Northern Open 7 - The Morat Suicide Squad

It was rather unexpected but in the seventh Norther Open I had a shot at the top ranks! I was at the top table in the last game but didn't win, story of my Infinity life. I say it was unexpected because I took my Morat Aggression Force and planned to play for fun more than anything else. Albeit as fate would have it, I was matched against players that have not known about Morats much and was able to pull some good wins.

So I found myself matched against Al in the final and on the table next to us was James against Ben, also good players. I didn't know what the difference in points was between us but because the last mission had such a big swing, any one of us had a shot at the first place. I ended up on 6th place out of 26 people which I am happy with.

The day was a really good fun (despite waiting an hour in the morning cold for the caretaker to open the venue). I noticed lots of new players which was great, hopefully they'll come back next year with some more new players. Also met few people who read this blog, which is always cool!

Greg from the Plastic Crack Blog also made a video about the event. It has some nice footage of the tournament and the games.

Army Lists

List A
List B

Game 1: Tic-Tac-Toe - Morats vs Imperial Service

Won 10 to 0 (3 TPs)

I won the Lt roll against Adam, a new opponent for me, and chose deployment. I wanted to take the side which seemed to have easier access to the objectives and wasn't bothered if I go first or second, I planned my army to do either. Adam chose to go second because the mission is scored at the end of the game. Which is not a bad decision but I had the advantage of counter-deploying and going first. Adam deployed two Total Reaction (TR) Remotes, on roofs of each side of the board. Made me glad to go first because I was able to deploy my Vanguards to deal with one and my own TR Remote to deal with the second. At least that was a plan. Anyat was deployed on my right side to grab objectives, Adam's force was mostly on my left flank.

Sticking to my plan, I spent the first turn killing the two TR Remotes. I was able to take them out because on one side I had full 5-man Fireteam, and my TR Remote had advantage of having Mimitism and I also gave it Marksmanship Lv2 with my EVO Hacker. I did spend extra orders shooting the damaged Remotes to kill them fully because I knew Adam had Engineer on the board. The rest of my first group Orders I spent on taking objectives. Anyat took the one on very right while Vanguard Paramedic and Forward Observer took the middle and left one, so I had all three in front of my Deployment Zone. With the second pool I sent my Krakot Renegade to take a shot with Boarding Shotgun at one of Adam's Su-Jians. I did one Wound and completely forgot it had STR 2 and No Wound Incap. It was a waste of my Renegade as he died in the process.

In his turn, Adam was very focused on killing my Vanguard Fireteam. They did block his access to objectives on my left. Using Fireteam Duo, Adam linked the Su-Jian and sent them both to deal with the Vanguard. With their 8" MOV, Adam was able to Cautious Move across some wide gaps and position his units well to minimize the AROs he was going to take. Combination of Heavy Shotgun, Flamethrower and Spitfire managed to fully kill both of my Forward Observers and put my Missile Launcher unconscious, leaving me with Paramedic and HMG Vanguard. Though lucky for me, the Missile Launcher managed to land two missiles and kill one of the Su-Jian before he went unconscious. With few Orders left, Adam did a tactical retreat into safer position for his remaining Su-Jian and also took an objective with his Engineer unit.

Since we were playing quite slow the second turn was going to be our final turn. We agreed on this during the first turn to make make sure neither would have an unfair extra turn. Keeping this in mind, I have spent most of my Orders on Anyat. With her Climbing Plus and no threats on my right flank, she took two more objectives. I was aiming for one more but failed WIP roll despite the +3 WIP from EVO bonus in this mission, so instead spending more Orders on her I went to heal the unconscious Missile Launcher, who fortunately passed his -3 PH and came back. I am pretty sure I used my second Order pool to just send Hungries forward, but whatever they did it had no impact on the game. I ended my turn with 5 Objectives, three in front of my DZ and then two further up on right flank. 

