Grimdark Future/Tactics/Vile Rattus Cult

Why play Vile Rattus Cult?

Take the Ratmen and give them supertechnology, mutatnts, and serious leadership and you get the Vile Rattus.

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Pros

• Lots of Activations
• Cheap Chaff
• Very wide usage of Scout
• A bevy of affordable heroes

Cons

• Your troops are flimsy as hell and aren't as numerous
• Your troops aren't all that good with their guns
• Limited customization
• Not many options for heavy weaponry

Psychic Spells

• Filth (4+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Poison on their next melee hits. Necessary if you want to maximize just how dangerous your forces can be.
• Cracks (4+): Two enemy units within 6" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Sickness (5+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -1 to hit while shooting your forces, absolutely what you'll want to protect your hordes.
• Lightning (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 4 Deadly 3 hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
• Frenzy (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Pestilence (6+): Enemy unit within 6" take a hit per model, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Rat Daemon: OH MY LAWDY this thing's expensive! It's more often than not going to be your centerpoint for your army and it does that very well. Tough 12 with a 2+ on quality and defense means that he won't be going for quite a while and he's got quite a nasty set of weapons to cover any range. The issue is that those attacks and Fear are all he has. The moment he's not hitting something, he's boned.

• Brood Mothers: Considerably different from their RC kindred, chiefly by their diminished role in leading. That is not to say that they are useless. While practically defenseless, she owns Scout as well as a Tac-Console, allowing a friendly unit within 12" to move 6". This makes her way more useful in coordinating an army. Never take her alone if you do, grab some brood guards.

• Brood Guard: Very strong and very tanky. Shame that they only have energy halberds. These are your dedicated protectors, being able to soak wounds for any heroes within 6" - perfect for your heroes not named the Rat Daemon. Aside from that, your options are limited - either a rat familiar, tail blade (these two give two attacks and either AP 1 or Rending) or a jetpack for flying.

• Warren Lord: A very budget hero. He's fairly flimsy for a hero, and he gets the options available to a brood guard and then some. He can also ride a wolf rat for some major mobility or use a rat ogre palanquin, a much tankier mobile weapons platform.

• Shockvermin Chief: A brood guard without bodyguard and a slightly poorer defense. If you're eyeing the brood guard's power but not so keen on the protecting, then you'll be better served by this one.

• Tunnel Leader: Your dedicated sniper hero, about as effective as a warren lord. Strangely has access to Impact 1, which really doesn't make sense.

• Warlock: Your basic psychic, with access to the same upgrades as the shockvermin chief and poorer defense in exchange for a poison melee weapon. Fortunately, this wizard can actually improve their power a bit.

• Mutagenic Moulder: This hero gives their unit a random buff each turn they fight in melee (AP +1, an extra attack or enemies take -1 to hit), though they only have a AP 3 Deadly 3 weapon that hits on a 5+. Not to say that this is bad or anything, but it shouldn't be what you rely upon to save the day.

• Brood Banner: This flimsy hero provides their unit Furious and Regeneration. This makes them way more important for a melee unit and can even synergize well with the moulder.

• Noxis Assassin: Your sneaky hero with Stealth. The burst pistol gives more shots than a normal pistol, but that range is just pitiful. The poison blade gives you yet another tool for melee (even if you bought a tail blade or rat familiar) and the sniper rifle gives you the means to be a better-protected sniper than the tunnel leader.

• Cult Engineer: Another hero with access to Repair, which heals Tough units within 2". Unique among the heroes is that this guy gets three pistol shots, each with AP 1.

• Slave Overseer: The Megaphone gives the overseer's unit Fast, which is way more direct than the brood mother.

Infantry

• Slaves: Slaves are pitiful. Like HDF conscript pitiful. You have more of them to offset that, but don't expect them to last long. If you're intent on making use of their rifles' very long range, consider at least grabbing a brood banner so they can actually tank something.

• Wolf Rats: Wolf rats have Fast and Strider so they can go wherever they need to. This is necessary because all they have are two melee attacks and with their stats, they need to reach combat ASAP before they get shot down.

• Clawpack: The closest thing you have to slugga rats. Unlike the ratmen's version, these guys have quite a few choices of melee weaponry to pick from, including giving everyone tail blades. As for shooting, you're stuck with pistols and one guy can grab either a flamethrower pistol or an AT bomb to pop a hole in a tank. Jetpacks are also a solid choice because of how miserable their shooting is.

• Vermin: Shoota rats. You have quite a broad choice of weapons to equip in place of a carbine, with some standouts being the quake cannon (perfect for nailing elites) and the mining laser (because tanks deserve death). Even better is that you can grab jetpacks and make them even more mobile.
  • Weapons Team: Because you needed heavy guns, these are available as either an attachment to a vermin unit or as their own pack of three Tough 3 gunners. Not only can they grab jetpacks to follow the vermin, but they also have access to a sniper rifle, which is crazy good. Just make sure they're not at risk of any Deadly weapons.

