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 Flashman wrote:
Given that Ratskins are still in the fluff, be a shame not to see them come back. Obviously a design rethink is required (which arguably most of the N17 gangs have had apart from Goliath and Escher) plus maybe a renaming but a gang clad in animal skins of some sort should be doable without being culturally insensitive.

Just don't give them 'braves' and 'chiefs', take the feathers out of their hair (where'd they get those in the Underhive anyway?) and job's a good 'un.

They got screamed at because they made a Cawdor model with a pointy hat. Do your really think they're going to try Ratskins?

The feathers were from sump pigeons. Nasty critters.

But yeah. Ratskins will most likely be Reskins if they try to reintroduce them.

Honestly, Ratskins don't really make much sense in 40K universe. They worship spirits, but somehow aren't unknowingly worshipping Chaos? Where do they even come from? Are they the original inhabitants of Necromunda? Because that also wouldn't make a lot of sense considering the time scale.

Ash Wastes Nomads that settled in the Underhive might make more sense (and be less culture-appropriating), but at that point it will aggravate some old players and it all begins to feel rather pointless. They could just as easily have rules for generic outcasts and let players make their own gangs of Ratskins if they wanted.

 Shakalooloo wrote:

Just don't give them 'braves' and 'chiefs', take the feathers out of their hair (where'd they get those in the Underhive anyway?) and job's a good 'un.

Same place the new Eschers got their feathers and furs, presumably.

 Scottywan wrote:
Honestly, Ratskins don't really make much sense in 40K universe. They worship spirits, but somehow aren't unknowingly worshipping Chaos?

Ah yes, 'Hive Spirits' are too much in this brave new setting with the part-Xenos psychic gessalt House who worship Cthulhu...

Ghosts in 40k are a by product of the warp and not necessarily Chaos but mucking about with such things tends to attract demonic creatures who just want to be friends...

As for being the original inhabitants, well that is easily solved by just making it their creation myth, they believe it but we as the readers do not know if it is true or not.

By 'original inhabitants' they were just the original colonists, not pre-human people. The spirits they worship are the machine spirits of the ships that became the Hive structures.

Yeah there you go, they could also go in a different direction and make them true spirits but not sure how that would fit, a necromunda necromancer faction, NecroMuncers

 Scottywan82 wrote:
Honestly, Ratskins don't really make much sense in 40K universe. They worship spirits, but somehow aren't unknowingly worshipping Chaos? Where do they even come from? Are they the original inhabitants of Necromunda? Because that also wouldn't make a lot of sense considering the time scale.

Almost every world or linked group of worlds has its own ways of worshipping the Emperor. There's no set way to worship.

Furthermore outside of the Emperor and Chaos there are loads of people worshipping all kinds of other things, be they real or imagined gods in the setting. Chaos will often try and pervert things to its own end, but that doesn't mean it always will. Plus even when it does a lot of people can happily think they are worshipping Bob the god of Building, but in actuality its a posing demon. AoS has shown this really well in their Chaos stories.


So the Ratskins can be worshipping Spirits and not be giving any belief to Chaos itself; or they might or it might be their way of worshipping the Emperor.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
...the part-Xenos psychic gessalt House who worship Cthulhu...

Oh Christ... don't remind me!

 Scottywan82 wrote:
Honestly, Ratskins don't really make much sense in 40K universe. They worship spirits, but somehow aren't unknowingly worshipping Chaos? Where do they even come from? Are they the original inhabitants of Necromunda? Because that also wouldn't make a lot of sense considering the time scale.

Ash Wastes Nomads that settled in the Underhive might make more sense (and be less culture-appropriating), but at that point it will aggravate some old players and it all begins to feel rather pointless. They could just as easily have rules for generic outcasts and let players make their own gangs of Ratskins if they wanted.

You should have played back in the day...

They make perfect sense. If you would have been there, you would have already known about their plot points.
The Ratskins are human primitives' that live on Hive Bottom. Ash Wastes Nomads are Ash Waste "Nomads" that aren't humans that live in the ash wastes.

It's not that big a deal.

I had a good time with them in the Outland rules, and they were just good for one off injects to gang fights, or having them on a three way fight in Outland fight scenarios, along with a giant spider or a mutant hunt. If you didn't have Brakkar, you were SOL. They were good for hit and run tactics and you voluntarily bounced when you gank a ganger or two, depending on the dice gods. I played them a bit, but they always got wiped out. That issue about the heavy weapons kills it for them, unless you can close in and double team the opponent.

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ratskins

The hive game is in three dimensions, one of those dimensions- Hive Bottom, has an ocean on the bottom, and swamps with stuff not even discussed about, yet. The current run hasn't bothered with hive bottom, yet

In N17 on, we have a hint, but it really hasn't been discussed, except that weaksauce idea added indirectly to the Delaques and the Water Guild.

There are swamps, ports, boat battles, giant hive spiders, sea monsters, etc... The humans that live down there (Ratskin Renegades) are indirectly specialized infiltration and ambush troops.

Give it time though. I'm sure we will see an iteration of them in a more sanitized version to counter those delicate fee-fee players that want to impose their righteous indignation on every aspect of gaming.