I think Adam planned to take all three objectives on my left, but was still troubled by my 3-men Vanguard Fireteam. Adam tried to use Smoke to block their LoF instead of attacking them, I am guessing because it didn't work as well last time, but got tunnel-visioned on getting that Smoke down. Which wasn't easy because he was doing a Speculative long range shot with Smoke Grenade Launcher. He kept rolling really high and when he did land it eventually (after realizing he could just stand up with the unit and have better odds), he was left with too few Orders so he wasn't able to take the Objectives he needed.

In the end I ended up with 10 points because I had 3 objectives in a line, I had more Objectives overall, I had one over the half line and I did my Classified (which was to heal someone). It was a good game though, I think Adam just made the mistake of focusing too much on my Vanguard Fireteam instead of going for the objectives and taking those that my Fireteam couldn't see as many of them were blocked by the infinite height Objective Room.

Game 2: Engineering Deck - Morats vs Ariadna

Won 6 to 3 (2 TPs)

The second game was very different. The table we got had very little to no scatter terrain which posed an interesting challenge and then John, another new opponent, said he is playing Ariadna. I know how deadly Ariadna can be. In a way it was nice to have a good guess at what all the camo markers were but at the same time, I just knew how hard it will be to deal with them. John took second turn for this mission as he won the Lt roll so again I had the advantage of being able to chose the side and counter deploy to John. I chose the side which seemed to have better defensive position for my Vanguard, neither side had the higher vantage point.

In my first turn I started by using my Renegade to do Discover & Shoot against camo marker in my half of the board, which I guessed was Uxia. Turned out I was right and she died. Then I went on causing some more damage with Hungries Fireteam (Vanguard were not linked yet). John had Col. Voronin, which I guessed was the Lt but better targets presented themselves on the way. I used the Hungries as a bait to reveal two camo markers on my left which were Foxtrot and Chasseur Specialists. While I still had enough Hungries for +1 Burst, I sent one Chain Rifle Hungry to attack a Kazak Paramedic and a Veteran Kazak. Luckily for me, the Vet Kazak failed to Dodge and then failed both ARM saves, the Line Kazak did as well. With last Orders the other Hungries attacked the Foxrot in CC and killed him.

With my main (first) Order pool, I advanced with Vanguard HMG, Kornak, HMG Remote (I did give it Marksmanship Lv2 as well) and Anyat. I took the Objective on my right with Anyat, everyone else went to cover and Supressive Fire. My REM was feeling cocky and I put it on top of a cargo crate to have better view. I knew John had Antipodes on my right flank so I wanted to have lots of AROs against them. Since I couldn't see anything to shoot at, I moved Anyat to the middle of my DZ so she was close enough to make my Vanguard full 5-man Fireteam again as she can link with them. I also tried to get the objective on left with my Engineer but failed the WIP roll.

John started his turn with Maverick, using her Impetuous Order to try put down Smoke Cover. Unfortunately for him, she went bit too far and faced three AROs (HMG, Kornak and Vanguard Missile Launcher). John chose to use the Smoke to go opposed with everyone but rolled 1, which made my ARO rolls easier. She was obliterated. John then used a different unit (Antipod Controller I think) to lay down Smoke from outside of my LoF. With my AROs blocked, he was able to get his Antipodes into combat with my HMG Rem and kill it. Though thanks to Electric Pulse one of the Antipodes was Immobilized. John then jumped the other two Antipodes into CC with my HMG Vanguard, only too late realizing they would get shot as they are jumping into CC. They faced lots of AROs and also got Missle Launchered.

With the rest of his Orders John revealed Sniper Spestnaz to kill my Oznat who was with the Hungries. He also then revealed Tankhunter Autocanon that managed to kill Kornak, I rolled bad for ARM saves. The Tankhunter did try to also kill my Missile Launcher but because he was in the open and I was in 5-man Fireteam, the odds turned out in my favour and I killed him too, though admittedly I did roll a crit (Missile Launcher for the win though, such a high kill count). Before end of his turn, John used his Chasseur on my left (where Hungries were) to take an objective.

