[JimMorrison]

Indeed, they're not a mainline force, just a tool that can be used in specific scenarios to decent effect.

Also, they really come into their own with Body Ethereal and/or Luck. I've had Ethereal markatas pull off some amazing stunts. Again, they won't do it all by themselves, and with the buffs the real point is to make them very hard for conventional troops to kill, while your Astral mages do dirty things.

Always bearing in mind the moral presented by the author of the guide - Bandar Log is not sledgehammer, but a scalpel. There is no one thing you can do that will be grossly effective against most other things, however, there is always something you can do that will be effective against whatever you're facing.

It makes them complicated to play, because unless you anticipate correctly in the first place, or your opponent fails to switch up his own tactics, you will be constantly changing your composition, layout, and scripting to get maximum effect with your forces.

Even against the AI there is some of that, as you will be fighting highly varied forces. So just remember, markatas alone basically suck, very badly. But in some instances they are marvelously cost effective. :P