ITS 10: Rise of the Morats

What is there to discuss? It is a great year for MAF.

Raicho went from 'meh' to BEAST MODE, the TAG;
Rasyats were already good, being able to deploy them in any nook or cranny just turns them into Bugbears. I'd still enjoy a slight buff to their stats, but they're pretty great as it is;
Finally we have a reason to use the Yaogat spitfire in a core or haris. (this can be a point of contention as I know some MAF players like the yaogat, but no one can deny they are the ones to benefit from Advanced deployment the most)
Rodoks are already good, so Advanced Deployment only makes them better;
Could we see the rise of the Solo Raktorak? Idk, seems doable now that they start the game a little upwards on the table and have that cheap as chips red fury. In fact, I can see some funny, but not very competitive plays with a Kornak+Suryat+Raktorak combo.

Oh, and the new classifieds have lots of stuff for a bunch of burly CQC oriented monkeys. It seems like this could be a fun year.

 

All in all a good year for the Brut- I mean Morats.

Although our local Morat player and the other CA players still think the Raicho is bad...
I would disagree with them, but my argumentative skills frankly suck, so eh.

 

*Angry monkey noises*

You wanna know why the Raicho is good? I'm gonna tell you why the Raicho IS AWESOME:

For starters, she can't be isolated and stays regular if/when your lieutenant buys the farm. That means your opponent needs to deal with the big monkey bot, there's no 'starve her orders' with this lass.
Then, we have the Heavy Shotgun on a BS14, Mov 6-4 ARM FUCKMOTHERING 8! Chassis with FAT1. That means your heavy shotty hits with Strength 16! Strength 16! On a template! A BS14, +6 at 8 inches template! This will turn anything it can get a bead on into mincemeat, and unlike all the other Heavy Shotgun models in the game, you have a MULTI HMG for long to medium range engagements. This is the premier murder monkey, right here.
But what about hackers? Well, fuck them! A hacker needs to get within 8 inches to hack your muderbot, and you know what you have that also works within 8 inches? MINES! Remember to deploy your mines within any possible fire zones and make sure any 1 wound hacker will sweat in their cowardly breeches when they approach your huntress;
Oh, and the pilot packs 2 big pistols and D-charges, meaning she can still get out and turn some blokes into pink mist if the tag goes unconscious. And now she doesn't leave the table if/when the tag dies while she's out of it!

The only thing you need to fear from hackers is a repeater fired on their active turn. Warbands will also be a problem, but you can deal with those with the rest of your army (if you bring hungries, you'll be hunting warbands with them anyways).

So yeah, Raicho used to be crap. Right now I will argue that it is a really, really good TAG though.

 

I shall make note of this when I next have to tell them ''Just because it's not flashy with fancy skills and weapons and costs 94 points doesn't mean it's bad.''
Although, funnily enough, the local Morat/Haqq player called the Guija a solid TAG once...yet calls the Raicho poor. Two TAGs... that have profiles... that are near identical ( Seriously, the HFT profiles on both TAGs are ONE point in difference, only stat being different is that the Raicho has the Morat skill. And, well, the pilots are vastly different too, I suppose. ). He justifies it by saying that MAF is a faction without cheap options to back a Raicho ( For context, his lists tend to be REM and Hungry heavy. ).

 

Actually, Raicho used to have Wip12 and that really made the guija better. As it was cheaper.

However, current Raicho is Wip13 and packs better weapons (there's only one or two situations where a flamer is better than a shotty). Even if it is more expensive.

 

Yeah, the Raicho does seem like a pretty goddamn awesome TAG all in all. No real fancy tricks, just a big beating brick.
Would probably suit my disposition towards single combat group lists more ( My play mentality differs so greatly from our local Morat player, that if I got into Morats ( Which sounds neat, I genuinely like how much they remind me of Brutes, is a really cool theme. ), we'd practically be playing two different sub-subfactions. ).
A nice defensive Vanguard Core with Anyat in it, a Yaogat Sniper mixed in between them, preferably not far from Anyat for on demand smoke coverage, Kornak sitting around somewhere too, maybe, a Zerat and maybe a Daturazi sounds like a nice list.

Something like this, come to think of it.

