Modernpenguin

Technically you use Sensei Yu's bonus action 'A simple lesson' to give another monk of lower cost fast for 1 chi. Then Shenlong can transfer it with spiritual alignment. As a side note, I love spiritual alignment to death. Nothing better than just taking fast from an enemy beater and giving it to one of your monks, with no resistance what so ever.

yeah they might have 2-3 chi. but they lose chi to use shen longs aura, they need chi to not die to one attack from a gun or likewise, and can use chi for the stat if needed. so in an IDEAL situation, i spend 2 chi (my only defense against 1 shots), while being close to shenlong, who is often in the thick of combat? maybe I'm just facing opponents who try to kill my scheme runners, and I value more hp/ armor than +1 mv? as for manos and lady J, yes they can stone, but if you want to sudden strike you need one of the suits (manos can do both ofc, but his attack is not very impressive). Do you want to stone for leaps every turn? and showboating doesn't just give you free masks. if you make that small card draw count as a mask, what do you make of VS card draw?

they still have a better leap than wandering river monks, manos and lady J. the gupps in comparison matters little. the midnight stalker has the same leap as the gupps, the first mate as well. i know it isn't the same, but still.. as a monk player, i cry with my 5 health paper monks who needs a 5m to leap.

I have never taken 3 LRM, but I have sometimes taken 2. They become priority targets in a kill pool, and as such its nice to have a backup!

Just wanted to mention that while the blade is good, the precise ability it gains is only in melee, so your samurai/sidir won't ignore defensive tech at range.

That is indeed worth noting! Good catch, and the selfheal of 2-3-4 is nice!

Luna's once per turn is indeed key to making the artefact engine work, however you don't really use 'Luna Give' to pass them around, you use the bonus action on the artefact: 'Take this!', since Luna does not have a bonus action anyway. This combined with Luna's 'Carry the goods', means she can create a scrap marker, make an artefact, then pass it up to 12 inches away (since 'Carry the goods' is an aura, she herself is eligible to use it. McCabes actions are too precious to be creating artefacts, unless you really, really need it, and have corpses lying within reach. As for artefact cycling, you can get some nasty turns out of it, especially if you give it to the samurai mid-combat. But usually, if I can spare the bonus action to do so, I will cycle the artefact around, since it can get around fairly easy with 12" range. I usually try to make the last cycle be the one the artefact stays on, such as desper or McCabe (since their bonus actions are awesome for them). Your questions on how to play the crew depends a lot on who you are facing, and what sort of scheme/strategy pool we are talking, but I will give it a general shot. Your crew is very shooty, so I would in general push up the midfield, and control the middle of the board, slowing and staggering with mccabe, while you shoot stuff to dead, while desper and your huckster schemes. If you are setup properly, you wont need ride with me on rough riders (unless they get engaged), so they can throw upgrades to each other and sidir for those juicy fast turns. Generally though, I feel like the name of the game with McCabe is control through his netgun (it is NASTY!), while you win by scheming. He can play killy, but I think you need some healing in your crew above to go for a killy scheme pool, since rough riders are rather squishy for their cost.

I still stand by my point. The issue is not that the lore does not fit him (it makes sense!), its just that his mechanics on the table encourages versatile or OOK hires, rather than in-keyword hire. I love the fantasy of an adventuring band of misfits and ruffians, being under the thumb of a powerful organistation (be it explorer or ten thunders). Its just a damn shame that a lot of his hires aren't that good (ruffians/cryptologist especially), since it breaks the immersion a bit for me. About ten thunders being the 'asian faction': As far as I know, they are a crime syndicate based in the three kingdoms (being japan/china/vietnam), so it would be weird for the faction to not be predominately asian based. Hence why every versatile model is asian based (except maybe fuhatsu and lust?). I digress as well, but my point was just that I would love McCabes models to be a bit more thightly knit together, than they are currently, as for now it feels like McCabe is putting 'looking for hired help' posters at every bar in little kingdom!

I've played Yan Lo since 2nd, and McCabe I picked up here in 3rd. When you say fun, I think both of the mechanical aspect, but also how their lore/theme fits into the way they play on the tabletop. Its a bit hard to say. McCabe is a powerhouse, with extremely powerful scheming options, and giving fast out like it was no-ones business. Also, his slowing/staggering gun is just downright nasty. I feel like most of the time I play McCabe/luna/sidir/huckster + versatile/OOK. So the theme isn't as strong with him (I don't feel like he fits the eastern aesthetic, even if it makes sense lorewise), but he is still very fun to play. The artefact juggling is quite the mental excersise sometimes as well, if you are into that! Yan Lo on the other hand is also powerful (though not as universally powerful), and he plays really well into his theme of undying sorceror-supreme. He mostly plays within keyword. He likes long slow games, where he gets increasingly more unstoppable.. This sometimes leads to almost video-game like situations where the enemy tries to defeat the big bad evil boss, before he gets too powerful. The power up mechanic is fun, and there is some fun nuance to be had when choosing upgrades to fit your situation. Yan lo is more versatile though, since he can both deal damage, heal, move both allied and enemy models around the board, as well as ressurect his dead ancestors. Also it depends on the models you have already? McCabe loves jorugomu and samurai, so if you already have asami there are some savings to be had. TLDR: Yan Lo for versatility and most fun mechanics, McCabe for most powerful mechanics, and being fast like the wind.

gokudo is probably my go to for reliquary purposes, but sometimes I find the enemy just kills them before the ancestors, making the replacement redundant. komainu are usually a pain to take down, requiring 4 attacks usually, with no armor penetration. gokudo is technically the better schemer due to risky maneuver giving you a free disengage, but at the price of being more squishy. basically its matchup dependent, but if I'm hurting for points in my list, I go for gokudo.

That's the story of third edition. my yan lo boxes are 50% repackages.. not very appealing.

I feel your disregard of Rafkin is simplified. his shockwave is superior to sebastian's, as he has two excellent triggers, with the potential to make 4 shockwaves in a turn. if you want a counter to bubbles, rafkin is decent to consider! I never use him in melee if I can help it, although he isn't helpless. I have had good experiences with using the poison bomb in this edition (hit first, rancid transplant, blood poisoning + companion on the totem for another blood poison with the chihuahua). that's 12 dmg in one activation window.. this requires a lot of poison, but rafkin does pump out a ton.

How eerie, I have the same matchup (tt vs arc), almost same encounter, for a match. how did it go? going for a McCabe crew myself, with double ninja samurai to control the midfield, while I scheme away.

people love samurai because they are versatile fighters. also minions! they get the 3rd bonus of upgrades. they are good at shooting, nice in melee, armor 2 and with hidden ninja you give them both a big movement boost, as well as defensive tech. when people do come within 6" you can charge them to their death.

Even with that strategy in mind (I believe you use wandering to position your own models?), distracted is not an obstacle to you. It only affects actions that target enemy models. If you are trying to kill stuff, fermented is the way to go. The flips are extremely good, but the attack that comes with it, makes shenlong impossible to pin down. Giving yourself +flips on attack, while building up your chi-count is pretty hard to pass on in my opinion. 🙂 I often do 3 distracted, as I find I want to swap style after the first round of engagements (and don't always have the tome in hand to swap) and I usually only use 3 distracted in a turn.