So, let's talk about that Morat Update...

Ok then.

First off, I love the Raktorak wildcard. It's something I'd been asking for, for awhile now. No, it's better than that. I just wanted Raktoraks in a Suryat duo, but being able to put both a specialist and a big gun in Daturazi is quite a boon. He's great to cheapen many links, and in a sectorial that pays through the nose for a morale ability that everyone gets for free in the ITS missions where that morale ability would confer an actual advantage, that's pretty helpful.

Rodok haris is an absolute blessing.

Kurgat autocannon in the haris corrects a wrong done to us years ago. I will actually be buying that model now.

Suryat inclusion in Vanguards is just great. Really great. Vanguards aren't cheap enough to make it feel as awesome as an Orc in Fusiliers, but they're damn sure cheaper than more Suryats.

The Oznat stalker is another thing I've been asking for. Two things combined actually. That sensor is a godsend. I look forward to rooting out some Ariadnan cowards with it. The g:synch Preta is the icing on the cake for sweeping through fields of camouflaged troopers. It's an extra discover per order. Huge. My M drone moves up until it reaches a mine it can't bypass in a few orders. The Oznat stalker can just send in the bomb sniffing dog and keep moving. More than one sensor on the field means that capability cant be easily cancelled with one assassination run. I love it. And bringing the stalker team unlocks hungries without taxing you with an expensive, subpar daturazi. I love it.

Losing Bit and Kiss hurts and I'm not going to downplay it, not even for a rodok khd in exchange. Without her pitcher, and with our abnormally low ava of basic remotes hacking the enemy in aro isn't easy to achieve. And that pushes down the E drone's viability, which is a shame, and leaves my raicho feeling a little more vulnerable.

The Soggie change feels weighted badly too. Linked feuerback soggies were a defensive bulwark that was damn difficult to crack, and I'll miss them more than I'll enjoy that one new profile option.

While it's old news now, the new shotgun Raicho is still my favorite TAG in the whole game.

Overall I think the changes have opened up new and interesting list building options that feel pretty good, but the losses still make it seem like the other factions continue to pull ahead in the lead of competitive viability that they already had.

Morats still have 2 major weaknesses

The intended lack of marker state.

And

The lack of meaningful turn 1 board control to trouble enemy infiltrators and deter alpha strikes, which makes going second an extremely dangerous uphill fight. Worse than usual for the other factions I play.

I feel like one of those weaknesses is enough for fluff or balance or whatever, but both together is difficult for me to manage. The new Oznat stalker gives me more tools on how to handle some of those problems though, so I'm grateful for that.

I had already left Morats for greener pastures, but I'll be coming back to them for local tourneys now. But with how deadly TAK and Varuna are looking, and how awful vanilla Ariadna has always been to play against, I doubt I'd bring them to something like The Rumble on Route 66 anytime soon.

So, a sincere thank you CB. I appreciate this step in the right direction.

 

Is there anywhere that a person can go to get an actual list of what all changed today? Preferably, a list that's mechanically generated.

Edit: For instance, I have no idea what the new Oznat profile is supposed to do because
1. It's not in the Profiles PDF
2. That entry in Army doesn't work at the moment--it's not selectable.

 

Yeah, Morats are still disappointing and by far the worst sectorial outside of maybe the very limited merc teams.

But hey, at least the Morats finally have Full Auto Lv2, right? What? Its overcost you say? Well, duh. And to think people wanted that on a TAG. Sigh.

 

Oh I'm not trying to be positive, I'm trying to be objective. And I agree with you that Morats, who I believe were already behind the curve, are staying behind the curve.

I play in probably the least competitive meta on the entire planet. Beforehand if I brought Morats and got matched with vanilla Ariadna, or TAK now I guess, I could look forward to a frustrating, not-quite-fun uphill struggle for a mediocre result (minor loss/draw/minor victory) that was exhausting. Now I feel like I have tools that make looking at that problem again worthwhile and interesting. That's what I appreciate.

But yeah, not in a competitive setting until I really get more comfortable and try to find new tricks and angles.

