Thoughts on how to play Tohaa

A brief guide to playing Tohaa

I've now played maybe a dozen games with the artichokes and it's starting to come together. I've had mostly wins (not so much because of sublime play, but because Tohaa are really good) and the last few have started to feel quite smooth. Thought I'd write up my observations thus far. 

Main strengths:

1. Cheap wounds from symbiont armour and symbiomates

This aspect of Tohaa is completely sick and catches a lot of people off-guard (perhaps because the symbiomate rules are new and so obviously broken that everyone is really skeptical when you explain them). Tohaa units rarely have much in the way of armour, and when you put 14 dudes on the table people don't expect them to be very durable - spam armies rarely are. But symbionts mean around 6 of those 14 have 2 wounds and 2 Kaeltars give you 4 symbiomates that often correspond to more than 1 extra wound by ignoring a missile hit or some such. Your guys are remarkably durable, especially in suppression. 

2. Excellent defensive pieces

This is perhaps the best known feature of Tohaa - their snipers rock. Gao Rael's are cheap, durable with symbionts and symbiomates, hard to avoid with MSV2 and reliable in a face to face with B2, especially if they get a range advantage on you. Sukuels missile launchers are very hard to move with B2, mimetism and BS13 plus the symbiont antics, Nikouls are a right pain in the but and often able to deploy in spots your opponent didn't initially think about thanks to being able to claim cover anywhere because of sapper, and Armand is a total d-bag with a symbiomate because it basically gives him 2 wounds of ODD. All of these units hit hard with viral, DA, EXP and shock (so many attack pieces are dogged or V:NWI that shock often ends up being almost better than DA).

One of the nicest things about symbionts on snipers is that when the face to face mediocre (like hitting on 7s with a missile launcher) you can usually afford to have 2 goes at it - one with the mate, and one with the symbiont - then fail guts to go prone on your last wound, thereby often wasting the orders your opponent spent to get his attack piece into position to shoot you and keeping a sniper in the hand to pop up later and harass the board. 

Tohaa are also good on defence through the mid-field because of the link team bonus, which makes Makaul's the best mines in the game and gives you access to the disgusting 'ARO BS attack: my Makaul throws smoke while my Sukuel shoots you with a decent face to face'. Once your link teams break you usually have command tokens left over to put masses of people into suppression. 

3. 2+ wound lieutenants and auto-include chain of command units

Pretty much every Tohaa lt. has at least a symbiont and you almost always run 2 Kaltar specialists with symbiomates so you've got two chain of command guys. The end result is that you're pretty much never in loss of lieutenant. I think this is huge, because lol against top players is basically game over. Sakiel lieutenants also use the order well after their link breaks to attack and go into suppression.

4. Combining (1), (2) and (3): extremely resilient order pools

No faction is more impervious to the alpha strike than Tohaa except perhaps Bakunin with the riot grrl link (though watch out for Sepsitor - grrls dodge much better than Tohaa). You've typically got a sniper team that can take an absolute beating with the link bonuses, cover, symbiont armour and symbiomates, and then if someone does get into your territory you're throwing eclipse, tanking wounds on your symbionts and firing two shots in reply. Your snipers can also often fit into group 2 so that if they do die you've still got all of group 1's 10 orders. I find my opponent's often wasting their first turn sinking orders into my sniper team, who at worse end up with only one guy left prone on the roof ready to get back up later and be a nuisance. 

As you typically attack with one link team at a time, that link team then absorbs most of your opponent's offence on the next turn if appropriately placed for AROs and eclipse throws thanks to symbionts and link bonuses. Going around this team is hard because the snipers often cover the bylanes. You then still have a big order pool left on your turn.

I am constantly amazed by how I have basically all my orders left at the start of turn 2 and even by turn 3.  

5. 3 – 4 link teams in almost all lists makes for good firepower and excellent order economy

The other obvious strength of Tohaa besides snipers is an abundance of link teams. Not having sixth sense is a bit of a pain but the order economy of always moving 3 units at a time is huge, and the +1 is the most important bonus. You also have the Makaul in the back to cover Yuan Yuans and such. Most of my lists have 3 attack link teams and the sniper team, and it's a bit disgusting. It's so nice to always have a specialist nearby to press button after your attack piece has just rampaged somewhere, and the Makaul's are hanging out ready to solve problems of range bands with their eclipse and hard TO camouflaged targets with their flamers and CCWs.

6. Lots of 0 SWC weapons that are quite effective: heavy flamers, K1 combi rifles, viral rifles

I am amazed by the depth of Tohaa's offence. In a lot of factions, once you've lost your primary and secondary attack piece, you're left trying to knock things over with chain rifles and combis taking surprise shots. It can be a real struggle. Not so for Tohaa. Instead of chain rifles they've got heavy flamethrowers. Instead of combis they've got viral and K1 combis. And 1SWC sniper rifles on an MSV2 platform in a link are actually quite effective attack pieces. Consider the ftf against a TR bot - they're on 5s on 4 dice and you're on 12s on 3 dice. Link team HMGs out on ARO aren't looking hot if you've over 32 either. This is all after your primary attack pieces, which are usually a B5 MSV2 Gao Rael and a B5 mimetic BS13 Sukuel, both of whom have 2 wounds so they are crit-proof.

