Ratling

Essentially Bilbo Baggins, but with a sniper rifle and an accent going on the lines of, "The feck ye lookin at ye Chaos Pansies! I'll feckin' deck you, I sware on me mam!"

Often derided for resembling 'Hobbits in Space', Ratlings (Homo sapiens minimus) have swapped magic rings for sniper rifles, needlers and Long-Las, all the better to serve in His Most Glorious Imperial Majesty's Imperial Guard. The friendly wizard Gandalf has been replaced by a Primaris Psyker with a thirst for pint-sized auxilia (which admittedly is a bit of a loss); thankfully, Ratlings are excellent at both self-preservation and cookery, presumably fending off their enemies with a massed barrage of just-baked bread rolls. This is only to be expected, since 40K began as Warhammer Fantasy IN SPACE! and thusly Ratlings are basically Warhammer Halflings with lasrifles. Also, keep them away from the armory. They tend to eat the laspacks.

Has nothing to do with the Skaven.

Physical appearance

Ratlings are a breed of abhuman, putting them in the same dropship as Ogryns and their formerly now-to-be-named brethren, and they are about as popular with the fanbase as they would be with the citizens of the Imperium. They measure three feet in height, 50% of which is stomach - they can eat twice the ration allowance of a regular Guardsman, presumably in a first, second, and third breakfast. Just like their fantasy counterparts they disdain adventure, displaying an eagerness to get into cover that in any other squad would be labelled as 'shameful' but for these waist-high warriors should be referred to as 'characterful'. While sociable creatures, make sure you don't leave anything precious lying around, as Ratlings tend to loot anything that isn't nailed down (and a few things that are (and the nails (...and whatever they were nailed to))). This is offset by the fact that they can make a decent meal out of anything, including Departmento Mutintorium nutricrud. Another interesting thing to note about Ratlings is that they breed like there is no tomorrow. Possibly because there might not be.

Mentality

Being a tolerated strain of abhuman means only that - tolerated. Ogryn's might not be loved and considered unclean mutants by the greater Imperium but no one without a deathwish is going to treat them like crap. Ratlings, on the other hand are smaller, weaker, are presumed to be stupid, and are thus considered an easy target. Guard regiments will occasionally use them a stressball for their troopers and then punish the Ratling for distracting the troops. Merely interacting with them is to make oneself unclean. It's not uncommon for Ratlings to be branded with marks of castigation for the most minor infractions. Even in civilian life, a Ratling will have a hard time living a normal life without having a considerable amount of discrimination thrown their way.

This has resulted in a strainwide trait of Ratlings being vengeful little bastards. Yes, the setting's resident dwarf equivalents might be obsessed with grudges and righting wrongs but Ratlings are obsessed with the sheer act of payback. A wronged Ratling will contrive of disproportionately terrible punishment for their transgressor, often when it would be detrimental to them too. In the event they can't get their revenge, other Ratlings will often help the victim in their quest for revenge. In extreme cases, these grudges can carry down generations (which given Ratling reproduction rates are quite quick).

In the game

Ratlings make a good addition to blob based lists. With BS 4 snipers and free camo cloaks, though 7th ed Sniper weapons lost the true rending ability against vehicles they still function at AP2 on 6s to-wound, so Ratlings can piss off smaller high value units or monstrous creatures and free up that extra shot for your Leman Russ to Pie-plate some Grey faggots. Throw something to take the shit or put them in a building and for just 100 points, watch 10 furry midgets glance shit to death. Oh and I almost forgot; Ratlings are one of the worst units for assaulting with (how bad are we talking? Fire warriors will take their lunch money every time), so keep anything that could charge them very far away or see Frodo be stabbed to death (that could be quite cool).

Nowadays in 8th Edition, Ratlings are... still pretty solid. They make tissue paper look robust at Toughness 2, but they're BS 3+ now, sniper rifles got a buff, and their cover stacking keeps them alive. They're a fairly strong sniper unit that kept move-shoot-move (which most units that had it already lost) and do well enough at character killing. For a bunch of hobbits with rifles, not bad. They also finally got (two!) named characters through Blackstone Fortress, though they're not exactly useful. While their rifles have no AP, when used against Genestealer Cults or other Guard units 10 split firing snipers can be infuriating.

Ratlings of Note

• Baggit: An ex-IG Ratling who's scraping by in the underbelly of Varangantua with an Ogyrn sidekick named Clodde.
• Rein and Raus: The aforementioned named characters. They are twin consumate thieves and also ex-IG. They currently recide in Precipice and like most of its residents, go out to steal some Archeotech from the Seventh Blackstone Fortress. Rein's the acrobat scout and Raus' the sniper.
  • In case you missed it, their names are a pun in German: Rein is the abbreviated version of 'herein' (come in), and Raus the abbreviated version of 'heraus' (get out). Fitting, since the former uses a grapple to get inside places and the other a sniper rifle to make opponents get out for good.
• Bigby Crumb: Necromundan Slopper, putting the Ratling's innate ability to make a decent meal to good use as a chef-for-hire. Usually in the bad parts of the Underhive looking for exotic ingredients.

Gallery

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  Kitbashed Fem Ratling Model, presumably made from the Raus' model.
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  Tredding dangerously close to Loli territory.
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  It may not look like it, but its probably better than most meals in the Imperium.
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  The one with the scanner and grappling hook is Rein, the one with the Sniper Rifle is Raus.