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Made in us
Calculating Commissar




pontiac, michigan; usa

Supposedly in the army book the skaven have something called the black hunger. It's a ravenous hunger they get after a certain amount of exertion and if they don't eat after too much exertion they will die. This means that often after a fight or a battle or possibly while friendlies and enemies are falling around them they'll probably pick the corpses of the fallen to their bones. I think the gameplay could represent this somehow. Skaven don't have too many negative rules yet with 'scurry away' actually being helpful sometimes when you're trying not to get massacred by an enemy you flee from. That said the 'black hunger' can be a good and a bad thing. Maybe if the skaven have fought a fight too long without enough killing they get more ferocious as their hunger tears at their bodies. All of this said i'm sure ogres could have a rule like this with their constant hunger too but we'll see. Some of these rules are getting paid attention to and some new army rules have been given in some army books though very slight like with vampire counts i think.

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Made in us
Evasive Eshin Assassin





I'd like to see something like this in a campaign, but not in a normal pitched battle. The Skaven have a hyper-fast metabolism, meaning they die of starvation after only a few days, rather than weeks or months, as with a human. The average Warhammer battle doesn't last long enough.

A rule that lets Skaven campaigners get extra points of Clanrats and Slaves and Rat Swarms when they win (because they breed so fast), but suffer extra casualties when they loose (via Black Hunger) would match the feel of it.

 
   
Made in us
Calculating Commissar




pontiac, michigan; usa

Actually i think it was mentioned that black hunger effects skaven that have been through recent exertion. So that's why after a fight or duel the dead are usually eaten because they get super hungry. I dunno if they'd straight up die from not eating enemy, friendly and allied (not for long ) dead but the more they exert themselves like with anything the faster they will die off. I can't imagine skaven would last very long if they've marched and fought all day and couldn't even eat their own body weight in food. The odd part about that though is that skaven are the most numerous so they'd probably have to sack every single village and eat everything they could find down to even barren leafless trees and plants and even pine cones or similar.

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Made in us
Evasive Eshin Assassin





...not sure what you're trying to say.

Allow me to clarify my point:

The Black Hunger should not have any effect at all during a normal pitched battle. Skaven need to eat every single day or they'll die, which is crazy.
They do not need to injest 20% of their body weight every three hours. That would be silly.

So, my suggestion would be to incorporate this into a campaign.
When the Skaven win a battle, they feast upon the fallen. Because they breed so fast, they can swell their ranks.
When the Skaven loose, they are too busy routing to stave off the Black Hunger, resulting in many dying of hunger and more dying of being eaten.

Make sense?

As for how they don't eat the land bare, they do. "An Army Marches on its Stomach", as the saying goes. But the Skaven don't just eat food. They drink alchemical goop and Warpstone, and anyone who gets sick or hurt. They reproduce fast and die fast. Too bad for everyone else they do the first thing faster.

 
   
Made in us
Calculating Commissar




pontiac, michigan; usa

Meh i suppose it could work. I mean it's in the army book. I suppose it'd be a decent campaign rule. Faction specific bonuses in a campaign sounds like fun. Hopefully it wouldn't dis-balance the sides too much though.

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Made in us
The Conquerer






Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios

It would be too much of a disadvantage in a regular battle. Its what happens after a battle, not during it.

Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines

Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.

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Made in us
Evasive Eshin Assassin





Exactly. Lots of things are in army books, especially phrases like "they fight to the last man", that aren't actually reflected in the army.

 
   
 
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