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Yan Lo tactica!


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@mo11usq

I find Corner Deployment in general good for Yan Lo, because it lets him build his Chi however you deem appropriate as there's less initial pressure. If you're a Yan Lo MUST get multiple Chi on turn one player (I am) then you have more time to attack your own stuff and acquire it. I might be over emphasizing this part of him though.

My concern is the strategy. Even if he does get fully charged with equipment and/or Chi, he's not going to summon models like Nicodem or Kirai, or remove models like Reva and McMourning, thus I think they're all stronger than him at Recon or Interference for different reasons.

If you absolutely had to make Yan Lo work for the strategy, I would hire 3-4 Night Terrors, Soul Porter and Izamu, and try maintain Chi +3 as quickly and as often as I could. I would get Izamu and/or Soul Porter into the middle of the board as fast as I could, then Lightning Dance as many models into them as possible. I'm essentially trying put them in a place they can't score and that they can't Walk away from. If they have movement tricks, well, they kind of get away from him, but at least they're using AP on tricks to move rather than AP on directly scheme VP. It's better in Interference as they don't necessarily need to be in the middle; so long as Izamu's engaging 2 or more models, it's kind of paying off and if Soul Porter engages even just 1 model, that's worth it since he himself is a Peon.

The Night Terrors are there to just fly into whatever Corner matters most to contest or score. Since Yan Lo isn't a dedicated summoner or killer, I think he essentially HAS to have a bunch of super cheap minions to even have a chance of winning the strategy. Night Terrors are the cheapest we have, and they're quite mobile which is nice too. 

The rest of my SS are used for models that will secure schemes for me. A Necropunk has never let me down as far as marker laying or interacting goes, but he can only do one at a time and does need a mid card. I might supplement him with a Crooligan, or even just bring two Crooligans instead, if that suits the scheme pool better. Phillip and the Nanny comes in if I know where Scheme Markers are likely to be placed by my opponent, or if some of the schemes require that their Scheme Markers be near my models. As for killing schemes, I would avoid it as best I could, seeing as lots of our SS are dumped in Night Terrors and Izamu (he's not as killy as he looks). 

If there's multiple killing schemes and it's Interference / Recon, and for some reason you're still leaning towards Yan Lo, I think I'd opt for some radical Brutal Khrakarra (however it's spelled) build with a Carrion Emissary and Belles. The name of the game would be getting Bone Ascendant and using Hunpo Assault on Turn 2 against a clump of things as an absolute minimum. 

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@hydranixx

Interesting thoughts, thanks. Lightning dancing enemies into score-denying tar-pits like Izamu and Yin sounds a lot of fun and how he is designed to work. Risky though, as you say, as most crews worth their salt will have movement tricks, and tanky though they are, ancestor bruisers still tend fall with a little concentrated effort and the right tools. I guess the skill of playing Yan Lo comes from dictating the right match ups.

I got in a couple of games with this kind of stratscheme set up over the weekend, will post the reports on YouTube soon.
Schemes were variants of LITS, assassinate, distract, outflank, and breakthrough, so a decent mix.

Briefly, assassinate meant Yan Lo spent most of the games hiding - he is chunky once upgraded, but far from un-killable (plus opponents were Sonnia and Lynch. Ca tends to have lower damage? yeah right...), I deemed mixing it up in the middle of the enemy crew to be a bad idea, which Cuddled his disruption capabilities.

In the end Toshiro pretty much took over as master Daimyo. Fast belles pulled in enemy models turn one, which I killed for chi and corpses (I agree, it cannot be overstated how much Yan Lo NEEDS two chi first turn), and then focused on raising Ashigarou as fast as they could be put in the ground every turn after (he had his work cut out for him!). Komainu jumped around distracting/accusing and interfering stuff - at which task they are GODS.

Really fun games, but really quite challenging - and it is fair to say my opponents were much less experienced players than me.
Respect to people who play Yan well, I feel he takes a high level of skill to use effectively.

