TUNNEL RUNNERS

It seems completely plausible to me that creatures such as the Skaven, which spend most of their lives underground and dominate a huge subterranean empire, could make use of their tunnels in battle. Imagine a small group of these black-clad adepts of Clan Eshin making their way through the last layer of soft ground with their deadly "digging" claws and then jumping on the unsuspecting warriors of an opposing warband.

The following rules are for Skaven tunnellers, which you can use as a new Henchmen option for your normal Skaven warband. As these are so unusual it would be only right and proper to let your opponents know what they'll be facing!

0-1 Skaven Gutter Runners Tunnel Team . . . . . . 145 gc per team

The team consists of 2 Gutter Runners.

Equipment: Tunnel Runners are equipped with Digging Claws (counts as Fighting Claws for all purposes).

Special Rules

Tunnelling: Tunnel Teams arenot deployed at the beginning of the game, but use the special rules for tunnelling (see below).

Team: If one of the team members gets the "Dead" result than the other team member also leaves the warband.

Rules for Tunnelling

After both sides have set up, place a tunnel marker (a penny will do) anywhere on the battlefield. At the beginning of each Skaven turn (except for the first) roll a D6 to determine when your team emerges:

When the team emerges, roll a Scatter dice and an Artillery dice. If you roll a Hit on the Scatter dice, the marker stays in place; if you roll an arrow, move the marker the distance indicated by the Artillery dice in the direction shown by the arrow.

Once the final position of the marker has been established, replace the marker with one of your models and place the other model within 2" of the first one, facing any direction. The team emerges at the beginning of the turn (this is the very first thing you do in the turn) and can act normally (yes, they can charge!). If the marker is moved under an enemy model, the Tunnellers will automatically engage it in hand-to-hand on the side closest to the marker (they count as charging). If the marker is moved under a friendly model or impassible terrain, place the tunnellers on the closest edge of the model/obstacle. If the marker is moved off the battlefield, the team has got lost (as per result 3-4 on the Mishap table).

Mishap Table (D6)

1-2 Cave in!
The tunnel collapses and the team is squashed. Both Skaven are dead as a doornail.

3-4 Where are we?
The team has got lost and emerged slightly away from their intended target, maybe in a cave, the lair of a huge monster, or into the wrong Dwarven Hall. The team does not take any part in this beattle.

5-6 I told you to turn left!
The team almost made it, but went in the wrong direction for the last few hundred yards. Your opponent can place the marker anywhere on the battlefield and deploy the Skaven models as they emerge. the models cannot move in the movement phase of the turn they emerge, because they are too busy trying to work out where they are and blaming each other for reading the map wrong.

And if you really want...

It is a bit unfair that only Skaven can take advantage of this rule--any other race which lives underground could have similar units. You can try other troop types using the same rules, but to ensure that the balance of the game is not ruined, you should stick to units of four or less and models with less than five Wounds (you should not be able to pop up at the back of an enemy warband with anything that can threaten a proper warrior). Tunnel troops should be small groups of infiltraitors, not huge fighting units.

Dwarf Miners and Night Goblins (No Fanatics please!) could replace the Gutter Runners. Just replace the stat-line, equipment, and points cost of the Skaven with those of the new warriors, but keep the special rules for the Skaven tunnellers.

You could also decide that you are not bothered with respecting the game's balance and go wild! If so, you can apply these rules to any monster that could dig underground, like Hydra, Squigs, or one of the many Chaos creatures.

If you want to really push it, entire units could make their way to the surface from underground if the fight was close enough to one of the main settlements of the race involved. So you could have units of Iron Breakers or Stormvermin popping up from the ground like daisies in spring.

By the way, these rules should really apply only to Skaven, Dwarfs, and Night Goblins. It would be rather unrealistic to try and do the same with your Dark Elves!