As promised, here’s my first Warhammer-themed company for IHMN:
The Skaven Hordes: A Company for In Her Majesty’s Name
Amidst the alleys and sewers of all the cities of the world, there lives a species that rivals humanity in its population - rats. These creatures have adapted perfectly to scavenging amidst the filth and detritus of Victorian society, and have not just survived, but thrived. Indeed, thrived so well have they that the strongest and fittest are evolving to challenge mankind for his crown. These are rats that walk as men, rats that can make weapons, equipment, even vehicles using stolen scrap and their own unique brand of mad science. They are the Skaven, the dwellers below that, when the time is right, will surge from their underground lairs to let devastation, disease and destruction ravaged humanity for the rest of time.
Skaven are canny, quick-witted and devious creatures that revere all that humanity despises - in particular cowardice, backstabbing and subterfuge. Though they stand a head shorter than a man (mainly because they don’t stand up straight), their size belies how dangerous they are. Their scrawny bodies house lightning reflexes handed down to them by their rodent ancestors, their skulls house cunning, ruthless minds and their claws and teeth are a dangerous prospect for anyone who manages to disarm them. Yet their greatest weapon is numbers beyond count - if disturbed a Skaven lair will disgorge hundreds of furry bodies that swarm around a potential attacker and gradually drag it down before stabbing it dozens of times with rusty improvised weapons to make doubly sure it is dead.
At the top of Skaven society (or at least so they like to think) are the Warlords. These are the largest, toughest and most aggressive Skaven, who are the sires of scheming and infighting clans, though even the most burly Warlord has to have a sneaky and intelligent mind to avoid ending up with a multitude of knives in his back. Simultaneously below and above them are the Grey Seers, the priests of the Horned Rat, the single malevolent god of the Ratmen. These ruthless sorcerers have the power to summon eerie green lightning to scorch their enemies, translocate from one place to another in the blink of an eye and even turn men into more of their vile Skaven kin. The Warlock Engineers are the next rank down in the hierarchy - the artisans of the Skaven have observed human invention and ingenuity from the shadows for many years, and have developed their own branch of mad science that shares disturbing parallels with human Arc and Magneto-static technology, the pinnacle of which is the fast and deadly Doomwheel.
When a Skaven raiding party emerges to cause destruction and mayhem, the rank-and-file of the Warband will inevitably consist of Clanrats, each a scrawny, mangy furball capable of vicious and horrifying slaughter with scavenged spears and rusty swords (especially if he has half a dozen of his mates behind him). The biggest and most aggressive of these fill out the ranks of the Stormvermin, the Warlords’ personal bodyguards who are equipped with the best weapons and equipment the ratmen can scavenge (which isn’t saying that much). Skaven companies are also supported by the Night Runners, stealthy aspiring assassins that are often the first of a company to leave the sewers and scout the human world above, using throwing stars and concealed daggers to dispatch those who would sound the alarm too soon and, in rare circumstances, even disguising themselves as humans to eavesdrop on clandestine meetings (such as the Dotheboys Scandal, where the schoolteacher ‘Wackford’ Squeers, who was executed for numerous crimes against human children, was found to be a Skaven, his corpse being sent to the Royal Society for dissection).
Many of the creations of the Warlock Engineers are brought with the Skaven on raids as these provide the perfect conditions for them to be ‘field-tested’. Carried onto the battlefield by Weapon Teams of two Skaven, these maniacal weapons invariably cause devastation, whether amongst the ranks of the enemy or their own side, and though they are many and varied, they can be broadly categorised as the musket-like Jezzail, the flame-belching Warpfire Thrower, the lethal Poisoned Wind Mortar, the suspiciously familiar Ratling Gun and, most horrifying of all, the Doom Flayer, a ball of whirling blades piloted into close quarters to achieve especially messy results.
Yet it is not just to machinery that the Skaven have applied their ingenuity - some of their especially malevolent scientists have turned their experimentations to the flesh of deceased creatures, stitching them together and inserting electrical circuits to animate them as horrifying monsters. Ranging from dog-sized Giant Rats to the huge Rat Ogres, these all add to the terror that the Ratmen instil into even the most determined rat-catcher, though even this is not enough to some Skaven. Though it is believed that many of the pandemics that ravage the busiest of human cities are caused by poverty and neglect, the truth is far worse - diseases like Cholera and Typhoid, which claim thousands of lives in London alone, were created by a cult of Skaven that delight in creating the most virulent plagues and ailments - led by corpulent Plague Priests and heralded by fanatical Plague Monks, this most abhorrent Skaven caste are responsible for some of the greatest tragedies to have ever befallen humanity in the 19th Century.
