How to deal with Yan Lo on Recover Evidence?

[Edek]

As in the topic, what's your plan for that game? It feels miserable to play against and I don't really have a clue how to approach this.

[Scoffer]

General advice: play schemes and try not to die.

Leader selection: I think Ophelia and her Kin are the best choice for Recover Evidence in most situations. Mah, Zipp and Ulix can also do the job, especially if the table has a lot of concealing terrain.

If it's the famous "double Toshiro" list (I think it's the most oppressive Yan Lo list), you will never score more than 2 VP from strategy. So you need to pick schemes very carefully and build your list to score as much as possible from schemes.

Yan Lo is very good at controlling the centerpoint, so Claim Jump and Leave Your Mark in the pool give your opponent a huge advantage. If you see those schemes don't pick them (unless there is absolutely nothing else you can score). Take something to remove scheme markers (Ophelia and Sammy can do it from safe distance). And your primary target should be the model replaced from initial Gokudo.

Spread Them Out, Sabotage, Research Mission, Breakthrough are your friends. Take some fast models, spread them around the table and score while the rest of your team is trying to keep enemy models occupied around the centerpoint. Watch out for Manos and teleporting Gokudo, they can rush into your backline to score - catch them and kill them while their friends are away and can't help.

Assassinate? Not recommended. Yan Lo is too hard to kill. 

Vendetta. Always a good choice, just bring a proper killer.

Catch and Release. We have models that can score the first point (Silurids, Iron Skeeters), but it will be very hard to keep them alive for the second point. Also the model you pick will have an evidence token, and it doubles the danger.

Hidden Martyrs, Let Them Bleed, Take Prisoner. These schemes have "negative synergy" with Recover Evidence. You need to keep enemy models alive (and loose a chance to score strategy) or have your models killed (and give opponent an opportunity to score strategy). 

Runic Binding... It's not a scheme to be taken at all. 

 

And a small Ulix trick. You can drop Piglets down to 1 health (Reckless-Charge-Stampede) to make them drop strategy markers in your deployment and after that heal them and grow them into War Pigs. But don't take too many significant non-master models to make your opponent put at least 2 tokens on your Piglets.

 

[ShinChan]

Mah can do pretty well. Make sure to bring 2-3 Bushwhakers and threat Yan Lo (if we're talking about "Gokudo replaces turn 1") and threaten the Gokudo, They ignore cover from "Face in the crowd" and you will need a moderate with crit strike (or a severe) + another shot. You need to kill him in a single activation, so make sure you have the cards.

Yan Lo spends turn 1 just setting up his "combo", so just don't allow him to do it for free, put pressure on him as fast (and as hard) as possible.

[SEV]

3 hours ago, Scoffer said:

Runic Binding... It's not a scheme to be taken at all. 

 

This is probably true most of the time. But in the right pool (leave your mark / claim jump) and against a crew that like to bubble in the center like Yan Lo, I think it could be doable by a lot of bayou master.

Nice trick with piglet btw! 

[Scoffer]

3 hours ago, SEV said:

This is probably true most of the time. But in the right pool (leave your mark / claim jump) and against a crew that like to bubble in the center like Yan Lo, I think it could be doable by a lot of bayou master.

Nice trick with piglet btw! 

Runic binding is too obvious and too easy to deny. You have to drop markers close to the enemy and it's hard to make it look like something else. The only model that can do it in a single activation is Zoraida: she can obey enemy models three times to make them drop your markers, but Ashigaru still can ruin everything with Take the Hit. 

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

11 minutes ago, Scoffer said:

Runic binding is too obvious and too easy to deny. You have to drop markers close to the enemy and it's hard to make it look like something else. The only model that can do it in a single activation is Zoraida: she can obey enemy models three times to make them drop your markers, but Ashigaru still can ruin everything with Take the Hit. 

 

Don't Ashigaru using Take The Hit make it easier? You can place one scheme marker that ensures two models are within the area, which gives you a lot of flexibility with the other markers.

Additionally in some cases you can treat scheme markers more as a mine field (if you have a crew that can drop a bunch, runic binding gets really hard to deny when you have six markers covering a 15" circle for example).

[Scoffer]

6 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Don't Ashigaru using Take The Hit make it easier? You can place one scheme marker that ensures two models are within the area, which gives you a lot of flexibility with the other markers.

When your opponent knows you are doing RB, he can make Ashigaru the target of the second (or third) obey and place it the way it will not be able to drop a marker. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

4 minutes ago, Scoffer said:

When your opponent knows you are doing RB, he can make Ashigaru the target of the second (or third) obey and place it the way it will not be able to drop a marker. 

But he can only do that if you have melee models in the scrum, right? As long as the Ashigaru isn't engaged, you get to drop a marker in a good spot.

Not saying it is an auto-pick, but I reckon is something Zoraida is probably better than average at.