Somehow, Ratlings have been coaxed away from their meals for long enough to participate in games of Kill Team. Ratlings are not naturally the most fearsome creatures of the 41st millennium and the small dimensions of killzones force them to confront the enemy at far closer ranges than they’d want. To compensate for these issues, some “Ratlings” can actually be Ogryns or Bullgryns, which are very, very different.
We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.
Check out the video review of the team below by Can You Roll a Crit:
Table of Contents
I Suppose Ratlings Need Some Description Nowadays
The Ratling team comprises a leader called a Fixer and ten other operatives. You can choose from eight Ratling specialists, a generic Ratling sniper, a pet dog and up to three Ogryns or Bullgryns. This means that you can field all the models in the new Brutal and Cunning box in one team, though you’ll need to add in some big guys if you want to do the “brutal” bit.
We expected Ogryns to take up two Ratling “slots”, but they don’t, it’s 1:1. Instead, to give you a playable team without having to buy a box of Ogryns there’s a confusingly-worded rule saying that instead of selecting one of the big guys you can have a ploy (of either type) cost 0CP for the game, which you can do up to three times. We think they intend this to mean that if you pick a Ratling instead of an Ogryn or Bullgryn you get the free ploy, but it could be read to mean you have to leave that slot entirely empty. Three free ploys would be very useful but there are obvious downsides to missing out on the tough guys.
For archetypes you get Security and Infiltration, which is probably fine. You’ve got lots of people who can creep around to score things like surveillance, along with beefy Ogryns to fight over the midfield.
Abilities
Scarper
After an enemy activation, and after every second activation thereafter, a Ratling (not an Ogryn, Bullgryn or the Sneak) can do a free dash. They have to finish more than 3” from the enemy, unless they’re not visible to any MP. Some of your team are very small indeed, so getting out of sight might be easier than you’d think.
This will give Ratlings a load of flexible movement options, partially compensating for their fairly slow movement. It could be handy for late-game objective grabbing as well as for lining up shots with the Heavy profile of sniper rifles, among many other things. They can’t climb as part of a dash of course.
Rifles
Not a special ability as such but lots of other rules interact with the long guns most Ratlings carry. In most cases these are Sniper rifles, which have mobile and stationary profiles. Mobile they have 4 shots on 4+ doing 3/4 but they are much better stationary (aka Heavy), hitting on 3+ for 3/3, devastating 3. There are also Battle Rifles, which get 4 shots on 3+ doing 3/4, while operatives like the Big Shot have unique Rifles. Ploys and other abilities that mention “Rifles” work on all of these but not on grenades, ripper guns and so on.
The Ploys
Strategy Ploys
Simple but effective stuff here, most of which benefit just the Ratlings and not the Ogryns or Bullgryns.
Sniper Positions gives the Stationary profile of Rifles the Silent rule if the firer is 6” from any enemies and has Heavy terrain in its control range, meaning just being next to a wall could be enough.
Crack Shots gives Rifles Balanced when shooting targets more than 6” away, so long as the Ratling hasn’t used Charge, Fall back or Reposition in that activation.
Shifty gives all your Ratlings Super-conceal, which is nice.
Frontline Assault is the outlier. It gives all your operatives, including the really big ones, Balanced when shooting, fighting or retaliating, so long as they’re either within 3” of an objective marker or within your opponent’s territory.
So there’s some very strong stuff here. You probably want Sniper Positions and Shifty up as much as possible so perhaps it would be sensible to take only two big guys to make Shifty free for the game. Crack Shots is nice but you do have the option of two Ammo Cashes thanks to the Stashmaster, so it’s less needed. Frontline Assault probably gets used in TP2 as you send in a couple of Ogryns, preferably both with 3APL from your Vox-thief.
Firefight Ploys
Some nice little tricks here that will help get your Ratlings out of some tricky situations.
Survival Instincts lets your Ratlings (not big guys) either block a critical success with a normal hit or block two normal hits with a critical, which might just be enough to keep them alive – assuming they can actually roll any hits in the first place. If they do,
Sharpshot lets you fire a Rifle at an enemy in control range of any of your operatives. That includes enemies in melee with an Ogryn, so you have interesting options for parrying people out or just tying them up to be shot later.
Larcenous lets a Ratling do a mission action or Pick Up Marker on an objective they contest, without needing to control it, even if there’s an enemy in control range of them. That’s perfect for Loot and perhaps also for late-game plays on the enemy objective in missions where it’s worth more.
Finally Shoot and Hide lets a Ratling who fired a Rifle switch back to conceal afterwards, if there are no enemies within 3” – which is ok for firing rifles on the move if you need to.
The Operatives
Ratlings are a unique kill team mostly made up of sneaky, squishy, shooty types, a few hulking great Ogryns and maybe a dog. It’s going to be fun to see how a team made up of such wildly different operatives works.
A Ratling has a 5” move, 2APL, 5+ save and 6 wounds. Their fists get 3 attacks on 5+ doing 1/2, which is not exactly inspiring. On the other hand Ogryns have 16 wounds, a save between 3+ and 5+ and various dramatic weapons.
