Can of WhoopArtichokes
Sometime I think well over a year ago, one of the stores I frequent had the Tohaa box on sale for half off. It was so long ago I don’t even remember which store it was. Needless to say, I bought it, and it and a steadily increasing pile of Tohaa boxes and blisters started to clutter up my cabinet of shame.
The arrival of Spiral and the discontinued Tohaa SKUs this year was enough to get me to buy in the rest of the way and start the build process. Adam and I have been having hobby parties where we watch bad movies and assemble models. Sometimes he has them on his own with my models. For some reason he likes assembling models. I don’t, it feels like work. I’ll never understand, but I do enjoy painting them! With his amazingly generous help, we (okay mostly he) assembled all my Tohaa in the space of about a week.
We decided to give them their inaugural game with a run at Transmission Matrix against his Dahshat. I was trying to list build to cover both Transmission Matrix and Power Pack for an upcoming local tournament.
Overview
- Mission: Transmission Matrix
- Forces: Tohaa versus Dahshat Company (300)
- Deploy First: Dahshat
- First Turn: Dahshat
I opted for a board control approach with the last amount of orders spent and ended up with this:
Transmission Matrix
GROUP 1 |10
2
SUKEUL Lieutenant (Forward Observer) K1 Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (0 | 13)
DRAAL Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges, Dazer / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
KAELTAR Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse + 2 SymbioBombs / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 15)
GROUP 2 |
CLIPSOS (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
KIIUTAN Combi Rifle / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
GREIF-OP (Inferior Impersonation) Combi Rifle / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1 | 21)
IGAO Boarding Shotgun, Stun Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
2
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
DIPLOMATIC DELEGATE (iKohl L1, Specialist Operative) Nanopulser, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KAAURI Sentinel Sniper / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 19)
5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army
The plan was to use the two impersonators to secure Adam’s antennas and a mix of the Clipsos and Igao to secure the central antenna. I’d use the defensive triad to secure one of my antennas and the Diplomatic Delegate to secure the other one. The Clipsos also back up the impersonators for when they inevitably die.
Adam hadn’t built a list specifically for Transmission Matrix, so he just brought a list he had saved. It’s super vulnerable to getting hacked, even with all the Tinbots, but he knew I was playing Tohaa so he didn’t care.
Dahshat Company
GROUP 1 |
ZÚYǑNG Lieutenant (AutomediKit) HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1 | 39)
VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
GROUP 2 |
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
LIBERTO (CH: Mimetism) Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
The list is basically two three-man Zuyong HMG links and a pile of orders. It’s mostly bots to get you all the orders, which makes it super vulnerable to just getting Oblivioned into oblivion… if I had access to CLAW-2 anyway. It has basically 8-9 orders per pool and doesn’t care about much aside from hacking and E/M. Neither of which I really brought.
Deployment
Adam won the roll off and decided to go first, so I made him deploy first on the side that I thought would be easier for me to deploy on with my infiltrators and impersonators. Also it gave me a roof to deploy on with my Clipsos to take the center. It was also much harder to be in total cover and hold the antennas on his side.
Since Adam’s groups are more or less symmetric, he deployed more or less symmetrically. The Lt Zuyong with Valerya on his left, the Tac Aware one on the right with the ABH. The left antenna was held by a Fanous and the right one by a baggage bot
As I’m looking at this, half of my models were deployed outside of my deployment zone… that’s pretty sweet! My defensive Sukuel ML triad went on the right, behind Adam’s Nimbus Zone generators (the weird orange circle things). I figure forcing Adam to face to face a ML on 7’s with his Lieutenant is a good idea. The Makaul also controlled the antenna on the right.
I put the Draal in the center with a SymbioBomb, covering the central lane so the Kauuri would have a StratusCloud if he wanted. I forgot that the Draal was supposed to be in the same triad as my Sukuel FO Lt, so I just had a triad of two on the left. I deployed my Libertos screening my left antenna and the Diplomat controlling it.
Adam put a camo token controlling the central antenna. Unless it was a Zencha, a Clipsos would easily out point whatever it was, and the Clipsos and the Draal together are 55 points so I felt pretty good about holding the antenna, so I hid a Clipsos Minelayer in total safety on the roof and deployed her mine covering the right approach. The roof was also conveniently on my side of the table, and Adam hadn’t rolled for infiltrators so I felt really safe.
I put the Grief operator on a roof near the far left antenna. There was a Fanous that could easily see it, but I wasn’t terribly concerned. I held the Kiiutan in reserve and then Adam put down a TR bot covering the approach to the midfield. I put the Kiiutan in the way of the Zuyong Lt… if only vanilla Tohaa could have the SMG, E/Mittter, E/Mauler profile!
