What Schemes and Strategys for Lynch and Shenlong?

[Eichohrkatz]

Hi,

I decided to play 10T a few weeks ago and wanted to pick up Shenlong, Misaki and Lynch as main Masters. Shenlong seems to me like a good allrounder for all Schemes and Strategys but all of them need a good tactic. I know he isn't as easy to play like other masters and I think It would need more games to learn his playstyle. But it would help If people who played him for a while could give me some suggestions what schemes they pick with him and why.

Same problem with Lynch. I'am planning to run a fluff list with beckoners, depleted, Tannen and Graves because I like the idea. What Schemes should I prefer with such a list?

[Adran]

The question is kind of backwards, as you pick the crew after you know the schemes. 

 

I've not played Shenlong, but from what I've seen he is very good at schemes which use scheme marker placement, so spring the trap, plant evidence, plant explosives, protect territory, breakthrough and line in the sand. (as long as you have mighty gust) (but this could all be done by any crew that hires Sensi Yu)

 The lynch build might be more useful at schemes where you want to play with the opponents crew, so Take prisoner, Assasinate, Vendetta, spring the trap, deliver a message, plant explosives. But soem of those will rely hugely on what the opponent takes. 

 

[EntrepeNinja]

See that's the problem, sometimes you DO  have to come at it from this direction. Save for, like... Reckoning? Is there a strategy that you want to go to Lynch for on the regular? I don't know who, in thunders, I want to run for Recconoiter or Interference. Either. But, like... Can't finish a sentence. Let's try a list.

Turf War/Guard the Stash/Extraction:
  Mei Feng beats people up and likes enemies withing push and striking distance. Brewmaster loves it when people have to go to a certain place to count. Yan Lo is great at pulling people out of the turf marker, and putting himself in it. Nice little switcheroo. 

Recon/Interfere:
   Lucas McCabe has the speed to re-route into weaker quarters on the fly. As does Mei. Shen Long can support a crew that is a little spammy by giving them more bang for their defensive buck, or pass healing around to friendlies that have been softened up.

Squatters Rights/Stake a Claim
   Lucas McCabe again IMO, though perhaps Shen Long. His (and Sensei Yu's) ability to give models more mobility out of activation means you can potentially create a lot more markers on the other side of the table, or rush center for squatters. 

Reckoning/Head Hunter/Collect the Bounty
   Mei Feng is pretty tough, as are her crew members. Lucas McCabe can get pretty killy, and can also support a more elite crew full of murderous folk. This is where I would slot Lynch, if given the chance, as his support to/from his crew are mostly in the form of "This is on the enemy..... MOAR DAMAGE!"

I'm still pretty new to putting Lynch on the table, and maybe there are strengths that I'm missing.

[Adran]

One of Lynchs biggest strengths is that he comes with a free henchman. That's pretty useful for recon and interference, as early on the sheer number of models can matter. Huggys 3"  is also useful for preventing enemies counting for interference. 

 

 

[Rurouni Benshin]

Shenlong does not excel well in Reckoning, based on my experience with playing him.  He's great at board manipulation and buffing his crew, but his damage output is not amazing, hence my opinion on him in Reckoning.  Misaki and Mei Feng are far better suited for that.

That said, between the 3 Masters you have, you can accomplish all 5 Strategies as well as most Schemes.  It's more about how you build the crew to cater to the rest of the mission. 

[Inquisitor Wall]

I have not found Shenlong to be bad at any of the strats or schemes.  Reckoning can be a little tough, but buffing a small elite crew or giving out slow can be equally as devastating in reckoning.  As others have mentioned scheme marke placement is easy for him.  I have yet to fail on line in the sand with him and a 10T brother.  He also synergizes well with most any model so crew selection based on the start/scemes is also easy for him.

[tomjoad]

After messing around with a lot of other things, in fact, I might say Shenlong would be my first master out of the bag for a Reckoning game. The main two reasons are

A ) Wandering River Style lets him turn 1 of his own AP into 2 AP or more for Izamu/Sniper/Lone Swordsman/Ama no Zako/etc. There's the push, which is equivalent to a walk action or better in most cases, and the Fast, as well as the possibility of the 0 action Focus, if the model wants it. That is serious force multiplication for your real heavy hitters. and

B ) With just Shenlong plus a more sturdy scheme runner (10T Brother, I'm thinking) or even Sensei Yu if you want him, the 6 scheme points will be a lot easier to get. Marker and other interact based schemes will be easy, Take Prisoner is fairly easy, and all that force multiplication from above makes something like Make Them Suffer, Assassinate, or Murder Protege easy as well.

