"What If Earth Got Infested With A New Kind Of RAT???" Topic

A swarm of more intelligent and resourceful … and more focused rats?

1) SCALE & BASING
Would these 7mm rats look OK like mutated rats next to a 15mm human? And how would you base them for gaming against 15mm opponents?

link
link

2) MAKE OR BUY SPACECRAFT
What would their spaceship look like? A wedge of cheese? A wheel of cheese? Or like a vessel inspired by something other than cheese? How would you go about making it? :)

3) HUMAN OPPONENTS
Would these guys work OK as human rodent control/extermination agents? Or would you go with humans who are at least as highly advanced technologically as the space rats? Other options?

link

4) RULES
What rules would you use? What modifications, if any, would you make for the size difference between the rats and the humans, seeing as how the rats make much smaller targets?

5) TERRAIN
Lastly, would you have them land in a field and infest a farm, or have them infiltrate a built up area (residential, commercial or government facility)?

6) OBJECTIVES
Have they come to Earth to raid our cheese stockpiles? Or to liberate their relatives in our fields, farms and cities? Or something else?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks

Dan

It could be painful…..

thinking even more outside the box how about skavenesque hordes against your 28mm imperial guard, eldar or space marines

Those are lovely. I would base 2 on a 20 mm disc. I'd prefer them to be alil bigger though…nyc sized rats.

Jeeps with .50 cal. MGs worked well in WWII. Or at least in 1966.

imdb.com/title/tt0060018
YouTube link

1) At least some of them should be based individually for use as scouts and to lure unwary humans into ambushes through feigned retreats.
2) Don't know about the outside, but the inside of the space ship should feature lots of maze-like corridors.
3)The humans will need heavy weapon/engineer teams that carry rat traps to deploy.
4) I was trying to figure out how you'd model scurrying.
5) Densely populated urban areas. They're probably claustrophobic little beggars and would feel more comfortable in areas where they could scurry from one bit of cover to the next. Besides, that's where the humans are (see below).
6) They need prisoners back to their home planet for research.

Grelber

Think Necromunda…. hive world etc… combine this with the Secret of Nym.

Their home worlds would literally be a hive world.. a bit like how Despero's Medieval world, but all teched up.

Spaceships would not be streamlined.. I envision a cluster like a minni hive city going through space with literally thousands of launch points for fighters and other craft.

I definitely do not envision corridors in "mazes", but do envision "mazes" of corridors….

Simply put.. thinking outside the box… they think differently than us…. even the mice.. well rats from Nym still thrived off of their instincts…

Even then, you can have sub races or classes.. field mice, house mice…. rats…. all kinds of the worlds of Brian Jaques (Redwall). Each group would have their own strengths and weaknesses…. Jumping mice… you can literally go on and on…. Field mice scouts…. House mice as city planners, etc….

Also, I like this concept as they are not necessarily evil like skaven.. in fact, I can see people as the bad guys.. kind of….

Led by President Algernon.

Got the MicroWorld 6mm Rats ! Stating them like Epic Orks … They are organized but still in the painting line ! Great little models ! They have a Heavy Weapon in the cuts … looks like an RPG or Panzerfaust !

They'll use looted human stuff and stuff they got from Orks !

Habitrails in Space!!!

Legion 4: "They'll use looted human stuff"

LOL. In this scenario looted stuff from 15mm humans would be way too big for the little 7mm guys.

Dan

In 6mm … that won't be a problem …

You're right. If Rocket can do it, then they can too.

Dan

1) SCALE & BASING
Depends on the rules and type of games you want. I can see a human squad of 5-10 trying to clear a building or a company of 30-40 setting up choke points and manning road blocks.
2) MAKE OR BUY SPACECRAFT
Not very original, but I like the 50's style rocketship for them.
3) HUMAN OPPONENTS
I like the yellow haz-mat guys. I mean if we're dealing with a space bourne rat infestation, who knows what kind of diseases they are carrying. I see lots of shotguns, flame throwers and grenade launchers because shooting a rat on the run is no fun (hah, see what I did there?).
4) RULES
I like the Two hour wargames rules sets. I would stat the rats as fast movers (automatically pass fast move tests and maybe give them an extra 2 inches, too). I would also always count them as stealthy (shooter suffers -1 Rep). The rats would range from Rep 3 for scouts, Rep 4 for average, and Rep 5 for leaders and heavy weapons.

5) TERRAIN
Depends on objectives
6) OBJECTIVES
Snatch and Grab – rats are looking to capture some high level human scientists. That Voyager probe that crashed into one of their spaceships really caught their attention. Or they want to find out more about the black death and see if it can be exported to some other 'problem' planets. Terrain would be a government facility (NASA, Area 51, etc)
Invasion – rats need room. Either with or without the natives. Terrian starts in a rural farm area so they can setup HQ and supply points then spreads out to urban areas. Would probably consist of multiple landing sites across all continents.
Cheese – Cheese comes from milk which comes from cows. Humans have become very adept at raising cows. Same as invasion, but starts with an extermination campaign in the urban areas and moves to capturing and controlling rural populations.

Sounds like a fun project, good luck!

They're called "politicians".

Those would be some big rats at 15mm… hobbit or goblin sized rats. I would mount two or three of them on the same size stand as your single human models, and treat the stand as equivalent to one human. That makes the rules easy to apply in any system.The rest is just aesthetic.

This thread put me in mind of the Hynerian's from Farscape who were small and apparently died in their millions to defend the Empire. It would be interesting to a do a proper hoard army in 15mm!

Daithi the Black, that's what I figured height-wise, more or less.

ROUWetPatchBehindThe Sofa, excellent idea!

Dan

I say we arm the cats and just let them have fun

Tsofian

Lol. Maybe there's an intergalactic war between rats and cats and we were just caught in the middle of it* for some reason.

Dan
* I suspect that is the fault of the cats though. They seem to have taken over the minds of many otherwise thinking humans. :)

Some of my 6mm "Space Rat Exterminators", with extreme prejudice …

This is hilarious:

link

Dan

Legion 4

Would you be able,to post a picture of the rats standing next to a 15mm figure?

Thanks

Dan

Don't have any 15mm … but generally they are @ 7-8mm from the bottom of their feet to top of head. So in 15mm or even 25-8mm … That is one Big " 'n" Rat !

Thanks for the information Legion 4, I will have to get some of those little rats, and team them up with Rocket from the Galactic A**holes set from Highlanders Studios and the Monkey Boys also from Highlanders Studios.

Legion 4: "7-8mm from the bottom of their feet to the top of their head"

That's exactly what I needed to know.

Thanks

Dan
PS. War Monkey, get some and use them with your barge town, if not as Alien invaders then maybe as as escapees from a Louisiana genetics lab after sea levels rise. Just look at them as a super intelligent rat-capybara hybrid: :)

Glad to help !!

But I think those Big "Rats" in that pic are not found in nature. Only in photoshop/GCI …

Legion 4

That picture is VERY real!

Those are South American capybaras, the largest living rodents on Earth, but now raised as pets in some areas. That's how big they can get with a healthy diet and good veterinary care.

Dan

I know what they are …

But … well … if so I won't be visiting anywhere there are rodents almost as big as a fully grown Human !

LOL. There lots of people in the southern US with capybaras as pets. Why? I really don't know. I'm a dog person. Okay, maybe also some snakes or lizards in the future, the way I used to keep as a kid, back when my parents thought I was allergic to dogs.

Dan

I'm a dog person too … they are good enough for me !

WooF ! Woof !

My Dawg thinks so too !