Hello everyone!
I've recently joined the facebook group, and once I was there, I realized that wargames atlantic takes, or at least used to take suggestions, so I shot my own suggestion in their mailbox.
That suggestion was for space ratmen (40K skaven) as it seems to me like a niche only touched by stls and veer-myn. With veer-myn being very hard to make look good with kitbashed equipment for games other than "Deadzone".
I feel like it's something that would fit the existing range well, and have a proven audience. But I don't know what you guys think, so I'm asking here, would you guys buy this theoretical ratmen box if it had good options for both death fields and GW games? Answer what you think about this idea below and vote in the poll!
Personally, no. They're not a favorite of mine. Same thing with cat ladies, and other Terra centric animal-people hybrids. That being said, I dont have any ill will toward those who like those kinds of things. They're just not my cup of tea. Hopefully you get more votes. Would like to see more engagement on the forum.
What's the market for them? Death Fields models tend to be bought for use as IG proxies for 40k, and some wierd war/alternate history type of stuff. "Anthropomorphic rats" doesn't really fit that bill, per se.
Comparison to rats is always viewed as unflattering, so modelling them after a particular historical or modern nation or their military is kind of a no-go, and Mantic have already cornered the anthro-rats armed with stolen/discarded mining equipment and scavenged/cobbled together weapons market; so what's their style/aesthetic/motif going to be?
@Stephen Sutton
IG proxies are kinda the skeleton key here. There are loyal and heretic armies made of various "modes", like beastmen, cyborgs and other. Rats of all others have the massive advantage of Skaven being quite popular and non existent not only in 40k universe, but being rather hard to get by in general, especially in plastic.
Rat creatures can be clearly used for roles like Tzaangors/40K beastmen or in skirmish forces (IG having their own "ratling" squad? XD)
Maybe when the beast boys box of the Damned comes out they'll have more information on the market potential.
While you can build a 40k rat army with skaven box and enough Sci fi bits, it's rather expensive prospect. Mantic is quite high on the stylistic spectrum so I'd love to see what WA would cook with their slightly less flashy style.
And stylistic... First, I believe WA Designers and sculptors would work something out! Maybe no descriptive ww1/early ww2 inspired conscripts with enough of own color to not bring specific nation. Also, it can be done in less dismissing way, both Games Workshop and Mantic rats clearly go for dirty and aggressive swarms. WA shown they can get such topics in a fresh way, especially on their 3D front. 1PageRule goes so far to just make them kinda normal faction, with jackals giving that more feral vibe than rats.
I can't say I personally would buy it, but I don't think it's in any way a bad idea. skaven are QUITE popular, and I literally just had a conversation with a friend who wished ikkit claw was in 40k. if you want some lore, maybe you could go for something silly rather than them being mutant humans. After all, maybe the aliens just kidnapped anyone who caused enough deaths, and so maybe the rats that spread the black plague could count? then, they got supplemented with the hardy and vicious trench rats from ww1. IDK, maybe this is getting too silly, but I wouldn't worry too much about the lore. We already have space confederates and space nazis, so who cares?
@timbus the thirteenth
Skaven have warp teleportation in the form of "gnawholes". Due to the nature of the warp, and it's canon shared existence in both 40K and AoS, it is almost a certainty that some unlucky skaven got sent to 40K.
@Arthur Strakh at least one group of such appeared at the Seige of Terra during the Horus Heresy, when you read between the lines of a passage in "the end and the death" (it mentions as part of Horus's force of 'neverborne' (aka demons) a force led by a demon named 'Kweethul'.. in WHFB Kweethul Gristleguts is a skaven that was elevated to (minor) demon-hood, and aligned with the Great Horned Rat. the same passage mentioned other WHFB demons like Be’lakor and N'Kari, which makes the reference seem pretty intentional.
also during the WHFB end times there is a mention that the skaven stole an artifact from the lizardmen that was meant for long distance communications, but destroyed it after they pointed it at the stars and picked up signals from a group speaking a language similar to the elves. (40k eldar basically)
@Mithril2098
Thanks for telling me! And the latter also ends pretty funny.
@timbus the thirteenth given we already have halflings snipers in plastic and alien space elves in STL, yeah light and silly is the way to go, so while I am not voting for it, I guess its okay. I would actually go farther and have it be the rats just got picked up with the human warriors, accidentally got uplifted/upgraded (possibly in abandoned lab)at some point in the DFA's history, and have not only been made into teams but actually infiltrated enough to own teams currently.(Yes have them be even more sneaky/greedy skavrin than old world🤣)
@Brian Van De Walker I mean given with one of the latest stls we have a corporation that is uplifting Earth Animals it would make sense for them to be uplifted rats. Though granted one would ask why would Gaia Corp uplift rats when they're currently uplifting big animals like Polar Bears.
@Drangir Yeah, I need to get a WGA Damned beastmen box to compliment the one sprue I got, which can only make six.
