King Wang

In Mandarin, Wang means “king”. In English, it’s slang for “Johnson”. On the table he lives up to both reputations. Who’s ready for some Mowang?

Mowang is an aggressive troop that emphasizes endurance over firepower. Mimetism reduces the chance of successfully being hit, ARM 5 and BTS 6 reduce the chances of successful hits inflicting damage, and No Wound Incapacitation increases the amount of damage it can sustain before becoming dead. When the enemy sees Mowang across the table they are sure to develop a headache.

Mowang excels in short to medium range engagements, although it must take the direct route to battle as it has no special tricks to enter from behind. In terms of movement, four inches might not be enough for Mowang to satisfy everyone with a single move, but  it can get the job done.  A move-move activation will extend this to eight inches, which most people will agree is at least enough. Whilst Mowang effortlessly parts exposed flesh with it’s oversized Red Fury, it struggles against targets that have protection. That said, against harder targets, Mowang is capable of shooting glue with an effective range of 32 inches, although at Burst 1 this Akrylat-Kanone attack is unreliable and is generally best paired with the sign of the cross. Accordingly, Mowang is most effective when thrust into the enemy’s weakest areas, rather than its strongest. These characteristics make Mowang a good choice for the reserve trooper during deployment, preventing counter-deployment by enemy fireteams that it will struggle to overcome directly. This is easier in generic Yu Jing lists where the lack of attractive link team options means players are free to whip Mowang out and slap it down on the table at the most advantageous position without being especially constrained by the rest of your deployment. In Invincible Army, where Mowang is likely to duo with a Wildcard trooper, the solo Rui Shi is likely the better reserve choice as the buddy model narrows down it’s position to within 8 inches, which a  seasoned opponent will recognize.

Unlike a lot of the similarly heavy offerings, Mowang doesn’t prefer Limited Insertion. This is because it is still easy to get a high order count with Mowang, thanks to the NCO skill and synergy with the Daoying Lieutenant. The Daoying Lieutenant generates 2 Lieutenant special orders and the Mowang can spend them to activate itself, in addition to the potentially 10 other orders in the same order pool.

In Invincible Army, the Daoying  synergy can help the list to reach a competitive order count, and in Generic Yu Jing, insane effective order counts are possible. Accordingly, Invincible Army lists built around Mowang should make the most out of fireteams, or else it is not worth the opportunity cost of better order counts and other useful tools like smoke. In general, it’s hard to fit Mowang inside an Invincible Army list alongside the flagship Zuyong Invincible core fireteam. This generally means a core of Zhanshis, with punch provided by the hyper-optimised Haidao (MSV2) with MULTI Sniper Rifle.

 

Given the shortage of affordable midfield specialists in Invincible Army, it is advantageous for Mowang to carry a specialist in its slipstream using Fireteam Duo as it forces it’s way across the battlefield.

The two standout choices to partner with the Mowang are the Haidao (Killer Hacker or Engineer) and Lei Gong. Personally, I’m most likely to go with the Haidao KHD because it’s the cheapest and provides a solution to entrenched hackers who are a hard counter to Mowang’s progress. The Boarding Shotgun provides a bit more certainty at extreme close range than the Mowang’s Heavy Pistol, giving it a slightly better option for taking on harder to hit enemies head on. There is also the option of Cybermask, but in all honestly I’ve nearly never seen it matter, although to be fair most of the Cybermask capable troops I have used or encountered already had a marker state by default. The Haidao bucks the trend by being a little tougher and also having no other states. At only two points more the Haidao engineer is viable, and carries D-charges, increasing the number of classified objectives it can do. He loses the ability to protect Mowang from hackers and carries a Combi rifle rather than a Boarding shotgun though, which reduces close quarters punch but picks up the option of suppressing. With few options to keep itself safe in the reactive turn and an operational profile that calls for advancing across the table, the Mowang should aim to finish its turn in the Suppression Fire state and it can’t hurt to have a friend covering him. Mowang can be quite difficult to dislodge from a tight spot when set up like this. Lei Gong costs a little more, and as hard as it is to part with his Shock Marksman Rifle, I’d be more likely to take the SMG version because he is a specialist. The SMG and nanopulser direct template weapon are both great short range weapons to complement the medium ranged Red Fury of the Mowang and help the pair conquer the midfield. Lei Gong’s MSV1 allows him to more easily engage targets that Mowang might struggle to hit, and his Albedo allows him to punish targets that would bypass Mowang’s mimetism. Being fast and non-hackable is also a massive bonus to Lei Gong that allows him to seek and destroy embedded hackers that would otherwise impede Mowang.