Morat Aggression Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10 1
ANYAT K1 Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Smoke Grenades, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
MORAT K1 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
MORAT Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 19)
MORAT (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
MORAT (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
KORNAK Lieutenant Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 41)
YAOGAT MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 34)
RAICHO MULTI HMG + Heavy Shotgun, Mine Dispenser / . (2 | 94)
RAICHO PILOT 2 Heavy Pistols, D-Charges, Knife. ()
ZERAT (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

 

If We're talking 10 order raicho lists, I want to try this:

Morat Aggression Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

6 4 5
YAOGAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Panzerfaust / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 29)
MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
RAICHO MULTI HMG + Heavy Shotgun, Mine Dispenser / . (2 | 94)
RAICHO PILOT 2 Heavy Pistols, D-Charges, Knife. ()
RAICHO MULTI HMG + Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 89)
RAICHO PILOT 2 Heavy Pistols, D-Charges, Knife. ()
OZNAT Vulkan Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 20)
PRETA Chain Rifle / AP CCW. (0 | 7)
GAKI AP CCW. (0 | 4)
GAKI AP CCW. (0 | 4)
GAKI AP CCW. (0 | 4)

4.5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Sometime soon. I need a second Raicho model for it, but I'm gonna get it anyways (Already have a slightly converted raicho, probably gonna get the second one and give her a custom gun and some battle damage). I feel like it could be a lot of fun.

 

That seems like a fun list to run.

Actually, that reminds me of something... how does the Oznat/Hungry link get affected by Loss of Lieutenant? Do the Gakis/Pretas still give orders, or not...?

 

The link doesn't break, but the hungries become irregular. However, the oznat doesn't and you can still use her order to move the link (or any other regular order you might have)

 

Ah, I suppose that makes fair sense then.

 

I personally like the changes, hopefully will have enough time to try out enough stuff before any tournament. Definitely want to try out Rodoks and Yaogats with spitfire now.

 

hmm...I played several times vs maradeurs and their forward deployment was very situational. It was once nice - to put maradeur specialist in 4" near antenna to click and....that was the onliest time they used forward deployment...Maybe that is specific to our tables... But I don't think ITS10 significantly buffs anything in morats... Putting links which are not so durable closer to enemy lines can be a disadvantage. Higher risk that some shitty smoke-chain rifle skirmisher would reach my link to put a template on it...

and AD... in competitive play i NEVER risk AD as those are high risks (near 50%) I would fail to land properly if enemy has hakers... this is more a desperation move if everything else is lost in my opinion.

I think marauders and Armand got some interesting options for deployment (they gained forward deployment L2).

Oh yeah...and the most from it got... PROXY MK5 !! ...they are MI and has Forward deployment L1... nice... like proxies are not powerful already... ;(

 

Yeah at the end of season 9 I was having fun with this:
Raichodoks
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10
KORNAK Lieutenant Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 41)
RODOK Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
RODOK Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
RODOK HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 27)
RODOK Paramedic (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
RODOK Combi Rifle, 2 Light Shotguns / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)
RAICHO MULTI HMG + Heavy Shotgun, Mine Dispenser / . (2 | 94)
RAICHO PILOT 2 Heavy Pistols, D-Charges, Knife. ()
KURGAT (Operative Group) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

And now it's better.

Yes massive boost to MAF and it's close assault orientated fireteams, Yaogats will love it, rodoks love it, raktoraks love it, rasyats love it and so does kornak.

Outside of MAF I also tend to use Maakrep in a sweeper role, and plasma skio LT so it's a big buff there too.

 

Consider the following: A Rasyat goes to PH16 with supportware and has stealth. This means you can deploy him to any nook, any place that will fit an S2 miniature and is out of LOF from the opponent, and you can smoke your way out with total impunity. This guy is a boogeyman.

In as much you can say the roll is dangerous, and hackers can try to force you to scatter, remember the roll is a FTF roll and the hacker is at -6 to it. Also, only Hacking Devices and Hacking Devices plus can try to hack transport (EVOs and Defensives too, I guess, but nobody uses those). Considering the average hacker is Wip13-14, you will usually roll 1 dice on 16 vs 1 dice on 7-8. Those aren't bad odds at all if you consider the end result is your stealth killer landing right where he can deal the most damage.

It's situational, yes, but it's good.

 

Pretty sure quite a nice chunk of people actually use EVO hackers.

 

yes they do ;)

 

Quite often!