Figure: Warlord
Pluck: 4+
FV: +3
SV: +1
Speed: +2
Cost: 37
Talents/Powers: Leadership +2, Tough
Equipment: Sword, Wooden Shield, Skaven Plate Armour (Steel Breastplate)
Figure: Grey Seer
Pluck: 4+
FV: +1
SV: +1
Speed: +2
Cost: 30 + Powers
Talents/Powers: Leadership (+3), Stealthy, up to 20 points of Mystical Powers
Equipment: Seer Robes (Jack), Fighting Knife, Seer Stave (Quarterstaff)
Figure: Plague Priest
Pluck: 3+
FV: +2
SV: +1
Speed: +0
Cost: 43 + Powers
Talents/Powers: Berserker, Fanatic, Numb, up to 15 points of Mystical Powers
Equipment: Dirty Habit (Jack), Plague Censer (treated as a Gas Grenade with the Impact Point centred on the wielder - wielder is not damaged), Plaguestaff (Quarterstaff)
Figure: Warlock Engineer
Pluck: 5+
FV: +1
SV: +1
Speed: +1
Cost: 19 + Powers
Talents/Powers: Engineer, up to 10 points of Mystical Powers
Equipment: Warlock-augmented Weapon (Halberd), Pistol
Figure: Clanrat
Pluck: 6+
FV: +1
SV: +0
Speed: +1
Cost: 8
Talents/Powers: None
Equipment: Sword, Wooden Shield
Figure: Night Runner
Pluck: 6+
FV: +2
SV: +1
Speed: +2
Cost: 18
Talents/Powers: Stealthy
Equipment: Sword, Throwing Knives
Figure: Stormvermin
Pluck: 5+
FV: +2
SV: +0
Speed: +1
Cost: 19
Talents/Powers: None
Equipment: Sword, Shield, Skaven Plate Armour (Steel Breastplate)
Figure: Plague Monk
Pluck: 4+
FV: +2
SV: 0
Speed: +0
Cost: 21
Talents/Powers: Berserker, Fanatic
Equipment: Dirty Habit (Jack), Quarterstaff
Figure: Packmaster
Pluck: 6+
FV: +1
SV: 0
Speed: +1
Cost: 5
Talents/Powers: None
Equipment: Bullwhip
Figure: Rat Ogre
Pluck: 3+
FV: +5
SV: +0
Speed: +0
Cost: 53
Talents/Powers: Terrifying, Berserker, Numb
Equipment: Claws (Fighting Knife)
Figure: Giant Rat
Pluck: 6+
FV: +0
SV: +0
Speed: +2
Cost: 4
Talents/Powers: None
Equipment: Jaws (Knife, cannot be Thrown)
Upgrades:
The Warlord may replace his Sword and Shield with a Great Axe (Large Axe) (free) or a Halberd (+1 point). He may take a Pistol (+3 points), and/or may be mounted on a Rat Ogre Bonebreaker (Ape Howdah) (+30 points)
Any Clanrat may take a Chain Shirt (+4 points), and/or may replace their Sword with a Spear (+1 point)
Any Stormvermin may replace their Sword and Shield with a Halberd (+1 point)
Any Plague Monk may replace their Quarterstaff with two Swords (+4 points)
Any two Clanrats may exchange their Swords and Shields for fighting knives and one of the following:
- Jezzail (Muzzle-loading rifle), Monocular Targeting Array and Shield (+ 10 points)
- Warpfire Thrower (Flamethrower) (+ 7 points)
- Poisoned Wind Mortar (Congreve Rocket Gun with Gas Rockets) (+ 3 points + Rockets)
- Ratling Gun (Machine Gun) (+ 22 points)
- Doom Flayer (+ 21 points) - counts as a Steam Hansom with one of the Clanrats as the driver and the other as a passenger, that is unable to take a second passenger but is equipped with Doom Flayer Blades (a melee weapon with Weapon Bonus +4, Pluck Modifier -2 and the Ignores Most Armour rule).
These two Clanrats form a Weapon Team that stay as a group throughout the battle.
A single Warlock Engineer may be made the driver of a Doomwheel (+ 42 points). A Doomwheel is treated as a Steam Carriage that cannot take passengers, but has an Arc Cannon mounted on either side. Each Arc Cannon can be fired at an independent target while the Warlock Engineer is driving, but he may perform no other action while doing so.
Any Packmaster may replace his Bullwhip with either a Fighting Knife (+1 point) or Spear (+3 points) and may take a Shield with either of these options (+1 point)
Any Rat Ogre may have one or more of its hands replaced with Stump Blades (treated as a Sword) (+1 point)
I’ve intended the Skaven company to be fast, vast in numbers and equipped with some powerful special units but also individually weak and reliant on these units to carry the day, as Skaven are in Warhammer Fantasy.