On to the model. I really like how Mowang looks now that I have painted it. Mowang is certainly very large. I primed the whole thing with Citadel Chaos Black Spray and it took a lot of time to undercoat every nook and cranny. The studio paint scheme diverges greatly from expectation by applying a camouflage pattern to most armour panels. This was challenging at my skill level. I didn’t have a suitably military green, so I mixed one on a wet pallet from GW Goblin Green and Castellan Green, getting it right after my third attempt. This was painted over the entire panel The beige blots were done with Vallejo WW2 German Camouflage Beige, a wonderful color with a very specific name. The brown blots were done with a mix of GW Rhinox Hide and Khemri Brown, but I am sure there must be a better choice out there that doesn’t need mixing. Camouflage often looks strange on miniatures, because its purpose is to obfuscate detail and silhouettes which is kinda the opposite of what you are going for when painting a centerpiece model like Mowang. I was able to get around this by heavily blacklining recesses and joins in the armour panels using black, and exaggerating the edge highlights using Vallejo Deck Tan, which is another wonderful colour. The metal looking bits were basecoated in GW shadow grey, then layered with mixes containing incrementally more Fortress grey, then finally pure Ceramite White. The few orange panels were done using the orange that I always use.

Onto the name. Mowang is made up of two characters, Mo (魔) which means demon or devil , and Wang (王) which means king. Put them together and you get demon king.

You might have noticed the character for Wang looks very similar to the character Yu in Yu Jing (玉), which means Jade. Interesting that the pictogram meaning Jade is an adorned king. Both the Characters Mo and Wang are present in the logo, along with the character Bing (兵) which refers to soldiers/troops/etc, and is the same character as in Yaokong Weibing.

“Mo” sounds like “more”, but ends before you sound out the “r”. The ‘a’ in “Wang” sounds more like the ‘a’ in “father” or the ‘u’ in “fungus”  depending on who you ask. So Wang doesn’t really rhyme with slang, despite being it.

Hail to the king, baby.

Tech Support

The original Yu Jing Mech-engineer has long been one of my favorite models to use and photograph, despite me never getting around to giving her an article of her own. You can see her prominently in the photos for many posts I wrote about remotes. This is because her career on the table has been very focused on the support of Yu Jing’s remotes, where she has performed admirably, returning them to the fight and occasionally surprising all with turn 3 heroics. We salute her and wish her well for her retirement.

My main motivation for getting the new modelwas mainly because I like the Doctor model from the same box. I like the new engineer too of course. He is more congruent with the current Yu Jing aesthetic since N3, both in terms of design and colour.

With regards to how I have used the profile, to be honest I would have used generic Yu Jing in less than 10% of my games to date. This is because I prefer to use maximum-sized core fireteams for first turn defensive ARO. In those games where I have played generic Yu Jing, I have tended to compensate for my feeling of reactive turn vulnerability by enrolling two Yaokong Husong Remotes to help me survive until my first turn. I also almost always take a Rui Shi, because they are still SO good. The presence of the Mech-engineer provides two distinct benefits depending on who you are up against: They either fix the remotes, or never get the chance to try,  because the opponent really makes sure the remotes are destroyed beyond repair. The latter often takes an extra order on top of killing the remote, and if the remote put up an order-depleting fight before going to sleep, then the attacker is even more likely to make sure it will never get back up. Two levels of unconscious thanks to Remote Presence rule make this more of an investment than simply finishing off the average battlefield casualty in cold blood. Thus the engineer may function as slightly more expensive cheerleader that may drain an extra order per remote each game. He’ll see a lot more table now that Invincible Army has landed and White Banner Army is about to.