Note though that Tohaa don't really have the capacity to just run someone over. The Sukuel with HMG is probably as close as you get, and while it is reliable, I find it takes an oddly large number of orders to knock over a decent target. Funnily enough, I've found that my most efficient unit for orders => kills is the lowly Sakiel with viral combi. In a link team with 4 shots you usually get 1 connection when hunting infantry in ARO, and then the two damage rolls make it very reliable. 

7. Eclipse grenades

I cannot sing the praises of these enough, especially on the ultra-reliable Makaul platform that moves its mates while throwing the smoke. B2 on 16s means you almost always get the smoke, and the link team means you're not losing any economy from not being impetuous. Makaul's are also awesome even besides their eclipse with flamers and CC competency. Eclipse let's you control the range bands of nearly all engagements, including CC, and rush to buttons when it is called for. An incredibly powerful tool. 

8. Basically can’t be hacked 

Hacking is a headache. Unless I'm playing Nomads a lot I tend to forget all the hacking bubbles across the field, and in transmission matrix it is a lot to pay attention to. In Tohaa practically nothing is hackable (Gorgos, Neema, Ectros and Rasail - none of which I actually ever use), so you can just ignore it. Your opponent ends up paying a bunch of points for something with very limited utility. The fact that Tohaa don't have their own hackers really doesn't bother me. Aelis is fine and the 16 point white hacking Kamael is also good when you just need someone for highly classified, but I like being able to skip that 4 point tax for a proper hacker. 

9. Everyone is 4-4 or better

I almost always have a Gao-Rael with spitfire, which is 4-2 and takes a bit of time to set up for smoke shooting (this honestly sucks really hard, especially after playing Rui Shi's with marksmanship a lot, which are far superior than even the B5 Gao Rael). Everyone else is 4-4, including the Sakiel who is my main bum-rush unit. Along with the order-economy of the link teams, this makes you quite speedy. The Kotail and the Kerail Perceptors (the beast guys) are 6-4. I think the Kotail is garbage (with a specialist profile, MK12 or at least a viral combi I might run one), but the perceptors make it into a few lists because they can throw regular smoke for MSV2 shooting. The 6-4 and synch means they aren't so inefficient even without impetuous or being able to link (would be heaps better as an impetuous unit though, mostly because of the discount).

Main weaknesses:

1. Very few ‘tricks’: you rarely have anything up your sleeve

The clipsos is excellent, but it's your only TO unit so everyone knows what to expect, and besides the clipsos, everything you've got is on the table at deployment for your opponent to analyse. There are few ways for Tohaa to swing the game with a well timed AD (well, Tarsos exists but it's too expensive), ninja rampage, surprise KHD etc. The diplomatic delegate that is actually switch trick was amazing but no longer available. 

2. Very little alpha strike capability

There are virtually no impact template weapons in Tohaa. The Sakiel can take a light rocket launcher for an expensive 1 SWC (and often does in my lists), and one of the Kosuil profiles has a boarding shotgun (though pays 0.5 SWC for a panzerfaust), but otherwise you're using bullet-based weapons. This limits your ability to bum-rush someone because you basically can't take out multiple units with one salvo. The Sakiel can still reliably drop 4 units with 4 orders thanks to viral ammunition being very reliable, but he's on 4-4 and not a 6-4 Rui Shi that can get into the meat of your opponent's order pool, and his range band makes the flank and turn technique impossible. Tohaa's ability to just collapse someone who doesn't deploy any sort of defence is limited. It is particularly difficult to alpha strike your opponent's ranged units in order to leave your snipers to dominate the board. Sometimes I miss Steel Phalanx.

I have a tournament coming up soon that is limited insertion and I will be pulling out the Gorgos with light shotgun Chaksa. I am curious to see the alpha strike capability of this unit. With an eclipse grenade from a Makaul you can easily get into the spitfire range. If your opponent is hiding line infantry, you can get there very quickly with 6-4, round the corner with both units standing behind one-another for cover and LoF on both, and then offload a spitfire at anybody in a queue thanks to the Gorgos' S6 and the entire queue with the Chaksa's light shotgun template. I'd certainly prefer a heavy flamethrower, but on the bright side nobody is dodging these guys, and I love the idea of people trying to hurt my ARM10 Gorgos or trying to hit my mimetic and in cover 7 point chaksa firing on BS17 with his shotgun. 

3. Essentially no hackers

As I said above, this really doesn't bother me at all, but it is a noticeable quality so worth mentioning. At best you will have someone classified as a hacker but with no useful hacking abilities. Aelis is a very handy toolbox of a profile but she doesn't have spotlight and cries out for a symbiont for her very high price (31). It's also hard to get triangulated fire off with her because when you first pop out someone is just going to dodge into total cover or nail you with a ranged weapon because sat-lock is a whole order. The only way I've been able to do it consistently is to deploy her as the only member of a link team that is visible and then use her to shoot people after ensuring she doesn't take multiple AROs. Even then, 4 shots on 9s with a K1 isn't enough to knock over most snipers. As such, if I really want a hacker then I tend to go for the Kamael with white hacking device because she's cheap and hard to kill with a KHD. 