[Yvarre]

As a devout Lynch player, I can say that he is quite capable at every Strategy.  Some scheme pools are not super exceptional for him, but there are usually two that you can tailor a good crew to accomplish.  I usually run a baseline of 2 illuminated, a beckoner, and a samurai with favor of jigoku.  The rest of the crew varies depending on the needs of the schemes (Sidir is great in bodyguard, depleted are good if you need more cheap tarpits for reconnoiter, etc.) 

The key for me in my crew builds is a combination of zone control, scheme prevention, and stacking the hell out of my control hand.  With ranged models like shooty samurai, you get a nice area where the enemy doesn't want to commit groups of models for fear of walking fire triggers as well as a high chance of flipping aces for Lynch to have a giant hand at the end of the turn to murder something with.  Once you start mulliganing, you can set up your hand really well from turn 2 on.  At this point, it becomes a game of knowing when to cheat.  Three main reasons to cheat for me are: keeping a key model alive, killing a key enemy model, and forcing good cards out of the opponent's hand.  Cheating tactically with a generally better hand in tandem with a really killy crew can often leave the opponent open to losing the attrition war, and, if we learned anything from Gencon and Nova this year, if your opponent doesn't have a crew left by turns 4-5 to accomplish their strats and schemes or prevent you from doing yours...

And there is something just tactically awesome about a model that can walk 12 inches through anything and engage things 3" away with a 50mm base.  I often will just send Huggy over to tie up a bunch of AP or use him to run schemes where other models have trouble getting to.  Besides, ya know, erasing models with tendrils of darkness.

Though Graves can be an exceptional beater with good movement tricks, I have not yet tried Tannen.  He seems like he could be brutal with some stitched together, other darkened minions who seem to share allegiance between Huggy and Chompy, if a bit of a high risk high reward scenario.  I could see him being good with Graves for Turf War and Guard the Stash, but I wouldn't take him for Reckoning or Collect the Bounty.  His tricks are neat, but I think just handing out slow with Chiaki works a little better than Bored to Tears, and if you benefit from using the "What brings you to these parts," he loses his manipulative which is most of his resilience.

[EntrepeNinja]

Ooohhh, I love that Samurai Ace Digging tech. I'm gonna have to give that one a go. 

I've data mined the hell out of all of the "Here's fun ways to use aces", but hadn't thought about ways to find them besides fire and forget 0's like the ten thunders bro, and the illuminated. 

I also like Kang in those kind of lists, especially if you're facing Arcanists or ressurs. Rolling in on a large arachnid with a Rail Worker, inside Kang's bubble with a free implacable assault. That's double pos to attack, and a double pos to damage on all attacks. And on a cheaper minion to boot.

[lawgivera554]

Lynch is solid in kill based strats because he has a throwaway murder missile that buries instead of dies. He also can kill just about anything himself in one turn. I also find Lynch crews excel in Collect the Bounty as his minions can easily trade up for enforcers oe even henchmen and are tough as nails to kill themselves.

Key Schemes: Murder Protege, Assassinate, Make them Suffer

[Pyrflamme]

I've run Lynch twice in Turf War, and once in Squatter's Rights and he's excelled both times. Sensei Yu is a good take with him in general because of how awesome a second Mulligan is, especially once you can take early in the turn and be able to leave Lynch for later for Woke Up With A Hand. The only caveat is he really wants Taelor if you're going up against a summon-heavy crew, as otherwise he might fall behind even with his potentially terrifying damage output. Yu helps her out though, with an Airburst to get into position (which he'll likely be throwing out at least once a turn, anyways). Illuminated and other Darkened Models are classic, but don't forget stuff like Yin (- to Ca and Wp flips helps maximize Lynch's barrage) and other ranged presence like Pathfinder and Sniper, maybe even Archers.