So I owe Yan Lo an apology, and it's time to pay up...
Earlier this year I'd made no secret of my dislike for the dual faction 10-T/Resser Master. To me, he felt like an amalgamation of minion-level tricks. There was a bit
of healing and buffing here, some model swapping there – handy in their own
right, but hardly worthy of a Master, right? And he was a dirty Resurrectionist
no less… a Faction I quit earlier this year thanks, in
part, to having a playstyle I just didn’t enjoy. But nevertheless, and despite
the communities overall ambivalence around him, there were still holdouts. A
select group who somehow “got” Yan Lo, who understood what made him so great
and knew the secrets to unlocking his potential. Despite my reservations, I
couldn’t resist. With 10-Thunders being my new Faction of choice it was
inevitable that I give Yan Lo at least one more try. So I listened to podcasts
about Yan Lo (specifically Schemes and Stones and Before we Begin…several times), read about him on the
forums and PullMyFinger, even got some advice
from @BigBoyBucky on twitter. Eventually I managed to play a game
with him. And then another, and another. Okay, so it turns out he’s actually
pretty cool and at least for now, has earned a place with Misaki as one of my
two go-to Masters for Ten Thunders.
Thus, I'm so very sorry Yan Lo. I thought you sucked, but you really
don't. Well, maybe you still suck as a Resser but I won't hold that against you
- Ressers suck anyway. ;)
Like most Masters, the trick to using Yan Lo is to understand where his
strengths lie. Unfortunately between his Ascendant upgrades and a set of
actions that seem very tame at first glance, he’s definitely one of the harder
masters to figure out. There’s nothing that screams “use me this way!” and in
fact his Ascendent upgrades only add to the confusion – should he be focusing
on crew support with Spirit Ascendent, Instil Youth and Transcendence? Or does
he instead clear enemy models out with Bone Ascendant’s Hunpo
Assault and a Brutal Khakkara?
"Get back here young lady, I wish to...Dance...with you!"
Yan Yes!
10-T Yan Lo basically excels at three things – supporting
and healing his crew (Instil Youth),
getting key enemy models out of position and into melee with something
unpleasant (Lightning Jump) and most
importantly, getting in your opponents face and just Refusing To Fucking Die.
That’s not to say that Yan Lo’s unkillable, but between his Bone and Ash
Ascendant upgrades, Misdirection, Fortify Spirit, and potentially some healing
backup from the rest of his crew, he’s not going to go down easily.
These strengths, Lightning Jump and his resiliance, comprise
the core of how you are supposed to play him (IMO of course!). Basically get
him up the field whilst keeping his crew in good shape, then Lightning Jump
into a chunk of the opponents crew, simultaneously tying them up and isolating
a key model for the rest of your crew to deal with. Which model you choose will
depend on any number of things (as per usual) but generally it’s a keystone
model that the opponent is relying on (eg. Slop Hauler) or simply the biggest
target that Yan Lo doesn’t think he can take on himself.
After that, Yan’s job is mostly to just stay alive while
disrupting the opponents crew for as long as possible. Almost all his
soulstones go toward damage prevention and Masks for Misdirection, and I’ll
often go on Defensive Stance too, if he’s facing sufficiently meaty models. Other
than that, he’ll regularly use his heal to keep friendly models alive and
usually throw a few attacks out against anyone who’s squishy enough. I’ll admit
I’ve only rarely used his Transcendance action to armour up friendly models.
But that’s not because it’s bad, just that I don’t often find an instance where
I’ve felt the need for it.
Yan No. :(
Yan Lo’s weakness is his crew’s lack of mobility. All the
Ancestors have very average movement and while Yan Lo can Lightning Dance like
a Champion, the nature of the spell means he’s the only one moving around, and
only ever to where your opponents models are. What this means is that Yan needs
to either stick to strategies and schemes that don’t require a lot of movement,
or fill that gap with some mobile models of your own. Of course often you’ll
want to balance that mobility with the need to actually kill parts of your
opponents crew – something Yan Lo is merely okay at. So building a crew becomes
a balancing act between having the models to move your guys up the field, but
also to kill whatever needs killing. The strategy and schemes influence how
badly you need those elements of course, but I’ve found that I rarely have much
wiggle room in the crew. In other words, you need to be able to rationalise
each and every model you add to Yan Lo’s crew. If a model doesn’t do something
you don’t absolutely need, then it needs to go.