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I hadn't run more than 1 Belle with Yan Lo to be honest, but hearing how it worked for you... I actually really like that idea; 2-3 Belles to bring an enemy all the way to your deployment from theirs, then killing it near Yan Lo. It's a far more aggressive option for generating Chi on turn one and doesn't ask me to hurt my own models... so I'm keen to try.

If Yan Lo gets Impossible to Wound early, it should calm Sonnia down a notch, at least as far as her attacking him directly. But yes, Lynch won't care one bit. It's all about positioning your tarpit models directly in front of him and limiting his options for getting LoS on Yan Lo. If you give him one decent opening, Lynch makes short work of Yan Lo.  

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Quote

2-3 Belles to bring an enemy all the way to your deployment from theirs

I like 2 belles and Toshiro with my little helper. If I ever remember to declare the use of MLH it will be dangerous - 6x Ca7 lures at potentially 22" range (ensure at least one lunacy trigger), if it steps out of its deployment zone its very probably yours. Sybelle would make this extra gross, but it is so hard to give up the emissary.

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If Yan Lo gets Impossible to Wound early, it should calm Sonnia down a notch

Unfortunately, I tend to find he often has among the best defense in the crew :S and Sonnia is more than happy to blast 8" off DF4 grunts. Incorporeal to run through terrain to hide like a little bitch might sometimes be worth consideration. Shards of Kythera are purest gold.

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It's all about positioning your tarpit models directly in front of him and limiting his options for getting LoS on Yan Lo.

Definitely seems part of his intended design, but so tricky to do in practice. I'm guessing one combines this with terrain (shards!) as I find its that rare bunching multiple models into a wall is optimal crew positioning for achieving other game objectives. It seems most likely to waste one or two enemy AP for them to re-position for the attack, and hope Yan can take... that 8 dmg Ca7 no dmg flip final debt shot, mark of shizzle charging Vik of Blood, assassination triggering Executioner/Misaki/Langston etc. etc. etc.... and that it makes them vulnerable to reprisal. Needless to say blasters give no figs (and min dmg 4? Som'er you are such a bastard!). The trade off that Yan now also has no LOS to targets or dying models is also not trivial.

It very often feels like to use one aspect of his play, Yan Lo must sacrifice some other aspect of his play, resulting in a nudge of an advantage over his enemies which isn't very forgiving if you don't get it perfect. Learning him will be a tough but interesting challenge and hopefully will make me a better player. Solidarity for all you guys and girls also grinding away at the old man! 

   

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Mo11usk I enjoy your youtube videos quite a bit. Glad to see you play ressers over neverborn. I played Yan Lo with Bete, Yin and Jakuna all with unnerving aura. I didnt have many points left to run far off schemes. Is there a way to better the list. I dont like izamu because my tougher opponents use glowy mcTavish and you can figure out how that one goes.

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@Veefy
Glad to hear you enjoy the channel. As a newcomer to ressurs I'm probably not qualified to advise, though I'm sure some of the other nice people here could.

But as you ask, build to the stratscheme pool, take models with abilities that work with rather than against the terrain, blahblahblah...

With the model restrictions you give, I'd think about something like this as a general template:

 

Yan Lo - assume 3ss of upgrades (6ss chache)

Soul Porter

Bette Noire - unnerving aura (might consider this on Yan Lo instead, but I don't know Bette, maybe it works for you)

Yin - unnerving aura

Jaakuna Ubume - unnerving aura

Goryo

Necropunk

Necropunk

 

Yan, Yin, and Jaakuna suck enemies into overlapping unnerving aura tarpit.

Goryo generates seishin for chi turn one, then troubleshoots (run schemes, hunt enemy scheme runners, support bette/tarpit)

Necropunks run schemes and/or engage to gum up e.g. glowy McTavish, and be a Bette sacrifice.

Crew lacks healing (for effective tarpit), summoning (always good, but especially for Bette I imagine), and condition removal (DF5/WP5 Yan cries).

 

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This looks more versatile than my list. I was using:

yan lo with 3 upgrades and cash of 6 or 5

carrion emisary with yan lo conflux

bete unnerving

yin unnerving 

jakuna unnerving

graveyard spirit (this thing helped them survive without further healing besides yan lo's

goryo

It worked but I do see very clearly the necessity of two necropunks or crooligans.