4. There’s basically only one way to play Tohaa, so people learn you quickly

All Tohaa lists are basically a couple of link teams with Makauls and a couple of good snipers. People figure your tricks out fast. Fortunately, until recently very few people played Tohaa so there is still a bit of mystery. 

Some other things to think about:

1. The clipsos is the cheapest TO camo infiltrator in the game and excellent. They can get an easy forward observe off into people's backs, deploy near buttons and boop them, and go into suppression to completely lock down corridors once your opponent's templates and MSV is dead. 

2. Chaksa auxilliars are absolutely amazing, especially in ground control missions. 10 points for a baggage bot with a heavy flame thrower and +6 to discover on WIP 13 is fantastic (skip the other profiles - though the HMG is a good model to pretend to be if you're a Kotail). With 4 of them a row (like in ground control missions) you can spend a coordinated order to reveal any superior infiltrated unit, like Kitsune, without leaving your deployment. The combination of link teams and Chaksa make Tohaa brutally good in ground control missions. 

3. Tohaa have only modest access to MOD stacks and once they are gone you can really struggle. The Gao Rael and Sukuel are basically your only units with mimetism or an MSV. Armand is there but he is usually too pricey for me, especially as he can't link (and the Nikoul is only 28 points for almost all the effectiveness). It is critical to leverage link team bonuses and get the right attack piece to the right target, especially early on when your opponent has ODD units rolling around. Makaul's can clean things up in a pinch, but you really want a situation late game where your Sakiels can just roam around decimating people with viral weapons. Get rid of any camouflaged targets early. 

4. Tohaa dominate missions that involve specialists and exclusion zones because of your snipers make it very hard for enemy specialists to reach buttons and your own specialists are embedded in link teams that make them capable and efficient at moving forward. The link teams also mean that once you've beeped a boop you're sitting there with a solid defensive position to prevent the button being turned. 

5. Tohaa have a bit of trouble with heavy armour, though this isn't as much of a problem as it used to be. You’ve got plenty of tools—K1, heavy flamethrowers, missile launchers, Makauls in melee—but they all require either bad play on your opponent’s part or a fair bit of setting up, especially if the target has a big MOD stack and thus requires a heavy flamer hit first (Avatar is usually a nightmare).

6. Tohaa function well in the close and far range bands, and not so well in the middle. This has changed somewhat with the arrival of the Sukuel HMG. The Ectros is just a bit shit because it doesn't have a MOD stack. You often rely on Gao Rael snipers in a link to attack long range targets like TR bots, and eclipse to get your combi rifles forward. This takes a bit of finesse, especially on turn 1 where you don't want to leave two link teams stranded in the midfield. 

7. Tohaa are basically Fiday proof because they can only deploy in imp-1 and you've got high WIP for the discover, symbionts to absorb their surprise shot, and link teams to prevent anyone getting isolated alone. Hassassins also don't have many MOD stacks and have a lot of dogged, so your Sakiel virals are an absolute menace.   

Tactics:

1. Apply the screws 

Alpha striking is hard but you have close to 100% capacity for all three turns thanks to links, symbiont armour and symbiomates, and you have quite hard hitting offence, it's just 1 order for 1 kill at best. Don’t overcommit, that will simply see your links broken. Just kill things that are exposed and then set up into good defensive positions. At most collapse a flank, but only attempt this if your opponent doesn't have anything in the middle and so they would need to spend a bunch of orders to come and get you. Take it slow and utilise suppression as links start breaking. Don't feel like you need to squeeze more economy out of the last order or two of a turn because you'll have plenty of orders turn 3. Suppression and positioning is more important. As long as you're steadily killing your opponent and forcing them to inefficiently kill your defensive positions on their turn you'll be golden. This is what I mean by applying the screws - it's hard for you to just annihilate somebody, but it's also hard for them to stop you gradually encroaching on their territory, killing guys and locking the place down with link team and sniper AROs. 

2. Switch gears. 

Tohaa typically start by turtling and only sending out one link team before switching on the last turn into bum rush mode. I usually press buttons on my way through with the first link team and a spare specialist in group two outside the sniper link. This forces your opponent to be proactive on his turns and engage your defensive positions. But the real press comes on the final turn once the board is pretty clear and positions are only weakly defended. This is when you can rush out with a link team  that knocks over the last positions and presses buttons as it moves through. Last night I had a game where I pressed 5 buttons on turn 3 in comms centre while building a defensive fortress. Once the buttons are pressed, you can afford to push the link teams deep into enemy territory, potentially having them broken in the process but crippling your opponent, and then dropping units like Kamael’s into suppression to protect the buttons by slowly down your opponent's advance onto them.