• Shockvermin: Slightly better with 4+ to quality and defense as well as some dangerous energy halberds. They're melee only though, so you might do well to hide a hero here. Their lone options are tail weapons and jetpacks.

• Bomb Rats: Literal kamikazes. If they ever enter melee, they blow up and deal 3 wounds to their enemies. Thus, you need to make sure they don't get popped early (though morale is never an issue). A brood mother would do wonders for this instance.

• Rat Swarms: Just as miserable as slaves, though slaves don't have Tough 3 and Fearless. If pressed between the two, remember that slaves have shockingly long-ranged rifles.

• Terror Beasts: Tanky and dangerous beasts, each comes with 3 AP 1 attacks and Tough 3, making them better at punching.

• Rat Ogres: Big beefy bruisers, though not nearly as terrifying as their RC kin. What you get, however, is Furious and a carbine machine gun, giving you the advantage of range.

• Wolf Rat Riders: See those wolf rats? They now have a clawpack on top of them. All the same upgrades available on the clawpack apply here, meaning you now have super-speedy choppy rats.

• Tunnel Riders: Essentially your bikes, all quite zippy to ensure that their shotguns can shoot something. AT bombs give you even an additional set of shorter-ranged shooting, but something that will make tanks shudder in fear.

• Heavy Tunnel Rider: A pretty mobile vehicle with Strider. You only got two weapons for this: The base heavy flamethrower, so you can spread the hurt, the heavy machinegun, or the mining laser, made to punch holes in any tanks.

Vehicles

• Light War Buggy: A cheap lightweight combat vehicle. If the flamethrower feels too short-ranged, you can buy a grenade launcher so you can take a bit of breathing space, as does the hunter missile.

• Heavy War Buggy: Slightly tankier and equipped with a twin laser machinegun. Replace that with a twin laser cannon if you're keen on popping heavy units.

• Halftrack: Not quite as strong with Impact, but it has Scout and a heavy mining laser to kill crap. The mortar gives you more range and a blast, but it forces you to be immobile to offset indirect.

• Warren Drill: Your ground Transport has a light flamethrower and heavy machinegun to shoot enemies and Impact 6 if you feel urged to charge (though no melee weapons). If you don't plan on pushing for melee, the laser cannon would likely seem more appealing.

• Artillery: This gun is quite terrifying. 48" AP 4 and Blast 6 makes both infantry and tank alike shake in their boots. However, it has one visible weakness: It can't move. Sure the gun's Indirect, but when you can't move or even defend yourself, that's less of an issue.

• Warplock Walker: Don't bother with melee, Fear does nothing for you. Stick to the rocket pods, as they give some good shooting, and hunter missiles can give you a good anti-tank weapon.

• VTOL Transport: Lightweight flying transport. The laser machinegun gives you a pretty good balance of shooting-to-power, but you can buy a laser cannon if you just want things to go boom. The strike missiles are already there though if you're keen on that - as long as you don't instead buy the rocket pods for blasts. Also present are twin machineguns, giving you a third gun to shoot with.

• VTOL Gunship: Much beefier and deadlier. Fury missiles give big blasts but lack any AP, which the two twin laser cannons give in exchange for the blast. If you buy those, it's to compliment the already-existing twin laser cannon because of their limited shots. If you just want more guns, you can buy two heavy machineguns.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Lots of Activations
• Cheap Chaff
• Very wide usage of Scout
• A bevy of affordable heroes

Cons

• Your troops are flimsy as hell and aren't as numerous
• Your troops aren't all that good with their guns
• Limited customization
• Not many options for heavy weaponry

Psychic Spells

• Filth (4+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Poison on their next melee hits. Necessary if you want to maximize just how dangerous your forces can be.
• Cracks (4+): Two enemy units within 6" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Sickness (5+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -1 to hit while shooting your forces, absolutely what you'll want to protect your hordes.
• Lightning (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 4 Deadly 3 hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
• Frenzy (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Pestilence (6+): Enemy unit within 6" take a hit per model, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Brood Mothers: Considerably different from their RC kindred, chiefly by their diminished role in leading. That is not to say that they are useless. While practically defenseless, she owns Scout as well as a Tac-Console, allowing a friendly unit within 12" to move 6". This makes her way more useful in coordinating an army. Never take her alone if you do, grab some brood guards.

• Brood Guard: Very strong and very tanky. Shame that they only have energy halberds. These are your dedicated protectors, being able to soak wounds for any heroes within 6" - very useful. Aside from that, your options are limited - either a rat familiar, tail blade (these two give two attacks and either AP 1 or Rending) or a jetpack for flying.

• Warren Lord: A very budget hero. He's fairly flimsy for a hero, and he gets the options available to a brood guard and then some. He can also ride a wolf rat for some major mobility or use a rat ogre palanquin, a much tankier mobile weapons platform.

