Before drawing up an army list, you need to conceive a background and rationale from which you can develop your armies. How do they fight, who do they fight and why do they fight? How are they socially organised? If you are basing your army on a book or film background, then much of this work has been done for you - it's a case of interpreting the 'original source' and translating it into Hott terms. If you are running a 'home brew' fantasy campaign, then the worlds your oyster, limited only by your imagination - and a need to be consistent with the rest of the land (or a least have a good reason for those inconsistencies).

My rats evolved into the Rattenvolk as a result of centuries of magic pollutants in the sewers of Harab. Eventually the rats broke out of the sewers and killed the human population. Hardly original or groundbreaking, but it gives me a hook on which to hang the rationale and structure of my army. The surviving Harabs (Arabian Nights fantasy humans), fled into the desert and now fight on in armies of riders (horse & camel), fliers (magic carpets), airboats, magicians with Djinn and a few units of foot. Other enemies (prey?) of the Rattenvolk are mutated reptiles - but I digress.

I have two rat armies - well actually one 48 AP army made up of two commands each 24AP. My rats (or Rattenvolk as I have named them) belong to a hierarchical society and are classed as follows: ·

• Swarm Rats (at the bottom of the social heap) are the nearest to common rats and classed as Horde. ·
• Pack Rats are larger and slightly more intelligent, they live in packs and are led / controlled by a Great Rat. They are classed as beasts; ·
• Great Rats are as large as humans, with similar intelligence and stand erect. They fight as warbands, or lead packs of beasts, or act as shooters (armed with slings, jezail-muskets, blunderbuss etc). ·
• Master Rats are stronger and more intelligent, being heroes, behemoths (rat ogres), sneakers (assassins) and extraordinaires (see later). ·
• High Rats, although sharing the same social status as master rats, have developed their psychic powers and act as magic users.

Only Master Rats and High Rats can become Rat Lords (generals). All rats have a limited psychic ability to enable them to communicate with each other. This is a 25mm army mostly composed of GW figures.

The Extraordinaires are a new troop type that I created to enable me to employ flame-throwers, grenadier and poison gas troopers. The troop type is based on the DBM exceptional Psiloi category with the added bonus (!) that they can suffer a dramatic misfire that will damage themselves and any surrounding elements. They cost 3AP.

Anyway, here's my army list:

First Command
1 Rat Lord (Hero general @ 4AP)
1 FlameThrower team (Extraordinaire @ 3AP)
1 Assassin (Sneaker @ 3AP)
2 Great Rats (Warbands @ 4AP)
2 Rat Packs (Beasts @ 4AP)
6 Rat Swarms (Horde @ 6AP)
24 AP

Second Command
1 High Rat Lord (Magician General @ 4AP)
1 Gas grenadier team (Extraordinaire @ 3AP)
1 Jezail team (Shooters @ 2AP)
1 Pistolier / blunderbuss (Shooters @ 2AP)
3 Great Rat (Warbands @ 6AP)
2 Rat Packs (Beasts @ 4AP)
3 Rat Swarms (Horde @ 1AP)
24 AP

If you are looking for a conventional Hott army try this:

1 Rat Lord (Hero general @ 4AP)
1 High Rat (Magician @ 4AP)
2 Great Rat (Warbands @ 4AP)
1 Jezzail team (Shooters @ 2AP)
2 Rat Packs (Beasts @ 4AP)
6 Rat Swarms (Horde @ 6AP)
24 AP

You could also try Lurker rats.

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