I normally include a Yaozao in the list to extend the Engineer’s repair capabilities to multiple Remotes. Sometimes that adorable Yaozao’s speed and lack of order generation make it the best candidate for jobs that are too dangerous to risk a human. This includes touching off mines and discovering camo markers.

They also have Zhanshi combat aptitude that, while basic, may come in handy. It’s not something you plan on, but they often end up included in coordinated suppression orders as an afterthought, keeping the deployment zone just a little bit safer. Just occasionally, their status as specialists sees them attempt late game battlefield heroics.

Painting the new engineer was pretty agreeable. He’s a big guy with a pose that presents some nice flat surfaces without too much being obscured by his limbs. No surprises with how the orange armour was painted. Clothing is Vallejo Heavy Blackgreen mixed with Games Workshop Regal Blue. Whites started as GW Fortress Grey with increasing white added. Skin was Vallejo Bronze Fleshtone washed with Cavalry Brown.

On to the name. The Chinese name of the Mech-Engineer, printed on his unit logo is Zhànshì gōngchéng (战士工程).

Zhànshì (战士) is the same word that is used for the Yu Jing’s most basic line trooper. The ‘Zh’ sound of Zhàn is pronounced like the end of “judge“, starting at the ‘d’. The ‘an’ rhymes with “ran”. The character  (战) stands for combat. This can be from wars to battles to brawls. “Shi” sounds like the first part of “shit”. The character (士) is usually used as a suffix to denote a professional. The two characters in gōngchéng (工程) together mean Engineering.

Gōng (工) denotes work, labour, trades, crafts, etc. It sounds just the name of the metal instrument. Chéng (程) denotes sequences, rules, formulas etc. It sounds somewhere between how a random pool of English speakers would instinctively say the word “Cheng” and “Chung”.

Command and Conquer

The Daoying Operative Control Unit empowers the Invincible Army to confidently complete its missions, and fundamentally improves the capability of generic Yu Jing lists. They are described as a unit trained specifically for front-line command and their profiles represent this well within the INFINITY rule set. Each combination of weaponry is able to take the Lieutenant Level 2 special skill, which generates two Lieutenant special orders that under normal conditions would only be usable by the Trooper possessing the skill. Whilst there are some important situations where the Daoying might wish to use the orders it generates on itself, they become especially meaningful when the army list also contains a powerful trooper with the NCO Special Skill, which allows its owner to use the Special Lieutenant Order, considering it as another Regular Order of their Combat Group. The Invincible Army is gifted with two very powerful Troopers capable of taking the NCO skill, Mowang Troops, who are brutally tough solo gunfighters, and Tai Sheng, a skilled sub-commander who can use these orders to activate a Zuyong Invincible fireteam. Whilst their core function of empowering NCO troopers often leaves the Daoying stationary, they are not completely defenseless thanks to Camouflage. Being able to hide under a marker puts an extra layer of effort between would-be assassins and their prize.

I was immediately drawn to the hacker profile who I will showcase in this post, so let’s take a look at what makes the Daoying Hacker Lieutenant Level 2 such a great choice.

The hacking devices gives the Daoying two more functions that perfectly synergise with her existing camouflage and bonus orders: Supporting the army through hacking programs and being a specialist trooper for the purpose of completing objectives in ITS missions. In terms of completing objectives in ITS missions, 2 extra orders and a marker state help the Daoying overcome her slower than baseline movement speed for endgame objective runs. Her Boarding Shotgun can also be a nasty surprise for defenders too, especially when the first attack is from the camouflage state. This same shotgun also makes her a prickly target for assassins too, who in all probability will have their heads blown off if they try to intuitive attack her within her zone of control.