We both hadn’t read the scenario in great detail, so we both missed the Designated Target and DataTracker stuff… so we fixed it halfway through turn 1. I nominated my Sukeul Lt because she had a SymbioBomb for Endgame, and Adam nominated the Zuyong Haris lady that was on the same side as my HVT.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Dahshat
Adam starts things off by crawling his Zuyong Lt forward, so once he’s in LoF we’ll be within 24″. Smart. We’re both on 7’s… and I’m on pretty rubbish odds if you look at my odds of doing a wound.
| 14.63 | 35.87 | 49.51 |
I’d like to pause here to make the point that my win percentage is actually more like 50%. Adam can’t advance without removing the Sukeul, so if nothing happens I’m winning.
The first order was a whiff by both of us and the second results in a crit and a hit. I pass ARM and go prone. So I’ve drained about 4-5 orders from his pool now with all the crawling he had to do. Worth it.
Adam then activates the Zuyong team in group two and runs them up the board. I had thought that my Kaeltar and Makaul on the right were safe, but Adam found a sliver of LoF to see the Kaeltar at super long range with his Zuyong HMG.
He beats my dodge but I pass ARM and fail guts to safety. I did a pretty good job of hiding, I guess, because the only thing left that Adam can really go after is the Libertos.
After discovering it with the Zuyong Haris, it takes two orders to gun the Libertos down. The first was on a 17 the second was on a 14 from the Libertos’s shotgun… I think I should’ve probably put out a mine… I dunno.
Adam settles the Zuyong into the nook the Libertos originally occupied an goes prone with the rest of his Haris team climbs up to the roof.
Not sure if that Zuyong is in 4″ of the antenna… I’m hoping not…
Bottom of 1 – Tohaa
I start things off by trying to flamethrower both Zuyong with my Makaul. This also gets me closer to SymbioBombing the Zuyong Haris. The Haris guy dodges and the HMG tanks the flamethrower. This is why I need a third member! #ThreeTheTohaa! The ABH whiffs his glue cannon shot.
I try again, this time both Zuyong dodge and the ABH glue cannons my Makaul successfully.
I can’t leave the Sukeul there, so I retreat her while using Endgame on the Zuyong Haris, doing a single wound. Bah!
There’s no realistic way I’m getting the Sukeul all the way to Adam’s designated target, so I give up and just shoot it with my Clipsos FO who was hiding nearby.
The Clipsos takes out the baggage bot holding Adam’s right antenna, then run my Grief operator into range as part of a coordinated order that retreats my Clipsos FO, stands up my Sukeul . The Fanous, sadly, discovers it. I try to take out one of the Fanouses with my Kauuri, but fail.
I secure the central antenna by wiggling the Clipsos in place on the roof to reveal it. Finally, I stand the Delegate up, since Adam doesn’t have any templates aside from the LSG on his Ghulam Doctor, who is literally on the opposite corner of the board.
Turn 2
I’ve got my right, the middle, and my far left (Adam’s right) antenna, as well as a designated target kill, giving me three points to Adam’s 0.
Top of 2 – Dahshat
I had foolishly wasted a command token on reforming the Haris with the Sukuel ML…. which was dumb because of the Nimbus generator.. Anyway. Adam’s Zuyong HMG Lt pastes my Sukuel since I’ve lost Mimetism.
He then clears the mine on my left with his Libertos… Stupid Hyper-Dynamics. Need to remember that in the future, I always forget.
The Libertos then tries to SMG down the Grief Operator, but I pass ARM and go prone.
Adam sends in the ABH with his SMG, splitting burst between my Delegate and the Grief. The Grief survives and the Delegate manages to flash pulse the ABH. The Zuyong HMG tries next and takes a wound from the Grief…
but the dice eventually turn and I lose the Grief.
The Zuyong HMG climbs off the roof and then takes out the Delegate, a Makaul, and then secures the antenna.
Adam then resumes spending orders in his other pool. Dahshat is DUMB. The Libertos clears my remaining mine… The Hunzakut and the Libertos do out-point my poor Clipsos… and I miss a SymbioBomb trigger. JUDGE!
Adam makes a play for my designated target and drives his link forward. The Zuyong Haris is the leader and attempts a discover on my Kiiutan… but the movement of the HMG moves it into view of my Igao, who shoots at it with its boarding shotgun while I reveal my Kiiutan to take a viral pistol shot at the Zuyong Lt.
I whiff the Igao’s BSG shot, but the Kiituan’s viral pistol KOs the Zuyong. Huzzah! Adam briefly considers running his Ghulam Doctor forward, but instead chooses to try the cheapest option and AutoMedikits his Lt with his Lt order… and rolls a 20.
Adam’s Zuyong Haris lady gets the job done though, and my Designated Target goes down.
