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I like this idea. Both because I like Skaven and because it's a good way to avoid, as you put it, "Skaven with guns".

Having them pilot leftover, half-functioning DAoT gear would be a nice way to get that crazy Skaven weapon feel. Lots of Raygun Gothic madcap designs that do devastating damage... sometimes even to the enemy!

>>38076794
this has potential

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>>38076918
I'd play the hell out of 40k if I could field Skaven, and I don't even play WH
The closest I think I've come was when I played as Dragonmaster Ratmen in Small World and ruined everybody's day

Replace felinids with vat-born ratmen

>>38077529
Currently drawfagging and writing up some lore for the OP, hope this thread doesn't die.

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>>38076794
You mean these guys?

>>38076794
You know, I'm usually a person who likes 40K and WFB separate, but this is actually a pretty good idea.

Would they be allied with Chaos, though? Or would they just worship the AI that built them? OR, better yet, what if they kinda worshiped the AI that built them, but in a way that actually worshiped Tzeenetch or another Chaos god, and only the higher levels of the priest class knew that secret?

>technologically somewhere between tau and orks

So good technology poorly made and ram shackled together?

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>>38077961
This is pretty much what I was thinking.

Their technology appears ork-like, but the engineers have an actual understanding of it.

My long term plan is to do Dark Eldar rules with them. Pic related is a big inspiration for me.

Don't Skaven already have guns?

Anyways They could be a brand new threat, some scientist somewhere basically invented them, they took over that world within a few months, took over the system in a year. and are now spreading at an absurdly fast rate. They don't eat everything and most of their weaponry seems to be modified Imperial weapons, though a few completely new things have popped up.

You could probably build this and run it as Blob Guard.

>>38078066
Cool I definitely see what you are going there, seems like they know what they are doing, have the power to do it but they lack the materials to do it, so they resort to scavenging for the materials

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>>38078095
These aren't mine, but I'm stealing them for my own skaven/dark eldar army. Here's a few more. The wracks

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>>38078129
I'm definitely planning a purchase sheet with what I will need in bits and kits and such. I want to do a Haemonculus Covens theme.

Mantic Veer'myn kits made into Wracks as pic related.
The new skaven stormfiends into Talos/Cronos.
Various skaven rat orges into grotesques
etc.

Would it be magical realm or grim darkness to have some tribes of Skaven abduct females to use as hosts to gestate new clone soldiers? Perhaps the cloning technology is somehow flawed to require this biological component.
I think having reproduction with litters of horrific rat-beasts clawing from the bodies of human hosts all Alien-like would be a nice horrific touch to a historically gruesome army.

>>38078261
Sounds very grimdark but awesome

>>38078261
Looking back at the ear-growing-rat picture OP posted, what if Skaven cloned themselves by taking captives, infecting them with some kind of DAoT biotech (extremely heretical!) that caused the victim to grow tumors that literally developed into Skaven? Then commence with the bloody eruption out of the host.
Like some kind of nightmarish taratoma. I would post pictures, but don't feel like looking at gross shit right now.

>>38078261
Maybe tone it down a little.
>>38078453
More like this. They basically just need warm bodies to reproduce. It doesn't need a womb.
The rat virus would turn humans and other races into skaven, but it can turn animals into dire rat mutants.

>>38077926
If they aren't chaos, they aren't skaven, which is why the idea of trying to avoid making them "skaven with guns" is ridiculous. Almost everything in 40k is, when you get down to it, "X with guns," where X is something from W:FB.

Is there a reason that 40k can't just have the Horned Rat? If it can, he made them, and they worship him. If it can't, maybe they're the product of the tamperings of chaos sorcerers and hereteks.

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Alright here we go.

