Malifaux Review/Speculation: Yan-Lo, Part 1

Yan-Lo, master of the honored dead, not just some petty mockeries of life ripped from the earth.

Yan-Lo’s crew is designed around the leader himself, who powers up in two ways, both fueled by death. First, anytime a non-ancestor model dies around him or Chiaki, he gains a chi point (imagine them as experience points) that feed into one of three paths. Each path will grant him a series of new abilities as he gains level in them. Each path will help him become better at one style of play (Spirit will improve mobility greatly, Ash will give him some defense and control elements, while Bone will help him slaughter the enemy). Secondly, if one of your ancestors dies around him (or Chiaki/Soul Porter) they can absorb some of the abilities of the dead ancestor. Since these are the resurrectionists, Yan-Lo can summon back dead ancestors, as long as you manage to capture their soul when they die.

The playstyle of the crew is fairly odd. Since Yan-Lo himself can become outrageously strong with stacked up chi points and souls, his base version is a little…bland compared to other masters. He has a small host of Ancestor based abilities (healing, resurrection, the ability to use their soul cards up permanently to do things like headshots or a slow to die heal). Other than that, he has a 0 action (that requires a moderately high tome to pull off) that turns a 6” burst of your undead into spirits and a ranged attack spell (wp resist) that gets extra damage when the target is close to ancestors. Early game Weight of the Ages will be his main action, as it does decent damage when buffed, and has a trigger to double the chi you gain if it kills someone. Late game, Yan-Lo will turn into a beast. Late game path abilities include such things as a (2) spell to make every spirit in a 6” burst automatically take a 1 action or charge, a curse that makes enemy models get damaged every time they move, or the ridiculous Hunpo Assault: a once per turn trigger which makes him take a melee and ranged attack against EVERY enemy within 2”.

So how will he translate to the 2.0 ruleset (mass speculation ahead obviously, since he wasn’t in the current beta)? He’ll obviously lose casting expert in exchange for the bonus AP all masters get. I imagine the soul gathering will work pretty much the same as originally, since a soul card on a model is functionally pretty close to an upgrade card. A lot of his spells are functionally pretty simple (a staple heal, attack, and resurrect, each fairly close to things other masters have), so a lot of them can probably stay (Transcend the physical makes sense as an upgrade card ability). The huge pain is what they’ll do with the chi system. While iconic to his character, it’s a huge pile of rules, something that they’re trying to get out of 2.0. My current guess is each path will be represented by an upgrade so you can pick his playstyle after you learn the schemes/ strategy, and each one will grant him a couple of abilities/stat upgrades. Then, rather than use the chi he gathers to gain the abilities, each use of them will require spending a point to power it.

The soul porter (a totem) and Chiaki will act as extra gathering nodes to capture either souls or chi points, letting you spread out a little further than Yan-Lo’s rather restrictive 8”. The porter’s a pure ancestor support, but is worth every penny. Soul cages will have many people scratching their head at first (kill your own ancestor? What?), but has deep nuances. You can activate your ancestor, kill it, and then use Yan-Lo to resummon them. So, you get a full activation, reposition the model, potentially bringing it back at more health, and then get another pseudo activation out of it as it’s slowed from summoning (Which Chiaki can conveniently remove). Link and Empower ancestor are his big things however. Between them, he can send ancestors speeding across the board, either for extreme repositioning (4 walk actions in a turn) or to get them into melee to use all their AP for attacks. Chiaki is a bit hard to sum up on the other hand. The only phrase adequate is tool box. A mild healing aura, the ability to channel chi and souls back to the master, she can remove undead from friendly models, and the ability to remove tokens and effects. One of her niftiest spells shoves all non living models away from her. Mild cornercase hate against undead and constructs, yes, but also teams up well with the porter to get a beatstick ancestor screaming into your opponent’s ranks.

I can see the soul porter staying largely the same, but Chiaki’s getting changed, if for nothing else than having way more abilities than the average 2.0 card. Enforcer status is possible, but I imagine she’s likely to be Yan-Lo’s henchman. Thematically it makes sense, and a specific upgrade or two would bring her up to her current toolbox status.

Rounding out the box are three Ashigaru, the wall of steel. For their cost, they prove a pretty decent brick to station somewhere and tank. Hard to kill should prevent them from being one shotted, and object 1 plus hard but brittle will reduce most attacks to almost nothing. Be wary of severe damage though, as lots of severe attacks will cause them to explode into dust (bypassing even hard to kill). Their wall of steel ability will add some control elements, as they can make an attack to shove enemy models away after the model moves close by, but it’s kind of an extreme hit or miss ability (I’ve played games against ranged heavy groups that didn’t trigger it once). Stat-wise, they’re a little fodder-esque, with relatively low stats (charge is actually lower than walk!), but they get a small combat buff from ancestors, and can charge as a (1) action.

Honestly, besides object 1 probably becoming armor 1, I don’t see much change to these guys. They’re a great example of 2.0 design philosophy, a couple of abilities, one or two attacks for a minion, and not horrifically complex.

How do the models themselves fare? Well…you will rip out your hair. Multiple times probably. This box is THE extreme in small or incredibly thin bits. Soul porter and Yan-Lo both have incredibly thin weapons, and the Ashigaru have both thin weapons and an easily snap-able back banner, not to mention their limbs being pretty bony. Chiaki’s got a couple of tiny pieces (ribbon, flute, mask) but the man himself takes the cake. Yan-Lo’s beard is a separate piece. HIS BEARD. I’m…I’m not even sure how they thought that might be a good idea. Personally, I lost mine, so the pictured Yan-Lo has a green stuff proxy.

The benefits however, are that the crew looks amazing after you rant and rage assembling them. Chiaki comes with a little soul flare for a base, which I toyed with the idea of magnetizing her, so that you can swap her from a regular base to the scenic one after she dies and comes back to represent her new spirit form. Yan-Lo himself also comes with a great little ashigaru coming out of the ground, but that can be left off if it doesn’t fit your base style. Cool little side benefit to the extreme thinness of the weapons: the soul porter’s lanterns could never have a plug into the staff, it’s way too thin. So they’re literally hanging off a hook on the staff, which lets you place them at a wide degree of angles. Maybe I’m a bit weird, but I found that pretty cool.

A great source of alternate color schemes for all of the ten thunders pieces is to take a gander through some art from Alderac’s Legend of the Five Rings. These guys are done in the colors of the Mantis clan, though in retrospect the Lion clan’s Kitsu family would have made a great thematic choice.

 So, How do y’all think the 2.0 ruleset will change Yan-Lo and company?