Regarding her hacking device, the Daoying is well suited to use many of the programs that come with this versatile equipment, meaning there is always a use for her two bonus orders, even when no NCO trooper is around. The most common function will be buffing friendly Remotes and Heavy Infantry, both of which are very common in the Invincible Army. She can also assist with the deployment of drop troops, including the new Liu Xing Invincible, who has not yet found its way into my lists. The extra orders from Lieutenant Level 2 are especially handy for making sure she is back in the camouflaged state before the enemy turn, assuming they are in any condition to retaliate.

The Daoying Hacker is a beautiful model. Whilst I thought the concept didn’t look a whole lot like a command unit (there are a lot of unique elements in the legs made players speculate it would be a mobility troop), this particular model captures the role of a hacker commander perfectly. Assembly was a dream, two solid pieces that combine at the waist, leaving all parts of the model accessible to the brush once assembled. In terms of colours, there’s not a lot of the orange on her. She introduces a new blue colour that is not present on any other Yu Jing troopers I’ve painted previously. I made it by combining GW Shadow Grey with GW Regal Blue. Both colours are long out of production, but I am sure alternatives have been identified. I highlighted by adding white to the mix.

On to the name.

Daoying is made up of two characters, ‘Dao’ (刀) which covers in general all manner of knifes and swords, and ‘ying’ (鹰) which covers birds of prey.  The background in the Third Offensive book states that the unit takes its name from an alien falcon native to the region of Yutang where the training academy for the Daoying Troops is located. Thanks to its sharp claws, the Yu Jing settlers named it ‘knife-falcon’ in their language. Chinese names for animals are generally literal and descriptive, beyond those few that have a unique character (e.g. cow is cow, yak is hair-cow, deer is deer, giraffe is long-neck-deer, kangaroo is bag-rat and platypus is duck-lip-beast.). ‘Dao’ rhymes with “Foul” minus the ‘l’ at the end, or “cow” minus the ‘w’ at the end. “Ying” rhymes with “thing”.

 

Lunah rocks

Major Lunah is an interesting profile and character who adds some much needed depth to the roster and lore of the Imperial Service respectively.

In terms of the former, she is a rare marker state (admittedly less rare with the addition of Kanren and the changes to Holo projector level 2), packing a gnarly gun with BS mods in all directions.

In terms of the latter, she is an interesting non-Chinese character  with a long history written into the INFINITY Universe, having at various times been a Haqqislam Spec-ops, Aristeia! sports superstar, traitorous whistle-blower and now a political-pawn and law enforcer in the Imperial Service of Yu Jing. I find it a little unsettling that Haqqislam special operations are bad enough to give t h e   I m p e r i a l   S e r v i c e   moral high ground. I wonder if she flatlined any Elevens during the  Uprising, and whether they deserved it. Lol jks, they all do.

I’ve not actually used Lunah much, at least not in INFINITY. I might have to consider it now that Marksmanship Level X has been revised for Third Offensive. In Aristeia! on the other hand, I’ve used her a fair bit. Like my Mushahi model, she has seen way more time in the hexadome than the 48″ x 48″. Both are really exciting characters in that really exciting game. They are about to waste each other in these photos but I usually play them as a team. There is a really gross combo you can pull off with the two of them working together, that basically needs a ‘No!’, “Epic Regeneration’ or similar card to save the life of whatever she has in her sights. Fun times.In terms of painting, there were a lot of new colours to figure out, as well as a “”””technique”””” for the snakeskin mantle. The studio painted the mantle in a lime-green, large diamond-scale pattern, but I really liked how it looked in the dossier so I made a futile attempt to replicate it.

