Shenlong

[Aemaru]

Hi !

there are not so much ressources on internet on shenlong but a deep dive or a couple of interesting battle reports ... and many things have since changed (sensei yu, stack of focus etc)

how do you play your first turn with Shenlong ?

Do you have some tips and tricks not obvious ?

Thanks !!

[thewrathchilde]

really depends and varies based on how you build the crew. The probably two main variants are 1. minimal monk/mainly versatile and 2. some, but not all, monk.... there are probably a few standards regardless but for me a lot of it really depends on the pool and board. 

Usually first turn my first activation (or two) are going to be the Students unless I am going to be attaching Wandering River Style to Shenlong first turn. If I am planning on going WRS then the Students will activate after Shenlong in order to help with movement by Four Winds Punching other models up the board. If I am going Low River Style with Shenlong to guarantee Masks for some Wandering River Monks then the Students will go early build up some Chi and/or Focus and position to enable the WRMs to pitch Chi for suits to get in position for schemes or strategy running.

If I am not going with WRM for scheming then they are build Chi/Focus to enable the other pieces of the crew later in the turn. Usually first turn for me Yu is Wind Blasting a Versatile up the board, making something fast, and then charging it to get some card draw. The LRM is healing up whatever I bashed with Yu. Shenlong and my versatile are really acting based on what I am facing....Shen could be playing support master to build the versatile, allow another Yu bonus action fast, or letting something interact to get a first turn head start on a strategy.....or if the opponent over extends he could be going aggro first turn. 

[Aemaru]

I was considering using a duet of fermented river monk + a tanuki. They might charge themselve with up to 8 poisons with crow triggers + chi tokens and shenlong style... and then be moved toward ennemy thks to wandering style...  that might be enough to make them pretty ansowme on turf war for example or on killîg type schemes..

what do you think ?
 

[TheUnseemlyOne]

7 hours ago, Aemaru said:

I was considering using a duet of fermented river monk + a tanuki. They might charge themselve with up to 8 poisons with crow triggers + chi tokens and shenlong style... and then be moved toward ennemy thks to wandering style...  that might be enough to make them pretty ansowme on turf war for example or on killîg type schemes..

what do you think ?
 

A pair of FRM makes it into most of my Shenlong lists.  As a pair, they have a lot of staying power for their cost, and Fermented River Style is still one of the better choices for Shenlong every turn. 

[thewrathchilde]

It depends.... FRM can tank pretty well for their cost. My issue is more their Stat 5 and 0” engagement range. 
 

I do like their survivability but don’t like the idea of investing in a Tanuki anymore since they lost the ability to help stack focus. I would rather have other things for the points. 
 

I also don’t like the lack of maneuverability of the FRM. Sure the push can help get them in/out of engagement but the WRM or HRM are a lot more maneuverable for scheme running. 
 

if I was going more monk pure then the 2 x FRM aren’t a bad choice but usually I need the stones for other choices and find that other models can rank effectively enough. 

[Aemaru]

13 hours ago, TheUnseemlyOne said:

A pair of FRM makes it into most of my Shenlong lists.  As a pair, they have a lot of staying power for their cost, and Fermented River Style is still one of the better choices for Shenlong every turn. 

What is your usual compo with shenlong ?

[touchdown]

23 hours ago, thewrathchilde said:

It depends.... FRM can tank pretty well for their cost. My issue is more their Stat 5 and 0” engagement range.

Their damaging attack is 0, but they have a 2" engagement range. It's one of the keys to them being amazing tarpits

[TheUnseemlyOne]

9 hours ago, Aemaru said:

What is your usual compo with shenlong ?

It generally starts with 2 FRM and a LRM.  After that it’s heavily stat/scheme dependent. I don’t use HRM, tried them and they never seem to work out well. 
 

As a general rule I tend to decide 1-2 River Style upgrades that I expect to use during the game and take Monks that will benefit from that. 

[Thatguy]

14 minutes ago, touchdown said:

Their damaging attack is 0, but they have a 2" engagement range. It's one of the keys to them being amazing tarpits

It's pretty great with thier built in Drunken Stumble on Trusty Flask. 

If your opponent closed to 1" to hit the monk you can either push into base or push outside thier engagement while still keeping them engaged. 

 

I love FRM with Brewmaster. In a crew that cares less about Poison they're probably less stellar, but Too Drunk To Care, Chi tokens for DF 7 when you need it and self healing make them one of the tankiest 6ss models in the game. If you can get the Drunken Strength trigger they can hit like a truck too. 

If you've got no other poison shenanigans it means a 12ss investment so they can poison each other, and that's no small investment.

[thewrathchilde]

5 hours ago, touchdown said:

Their damaging attack is 0, but they have a 2" engagement range. It's one of the keys to them being amazing tarpits

Yeah, for sure. I was thinking on their other attack. When not tanking something it is more important to me and can clear chaff a lot better....

[James Dyson]

I've been putting Shenlong on the table lately, and I have been favoring Monk-heavy builds, and a playstyle focused more on Wandering River Style.

My list while I've been getting familiar with the crew has been:

5-7 ss
Shenlong (with Masked Agent if I expect defensive triggers - if not, i'll go with the larger cache)
2x Students
Sensei Yu
2x High River Monks
2x Wandering River Monks
2x Low river Monks

10 models is a lot, and I know High River Monks aren't the most efficient choice at their cost.  That said, I have seen them one-round similar costed models, or drop masters to half wounds in the same breath.  

