Know what else that sort of thing could do? Give Haqqislam a reason to actually be a part of things! Every campaign they've mainly been supporting allies or off in the corner just there. Put them somewhere that draws them into conflict with PanO and/or YuJing. Nomads and Ariadna on their side in fluff. Tohaa doing Tohaa things. CA doing usual sneaky CA sneakies. NA2 being mercs, JSA siding with PanO to mess with YuJing.
This sounds very interesting and unfortunately will not happen for that very reason. Regarding the Tohaa and the EI war - we don't actually know how well/ bad it is going for the Tohaa. They're reclaiming some planets, while losing some others. We have never heard of a Tohaa-occupied planet of the EI, but we have heard of Tohaa planets occupied by the EI. Multiple times. In the end, most of it doesn't matter anyway, as we have seen with Uprising fluff. Anything and everything can be written into the setting ("All the Haramaki die" is my favourite sentence in the Uprising book, repeated ad nauseum like 10 times). I'm afraid it will be a "rocks fall" situation, and the Tohaa will as we know it at the moment will be disbanded. I know I'll be selling off my Army at that point, I have no interest in being the loser merc band.
I think this is entirely consistent with my proposed Shas vs. Triumvirate box. If you have 3 Shas models, 3 Mercs, and 6 Tohaa models which can be used with either sectorial, 4 of those could be new sculpts of sakiel profiles and you'd have two Tohaa slots for new profiles. And I agree the goal would be to increase popularity of Tohaa models, just that they can do that while also hedging their bets/meeting other structural needs by condensing it into CA and NA2. So we all get what we've been asking for... but not what we thought we were getting.
I think that all these posts that are being published lately are the result of the negativity that the Tohaa community is experiencing, but that is not the reason why we have to let ourselves be carried away by it ..., hopefully this year will dissipate all these doubts :D
I can see triumvirate being a NA2 faction, but if they do it by declaring that tohaa have been defeated by CA then Corvus belli are basically pressing the reset button on their universe. The only reason CA have not swallowed the human sphere is the larger galactic war with the tohaa. I could see the shenanigans and manipulation of the triumvirate being exposed to the general public of the human sphere, probably by Shas agents. In the outrage tohaa are expelled from the human sphere. Leaving only triumvirate units behind. Main tohaa faction get majority of models discontinued but keep rules in army. New NA2 triumvirate list with a few new tohaa models but mainly mercs from other factions.
I'm pretty disconnected from Tohaa as of late as I've been playing Aleph. My thoughts for next year are about the same as yours at the moment, it doesn't feel like Tohaa will survive 2019, either because they are absorbed by NA2, CA, or both. It sure doesn't help.
As I said early on, I'm not clear on whether to feel negative or positive about this as a player - this could result in better release schedules and innovative ways to play Tohaa units that are new and fun, even if it's not what we were expecting. As for getting carried away, this is an intended outcome from CB. They've seeded these hints/ideas in their communications for the past year or two, and I'm simply linking that with what we see happening elsewhere in the game. I don't think Tohaa is immune to getting disrupted. I think it'll be more than a discontinue ala the french or shock army. Remember, CB keeps pitching this as being a bigger shake up than JSA Uprising, along with reassigning the whole human sphere. Just discontinuing the models isn't that. As for your above quoted point, exactly right. How better to liven things up in the story than to make the CA invasions of the HS look imminent now that the Tohaa have been (except for the Triumvirate) subjugated?
I had my hopes on that CA vs Tohaa box, assuming they wouldn't let Tohaa without its sectorial, even having Triunvirate as NA2, I thought Tohaa would get another sectorial yet to be revealed. But... I think we can expect anything when Bostria said "The Uprising is nothing compared with what is about to come", even Tohaa losing the war wouldn't surprise me that much at this point. That was before I knew CB thinks an Alien vs Alien wouldn't sell well... (even with CA that is a pretty popular army?) And as I said in the spanish Tohaa subforum, Tohaa becoming a CA sectorial is not that horrible after all, I even doubted between CA and Tohaa when I started buying Infinity stuff. I think CA needs a box like Operation too... Everybody else has it. And the other one left is Tohaa. Do you really think they will release an Operation box CA vs an NA2 army? And if the other army is not Tohaa related, who will they fight against?
It's the year of the aliens. Perhaps a third Alien faction. The reason I don't think, that CB can't allow it to exterminate Tohaa as a faction is the loss of trust the would generate with it. It's a difference if you retire a sectorial or cut a sectorial from the main faction (what was borderline too) or you destroy a complete faction. And Infinity player are more loyal to their faction than other wargamer.
I actually suspect it might be the exact opposite Shas breaking off from CA and becoming Tohaa zombie slaves
Oh that would be quite a shocker. Ask Warhammer players. They are pretty loyal to a faction except when GW just ignored them for so long.
Could be an Operations box that is CA vs Tohaa stuff that can be used as Tohaa or the NA2 Triumvirate sectorial. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone?
Doubtful. They didn't even bother trying to do a Druze/Ikari/QK Sectorial that would have fit waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better fluffwise for Coldfront. Tohaa, at this moment, are one of the last of the hand-sculpted vanilla starters. I've been hoping for Tohaa vs Shasvastii to get a 2 player box.
What about the Shasvastii betraying the EI and then CB drops a Sygmaa Trihedron sectorial to fill the gap while Shas go NA2?
Filling a gap the second something leaves? That would be nice, wouldn't it. Wouldn't that have been nice, Yu-Jing. Wouldn't it.
I heard that same theory 2 weeks ago, some guy mused the black N next year might be Shas defecting from the EI. With you that makes two, Shas aren't happy with their arrangement in the background either.... so there could be some truth to that.
Hey, let's go BIG! Shasvastii betrays the EI, turn into a NA2, CB releases the Sygmaa Sectorial, AND Shasvastii become available for the Tohaa Triumvirate NA2 Sectorial! AND Exrah return! AND Sacred Box is released! AND there is a second Tohaa Year! AND this is all a joke. A terrible, terrible joke..
