JSA may be the worst faction in the game. I've still played them a lot - I have the N1 Keisotsu minis to prove it - because they are so cool. In this article, I want to walk you through all their problems. Then I will put up a list that I think might actually be halfway decent and talk you through it. I won't have many opportunities to playtest it, but I promise to do so eventually. It will be great to play against beginners because it is fun and doesn't crush on the alpha. It was born of trying to figure out who could put the most wounds on the table in the 15-unit cap. It is JSA because samurai are 2W and dirt cheap, as is Yojimbo and Musashi (Kuroshi also has dogged). JSA also has quite good economy because of multiple link teams, impetuous bikes, and Oyama's new tactical awareness upgrade.
Back in N1-2, JSA leaned heavily on every one of their units having courage. Back then, many ITS missions involved pressing a lot of buttons. It not just that there were 5+ buttons on the table, you could also press them more than one to release beacons, for example, which you then had to carry back to your deployment zone to score. High order count lists full of specialists were basically a requirement in this environment and there was no order cap. People didn't have much in the way of killing power left once they bought all those specialists and the orders to fuel beacon haulage. As such, JSA lists with multiple keisotsu FOs using coordinated orders were very effective. Sprinkle a few bots and that was basically the whole list. Courage was double plus good - you could press buttons, die on your opponent's turn to stop them pressing buttons, go into retreat at the start of yours, press a few more buttons with courage, and then the game was over. This strategy ended with N3, which steadily shifted the game increasingly towards killing your opponent while completing a few objectives, which were typically more complicated than just pressing a button - you at least had to defend the button afterwards. JSA steadily declined in effectiveness.
There is much more wrong with JSA than just the above. The main issue is that JSA can't play the way they seem to be intended to play. Keisotsu FO spam was always somewhat out of flavour. The fluff and unit profiles imply a Banzai style - charge at your opponent with your swords. Yet JSA has very few ways to get forward against a decent ARO piece. Even TR bots give them a lot of trouble, let alone something like a noctifer ML. The obvious answer here is smoke. But JSA have very little of it, and typically on very expensive units like Kitsune, or units liable to die early like Yojimbo. And even smoke won't get a Samurai into base-to-base contact with a sniper in a tower - you need to shoot it down. The flavourful solution is to kill it with a ninja, but that is extremely order intensive because you need to come out of hidden deployment and then walk all the way over there. Close combat also suffers from the unreliability of B1 combat. Even with CC25, you can roll a 4 and lose to a line infantry who doesn't even crit.
So what is there in the way of guns? Very little. The only MOD stack on a gun in JSA is the Rui Shi and Kempetei with MSV2. The Rui Shi is godlike of course, but suffers here for lack of smoke and, in N4 at least, no good reason to run a support bot for marksmanship (in N3 you often used a cheap Keisotsu hacker just for assisted fire). Both are very flimsy units, and neither has a good way to get into its 8-24 range band to fight a sniper. Same problem for the Domaru spitfire and Karakuri MK12. Karakuri are amazing, especially during the brief period in which total immunity allowed you to use their BTS6 to take armour saves. But they could never close the distance except by simply taking wounds to walk across no man's land - other factions had better options at their high price point, and that remains the case today. Moving onto to bland HMGs, you have the linked Keisotsu HMG, which is only BS13 and 1W and thus dies a lot to DA snipers. Not reliable enough. A TR bot is OK, but needs an engineer. That means Yuriko, who is fine now but didn't have mimetism in N3. The O-Yoroi is actually a pretty decent TAG because martial arts gives it stealth so it is hard to hack, but TAGs weren't much chop in N3. With tactical awareness, DAM16 and Gizmokit, a keisotsu link plus spares with an O-Yoroi and a sprinkle of Ninjas might be an OK list. Something like this:
Gundam-Geddon
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GROUP 1
O-YOROI (Lieutenant) AP Heavy Machine Gun, Heavy Flamethrower, Crazykoala / EXP CC Weapon. (2 | 75)
O-YOROI PILOT Contender, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
TANKŌ Flammenspeer, Contender / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 17)
KEMPEI (Multispectral Visor L2) Shock Marksman Rifle ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 22)
MIYAMOTO MUSHASHI FTO Regular (Fireteam: Haris]) Chain Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0.5 | 24)
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
KEISOTSU Missile Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 14)
KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 20)
GROUP 2
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
NINJA (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
YOJIMBO Contender(+1B), Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades, Crazykoala / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 18)
YURIKO ODA FTO Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23)
YÁOZĂO PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
5 SWC | 300 Points
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Chain of command means you can Banzai with the TAG using its lieutenant order and tactical awareness for a full 10 order turn 1. The Ninja with KHD and Yojimbo can clear many annoyances along the way, such as Jammers and hackers, as can the TAG's own koalas. Group 2 is basically problem solvers. Yuriko can sweep reasonably effectively in the final turn, and the Harris with Kempei, Musashi, and Tanko is a decent secondary attack vector. I should probably cut some points out of the Keisotsus and fit in a warcore for the 15th order. Do not put the missile launcher out on ARO until you have dealt your opponent a crushing blow. BS13 doesn't last long against quality attack pieces. Against mid range stuff though, this guy is actually pretty solid. You can weather most alpha strikes with mines and crazy koalas.