• Shockvermin Chief: A brood guard without bodyguard and a slightly poorer defense. If you're eyeing the brood guard's power but not so keen on the protecting, then you'll be better served by this one.

• Tunnel Leader: Your dedicated sniper hero, about as effective as a warren lord. Strangely has access to Impact 1, which really doesn't make sense.

• Warlock: Your basic psychic, with access to the same upgrades as the shockvermin chief and poorer defense in exchange for a poison melee weapon. Fortunately, this wizard can actually improve their power a bit.

• Mutagenic Moulder: This hero gives their unit a random buff each turn they fight in melee (AP +1, an extra attack or enemies take -1 to hit), though they only have a AP 3 Deadly 3 weapon that hits on a 5+. Not to say that this is bad or anything, but it shouldn't be what you rely upon to save the day.

• Brood Banner: This flimsy hero provides their unit Furious and Regeneration. This makes them way more important for a melee unit and can even synergize well with the moulder.

• Noxis Assassin: Your sneaky hero with Stealth. The burst pistol gives more shots than a normal pistol, but that range is just pitiful. The poison blade gives you yet another tool for melee (even if you bought a tail blade or rat familiar) and the sniper rifle gives you the means to be a better-protected sniper than the tunnel leader.

• Cult Engineer: Another hero with access to Repair, which heals Tough units within 2". Unique among the heroes is that this guy gets three pistol shots, each with AP 1.

• Slave Overseer: The Megaphone gives the overseer's unit Fast, which is way more direct than the brood mother.

Infantry

• Slaves: Slaves are pitiful. Like HDF conscript pitiful, but you only get three of them. If you're intent on making use of their rifles' very long range, consider at least grabbing a brood banner so they can actually tank something.

• Wolf Rat: Wolf rats have Fast and Strider so they can go wherever they need to. This is necessary because all they have are two melee attacks and with their stats, they need to reach combat ASAP before they get shot down.

• Claw Warrior: The closest thing you have to slugga rats. Unlike the ratmen's version, these guys have quite a few choices of melee weaponry to pick from, including giving everyone tail blades. As for shooting, you're stuck with pistols with options for either a flamethrower pistol or an AT bomb to pop a hole in a tank. Jetpacks are also a solid choice because of how miserable their shooting is.

• Vermin: Shoota rats. You have quite a broad choice of weapons to equip in place of a carbine, with some standouts being the quake cannon (perfect for nailing elites) and the mining laser (because tanks deserve death). Even better is that you can grab jetpacks and make them even more mobile.

• Weapons Team: Because you needed heavy guns. Not only can the rattus gunners grab jetpacks to follow the vermin, but they also have access to a sniper rifle, which is crazy good. Just make sure they're not at risk of getting popped.

• Shockvermin: Slightly better with 4+ to quality and defense as well as some dangerous energy halberds. They're melee only though, so you'll need to protect them before they get in range. Their lone options are tail weapons and jetpacks.

• Bomb Rat: Literal kamikazes. If they ever enter melee, they blow up and deal 3 wounds to their enemies. Thus, you need to make sure they don't get popped early (though morale is never an issue). A brood mother would do wonders for this instance.

• Rat Swarm: Just as miserable as slaves, though slaves don't have Tough 3 and Fearless. If pressed between the two, remember that slaves have shockingly long-ranged rifles.

• Terror Beast: Tanky and dangerous beasts, each comes with 3 AP 1 attacks and Tough 3, making them better at punching.

• Rat Ogre: Big beefy bruisers, though not nearly as terrifying as their RC kin. What you get, however, is Furious and a carbine machine gun, giving you the advantage of range.

• Wolf Rat Riders: See those wolf rats? They now have a clawpack on top of them. All the same upgrades available on the clawpack apply here, meaning you now have super-speedy choppy rats.

• Tunnel Rider: Essentially your bikes, all quite zippy to ensure that their shotguns can shoot something. AT bombs give you an additional set of shorter-ranged shooting, but something that will make brutes shudder in fear.

• Heavy Tunnel Rider: A pretty mobile vehicle with Strider. You only got three weapons for this: The base heavy flamethrower, so you can spread the hurt, the heavy machinegun for ranged dakka, or the mining laser, made to punch holes in any tanks.

Tactics

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Grimdark Future Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Alien Hives:	Alien Hives - Soul-Snatcher Cults
Aliens:	Dwarf Guilds - Eternal Dynasty - Jackals - Orc Marauders Robot Legions - Saurian Starhost - TAO Coalition
Battle Brothers:	Battle Brothers - Custodian Brothers - Prime Brothers
Elves:	Dark Elf Raiders - Elven Jesters - High Elf Fleets
Havoc:	Havoc Brothers - Machine Cult Defilers - Wormhole Daemons
Humans:	Battle Sisters - Feudal Guard - Gangs of Hive City Human Defense Force - Human Inquisition - Infected Colonies Machine Cult - Titan Lords - Rebel Guerillas
Ratmen:	Ratmen Clans - Vile Rattus Cult