So first time I put my Qapu Khalqi against Tohaa was playing Biotechvore. Some bad deployment choices combined with an anxiety to leave the plague area, made me lose all of my forces before the bottom of turn 2, resulting in a landslide for Tohaa 10-0. Second encounter, against a different opponent, was playing Frontline. I won initiave, chose to go second, and was happy with my defensive deployment. Indeed only lost a ghulam sniper before my turn. The yuans even landed well... but nothing I did seemed effective, there were just to many wounds on the table. I told myself the lack of fire ammunition was to blame for the 8-2 defeat. Third and fourth games were met with the same anti-Tohaa list, with plenty of HRLs (including the Hafza pretending to be a FO Ghulam) and even a MR+LFT mobile brigada. The improvement was only marginal, I was hurting a lot more, sure, but it seemed every inch of the table was covered with several burst 2 AROs. Worse still, whenever I targeted something important, there was one of those dreaded Pokémons to make me waste orders away. Both games ended with major defeats, 9-0 and 8-2. Right now I feel powerless to face Tohaa, and I very much welcome any advice you could give me, be it on list building, tricks, tactics... Thank you!
Hello, both Haqq and Tohaa player here, sorry to hear about your suffering. Though I don't play QK but rather Hassasin, so my suggestions might be a little limited regarding what to use exactly. In general, fire is only good against units who have more than 1 wound on their symbiont, against the rest it works exactly the same, so fire isn't that much of a silver bullet. Would also help to know what you were facing. Tohaa only have 1 MSV2, so smoke will really do a number on what fires back at you, so Djanbazan + something with smoke is your friend here, you nullify AROs from everything except what you want to shoot at and apply a -6 mod, except if it has MSV2 of course. There's not really much you can do against symbiomates except ignore them or stack modifiers against them so you have the upper hand and make them go to waste (and maybe get a lucky crit). Tohaa aren't great in firefights, since they max out BS at 13, so you really gotta see how you can swing numbers in your favor, and looking at the unit list QK might be somewhat ill suited in some regards. When it's your reactive turn, try not to go for the link leader, try and target the weakest link in the triads, Tohaa triads generally have a heavy gunner, specialist and makaul, trying to kill the specialist if able will break the triads apart easily, removing the bonus to burst they get.
Hello, what have been your link teams on the table? I've faced Tohaa with my Odalisques Core (2 Spitfire, 1SMG/Contender, 1Rifle+LSG and a Husam Spec Op with Viral Sniper Rifle) with an Azrail HMG and a Djanbazan sniper with 1 or 2 Yuan Yuans for the smoke. Like @8vius said, Smoke shenanigans are our "Oldies but Goodies" and outmanouverning those Triads is the best way to take them out. Positioning is key in this game, if you have more than 1 ARO, you should rethink that order ("Slicing the pie" is the term, I think). I have nothing for those pesky Pokemons. Like the Crazy Koalas before them, I try to steer clear of them and deal with something else.
Thanks a lot for the feedback, guys. That's a very good point! I've gotten so used to the ftf, didn't even consider I could Target someone else in the link. Sure I'm likely to take a normal roll, but if it breaks the triad, the sacrifice could be well worth it. My go to core link is odalisques. Not full like yours, but with hafzas either Lt/FO or FO/HRL. But I've also been toying with the sekban haris as HRL platform, or the dual ML Ghulam core. From what you said I thought maybe a Djanbazan core is order? What do you think? Also, the YY to lay smoke is one really enough? And do you walk it in or do you forfeit AD altogether ? I tend to find mine running into mines or nasty AROs with their impetuous order... Again thank you very much!!
A Djan Core would be great, albeit a tad expensive. But yes, They can take care of things. To capitalize on having several MSV2 I'd suggest two Yuan Yuans. I usually walk them through the sides, unless they are compromised, in which case I wing it and AD them. If it doesnt work, you can use their Irregular order to move closer to where you need them. Remember that you can use smoke to negate AROs; so even one can throw several smoke bombs to the flanks you don't want to initially deal with. It takes a little practice, but it can be done.
Drop smoke and pick out their Gao raels. After that target their single wound minis as these are often their paramedics and specialists. If it has symbi-armor it is more often than not a combat figure and can be dealt with later. The toughest things you will deal with is the Makauls and their high smoke chance and Heavy Flame Throwers. Luckily 4 Yaun Yaun can throw themselves at this issue because if they flame thrower they are eating the chain rifle and losing their smoke throwers. Templates in general are great to use. Heavy Rockets, Light rockets, Missile Launchers, anything to force multiple hits on a unit in reaction especially since Templates always land as long as you make your BS. You can lost the face to face but still possibly hit the other 2 link members. This got me a long way in a couple ITS's vs Tohaa. They face to face to drop smoke, my link drops twin Missiles. They get smoke but the rest of their link is blown away.
