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Shenlong Crew Builds


Shintoninja

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So recently I have been playing Shenlong a majority of the time.  I really enjoy the control and adaptation to situations he brings to the board especially when I run him in what I call the Triad. That being:

Shenlong 

Sensei Yu w/ Promising Disciple

Shadow Emissary w/ Shadow Conflux

Shenlong and Sensei Yu are so versatile in their own way. 

The Shadow Emissary brings such great support with the healing, draw and upgrade push.

 

I have had variations on this theme with Katanaka Snipers, Samurai,  Ototo, Sir Archival, dawn serpent, peseants and of course  Ten Thunder Brothers. I have had repeated amount of success with the exception  of one game of really poor bad positioning.

Low River Monks will be my next acquisition but will likely fall in line with the same style build. 

 

I would like to attempt something different with Shenlong but an at a loss for idea of  what could be comparable. 

 

Currently I have :

Shenlong Crew

Masaki Crew

Meng Fei Crew

Shadow Puppet

Tengu

Oiran

Jorogumo 

And already listed models

 

Any ideas?

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I'd recommend a straight swap of Kang for Ototo in games you might take the little brother. He works really well with Shenlong.

Tengu are also fantastic with Shenlong as support models. I like them for scheme marker denial and the regen they can hand out.

As an experiment, you may also want to try Oiran. I get a lot of work out of them in my Lynch crews, if you can reliably trigger the Hidden Agenda upgrade to give them fast and focussed on top of the bonus they get being able to take defensive stance (2) as a (0) action or get another focus, they become versatile and powerful minions.

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I'd say Ototo works quite well with Shenlong, and unless you're up against Ressers I feel Shen doesn't really need Kang. The focus plus the critical strikes really hit home here.

For scheming I'd say the TTB far outclass the Tengu. Only take them if you know you're gonna have to be removing a lot of markers, and even then be sure to bring a TTB to protect your own.

I get the desire to try new things but the best fits you've already tried. The Shadow Effigy is great for being a cheap and sturdy activation, but other than that I wouldn't quite know where to go with these.

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Have you played without Sensei Yu? Try ditching him for a few games, see how that feels like. Yu is great, don't get me wrong. But he's 11 points of support in a crew lead by a support master. When I started I fielded Yu as an autoinclude and it was great. But once I learned to treat him as just another model, having that 11ss more to build my lists with felt liberating and allowed me to explore different builds and get more use out of Shenlong.

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I've played several games already with shen long and found him very versatile.

I want to know your oppinion about his personnal totem, the paysants... I've been playing without them lately and finaly felt free to do whatever i want without having those slow-clumsy-useless totems !

When do you choose to bring them in ? Or if you never did it, just try playing shen long without those :)

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3 hours ago, bedjy said:

I've played several games already with shen long and found him very versatile.

I want to know your oppinion about his personnal totem, the paysants... I've been playing without them lately and finaly felt free to do whatever i want without having those slow-clumsy-useless totems !

When do you choose to bring them in ? Or if you never did it, just try playing shen long without those :)

2ss for two activations, that alone makes them worth considering. They also get a fair amount of schemes in place for blowing into place and help shen power up with conditions. Late game they might garner you a free ss if you're lucky and they can contest many scheme marker based schemes.

For a more forward active play style, kamaitachi is a good choice too. Best used with lots of upgrade switches. Otherwise, he does not need anything being so versatile.

Some call him a suport master, which he certainly can be, though he also can beat well, scheme well, pin things well, tank decently. Versatility is his key trait. Utilizing this at the right moments is crucial to over coming the fact that at most of those things I listed there are better and more specialized models/masters available.

Back to op. Because of the above I won't give any specific lists, rather pose the question of how you want to play him different and then fill gaps based on that which he is not covering for a particular strat/scheme. In the right circumstances, all models in 10t can fit into a shen list.

Do you need more bodies for the strat?

Does something need to die, who will do the killing?

Am I distracting and surviving?

How fast do I want to be able to move?

Am I dancing around and never engaging?

Who does the work if my 1-2 scheme runners are offed?

There are many ways to play and win with Malifaux. Strategy and schemes make a lot of difference in what works well in a list.

All this and we have not even covered looking at opposing faction and standard choices for your meta.

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5 hours ago, bedjy said:

I've played several games already with shen long and found him very versatile.

I want to know your oppinion about his personnal totem, the paysants... I've been playing without them lately and finaly felt free to do whatever i want without having those slow-clumsy-useless totems !

When do you choose to bring them in ? Or if you never did it, just try playing shen long without those :)

I agree with newsun, 2 activations for 2ss is ace. Way I play I never let peasants dictate how my other models go about. 1st turn they power up Shenlong or someone else. Next turn one walks up while other might self sacrifice.  Third turn they should be in range to buff something again. Strat & schemes depending they might hang around with a model buffing them all game, they might engage enemy models, they might try to stick with Shenlong to drop markers.

Very solid for what's essentially a 1ss model.

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The Shen and Yu combo team is so versatile it almost doesn't matter what other models you bring with. My standard list hasn't changed since the Emissary came out. 

Shenlong, Wondering, Misdirection, either Servant or Recalled Training depending

Peasant 

Sensei Yu, Promising, LRM 0ss upgrade

Emissary, Shen conflux

TTBs x2

Low River Monk

The last slot is flexible. Usually it's the Lone Swordsman with RT but this can be switched out for Yin/Ototo/Izamu/Kang or any beater depending on the situation. Without this slot the crew doesn't have as much punch as I normally like, and anything except the Gatling gun guy whose name I don't feel fit to remember, will do well. 

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The problem with the aggressive play style without the Kamaitachi is, that your opponent can easily end the burning condition on Shen with interactions. With the Kamaitachi the burning value is most of the time high enough that this won't happen.

Bettari is also nice for the 8-10 SS slot.

Obsidian Onis also work very well with the aggressive burning Shen.

Komainus are also a solid choice even if they have no special synergy.

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Thanks for all the excellent responses.  I had nearly finished responding to all you posts when I clicked accidentally clicked a link and lost 3/4 of my reply. 

I'm not going to spend the time retyping it. My own damn fault really for not doing it on the laptop. 

Anyhow thanks again and it has given me some ideas.

 

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There's another reason to consider Peasants for some strats and schemes. Headhunter for example; being able to pick up a head after initiative by double-walking a peasant to the head in the turn before is powerful. It's a point scored before a single model has activated.

Bettari can also teleport to summoned peasants, useful if you need to get her somewhere, pull her back out of trouble or setup a charge outside of her activation.

Low River Monks and the Emissary for the 3 focus card draw is amazing.

A Terracotta Warrior can get a lot out of a Shen crew. Shen stops needing to 0 to switch upgrades and the snap healing from switching upgrades can help too.

I've played around with Akaname, Toshiro with Command the graves. Akaname can leech Shen's poison to drop scrap markers, which Tosh can summon off. A couple of robo-dogs turn one does wonders for your activations.. plus they can give out burning, slow and hit against casters out-of-activation.

 

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