I've primarily spent wandering river monks turn 1 being Chi batteries, and having Shenlong Spiritually Transfer the chi to himself to get to 7+ chi before turn 2.  

Students typically push my models around by copying Four-Winds Punch, while Shen gets launched at a target I need to delete.  

Sensei likes to punch things to draw cards turn 1, then afterwards I try to run him at an enemy beater and kind of just tie them up.

I try to go into turn 2 with a pair of Fast, Focus 2+, Chi 2+ High River Monks (could make these Thunder Archers, Fermented River Monks, or whatever else) who should be able to charge something with at least 2-3 attacks (walk+Charge, Flurry, Fast), adding the Risky Maneuver in so that 3 of those attacks are focused.  If you have to go into something with armor, the ranged attack might be better (because of built in irreducible trigger).  If they die to a counterpunch, I try to punish that with Shenlong or the other monk.

I have no problem sending Shen to bully smaller models to achieve activation control (helped by running a bigger crew than most).  Once the opponent is down a handful of models, I like to punish them by pushing the activated models around with 3-5 Four Winds Punches a turn, which given how important positioning can be has felt good so far.  

Haven't gone up against anyone with Laugh Off/ Planted Roots yet.

Wandering River Monks are the schemers after turn 1, and I like them on either flank.  Just solid for their cost.

Low river monks follow Sensei/ Shen up the middle and heal as needed.

Still need to put the Fermented on the table, and Lotus Eaters, Charm Warders and Thunder Archers all seem very useful.

Those are just my thoughts.

[Assdex]

Most of time played around fufu in shen. 

Made him fast and load of focuses good combo but sometimes not working.

About frm they very solid pick until meet some dispel , need to be ready for this.

Last test show how good charm warders and i played with 2 of them.

They can easy make  handless opposite crew to help kill. Or with right setup kill with 1 activation enemy hench and mb master.

About hrm they cost a lot and very fragile for it cost . 

In gg2 archers one of the most solid pick , they just remove enemy schemes.

Good combo archer + charm.

Lrm is super great they can be battery for shen to make him 12 chi on 1st turn.

Lotus eater was bad in my test , they lost his place cus of other monks.

I like take desper in shen to scheme runner. He more mobile than wrm and with a lot of heal in shen u can use hook to hit monks and fly like crazy.

 

[thewrathchilde]

I agree with @Assdex at the risk of stoking the flames for the next round of cuddles Fuhatsu makes it into most of my Shenlong lists. Even if I only make him focused and fast first round he still does a lot on his own. Especially backed up with some healing he almost always earns his keep. 
 

I also run Lone Swordsman in quite a few Shenlong crews as well. Having models that are pretty self sufficient let’s me preserve resources for Shenlong.

 

Concur on Charm Warders.

[korgal]

Hi i have a question. How to give fast to Fuhatsu ?

With Spiritual alignment  ?

[Assdex]

25 minutes ago, korgal said:

Hi i have a question. How to give fast to Fuhatsu ?

With Spiritual alignment  ?

Yea

[Modernpenguin]

1 hour ago, korgal said:

Hi i have a question. How to give fast to Fuhatsu ?

With Spiritual alignment  ?

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. 

[Assdex]

14 hours ago, Modernpenguin said:

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. 

Do It every time, one time my opp just rage quit when shen steal 2 fast from valedictorian and Anna and transfer stun from fufu on anna 

[Dendrophile]

My first turn with Shenlong is much like what else has been said! Using the bonus actions on Shen and Sensei Yu to give a lower cost Monk fast. I nearly always equip Wandering Style first turn to get the extra movement from Shen and the Students. Plus the extra Chi Tokens on the Wandering Monks can be very useful as they are such squishy models!

My default crew (not looking at Strats and Schemes would nearly always be 

Shenlong

2x Aspiring Students

Sensei Yu

2x Wandering River Monks

1x Low River Monk

1x Thunder Archer

1x Charm Warder 

That leaves me with 13ss which I then might spend on a versatile model (normally Dawn Serpent of Lone Swordsman) or another Thunder Archer or the Four Winds Golem if I need to move other models around the board.

I rarely take High River Monks. On paper they look good but on the table they really don't hang around long and are disappointingly easy to kill. Ruthless and Flurry mean that I may occasionally take them when those abilities are required but the Lone Swordsman also has Ruthless, is the same cost, has a suit choice for triggers ability and is just all round a better model!!

[Funinyourgame]

Quote

Lone Swordsman also has Ruthless, is the same cost, has a suit choice for triggers ability and is just all round a better model!!

I disagree, from what I can see, the only two things I would consider the Lone Swordsman to be better, is the free suit and Hard to Kill.
Besides those two (Which are good abilities), you are not gaining that much more over HRM.
You are losing a range attack with free irreductible damage (Built-in suit) and the ability to gain +2 stats, which can often lets you dodge or hit.
Also you can end with Focused+2, 2 Chi and move into position

Lone Swordsman is a good Versatile unit, but I wouldn't replace the HRM.
Unless I'm missing some key interaction with using Lone Swordsman.

P.S.: Maybe the 8 costs is a bit too much when comparing stats only, but when factoring its interaction, it doesn't sound too bad for 8 cost.