so long time no see yall. during the pandemic, i made the move to iceland. not sure if there are players here, but i figured i would say hi to my tohaa peeps on here to ask how n4 ended up treating us. i know my swarm stuff is no longer possible, but i was waiting to read the rules til i found out if i would ever be able to play again, so i reallly don't know whats up. are dazers still overpowered? are chaksa hmg still overpriced? is our tag viable?
Dazers are no longer Saturation Zones, but they can still do funny stuff to armies without any Terrain (Total). Chaksa HMG still has Neurocinetics and is 24 points so it’s still awful. The Gorgos got mega-buffed thanks to the changes to crits and Fire no longer one-shotting your Symbiont Armor. It can still be hacked though, and the removal of Nullifiers means you can have issues protecting it. The other major changes to be cognizant of are that the Draal went Super-Saiyan, losing its Stratuscloud but gaining Mimetism(-6) (aka ODD), and the huge overhaul of Pheroware. There are only 3 Pheroware attacks now: Eraser (causes Isolation), Endgame (Causes Damage), and Mirrorball (which is now ECLIPSE instead of White Noise). A lot more units have some of them natively (Diplo Delegate, Igao, Taquels) and the Kaeltar profiles now almost all have 1 Symbiomate and 1 Bomb instead of 2 Mates, so you see Pheroware a LOT more. Speaking of Taquel Officers: run one. They have gotten a major rework, gaining Triad, losing their Symbiobugs, but picking up both Endgame and Mirrorball. They are absolute terrors in the midfield, able to block off LoF or murder troops through walls without ever letting your opponent see them. Oh and Ectros are pretty good now, if you don’t let them get hacked. They even got an NCO profile! There’s more but that’s what comes to me off the top of my head.
thanks for the short tips. glad to see eraser on more people. the diplomat getting it makes me sad about the 15 order cap tho. i totally woulda gone for 21+ with that. did anything replace symbiobugs? i know they were wonky but i liked how unique they were. shame that the ckahsa hmg still sucks. they were really good for me in n2, but they seem to just get worse with more options.
So Symbiobugs are still in the rules, but no models have them at the moment. Peripheral weapons also got a big change, in that they no longer move with you; instead you deploy them somewhere within ZoC, and then they trigger when stuff moves in their ZoC. The delegate still makes a lot of lists, as a lot of our good stuff (especially the Taquels) is really pricey, so being able to take a 5 point Flash Pulse+Nanopulser Specialist that can also "hack" people into Isolated is pretty nuts. The crit change was also really nice for Symbiomates, as you no longer automatically take a Wound, but instead roll 1 extra dice, which with ARM/BTS 9 + Total Immunity usually doesn't change much. The Kaeltar changes mean that you usually only have 2 of them to hand out now, along with 2 Bombs, so you have to be a bit more judicious about who gets them. Overall though, the good stuff is still good and a lot of other stuff got better. Sukeul HMGs now compete with the AP Marksman Draal for "best shooter," Chain of Command Taquels mean that you no longer need to shell out the extra points for the Kaeltar CoC as often, Clipsos are still one of the best at what they do for their price, the Igao got a profile with Mirrorball which can be VERY nasty. Oh right; another big change: Kiiutan Impersonators and Greif Operators can now re-enter IMP-2 state. It's still not as good as a Jihad or Speculo, who can re-enter IMP-1, but it's a pretty sizable buff. Tohaa's in a great state.
Biggest change for Tohaa IMO is not the 15 order cap or any real change to our units, but the proliferation of TAGs and ARM. I feel you need a plan for fighting these that isn't the same order spam + makauls that were the main strategy in N3. Edit: Ok, the 15 order cap is bigger. I just remembered how easy the game used to be with 20 orders and eclipse smoke...
Yeah, the Taqeul is completely different kind of unit now (linkable, faster, pherohacker), it's a pitty that we lost acces to the Symbiobugs, loved those critters. The other downgrade that the Taqeul got was that now it regenerates on 10's instead of 13's. And now that the Taqeul is more powerfull I got tired of waiting for the official model and just clipped off the wings of a Fractaa and called it a day. Regarding the Gorgos, while it is true that now it's a capable TAG (it even got a "cheap" profile without peripheal Chaksa, just 67 points), we still cannot repair it. The changes to Pheroware are overall positive to Tohaa (the Delegate is now way too god for it's cost), but I hate having lost access to that sweet White Noise teamplate.
One problem running the Taquel is that is brings out the most salt I've seen about a unit short of guided missiles. Getting killed through walls from 8" away isn't fun for people and the background costs for such a strategy don't really factor in for the guy on the recieving end.
Thank you all I may be able to play again in some weeks so this was helpful for me too. Looking forward to running taqueul although I have to remember that all pheroware only affects units with wound
