Tournament: MOAB 2015: Return of the Morats

I didn't choose the Soglife, the Soglife chose me.

I'm not a big fan of tournaments because I've found myself pretty crappy at tournament style tight games.  I'm much more suited to casual dice rolling and spending lots of time looking up rules without a time limit.

That being said, there was a call for players and with the TO being a fellow club mate I felt obliged to dive in with my alien ultra-facists.

I had two goals at this tournament- win a painting prize AND not come last.

Yes, this same time last year my Morats came dead last!




To demonstrate how 'serious' I was about not coming last- I asked the TO for a "by" round first up.... and made my way straight up to the sales and splurged on Infinity models like it was going out of fashion.  I bought scenery (new Arcology planned!!!) and a few more Ariadna/ Combined Army figures.

I'd love to go on about my shopping but you're here to see what going to a tournament is like, right?

I'm going to say right up that I don't remember a lot and I didn't take a lot of photos so it'll be a rough run down of the games and then a brief discussion of a few key points.


ARMY LISTS

BUTTON PUSHER LIST

Group 1
 KORNAK Lieutenant Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, DA CCW. (41)
 MORAT HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
 MORAT Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 19)
 MORAT (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (15)
 MORAT (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (15)
 ANYAT K1 Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Smoke Grenades, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (25)
 SURYAT HMG / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 46)
 MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
 ZERAT Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (21)
 ZERAT Hacker (EI Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)

Group 2
 MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (23)
 SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (3)
 SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (3)
 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (9)
 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (9)

5.5 SWC | 298 Points


ANNIHILATION LIST

 KORNAK Lieutenant Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, DA CCW. (41)
 SOGARAT HMG / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 56)
 SOGARAT HMG / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 56)
 SOGARAT Feuerbach / Assault Pistol, AP CCW. (1.5 | 57)
 MORAT Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
 MORAT (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (15)
 MORAT (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (15)
 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (9)
 MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (23)
 SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (3)
 SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (3)

6 SWC | 300 Points


TABLES & GAMES

ROUND 1

Went shopping.  Went quite mad shopping.  I even bought a Kings of War rulebook!  And a box of Geckos because they look cool.  And they were on special.  I can't turn down specials.....

... and they look so cool.

Ahem.

... But they were on special!!!


ROUND 2- BEACON LAND- "Fidays Will Ruin Your Day"

Hassassins of Death

I took my button pusher list and discovered to my dismay that I was up against the Hassassins of Death army.  I lost the initiative roll and was forced to deploy first.  I opted to go first to try and make the best of a bad situation.

3 Fidays camped just outside my 12" deployment zone and I knew it was going to be a rough morning.

All safe.... apparently.

My link team was all strung out- supposedly in cover- until 2 Fidays with boarding shotguns deployed about 1 inch away.

Kornak hangs out all alone ... kind of.

TR remote overlooks my battle line.

One thing I was really happy with was that my Zerat Hacker made her infiltration roll- and was within 8" of an enemy TR remote.  Free AROs for me!  Until she noticed some impetuous flamethrower (?Chain-rifle) toting maniac staring through the open window at her....

My other vanilla Zerat failed her roll and found herself on the back edge of my deployment line- which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

When the battle started I was quite flummoxed.  I'll be honest, I had no idea how to deal with Impersonators.  Just one of those dastardly figures would wipe me out so I spent a lot of time staring in some consternation at 3 of them.

Well, you have to take some hits right?

Using Dr. Worm's slaves, I sent them in to discover the IMP-1 markers one at a time.

Once the little Slaves got within 8", the discover rolls went my way and two of the Fiday's were revealed.  My Zerat that failed her infiltration roll was then able to fire on the Fidays from outside their optimum range and luckily took them out.

With the last Fiday, I walked a Ikadron right up to it and copped a shotgun to the face... and lived! A long distance HMG from the other side of the board then finished the Fiday off.

The remainder of the game was a slog fest between my Suryat HMG and Kornak versus the Muyib link team.  The Suryat died from a DEP- all from silly positioning on my part (not slicing the pie on the link team)- and Kornak was taken out by an AD2 Ragik.

My infiltrating Zerat was blown away in short order and it all looked bad.

All was not lost though, the lone Vanguard Hacker had made his way up the board and survived two rounds of fire with the Ragik.

The plucky Morat dropped one beacon and then made his way into the big blue complex to go HAM on the Muyib link team one by one.

When the smoke cleared- 4 Muyibs were dead- and I'd also picked up a Classified.

RESULT: Win but very few objective points scored at all.


ROUND 3- BIOTECHNOVORE- "#SogLife"

I find this board challenging to play on.