I could go on and on about how I think Combined Army's design philosophy altogether is problematic. Combined has entire civilizations dedicated to a specific role on the battlefield, but don't seem to excel at it. whereas human factions have sectorials that can fulfil most or all battlefield roles with varying degrees of efficacy.

In light of that I never really expected Morats to rise to high tier capabilities.

 

Stupid question about the Onzat Stalker Unit. Does both the Onzat herself and G:Sync Preta have Sensor? Or is it only the Onzat?

Basically if I declare Sensor with her do I only reveal Camo markers inside her ZoC or in both her ZoC and the Preta's ZoC?

 

Her zone of control ( And also the ZoC of any Sniffers you may have deployed as well. ).

 

The Raktorak is closer to what he should have been in the first place.

Oznat is an okay option, but more sensor millage can still be had by an M & R drone combo.

Suryats - Meh

Rodok KHD & Haris are a far greater benefit for Onyx.

Bit & Kiss being removed is a garbage move.

Kugats AC change was so they could sell the new model. They knew no one would buy it otherwise.

Sogarats got Bio-immunity instead of raising BTS, and a profile that costs even more........

 

Is the kurgat autocannon really able to join a link?
it still says harm's operative group... and the autocannon one is NOT part of the operative group.

 

It's funny, in every subforum there are players declaring the new update rubbish, there are voices saying IA is DOA and that MO have been gutted and left completely uncompetitive, it'll be interesting to see how things shake out once people get a decent amount of table time with new lists.

 

The Army update has removed the previously printed restriction.

 

Only time will tell if the salt shall stop flowing.

 

ah, thanks, I see where this is coming from then. kind of like with mirage 5 who lost the limitation of having to enter on the same table edge also by this not being mentioned anymore.

 

And IJW said so in the main Third Offensive thread.

 

Mimetic TR HMGS, Linked Disposable MLs that becomes a 5 man HI HMG, B2 Flashpulses, B2 Flamers, disposable 5/7 pt warband screens

Morats dont really play ARO but they have more than enough tools to hold their ground effectively

 

You mean TR HMG (one, not a Morat), "Linked Disposable MLs that becomes a 5 man HI HMG" no idea what that is, B2 Flashpulse, if you take the E-drone and run supportware, and not a Morat, and Hungries that many are so quick to mention as cheap units but purposely forget the Oznat tax for them, and not Morats.

 

6.8pts/order really isn't that expensive. Though I am not a fan of the Oznat link outside of TAG centric lists myself.

 

So what do we have here? this is a list Ive suggested for supplies.

Morat Aggression Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 10 2
SURYAT Lieutenant HMG + TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 45)
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)
MORAT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
MORAT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
GROUP 2 5 1
RASYAT Combi Rifle + E/Mitter, D-Charges, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 31)
E-DRONE Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 28)
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)
KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Submachine Guns, Chest Mine / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 17)
5 SWC | 300 Points
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Well we have the obvious aforementioned TR HMG (the obvious one)
We also have 4 B2 WIP13 flashpusles (only 2 of those start at WIP16)
We have a BS 14 B2 ML
we have 3 warbands that are able to put down either smoke or DTWs as a screen and are effectively disposable as well

Its not the same reactive threat as say VIRD, but its more than enough to hold ground before you start MKMN2 buffing the HMG, advancing the link, swamring the midfield with the warbands ect

 

Everything you mention there is basically what everybody can use (Q drone is a nice exception, for 1 firelane), but a lot of other factions can also bring minelayers, peripheral weapons, auxbots, their own camo, etc.. Morats basically have to cede everything but their deployment zone to enemy infiltrators.

 

Most likely will be taking this tomorrow for Show Of Force. Still thinking about an alternative list with a TAG, but really doubt that I'll be taking it, as it's too expensive, and I think I have tools in order to crack a TAG.

Or drop Daturazi and R-drone from second group for a Kurgat with slaves.

Show of Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 10 6
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)
RAKTORAK Red Fury / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26)
KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
MORAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14)

GROUP 2 7 1
YAOGAT Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 32)
YAOGAT (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle + Panzerfaust / Pistol, CCW. (0.5 | 30)
RAKTORAK (NCO) Vulkan Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
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)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14)

5.5 SWC | 298 Points

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