It's time to pull the hobbits off the shelf! Not the Tolkien variety, no I am talking about my favorite abhumans. Ratlings have been part of the guard since the first army book. (anyone remember stumper muckstarter?) since their inception these lil guys have been laying down the sniper fire. Their statline in the current codex doesn't seem impressive, (a fair number of characteristics being 2.) my thinking is that Ratlings are more than the sum of their parts and furthermore with the advent of secondary objectives the rats may have just found a niche.
That said here are few reasons that you should run Ratlings in your army.
Ratlings are point for point the cheapest sniper rifle on the board. Better shots than scouts and double the number of models of pathfinders for fewer points. You can take as few as three or as many as ten to an elite slot and with their sniper rifles you can pick out a unit champion or more importantly enemy characters. This can have a psychological effect on your enemy as they will be doubtlessly less than enthusiastic about their warlord or librarian drawing so much heat. This goes the same for monstrous creatures or emplaced guns. Wounding on a 4+ means these lil rats laugh at your high toughness.
A favorite tactic of mine is to run a three man (is halfling or hobbit more appropriate?) squad as line breakers. For thirty points I get a victory point with an easy to hide model and a fantastic cover save.
Unless I missed something shrouded and stealth stack meaning that long rang rats at night have 4+ cover in the open. Put em down in a building or a bastion tower and you have 2+ - 3+ cover. This should mitigate their lowered toughness to some degree.
The final note I have is character. Ratlings ooze character. Are they the company cooks? Happy go lucky snipers? Maybe the regiments amulets are running an after hour card game or operating a black market racket. Te options are many and varied. Ratlings have been present at some of the most important battles don't you think it's time to try out a few yourself.
I'm a fairly recent convert to Ratlings, I got a pack earlier this year and loved painting them. Normally I don't bother about stats and game performance but these guys' high cover save mean they've only taken one casualty in three games, and while they struggle to kill marines (my usual opponent), they force an enemy to put a huge amount of firepower on to them. Nice article!
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