Where to start with Yan Lo? 35ss crew advice

[yanlosbeard]

I'm pretty new to the game, and am currently finding my feet with Misaki.

Was wanting to have the option of a second master for when awkward schemes like Deliver The Message or Frame For Murder are in the pool. I play with a pretty small group of new(ish) gamers and we aren't quite up to 50ss standard yet (even small games are taking a pretty long time  to play out).

So I was wondering what you might consider to be a decent crew for Yan Lo at 35ss?

[Paddywhack]

It's hard to judge at 35pts, as balance is an issue. 

I tend to be Resurr Yan Lo, so can't give you too much advice on TT models, but Izamu and/or Toshiro are always good. Especially if you want to use Reliquary.

If you go Toshiro then you are going a bit more Minion heavy to get the best use out of him. Izamu is just a decent all around beater, but beware anything that can ignore armour. 

I would always recommend the Soul Porter. People forget he has a 3" engagement range and every poke he does to an enemy can give Yan Lo another Chi. 

It's also hard to just build a list in a vacuum without knowing schemes/strats and opponent. 

[Nukemouse]

If Frame for Murder is in the pool Yin the Pennangalan can be an excellent frame target for Yan Lo to make use of thanks to its "Wicked" ability to deal damage when enemies suffer a disengaging strike most players will choose to have their master or henchman try and kill Yin instead. When Yin does die Yan Lo can summon it back, so not only have you scored frame for murder you still have your model! Izamu can do some similar things.

If you are trying to avoid deliver a message you should use Mr Tannen as he can make it harder for enemies to take interact actions, whilst his partner Mr Graves can push enemies around to make sure they don't get into the right spots. Izamu the Armor has powerful disengaging strikes so enemies cant run away from him either. Chiaki the Niece is in Yan Lo's box and can give enemies slow so that even if they get pushed by an ally they can't deliver a message to your leader that turn.

[Piccio]

I suggest to buy Shadow Emissary and Izamu. You can fill the 35 with Soul Porter & Chiaki.

 

If you manage to ramp-up Chi fast you really need to hit a couple of times Izamu early turns (low def but armor and self heal to mitigate the damage).

Shadow emissary can help scoring delivery the message (push+fast on Chiaki for example) in addiction to Lighting Dance placement, in any case help increasing crew moveability and giving ml6 to Yan Lo.