I believe the SWC discounts are to reflect the +1 SWC for YuJing in the TREASON event. The AVA is probably copy/paste error, which they didn't bother to fix since the lists are closed, so AVA doesn't really matter. Weird that they used the old-style logos.
No, the CBL are supposedly ITS legal, for use in Treason tournaments or normal ones. So this CBL are illegal for ITS when compared between themselves (inconsistent costs of the exact same troop among the different lists), and with a 0.5 SWC bonus when compared to regular lists against ITS legal lists, aside from the 5SWC list. No, the Treason event is a narrative ITS tournament. Thus legal.
They're ITS legal for the "Yandun Division" faction, which happens to have options for different SWC on certain profiles compared to vanilla Yu Jing. The same way Bakunin gets 0 SWC Moderator Lieutenants but Nomads has to pay 2 SWC. I understand that there are inconsistent costs across lists, but it is safe to assume those are intentional manual adjustments, and that the 6.5 "effective" SWC is done on purpose.
The problem is that no other faction has 2 models of the exact same loadout and profile costing different amounts of SWC, while all the "5.5SWC" YJ CBL lists have 2 (which is double egregious, since leaving the ML Zhanying with the 1 SWC discount everywhere would ensure internal consistency). Since you talk Bakunin, it's the same as saying that in list A the Spitfire Riot Grrl costs 1 SWC while the Sniper Moira costs 1.5, then you go to list B and suddenly the Spitfire Riot costs 2 SWC and the Sniper Moira costs 0.5SWC. This discrepancy speaks volumes about lack of effort or interest. So I'm investing more than they did, even if it took me literally less than 5 minutes to notice that.
Honestly. It's a narrative list. They're getting closer to a format where the lists are worth taking (considering some of the disadvantages) with the tiny SWC discount. Hopefully they're reading the feedback and re-release the Pan-O lists, allowing themselves similar alterations. At the end of the day what's important is 1. that the lists provide fair opportunities against other playeds 2. that the points total is as close to 300 as possible. SWC is utterly and completely irrelevant.
I agree that they are definitely getting better at these lists for the reasons above. That said, I think they are missing out on an opportunity to take these lists as a means to teach players about the importance of synergies by building those synergies into the lists. For example, making sure that the MSV2 lists had sources of smoke, making sure there was a standard hacker in the list with the Rems, etc. As it is almost every list (except D) feels like it has had one obvious piece of a synergistic list removed.
Yeah, I really get the feeling that CB primarily plays fluffy lists like my Kouan Kyuuka lists, and not tournament-optimized lists. The different fireteams are the interesting parts of the Yuandun CBLs to me. Does anyone else remember the Beachhead mission, where the defender had significantly more SWC than usual?
Ive managed to play list E (aquisition) and list B (tictactoe), its predictably tough trying to make them work I played list E against caledonians and ended up getting order starved as all the 1W models drop to unconscious, Guijia rampage did occur and it killed its value in enemy troopers in turn 2 but unfortunately with only 5 orders to play with couldn't turn the tide and the scots were sat on all 3 objectives laughing, didnt help that the kanrens, which you really need to lean on for objectives bounced off lone volunteer infantry... List B did better on tictactoe against haqq neither me or my opponent had a great list for it but the sophotect link had the ability to walk down the middle (walled off jungle zone) steadily scoring objectives, the boarding shotguns and hacking device did a stellar job preventing asawira, ghulam hacker and janissary getting at my objectives, though the sophotect spent most of turn 2 and 3 reviving celestial guards ready for the next round of nanopulsar saves. Guijia sadly spent all game idle staring at an idle azrail opposite (multi sniper dakini messed up and died and without spare orders didnt feel like risking the DA/AP or EXP hits) I feel list B has some potential, the hacking device could be used on the dakini sniper to stack some assisted fire (I really feel the lack of a repeater with sparce board coverage), the sophotect can repair all the damage you cant avoid taking and Im generally just a big fan of all the boarding shotguns. Zhanying missile LT is hilarious too, get him killed swap to pheasant go get some objectives... and for the first time used his bio-immunity to some effect