Tsan Ra Infantry

After the Isori-Tsan Kiri War and the disappearance of the remnants of the enemy Tsan Kiri, it was some time before the Isorians were to discover an abandoned hatchery of what were to become known as the Tsan Ra.

Biologically a form of the silicate creature the Isorians called the Tsan Kiri, these newly discovered creatures were born into the shard of the Isorian Senatex. Because the Isorian IMTel had already absorbed data from Tsan Kiri bio-spores, the melded nanosphere was perfectly adapted to interface with the new hatchlings so the creatures became part of the Isorian shard in the same way as the panhuman populations of the Senatex. To distinguish them from the Isorian’s former enemies the new, Senatex-influenced species became known as the Tsan Ra (‘reborn’ or ‘humanised’ Tsan).

Tsan grow throughout their lives. This means their physical prowess eventually makes them effective troopers in countless combat situations, able to move faster (M6), hit harder (Str 7) and carry heavier and more deadly weapons than panhuman infantry. Their psychological make-up is in many ways more compatible with the business of waging war than is that of the Senatex’  panhuman population.

The two major drawbacks with Tsan are:

• that they tend to overestimate the capabilities of their panhuman counterparts. This means that a Tsan senior commander is now no longer use in the Senatex, experience showing that Tsan commanders tend to leave too many friendly, panhuman bodies in their wake – a situation that is not conducive to panhuman well-being!
• they do not react well to surprise, preferring to plan ahead and know what they are doing. This is reflected in a weakened Init stat.

On the table

The Tsan Ra have three types of infantry units in the Isorian list: Command (Tsan Var), Phase (Tsan Vesh) and Assault (Tsan Mahra).Key is that they tend to operate in squads of four , though players may reduce the squad sizes to three (at 10pts) if they do not have the models (the Tsan are bulky so only sold in packs of three).

The phase squad is armed with phase armour and a plasma duocarb, a heavier version of the plasma carbine with extended coils that almost makes it into a light support weapon (one shot at SV3 or two shots at SV1). Indeed, Tsan phase squads are often used in place of support weapon teams. The squad leader has an x-sling and slingnet, though rarely uses it, all have plasma carbines, and the squad has a spotter buddy.

The assault squad is given phase armour and compressor toruses (torii?), a heavy short-range weapon based on compression technology that cannot be carried by anyone smaller and weaker than the Tsan Ra. It is based upon the same principal as hyper-compressed material technology and compression weapons but is sensitive to atmospheric densities in the same way as other compression weapons – but enjoys the same advantages when it comes to crunching its way through cover or other defences. Up close and in hand to hand, it is also a very deadly, two-hit, SV3 hand-to-hand weapon.

The command squads have the same duocarb, grenades and armour as the phase squad, the leader (a 64-Commander) having Monitor, Tough , and only the Command and Follow command attributes. The 64-commander can be upgraded to the most senior Tsan commander that appears in Isorian armies, the 256-commander, with an improved Init stat, Follow, and Tough 2.

The wonderful Tabletop Warlords have a video overview on their YouTube channel of the deadly Torus Squad from version 1 and Edd Ralph has also created a blog post with some tips on assembling these eight-legged creatures.