At some point the TR bot moved in to control Adam’s right (my far left) atenna.
Bottom of 2 – Tohaa
I have an awful lot to do. Adam’s got 4/5 antennas right now and I have 0. I for some reason think the Zuyong Haris profile is 32 points, so I figure by killing the Zuyong TA HMG I’ll tie that antenna. I blast the Zuyong HMG with my Sukeul’s K1 combi, taking it off the table.
I move the Kaeltar into position to control my right antenna, then see about getting rid of the nearby threat to it. The Igao runs around the corner and shotguns both the Zuyong Haris and Valerya as he moves into B2B with the Zuyong. Valerya passes ARM but the Zuyong takes a wound.
The Igao is purported to be good a CC or something… so I try it out…
Two orders later and Zuyong and Valeyra are both dead. I clear the central antenna by climbing my Draal off the roof (I might have to SMG the Libertos) and Endgaming the Libertos.
I’ve got one more order left in my main pool so I try to take out a flash pulse bot with my Sukeul on 1’s and fail….
Then I run my Kaauri up a ladder to try to take out another Flash Pulse bot and get crit flash pulsed. UUUGH. FIIINE.
Turn 3
I thought I had tied antennas this time, but Adam’s Zuyong Haris out points my Sukeul so he’s got more, bringing it to a 3-5 point total in Adam’s favor.
Top of 3 – Dahshat
Adam’s in Loss of Lieutenant. Hooray! He runs his Dozer’s Nasmat across the Kaauri’s LoF and barely makes it into base to base with his Traktor Mul to fix it back up. This means that he controls his right antenna now. As part of all the running around his Dozer ran towards his left antenna to reinforce his points there.
The rest of his orders are spent shuffling some thing around and closer to zones, like the Hunzakut. He ends his turn by advancing his TR bot into range of the central antenna and taking out my Kaauri.
Bottom of 3 – Tohaa
I pop the Clipsos minelayer up and zero out the TR bot, killing it.
Then I’ve got something like 6 orders to kill the Traktor Mul again with the Clipsos FO, run her into the antenna…
recamo the Igao and sneak him into range of the far right antenna, out-pointing the Dozer+Fanous.
The Clipsos is also securing the unconscious HVT, which apparently is a thing? So that gives me a
6-5 Tohaa Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, I love Tohaa. Foreign Company doesn’t click for me but Tohaa really does. They have such a crazy and varied toolkit. It’s like I’m playing a totally different game. It also feels like I get the best design space for a list–I get the flexibility and power of Vanilla with the efficiency of a bunch of 3-man links.
The thing I’ve noticed so far is that it’s really easy to just not take specialists if you’re not careful. That said, Tohaa can project a truly ridiculous amount of board control and I think Spiral even more so. There’s a ton more to unpack here, it’s a bit overwhelming, so I’ll limit it to a few brief takeaways. One thing was that I needed to be more careful and nuanced with my impersonator deployment. I’ll chalk this up to inexperience with impersonators. I’ve taken them but not enough.
Really, I need to think more carefully about placement and attack options–there just aren’t a lot of cheap, efficient Tohaa gunfighters. Sukeul HMGs are amazing but they’re the exception, not the rule. I think prior experience with FRRM will help here.
Adam also needed to kill the glued Makaul to deny me orders… but we both were pretty busy thinking about other things. The heavy flamethrower is always annoying to use in the active turn too. I imagine I’ll have to learn how to use Nimbus grenades or something… but that seems really costly… Also we need to read the scenario and plan for it properly…
So far I’m pretty happy with the list and pretty pleased with the way I played it. I think I need more options to attack from out of LoF and or get access to E/M… or super-jump… looking at you, Kotail! I’ve got a lot of thoughts about Tohaa (and Spiral) now, but they’re not solidified yet, so I’ll end things here for now… thanks for reading!
I really enjoy your reports, they give me an insight into a meta half a world away!
#smartassinternetpersonremark: The triad can never be less than 3 at the creation.
#threethetohaa
Thanks for the kind words and for catching the mistake! I assumed Tohaa fireteams would work like other fireteams, but Tohaa do everything differently, why not this too? 🙂
Great BattleReport! Thanks for sharing!
One small thing, which may or may not have affected your game too much, but afaik, you couldn’t have re-camo’d the Igao on Turn 3. She has Frenzy, so she goes Impetuous the turn after she kills someone and subsequently has Camo reduced to Mimetism.
Otherwise, loved the images, and the detailed batreport! Always down to read about more Tohaa!
Thanks for catching the mistake and for the feedback!
Not moving the Igao up would’ve meant I had 3/5 instead of 4/5 antennas, so no effect on the game. Phew!