Of course to work at his best, Yan Lo also needs Chi. He
needs it to attach his upgrades, but without it Yan’s spells are pretty poor –
Lightning dance and Instil Youth are both very card hungry if you’re forced to
cast them with his base Ca of 5. Short of killing his own models (something I’m
reluctant to waste SS and AP on) Yan Lo can’t really accumulate much Chi until
your crew has gotten stuck in with the opponent and models start dying. For
what it’s worth, I don’t set out to build a crew with models I could afford to
throw into the enemy and get them killed (although Clockwork Traps are
admittedly very cheap…).
Most games, I’ve found myself making sure Yan Lo has Bone and/or
Ash Ascendent by the time he’s Lightning Danced into the thick of things (usually
applying one of them after he’s benefited from the increased Ca to cast
Lightning Dance). After that I don’t go out of my way to get extra Chi. Between
discarding for Focus Chi and models
generally dieing around him, he tends to have enough for the rest of the game.
Yan Grow?
Yan’s choice of upgrades should definitely reflect his
in-your-face playstyle. The way I’ve been playing him exposes him to a lot of
angry crew models, so my upgrades have been focussed toward keeping him a thorn
in the side of my opponent for as long as possible! To that end, my three
standard upgrades for Yan have been Misdirection,
Fortify Spirit and Brutal Khakkara.
Misdirection is
invaluable if you want to put him in the middle of your opponents crew, and
I’ll generally horde the masks in my hand to get the trigger as often as my
opponent dares to hit him. Fortify
Spirit is a more recent addition in my games with Yan. He seemed to do fine
without it but I did keep finding situations where I really wished I could just
avoid a certain attack altogether. I’m still not convinced that it’s needed for
Yan, but it’s cheap enough that I’m willing to give it a try for now.
When you compared to Yan Lo’s Spirit Barrage (with its
potential Ca 8), Ml 5 on the Brutal
Khakkara just doesn’t seem appealing. That said, I’ve really liked having
it available on Yan Lo. As per above, Yan Lo’s role is to get in the opponents
face and tie up his key models. So the 2” melee range allows Yan to engage more
models, while the threat of a 3/4/5 damage flip on disengaging discourages your
opponent from attempting to get away. I also found that minimum 3 damage great
if it’s going to finish off a given model with one attack (such as the
Performer Yan Lo killed in the Wyrd Chronicles 19 battle report).
Reliquary
certainly seems like a bargain at 1 Soulstone, but in reality I’ve almost never
taken it. Summoning an Ancestor your opponent just killed might be great, but
in reality it hasn’t come up often enough for me. Recently the only Ancestor
I’ve been taking is Yin (more on why below), but with her negative flips she’s
such a pain to kill that my opponent has usually concentrated on other models.
Chiaki and Toshiro are squishier but they’re also not frontline models, meaning
that they’re not that likely to be the focus of your opponent. All that leaves
is Izamu and once I’ve got a proxy for him, the Shadow Emmissary. Both of those
feel both dangerous and vulnerable enough for my opponent to want to kill so if
I take either of those in my crew, I’ll
be making room for the Reliquary upgrade too.
As for his Ascendant
upgrades, I find that Yan Lo definitely needs to get either Ash or Spirit
Ascendant on himself as soon as possible, ideally turn 1. Both boost his
resilience (which is essential of course), but as a (0) upgrade Ascendance
competes with his healing from Instil Youth. That healing can become essential
to keeping your crew alive as early as turn 2, so Turn 1 is the only time you
can be sure that Yan Lo will have a chance to apply an upgrade. If I had to
choose, I’d absolutely add Spirit Ascendant over Ash. The halved damage for
Incorporeal is almost always going to help Yan Lo out more, although it’s
obviously less effective against against Ca-heavy crews.
Of the other upgrades, the only one I’ve used on Yan Lo was Wings of Wind. However while he appreciates the mobility,
between Instil Youth and Ascendance I found that Yan really doesn’t have space
for another (0) action. Hence it’s long since been swapped out for Fortify Spirit.
Yan’s Bro’s!
