Infinity Unit Review: Oznats and Hungries
It’s hard to talk about one without the other, especially since they’re seen on the table together so often. The Oznat is a swift warband, decent in a fight, but brings valuable smoke, while the Hungries are the fastest warbands in the game without a Motorcycle, and capable of wreaking havoc in your opponent’s battle line.
Stats and Special Rules
Oznats. Moving at a swift MOV 6-4, the rest of their profile is fairly standard. Low BS, high CC and PH make her ideally suited to close combat, but she lacks the Martial Arts required to make her really want to get in a fight. Kinematika L1 combined with PH 13 helps her dodge and engage as she moves up the board. Importantly, all Oznat carry the Hungries Control Device, which allows you to take Hungries in Morats. Note that you DO NOT need the control device to take Hungries in vanilla Combined Army.
The Hungries.
Both have the same base profile, moving at a blistering MOV 6-6 with climbing plus to get up and over any terrain in the way. Relatively high CC 19 and no access to traditional guns makes them clearly suited for melee. PH 14 goes a long way to help dodge and engage, also with Kinematika L1 for that extra inch of range on either. The defining differences between the two is that the Gakis have Explode L1, while the Pretas have Dogged (and a Chain Rifle). This makes them suited for two very different roles.
Profiles
Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher, Shock CCW. Making up for the low BS of the base profile with a solid B3 weapon helps out quite a bit, but most importantly, this profile can comfortably put smoke 16” away with reasonable accuracy. I would rarely take this profile alone however, since the inability to use cover and low BS is quite a penalty to work with. In a link team though, I almost always go with this profile, hitting on 17’s with smoke at B2 at 16” is an incredibly helpful tool, furthermore, being able to put smoke up to 32” away on B2 at 11’s isn’t bad either, and can really give you a lot of tactical flexibility.
Vulkan Shotgun, Smoke Grenades, DA CCW. If you’re going to take a solo Oznat, this is probably the one for you. Smoke Grenades compliment well with her high PH, helping defend herself from enemy attacks, while her Vulkan Shotgun is a devastating weapon when you land an attack with it. Finally, having a DA CCW is helpful in some scenarios for anti-materiel, but also makes you that much more deadly in a fight.
Oznat Stalker Unit (Sensor). Take the vulkan shotgun profile and add on a G:Synced Preta and you get the Oznat Stalker. This new profile was added with the changes to Morats in the Third Offensive, and it’s a damn fun one at that! The addition of another sensor unit doubles the access to that rule in Combined Army. You can do cheeky things like Triangulated Fire with a Vulkan Shotgun (gross), but more importantly, since the Oznat and Preta will be wanting to move up the board with their Impetuous order, the Oznat is often in prime position to reveal enemy camouflaged units. The Oznat Stalker is a very worthwhile upgrade over the standard Oznat in both vanilla and Morat armies.
Gakis. With no weapons to speak of, the Gaki’s main job is to get into an inconvenient place for the opponent, and explode causing maximum devastation. They are fast, and dirt cheap. In vanilla Combined I’ve used a single Gaki a few times just as a tool to place to force the enemy to place something out for ARO, which I will then kill in my active turn (assuming I’m going first). They’re also great for supporting other close combat fighters, but be careful activating them in a big melee, if they lose and die, they’ll explode hitting all the combatants near by. Anything you do manage to hit in close combat will get hit hard though, AP and PH14 means they can put a serious dent in anything.
Pretas. The main armament of the Preta, the Chain Rifle, makes her operate like a much more like a traditional warband. The incredible speed and maneuverability lets you attack from unexpected angles, just take a look at my picture below of my Preta climbing over a wall and firing a Chain Rifle on a bunch of unsuspecting PanO, from our last tournament. When I take fireteams of Hungries, this is my go-to profile, I simply don’t trust a Gaki to not literally explode in my face.
On The Table
On the table, Oznats and Hungries are both going to be incredibly fast warbands, and you need to take all the proper precautions, especially if not linked. None of them are incredible in close combat, but they do pack a punch. Taking a couple lone W|Hungries works like taking any other warband, except they’re incredibly fast and maneuverable thanks to climbing plus. Single Gakis are harder to use, since they may explode in the process, but if you can place either of them where they can get a foot of movement without suffering an ARO, they’re quickly going to become a pain for your opponent. For their cost they can become a massive threat, one which I used to overlook in vanilla CA quite a bit, but lately I’ve been happy to take 1-2 Hungries. Taking a lone Oznat is a little harder to justify in my experience, though the new Oznat Stalker Unit may show up in my vanilla lists.
Another use of the Hungries is to force enemies to leave out ARO options. Often times I find myself across the table from someone who has hidden the majority, if not all of their forces, leaving nothing out for ARO, and thus nothing for all my lovely big Combined guns to kill. By taking a couple Gakis or Pretas, this becomes really a bad idea for your opponent. They can quickly cover 24” of the board with just their own impetuous and irregular order, and then your opponent either needs to deal with an exploding Gaki, or dogged chain rifle wielding Preta up in their face.
Morat Aggression Force
It’s worth talking about them in MAF specifically, since they’re going to operate very differently than in vanilla. Able to form a core fireteam of Oznat, Pretas, and most importantly Raktorak. Linking the Hungries and Oznat removes their biggest liability, Extremely Impetuous. The link bonuses are somewhat lost on either of the units though, since they aren’t exactly toting scary guns, but if you add a Raktorak with Red Fury, not only do you gain a good gun (which becomes B5 BS15 with link bonuses), you also add a much needed specialist.
My Core link of choice when playing MAF has become a Raktorak with Red Fury, 3 Pretas, and the Combi Oznat (due to the range of the Smoke LGL), all for a mere 65/1 points. You’ve got a solid gun, specialist, smoke, and dogged chain rifles for extra fun. The downside has been that often times the best place to use a Chain Rifle will also result in losing the link, so knowing when and where to do so takes a bit of practice. Overall, the link ends up being fairly fragile since it cannot reform (per the Hungries Control Device rules), but for how cheap it is, it’s amazing.