Again, we were playing slow and agreed second turn to be the last as we were close to running out of time. I started with remaining two Hungries, one run into CC with the Chasseur and killed him. The second one run out into open, but survived a shot from Spetsnaz (this becomes important later). I had my Vanguard HMG facing the Spetsnaz but I didn't want to risk shooting without having Fireteam support. So I spent four Orders moving the other four Vanguard across a building (I had to climb, move across the roof, climb down and then move forward). If you are wondering, yes I was in Loss of Lt but Morat units don't care, they act normal. Only REMs and Hungries were Irregular. I then used Command Token to make a full Fireteam and shot the Spetsnaz. The odds were still not great, I was on flat BS 11, (+3 range, +3 Fireteam, -3 cover, -3 camo), while the Spetsnaz was on BS 15. However, I had 5 rolls and John had 1 so I was feeling confident. It helped I managed to roll a Crit and another hit, which killed the Spestnaz completed as John failed ARM save.

I then went on getting a second Objective with my Engineer, he passed his WIP roll this time. I really should have thought about my Orders more at this point as in the end, I was left with 1 Order to open the doors to the Objective room and get inside. I completely forgot they could fail the WIP roll... which they did! So I had a whole Fireteam just sitting there in front of the doors. Not good. With my second Order pool I moved my last surviving Hungry to hide behind a container but close enough to John's HVT so I could change my one of my Classified to Secure HVT and get 1 Objective Point.

John in his turn, was again focused on making a Smoke path, this time to the Objective room. He had limited number of Orders so it didn't help him failing like two rolls. When he did make it, he moved one of his Camo markers through the Smoke into the room. He had a choice of going for the objective inside but once the doors were opened I had two Vanguard looking inside so he'd take four ARO shots. John decided to hide in the building instead to get himself 3 Objective Points. If he went for the Objective, managed to pass the WIP roll and survive, he would have won, but if he didn't survive he'd still lose and have less Objective Points so I think it was the better choice not go for it.

I had luck on my side for sure with two good Crits in this game. I could have done better by going to the Objective Room sooner but I didn't like the idea of being inside with no cover. From my perspective John made the mistake of focusing too much on the Smoke. Again because of the Objective Room I think it would been easier to sneak around and get Objectives, ignoring all my ARO units. John also forgot about the objective on his left (my right side). After the game he did say that he didn't know what Morats can do, and I do believe people underestimate giving someone first turn and the Deployment Choice in missions like these. Sure going second gives you advantage for end of the game objectives but it can leave you vulnerable to Alpha Strike.

Game 3:  Seize The Antennas - Morats vs ALEPH

Lost 3 to 6 (0 TPs)

In the last game I found myself at the top table (unsure if I was 1st or 2nd at this point). I did not expect to be matched up against Al so soon after the last event, feels like we are playing every tournament lately! He was playing ALEPH again so I was expecting Achilles and Hector like he had used before but he surprised me with a new list, which had neither. Though even if he did, it would not change my tactic for this game. It was time for the Morat Suicide Squad. Keep in mind I did not go into the tournament planning to place so well so my list for this mission was based off my old 11-Hackers list, though this time I had only 6. I did not think I could beat Al in the "conventional" way because I did not design my list to be high competitive.

The Morat Suicide Squad is actually a simple tactic but bit unorthodox. If you pull it off people might not like you for it but when you are playing for the 1st place, sometime you gotta go for the win. The idea is to use the very first turn to take as many objectives as you can and kill as many of your own units as possible, best case scenario you will be near or under the Retreat limit by the end of the first turn. You then leave your units in the open but near the objectives so your opponent has shoot them in their first turn. You should start your second turn in Retreat, as Morat you don't care because your Morat units still act normal and give Regular Orders, so you can try take even more Objectives and then the game ends at the end of your turn (this only works if the mission does have Retreat rule!).