I know this scenario cops a lot of criticism but I find it a refreshing change from Annihilation.  I don't like games of camping snipers picking off figures and this mission punishes that kind of tactic severely.

These Nomads won best painted.

I won the initiative roll and elected to choose sides.

High ground.

I chose the high ground and put my Soggys on the high ground on the left- HMG's staring down into the valley.  My view was actually quite obscured by the purple obelisk in the middle and the medical building but it afforded some ARO opportunities.

I spent a command token to deny the Nomads use of their command tokens and waited....

My ARO's claimed a remote and put a wound on the Iguana.  I was also lucky enough to discover an Intruder creeping across the roof top of the triple storey building.  I was pretty happy with that.

The main thing that I noticed was how hard it was to not be able to use command tokens.  Figures were left in the lurch as key orders were spent on higher points cost models.  It would seem that gimping someone's command tokens is the way to go with this mission.... if you get that choice.

The often talked about but rarely seen Sogarat link team.

On my turn, the Sogarats went crazy.

Great paint job!

The Nomad Iguana disappeared in a plume of smoke as I rolled 2 crits and another wound.  The Intruder was blown off the roof top in a similar hail of HMG fire.  Then the Sogs walked their way down into the safe zone steadily firing away at anything in sight.  Another remote was turned to scrap and the Interventor Lieutenant was killed outright.

A lone infiltrating Spectre immobilized one Sogarat in the Biotechnovore zone but Kornak ran forward, flamed him and then gunned the Nomad down with his Mk12.

Got a classified!

Dr Worm proved his worth again as I was able to use one of his slaves to resurrect a fallen Morat Forward Observer and bag me a classified.

Dropping in on the action.

Unfortunately for the Nomads, the Biotechnovore zone killed off their newly selected Lieutenant and with a much reduced order pool they didn't have many options.

The Sogarats- or at least a detached one- hunted down the remaining Nomads and the game finished with the Nomads with one figure left.

RESULT: Win.


ROUND 4- NIMBUS ZONE- "When The Dice Hate You...."

Yep....

I matched up against Ariadna this mission and it was going to to be tough.

I picked my button pushing list and luckily won the initiative roll off.  I picked sides and took the side with the three containers- giving me a commanding view of the battlefield.  I parked my Vanguard link team Missile Launcher and HMG up there an put a Suryat HMG on the solitary container.

One of my Zerats infiltrate successfully close to the Ariadna line to provide more AROs.

Then the game started and.... disaster!

Ariadna... not a scratch!

A Dog Warrior took out my Zerat and survived 3 ARO shots... and then progressively survived every shot against it as it made it's way across the battlefield, tossing smoke along the way.

That pretty much set the tone for the battle as I lost almost every face to face roll, every armour roll and to add insult to injury, watched the Ariadnans survive ARM roll after roll.

It was an utter rout and I didn't score one point.  I ended up killing one figure- a pesky Irmadinhos- but that was it.

When the rage quit becomes so tempting....

HMG, missile launchers, sixth sense level 2, +3BS for link teams of 5, multiple uncontested AROs... nothing went my way.

I was throwing my arms up to the sky in frustration and put my dice back in their box.

After the battle, I did get lots of good advice about building up my budding Ariadnan force though which was excellent!  There won't be just one Cateran sniper in future!!!  Back to the shops up stairs!

RESULT: Big Loss


ROUND 5- TRANSMISSION MATRIX- "Good Sports Make You Smile!"

Hmmm....

This game I matched up against vanilla ALEPH- toting a big Marut and her attendant Myrmidon smoke thrower.

Another tough match up with my distinct lack of visors.

The game started well for me- both my Zerats passed their infiltration rolls and made into the green medical facility (apparently giving them auto-medkits! for the game- which I completely forgot about)- and ended up proving to be a real thorn in the side of the Marut.

After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing the Zerats were knocked out and the Marut got away with it's smoke and MSV2 shenanigans.

My Vanguard link team heavy weapons- positioned atop the highest container pods- prone- could only dodge pathetically as the HMG raked their position from one end to the other.

This was shaping up to be another bad day in the office....

Luckily too many orders had been spent neutralizing the Zerats and I hadn't lost too many guys.

My turn- my Vanguard hacker made his way forward and immobilized the Marut in a lucky Carbonite roll.  Subsequently the Vanguard link team- or what was left of it- fired on the Marut and put down two wounds on it.

The third was elusive... rounds bouncing of the ALEPH armour much to the ALEPH player's relief.

So close!  But it was not to be.  Myrmidon smoke covered the Marut and a plucky engineer's slave bot brought it back to full health.  It was demoralising to say the least... ridiculous ALEPH trickery!  The Marut blazed away safely from behind cover of smoke and Morats dropped like bowling pins.

