting his survivability is baiting AROs with the koalas. Since they count as a synchronized group, they only generate one ARO. If your first order is to move Yojimbo without putting him in LoS of anything while simultaneously putting a koala out where you opponent can see it, they have to ARO against the koala or they forfeit their reaction. Then you can use the second half of the order to drive Yojimbo 6 inches into a different piece of total cover or into CC, or even just further up the field so that on his next activation, even though he'll be eating AROs they'll be FtF or against a target you want to fight.
     
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  3. meikyoushisui

    meikyoushisui Competitor for Most Ignored User

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    You have to move your full move value for your first short skill with an impetuous order, always. But smoke dodging is one of the strongest mechanics in the game. You win the f2f roll on like a 17, which is really good.

    You are also allowed to dismount as part of a non-impetuous order. You can dismount as part of your first irregular order if you are worried about staying alive.
     
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  4. colbrook

    colbrook Grenade Delivery Specialist

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    I believe that if Yojimbo survives the game you weren't using him aggressively enough :P
     
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  5. geo67

    geo67 Well-Known Member

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    220px-Yojimbo_(movie_poster).jpg
     
  6. barakiel

    barakiel Echo Bravo Master Sergeant

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    Surviving Extreme Impetuous is all about Deployment. Remember, Yojimbo doesn't benefit from Partial Cover, so there's no point deploying him touching a wall. Instead, deploy him far back in your DZ, so that he's practically touching your back table edge. This means that his Impetuous move will carry him forward, which helps offset him zipping out of Total Cover and into the sights of the enemy. It's usually pretty easy to drop Yojimbo in a place where he's safe from enemy fire, but doesn't have to move out of cover if he doesn't want to.

    For subsequent turns too, you can always dismount him and run him away from his bike a bit. He's much easier to control when he's making a 4 inch Impetuous rather than 8 inch.

    As far as using him, he's pretty much entirely a smoke dispenser for me, and then I watch for opportunities to melee missile him into combat, use his koalas to clear the way through enemy mines, or even have him buddy up with something like an MSV2 Kempetai. In a crucial defensive turn, you can stand him out in a lane where the enemy will certainly give him AROs. He can throw smoke near him unopposed, possibly dying in the attempt, but laying a smoke field that a Kempetai or Rui Shi can benefit from and shoot through. This can be a very strong last-ditch trick if you need to hold off a major enemy attack. Bonus points if you plant his koalas first before he dies.
     
  7. ambisinister

    ambisinister Broken Zoetrope

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    He's also a good candidate for the ol CC tie up routine, especially because it's very easy for him to get engaged without your opponent getting to attack him during the initial engagement. By CC tie up routine I refer to the tactic of locking down a hard, multiwound threat (like a tag or achillies or charonitd or su jian, etc) in CC so that it can't ARO anything. At that point, you don't need to keep spending orders on Yojimbo to try and kill it. On your opponent's turn, they're going to need to either spend orders in CC or on shooting to try and break you out of engagement, which is just an opportunity for Yojimbo to wound or kill the target using your opponent's orders in the case of CC. And if they do nothing, when it comes back around to your turn, you can use your impetuous or irregular orders to try and kill the target without hurting you own order economy, or if keeping the target tied up is sufficient for your goals, it might even be worth it to spend a regular order on Yojimbo to cancel impetuous and just leave the whole thing as is.
     
    #7 ambisinister, Jun 6, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2018
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  8. sgthulka

    sgthulka Well-Known Member

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    What @barakiel said about deployment, and I will add that I use him as my reserve model so I'm sure that I can place him relatively safe. If that proves impossible due to counter-reserve-deployment or terrain he is one-hundred percent worth spending an order on to cancel his impetuous. I will never run him out in front of a known ARO and rely on smoke dodge -- he is too valuable to risk like that. The best way to deploy him on turn one (imho) is so that his impetuous move won't take him into an ARO, even if that means you're effectively wasting your impetuous order by placing him too far back in your deployment zone. Once he's moved impetuously you can then clear out all the potential ARO's with your other troops (like a rui shi or oniwaban) and then finish your order pool letting yojimbo murder to his heart's content.

    Against an opponent that ARO's agressively, so that you don't have enough orders to effectively run him once you've cleared them out, he can be used as @barakiel describes. But against an opponent that likes to hunker up and turtle and leave out only one or two ARO's, he is too valuable as an attack piece to bother just for laying smoke. He can kill all those supposedly awesome cheap chain rifle guard your backline aro pieces just by dropping smoke and carving them to pieces in one long line of blood-letting death. His gigantic motorcycle actually helps in this endeavor, since it can move a good 2" past his smoke cloud and still be in smoke, killing all those dumb kuang shi and auxilia who think they're so clever. He can ditch his bike and climb a building to murder a lieutenant who thinks he's safe on a roof. He can wreck remotes with martial arts 4 against their stupid ineffective electric pulse that they think is so great. He can plant his crazy koalas right before he goes on the killing spree so when the turn changes your opponent is frozen in place. The only thing yojimbo fears is the modest knife crit. Yo Jim Bo! Yo Jim Bo! Yo Jim Bo!

