As always we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Battletome Supplement. Please note that info written here could be subject to change until they are published on Warhammer Community.

I hope you weren’t planning on having any of your personal belongings, since the ninja rats have received a massive glow up and are in-bound to mug you from the shadows. We’ve been given new scrolls and models for Night Runners and Gutter Runners, as well as a dope looking new Master Splinter cosplay. Let’s see what the Great Horned Rat has in store for our boys in black!

Skaven Gutter Runner by @7s_and_2s on Instagram

Battle Formation

I’m happy to see the return of the “Clan Eshin hate heroes, all my homies hate heroes” bit. In the deployment phase, pick an enemy hero. If that hero is slain, all Eshin units get +2 to their move characteristic. The usability of this is pretty matchup dependent, but it could be a deterrent for your opponent to be aggressive with a big scary piece. The flavor of the formation is cute, and giving my whole army +2 to move sounds pretty awesome (12” Scurry Away on a Deceiver!) but it is certainly not the most exciting.

Skaven Verminlord Deceiver - Credit: Matthew Ward

Warscrolls

Starting off with the new hero, Deathmaster Crixxit. This badass new character has access to a couple of really neat tricks. As the Master of Assassins, his 13 attack, crit mortal, anti-hero +1 melee profile goes from damage 1 to damage 2 against other heroes. Perfect for b-lining to your opponent’s favorite foot nerd and maybe triggering the battle formation buff. In the charge phase, he can give his favorite small adult rat sons, a unit of Gutter Runners, +2 to charge rolls in your charge phase. I would have loved to see this be in any charge phase for some spicy counter charge shenanigans, but anything to make charges easier with no dice rolling is solid. Lastly, my favorite gimmick this funny little guy has is his Shadowblood Cloak, on a 3+ allowing him to pick any Eshin unit with 2 or more models (so no Deathmaster or Deceiver involved here) wholly within 18” in any combat phase to teleport wholly within 6” of the target (which is the Eshin unit itself). This ability can allow the unit to be in combat as well. It’s unfortunate that this ability is on a dice roll, but holy moly can it allow for some insane shenanigans. Anyone would say that extra movement is always good, but this can also be used to dodge monstrous actions, tie up additional units, or give that Deathmaster or Deceiver with Scurry Away some more potential distance to dance around your opponent’s army. I’m very excited to play around with Crixxit and see what sort of chaos ensues on the table.

Next is the tried and true Night Runners. They keep their ranged and melee profile, but have some different abilities. Once per turn per army in your movement phase, if the unit hasn’t been set up already this turn, you can pick a terrain feature within 3” of the unit to be the target, then teleport the unit while within 3” of the terrain feature and out of combat range of enemy units. This can be extremely cool for a multitude of reasons. Being able to snake out of being tied up by enemy units, popping away to yoink an objective, or simply bouncing across the table to get an easy 3” charge off to get into the fray. The second ability given to these naked and furry ninjas is Smoke Bombs, another Once Per Turn Per Army ability in any combat phase. After the unit has resolved its attacks, on a 3+, it can move a distance up to its move characteristic, either moving out of combat or in combat with units that are already in combat with it. I will be calling this Scurry Around, and I can see its uses. Movement wins games, and so far Eshin is providing plenty of ways to grant a lot of it. Night Runners losing the pre-game move is definitely a bummer, but along with the rest of this supplement, we unfortunately won’t really know how spicy the new Ratjutsu archetype will be.

Lastly, the return of one of my personal favorites, the Gutter Runners. Can you believe the Skaven bombed Ghyran? Well if I had to point fingers, it would be at these mischief makers. One Gutter Runner out of 10 has a 2 shot anti-infantry grenade throw at D3 damage – so the days of 100 of these dinguses coming out of the walls and yeeting mortal wounds in the shooting phase are over. Their melee profile is 3 attacks a piece, hitting on 3s and wounding on 4s, featuring -1 rend and crit mortals! I would like to note that at the writing of this article, we believe the 1/10 requirement for the bombs is a typo, as according to the box it appears Gutter Runners should be in units of 5. There is also the possibility that even a reinforced unit can only get 1 bomb bozo! Speaking of bomb bozos, Once Per Turn Per Army, you can place this unit’s Bomb Rats token next to an enemy unit that is in combat with this unit, as long as it has less than 2 Bomb Rats next to them already. This leads into their last ability, Detonate, which can be used even if all the Gutter Runners in your army have been destroyed. At the End of Any Turn, pick each enemy unit that has a Bomb Rat next to them, then roll a D3 for each enemy unit within the target’s combat range. On a 2+, inflict mortals equal to the roll. This is extremely fun, and I’m curious to see how these guys are pointed out, as both Night Runners and Gutter Runners are on a 6+ save with a 6+ ward, I’m hoping that we will be able to run loads of these goobers, planting bombs and sneaking away as we all come to expect from the brave Skaven.

Final Thoughts

As a long time Rat fan and a frequent user of Eshin tactics, I am pleased to finally see a model refresh as well as some love for our ninja nincompoops. The combos one can put together between Crixxit and the Gutter Runners sounds like, one could say, a blast. Things like after a unit of Gutter Runners plants their Bomb Rats on a unit, using Crixxit to then have them teleport away to not get swung back on, or even vice versa! Oops I didn’t make the charge, 3+ enjoy this pie I made you (it’s not pie, it’s a bomb!). Once again, we won't really be able to tell the full strength of the new kids on the block without points, since realistically all of these neat and fresh sculpts can quickly make a very pretty looking dead pile of rats. Regardless, I am super excited to play around with new Eshin and put it all on the table. I’ll say it once, and I’ll say it again. Hippity, hoppity, rats on yo property!

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