The Trouble With Morats

Since coming back from Adepticon I’ve started playing my Morat Aggression Force in the local escalation league.  New to the Combined Army and MAF sectorial I of course went over to the Infinity forums to look for advice.  While there I read a number of discussions centering on how Morats really struggle in ITS.  At first I didn’t believe them but over the course of the escalation league I grew to understand those comments and, in many ways, agree with the more well-thought out complaints.  Today we’ll take a look at the complaints leveled against the MAF, why they are so widely held, and what CB could do in order to alleviate some of the issues.

First, let’s understand how the MAF play on the tabletop.  They are an aggressive force that favors straightforward tactics and stubbornly pushes up the field regardless of casualties.  If Morats aren’t moving forward than they aren’t doing it right.  While they have decent long-range firepower they really excel in the mid-range game.  Many of the Morat units can hold their own in close combat, but actual CC specialists will still find them pretty easy to take out.  They have about average BS but slightly higher than average CC and some of the best PH stats out there.  They are a blunt instrument whose idea of a precision strike is killing everything within a 2 mile radius of the objective.

There are two primary accusations against the Morats.  I’ll handle each of them in turn.

This is a multi-threaded complaint that covers both the weak spread of specialists necessary for ITS, the flexibility needed for objective play, and the diversity lacking in their linked units.  They have a fairly low count of specialists spread across only a few units and only one of which offers the flexibility of infiltration or AD.  Morats, being the blunt instrument they are, do not make wide use of AD, Camo, Infiltrate, or other special rules that offer some order efficiency (or inefficiency on the opponents part).  Many link opportunities offer no specialists meaning that moving specialists around can be very order intensive

One of the curiosities of Morats is that they aren’t great at anything.  They have Mediocre WIP, Mediocre BS, Decent CC (but it always seems like opponents have a CC skill just a little higher). About the only thing Morats can do better than anyone else is dodge, which seems odd given their background.  As evidence to this go look at lists people post in forums.  Most Vanilla Combined lists contain very few Morats as other units in Combined offer more for the price.

Both of the above accusations have held true under my observations.  In the escalation league I steamrolled my opponents when I didn’t need to worry about specialists.  When they threw in classifieds, I started having more difficulties.  Then when we did the full blown scenario and I started evaluating what to take to Seize the Antennas, I saw the issue blazing brightly in front me.

Morats have a weak specialist spread.  This isn’t to say they have fewer specialists than other sectorials but rather all of their specialists are crammed into just a few units.  They lack any infiltrating or AD specialists which makes grabbing objectives on the far side of the board extremely difficult.  For this they rely on Dr. Worm and the M-Drone to race across the board.  While fast at 6-4 they are not as mobile as other counterparts and lack climbing plus.  Additionally they are not Morats and thus are susceptible to Isolation, Loss of Lieutenant, and Retreat.  Rodoks make decent hackers and paramedics but are hampered by 4-2 movement.  That leaves the Kurgat, Vanguard, and Zerats.  The cheapest entry point?  Vanguard FO at 15 points.

Morat link teams suffer a real crisis of flexibility.  Essentially Morat links are either good at moving specialists around or good at killing things.  Rodoks are the only ones that show any flexibility. Vanguards and Rodoks are the only linkable specialists.  Yaogats, Suryats, and Sogarats are all killy but with small twists like MSV, Armor and point efficiency, or heavy armor and smaller link.

There are a number of units within the MAF that are NEVER used.  This isn’t because they are bad, but rather MAF is a force that relies heavily on order efficiency because everything we have pays the Morat tax.  That means the exact same troop in another force would cost less so even if we had mirror copies in other forces, we would have fewer models on the table, albeit with the Morat rule.

Raktoraks are the first casualty.  They are only ever seen as part of a Suryat link.  On their own a Rodok is typically a better choice.  Oznats are another rarely seen unit since linking hungries in MAF actually takes away from the advantage of taking them (you want them to be impetuous).  Drones make appearances but most MAF players think twice about them since they do not possess the Morat rule. The only ones I’ve used are the M and Q drone.  I’ve considered an Ikadron to back up my panzerfaust Yaogats but haven’t actually tried it or seen anyone try it.

Zerat by Jake Richmond

The Fix

I usually avoid speculation or wishlisting but while analyzing these issues I've read some good ideas on fixing these shortfalls and come up with some ideas on my own.  While some people have thrown out elaborate ideas to resolve these issues with MAF I think the faction is playable as-is, but the player needs to realize they are at a disadvantage for certain scenarios.

Addressing some of the faults could be done relatively easily with a few additional profiles.  Add an assault hacker to the Rasyat and a FO to the Zerat.  If the Rasyat receives an assault hacking device then change the Rodok from an assault device to a standard hacker.  Give Yaogats a FO profile and Suryats a paramedic and that solves the specialist and link team issues.

Give some units a more clear purpose and a more useful one.  Why can the Raktorak only link with Suryats?  I’d think a sergeant major could link with just about anything.  Maybe allow them to link with Vanguard in addition to Suryats (you wouldn’t want them in a Rodok link since they don’t have super-jump).  I know I said that linking hungries in the MAF was not ideal but change them from a full link into something more like haris or enomotarchos that allows MAF to have a hungries link AND another link

On the more creative front, someone on the forums brought up the idea of all lieutenant options going down by -2SWC.  The free ones would give +2SWC and the expensive ones would still grant +0.5.  If this happened I don’t think any other changes would be necessary other than perhaps the Rasyat or Zerat specialist changes mentioned above.  This to me would be more in keeping with Morat playstyle and background as their idea of “capturing” an objective is likely to kill everything moving within a couple miles and they could certainly bring the hurt with 0.5 to 2 additional SWC.

I think the Morats are a usable force for players who know the game and understand the missions/objectives and can see the weaknesses of the force for what they are.  Their issues could be addressed relatively simply with a few additional profiles but CB could overhaul them completely.  With N3 HS on the horizon and the vast majority of Morat units in HS and Paradiso it could be that we will see a number of changes to the Morat sectorial (Only Vanguard, Rodok, Raicho, Dr. Worm, Daturazi, Hungries and 4/5 drones are in the N3 book).

At the end of the day, play what you want to play.  If you want to play Morats, then buy them and play.  Practice will only make you a better player and you will be able to appreciate the flexibility of the other factions that much more.  I certainly learned how spoiled I was with the vast array of specialists available to Nomads.