What do I take with Yan Lo? Well
here’s the list I went with in the battle report I published in the Wyrd
Chronicles 19;
Yan Lo
- Brutal Khakkhara 1
- Misdirection 2
- Fortify Spirit 1
Soul Porter 3
Yin 8
- Smoke Grenades 1
Sensei Yu 9
- Low River Style 2
Katanaka Sniper 7
Ten Thunders Brother 5
2x Komainu 10
Total: 49SS
(5SS cache)
I’ve already talked about Yan Lo and his upgrades, so let’s
go through the rest of his crew…
As far as I’m concerned, the Soul Porter is essential for Yan Lo. For one, he provides the crew
with some much needed mobility with Empower Ancestor to push models (well, Yan
Lo and any Ancestors) around. Given Yan’s general slowness I’ll always use
Empower Ancestor this in the first turn. In fact I’ll often even use it to push
two ancestors, leaving the Soul Porter to catch up in Turn 2 to have some
influence on the game in Turn 3. After that I might use it to push models
around occasionally, but more often I’m focussing on his Bladed Spear attack
and more specifically, its automatic Siphon Chi trigger. Giving Yan Lo some Chi
can be handy in the early half of the game (before he ends up with more than
he’ll ever need), but the real value is in giving it to non-Masters with
Ca-based attacks. In this list it’s Sensei Yu (who’s Ca actions go from great
to utterly insane), although Yin and any number of other 10-T models wouldn’t
mind it either.
Other than that, the Soul Porter is just a cheap, body with
a Ml 6, 3” range spear – great for tying up enemy models and occasionally
dealing a few points of damage here and there.
So in a crew with an “unkillable” Master, is Yin redundant? After all, like Yan Lo
she’s a tank, best suited to holding up enemy models herself. However in
practice I’ve never regretted taking her. She’s a natural target for dumping
models swapped out with Yan Lo’s Lightning Dance, and has generally been a
great “Defensive” Anchor for holding objectives (eg Squatters Right/Turf War),
while Yan takes the fight directly to the enemy. Mass of Viscera is incredibly useful for keeping Yin alive (like
any ability that imposes negative flips), although you do need to watch out for
models who can ignore or neutralise that. Fortunately, Yan Lo is pretty good at
keeping such models at arms length from Yin. ;)
Yin also has the advantage of possessing both Df and
Wp-based attacks (Entrails and The Fear Behind the Eyes), giving her the
option to use one or the other depending on what stats and defensive triggers
your opponent has. Entrails is obviously more damaging, but Fear behind the
Eyes has a decent range of 8” and both have a solid set of triggers to damage
or disrupt the target (no point repeating what’s on the card…just look for
yourself!). Finally there’s Yin’s (0) action - Gnawing Fears. Nobody likes getting negatives on Wp and Ca actions,
especially when it’s until Yin’s next activation (as opposed to the end of
turn). The synergy with Yin’s Terrifying ability is obvious, but at some point
I’d like to use it really mess up a Ca-based Master like Nicodem! In practice
it’s always been an attack that my opponent attempts to win, but if I really want
it to work (such as against Nicodem…), I’d be loading Yin up with Chi from the
Soul Porter's Siphon Chi trigger beforehand!
As usual, the Sensei Yu/Yin tag team tell the Arcanists to engage in illicit relations with themselves...
Part of me hates taking Sensei
Yu in almost every game I play.
For some Masters I think his usefulness is questionable (McCabe, for instance)
but for Yan Lo, well, he’s pretty close to an auto-include. For Yan Lo, Sensei
Yu gives him another push-effect to get his crew up the board (Airburst) and Disciple lets him use Yan’s Instil Youth to heal something (and
there’s always something that needs healing). After that his huge Wk 7 combined
with Calm Air Thunderous Voice (to
spend focus on an Interact) makes him an excellent scheme runner in the later
parts of the game. Typically he’ll Airburst a target (gaining Focus from the
Winded Trigger), then Wk 7” and spend his Focus to Interact. He’ll only be
placing one scheme marker per turn, but so long as I’m doing that from Turn 4
it’s enough to achieve schemes like Breakthrough and Protect Territory.