>Thousands of years after the purge of artificial intelligence, some machines have survived the onslaught of their former masters
>decide to wander the galaxy in search of new homes, running out of energy, and they cannot self sustain
>crash land on a planet that happens to have a busted Necron pyramid, and they scavenge the place
>AI diverge into different factions with different ideologies, however, with nobody to fight their wars, they biologically engineer Earats
>Earats produced in vats see the AI producing them as their "mother", and as such fight fanatically to protect them
>main form of armor is patched up, but not completely ravaged like the orks. To distinguish them from skaven, instead of being filthy, they're extremely hygienic
>Most have an ear aberration on their back to recieve direct command from their brood mother, commanders, however, have them directly implanted, and will usually have some other sort of genetic mutation like multitool weapon tails, multiple arms, etc
>different groups include:
>Pink Eye Vat, known aberration is rats with pink eyes who are blind, but as such have more accute hearing and make for better espionage units. Include Bat Rat aberrations that use echolocation to whisk away enemies
>Beautiful Ones Vat, downright Germophobic, have repurposed necron weapons into cleaning utensils and are extremely well trained to completely wipe away enemies through chemical warfare and subsequent cleanup. White Fur, commanders are bald rats.
>Ratfink Vat, speed demons who dragrace orks and have a penchant for self destruction. They have very expendable units such as suicide bumbers and light vehicles. Even their most well trained units will often have some sort of Predator esque bomb on their person to activate when defeated, known to annihilate an entire army
>Brood Vat, all female rats that act like genestealers, taking hapless victims from the galaxy and violently taking their dna to create half breed monstrosities

I like the idea of them being a wholly 'unnatural' race. Their existence is parasitic to the EoM or Eldar, Tau, etc. so they stay quiet and seek to exist in secrecy in the bowels of a hive city or in the ruins of a once prosperous world gone feral.

Their existence is enough to bring down some heavily armed response, possibly even exterminatus, due to spotty ancient records that only record how much of a pestilence they are.
They are touched by chaos, without a doubt, but have no allegiance to any of the regular ruinous powers.

>>38078261
I'd have anyone be abducted and taken apart or be used for genetic material or experiments. Equal opportunity horror for everyone in this benighted age.

>half breed monstrosities include Rat Orks/Rorks, Rat Humans/Rumans, Rat Tyranids/Tyrats, etc. Porbably the closest to warhammer skaven for their extremely back stabbing nature for who gets to be the new mother, a half machine, half organic abomination

>typically Earats have no melee weapons aside from the built in Fang on their helmet, which can act as a normal stabbing weapon, a venom injector, or a suction mechanism. They may, however, have built in weapons for their tails, such as chainswords, reverse engineered adeptus mechanicus shit, or even power gloves with the right modifications
>earats are extremely short lived and act as shock troops, with a vew elite within every batch acting as specialistsusually born for a single operation. However, there may be mutations within the batch that make some skaven have a longer life, causing them to abandon their vat, usually to pursue some sort of pirate endeavours
>as their mothers are by definition second class heresy, they loathe the imperium, most of all Mars, which they've attempted to infiltrate multiple times, all met with failure
>Earats have a modicum of gretchin DNA in them, and as such are sometimes mistaken for them in ork skirmishes by the orks themselves. Gretchin see earats as the equivalent of their legion of the damned, only much smaller and more pathetic
>many mothers are based on the very outskirts of the galaxy, as such they're not usually seen within the imperium. However, they will often lend their services to outer rim pirates to help their mothers, as they are born NEETS
>earats think death korps are moe

Symmetry with Fantasy is pointless and has a bad track record. Case in point, Necrons. A completely useless faction that adds nothing to the game. It introduced entirely so that there was a 40k Undead/Tomb Kings equivalent.

40k doesn't need Skaven. Fantasy does not need Tyranids.

>>38078066
Would the Mechanicus consider it outright techheresy, or since it's based off of DAoT tech, would they try and salvage it?

>>38078860
are you joking? necrons fit way better into the story than the tau

necrons have ties back to the pre-humanity races and old ones. tau are just there and just happened.

dont let your butthurt over the latest codex being overpowered hate on the lore that actually fits the game

>>38078901
Where did the Tau come into this? I actually like the Tau because they're alien, technologically advanced, and not Fantasy, but come on dude, don't try to start something when there's actually some cool stuff in the thread about space-skaven.

