Infinity/N4 Tactics/White Banner

White Banner is the Yu Jing military force on Svalheima, a frozen planet and constant playground for the Jade Empire and PanO to play their game of power and influence.

Why Play White Banner?

White Banner already strays from the general Yu Jing aesthetic because they’re panasian themed. On the tabletop this sectorials USP is their strong midfield play through minelaying infiltrators, hidden deployment and the only warbands of any Yu Jing sectorial. They also get some of IAs amazing HI.

Faction Features

• Top Notch ARO: White Banner doesn't rely on linked AROs to protect itself, rather it has access to hidden deployment rockets in the Hundun, and marker state sandbag troops like the Long Ya.
• Camo Shell Game: There are more camo troops in White Banner than some factions have in their entirety. This makes it very easy to misdirect your opponent and keep them guessing.
• Vis Mods Galore: Yu Jing's general disdain for Mimetism stretches into White Banner, giving them access to MSV on a wide number of troop profiles. That disdain doesn't stretch to friendly models thankfully, as White Banner *also* has Mimetism on plenty of troops.

Special Skills

• Camouflage: White Banner is the guerrilla arm of Yu Jing on the hotly contested arctic planet of Svalarheima. While PanO's WinterFor enjoys brutal and direct conflict, White Banner keeps it subtle, playing its cards close and leaning into the mental game. Often it's the threat of a trooper's *possible* presence that wins, rather than their actual impact.
• Close Combat: A Yu Jing tradition, White Banner both includes a number of troopers who are very good at close combat, and at delivering themselves into close combat. A sword is useless unless it's within reach of an enemy, something White Banner's CC specialists take to heart.
• Engineers and their Toolkits: As an army used to operating for extended periods without resupply, White Banner makes good use of their engineers to keep equipment in good shape. It's a highly mechanized army that often requires troops to fulfil multiple roles, which means their engineers often have additional equipment to make them useful even if they're not gluing Long Ya back together. Many troops are capable of completing multiple objectives by themselves, with the Daofei Hacker being an example of a near-perfect Classified Objective achiever.

Weapons and Equipment

• Multi Spectral Visors: A staple of Yu Jing, White Banner uses its high volume of MSV to invert the combat math in its favour. Several troops pack both Mimetism and MSV into their kits, providing up to a combined +6 advantage against opponents without.
• Minelayers: A knock-on effect of the camo availability is White Banner's wide collection of Minelayers. Long Ya are incredible sandbags at long and close range, and flexibility from Guilang Minelayers make them the best in the game, period.
• Hackers: Yu Jing doesn't have the best hackers in the Sphere -- not even close. As a professional army, uniformity of kit is more desirable over specialized loadouts. To this end, there are no HD+s or upgrade programs in Yu Jing or White Banner. Instead, Yu Jing relies on misdirection and hidden information to protect their hackers; White Banner has a number of Camo or Holomasked hackers who lay in wait for opponents to stumble into their hacking area. Deployable Repeaters provided by Guilang and Lu Duan can fool your opponent into thinking you have a strong hacker hidden in your army, while a patient hand can lull them into false confidence when they finally blunder into you. Even the hackers without marker state can still defend themselves by linking with powerful -6 Tinbots.

Units Overview

Unit Identifier White Banner

Light Infantry

• Mech-Engineers (Zhanshi Gongcheng): Our cheapest engineer. Important for maintaining White Banner's remotes; a well positioned Mech-Engineer can turn Long Ya from minor speedbumps to recurring threats.

• Tian Gou, Orbital Activity Squad: These guys are wildcard units with a 360 visor and Holomask. Add them to a link from time to time and bait with a seemingly poorly positioned disguise, and your opponents will learn to not trust your "mistakes" anymore. The Jammer can holomask as a Killer Hacker and cause your opponent's hacking attacks to fizzle while your Jammer attacks unopposed.
  • Fireteams: Wildcard, maximum one per link.

• Zhanshi: The humble Zhanshi is mostly here to provide orders and be cheap link-filler. However the hacker can be a surprisingly strong threat when paired with a wildcard tinbot, and linked paramedics are pretty effective in N4 - you only need to succeed one PH save to be healed. They're only AVA 4 so you'll need a wildcard to get a full core.
  • Fireteams: Core

• Zhanshi Yisheng: Your only doctor. Very standard. Might be more efficient to pack paramedics into your links. If you do take her, don't skimp on expenses and give her a Yaozao.

Mercenaries

• Oktavia Grimsdóttir, Icebreaker's Harpooner: A mercenary character with BS (+1B), Sixth Sense and Dogged. With a Missile Launcher and a Contender her role is as an ARO piece, but since she's expensive and barely filling any holes anywhere the main reason to bring her is the cool sculpts she got.

• Beast Hunters Free Guild: Close combat bullies with a very wide range of weapons; Beast Hunters are strong, efficient, and disposable enough to consider bringing in most of your lists. The 16pt +1B EXP CCW is a Yu Jing specific profile and absolutely worth the additional point. Note the FTO profile is *not* a Wildcard and has no fireteam skills.