Ratling Fixer
The leader of a Ratling team will not be found charging about with a plasma pistol and power sword. Instead he comes with a choice of sniper or battle rifle, with which he hits more accurately than normal, on 2s or 3s. Take the sniper rifle – its mobile profile is almost as good and its heavy profile is excellent.
He gives you a free extra equipment choice, so you’ll usually have at least five. Target Designation is a strategic gambit that lets him pick a visible enemy and give all rifle shots against it lethal 5+ for the turn, which is scary when you consider how many devastating attacks this team can fire.
Ratling Battlemutt
The Battlemutt is either entirely useless or potentially game-winning. It has 4 wounds and can only ever charge, dash, fall back, fight or reposition, meaning it will struggle to contribute to either kills or missions.
The once-per-turn Early Warning ability lets you interrupt an enemy activation, after an action where an operative moves. All your Ratlings (not Ogryns) within 2” of that enemy and 6” of the Battlemutt can either dash or do a 3” Fall Back, which is fantastic. A butcher or something charges you, or maybe someone runs in with a flamer, probably on Engage, but you scamper off before they attack. Then you fire a lot of stationary rifle shots at them.
The Battlemutt’s model is tiny, at around 10mm tall, so it will be hard for opponents to get visibility on it at times.
Ogryns and Bullgryns
These big friends have a couple of downsides. They can’t use Light terrain to hide from shooting and they are Slow-witted, so need to spend an extra AP on pick up and mission actions apart from opening doors. They have 6” moves, 2 APL and 16 wounds.
Bullgryns have a choice of weapons and shields. They have 4+ saves, or 3+ if they take a Slabshield, while the Brute Shield lets them block two hits when they parry. The shooty weapon option is a Grenadier Gauntlet, with four dice on 4+, 3/5 with 2” blast. For melee they can take a Power Maul, with four attacks on 3+ doing 4/6 with Shock. The shields have a melee profile, both with four dice doing 3/4. The brute shield hits on 3+ while the slab needs 4+. Generally you’re going to want a Slabshield against shooty enemies and a Brute Shield against melee.
Ogryns only have a 5+ save but are very dangerous. Their bayonets do D3+1 damage to one model they charge each turn and then get four attacks on 3+ doing 4/5 in melee. Ripper guns also have 4 dice on 3+ doing 4/5, with Punishing meaning they’ll spike high if they get any crits. They only get 8” range though.
There are probably quite a lot of different ways you might want to run your big guys. The Power Maul with shock is going to probably be spooky enough to trump the gauntlet for Bullgryns a lot of the time in the current Elite-heavy game. The blast could be good if hordes start to reappear, or possibly on ITD. I think the standard Ogryn could be excellent vs 8-10 wound operatives, especially if given 3APL. It can get a kill in two hits using the extra bayonet damage on a charge, then shoot up another target.
Unfortunately this means that a single box might not be enough to give you all the options you need. You could probably magnetise some weapons but the Bullgryn armour isn’t so simple. That makes this an expensive team to prepare, with a lot of models to build and paint.
Ratling Big Shot
No special rules here, just the awesome Tankstopper Rifle. Its mobile(ish) profile gets 4 dice on 3+ doing 4/4 with Devastating 1, Piercing 1 but Heavy (dash). Stationary it hits on 2+ for 4/2 with devastating 4, piercing 1 and Severe. That’s a scary profile for a gun that can potentially be fired on conceal from far away.
Ratling Bomber
A 4+ save and a bionic arm doing 3/4 in melee, though still only hitting on 5s, are fun for flavour but probably won’t make a lot of difference. However the Explosive Arsenal, with 5 dice on 3+ doing 4/5 with blast 1, piercing 1 and Saturate will hurt a lot. The Ratling’s puny (even if bionic) arms mean they can only throw their bomb 3” and it’s Heavy (reposition), however you might well be able to use Scarper and/or the Battlemutt before your activation to set yourself up. A 1” blast is small but means the Bomber can move within 2” of a concealed objective and blow them to bits without hitting themselves. They’ve also got a standard sniper rifle, so they’re happy sitting back and waiting for a target to emerge.
And that’s not all. They deploy two tripwires in your territory, more than 2” from other markers but with no restriction on access points. When an enemy goes within control range its action ends and it loses an APL till the end of its next activation, likely meaning it will miss out on two actions – if it lives that long. And also, if you take a mine from universal equipment it does 2D3+3 damage and can’t be triggered by your Ratlings or dog – though your Ogryns still can.
What an operative!
Ratling Hardbit
A Melee Ratling might not be a great idea, but let’s see. He’s got a Battle Rifle, with a good mobile profile but no option for using ploys to get Silent shots. He can charge from Conceal and gets +1 dice in melee if he does, going from 3 to 4. Those dice hit on 3+ doing 3/5 damage with Balanced, which is pretty nice. He also has the Lie in Wait ability, so if he’s retaliating with Light or Heavy terrain in his control zone he resolves the first dice.
It’s still pretty hard to argue for a melee operative with a 5” move and 6 wounds. He might have his uses against hordes but I’d skip this guy if playing elites.