So in the best case scenario, your opponent had only one turn. Now you see why I said its bit unorthodox?

I went into the game with this mindset and spent the first turn getting my Vanguard Hackers to the objectives. What made it difficult was an infiltrating TO Sniper. He could see into the objective room and covered my paths inside. I tried to kill him but had nothing reliable and Al's units all had No Wound Incap (NWI) which was really frustrating. I did almost manage to kill his Lt by accident. I didn't know it could have been the Lt but it was a unit with MSV Lv3 so I wanted it dead. Al failed two ARM saves but it stayed alive because of NWI, just like the TO Sniper. Al was very confused by me getting lots of my guys killed. I tried not to be too obvious about it but at one point did a Move-Move with my Sorogat which Al later said tipped him off the most but during that Co-Ordinated Order I wanted to give his Sniper a better target than my Hackers so they could get out of the Sniper's LoF and to the objective. Which worked and I managed to have two objectives at the end of my turn. I was also on 150pts left, so it didn't go as well as planned. But at least I had the Objective Room guarded well.

It was sometime during his turn Al realized what I was trying to do. Which was impressive but it did not make things easier for him because he knew killing my units will not help him. So he had quite hard time figuring out what he can kill but keep me from Retreat. We had lots of Hacking battles in his turn. But with my Hackers being just regular Line Troops I didn't do so well and lost my two Hackers inside the Objective Room. Even more annoyingly, I found out you can Heal from NWI so his Lt was back on 1 Wound. I think he used her to take an Objective in front of his DZ. He also dropped down two AD troops, one jumped down and the other just walked on. Sadly for me, Al didn't kill enough for me to start in Retreat.

In my second turn I tried to consolidate my defenses a bit more. I took out one of the AD troops with my HMG Rem and then moved it into a doorway of the Objective Room. It couldn't get inside but it could see inside, which was enough. I also moved up my other cheap REM that had Flash Pulse to give it better Line of Fire. The only things to die in that turn were my Hungries. I thought they could kill Al's TO Hacker that was near the objective room but she also had NWI! So annoying. At least I ended my second turn with just enough units that if any of them died, I was in Retreat.

I am not sure if Al knew that or not, but I'd think he had a good guess. He got more ballsy with his units to try take objectives from me, I still had two and he had one. He first used the second AD trooper to attack my Anyat and then my HMG Rem. I shot that unit so many times and even won most of the rolls but it kept passing ARM saves and in the end it managed to kill my REM. Which allowed him to move his Lt unit into the Objective Room facing only one ARO, which I won but he passed ARM the save. He also tried to move his TO Hacker and Engineer towards the Objectives but my cheap REM was on fire, it made both of them Stunned with Flash Pulse so those Specialists were unable to take the objectives. When Al moved his Lt further inside the room, she got into my Repeater range so I used Sucker Punch instead of shooting but only managed to put her back on NWI again. Leaving it to his very last Order, Al went for the objective and managed to pass the WIP and take it from me.

I still had my last Morat Hacker who became my new Lt (Sorogat who died earlier was my original Lt), Anyat and the cheap REM alive. The REM was in different combat group and I had no Command Tokens left so effectively I had three Orders to spend on the Hacker to run into the room and try take the objective back. Unfortunately for me the TO Sniper was still alive and also Al's Lt was able to hack my Vanguard, so he didn't survive trying to get to the objective. Since I started in Retreat Al didn't get his third turn but won anyway by having two Objectives to my one.

It was a really fun game and I enjoyed making Al sweat, it was sure a game I'll hear about from him again! Like that time I hid my Wulvers on a building he couldn't get to, so I'd win the game, he still talks about it whenever we meet. 

Killing 3/4 of your army in the first turn can be hard to pull his tactic off, but James had a suggestion to deploy on roofs and then when you have the objectives just jump off to kill your units... which would make it easier to put yourself in Retreat but nobody would like playing you again I'd think, so I don't recommend it.