Tried a box set Mei Feng vs Misaki last night as well as a few other small scale games.
No Bat Reps in the usual format as it was more me trying to figure out what was what and how to write this up so that people can try and get a grip of the crew
I had destroy the evidence and picked the Ten Thuders scheme of 2 dual faction personalities and her own connect the line scheme.
I didn't get a chance to see Kang do very much - Misaki killed him on turn 2 before he could activate. He looked like he might have promise, but is a 4 walk beatstick. I like the potential he offers to living lists with the
cb boost, but that plays against Mei's Railwalker spell wanting Constructs. In all honesty I can't truely judge his worth from the game, but he didn't do anything that Johan or Taelor couldn't have done.
Railworkers were ok. They did well against the tokarage thrown against them. They did nothing to Misaki over several attacks, but were able to take a reasonable beating. Armour 2 defence trigger is certainly a handy use for a low tome. Their weapons were quite handy. Whilst the other uses are situational, I'm never going to object to a paired weapon . That is has those other uses makes it even better.
They have the advantage of being living for Kang, but still usable for railwalker. Not sure I'll normally field 3 of these, they are a little slow, but they certainly have a use. And if I put down the rail golem, he is going to love those extra burning tokens.
Emberling. Its an armoured Spirit, with a good df. It has arcane resevoir, and mei will love that extra card. Link can help it be where you want it to be. Having a vent steam supporting a group of people could be very handy. I think there are 4 possible spells from magical extension - a melee spell, railwalker for movement, burning counters to models in a Vent steam aura and an area push.
I can see me using it most of the time I use Mei. Its probably more use than an essence of power or a student of conflict. I wish it were a construct, but you can't have everything.
Mei Feng was a powerhouse in this game for me. She railwalked into Misaki on turn 1, and went past her to kill shang, a tokarage and Ototo before comign back to finish off Misaki. to make the best use of her, and there was a lot of dithering over what manner of attack I wanted next, and what I wanted to trigger. I also forgot half her rules.
She isn't as fast as people first thought, especially from the box. She needs a construct to have got there first. But what she can do is re-deploy well.
I felt dissapointed if I didn't do at least 6 things a turn.
Her personal scheme was very tough, but I covered the first half of the board in the first couple of turns, and spent the last two running to the far end of the board to make the connection. I feel a faster model in her crew would help here, and if it is rail walker targetable even better.
One thouight that has come to me, is that she would team up with Colette very well in a brawl, with a manniquin linked to Cassandra and a corephyee duet as well as all those doves.
Otherwise you need to pick a focus. Whilst I like her scheme, its pretty hard to do and you almost need to pick a crew just to focus on that.
She can go for a burning theme with Kaeris and the rail golem.
She can go for construct heavy to make the most of her railwalker. I'm not sure which constructs I would pick, but there is a wide enough range in Arcanist (or Ten Thunders)
colours to probably fit your aim.
Kang probably wants to go in a strongly living list, probably with Union miners and Johan.
I ran Kang with two railworkers and two miners, as well as other stuff, against Nicodem. Thanks to the miners, I was able to pull of a companion Alpha strike at a key moment, decimating my opponent's crew, and nearly toppling Nico. He was able to bring out a ton of zombies, but he could not escape from Mei and the miners who just kept after him, finishing him off in the following turn.
The main reason I bring this up is because Kang facilitated much of that success. He was able to put up his
cb boosting aura, and killed a flesh construct, giving all living a positive twist. Once this was done, a railworker dropped two dogs, another dropped a punk zombie, Mei and a miner mangled Nico, and controlled his objective. Without the boosts from Kang, I'm not sure I could have put on as much pressure as I did. He is definitely a worthwhile piece if used correctly. And Mei is not as Construct dependent as people seem to think
I think the miners and the Rail workers are comparable to some degree. The Workers have a little more versatility, and some more survivability in some situations, although the miners do well just by not being there. As for the spiders, in this case I would have to say no, spiders would not have been better. With the spiders I would not have been able to get off the alpha strike, which really is what handed me the game. Without the alpha strike, I would have been subject to his activations and taken significant damage as well. The alpha strike allowed me to go through about 60% of his crew, cards, and stones before he could do anything, as well as set up some things to improve my own durability.
I've been playing around with the idea of a living M&SU crew ever since I learned about Kang, and will look to start putting it on the table once I purchase and finish up my miners. The addition of the rail crew seems to be what the crew needed. It hasn't had any table time yet, so I'm not sure how it will fair in many situations yet, but should be fun to play.
So general findings so far
Kang is a lovely melee piece. I can't advocate his "you can try..." trigger enough. I like to save up those high masks for this rather than Mei, as whacking someone in the face with a shovel/hammer during their turn is hilarious and powerful (the best combination). I think I'll be linking the emberling to Kang in turn 1, and then (1) seismic punching him forward, (1) floating in front of him, and (0) vent steam to hide him (and others) during the advance. Then when Kang wanders forward, the linked emberling will bounce with him to continue his consealment. A first turn method which is intreaguing me (depending on the strategy etc) is to set up a train of Kang-Emberling-Mei. Then seismic punch - walk - seismic punch with mei, and seismic punch - float - link with the emberling, so Kang is 9" forward before he's even activated. Hopefully that'll let him get stuck in sooner.
Willie is amusing, and can be pretty nice for his blasts. He seems to be public enemy number 1 though, so doesn't survive too long, and also has no actual synergy with Mei. Perhaps a metal gamin would help to protect him, but when I'm choosing crews, I tend to put him in because he's amusing and a distraction, rather than because I'm actually expecting him to achieve anything. The psychological area control of dynamite markers is pretty good, and being able to target stuff with no line of sight is also pleasant. Needs more investigation.
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the Rail Golem, 
and Willie, the Demolitionist. 
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2,000 points 
265 point detachment
Iron Hands: 1,850