Ratling Raider
A standard profile with a sniper rifle and a dagger providing a guard-equivalent melee profile is all fairly straightforward but the slingshot action is a bit more complicated. This is a reposition action that lets him swing off a tall bit of terrain and zoom to a location near it, anywhere horizontally within a distance equal to the terrain’s height (to a maximum of 5”) +1”. They can’t start or end within control range and can’t charge, fall back or shoot during the same activation, though they can dash. This is great for doing plays for objectives, especially with Larcenous, to get into position for surveillance or simply to set up shots for later.
Ratling Sneak
A suppressed sniper rifle that’s Silent, but only Devastating 1 when stationary is pretty useful, especially on the move. They can use a unique Optics action to ensure their target isn’t obscured, which is nice but might have made more sense for someone with a bigger gun.
The Evade ability is more interesting. It lets you interrupt an enemy activation after they perform any action and do a free dash. Sneaks can’t use scarper, due to having this better version. There’s no range restriction so you can do all kinds of tricks with it. Avoid shots, aim at wherever the enemy operative just appeared, contest objectives that are about to be scored or just get 3” of free movement every turn.
Ratling Sniper
The Warrior operative has a sniper rifle and no special rules, though he hits more accurately than the other guys, on 2+ stationary or 3+ moving. You will have a Sniper if you get the box though so he might see play if you aren’t taking big guys. In general I think you’ll usually want to take specialists instead, though in any other team this would count as a specialist and be one of your best shooters.
Ratling Spotter
A Sniper with the Spot action. This lets them pick a visible enemy and then, once per turning point, a friendly operative within 3” of the spotter (when they take the shot) gets Seek Light and ignores obscuring.
The spotter can just use the ability themselves, firing off nasty stationary shots with their sniper rifles. You could have lots of fun if the Big Shot or a Bullgryn let off an unexpected shot using this. Most opponents will realise they aren’t safe behind Light terrain anyway if you have snipers in every vantage, but cancelling the obscuring granted by smoke grenades could be big. Enemies on the high Volkus vantage will also be less safe.
Ratling Stashmaster
Another Sniper, this time carrying loads of stuff, and keen to add more to their collection. They can do mission actions, pick up and place marker for one less AP. You also get two Ammo Cashe markers if you pick one from universal equipment, and you get an extra one on the Ratling sprue.
Ratling Vox-thief
A Sniper an entirely standard Comms ability to give a bonus APL to a visible friend within 6”. Your Ogryns have most to gain from this, letting them do big aggressive plays or maybe just score objectives sometimes. So not a very exciting operative, but an essential one.
Equipment
Purloined Rations
Once a turn, improve the hit stat of a rifle at the start of an operative’s operation. This is ok for mobile shooting but and it’s nice to upgrade a stationary profile to 2+ to be almost certain of pushing damage through.
Lucky Round
Once a turn, after rolling to hit with a rifle, get Severe on that shot. Can’t you roll a crit with your Devastating Sniper Rifle? No problem, treat your target to three extra damage. Must take.
Stolen Goods
Roll a D3 at the start of the game. Depending on the result you either lose a CP, gain a CP or your opponent loses one.
Improvised Armour
Ogryns and Bullgryns get critical saves on a 5+ when being shot at – which is likely to be pretty often. This might save them a point or two of damage.
Generic Equipment
You’re slow and you want to be high up, so Ladders look very useful on Volkus and BD. You can get super-conceal and you have a lot of models to hide so barricades of all sorts look useful. Your operatives improve the effects of mines and Ammo Caches, but only if you take them. It’s a good thing your Fixer gives you an extra equipment option.
What About Second Breakfast?
The strategy for the team looks like it will be to have a few operatives set up on vantages waiting for targets to appear while big guys and some very brave Ratlings advance towards the midfield, looking to score objectives and flush targets out.
It probably makes sense to have a scouting group made up of operatives like the Battlemutt, Sneak, Stashmaster, Vox-thief, Bomber and/or Hardbit. The Ogryns are no good at objectives and the rest of your team wants to be hanging back providing fire support.
You’ll need to be very careful about bunching up your operatives, as they all want to be in cover and good positions can be scarce. Remember that frag grenades are not good news for 6-wound operatives! Be especially careful of going too close to one of your big guys, as their 40mm bases can potentially spread lethal shrapnel over far more Ratlings than you’d want.
It’s not easy to say how good Ratlings will be, as they’re so different to the other teams. We don’t really have a precedent for a team where everyone wants to stand still, firing a powerful gun, on super-conceal. I imagine there will be some very one-sided games, one way or the other, as players adapt to the new challenges. Sometimes enemies will get into the Ratling ranks and cause awful damage but other times they’ll get hung up on tripwires and drop without ever knowing who shot them.
This is certainly not a team that’s friendly to beginners, either with or against them. The out of activation movement, number of models and spread of abilities is pretty confusing and could cause games to take longer until you get used to them.
Overall I think they look strong and certainly pose an interesting challenge. I’m keen to try them out as soon as I can get a team painted up.
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