The Ratling Gun

What should be done with it? I play Skaven and even i admit that it is a little over powered. I say add 10-20 points to it, wiht no other changes. This makes it more expensive then almost all the hero chices, and almost as much as a fighty lord. What does anyone elses think?

i havent had the "pleasure" to fight one of these yet. but i have fougth warpfire throwers.
anyway, i have seen them to be very powerful especially when aimed into combat.

I say remove the "Life is Cheap" rule. Why the hell should Skaven have it when a Black Orc Warboss cannot make his troops fire into an ongoing combat between, say, grail knights and snotlings? WHY should the greenskins care so much about their precios snotlings that they will not risk that a single one of them gets killed, even if it means killing scores of the best unit the enemy has to muster?

Life is Cheap is just that - it's cheap and it makes no sense at all. There are tons of other examples in the Warhammer world when shooting into combat should be allowed fluffwise, yet it is not. Skaven are the only ones who get this "fluffy" rule and that's just silly. Do Chaos Dwarves care so much about their hobgoblin slaves that they refuse to fire earthshaker rounds into a combat between them and High Elves?

LiC is just unbalanced and it makes the Ratling gun unbalanced also. The Ratling gun in itself isn't so bad - move or fire, 15" range... that should give you one round of shooting max vs. any army including cavalry, maybe two vs. an infantry army. And you still have to roll well.

But LiC isn't going away - so this is my fix for the ratling gun - keep the pts cost, keep everything as it is - but make the skaven player roll all the "hit" dice at once. I.e. do not roll them one at a time, and stop when you feel it is enough (this makes the ratling gun one of the most reliable war machines in the entire GAME - surpassed only by bolt trowers). Instead, state how many dice you are going to roll (between 1 and 6) and roll them all at the same time. If any double or triple or quadruple (and so on) is rolled, refer to the misfire chart. If two or more doubles or triples are rolled, both results apply.

That would fix it nicely.

I'll try this and report back. Sounds pretty fair.

They took out a whole unit of knights with me and went on to damage my core choices.
They should add an extra 10-40 points to the total cost.

Well, I don't agree with that. The pts cost is still pretty steep, and making them cost 100 pts is just ludicrous. Raising them to 75 pts if you keep them functioning the way they are today does not seem over the top, however.

You will find my suggestion on how to fix them above, keeping the pts cost exactly the same. Ratling guns actually aren't that bad, it's "Life Is Cheap" that makes it boring and frustrating to play against skaven. Plus, it makes absolutely no sense at all why SKAVEN should have it, when the rule is totally called for in soo many other occasions and yet, none other may utilize it.

But what about all the times it misfires and takes out the center of my army? Really, the point cost is fine. Rolling all the dice at once, or announcing firsthand how many dice you are going to roll works great.

Yes but what if you are really lucky to get a 6,5,4,3,2 and a 1
that is 21 shots at your unit is it strength 5 or 6
no matter agianst ummmmm
a unit of dwarf warriors.
Strength 5or 6 against toughness 4 that is either a 3 or 2 to wound.
Then that is around
if it is strength 5 then about 13 dead
if it is strength 6 then bout 19 dead.
So ummm alot more powerful then it should be.
With life is cheap rule syou normally hit the enemy i think that it should be on a 1,,2,3,4 the shotting hits the skaven lot.
ANd on a 5 or 6 it hits the enemy.

PLease tell me you aren't saying this with a straight face. The chances fo this happening are astronomical. Nobody ever rolls more then 4 dice. Most stop at two. With a 15 inch range, its not going to do much. And ratling guns are Strength 4. Granted dwarves may have a problem with the gun close up due to lack of screening units, they should be able to take it out with cannon fire quite easily. Just target the parent unit and make it panic.

You have a 50/50 chance of hitting either unit. That sounds fair to me.

Yes but it doesn't to me.
I am not the skaven player.

Why? A 50/50 split is the fairest you can get.

No but it ahs to be a nasty thing for both players it should be at least 60/40 or 70/30 to the enemy.

I haven't played Skaven much. What happens if you break (or panic) the parent unit of a Ratling gun? Just the standard Panic test?

For the unit, yes a panic test. But then the ratling gun is at LD 5 and can be targeted by spells and such as a unit, not a character like if it was within 3" of the unit.

Wow you can't.
Right now i can get a skaven friend of mine who says you have to target the unit and that you cna't target the ratling gun becuase it is withn 3".