Making Yan Lo Work [Beginner Help Thread]

[sharpobjects]

Fair enough. However note that you still don't have to make the strike at the model you are moving towards. Only that one must be made.

which means you have to be careful a friendly is not in range at the end of the push rather than an enemy. It's a game of inches

[IntereoVivo]

I like that list a lot Would you change anything having played it?

[Gruesome]

I like that list a lot Would you change anything having played it?

Well... It was nice to get the body count on the center kill for VP.

In hindsight, the swarm is a mixed bag against McCabe if he had remember to give himself +Df for each model engaged with him.

On the flip side, he had given himself armor+2, so having a bunch of flurrying Necropunks was sort of nice for "death by papercut" since their SEVERE does the same damage as their WEAK (they are 1/2/3) so I never bothered burning any cards on damage cheats and just needed as many hits as possible to whittle him down.

I would be interested in trying out dropping the Necropunks and bringing Toshiro and another Dog or two to see how the plus flip behaves with as large a body count as I can manage.

There are so many things I want to learn about his Chi Paths. I rather enjoyed starting the game with level 1 in all 3 paths. As soon as things start dying, it just meant that I was very quickly making substantial gains in paths.

I have too little experience though. I need to face many more opponents. In the particular games I played with him, I did not need my cache much, so starting with 3 chi felt easy. I am accustomed to quite the opposite feeling and suspect that this was just an aberration.

Ultimately, I would not take anything I think of Yan Lo to be particularly useful or important. I am way too new.

[Mehter]

I've had a lot of success running the following 35ss list:

Yan Lo (6 stones, 1 chi)

Soul Porter

Izamu

Chiaki

2 Ashigaru

2 Drowned

I like the idea of the Drowned with Yan Lo a lot. Not sure about 2 Ashigaru as well, but they are pretty solid.

I might try taking them out for Toshiro though. Not as much Chi from my own list, but giving Izamu + and making a couple Punk Zombies has always worked for me.

[icarianmirror]

I was able to have a game using Yan Lo on Vassal earlier, and despite the fact that we had a game that sort of encouraged our crews to avoid each other (Turf War vs Reconnoiter),I thought I'd share my experience with him. We were running 30SS, so I took the following:

Yan Lo

Soul Porter

Izamu

Chiaki

3 Ashigaru

So pretty much his box set + Izamu, as I wanted to get an idea of how his basic crew could run. I also traded two of my starting SS for chi, placing a point in Spirit and Ash.

Yan Lo: I'm not sure what to make of him yet. I feel like I was being too conservative with him, and I found it a bit of a balancing act to work out where he should be to be close enough to combat to matter (and get Chi) but not be in too much danger. I think I'll almost always take the early point in Spirit, as the extra mobility is huge. I think in a game with more conflict, he'd become a real force to be reckoned with pretty quick.

Soul Porter: Dear lord this little guy is amazing. As others have said, his move Ancestor spell alone makes him more than worth his price. The fact that he can also cast Yan's spells with a good degree of success is icing on the cake. This wee guy managed to revive Izamu for me once, so definitely earned a spot in my heart.

Chiaki: I was dubious, but she's insane. Pure support, but you couldn't ask for more. Movement, healing, effect removal (really relevant), plus her Chi and Ancestor funneling. I don't think I'd run a list without her. Also, she's surprisingly quick.

Izamu: He does what he says on the tin. Beats face and takes a beating, and does both well. His anti-trigger effect is incredible, and he really benefits from not having to worry too much about dying. He died twice in our game, and came back no worries both times.

Ashigaru: Really resiliant. I didn't get much use out of Wall of Steel, but these guys seem pretty solid. Their attacks aren't bad either, and even though through bad positioning I never managed to take advantage of House Guard - they still did just fine.

All in all, this crew seems like a really tough bunch, and I'm looking forward to trying them more.

[Gruesome]

The first time I played against him, I was taken by surprise how fast that his crew was in my face and I lost the game.

Since I got him, I have used him against 4 different opponents and they had the same fate, being taken by surprise by the speed with which Izamu was on them followed quickly by supporting cast and finally Yan Lo who had been gaining Chi all along from the death his crew was causing.

I am excited to try the crew again against the same opponents to see how it would more regularly play now that the shock of "Yan-Rush" is over.

I expect the games will quite different as most of my victories with him were direct results of the surprising speed.

I have a lot of kinks to work out in how to approach some strats/schemes, crew construction/chi allocation, activation order, model placement, etc.

I have been finding that so far I like playing him more as a rezzer and not taking Ashigaru, but taking 4-5 Canine Remains instead.

They are nasty little card burners with rabies and with many of the new strategies allowing for VP to be scored right from turn 2 onward, they are super fast and must be dealt with because in packs of 2 they are significant.

4 points = 2 significant models = Profit.

My opponent must react to that or lose VP and in the meantime, if he/she is wacking dogs then they are not hitting the SpamZamu that is about to step on their throat.

And dead dogs = chi.

4 dead dogs = Level 3 Path of Bone = Melee Master. (I start with 1 point in it from SS cache, so far)

I am hoping to arrange a game against Hoffman next weekend. I really want to see Chiaki's utility in that match-up.

I look forward to having her hiding behind Izamu throwing Pull of the Grave pulses twice a turn at the Hoff-Ball.

Edited January 20, 2013 by Gruesome

[rancor709]

in the hoffball match up the ashigura are helpful, as they can prevent that nasty engine from getting close until you want them to.

[DeleteAccount]

Soul Porter: Dear lord this little guy is amazing. As others have said, his move Ancestor spell alone makes him more than worth his price. The fact that he can also cast Yan's spells with a good degree of success is icing on the cake. This wee guy managed to revive Izamu for me once, so definitely earned a spot in my heart.

Soul porter can't cast any of Yan Lo's 0 spells, so I fail to see how he could revive Izamu unless you mean the kill him and have Yan Lo summon him somewhere else trick.

[icarianmirror]

Ouch, I didn't even notice Rebuild Corpus was a 0 and not a 1:-( Cheers Razhem, I hate making mistakes like that.

[Gruesome]

He CAN heal him though, which is very nice.

[Krassimir]

I am hoping to arrange a game against Hoffman next weekend. I really want to see Chiaki's utility in that match-up.

I look forward to having her hiding behind Izamu throwing Pull of the Grave pulses twice a turn at the Hoff-Ball.

Just be carefull not to be to close to hoff since he cancels all pulses 3" from him

[DeleteAccount]

I DID IT! I managed to do a Yan Lo special!

He nuked 4 models and wounded the enemy master (2 tots, young nelphilium, Lilitu and Lilith) in one hate filled activation of destruction! During his activation he managed to complete level 3 of Bone thanks to having level 2 to zip all over the place and then proceeded to Unpo Assault Lilitu and Lilith with extreme prejudice.

God he is scary.

[rancor709]

Yan, so good you can leave off of the last name!

[Mehter]

He's fun against Leveticus too, if that Leveticus likes to throw around the necrotic machine things like they're nothing. Izamu kills them in one hit, and that's a lot of free chi just flying around.

[spectre923]

If Yan can cook so can you! Threads like these only help to further lock in yan's crew box and izamu as my next purchases.