With a much reduced order count, Kornak muscled his way forward into the ALEPH flank- skirting around out of view of the Marut- and started killing cheerleaders with his Mk12.

The final turn found the Marut advancing and dominating the central antenna... but Kornak was still alive with No Wound Incapacitation and he shot an ALEPH remote off an antenna he was contesting.

My Doctor Worm bagged me another Classified (experimental drug) and I had edged ahead... without having to kill the Marut.

I salute you!

I have to say that my opponent was a great sport- I had thought another token was the transmission antenna and had thought I was within 4" to dominate.  When we realised he wasn't- he allowed me to use my last short skill of Kornak's order to get into the radius and thus win the game.

RESULT:  Hats off to my opponent!


ROUND 6- EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION- "Fickle Dice"

Same map

No, it's not an error, I ended up on this table again and found myself on the "low" side of the table facing off against the Combined Army!  I had to deploy first and subsequently elected to go first.

Again I chose my button pusher list and pushed my Zerats forward to try and control the objectives and maybe lay some mines at the same time.

My first turn went well.  My missile launcher Vanguard put 2 missiles into the top of the triple container- hitting a Slave drone, a total reaction remote and a Shasvastii Haiduk.  Unsurprisingly they died in the resulting explosion but their return fire killed the Morat and broke the link team.

Still, it freed up a lot of the board and Dr. Worm and the Zerats went to work seizing objectives and also laying a few mines to deter the enemy specialists.

Subsequent turns were a dance spent maneuvering for these antennas- but my infiltrating Zerats had done their job.  Mines had slowed the Combined Army advance and the Zerat hacker proved to be a thorn in the side of the Charontid hacker lieutenant (pure luck there)!

Ko-Dali dropped from the sky, gunned down Kornak and shot my Vanguard hacker off the central console after he had connected it but it was too little, too late.  My Suryat HMG made his way around the battlefield methodically gunning down every enemy specialist he could find and shrinking the enemy order pool at the same time.

In a final rush to achieve classifieds, the Charontid Lieutenant charged forwards and spot-lighted a figure only to be gunned down by a waiting Vanguard HMG.

I got very lucky with my rolls this game and my opponent was having very badly behaved dice!

Result: Win.


DISCUSSION

Meditation monkey style.

A few things I had changed in my list that mostly worked out well:

1.  Infiltrators- running two Zerats and running them aggressively, right up into the enemy lines proved to be a useful way of impeding the enemy flow of orders.  You have to be lucky with infiltration rolls but they proved to be a great thorn in the opponent's side... especially the hacker!

2. Missile Launcher plus HMG- in my Vanguard link team.  It adds flexibility and extra ARO power.  Though if your dice hate you... you're still stuffed.

3. Dr. Worm and friends.  They are excellent for Classifieds and turned out very useful for investigating impersonators!  Make sure they come at 90 degrees to your link team so a Fiday doesn't put a shotgun blast template into anyone valuable.

4. Sogarat Link Team is (situationally) God-like.  But you'll get smacked by classifieds.


OVERALL...

I had a really good time!

You mean you had a good time?!

I sound surprised as I know myself to not be a tournament person but it's often the only opportunity for me to squeeze in some games.

If I'm going to play in tournaments I'm going to have to do the right things.  One- I can't expect people to treat it casually- I was very lucky with having a great group of players and two- I need to brush up my rules, print courtesy lists and be prepared properly (i.e. bring your own tape measure and proper civilian model!).  I hope I didn't peturb too many players with my lacklustre casual turn out.

The next tournament I play I'll have to treat it with it's proper respect.

Other people will treat it seriously, so should I.

We defy the Combined Army!

As for the painting competition upstairs, I was fortunate enough to get a placing against some tough competition and walked away with a small pot of pigment and a little trophy!

Got a trophy!

Now for all you interested parties out there as to how the Morats went- I'm going to preface this by saying that this tournament was NOT decided on objective points.  It went on by Win/ Loss/ Draw and then sub placings went by on kills and objective points.  On objective points I was mid-ladder.

Not last!

Once again I have to take my hat off my opponents- especially ALEPH- for being a top bunch of guys and to Zed the tireless TO who organized all of it and got the new terrain sorted out in time for this year's tournament.

From last... to not last!!!

Many lessons were learned and now I'm ready to leave this Morat Aggression Force behind and start Ariadna in a big way.

... Well maybe after the Rodoks come out.

... And when they are on special.

No one quits!  Don't make me smack you with my pimp hand!

Until next time.