 

Thank you!

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  • 3 months later...

Thought i would add a Chiaki shenanigan to the discussion since i haven't seen it mentioned on here (i think...)

As we all know, Chiaki with Innocence can pass around all conditions on her to a friendly Ancestor within 6" and LOS at the start of her activation. If you attach My Little Helper to her you can pass around the DARK PROTECTION condition to an Ancestor, granting them both the 3" Protection bubble and two 0's for that turn. I don't think it's something to use every time since Pull of the Grave can be really good depending on your build but it can free up an upgrade slot for Toshiro, Yin, or the Carrion Emissary. Of course you can always pass it to Yan Lo to give him some early game protection and he won't have to choose between healing and Ascending for a Turn OR you can live the dream and if you somehow have been getting CHI like crazy you can be fully Ascended by the end of Turn 2.  

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19 hours ago, TheJoyInGaming said:

As we all know, Chiaki with Innocence can pass around all conditions on her to a friendly Ancestor within 6" and LOS at the start of her activation. If you attach My Little Helper to her you can pass around the DARK PROTECTION condition to an Ancestor, granting them both the 3" Protection bubble and two 0's for that turn.

Since Innocence "move" the conditions, Chiaki will loose Dark Protection if she uses Innocence.

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  • 1 month later...

I was wondering; with the new upgrades, did you change what you field when running Yan Lo?

Quote
  • Yan Lo gains instinctual. Can take Lightning Dance as a (0). Gains trigger on lightning dace to deal damage and give slow to danced target
  • Yan Lo gains chi when opponent gains VP. Can discard Ascendant upgrades to gain chi or lower chi to attach Ascendant upgrade when activating.
  • Yan Lo gains new 4ss Ascendant upgrade. Gains casting expert. Gains Ca attack that deals high damage and can heal ancestors

IMO the new upgrades are really powerful, and I see no reason not to take them both. That leaves just one spot for another upgrade - either to summon ancestors or +chi on Df/Wp. In a game I played (mirror match Yan Lo, even) I got all upgrades on Yan Lo and 3 Chi spare top turn three, and jumping into a bunch of enemy models and hitting them all with the mouth laser on plusses to hit was brutal! Sadly his jump back with the same buffed Yan Lo was even more effective ;)

 

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I love Awakening, and yes, it will be hard not to use it in future. But I'm not convinced on Follow Their Footsteps. In a lot of cases, you'll only get 1 Chi at the end of turn 2, and then every turn afterwards. For those situations, the upgrade seems too expensive. It'll be fairly rare to get more than 1 Chi a turn, and by the end of turn 2, I'm usually swamped in Chi anyway.

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I keep hearing how people get swamped in Chi, but I never seem to have that happen to me ;) I'd be glad for whatever extra Chi I can get, though it is somewhat dependent on the Scheme pool. If you see several schemes that score midturn, it is definitely worth it imo.

His new upgrades make him play as I think they originally intended him to play and it is magnificent. The only change I'm seeing is that now that Yan Lo can become a beater himself, I don't have to worry as much about bringing multiple beaters in his crew. I see myself taking more minions and Toshiro to buff. Need to get some more games in with him though. 

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16 hours ago, aquenaton said:

Do you consider this new upgrades are a good addition to the brutal katarraka or are they competing against it?

There isn't much point unless your target has high Wp. The new Glowey mouth light is a CA attack that benefits from Chi and targets Wp. Why use a Ml5 attack if you can get a Ca 8 attack. Jumping in with :+fateto hit and damage with Ca8 and a 3/4/5 is brutal. Even if you only get 1 attack per target. You still likely have another ap to finish off targets or your 0 to lightning dance, stay in btb and cause 2dmg and slow.