The big problem for this list, like many JSA lists, is the lack of specialists. Both the Musashi and Samurai links struggle to incorporate a specialist who isn't very expensive or dilutes the link's effectiveness. That leaves Ninja KHD and someone who starts in the backfield. It is a crime that Ryuken aren't specialists. That would make them phenomenal units, but within the confines of JSA it would not be unbalanced.
The lack of specialists is true for the final list I am going to show, but I don't think it affects it too much unless your opponent realises you have few specialists and specifically targets them:
I'm Kamika-CRAZY
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GROUP 1 9 / 2 / 3
TANKŌ Flammenspeer, Contender / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 17)
TANKŌ Flammenspeer, Contender / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 17)
DOMARU Spitfire / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (1.5 | 33)
DOMARU Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
OYAMA Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Breaker Pistol, E/M CC Weapon, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
KUROSHI RIDER (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle, Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, AP + Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 20)
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
GROUP 22
DOMARU Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
TANKŌ Missile Launcher / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 27)
YURIKO ODA FTO Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23)
HÙSÒNG Yaókòng Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
YOJIMBO Contender(+1B), Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades, Crazykoala / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 18)
4 SWC | 300 Points
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The Warcor desperately wants to be a Chaiyi but you're 2 points short. It will either speed bump for you and/or turn his order regular every turn.
This is not a good list, but it is competitive and fun, which is more than I can say for most JSA lists.
Counting the Kuroshi's dogged as 0.5W, this list has 23.5 wounds! That's a lot to kill with 45 orders, and unlike military orders or some such, this list has a full 15 unit count, with 2 impetuous units and one tactical awareness link leader, so plenty of fuel.
The basic idea is that Samurai make for a very cheap 10 wound link team (only 116 points!) that is fairly effective in mid to close quarters but can't get past snipers. So you need smoke. The only efficient smoke units are Yojimbo and the Kuroshi Rider because they aren't colossally expensive like ninjas, have impetuous orders, and the Kuroshi can use her lieutenant order. Even with smoke, you can easily get shut down by an MSV2 sniper, so you need a decent HMG. This has always been hard for JSA, but got a tiny bit easier in N4 as you no longer need a hacker to recruit REMs. So now you can have a TR bot on the cheap. Now granted, a TR bot is a pretty low-reliability killer of units like Atalanta or a Hai Dao in a 5-man link, so you need an engineer. Yuriko is OK. She is very expensive, but minelayer helps shore up your alpha strike defence and her panzerfaust can be OK in a link team, especially now that she has mimetism. The rest of the list is cheerleaders.
Game plan. Group 2 either throws a lot of smoke or a little smoke and a lot of HMG bullets. The missile launcher and TR bot then become defensive towers until turn 3, when Yuriko ventures forward to sweep and press buttons. The Domaru is her bodyguard. Group 1 throws a little smoke and then Samurai team charges forward, or very occasionally the Kuroshi can go on a sweeping run killing cheerleaders (BS12, B3 and mimetism is usually not enough of an advantage, but look for shotgun template opportunities). The link's Spitfire can kill things over long open ground, but in close you generally want to use berserk or smoke to reach melee, where you are very effective and efficient. Remember to spec fire E/M grenades (PH17 in a link +3 for range means you spec on 14) to break link teams before your assault so they don't get their bonuses, and against HI and TAGs to immobilise them. Remember as well that you have stealth! No hacking samurai. This link team will take wounds - it's unavoidable when using berserk or engaging multiple targets in CC. Just try to spread them around and you'll live long enough to chop through your enemies with mono and AP/Shock swords. BS16 flammenspeer can occasionally do cool things on offense, and even defence. Defence though is mostly about huddling and making people eat B2 chain rifles and E/M grenades. You don't run the ML in this team because you want to get forward.
A few quick notes:
- I find this list surprisingly good against the alpha strike, so you want to go 2nd whenever possible. Yojimbo's Koalas, Yuriko's mine, the ML/Flammenspeers, and all the direct template weapons mean you can castle up and weather a lot of storms quite well (plasma rifle alpha strikes are not one of them).
- Going 2nd hopefully means that way there is a unit close to you for your Samurai to kill and Frenzy the Domarus. You always hope that you don't have to spend all your order just getting to the target.
- Sometimes it is worth breaking (and potentially immediately reforming) the link team just to get the impetuous orders for some free movement.
- Be very careful about over-extending the link team. If I were playing against this list I would try and bait it forward into an open area with some juicy unit to chop and then counterattack it to pieces where it can't direct template me in ARO. Always end your turn in a bunker where you can ARO with templates, grenades, contenders, and engage orders.
- You only really have 2 specialists: the Kuroshi and Yuriko. The Keisotsu are FOs so they can flash pulse air drop units. Sure they can press buttons, but WIP12 is terrible and you really hope Yuriko is on the job because she can actually kill skirmishers reliably. Do not throw the Kuroshi away carelessly, especially if she hasn't pressed buttons already. 8-6 move means she can press every button on the table in 6 orders, and dogged means she's very reliable at it.
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