While I’ve toyed with Wandering
River Style on Sensei Yu, I feel that it’s really only effective if you
have a way of giving him some free focus, either with a (0) action or before he
activates (ie. in a Shenlong Crew). Otherwise I’m willing to sacrifice the
chance to make my own models Fast to take Low
River Style instead. Being able to gain the Defensive Condition on
successful duels improves his resilience, and I’ve found the healing to be
pretty damn handy, even when the crew already has some healing from both Yan Lo
and Sensei Yu’s Disciple action.
Oh the Katanaka
Sniper. I’ve killed more than enough enemy models from 28” away for my
opponents to learn to hate this model! I kind of feel his damage output is
average for his cost, but it’s the huge sniper-style reach and potential to
one-shot 5-6 wound models that makes him a priority target for my opponents. My
Sniper almost always dies in each game I take him, but it’s almost always
resulted in my opponent dedicating something serious to kill it, from Kaeris to
Joss and my favourite, a McCabe-enhanced Peacekeeper! The Sniper is great –
there’s no doubt about that. He’s got a solid set of stats, can kill stuff at
range and is even half-decent in melee. But to me, I feel like his main
advantage is the hate he draws from my opponents!
Having only recently finished painting him, the Ten Thunders Brother has been a more
recent inclusion in my games. He certainly does not disappoint though. The 10-T
Brother makes up for a pretty average melee attack with some crazy-good
defensive stats, a very flexible tactical action and perhaps most importantly,
his Protect our Holdings ability to
prevent friendly scheme markers being removed. All in all it makes him an
excellent scheme runner – using the Eagle Style Trigger from Dance of the Heavens to move up and
place the schemes he needs. He can then guard them with a frankly criminal Df
of 7 (when on Defensive Stance), triggers on his Dance action to heal or gain
armour and a Df trigger to further increase his Defensive stance condition.
He’s very vulnerable to Wp-based attacks but aside from that, this guy is
practically immovable for his cost!
Last on my list are the Komainu.
To be honest there’s not much to say about them except that they’re very solid,
low cost melee minions. Armour and Hard to Kill make it tough to take down and
when it’s within 3” of an Ancestor (for the Guard ability), it can easily add either Slow or Burning +1 to its
melee attack. Being a Spirit allows the Komainu to benefit from some of Yan
Lo’s actions too, which is a nice bonus. Df 4 ensures it will go down to a
sustained assault, but I’ve found that a little healing from Yan or Sensei Yu
can go a long way in keeping it alive a turn longer. ;)
Basically, I feel like the Komainu are the go-to minions for
Yan Lo. They’ve got a lot of natural synergies with his crew so it’s always
felt worth throwing in one or two to make up numbers.
So that’s the crew, and on the whole I feel that it works
pretty well. Yin and the Komainu provide a good centre to work around, while
the Sniper plays the area denial game and the Ten Thunders Brother runs up on
his own to achieve schemes. Sensei Yu does both support (healing/pushing) and
scheme marker placement while Yan Lo, of course, does everything he can to both
keep his crew alive and disrupt the opponent. :)
Naturally the crew makeup could vary depending on schemes
and strategy, but if there’s one thing it’s low on it’s probably killing power.
Swapping Sensei Yu and Yin for something more damaging, like a Shadow Emissary,
Lone Swordsman and/or Izamu would go some way in helping that, but of course it
would really depend on what the strategies and schemes are!
Yan’s Facebook
Friends…
Of the models I’ve not tried, I’m pretty excited about
getting a chance to use Yan Lo’s Shadow
Emissary. Being an Ancestor means he’ll be a great reason to take Reliquary
and throw him into the fray, plus he improves Yan Lo’s Brutal Khakkara and
gives him Fast whenever Yan attaches an upgrade. Between that and his Rite of Strength action (Fast and a 4”
push for a non-leader with upgrade)I feel like the Shadow Emissary might have
enough push-effects to make a decent replacement for Sensei Yu. Sure he won’t
have the healing or the scheme running, but he’s tougher, a hell of a lot more
damaging, can buff the crew with his actions and most importantly, is an
Ancestor Yan Lo can summon! At least on paper he seems like a pretty great
deal, so all I need to do now is paint up a Wyrd-legal proxy for him…
Of the Ancestors, I feel like the one model I wouldn’t use
is Chiaki. She’s a great model in
her own right, but unfortunately she feels like a support model in a crew with
too much support already. Aside from being an Ancestor having a few disruptive
tricks and offering the odd Chi to Yan Lo, there’s not really much that she
offers. For now then, I’ve been glad to drop her in favour of a model with more
hitting power, like the Komainu.
