Bostria’s Challenge: Red Veil Yu Jing

Neon signs. Store fronts. Lo Pan’s Noodle Hut?

This is the Neon Lotus, pleasure center of a Yu Jing orbital installation and battleground for Corvus Belli’s new Operation Red Veil two-player starter box! The box comes with 14 miniatures for Yu Jing and Haqqislam (with preorders also including a limited Yuan Yuan!), plenty of cardboard terrain, tokens, dice, a playmat, and introductory rules to get your started.

Do you want to know more?

So with this new box, we here at Data-Sphere have decided to once again tackle the intimidating Bostria’s Challenge, utilizing the contents of this new box. For those that might now know, Bostria’s Challenge consists of crafting a 300 pt / 6 SWC ITS capable list using good looking models with no proxies and no wasted models from any purchases. The leanest of the lean.

So, let’s start by examining what comes in Red Veil:

Profiles in Red Veil

 

We’ll start with one of the most beautiful models in the box, the Ninja with tactical bow! To make her slightly more useful (in ITS and beyond), we’ll utilize her as a mobile and elusive specialist. Her TO Camouflage will be vital to keeping her alive and for (hopefully) ruining your opponent’s plans.

The tactical bow she comes equipped with is a fickle weapon, but is unique in being the only BS Attack weapon with the Silent attribute. Coupled with her Stealth capability, using the Bow allows you shoot at enemies from outside Line of Fire with no AROs generated until after your attack resolves, even if within Zone of Control! This means your unwitting target can’t even declare Warning! or Change Facing until after they’ve survived the attack, if they even get that far! And that capability to declare an ARO only applies to your target.

Following up from there, we’ll quickly cover the ZuYong Invincible, a basic, but durable, Heavy Infantry troop equipped with the versatile MULTI Rifle. In addition to the Shock, AP, and DA capabilities of the MULTI Rifle, the ZuYong comes equipped with 2 Breaker Pistols, which might just be your go-to weapon in the 8″ range.

This guy is our beefy enforcer, our wall (thanks for the tip, Bostria!), and our disposable brute force. His MULTI Rifle can be used in the forward position he should be striving for, allowing engagements without too much fret about that stray ARO that would incapacitate less sturdy individuals.

Next up, the Tiger Soldier with Assault Hacking Device! She’s a handy specialist in a pinch with backup utility in her Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower.

She’s useful for nailing down opposing Heavy Infantry, Camouflage, bunched up Fireteams, and anyone not expecting the usage of AD2: Airborne Infiltration or AD3: Combat Drop! Drop in from behind and light ’em up!

 

Acting as the backbone of these troops is the ever-reliable Zhanshi! Now, they won’t go winning any gold medals, but what they lack in specialization, they make up for solid reliability. They’ll almost always do what you expect. We’ll be utilizing them as Forward Observers for two reasons:

Firstly, we can take advantage of their WIP13 to act as specialists, taking objectives with their MOV4-4. Though, I wouldn’t expect them to hold front lines from any truly determined aggression. ARM1 makes them on the more fragile side. Secondly, we now have a solid defensive option for these guys in the form of the incredibly powerful Flash Pulse. Being a technical weapon, we’ll be ARO’ing on 16’s in good range before Cover and other MODs.

Last in the box, but far from least in our hearts is the iconic Hsien Warrior wielding the ubiquitous Heavy Machine Gun! This model is gorgeous, despite the large reputation of his predecessors he has to live up to.

So, we’ve opted to use him as our Lt. so that we can take advantage of that extra order to gun down everything he can get sight to. We don’t fear too much for his life, as he’s no pushover with ARM4, BTS6, and 2 Wounds! BS 14 helps him both in Active and ARO. PH 14 can be exercised if you really need to dodge a template or engage an overconfident foe because he also comes resplendent with CC 19 using an AP Close Combat Weapon! So don’t be afraid to get him close in.

So, where do we go from here?