I primed her with GW Chaos Black, as is customary for all my Yu Jing, then I started on the mantle with Graveyard Earth and pretty much poked it with Bleached Bone and Abaddon Black-tipped brushes until I was sick of it, with a result that looks more like an Australian Aboriginal dot painting than snakeskin. Still, I like the way the colour matches with the green, even if it was technically a failure. As for that green, I mixed GW Castellan Green, Goblin Green and Bleached bone until I got something that seemed to match the dossier. The fabric of her boots is just Castellan green without the other colours. I did my standard rushed ‘non-metal metal technique’ (in the comments on this post) on her greaves, but for some reason it turned out especially convincing. I can’t remember how I did the skin, but the result isn’t nearly as moe as the dossier so you would be doing yourself a disservice to learn. Yellows were all Vallejo Orange Brown base with a GW Golden Yellow layer (this particular pot has been on the verge of death for close to a decade and did not deliver the mustard look that  I was hoping for). Hair is Vallejo Orange Brown washed with GW Mechrite red. Gun was GW Abaddon Black, Dawnstone and Ceramite White in ratios that shifted from more black to more white as I approached the edges.

 

Invincibles Incoming!

 

It’s been a long time – in more ways than one! The Invincible Army sectorial is finally available on INFINITY Army, with a host of new profiles and troopers, and a brand new starter on the way. Seems like the right time to get back in the saddle (I apologize to anyone who has been hanging out for updates in the last year).

So what am I excited for?

The number one item is Zuyong fireteams, so this post is going to focus on them, the core of the Invincible Army. Whilst I had always fantasized about having a reason to use a lot of them, I never expected that they would receive the benefits of as many new skills as they did. Most of these boons target the generation and use of orders. Tactical Awareness is a major game changer on its own (an extra order with no restrictions when used in a fireteam), but it also happens to be on two of the more useful profiles. The HMG is who you would be spending orders on anyway, given his BS16 B5 bullet hose. The Tactical awareness Tinbot haris profile might not be spending orders mowing jerks down like the HMG will, but she can use the order to move the link when you are secure enough to do a move-move order. Just watch out for that hidden deployment, especially in factions that have access to hidden missiles!

Invincible Army players are also able to sub out one member of the link several different cheap and/or useful wildcards. The new FTO profile for the Yaopu will be doing a lot of this, although there is also merit for using various Haidao in this way.

All this aside, the real shock and awe begins with Tai Sheng, the thus far unseen Zuyong hero. He is so incredibly good that I actually feel a bit guilty. Aside from being a total beast statwise, a specialist and packing a truck of a gun (I’d only ever use the Mk12 profile), the ability to spend the two Lieutenant orders generated by a Daoying on Tai Sheng, without breaking his fireteam is pure insanity.

Pop this code into INFINITY Army to see how it might look: EwBgLAPgzCIRwCkBGYYyLANlYghMgKwrBYZgDsyW+xqhImWhUtJDThGedwH2YJD3aMB3YK1QUklKEgACioA=

Just in this unfinished list there is the potential to spend 12 orders on the link, so long as 1 goes to the Haris/Tinbot, 1 goes to the HMG and 2 go to Tai Sheng. This could easily be 14 orders once the list is finished. The reasoning behind these particular profiles is that if going first, the missile launcher can nuke hard targets, relying on his second wound and high stats to see him through, and if going second, BS16, B2 Missile AROs with Sixth Sense is comfy enough defense to go second with. In both scenarios, he’s likely to eat shit, which is why the Yaopu is there, making sure you still have the BS bonus when you reform the link and take revenge for him. The munchkin version of this list would probably trade the missile for a Haidao MSV2 Sniper, but I like Zuyong Invincibles and we are getting a missile launcher in the starter, so might as well put it to work. I’m really happy that by the time that the dust has settled, we will have 5 different Zuyong models, most of which will see a lot of play.