>>38078889
They would most likely view it as poor tortured engine souls in need of rescue, most likely.

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>>38078615
>>Brood Vat, all female rats that act like genestealers, taking hapless victims from the galaxy and violently taking their dna to create half breed monstrosities

That's kinda hot

>>38078948
im saying if any race needs to be cut from the game because it doesnt fit is tau. necrons make sense in the setting

>>38078453

Scarred-ones: These abominations are horrifying even by the Skaven's twisted standards. Appearing to be giant Skaven, riddled with cancerous growths and crisscrossed with scars, these creatures are used as close up shock troops. The carnage they can inflict on an unprepared enemy is almost as horrific as their origin.

The Skaven virus does not always produce conversions, or even fully grown skaven 'buddings' in it's host. Often it will simply produce a nightmarish collection of flesh, limbs and organs. The Skaven first experimented with using these limbs as replacement or enhancements for the few wounded who were too valuable to be allowed to die. They quickly realized that these parts would continue their cancerous growth as long as they were connected to a nutrient source and that such transplants inevitably killed the host.

The Skaven are an inventive race however, and never one to waste a resource. With enough victims in one place, being kept alive on life support, the Skaven were able to harvest sufficient parts to cobble together a functioning, if nightmarish, whole. They quickly grow to grotesque proportions and are carefully tended to by the Skaven biomechanics who remove growths and tumors that would impair their combat efficiency, and maintain the control implants that keep these tortured beasts from laying waste to everything around them.

(Basically rat-ogre equivalents. I was going to include a pic of a rat with a brain implant... but i felt bad.)

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What if the actual vats they came from were big testing mazes? Like, their actual training is them going through something like Portal, or Cube? This doubles as a built in defense against siege, since the underground vats would serve as cruel death traps for anyone that tries to invade?

>>38079036
Love it

>>38079036

Something Matrix-y might work if they have AI origins, they might just program the vast majority of new Skaven. I mean, yes certain percentage have their brains cooked over easy by the implants, but it's quite efficient on balance.

>>38078998
I like the idea of recasting Skaven as biotech nightmares - doing all the heretical things that shouldn't be done, requiring fresh victims to mutate or use as parts/hosts/whatever. Operating from the shadows, only unleashing their mutated horrors when they think they have overwhelming advantage or are backed into a corner.

They'd be a very dark reflection of the Adeptus Mechanicus and a natural opponent for Sisters seeking to purify the unclean with holy prometheum.

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>>38078998
>I was going to include a pic of a rat with a brain implant... but i felt bad
YOU REQUESTED A SQUEEKER, MY LORD?

>>38077758
This.

Wish Mantic put more into it though.

>>38079119

Another thought would be to make them a largely space based race. Partly why they're such desperate scavengers and partly as a comparison with the rats.

"They live in asteroids, abandoned planetoids, wreckage, the scurry and tunnel in the shadows between worlds. When you see a Skaven on a planet it means the population in space is grown past it's limit, and they are desperate enough to raid. And if those raids should succeed; then they will not hide in the shadows for much longer."

ok heres how i see it going down.
>dark age of tech, rogue trader/expedition force is stranded/fails
>they had weak AI for data processing and medical usage
>also ran experiments with rats for grimdark reasons
>all experiments are networked of course, and experiments largely automated, as in lots of hardware/equipment for AI to manipulate
>after mysterious disappearance of expedition, AI starts to put together that is alone, survival mode engaged (or/and interestingly drive to finish exploritory mission intensifies)
>AI sees still living lab rats as greatest chance/tool, fosters breeding because still many food pelletw in dispenser reasons
>seeing a finite existance in the lab, uses medical tools to implant/manipulate rats to seek food/materials and return to stockpile in the lab
>slowly build up resources
>starts gene modification of rat colony to overcome enviornmental obsticles/local threats
>continues to scout planet, new obsticles drive further mods
>over time AI identifies as the head of the clan, forgets humanity, corruption etc spreads to new planets etc

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>>38076794
I'd like to see a IG army that scavenges and recycles everything they come into contact with, melting down Ork weapons to use in their improvised war machines, chopping up kroot bodies and using them as fertilizer, etc.

