The N2 Crane

Ah, the magnificent Imperial Crane Agent.  Trained in all varieties of warfare, from brutal hand-to-hand to long-ranged precision, the Crane is a survivor par excellence.  He brings the justice of the Emperor to all citizens - willing or not - and dips his hands in the blood of traitors so that the StateEmpire might remain clean.

Well, that's what his fluff says, anyway...

If I could bring myself to paint my own Crane, I'd post that picture in a heartbeat...

On the tabletop, the Crane is pretty good at many things but master of none, leaving him a generalist in a game where everyone reaches for specialists.  Even though he's hearty and skilled, there always end up models that can do what he does, but better.  The biggest problem with the Crane is, sadly, that he does everything pretty well...but you'll never really get a chance to do everything, which means you've paid too many points because of Infinity's pricing formula.

So, if each blade costs me 10 points...

Still, the Crane Agent has a few strengths.  Sure, we'd all love to see the Imperial Agent family change dramatically in N3, but we're stuck with them for now.  Might as well get some use out of them.

1) Generalists Don't Suck (That Bad)

Sure, you pay points for each and every ability a Generalist has - and you probably won't be able to use each and every one of those abilities in the course of a game - but that doesn't mean you can't threaten your opponent with them.  To make the best of a Generalist like the Crane, you need to leverage his threat ranges to your advantage.

Say, for example, your opponent has troops that really want to get in close.  Unless they have MA4+, the Crane has a good chance of engaging them in CC and slicing them to ribbons with his Monofilament CCW.  Couple this one-shot weapon (bye bye, TAGs and Dog-Warriors...) with 2 Wounds, and you have a model that is actually capable of both trading blows in CC and coming out on top.

Conversely, consider a unit your opponent wants to keep away from you (Snipers, HMGs, etc.).  The Crane's 4-4 MOV and variable threat ranges (thanks to its CC abilities and its X-Visor) allow it to move up swiftly and engage on your terms.  As long as you don't remain out in the open to catch a full burst, your HI status (2W, ARM3 + Cover, good BS/PH to contest rolls) should give you an advantage in this kind of task.

2) Cheap Link HI

In the Imperial Service, the Crane Agent can form a link of 5 by sharing the spotlight with 4 13-point models.  This gives him the bonuses of a 5-man link without paying 5x60 (what five hypothetical Cranes would cost you), actually costing just over 110 points compared to the ~200 for other HI links.  Admittedly, full links of HI are going to be a lot tougher than a Crane linked with Celestial Guard, but the CG link lets you amp up your Crane to BS16 B3 DA Sixth Sense 2 for budget rates.

The downside of this, of course, is that the Crane must be your Lieutenant, and cannot carry a Spitfire.  Bleh.  I'm sure there are some "balance" reasons for this, but I honestly don't think that fixing either of these two issues would break the Crane.  It certainly doesn't put him at Achilles/TAG strength.  If the Crane could link without being your Lieutenant, or if it could link with a Spitfire option (you can always take a CoC Spec Ops, right?), then I think things would be much better for it.

Admittedly, one of these strengths only exists in the Imperial Service, where other options are limited.  Still, the ISS offers fierce competition like the Hsien and the Su Jian for comparable points, and both excel at what they do.  I think the Crane is very hard-pressed to compete with other Yu Jing HI in N2, and I really hope that N3 will bring some significant changes for the Imperial Agent.