• Warcors: 3pts for an irregular Flashpulse ARO. Fit them into your list whenever you got the slot and points, they're well worth it.

Medium Infantry

• Hùndùn Ambush Unit: These hidden deployment troops make a mean ARO threat, especially the Heavy Rocket Launcher and the Multi Sniper. If you’re tied on SWC or expect the opponent to get a bit closer the Shock Marksman Rifle is no slouch either! It might be tempting to reveal the Hundun early, bear in mind the psychological effect of a hidden Hundun often has a higher, if intangible, impact in the game.

• Imperial Agent Adil Mehmut, Special Division: This wildcard character adds quite a lot to a fireteam, given he‘s packing a bunch of useful weapons and decent stats and skills to back them up, making him great in shooting and CC. On top of that he brings a specialist profile with Veteran or Chain of Command. Sensor comes in handy whenever you got to deal with a lot of Camo.
  • Fireteams: Wildcard.

• Jing Qo, the Shadow of Huangdi: This mid- to close-range fighter gets a bunch of resilience-traits and the ability to duo up with a Shaolin, making running up the board both more efficient and safe. Get both into CC to be almost 100% sure to make your target dead.
  • Fireteams: Duo with Shaolin Monks. Liang Kai counts as a Shaolin Monk, and thus can duo with Jing Qo.

• Lei Gong, Invincibles Lord of Thunder: An A! alumni, Lei Gong has a highly optimized set of stats and provides some unique utility to Yu Jing. In addition to being a wildcard, he's fast with 6-2 move, is an accurate BS13 MSV1 shooter, packs a Blitzen for long-range AROs or coordinated orders, is unhackable, and uniquely, has Albedo, meaning for the first round of the game, he is invisible to anybody with MSV. Both profiles are worth taking, with the SMR being a great budget shooter and the CoC a good specialist with WIP 14. Both are excellent in or out of a link.
  • Fireteams: Wildcard.

• Tiger Soldiers: The infamous Yu Jing combat jump unit. Their stats and skills make them excellent at their job, and their profiles give you the right tool for most tasks. In an army already filled with formidable solo troops, Tigers stand out as one of the better options for an off-the-table sucker punch.

• Ye Mao Infantry: These guys get MSV1 and Super Jump. They have a few neat loadouts, making them flexible toolboxes. A profile worth mentioning is the Engineer with Panzerfaust and D-Charges, and the native skills on Ye Mao make the hackers as good at solving problems with bullets as they are with hacking.
  • Fireteams: Duo, Haris.

Heavy Infantry

• Dàofei Tactical Section: Infiltrating camo HI, who are also quite fast. These are expensive, but come with a bunch of useful profiles and make both sturdy midfield specialists and a great tool in an Alpha Strike. Daofei hackers have the distinction of being one of the few troops who can complete nearly every Classified objective, leaving only the Doctor/Paramedic and Engineering classifieds out of their reach.

• Jujak Regiment, Korean Shock Infantry: These guys are cheap and versatile! Having one or two of these in a Shang Ji-link is definitely a good idea. Jujaks are limited in the types of fireteams they can form, only having native Duo; they count as Shang Ji, allowing them to join fireteams lead by at least one Shang Ji.
  • Fireteams: Duo. Jujaks count as Shang Ji, but require at least one Shang Ji to form either a Haris or Core.
  • Sergeant So-Ra Kwan, Jujak Regiment: So-Ra is a medically diagnosed psychopath who is more than willing to put a bullet in the head of anyone who gets in her way, friend or foe. Thankfully you won't have to worry about Jokerfication on battlefield (we doubled her mood stabilizer dose for this mission). All of her weapons benefit from her +1 Damage skill, and her primary weapons have Shock ammo across all profiles. She carries E/M mines, giving her additional utility against heavy troops her Shock ammo would otherwise be ineffective against.
  • Fireteams: Duo. So-Ra counts as a Jujak.

• Shang Ji Invincibles: Next-gen power armored line infantry, Shang Ji are excellent, albeit expensive units. Besides being faster than average, they pack some extra perks compared to other HI in the same bracket. They come with a variety of gunner and specialist options.
  • Fireteams: Core, Haris and Duo and Wildcard. Though they can form a Core, due to their cost, Shang Ji are usually more effective as a wildcard adding Tactical Awareness or a big gun to other fireteams

• Captain Qiang Gao, Invincibles Officer: When he's not off tanking Shasvastii as part of the crew of the Defiance, Qiang Gao provides a Lieutenant L2 with a Dam 16 HMG. In White Banner he can join any Shang Ji fireteam, and has the Veteran trait, making him immune to the isolated state.
  • Fireteams: Gao can join any Shang Ji fireteam.

Tactical Armor Gear

• Blue Wolf Mongol Cavalry: This S6 TAG is meant to be used in the midfield, since the AP Spitfire basically asks for it and their CC skill keeps them relatively safe from melee threats. Bonus damage and Burst on an AP weapon turns the Blue Wolf into a chainsaw; the enhanced burst and general TAG sturdiness means the Wolf can afford to take fights that might not initially favour them. Blue Wolf TAGs have a tendency to push farther forward than other TAGs, so remember to keep a couple orders in your back pocket to pull it to safety.
  • Fireteams: Duo. Blue Wolf TAGs are AVA 2 in White Banner.