Zuyongs also gained the ability to have a pair of Yanhuo Invincibles form a Fireteam with the Haris profile (Check out my posts about the two Yanhuo Invincibles here). Anyone who is not completely irrational is going to swap one Yanhuo for a Yaopu FTO or Haidao KHD though.

Such a fireteam is sure to turn heads, but whether it will be able to stand up to the serious tournament lists of something like VIRD, TAK or OSS is suspect. Gosh it looks cool though.

I’m also excited about finally being able to form a fireteam with Yu Jing’s most basic trooper, the Zhanshi. I think I will cover them in another post, as I intend to pick up the SWC box and I have two conversions that I’d like to show off. As this ended up being a post about Zuyong fireteams more than anything, be sure to check out one of my favorite posts on one of my favorite models if you haven’t already.

One last thing, a quick shout out to my first Invincibles, who I would not be here without. These are my “waiting a long time for Invincible Army” cred.

 

Get in the robot

I picked up this cool pilot model for my Guijia a while ago, more for the sake of completeness than out of any strong belief that she would be getting out of her TAG in the near future. It’s a good excuse to take more photos of the awesome Guijia model.

The recent run of ITS rules have imbued her with the ability to do objectives once she dismounts, in addition to a light flamethrower of arguably limited use and utility. If the TAG has already been wrecked, then it’s a nice deterrent, but Direct Template Weapons are primarily used for trades and you are unlikely to find a good one for the squishy operator of a hard TAG under any other circumstances. These abilities came free though, so we should only be bitter about it in the context of what other TAGs got, which was nothing in the case of the eternally suffering Anaconda.

The model itself is very small and intricate, which made it harder to get a good result from painting. The exploding hexagon pattern with with randomly alternating black and orange hexes was especially tough to paint. To some extent I wish I had given her lighter skin to contrast her uniform a bit more.

She has an interesting design. Her body sleeve is as skimpy and revealing as you’d expect from the background material, but aside from its striking design, it  also lets us see that the operator has a fairly cruel-looking amount of augmentation. It’s more apparent in the concept dossier, but she has protruding metallic ports on each vertebra, and what appear to be plugs on her head and sternum. Her white hair also contributes to the trans-humanism vibe you get from her.

Be sure to check out this link for what is probably the most popular post on the blog, full of cool photos and information about the Guijia TAG.

Fancy Zhànshì part 2

Today I am again writing to celebrate the retirement of some Yu Jing line infantry models, this time some much adored but seldom used Zhanshi, the second infinity models I ever bought.

I love these old models. I love the no-nonsense haircuts, complex uniforms and action poses especially. They might be some of the best single piece miniatures ever in my opinion. The old combis are proportionally bigger than those abandoned OICW prototypes, but still look cool. The models may have changed, but the statblock regrettably has not. Whilst I get the impression my adoration for the sculpts is above the average, my “love” for the statblock is right there with the majority. That’s why these models are retiring after having been repainted more times than they have been used in a competitive match. Frankly, no one is taking Zhanshis to fight. Keisotsu and Kuang Shi cheerlead for better value in vanilla. Zhanshis will have no competative niche until a sectorial army list both makes them linkable and denies access to keisotsu butai, celestial guard and kuang shi. I hope it happens soon, because I like the new ones and am eyeing off the SWC box, despite having never played a profile without a combi rifle.

So what do the new sculpts bring to the table?

In summary, big tits, round asses, manga aesthetic hairstyles, simple, easy to paint uniforms, sensibly sized weapons, modern-scaled bodies. Your mileage may vary on some of those but I’ve certainly seen the upside and am really happy with the new models.

Whilst I would not have opted for many of the departures from the old ones if asked, I love the character and detail of these sculpts. I also like the poses, even if the blue haired woman is being a bit reckless with her gun. She was a lot of fun to paint, because she could easily be done in one piece in contrast to the others. I was foolhardy enough to paint the other two with their gun arms separate, something that I always regret until the models are together.

