Code One: PanOceania List Building
Last week, Adam wrote about expanding Yu Jing Code One lists from 15 through 25 and finally to 30 points. Of the two of us, I’ve got more PanO stuff so it fell to me to write the PanO section! I’ve done by best to keep things as close to Corvus Belli’s intended growth path (at least by their release plan) for Code One as possible to help people grow their armies as easily as possible.
As always, my opinion is that lists out of context are meaningless, so I’ve tailored each list to a particular mission. Adam did much the same for his Yu Jing lists last week, so these two articles will be consistent with each other! Let’s get right to it.
15 Points, Firefight
Here’s my 15 point list for Firefight. It’s worth looking at what the mission asks you to do before you try and list build for the mission, so with that in mind, here’s how you win Firefight:
Objective Points
More surviving specialists (2 points)
Kill more specialists (1 points)
Kill more LTs (3 points)
Kill more points (4 points)
So, with that in mind, you’ll want to make it hard to kill your Lieutenant and any specialists you might have (and minimize the number of specialists to decrease your attack surface). You’ll also want plenty of ways to go hunt down your opponent’s stuff as well. In general, you get the most return on your investment by just straight up killing your opponent’s models, but that’s more of a game time decision than list building time decision.
ORC Lieutenant - Affordable, durable Lieutenant. it’s got two wounds so it’ll take some work to take down, and it’s got an excellent BS stat to make sure you can actually gun stuff down if you need to.
Knight of Justice Hacker - She’s one of your two specialists in this list. She’ll take good care of herself with that high BS, ARM, and BTS, and she can defend herself from out of line of fire by hacking incoming enemies. Even if they can’t be Carbonited, they can be Spotlighted to bring your KoJ up to an effective BS of 17. Let’s just let that sink in for awhile. Ballistic Skill SEVENTEEN.
3x Fusiliers - Someone’s got to do the dirty work, and it’s your grunts! Sure, they’re not exciting, but they’ve got above average ballistic skill to give you that 5% edge in gunfights against your enemy’s line infantry. Burst 3 combi rifles at BS 12 get the work done. They’re also expendable at only 1 point, and they’re neither specialists nor Lieutenants.
Infirmarer - The best thing you can do to your opponent is undo their hard work. They’re spending orders to go and hunt down your difficult to kill Lieutenant and KoJ hacker, and once they’re all done you walk your Infirmarer right over to pick them right back up again. Invaliding your opponent’s hard work is often more powerful than stopping them outright, because if you stop them they can choose to invest elsewhere. If you undo their work, it negates their investment entirely! I chose the Boarding Shotgun over the combi rifle because you’re going to want to protect this guy and the +6 BS at close range and the template will help deter people attacking him.
Nokk Spitfire - This is your primary killer. Mimetism -6 to help you win gunfights, and a big gun (Spitfire). You’ll want to keep him safe by attacking and then fading away to a position of safety where your Fusiliers can help screen him. If he goes down and your Infirmarer can’t pick him up for some reason, the ORC and KoJ will help pick up the slack, but they’re definitely going to be your secondary choices in this mission. The Nokk certainly isn’t going to be as expendable as the Fusiliers, but he’s more expendable than the ORC and KoJ.
25 Points, Domination
Again, let’s take a look at the mission objectives:
Objective Points
Dominate same # of Quadrants (1 point/turn)
Dominate more # of Quadrants (2 point/turn)
Hack Consoles, Hackers get +3 WIP (1 point/console)
So, we’re rewarded for taking hackers, and we want some presence in various quadrants while denying the opponent the same. We want more board control, and we can afford to take more risks with our ORC and KoJ since it doesn’t give our opponent points directly if they die (it might prevent you from dominating a quadrant though, so be careful!)
I’ve kept the same core components of the list as the 15 point list to help you grow the army, but I’ve added a few new models:
Remote Pack
Support Back
Dire Foes
Locust Blister
All that may seem like a lot, but it’s all stuff you’re going to use. You can always split the Dire Foes box with your friends that play Yu Jing if you’re not collecting everything, and you can play a game to see who gets the HVT if you think your friendship can survive that! :)
Let’s talk about the stuff that’s the same as the last 15 point list:
ORC Lieutenant - This time, you can be extremely aggressive with your ORC lieutenant. BS 14 and a MULTI Rifle will let you challenge literally anything in the game effectively, and there’s no loss of lieuteant in Code One like there is in N3, so it’s entirely reasonable to trade your ORC Lieutenant for killing as many of your your opponent’s specialists on the first turn.
Knight of Justice Hacker - The KoJ here is going to do most of the heavy lifting. She can easily kill her way to the consoles and she gets +3 to her WIP roll to activate them.
