I'm slowly assembling, painting and playing my Morat army week by week, and now starting on the Drone Remotes box, and just wanted to double check which configurations are considered most useful so I can assemble for those. The M-Drone seems an obvious choice to me, with Forward Observer, Sat-lock and Sensor, and then the Q-Drone with 360° Visor, Total Reaction and Mimetism (HMG loadout). The others don't look so useful: the T Drone with Smart Missile Launcher looks like being something of a build-around unit, and I don't think I need the EVO device if I have say a Vanguard Hacker anyway? It's not critical, since proxying is no problem, but it's always good and courteous to have the right model built whenever possible. Would those be the most-used drone versions? Morat Aggression Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26) T-DRONE Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18) R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
The R drone is great in vanilla for the cheap orders, but with Morats you always need to consider how the inclusion of drones will impact your ability to leverage the Morat rule. Even still I might rate R drones over T drones in the MAF. But yeah M, Q, R, T is my drone priority sequence.
Q DRONE FIRST!!!! No, really, Q Drone is the shit. It's cheap, so it can fit almost any list, it hits like a truck with supportware, and mimetism helps you leverage the modifiers so he can troubleshoot that annoying overwatch link team or other ARO piece. I almost always have one and can't recommend it enough. But other than that I wouldn't know. I went for the E-drone because I like Rasyats and I face a lot of link teams in my local metal (Gotta love their faces when you go "Okay, I'm hacking your link" even when they have no hackable models on it.)
Paint your EVO tail, just don't mount it. It will easily sit on the end of a remote and stay in place without glue. You can always just set the tail in place on any of the other bodies and have an EVO.
I'm considering M-Drone as a near must-have in my meta. Too easy for Tohaa players and the like to camp TO specialists in hidden deployment on objectives for Turn 3 grabs. 2x Clipsos FOs is just a 50pt bite out of their list ;-;
Indecision has always plagued my modeling unfortunately, so these simple remarks are a great help; thanks to all. Granted. It hasn't caught me out similarly with Med-tech Obsidon yet, but I'm aware that it's going to sooner or later; no doubt when I'm over-committed to non-Morat units. Good summary, thanks. I actually re-read your unit appraisals in The Morat's Manual before posting this, so your enthusiasm for the Q-Drone is duly noted! I'm not sure I understood this correctly. I thought you meant so that you have access to Controlled Jump program via the E-Drone so's to bring the Rasyat in more reliably, but in which case we could use the EI Hacking Device which the Morat Vanguard Infantry have access to? What do you mean by hacking the link if they have no hackable models - it sounds like I'm missing a good tactic here? A brilliant piece of advice, thank you! Yes, despite DaRedOne's obvious enthusiasm for the Q-Drone, the M-Drone's anti- CH/HD features are making it first pick for me at the moment.
The EVO brings a +3 to drop troops natively (no program needed). Also, they get the Upgrade Program: Exile which disbands link teams by targeting any member whether it's hackable or not. Enjoy :).
Yes, I see now that although the EI Hacking Device does provide Controlled Jump, it's costing a whole Order for say, the Vanguard Hacker to use, as opposed to in being a passive ability on EVO Drones; good point, thanks. And I'd completely overlooked the Exile program; good explanation, thanks.
Be careful with just adding the tail to the Evo, you might scratch the pain of it's tail. I would mount the Total Reaction and the EVO, no doubt. Then a second box for the specialist drones, if you need them, but I doubt you really do. And the EVO in the CA is totally Morat-influenced. Remember: it's the only EVO with a weapon!
My preferred order: Q>M>T>E>R Q is excellent for the reasons previously stated M is a useful specialist with mimetism and can use triangulated fire and check for traps T is good paired with M, the ability to just pull a guided missile out to deal with problems like enemy HI or links is very useful as it avoids having to beat things in a firefight, more useful with a heavy lean towards orders E is good for disrupting links and making sure your Rasyat lands and with a combi, speed and the ability to buff itself can make for a useful unit of last resort, It's obvious but so is taking a Rasyat in MAF anyway, obviously it has synergy that all the other remotes can play off. R is a cheap order best paired with overclock from an E-drone, generally however I'd ask why you're not spending the point to make it an Ikadron to stick on a flank on overwatch with its flamers (acceptable answers are: I already have two, I have an M-drone and want to use sniffers or I just want an expendable flash pulse turret which will not move from cover for the entire game) Edit: M drones definitely do not have mimetism and i definitely owe a recent opponent an apology!
If you clean, prime and seal the paint properly scratching shouldn't be an issue. If you are truly paranoid, put a layer of gloss varnish over the end of the remote bodies then hit with a matte to tone it down. The layer of gloss should make for a near impenetrable barrier to the paint.
You had me scrambling in Army for a moment there. Sensorbots don't actually have mimetism. Even CA ones :P Tbh that works better for PanO sectorials with AVA 3 on flashbots. Here it is nothing special really. But maybe something to consider occasionally.
Yeaaaah I just edited that Mimetism bit, that's me misreading Multiterrain like a muppet Nothing special but still I think noteworth, mine on overclock have blinded Nisse and Jotums In fairness I haven't either, I'm usually too short on orders when it reaches that stage to be able to spare them but E-Drones are a genuine piece of CA superiority
Yeah, 8 pts for mimetic B2 flash pulse is still something to consider. So I edited my post slightly as well :P The question is, of course, about having orders. In likes of SAA and NCA (and maybe Druze seeing how they are naturally predisposed towards having an EVO bot as well) it's pretty order-efficient to be a to-go trick. Edit: Although sensorbots also benefit from Overclock, so...
I play against a nomad guy who often uses drop troopers and a tohaa guy that plays agressive as balls with his Rasail and Sukeul. Either case I would have benefited of a b14 shock ammo combi rifle as early as turn 1. I'll keep this in mind for the future
Great post, thank you. And I have great respect for anyone who can apologize for having inadvertently taken advantage! Sure, it’s only a game, but trust is real, and games can be the worst of us if we abuse it; or the best, if we guard it this way. Kudos.
We're the only ones who have an Evo drone with weapons ;) So the chances of you encountering it elsewhere are pretty slim.
