I got the feeling the Gorgos is extremely underused. There has to be a change to it. I think the main problems are on the one hand the fire-sensitivity which can cause the Gorgos to be insta-killed easily (especially by Flame-Templates because of the -6 PH to dodge for TAGs) and on the other hand that it has W instead of STR, so no unconscious 2 and no repairs. The fire-sensitivity is something special to Tohaa so I don't want it to be removed and the W instead of STR for a TAG is a really creative idea so I would like to keep that, too. Maybe it just needs something special to compensate these drawbacks, e.g. Hyper-Dynamics L2 (less likely to be insta-killed by Flamethrowers). "What? You are taking 4 SymbioMates? Do you want to lose multiple frieds at once?" I incredibly love SymbioMates, but even in my oppinion they are a little bit too strong. I would not change the SymbioMates overall, but my idea would be to add a WIP roll to the use of SymbioMates. Whenever a unit uses a SymbioMate the unit has to pass a WIP roll. If it fails, the SymbioMate does not activate (maybe additionally make it disappear, but I do not know if this would be a too hard nerf, remember that it disappears when the SymbiontArmor is destroyed, which is very likely if the SymbioMate does not activate). If it is a success, the SymbioMate does its thing as normal and is removed. I used lots of SymbioBombs recently to test their potential and the reason I'm a little bit disappointed about them is that they disappear even when you fail the WIP roll. Maybe I just have bad luck, but I think this is really a sobering mechanic. In my oppinion they should not be removed on a failed WIP roll. Okay you can hack W units with them, but Tohaa only have very limited access to SymbioMates and Tohaa has no possibilities hacking STR units. Additionally you have to choose between SymbioMates and SymbioBombs. With this SymbioBomb change and the SymbioBomb change mentioned above the SymbioMates would not feel supperior to SymbioBombs anymore and the Tohaa Special Pheroware mechanics would be used more often. In my oppinion making all Symbiont Armor hackable would be an overkill. I think the difficulties in overcoming the Hacking-Resistance of Tohaa Biotechnology is represented by the high BTS-Values of the Tohaa HI and TAG. EI-Hacking devices could have a special HackingProgram against Symbiont Armor, but that would be only another very special rule for a very special situation.
"Improved Plasma" also already exists in the game. Zhayedan Breaker Rifle with Marksmanship L2. Inflicts 1 Arm and 1 half BTS save... on top of being Shock and ignoring Cover on the attack roll.
This is not what I mean at all. I was talking about artificially created matchup-specific interactions, not faction-specific, or not those matchup specifics that come up organically. Ariadna having running theme of not having cubes or lack of hackable units (a huge skub to some people, btw), Tohaa having wide access to special exclusive gear etc. is fine and it's not something I have problem with. They still have rules behind those things that interact with specific actions regardless of who calls those actions: Symbiont armor will provide an effective extra wound and break down regardless of whether owner got shot by PanO Fusileer or USARF Grunt, Ariadna's "HI" will be unhackable regardless of whether it's Nomad's static HD+ or AD'ing Haqq AHD etc. What I have issues with is when interaction changes when those rules gain exceptions based entirely on faction itself, and not because of what that faction can do. Like Fidays not being able to enter Imp1 for no gameplay reason other than letters "MAF" in opponent's Army's name, or (example from another game) units gaining Rage when attacking units with "Space Marine" in their army's name, or, like it was suggested in the post I quoted, a rule not working against specific faction-exclusive piece of gear despite that piece's specifics having nothing to do with reasons the rule in question being suggested in the first place. I understand when there's a very tangible reason such cumbersome thing as a specific rule exception must be made to stop breaking the game in some way, but I see no such thing here. And before you ask: I am strongly against including rules because of "fluff". It's cool when you design an army from ground-up, depending on how you see a force with certain fluff behind it, but it's only irritating when you start including very situational modifiers to reflect something you feel should be in that fluff. Example: representing high-tech aspect of EI HDs Good way: giving EI HDs better programs and/or modifiers for hacking. Bad way: disabling a single random faction's universal rule affecting hacking interactions when EI HD is involved despite lack of anything gamebreaking about interactions between EI HD and said faction's hackable units.
As a still newer Tohaa Player.....I don't really want anything. Nothing about Tohaa is broken and they already have all major bases covered. The Faction has weaknesses like any other and strengths like any other. I particularly don't want SymbioMates changed at all because all the proposed changes I've seen remove some of the skill to them and a lot of the fun tricks. I don't care if other Factions whine, if SymbioMates were nerfed they'd just whine about something else. Should I be forced to give ideas I would say remove CoC from the SymbioMate Kaeltars and make SymbioBombs more interesting/fun and not just bad Hacking. Then make the Taqeul more attractive to compensate. Other than that maybe some more interesting Characters and an increased Camo Token game.
How about a factionwide unified 'symbio inactive' profile, so regardless of whether you are a gorgos, ectros, takiel or gao rael you always know exactly what your second profile is? Just a quality of life thing, there are a lot of double profiles in tohaa, they all seem to be different: it cant be easy to remember them all.