Infirmarer - Your doctor is going to do the same thing he did as in the 15 point mission—keep your guys alive and defend your deployment zone.
Nokk Spitfire - Your Nokk is here as another attack vector to complement your ORC and KoJ. They shouldn’t be physically close to one another—you can spread them out to dominate more quadrants and threaten multiple angles of attack.
So you can see immediately the same units are doing very different things in this list as compared to the 15 point list. Hopefully this illustrates how important context is for a list—it’s not just about what’s in it, it’s how you expect to use it!
Now on to the new stuff!
Liang Kai - He’s a very effective, highly mobile assassin. Whatever the ORC or Nokken don’t kill, you can go hunt down with Liang Kai. He can also just hop onto a roof an go prone to hide and score points. Very multi-purpose!
Gunnar - Like Liang Kai, he’s mobile and good at killing, and he comes with the added benefit of being able to interact with the consoles! Use him in much the same way—and don’t be afraid to hide him on a roof! If he’s holding a quadrant, he’s doing his job! Check my battle report out if you want to see what I mean!
2x Sierra Dronbot - These robots are the undisputed kings of board control in Code One. If you’re going to duke it out with them, it turns into a very risky face to face roll. There are ways to deal with them relatively safely, but they’re going to shoot a lot of bullets at your opponent and generally make it hard for them to advance. They can also be used as an attack piece! Talk about versatility! Seeing a theme here?
Machinist + Palbot - We round out the list with an engineer. I had the 0.5 points to upgrade him to having Mimetism -3, so why not? He’s just here to keep the Sierra’s up and running with some help from his trusty Palbot, but he can go secure a quadrant or flip a console if necessary.
30 Points, Supplies
Okay, onto the 30 point mark. 30 points is definitely a little over the top in comparison to a 300 point N3 list. 25 points feels more “normal,” and more like a 300 point N3 list to me (and Adam). 30 points (without TAGs) doesn’t really require you to make any compromises in your list building.
However, the list above is structured primarily around what’s easy to obtain, model-wise, and also is in line with Corvus Belli’s release schedule. In addition to what you would have gotten for the 25 point list, you’ll need to pick up an Akali blister and a Boyg blister (or box, however they end up releasing that model, it’s currently unreleased at the time of this writing).
The somewhat artificial restriction of tailoring the list to model availability did make it quite difficult to list build. I do think the list is competitive and effective on the table, but it doesn’t fit my personal playstyle. Here’s an example of my playstyle in battle report form, but with O-12 instead of PanO.
Anyway, onto the profiles. The usual profiles make an appearance, still, to retain familiarity and grounding as you grow into a larger format, Zone of Proximal Development and all.
ORC Lieutenant - Same as before, you can use this to hunt down enemy specialists, either early in the game or late, as your order pool is damaged. In the late game, the ORC’s lieutenant order will come in handy to go gun down your opponent’s objective carrier.
Knight of Justice Hacker - Just like in Dominiation, the KoJ is going to do most of the heavy lifting. She can do everything you need in the mission.
Infirmarer + 2x Palbot - Same old, same old here, but with the addition of two Palbots for more board coverage!
Machinist + 2x Palbot - Keep those Sierras running by keeping a Palbot next to each one, then you can move the Machinist around to go do objectives if you need to.
2x Sierra Dronbot - Board control on the cheap! At the full 4' x 4’ table, the 32” rangeband of the HMG becomes very relevant! Be careful with your placement of these guys, you’ll want to deny enemies long range shots and force them to engage you in 32".
Locust Hacker - Just like the KoJ, this guy can do everything! You can even start him near the objectives to fend off enemy heavy infantry.
Onto the new stuff!
Nokk Hacker - Since we expect a lot more big guys at 30 points, you need midfield hacking more than you need a Spitfire. The addition of the light shotgun also helps a lot to fight up close.
Akali Spitfire - It’s time to learn about the power of airdropping units onto the table! You can respond to your opponent’s deployment and repositioning during the game with this guy, and hunt down objective carriers that they thought were safe! Don’t be afraid to keep the Akali waiting in his dropship until late in the game, when your opponent gets complacent…
Boyg Mk12 - A big guy with a big gun. Sometimes you just need to bully your way into the midfield with some straight up brute force. If you need to crush a flank, this is your BOY-g!
And that’s that! Hopefully this article was helpful for those of you getting into PanO. If you’re looking for more resources, check out:
If you’ve got questions for myself or Adam, let us know via social media, or if 8:30PM US Pacific time on Tuesdays is convenient for you, swing by The Dice Abide LIVE!, our twitch show and ask it in Twitch chat directly!
Happy gaming!