• Guijia Squadrons: Formerly the most basic bitch TAG available, the Guijia got a nice glow-up in N4 with the addition of Super Jump and Martial Arts. Super Jump gives it that extra little edge in mobility (and lets you hover up to get unexpected angles on cowering enemies), while Martial Arts means you have less to fear from one of TAGs' natural enemies - CC warbands.
  • Fireteams: Duo. Guijia are AVA 2 in White Banner.

Remotes

• Yaokong: As per usual with S3 remotes they come in a bunch of variations.
  • Chaiyi: Is the trusty flashbot.
  • Husong: The TR-HMG bot.
  • Son-Bae: The guided-missile bot.
  • Weibing: The FO gunfighter bot.

• Yaopu Pangguling: The S4 baggage bots, come in the usual three varieties with EVO HD, TR bot with a combi rifle, or just a plain baggage bot.

• Yaoxie Lu Duan: Holomask and Holoprojector make this S4 remote particularly fun! It also got minelayer with deployable repeaters, which is pretty sweet. The MK12 and heavy flamethrower (+1B) are solid weapons, and it's got MSV1 to shoot better against those pesky MIM units.

• Yaoxie Rui Shi: Brings MSV2 and a spitfire, making it the S4 gunbot.

• Yaofang Long Ya: Forward Deployment, Camo and Panzerfaust plus Flammenspeer which both (+1B). AP mines and a minelayer option, and the choice between a SMG or a heavy shotgun. These are great for the asymmetric trades.

Warband

• Shaolin Warrior Monks: The only Yu Jing warbands, being as warband as it gets: very good in CC, smoke throwing, irregular and impetuous. Also they're dirt-cheap. It is often a good idea to take the DA CCW whenever possible; the antimaterial trait on DA CCWs makes them capable of completing objectives in certain missions.
  • Fireteams: Shaolin Monks can join a Duo with Jing Qo.
  • Liang Kai, Wandering Shaolin Monk: He pays for being regular and a lot of tools making him far more resilient, and deadly! For 21 points he isn't even close to being expensive given all the great warband tools he gets.
  • Fireteams: Liang Kai counts as a Shaolin Monk, allowing him to join a Duo with Jing Qo.

Skirmishers

• Guiláng Skirmishers: Camo Infiltrators with MSV1- these guys come with a bunch of useful loadouts for any occasion. One cannot overstate how effective Guilang are; they possess basic equipment that puts them above most other faction skirmishers despite their lower BS, and make outstanding specialists. In addition they have the best Minelayer loadout in the entire game: Boarding Shotguns are ideal on skirmishers, Shock Mines speedbump enemy pushes, and Deployable Repeaters lend Yu Jing a "Turn 0" repeater net that rivals Nomads.

• Kunai Solutions Ninjas: These guys represent a -6 Mimetism alternative to Hundun. They lack the template weapon, but make up for it in mobility skills and CC. White Banner has both of these things on generally better units, so the Kunai are only taken in very specific, meta-defining circumstances.

Building Your Army

White Banner, more than any other YJ army, suffers from what some would call "Vanilla Syndrome". There are so many good solo troopers that it can be hard to justify taking a link team. When building lists in White Banner, it's important to be aware of the mission, your plan to win, and your weaknesses. Have a plan for dealing with sandbag troops like Mim-0 Camo Markers, hard AROs like linked snipers, and aggressive high armor troops like TAGs.

It also helps to keep your weapons in mind. White Banner has top notch AROs, but it's easy to fill up your SWC only to realize once you start playing your only long range guns are Heavy Rocket Launchers and Panzerfausts. White Banner has the patrician's choice in the linked Shang Ji APHMG, but with so many ways to close the distance, you're not obligated to play the standard mixed link. Experiment, and see what works for you.

Tactics

• Smoke Artichokes Every Day: White Banner has a whopping AVA5 on Shaolin Monks; they're extremely consistent smoke throwers, and can screen your more vulnerable troops with chain rifles and high WIP discovers. Don't be too quick to throw them all away, however. Warband value goes up the longer the game goes and can be incredibly effective once your opponent no longer has easy ways to mitigate their smoke and CC skills.
• Retreat and Recamo: White Banner has a *lot* of camo troopers. There's more camo in White Banner than some vanilla armies have in their entire faction. This gives them a great defensive tool; camo troops can't be attacked until they're revealed, forcing your opponent to spend valuable orders rooting them out. Rather than coordinating Suppressive Fire at the end of your turn, consider putting them back into Marker state instead.
• Counter-Guerilla Tactics: When dealing with enemy camo, a simple Discover might not be enough. Consider bringing a Weibing Sensor bot or Adil to ping multiple enemy troopers out of marker state at once, or using Intuitive Attacks; Guilangs can do so with their mines, and Monks have high WIP and chain rifles. Once the enemy is revealed, the high volume of MSV and templates in Yu Jing is often enough to deal with them.