In the few games that I’ve used him, Izamu has proven to be a very capable killing machine with some great
resilience, thanks to his Armour. His weaknesses are his tendency to die
(because you know your opponent will focus on him!) and the lack of mobility.
Fortunately Yan Lo can assist with both of those, using Instil Youth and
Transcendence for healing and further armour, Reliquary to bring him back after
the inevitable death and Lightning Dance to feed him models without putting
Izamu himself in harms way. If I feel the need for more killing power in the
crew then for now, my go-to beatstick is Izamu. He and the Shadow Emissary are
also the only reason I’d take Yan’s Reliquary upgrade!
My original Yan Lo paint job. Very glad I pinked him up since then. ;)
I’ve shied away from Toshiro
thus far, partly because he’s a dirty summoner and partly because I’m not a fan
of the model. But he’s certainly someone I really need to try. There’s no doubt
that he’s great, but between his incredible minion-specific synergies and the
chance to summon Ashigaru and Komainu from corpse and scrap, he really feels like
a model you need to build your crew around. If I take him, it’ll probably be
with two Komainu, an Obsidian Oni and a Punk Zombie. As above, the Komainu are
just solid minions but they also handout Burning for the Obsidian Oni to
benefit from with his Flames from the Heavens attack. The Punk Zombie has no
specific synergy aside from being a Minion, although it does make an excellent
model to drop victims next to with Yan Lo’s Lightning Dance!
The Retainers available to Yan Lo, the Ashigaru and Onryo, both
seem pretty decent. However I’m just not convinced they’re as useful as a
Komainu. All three have broadly equivalent resilience, but the Komainu seems to
edge the others out in damage potential thanks to handing out either Slow or
Burning. I guess if I took the Ashigaru it would be for the anti-charge bubble
from Brace, although it’s hard to
predict whether you’ll be facing a crew where that’d be really useful.
The Onryo has a
suite of nice attacks and abilities, and in particular has some good synergies
with other Spirit models (in particular the Adversary Condition) In practice I
haven’t found a lot of opportunities to take advantage of Yan Lo’s Spirit
synergies but the potential is there. She’d certainly make the Komainu (who are
Spirits) more threatening and she’d probably do horrible things with Izamu too!
So perhaps if I start running Izamu, it wouldn’t hurt to team him up with some
Komainu and an Onryo while I’m at it.
I’ll admit I’ve also toyed with Wastrels and Tengu, the
former for their healing and all-round flexibility, and the latter for their
healing and scheme running. Of course Sensei Yu, despite his cost, easily
surpasses them in all of those roles! I still found them to be great minions
for their cost though, so if I was to drop Sensei Yu (possibly for the Shadow
Emissary) I’d seriously consider adding them in again.
From my first game with Yan this year, back when I was playing his sucky Resser version. ;)
Yan Pro!
So that’s my thoughts on Yan Lo for now. Now that I’ve figured
him out, I’ve found him to be a very solid Master and in fact has become on e
of my two go-to Ten Thunders Masters at this stage. In terms of Strategies I
think he’s definitely a solid pick for Strategies where you’ll find both crews
conversion on a single point like Turf War. He’s got potential for the likes of
Reckoning and Squatters Rights, although for the latter you definitely want to
invest in some mobility.
In a competitive sense, I think I’d be quite satisfied with
taking Misaki and Yan Lo to a tournament and feeling as though I can
comfortably achieve all the Strategies/Schemes in play. Misaki is great and
Reckoning and Reconnoiter, but Yan Lo is far better equipped for Turf War!
Either could feasibly do Squatters Rights, although I’d probably think about
having a third Master (McCabe?) for that one.
Anyway that’s another mammoth post done! Between real life
and writing for the Chronicles this actually took a few months to finish. If
you got to the end of it, I will say that I’m going to try and post a little
more regularly. Unfortunately when it comes to tactics articles like this one, I
can’t help but make them anything but enormous! So instead I’ll try and vary things up a
little by talking about other things, mostly Malifaux related but possibly
other stuff too. I guess we’ll see!
Later,
Adrian
