Actually Using the Tomcat Doc

First thing about the Tomcat is that he isn't a doctor. He's the best damn AD that gets doctor and is still dirt cheap. LFT makes him a link counter and become hard to play around in ARO. Climbing+ lets him get to those pesky defensive links or hidden lieutenants. Finally the Zondcat can droo and be sacrificed to clear mines. He has a role as Assassin, ARO clearer and mine clearer by using AD on turn 1. This makes him good for building momentum right away.

Second is the typical drop reaction, where you drop it on turn 2 to react to their actions, getting back shots. Here you can often move the Zondcat back to the DZ or towards dead Skirmishers while you position the Tomcat.

Last (and probably least common thing) to to simply drop it on turn 3 to revive and score.

The Doctor/Engineer roles have an advantage of being dropped, but for units in your DZ that is a disadvantage. So units such as the Prowler or mid-range HI it can come in as a huge help, as well as being good for SK spam lists especially in Annihilation. I like the Engineer with Tsyklons and Lunokhods a lot, 3 ARM becomes so strong when you can use those REM pres. unconcious wounds to keep getting back up.


The main thing to think about Tomcats is that they confuse the frontline. Usually you can feel secure that something is too far out to be revived, or that something is safe because of terrain protecting them. Tomcats violate that.

They are a very high skillcap unit to use, you can get really good with them. Also, did you notice they are wearing a jumpsuit over vacuum suit? How cool is that?

 

Tomcats Doctors truly are a swiss army knife. They are useful for so many things, including being faster than a Daktari to reach the patients. They are a Nomad staple found in many lists.

 

Unless the patient is in a predictable location in your DZ, such as an Intruder or Sin Eater. I'll often have both, considering the Tomcat's doctor functions not as an improvement over Daktari, but something new that other factions don't have access to.

 

In my opinion, Tomcats (like all Nomad AD troops) are a bit overrated. They aren’t terrible, they are just situational depending on your opponent’s deployment and movement during the game.

Their main strength is that they are cheaper than their counterparts in other factions. When it comes to actually winning firefights though, they are a bit rubbish compared to other drop troops who have things like mimetism to help them win F2F rolls or dogged to keep on going if they lose a F2F.

The obvious solution is simply – don’t get them in F2F shoot outs!

Instead, you want to bring them in outside enemy units LOF and shoot them in the back, so they can’t retaliate. You’ll learn to look for the sweet spot to come on outside the 8’ zone of control so the target can’t do a change facing roll.

This sounds great, but depending on terrain or how your opponent moves, there often won’t be anywhere for them to come on and get the back shots they crave, so they often end up underperforming in practice.

-In Corredgidor they make a great companion to McMurrough, who will often fall unconscious near the table edge and far from the Nomad DZ. Because of his high PH and lack of cube you might even be able to use the ranged function of the Tomcat’s medkit as reviving him this way requires the same roll as doctoring him in B2B.

 

In your experience how much does the climbing plus help? I was hoping that in combination with the light flamethrower it would be helpful when hunting cheeky snipers or properly cowardly LTs hiding out prone on a building.

 

It does help in that specific situation.

Personally I've only killed a rooftop lt or sniper with a tomcat a handful of times though because the opportunity hasn't come up that much.

Usually the combi rifle is what does the damage most of the time for me

The flamer is really nice when you can drop in behind something like a bulleteer and kill it or at least burn away it's ODD.

Unfortunately flamers alone aren't ideal as active turn weapons though because opponent only has to pass a Dodge to survive. Even coming from behind they will probably get to make a roll because if you're that close you're probably in their ZOC giving them a change facing Dodge.

From the front you can at least force a nasty choice between shooting and getting burnt and dodging and getting combied

 

If you get cover while denying it to your opponent you get good odds.

Climbing+ comes up as often as your opponent hides on a roof.

If they dodge the lft you shoot instead, that way you F2F.

 

Mcmurrough goes ramboing up a flank muderising as he goes. Finally, mercifully (to your opponent) he finally goes unconscious. You see your opponent breathe a sigh of relief. Next order a tomcat walks on within an order of him and heals him. That alone makes the tomcat great.

Climbing plus means it can get to awkward to reach enemies and whilst it isn't elite in stats it's respectable and with a combi and Dtw it's so good for its cost. If you expect it to be van Zant you will be disappointed if you use it as an amazing specialist that can dislodge an awkward model then you should be happy with how it performs.

 

I've been using McMurrough a lot recently but he hasn't gotten even close to staying unconcious, usually taking 4 or 5 wounds at once. In a good way, let's just say he deserves it every time.

 

I legit love the Doctor Tomcat, especially if I'm taking a Wildcat link with an Engineer.

I love being able to fold useful specialist skills into otherwise effective troops, it's a big draw of Nomads for me. So I want a Doctor and I want an Engineer, I'm taking a Wildcat link and a Tomcat anyway, why not get extra efficiency by using them together? Typically if I run a non-Wildcat Engineer I'll take a Tomcat Engineer and the cheaper Daktari, but Tomcats of all sorts are worth taking in most lists.

 

just building the Tomcat box right now, like the sculpts as its easy to tell the doc from the gear. But, not to derail the conversation but is the DEP worth taking?

 

Not really: 0.5 SWC is steep for what you get. I personally think the EMitter is a better Anti-TAG weapon for rear arc / co-ord shooting; and swapping LFT for AP mines is no loss (both are good, they're just different).

 

Sometimes I take a Gecko and I'm not using a SWC Lt. and I have all the SWC I want and I take one. I won't drop a Moran or Hacker or even ADHL to free the SWC for one if I don't have it to spare.

The D.E.P. is good but it's mostly to be cheaper than the Doc without losing the LFT.

 

The absolutely hilarious thing about those 6 troopers/7 models is that you can do every single classified in the game.