    EDIT: He also doesn't care about your stupid mines, that's what crazy koalas are for.
     
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  9. geo67

    geo67 Well-Known Member

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    I love this. It inspires to me to play Yojimbo better.
     
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  10. ambisinister

    ambisinister Broken Zoetrope

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    @sgthulka commentary is good stuff. I have a few cautionary notes:

    When dealing with Kuang Shi remember they can explode, so there is added risk to CC them.

    When dealing with units that have electric pulse it disables your MA. Your CC is high enough that it’s not usually an issue but it’s still worth remembering.
     
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  11. colbrook

    colbrook Grenade Delivery Specialist

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    You can also use the CK's for a pseudo 6" Cautious Move to cross firelanes, run the CK out into the firelane to provoke AROs and then use the second skill to cross the gap.
     
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  12. geo67

    geo67 Well-Known Member

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    So, in order to understand this:

    Yojimbo activates, CK's are placed in front of him, move a CK out into the firelane first, the opponent declare his ARO then? THen you move the big guy out into the firelane, and do some stuff...So, order of activation...CK's can move BEFORE Yojimbo? Or does he have to move first? I could see having the CK's out about 6" in front of him, if he has to move first, then moving him up behind them, and having them move into the lane.
     
    #12 geo67, Jun 7, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2018
  13. ambisinister

    ambisinister Broken Zoetrope

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    So this trick won’t work with his impetuous order because he’s required to move his full move with the first short order, but it will work on any subsequent orders. The process:

    Activate Yojimbo:
    First short skill, declare move. Yojimbo can move as long as he doesn’t provoke any AROs while doing so. Koalas move and must provoke AROs during their move.

    Second short skill:
    Declare Move again: Yojimbo is free to use his second 6” move to go wherever he likes, driving into CC, moving across an open lane, etc. Your opponent cannot declare AROs against Yojimbo by any model that had a chance to ARO against his koalas. If Yojimbo’s movement would put him in LoF of models that couldn’t see the koalas, they can react normally.


    Some limitations to remember: Mines and templates that trigger on a koala can still hit yojimbo if he moves through their area of effect. Sixth sense can also thwart this if you’re operating within the ZoC of the model with the skill, because they can delay their ARO until after your second short skill is declared.
     
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  14. Robock

    Robock Well-Known Member

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    nevermind, my mistake

    (while the rule say you can chose in which order you declare the impetuous order: you can move first skill or second skill; the trick requires the CK to move first skill which means yojimbo must also move first skill)
     
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  15. sgthulka

    sgthulka Well-Known Member

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    Well, CB would have given Yojimbo a knife, but they realized how completely OP he'd be with it. So instead he has to risk explosion. But he don't care! He's carving those zombies up with quadruple saves! (on a more serious note, good point!)

    As for MA, electric pulse only eliminates the CC and PHY modifiers, not the burst. MA 4 for the win, you stupid remotes! (on a more serious note, I can't find electric pulse on the dice calculator, but the chances of it succeeding against him has to be pretty low...he's got to roll a two or less on both dice. I'm super curious about the percentage difference between electric pulse and a "typical" CC 13 knife attack from an alguacil or fusilier, because I've never had Yojimbo get electric pulsed, but I have had him killed by knives on several occasions!)
     
  16. Robock

    Robock Well-Known Member

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    well, knife can crit, not electric pulse.
     
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  17. ambisinister

    ambisinister Broken Zoetrope

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    Well look at that. We've been playing electric pulse wrong this whole time. Learn something new every day!
     
  18. Teslarod

    Teslarod when in doubt, Yeet

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    Yojimbo, Sword for Hire - DA CCW vs. Fusiliers - Knife
    Active Player
    90.78% Yojimbo, Sword for Hire inflicts 1 or more wounds on Fusiliers (Unconscious)
    79.32% Yojimbo, Sword for Hire inflicts 2 or more wounds on Fusiliers (Dead)

    Failures
    5.70% Neither player succeeds
    Reactive Player
    3.51% Fusiliers inflicts 2 or more wounds on Yojimbo, Sword for Hire (Dead)



    Electric Pulse is 10% times 10% to fail both rolls on Yojimbo's side (the only way he loses to an automatic 7). Which means there is exactly 1% chance for an EP to succedd against him.
     
  19. geo67

    geo67 Well-Known Member

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    So you're saying the odds of the average Joe dying to Yojimbo are really good?

    yojimbo.jpg
     
  20. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    I've never seen 2W odds of 80% before. Yojimbo is pretty much Death Incarnate to anyone without CC skills.
     
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