And now we know why Morats are going oop. We will see new MAF action pack as Adepticon release. Question is how will CB change this army?
I'm still slightly confused by all the things that were removed from the catalogue - are the Morats getting resculpted again? Is the box going to mostly be repacks?
No idea in honesty as some are newer than a lot of other models out there (check back when they were released, quite scary how many things feel newer but aren't!). However, I think I heard right when he said they will be bigger and more aggressive etc - so sounds like resculpts. I just hope the Suryat Tinbot sticks around, so cute they are.
I heard that CB have some plans with Morats and they plan to make them look like Morats from Tagraid. Maybe it will be similar to MO update and Shad and resculpt will be part of the sectorial design change and we will see some units completely reworked, but who know.
I'm actually kind of nervous about this. I love the current Morat sculpts. I own literally the entire Morat catalogue. If CB manages to resculpt and improve the whole range, I might need to sell an organ or two to afford them. Jokes aside, this is great news. Super excited to see what changes and how the revised army will shake out
Do these type of rereleases come with a rules change? If so, great! If not, I think focusing on sculpts (which are totally fine) would be a very strange priority for the MAF.
Well, using the revamps of Shas, MO, and JSA as a baseline, then yeah there's usually a pretty significant rework of rules and profiles to accompany a new model range.
Thats really promising. SEF became nuts after their revamp, MO got solidly better too. I didn't really see the JSA change. I think Morats are coming from a worse starting point than MO personally, so hopefully they get a large enough change to make them really shine as a faction.
Yeah, there is good precedent to assume a rules refresh, and I feel like Carlos alluded to that in the video update as well.
I am thinking about new MAF box and about Tagraid morats and here are some possibilities. What if Tyrok profile is hint how new Morat profiles will look like? Maybe Morats will have access to rifles instead of combirifles (maybe with some special ammos). This would be probably interesting solution to Vanguards. Rifles would make them cheaper and if cb would like to make them cost 14pts they can add some special ammo (k1, AP etc) which would make them at least interesting option. Maybe we will see Skurgot jawbrutes instead of Hungries as their beasts? This will also open design space to change oznat to something similar to Bakunin Uberfallkommando. Resculpt also open space to make Suryat and Sogarats more different or change one of these units to something else. There are tons of possibilities how to make MAF even more interesting army.
What if Vanguards were able to serve as an actual Vanguard? Basic LI, but with FD +8" or something, and swap out to Rifle to make back the points. Rifle + Heavy Pistol is not a terrible loadout and probably a fair bit cheaper than Combi or Rifle+Shotty. Maybe add a minelayer or Sapper profile to make things interesting
It is possible, but I doubt they will give Vanguards FD +8'' without losing fireteam core. Also they already did this with Seed Soldiers and I don't think they will repeat this solution. Maybe they will give them another rule? Vanguards with rifles instead of combi would cost around 10-11 pts. I don't think vanilla CA needs so cheap cheerleaders if we consider that CA is already very strong faction. I also can be wrong and Morats still will have combi rifles and Tyrok hunters are exception with rifles. What I really find interesting is that Skurgot jawbrutes have their own logo in army 7. This makes me pretty confident that we will see them even as solo unit like Taigas. Question is what will happen to Hungries. Hungries only available in vanilla? Hungries also available in MAF but some of their roles taken by Skurgots (Oznat + Skurgots, solo skurgots, etc...) or Skurgots will replace Hungries completely and Hungries will no longer be part of the CA army?
Rifle+heavy pistol would be way, way better than a combi. I'd love if vanguards were changed to that. But, as mentioned before, there are cost issues. I am cautiosly optimistic here. CB has an atrociously bad track record with morats, but every time they make a pass on the army it does get better, and I would love new sculpts too. Hoping for the best.
I have no problem with the idea of giant morats. Aside from extra stuff to buy as a gift they’d be excellent to see on the battlefield.