"Lady Haera, 13th Daughter of Lord Helmawr" is up for pre-order next weekend

Necromunda actually got 50% of all new models this week.

Wait, what? There was no Ratskins with feathers in my gang.
Or did theyget feathers with the remake?

Anyway, Ratskins were great! If you hit the jackpot and find an Archotech horde, the Shaman sealed it and guarded it as a sacred place, leaving the gang with nothing for the trouble. They absolutely had a conection to the deeper macine spirits of necromunda, and hated Van Saar, if i recall correctly.
To bad the shaman had such rotten powers and replaced the heavy option .

Outlanders had a really hard time in old necromunda.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Necromunda actually got 50% of all new models this week.

33% - new Farsight & Snikrot hiding in Boarding Patrol boxes.

She looks okay, kinda like a Kingdom Death piece but not as good (in fact I think GW have done a few with this sort of aesthetic that look better, but they tend to be mainly AoS / AoS spinoff game).

Been looking forward to Lady Haera.

Hopefully I can get my Blade of the Matriarch finished before she shows up.
Maybe I can even order that Corpse Harvesting party while I'm at it!

 Fayric wrote:
Wait, what? There was no Ratskins with feathers in my gang.
Or did theyget feathers with the remake?

No, it's me misremembering - looking up some pictures of old models, what my brain recalled as feathers look to be tufts of fur hanging from the shaman's shotgun! Unfortunately, I also found images of the remake models, and they are pretty horrible.

Grot 6 wrote:
I had a good time with them in the Outland rules, and they were just good for one off injects to gang fights, or having them on a three way fight in Outland fight scenarios, along with a giant spider or a mutant hunt. If you didn't have Brakkar, you were SOL. They were good for hit and run tactics and you voluntarily bounced when you gank a ganger or two, depending on the dice gods. I played them a bit, but they always got wiped out. That issue about the heavy weapons kills it for them, unless you can close in and double team the opponent.

Fayric wrote:Anyway, Ratskins were great! If you hit the jackpot and find an Archotech horde, the Shaman sealed it and guarded it as a sacred place, leaving the gang with nothing for the trouble. They absolutely had a conection to the deeper macine spirits of necromunda, and hated Van Saar, if i recall correctly.
To bad the shaman had such rotten powers and replaced the heavy option .

Outlanders had a really hard time in old necromunda.

I played them too and was rather successful (and I never used Brakkar). Rolling twice on the injury table, shifting the result of the scenario roll, getting +1 for scavenging and always using the difficult conditions (even if my opponent didn't want to) was nice. My shaman had the power to create a Ratskin pouch(?) after the game and if it worked I sold it for 30 creds - so (combined with the fact I almost never had to replace dead warriors and got more from scavenging) I had, unusual for an outlander gang, nearly always some creds left in the stack. My territory was the Rad zone and after some games three of my warriors caused fear.

Sure, I had to adapt a more stealthy play style and didn't used some of the garbage weapons, but often enough they really frustrated my opponents.

I liked the shaman and the musket brave. Brakar was pretty cool too.

Ratskins were one of the few (only?) places where the rarest of 2nd Ed weaponry - muskets, blunderbusses and hand-bows - actually showed up.

They had a lot of cool minis.

Is that fur on the Daughter of Helmawr? I think I have some 1980's metals goblins that can do better...

Does GW not have any fur sculptors anymore to do some meatspace sculpting before the final mould?

It might be a concession to PETA's objection to depictions of fur on models

 RedSarge wrote:
Is that fur on the Daughter of Helmawr? I think I have some 1980's metals goblins that can do better...

Does GW not have any fur sculptors anymore to do some meatspace sculpting before the final mould?

Looks like fleece to me, not fur.

The Hiver’s Guide to the Nobles of Necromunda – Succession Edition

Yeah I think its fleece not fur. I've also noted that GW don't do as much fur these days. It's either a style change or a product of them going for more fancy poses whilst also dealing with the limitations of plastic casting over metal or resin. Fur creates a lot of undercuts and it might be that complex poses plus fur just results in far too much parting for the plastic models.

What ever it is, it looks like crap IMO as does the model in general. I've never been a fan of Blanche fever dream drawings made phsyical models though.

Was that new book for the uprising ever released?

NONE of my contacts has access to it. Secondly was another release of the Outlaw gangs... Are they still available?

 Grot 6 wrote:
Was that new book for the uprising ever released?

NONE of my contacts has access to it. Secondly was another release of the Outlaw gangs... Are they still available?

Book 1 is available online: https://www.games-workshop.com/de-DE/aranthian-succession-cinderak-burning-2022

Book 2 is coming in the 'near future' according to the community article: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/03/17/the-aranthian-succession-vaults-of-temenos-serves-up-saints-sinners-and-savage-skirmishes/

 warboss wrote:
What ever it is, it looks like crap IMO as does the model in general. I've never been a fan of Blanche fever dream drawings made phsyical models though.

Yes, the model is kinda blanchesque, but his works are one of the major influences for 40k design. So it's not unexpected to see something like this here and there. Look at it this way: I prefer the Vostroyans over the Cadians, but I'm glad that the latter are the 'normal' troopers. Having only the weirdness would be a freak show, but without it the setting would be just bland.