I am pretty excited that the Taquel Officer now has Forward Deployment, and Le Muet now has Lvl 2, so he can take advantage pretty much any point on the table. This also gives the Gao-Real a little more flexibility in its deployment. What are your thoughts on the new Season?
I think, it is great! As you mentioned the buff to MI is good and with the new classifieds I think Tohaa is in a good place. Though I musst admit I didnt read the Missions because I had no time
I do not see a huge change in the missions, except for the Xenotech, which may mean Tohaa players considering more of our great solo units which often get passed over because they do not link. (or you could just attach it to a Baggage Chaksa). I am interested in trying out the Gao-Tarsos a bit more now that it can drop in nearly anywhere.
- Gao-Rael and Taqeul deploying closer: good, specially for those first move+shoot Orders (Spitfire users will apreciate it) or for deploying the Symbiobombs outside de standard Deplyoment Zone and giving more reach to your defensive net. - Easier Gao-Tarsos deployment: nice, but I'm way more worried about the enemy parachuists now, as theirs are usually cheaper and can come in bigger numbers (and are even easier to deploy thanks to hacking or EVO).
It's a complete mess, have to rewrite most of my lists I won't use the Taqeul see no use of it. I'll use the Gae Rael Spitfire but now I have to buy the the Kerail to use them for the smoke/MSV2 game. An BSG Gao Tarsos has to be converted too and therefore my WHD will see playtime too.
I loved the inclusion of the Frostbyte into the mission list. That was one of the most fun missions in the Kurage Crisis campaign and it works perfectly for us with our wide access to Anti-Materiel ammo. Speaking of units, I'm not a big fan of fielding Gao-Raels, as plopping a Nikoul to guard a lane seems more cost-efficient due to flexibility granted by Foxhole. Having an MSV2 won't help you to win a firefight vs HMG under Smoke, and Viral ammo pays off more often than a simple Shock. And the Minelayer option is always a nice one to have. Taqeul is still an oddball, and an overcosted one, but having FD1 might actually make him a bit more competent, combined with a SHRL Chaksa. I'm interested to try him out again.
Honestly i think it's a power hit to us, as pretty much every other faction gets far more utilization than we do (ariadna saw 12 units buffed).
Bugs will only target in opponents turn, and you can't smart rocket there. According to internet lore, Tohaa is already OP enough, so maybe we could tolerate that. Problem is Ariadna were also OP. Is there anything that stands a chance against active turn HMG? Lucky rolls, but that's it. Gao-Rael spitfire with Kerail smoke is a nice hunting unit. Kerail with it's big pokemons are also versatile assault, minesweeping, area denying unit. My problem with the sniper Gao-rael and Nokoul that they are both expensive, and Sniper rifles lack punch, B1 lacks burst imo. I'd maybe use the Nokoul if it had MSV2 or regular sniper, I think 1.5SWC is way too much for the Viral (or MULTI variant). Just throwing around Kamael snipers or Sukeul Missile launchers seem like a better idea.
Oh, it didn't came to me that Bugs only work in Reactive turn. But that I had a lot of experience in using perimeter weapons. Speaking of Kerail, I don't think MSV2+Smoke tricks is all he is capable of, and what the unit is designed for. Sure, you can do that, but then you'd have that large beast that could chew enemy HMG dudes and troublesome ARO pieces just standing there doing nothing. When I finally get my hands on Kerail, I intend to use him aggressively. Plus, that MSV2+Smoke trick is really boring and overused. I think CB should eventually tax Smoke ammo, partially replace it with Eclipse or make it less widespread. It's not a lot of fun to play a game where everyone uses the same tricks. Sukeul ML doesn't have a visor, unfortunately, and she's also very fragile. Like @Magonus once wrote, "she's quite good at take, but not very good at hold".
I'm coming from Pano, so this trick is new to me :) 2W, mimetism, symbiomate, B2 ML, it's a pretty decent ARO piece. Quite a lot of survivability, nice at shooting, B2 template that hits like a truck. Your opponent just can't ignore it, possibly need to manoeuvre around the template, needs to dispose of to wounds and an extra order for the mate. You can also add a Kamael sniper and something else in the link.