I don't feel that CA needs to be constrained by "mandatory 14 point cheerleader" because really, how important is that rule when vanilla can take 6 orders for 40 points already? How many crappy cheerleaders do people actually want? I really like the idea of Vanguards with FD and particularly with FD+Mines. I wanted something similar for Kurgats. Armies that are stuck in the deployment zone really appreciate it if the deployment zone is essentially bigger. Thats a really good catch. I'll be pissed if they outright delete Hungries because I have always thought they were really cool. But not a problem if they are folded into the Oznat. Hungries as solos don't really have a reason to exist without changes when the Taigha exists, so I see this or a change in the Hungries profile (fingers X'd for mines!) as the main way to sort them out
Great write up OP! You obviously have put in a ton of effort and time, which shows the love you have for the game and faction! I personally do not love back-seat game design, so I wont comment on that part of your efforts. However, I do like Morats and hold a very different opinion to you. So, here is hoping to some productive disagreements! I disagree with almost every issue/perceived issue you have on Morats, and i'll provide my reason as to why. My general position on Morats is that their biggest strength is not their big monkey, but rather their warbands.. I feel Morats are indeed aggressive and combat orientated Army. The biggest strength and threat lays in their elite warbands. No other faction gets better and more diverse warband access. You have warbands to deal with any threat. Gaki - Perfect for dealing with: infiltrators, camo markers, mines/dropbears, visual modifier 1 wound specialists - Berserk is a special skill Preta - Perfect for doing double duty, providing you with defensive perimeter(ignoring the FAQ) and being able to transition into offense to deal with 1 wound model/midfield infiltrators Krakot - Forward deployment + meta chem make these guys special. Missions with 16 inch deploy make these troops lethal. Several good load outs. 2 Chain Rifles, 2 Smgs, Red Fury, all viable. This model can shred light inf or berserk to trade with highly specialized 1 W infantry. Can also break HI and TAGs if given the opportunity. Also big threat to link teams with templates. Daturazi - Smoke, DA CC Dmg 17, Berserk - simply the best Warband in the game, imo. Kendrat - Still getting my skills up with her, but she has killed anathematics, HI and LI so far. Oznat - Don't use her very often, but plan to focus on her in the near future. She is no longer a pre-requisite for Gaki/Preta fyi The aggression comes in the form of warbands, which I will admit are very difficult to play initially. However, there is little room to debate that this is indeed a fearsome arsenal of warbands. This is indeed a handicap of the faction, but it is intended and does not render the faction unplayable, IMO. I will admit the Zerat KHD is my crutch and my go to objective grabber. Though Raktorak, Anyat, Dr. Worm, E-Drone and Vanguard have all done work on the objective front. Obviously it takes pre-planning and development as they start in your DZ but that's hardly the end of the world. We do have a smoke wielding AD troop, though it does feel a bit of a waste using him to grab objectives rather than kills. Visual mods are honestly not a problem, if you fear being pinned down by ARO which provide visual mods, build your lists with a Yaogat sniper +1B - You wont have problems for long This I can't argue with, but it applies to all Vanilla factions, though you do lose your link teams and order efficiency they bring, as well as veteran rule(aspects exists) and AVA The vanguard link with Suryat is really powerful. With Anyat, Raktorak and Suryats you can form plenty of interesting and diverse fire teams. Suryats have some amazing profiles. There are always Rodoks if you want a good cheap HMG platform, lastly. The Oznat link can work, i think.. but it need a Raktorak with No.2 Anyone who clumps up is gonna have a bad time with missile spam. Though, we have 6-6 4 pt repeater hunters and 14 ph warbands dodging at 55%. Also, we have an amazing drop troop that can solve almost any problem. This might be too subjective to argue. I think if you lean into the warbands and veteran capacity of the faction you can really have some fun
Disagreement is fantastic! Lets take a look at what you think I'd argue that vanilla CA gets better warband access. It trades away links for Daturazi and Hungries, which I am honestly not a huge fan of, for access to the best non-smoke warband in the game - the Taigha. After that it has access to similar or sometimes better AVA on all the warbands you list below. Unplayable is a strong word, and not one that I used - I think they are certainly "playable", just not really good enough if you look at them mechanically. I also don't think it is reasonable for a faction tolack all of these tools by intent unless given other strong tools to compensate, and while Suryats are good they are not that good that they compensate for a lack of ability in most of the focal areas of Infinity. The Yaogat Sniper can deal with some things, but others he falls flat. Against anything where he can combo with smoke he's a solid choice. Against any big linked sniper, he falls pretty flat. IE 35% vs 41% vs linked Lasiq. And the problem is, that nothing in the MAF is all that good at deleting this type of ARO. It's also concerning when we need to walk our MSV trooper across the board to deal with a flash pulse bot because our elite HI paintrain cannot handle it! There is always some element of "can vanilla just do this job too?" but not often to this extent. As I mentioned above, vanilla has the same warband access as MAF but IMO substantially better because of the Taigha. Similarly, they have access to the Rasyat at full power, and nearly the same AVA of Daturazi. The things that vanilla cannot do are a Kornak LT (which is pretty damn nice) and link teams, most of which are pretty poor and the rest not really good enough to make up for the loss of capability. I've always argued that any sectorial that is just "limited selection but a big strong link team" isn't good enough and have pushed hard for sectorial specific advantages such as profiles, lieutenants, AVA or swc cost. In MAF's case, its limited selection is not compensated for by great links. I love the Vanguards with Suryat, but a line trooper castle with an above par turret piece does not make a sectorial without sufficiently good supporting units. It's not about if you can answer it later. A key question for any list is if it can answer powerful effects going second on turn one. Given MAF's extremely limited midfield game, MAF are extremely vulnerable to certain types of attack. This type of weakness can be fine if the faction gets superior strength in other areas, but the Morats just... don't.
My take is that MAF should be defined by strong active turn: high burst weapons, above average access to bonuses to burst, good mobility- but with mostly passive reactive turn defence: high ARM/BTS, Veteran guarding them against LoL, ability to go suppressive, as other factions can. Some ideas that would fit into this framework: Vanguards: MI with ARM 3, with (+1 B) on select profiles, like HMG and MSR (trading their K1 SR with Zerats) (I'd like it to be unit-wide, but that would make them too costly) Kurgats: MI with ARM 3/4 and AP Immunity, more tools for fire support/combat engineering/trench warfare: Grenade Launcher, HFTs, Fire Grenades, ability to link into at least some other fireteams, if not outright Wildcard. They can get somewhat expensive, but at least will have a clear role. Rodoks: MOV 6-2, (+1 B) on some profiles (Boarding Shotgun becoming proper assault shotgun this way?) Yaogats: Forward Deployment (+4") and MOV 6-2 to get that MSV into proper position easier. Suryats: Unit wide (+1 B) Sogarats: MA2 Raicho: (+1 B) Zerats: Marksmanship, exchanging sniper rifles with Vanguards (K1 SR would work much better on an infiltrator) Oznat: Strategic Deployment
