This isn't a bad model but I dislike it for a variety of reasons as a Morat TAG. Things I like about the new Morat sculpts, and that I think are pretty standout about their aesthetic: If they have helmets they have two horns. Nearly every Morat that I know of with a helmet on incorporates two horns into their look. This is true for Rodoks, Suryats, Sogarats, Yaogats, and the Rasyats. The old Raicho had little tiny horns on it too because it's face was meant to be almost pilot sized but this is basically true for the whole range. This horned look isn't natural to the Morats, they're weird demon monkeys. This look is tradition incorporated into their sci-fi aesthetic judging from their tradition of hunting beasts mentioned in the fluff, because they don't naturally have horns, and also because of how the Oznot hunter looks. She's wearing a skull of a hungary or whatever. We basically can guess from this information that the two horn look comes from a traditionally hunted beast. The skull on the Raicho also has two horns on it. In the concept art I'm sure that they wanted to have the skull closer to the face of the Raicho, which is why it appeared on the back ammo rack above her face. I would guess that they were trying to stay true to this theme of skull faces, but somewhere along the way they decided that the sculpt looked better with the skull on the shoulder (they're probably right about this). I think at the very least they should have given her head two big horns. But what would have really elevated this new Raicho look would have been putting that skull directly on the Raicho's face. It would really sell the internal consistency of the Morat look and be badass at the same time. Morats also have thick bulky limbs and muscles. This Raicho is oddly slim around the pelvis area. Morats typically have bipedal huminoid feet and give no indication of great technical prowess or desire to create weapons that don't look immediately intuitive, and the manned tag has weird reverse joint hooves. I also don't understand why the Tag has armour that reflects a relatively lighter (sculpted around the same) AD troops, rather than the big expensive designs that Suryats and Sogarats would represent and would be the logical expansion of Morat designs. I think it's a cool sculpt, and it says EI or Mercenary tag to me. But definitely not immediately Morat.
I agree. Morats play like PanO without the high BS and TO camo. It just struck me that maybe the Raicho's design intentionally doesn't match Morat Heavy Infantry aesthetics because those units are male and this Raicho model represents the female Morat Heavy Armor aesthetic, which looks a little off to us because we hadn't yet seen a representation of it. I say this because the pilot is female and the Raicho has trophy bits like the Oznat.
PanO has (zero-vis) smoke, good infiltrators, and decent hackers. I said there was overlap, not that they were the same.
That's a good point. Female Morats were never depicted with horns like the males in the old sculpts, so possibly they don't decorate their armor with them either. Female Morats do like their skull trophies, though, it seems...
Was raicho popular before? I very seldom saw it on a table. Maybe they would make up something new to attract buyers? GW style? :)
I'm certainly not one for making predictions, but that would at least break it out of the boring-core-book-TAGs mold.
I feel like I’m the only one who appreciates an ARM8 (11 in cover!) BS14 MULTI HMG, that can’t be isolated and doesn’t fail guts... It’s actually fairly unique in the Combined army, it’s higher BS than the Over/Xeodron, and far tougher, but still cheap compared to the Sphinx and Avatar. It can engage high armored targets which the many of the other CA TAGs struggle with (other than the Avatar and HRMC Overdron). Giving it frenzy also means losing cover bonuses, which is a HUGE downside, I would be far happier leaving it as-is.
Man, it hurts me because I appreciate that since I've never played a faction with a MBT, but that model really made me look over morats with fresh eyes and I'd love for it to have some panache. I think however it turns out I'm gonna appreciate it. I'm /this/ close to starting morats right now. It's dumb, but my hold up is actually aesthetic. The average morat makes me think of halo brutes, which I'm not as attracted to, but the daturazi, oznat, and HMG sogarat make me think predator, which is awesomesauce in my book. Looks like the pelt is a bit controversial, but I'm probably gonna be playing around with converting most of the units to have more of that "hunter" look. I get why people would like them to not have it as the default though
To be fair, I very rarely see Vanguard on table these days outside of a Vanguard/Anyat link. You could get away with not even buying the starter to get started with MAF.
I know what you're saying, but I don't think there's anything reverse about the joints. It still has a knee. Think of it more that it's standing on its toes with REALLY long foot. The only thing I can think of, real or fiction, that actually has inverted joints in the legs is the alien from The Arrival.
In terms of aesthetic I wonder if it's based on one of the beasts that Morats hunt? As for why it's not taken.... In vanilla the chances are you are taking an expensive Aspect since that is what vanilla is all about so can you really afford a 90pt TAG and a 70+pt Aspect? In Morats I think it's main problem is Sogorats. Do I spend 90pts on an ARM8 BS14 Multi HMG or do I spend 120pts on 2 ARM6 BS13 models both with anti-armour weapons and that stand a pretty good chance of healing themselves?
I'd say that sounds a little like the Blue Wolf :p Plus the Sogarats can link in Haris with Kornak and/or his manservant...
Nah, Blue Wolf is ARM6 and S6 with Holo2. It's really close to being a Manned Uhlan. At least in my mind. We'll see what CB has in mind.
Actually while bipedal, the morat species has (I believe, not references handy right now) tridactlyl feet that resemble a bird's foot more than a humans. Since morats are, from what I interepret, a very ritualistic culture, it makes sense to me that maybe the design is influenced heavily by the prey they hunt, so perhaps the Raicho looks more like the demarok than simply a big morat. Personally, I think the big chest slim waist design is based around the idea that there's a lot of weight on the back, so having the entirety of the pilot sitting in the chest area would add valuable pounds as counterweight. Only Kornak, can't have raktoraks in the Sogarat Kornak haris FWIW, I really like the new design (I was not a fan of the old drumstick-legs model), but I degree there is somewhat of a stylistic departure from the current range (I attribute this to the morats having a new artist), however I think they've managed to introduce something fresh while at the same time maintaining a lot of consistency with the new old models. I am really glad this didn't just make it a giant sogarat though.