Regarding the faces, I’ve spent a lot of time in recent years working in rural parts of Asia, and I think it is influencing my choice of skin tones. I’m definitely shading heavier. I’ve also tried a few different combinations, like shading with GW Snakebite Leather instead of Vallejo Cavalry Brown. I like the result but t is a little too close to the colour of the armour sometimes, even though it has no colours in common.

On the backs of the models, large black/grey areas with plenty of hard angles make for comfortable and quick painting too. 

Welcome to the team ladies and gentleman, the deepest insert of my figure case is that way. Get comfortable.

Dire Friends

I’d long wished for an original Yu Jing character who was not Japanese or a recreation. This wish came true in the form of Xi Zhuang, a Celestial Guard turned covert operative. Xi Zhuang’s covert operations tend to involve the use of a flamethrower and rolling with a squad of his old buddies. He’s an interesting troop on his own, but given the presence of Number  2 on his only profile, he’s designed to support a team.

Here’s the kind of team I think he shines in. My logic is that if you are investing in a CQB specialist for your link, you probably think that link is going places. And if you are dragging your fragile line infantry into the fray, one of them might as well be a martial artist legal scholar with power armour and a machinegun. Probably BS 16 after mods, solid medium range-band and burst 5 makes a formidable pointman. Like many mixed links, there is great cost efficiency to be gained by pairing an expensive, dangerous pointman with cheap link filler. Celestial guards and Xi Zhuang are not exactly cheap, but they are less liable to melt under pressure than the chocolate soldiers of other factions. The addition of an imperial agent gives the link a hacking vulnerability that it otherwise would not have had, although stealth (Thanks to martial arts) tends to mean they will be tripped on your terms. Defensively, Xi Zhuang’s MadTraps have the potential to keep hackers (and pig disgusting Ghazi Muttawi’ah) at bay. Overall, it’s a nice synergy, that only gets better when you start upgrading the filler. Boarding shotguns, MULTI sniper rifles and Kuang Shi control devices all have something to add. I’ve taken to having the hacker running separate, as his vulnerability to SWORD programs seems to make him a liability as he does not have stealth to protect him. It’s also less of a hassle to upgrade him to an EVO hacking remote if I am bringing a Garuda tacbot.

Painting Zhi Xuang didn’t call for anything onerous. His pro-active law enforcement pose didn’t preclude painting him in one piece, which is always a plus. His Madtraps on the other hand, where a phenomenal pain in the ass. Their arms and heads are all separate bits if you can believe that. By the time I had got them to stay together I never wanted to look at them again. Eventually they looked passable but I greatly missed the 10 minute job CrazyKoalas represent.

And that’s all I have to say about that. I’ve only had a chance to use him once but it looks like he will have a long career ahead of him.

The changing of the (Celestial) Guard

It’s time to celebrate a semi-retirement of some much-used and distinguished servants of the Dragon.

The shock arrival of the Imperial Service starter and some unexpected space in my painting queue lead to the earlier than expected completion of their replacements, who you might have seen sneaking into a few earlier photos on the page. I have nothing but love for the previous sculpts, which is part of the reason the new ones came as a shock. The new ones are, of course, very cool, although I already miss having an up to date shotgun model, in addition to the SWC profiles. For the time being I am taking a break from running ARO sniper plus cheer-leading cores while I wait for the box to arrive (It was said at Adepticon that it “has to happen”, but there was little to indicate that it actually was on the planning horizon). Instead I have been experimenting with a more varied approach, which I first touched on when talking about the Spitfire Crane but will likely report on in more detail in Xi Zhaung’s post.

Paint-wise, all the colours were aped from the Kanren, except for the trousers which used the loincloth mix from the spitfire Crane, but with more black. They don’t have their unit logo painted on their backs anymore (phew) but check out this article from my first Celestial Guard to learn a bit about the Chinese Character involved.