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Note, that you need to get quite a bit of Chi to get fully juiced though. You'd need at minimum the 3Chi and 4Chi upgrades, but then you don't have either of the defensive upgrades which is dangerous. So, really 8-9 Chi for the upgrade, another 3 Chi to get to Ca8, and a couple of turns. 10Chi minimum. Not super easy to do without some sacrificial models or a lot of killing. Instinctual helps as now you don't have to decide heal or new upgrade - you can do both! Or a Lightning Dance if no one needs healing. 

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Brutal Kharkara is something you can get much earlier and does give pseudo-wicked, its not useless but i agree its gone down in value. Thanks to instinctual and the new chi gaining sources i think it will be easier for Yan to turn people into spirits for armor. Perhaps adversary granting models will be more important? Hayreddin's + to damage would help yan get chi in some cases and his incredible squishiness goes away if he has +2 armor!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Have a question about timing with the new upgrades...

Step 1: have 4 chi and attach Spirit ascendant - 2 chi remaining at the end of the round.

next round yan lo activating: first - when he activates, discard a Card to get chi +1 (3 chi)

2nd: use "follow their footsteps": when he activates discard the Spirit ascendant for chi+2 (5 chi)

3rd: use "follow their footsteps": attach blood ascendant -4chi (1chi)

that's all when yan lo activates - so does he get casting expert for this round???

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An activation goes;

1. Resolve “Activation" Effects
2. Generate AP
3. Take Actions
4. End Activation

So when he's resolving all the activation effects in whatever order he likes, such as gaining Chi and swapping in upgrades with Follow Their Footsteps, he's doing that before generating the AP for that round. This also means that you don't gain Casting Expert if you've switched out the Blood Ascendant. 

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With the new upgrades now in the mix, how important is that turn one chi from attacking/killing one of your own models? Do you do it, if so what do you use? What do you attach when? In a game filled with rat engines and alpha strikes and everything Nellie, why does this trick feel so cheesy?

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Turn 1 might be overkill, as it doesn't help then, but trying to get enough Chi to grab it start of T2 is quite good. Not as easy as it sounds though unless your enemy kills off some chaff turn 1 (good use of Seishin if you got 'em). If you can get BA T2 though, you will have a far better game. If you can get Hunpa Assault by top of turn 3 though you are really going to have a good game. Placing in a group of models and hitting everything with Glowy Mouth Light at :+fate to hit and damage is brutal. Does depend a bit on your enemy though. Great against crews that tend to clump up. 

I'm really excited to be able to play Yan Lo with his new upgrades finally. He's a lot more fun and can both support his crew and deal damage.

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51 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

Turn 1 might be overkill, as it doesn't help then, but trying to get enough Chi to grab it start of T2 is quite good. Not as easy as it sounds though unless your enemy kills off some chaff turn 1 (good use of Seishin if you got 'em).

You need to get BA T1 if you want to profit from Casting Expert T2.

And you don't need any help from your opponent to harvest 4 Chi T1 (see other thread).

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31 minutes ago, Mutter said:

You need to get BA T1 if you want to profit from Casting Expert T2.

And you don't need any help from your opponent to harvest 4 Chi T1 (see other thread).

As long as you use his new upgrade (and why wouldn't you?)  to attach Blood Ascendant at the start of his activation you do benefit from Casting Expert T2. Beginning of Activation abilities happen before you generate AP for the turn.

You don't 'need' the enemies help, but I find farming your own models to be both boring and potentially a waste of AP, especially if I can get my enemy to spend their AP doing it instead ;) In my experience it's not often necessary, but I see why some people do it. I only do it occasionally and even then not to this extent. I might hit something like a Seishin if I don't think my enemy is going to do it for me. I don't often have trouble with Chi that I need to list build for it to such an extent. 

Nothing inherently wrong with the tactic, but it harkins back to the old canine remains farming that used to happen. Never sat right with me and just seemed un-fun. And the tactic in the other forum requires a darn good hand turn 1 to pull off. Not something I'd want to base my crew build on myself.

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27 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

As long as you use his new upgrade (and why wouldn't you?)  to attach Blood Ascendant at the start of his activation you do benefit from Casting Expert T2. Beginning of Activation abilities happen before you generate AP for the turn.

Ah. Was getting confused with trading it away T2. My bad, you're right ...

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