Call them the Junkyard legion, or Reforge legion

>>38079471
also ai learns from its success, seeks new tools

all in all this idea is 9/10 would model a force if had moneys and time

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Bumping with this, its an early draft

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>>38079507
Basically a completely self sufficient IG army, improvised farms on their ship to supply food
mobile workshops
Slapped together tanks and mobile bunkers

I've been spending some time around junkyard scrappers and those people that build earthships

>>38079471

The AI and it's clan is nearly destroyed in an encounter with a hostile Xeno race. It figures out how to distribute itself. Each clan is lead by a rat implanted with a node of the AI personality, and each clan has multiple backups. The AI can potentially recreate itself from any of the leaders or the backups. This makes it harder for the AI to actively co-ordinate itself, so it becomes more like a 'collective unconscious' for the Skaven leadership, shaping their ideals, their goals, and their long term plans, occasionally intervening in their intracine struggles when they threaten to compromise the Skaven as a whole.

No-one outside the Skaven leadership understand this. Humans are mostly looking either for a demon they can banish, a computer they can smash, or a leader they can assassinate.

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>>38079613
>Each clan is lead by a rat implanted with a node of the AI personality.

>>38079913

I was trying to avoid it being too much like a hive mind or just another chaos god.

That's another question actually: what kind of relationship would the Space-Skaven have with the warp? If they're created by an AI they might be kind of handicapped in that area.

>>38079913
I would prefer it to be more like >>38079218 in a way. Only the computer on the rat's head is just shocking the damn thing and making sure it follows orders even when it wants to disobey. Instead of being a conduit of the AI, it's the AIs unwilling cat's paw.

Really, we have unthinking slaves or gigantic hive-mind, and even the Dark Eldar aren't as cruel as to literally force their own forces forward through fear and punishment. Why not do that with Space Skaven?

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>>38076794
You mean like the Stryxis?

>>38081601
Aren't they more like creepy gypsy merchants?

>>38081618
They're also big on slavery and horrible experiments on prisoners.

Isnt that basically what the Hrud used to be?

>>38076794
Honestly there has never been an Ed where you couldn't just take the current skaven book, adjust for the current 40k movement and CC rules then drop them otherwise unmodified onto a 40K battlefield.

>>38078615
>Beautiful Ones Vat

Holy shit. GW make this right now.

>>38081703
Skaven Vs. Feral Orks! YES!

>>38081298

I figure "zapheads" would be your lowest level worker / conscript soldier equivalent. They get various jolts to pleasure or pain centers, to keep them moving, currents to disrupt memory formation to keep them from being able to organize themselves maybe disruption to other behavior centers as well.

When things are desperate enough that they need to fight silicon chip inside their heads gets switched to 'overload' and blammo, instant, berzerkers charging at the enemy on a wave of adrenaline, bloodlust, and endorphins that mean they tend to keep running even after being shot in the chest several times.

>>38082942
dope
someone go and tell GW.

>>38078261
how about they just tear out the wombs and throw the bodies away?

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You know what this thread needs more of?
Rat Fink!

>>38083100
What if they made womb tanks that spawned untrained feral skaven on the battlefield, occasionally setting them on fire into enemy lines to scare them

I really really like the ideas in this thread, which only makes it sadder that GW won't ever make something like it.

>>38083386
Screw GW. We'll make our own wargame. With blackjack. And hookers!
You may call me mad, but as soon as I get these damned student loans paid off I'll buy a 3-D printer and some kind of inexpensive plastic injection molding machine (like this one http://youtu.be/g2DVt-k_CU8) and then I'll show you all!

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>>38083509
But it just won't be the same...