Infinity Unit Review: Rasyat Diplomatic Division
The Morats have an interesting method of diplomacy, specifically one which entails a supercharged alien maniac flying in your face and performing a classic “monkey steals the peach” maneuver on his unsuspecting prey. Diplomatic indeed.
Stats and Special Rules
The Rasyat is a very well rounded and competent fighter with a very robust profile, combining solid BS, and a bit of armor, with superior close combat capabilities of CC21 and PH13. Airborne Deployment is the defining rule of the unit, giving it the ability to deploy nearly anywhere on the table, at higher than usual reliability thanks to PH13. ITS Season X makes this even better thanks to not using the landing zone template for Airborne Deployment. Natural Born Warrior turns the Rasyat’s close combat capabilities up significantly, able to deny it’s opponent use of their own Martial Arts, or alternatively increasing the Rasyat to CC24 and PH14, which combined with their ubiquitous DA CCW makes them very deadly in a fight. Like all Morats, the Rasyat has the Morat skill, which grants both Veteran and Religious, making the Rasyat immune to all those Jammers that armies are getting, while also making them more reliable when used to hold down a firing lane in suppressive fire. Finally, Rasyats are Elite Troops, which allow them to perform a few classified objectives this season, and they’ll gain an adhesive launcher in Hunting Party.
Profiles
Combi Rifle, D-Charges, Eclipse Grenades. Every Rasyat profile has a few bits of equipment in common, all with a DA CCW, and Eclipse Grenades, and all but the Spitfire have D-Charges. Eclipse Grenades are probably the most important thing the Rasyat gets, able to prevent anything . The combi rifle profile itself has quite a bit of utility, able to deploy in a forward position and enter suppressive fire. The longer range and burst (compared to the shotgun) does allow you to engage targets at longer ranges, which can be very helpful when you don’t know what kind of terrain density board you’ll be playing on. Also, the longer ranges help keep you safely out of range of enemy shotguns and direct template weapons.
Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Eclipse Grenades. If you’re into something a bit more up close and personal, then the boarding shotgun is your weapon. Airborne Deployment lets you leverage the +6 range band, which reduces the normal downsides of running such a short ranged weapon. Using AD you can place yourself in a perfect position to take advantage of the impact template.
Combi Rifle + E/Mitter, D-Charges, Eclipse Grenades. If I have the points, this is a profile I always go for. It has all the advantages of the combi rifle, but with one more interesting twist. Since the Rasyat can come on and attack from nearly any angle, and also control enemy LOF with it’s eclipse grenades, the e/mitter can come in quite handy. All it takes is a single shot in the butt to enemy TAGs or HI, and you’ve all but taken the model out of the game. If you want to get fancy, after you’ve IMM-2 the TAG, you can slap it with a D-Charge using Natural Born Warrior to bypass the -3 penalty.
Spitfire, Eclipse Grenades. Give up the utility of D-charges (mostly an ITS concern), and crank up the firepower. A Spitfire on an AD troop lets you deploy in a prime position to lay down some serious firepower. The range bands of the spitfire compliment the deployment skill, similar to the combi-rifle, except a bit longer range. You can still go into suppressive fire, and the extra burst just makes you that much better of a gunfighter. Really, the biggest concern is SWC, if you have it, the spitfire isn’t that many more points than the combi rifle + e/mitter, and aside from the anti TAG/HI utility, will be a better shot in most firefights.
On The Table
The Rasyat is a versatile killing machine, capable of helping out on a few classified objectives, on top of beating face in a variety of manners. Eclipse Grenades, D-Charges, and DA CCW are all a lot of utility that isn’t generally found on other AD troops, in fact, they’re the only AD troops besides the Yuan Yuan with smoke. Moving into position, dropping an eclipse grenades where you can enter combat with an enemy troop, killing them with your NBW and DA CCW before retreating into cover and entering suppressive fire, can really be a huge thorn in your opponents side. In a recent game of Armory, I was able to secure the objective room by moving a Suryat, Zerat, 3 Kurgats, and the Rasyat into the room under cover of the Eclipse Smoke (then they all dropped tons of mines and entered suppressive fire). The only drawback to the Rasyat is that they can do so much, that they’re going to soak up a lot of your order pool, so don’t lose track of the objective while you’re spending orders redeploying and dropping smoke.