The attributes of the Celestial Guard in the RPG previews give as a more intimate appreciation for their talents that don’t manifest on the scale of the tabletop wargame. Their fearsome reputation affords them bonuses to psychological warfare, whereas their near limitless authority manifests as bonuses to command and leadership in firefights. Also they have files on everyone.

Yes we Kanren

A midfield meddler par excellence, the Kanren was an unexpected and welcome boost to the Imperial Service’s chronically understaffed selection of things that can enter play outside your deployment zone and things that can impose a negative mod during a face to face roll.

The base profile has a fairly unique ability to clog the midfield with 5 models; 3 holoechoes and two Madtraps. He’s a competent  fighter thanks to surprise shot/surprise attack, but this profile lives for the day that he gets to finish off something juicy with his monofilament CCW after it has been frozen in place with his Madtraps. Opponents who choose to delay AROs against him for fear of copping a full burst of combi/BSG to the face on a normal roll will quickly find themselves in the threat range of the Madtraps.  On the other hand, the Madtrap profile gets little mileage out of holoprojector level 1 however, as he would have to sacrifice his forward deployment level 2 (8 inches, an orders worth of distance) just to convincingly portray a handful of niche Madtrap profiles that no one really takes on their own. For other Kanren profiles without Madtraps who can impersonate a wider selection of Yu Jing profiles convincingly, I still don’t think it’s worth giving up 8 inches to occasionally trick new or casual players. That said, on these profiles holoprojector level 1 absolutely must be used! If you have a KHD or AHD, hide it by pretending to be a forward observer. If you have a forward observer, disguise it as an AHD to scare off heavy infantry and bait KHDs into wasting orders. Then, when your regular opponents start to suspect the ruse, you can mix it up a bit by “disguising” your KHD as a KHD. I believe this kind of profile level trickery is a lot harder to spot and manage than some of the grand ruses you see suggested elsewhere.

The minelayer profile is interesting but extremely niche. It pretty much allows the Kanren to safely reveal enemy troops from Camo, TO or HD state in two orders so long as you have a Weibing or certain Zhanyings/Cranes in your list. Minelayer itself is pretty useless unless you know a hidden enemy has deployed on the center line when you deploy the Kanren, or you know the location of his inferior/superior infiltration (Niche use against daylami and Shinobu/Oniwaban if you are psychic). Given the Kanren can already intuitive attack with his chain-colt, it’s probably not worth taking this profile over one of the specialist profiles. Whether to go with the Madtraps or specialist profiles is a tougher choice. Hopefully there will be another Kanren model down the line that is visibly a hacker so I can take two without doubling up, although with the current model lacking any visible equipment that is not common to all profiles, I would not hold my breath for this. Thanks Corvus Belli, you guys are the best!

Painting the Kanren was fairly straight forward because he is a chunky guy with an open pose, with one arm extending far away from his body. I say this often but it is just so much easier to paint models in one piece. Orange was the orange. Greys were a spectrum of GW Abbadon Black, Dawnstone and Ceramite White. LEDS were done with Scorpion Green. Tunic is Dark Angels Green Mixed with Regal Blue and then Bleached Bone for the highlights. Skin is Vallejo Bronze Fleshtone washed with Cavalry Brown, my go to recipe.

As I’ve gradually picked up nearly all of the Yu Jing catalog, it’s not very often these days I get to write about a Yu Jing unit with a Chinese name for the first time anymore.
Pronunciation is pretty straight forward, “Kan” sounds like the can in “can of coke” and “ren” is just like “rent eats up more than half of what I earn  and the rest is Infinity”. The unit bio tells us the characters 侃/kan and 刃/ren, proudly displayed on the unit’s insignia, respectively mean “Bold Edge” which is a fair call. 刃/ren is definitely the sharp part of a sword and 侃/kan means bold in the outspoken/cocky sense. 侃刃 is not really an existing term so I do wonder where CB got the idea to name their new unit. Perhaps it is a literal translation of a Spanish concept but that’s just speculation.