Expanding Red Veil

Yu Jing
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 10
ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
HSIEN Lieutenant HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 61)
ZÚYǑNG MULTI Rifle / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 31)
TIGER SOLDIER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 33)
NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
KǍNRÈN Forward Observer Boarding Shotgun, Chain-colt / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 26)
LÙ DUĀN Mk12, Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20)

GROUP 2 1 4 4
RAIDEN (Minelayer, X Visor) Heavy Rocket Launcher, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 21)
SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)
SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)
SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)
SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5)

5 SWC | 298 Points

Open in Infinity Army

So, to the Red Veil box, we’ll add just a few things. Namely:

• Kanren blister
• Raiden (Heavy Rocket Launcher) blister
• LuDuan / RuiShi remote box
• Shaolin Monks box

No waste. Nice and simple. Most of these models are relatively easy to use with the only exception being the LuDuan. Let’s take a look over what we’re adding on.

Firstly, the Kanren. We’ll use the Forward Observer profile that adds yet another Specialist to our list, bringing some redundancy. The Kanren also has a more rare piece of equipment: Holoprojector L2.

If played carefully, the Kanren can be disguised as all sorts of things. particularly more convincing if disguised as a different Kanren profile when couple with his Forward Deployment skill. While it may be tempting to use the Monofilament CCW, that might best be saved for only the most dire of situations or as a deterrent for your opponent, should they consider engaging this model in close combat.

To get a bit more ARO punch, we add in the ever enigmatic Raiden equipped with the terrifying Heavy Rocket Launcher, Anti-Personnel Mines, an X-Visor, and Limited Camouflage. This profile also has the bonus of Minelayer to help with the shell game.

With the help of the X-Visor, the HRL maintains reasonable MODs as far out as 48″ after the first 16″. Fire is a great damage type that can be used for all sorts of reasons from flushing out Camouflage and ODD to tackling multiple wounds or Symbiont Armor.

So now we address the YaoXie Remotes we added.

First of the two, the Lu Duan! This fancy piece of hardware comes with lots of toys. For weapons it has the dangerous Mk12 and the frightening Heavy Flamethrower. Both of these would be bad enough in their own right, but on top of these, we add: a repeater (to spread the influence of our hackers), an MSV1 (to provide as few places as possible for Camouflage troops to hide from us), and yet another Holoprojector L2! Force the shell game with the Holoprojector and punish with the auto-hitting Heavy Flamethrower if they choose an echo OR combat them with superior mods using the Mk12 if they happen to choose correctly.

Then we now move onto the Rui Shi. Did you want more MSV? Well, you got more MSV! This one is another MSV2 that pairs very well with the rapid firing Spitfire on a MOV 6-4 BS12 platform! While not a tactic for this list, if you were to include a Hacker with the Assisted Fire program, the Rui Shi would ignore all visual and cover MODs to hit, giving it 15’s to hit in the 8-24″ range band. So that’s certainly something to consider in your next list!

The last addition we’ll make is putting in some Shaolin Monks. These feisty cueballs are Extremely Impetuous and Irregular. Being Irregular, we won’t care too much about their casualties, but we can use Command tokens to convert them to Regular Orders. Don’t be too quick to dismiss these guys’ utility!

Having CC22 and Martial Arts L3 gives them an effective CC25 with your opponent at a -3 deficit, as well, so if they do engage, they’ll be a threat with their Shock Close Combat Weapons. Of course, one of their more common uses is proliferation of Smoke via Smoke Grenades. These synergize very well with the MSV2’s we have all over the faction and the two we have in this list.

Closing Thoughts

Operation Red Veil brings a lot of fun stuff to the table for the Yu Jing. With two extra boxes and two extra blisters, we can bring it up to a full 300 point list that takes advantage of a lot of Yu Jing’s specialties while not being too difficult to play.

Now, go forth with the Emperor’s blessing and further the interests of the Party, citizen.
For your family’s honor.