Kaeltar, its B2 WIP 14 Flash Pulse isn't half bad, and the B2 Light Shotgun helps keeping the Triad alive against close threats that can suddenly appear from behind (like a Parachuist).
Yes, thats my squad Tohaa ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3 GAO-RAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1 | 31) SUKEUL Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 36) KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioMates / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 21) 3 SWC | 88 Points Open in Infinity Army
16pts, 0.5SWC B2 Sniper, it's pretty decent imo. Gao-rael does that (and more, obviously) for nearly exactly twice the price. Also there's the Kaauri for +3 points and -1B if you don't have a spare slot in a triad. So yeah, Tohaa is pretty spoiled. Tohaa ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3 1 KAMAEL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16) SUKEUL Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 36) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13) 2 SWC | 65 Points Open in Infinity Army This is mine. Not sure about the Makaul, nothing came close that needed a HFT in the face. For some time I also kept the Kaeltar as a defensive Triad filler, because I thought they are just "bloat" on their pokemons. On the contrary, they are a LS, specialist and a Triad filler with WIP14 and a flash pulse, having effective ranges from 0"-24", so they go pretty well in any Triad. Currently I'm still stuck on the Makaul-Specialist-Shooter composition though, except for defensive Triads, where two or maybe more shooters are the way to go.
I tend to bring the Gao-Real Spitfire for active turn duties, (mainly to take out skirmisher units which could otherwise throw smoke to dodge and shut down an entire turn of shooting by blocking LOS), so getting an extra bit of deployment space is pretty nice. I have been using Le Muet a lot recently, and he is an absolute beast if the opponent does not have MSV2. If they do I tend to have him duck behind cover and only engage on the active turn, and now having Forward Deployment Lvl 2 really allows him to exploit firing lanes which would normally not be accessible. I am also a big fan of the Kerail with a Surda as an aggressive assault unit, and tend not to use it very much for smoke shooting tricks. Equipped with a 'Mate and a 'Bomb he can create a lot of headaches for the opponent. It is also a great data tracker for missions where you need to take out the Designated Target because of his speed and smoke grenades, and with a 'Bomb it has the potential to kill the from out of LOS.
Keep in mind for Frostbyte that the heaters can only be damaged by CC attacks. Makauls are probably the best option for this, but I do love the idea of using a Gao-Tarsos do drop in the last turn to blow one up with D-Charges.
The only problem with that is when your opponent shoots your ARO Sukeul with HMG via any level of MSV, which is fairly common, except when you're playing a friendly game. In my meta, Sukeul ML is a good ARO piece only when there's nothing that shoots her through Smoke+MSV2.
Sukeul has D-charges, CC-16, with the Triad it's possible to have B3. Though Makaul as well can get B3, so maybe those numbers are better. True, but I don't think there's any ARO piece in the game that can handle being shot at through smoke with full HMG burst with a main attack piece. We don't have access to SSL2 (except for Kaauri, but it's B1 BS11, so any HMG would do, no need for smoke), shooting through smoke will be a problem, except for Gao-rael, but there full HMG burst will be a problem. Not to meniton that Sukeul HMG, Nikoul and Gao-Rael Sniper are really close in price, Sukeul being the most expensive.
What I ended up using as a countermeasure for aggressive HMGs is ensure that my opponent would be forced to endure multiple AROs when they try to dispatch one ARO piece. Thankfully, extreme pie-slicing is not a thing in my meta, so you can actually expect the Sukeul ML + Gao-Rael Sniper + Kaeltar CoC Triad to work as intended and force two AROs. For Frostbyte, I think Makauls are the most efficient against the heaters. They are cheap and their CC is high enough to ensure a hit. I wouldn't risk trying to damage a Scenery element on 13's in a LI mission. I would also condider infiltrating an Igao, but I am concerned about Frenzy kicking in, and I generally dislike rolling for Infiltration as you only have a ~50% chance to successfully infiltrate, and that's not something I would base my strategy for this mission upon. Frankly, now that I realised that heaters can only be damaged in CC, I would probably ignore them altogether and concentrate on preventing the adversary from activating a single Console. If they don't have an active heater in their DZ and Dead zone by the end of the 3rd Round, all their non-HI except Data Tracker will be counted as killed by you.
