Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat This guide to Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat is split into two sections. First there’s a short list of general hints and tips for playing the game and then there’s a brief discussion of the different opponents you’ll face. The art of war Although the different missions you must complete vary widely, there are some things that you should always bear in mind throughout the game... Managing your forces The first and most important rule is to save your game after every successful mission. It’s easy to win ‘Pyrrhic victories’ in Shadow Of The Horned Rat, where you may complete a mission but lose so many troops that it becomes very hard to succeed in the next. It’s also vital that you manage your forces efficiently and spend as little money as possible, so even if you win a battle hands down, it might be worth going back and trying it with fewer regiments. Likewise, remember to check your troops roster after every battle and hire any replacement troops that may be available. It’s vital to keep your regiments as near to maximum capacity as possible if you’re going to succeed. Remember that you can take only 13 regiments into a battle, but those that you don’t use still have to be paid. Although the amounts are small, they quickly add up. If you find that you’re just not using a regiment, fire it. The savings will be worth it. Don’t underestimate the importance of experience. A fully experienced (6,000 points or more) regiment is a killing machine in comparison to its starting statistics, and units like this are vital later in the game. For this reason, try to use the same regiments as much as possible, and don’t ‘rotate duty’ unless you have to. It’s better to have a few experienced units than an army full of ones with a few hundred points each. Battles Although time is frozen during the deployment phase at the beginning of a battle, the Winds of Magic are still active. If you’re going to be starting in a position where you can use spells within the first minute of the battle, it’s worth waiting for a lot of magic points to appear before starting the mission. Learn to judge the range of the different spells and missile weapons that you have available. Each is different, and it’s worth taking the time to get a feel for how far you can fire. In particular, there’s nothing more annoying than trying to cast a spell and finding that you’re out of range - the magic points used are wasted. Don’t end a mission just because the ‘mission complete’ message appears. Often there will still be routing troops on the map, and they still count as kills for experience. Likewise, many missions have magic items hidden on the battlefield, and now’s the time to search for them. What you’re looking for is a sparkling point of white on the ground, which appears about once every 30 seconds or so. Remember to look behind things using the rotate buttons, and search the battlefield carefully. Tactics In order to succeed in Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat, you have to be able to win battles at minimal cost to your forces. The first thing to remember here is that the enemy will nearly always attack you - even when in a defensible position, the computer will send its forces to attack yours. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to send yours out to meet them. Instead, take the opportunity to riddle the enemy with arrows and spells. By keeping your melee troops in place, you can often significantly weaken the enemy at no cost to yourself. There are battles where this tendency of the computer to keep coming at you can be even more helpful, such as in the dragon’s lair under Zufbar (see the Escort Engrol Goldentongue mission, below). Likewise, close combat is dangerous because your troops can be killed. Your aim should always be to finish fights as quickly as possible, and the best way to do this is to force the enemy unit to rout. A routing unit is virtually defenceless, and can be hacked to pieces easily by your pursuing regiment. To force a rout, you need to do as much damage as possible as quickly as you can, and this is where charging is important. A charging unit hits first and gets a strength bonus, meaning that their hits will be more likely to cause wounds. Always do everything you can to ensure that your regiments charge the enemy, and not the other way around. A good way to use this to your advantage is to charge the enemy with an infantry unit while manoeuvring a cavalry unit to the enemy’s side or rear, and charging it again. The combined bonuses will almost certainly ensure that you do more damage than your opponent, and even a tenacious regiment can be forced to rout in this manner. Don’t underestimate the usefulness of magic. Always try to use every available magic point in every magic cycle, and experiment with different tactics. Likewise, don’t forget to use your sword’s fireball attack once per cycle - you can even do this while in melee combat. Know thine enemy In Shadow Of The Horned Rat your army will face a variety of foes, some more dangerous than others. The three most common races that you’ll have to deal with, though, are Goblins, Orcs, and Skaven. In the discussions below, the races are compared to an average human soldier, such as a member of the Grudgebringer Infantry. Goblins These are the weakest of the enemy races, and shouldn’t present much of a threat. Their low weapon skill makes them easy to hit in hand-to-hand combat, and their low initiative means your troops will get their strikes in first. Combined with their lack of armour, this makes it a simple job to hack them to pieces. Best of all, Goblins have universally low leadership scores, making them easy to rout. Even Goblin Wolf riders aren’t too much of a threat, and rank as the weakest cavalry unit in the game. Watch out for Goblin Archers, though, which can present something of a nuisance - charge them down as soon as possible. Fanatics These are the only really nasty Goblins. Fanatics ‘hide’ inside regiments of Night Goblins, only revealing themselves when one of your regiments comes close. Then they leap forward, swinging huge ball-and-chain weapons that scythe through any unit in their path. Under no circumstances should you try to engage a Fanatic in close combat - they’ll just rip your regiment apart. Instead, draw them out by moving a mounted regiment past them. Fanatics move randomly once they’ve revealed themselves, and most of the time they’ll either spin themselves off the map (maybe even killing a few enemies in the process), or be killed by their own weapon. Pick off any persistent ones with missile fire or magic. Orcs The traditional bad guys for any fantasy world, Orcs are bred for warfare, and pose a lot more threat than their Goblin cousins. Your only real advantage is their low initiative, which means that your troops will at least get their hits in first. The average Orc is tougher than a human, though, making them harder to kill, and their fair leadership scores make them difficult to rout. Finally, they tend to have better armour than Goblins. Combined with their sheer numbers this can make even normal Orc regiments dangerous. The real threat, though, comes from Black Orcs and Big ‘Uns. Black Orcs have better weapon skills, ar stronger, and have better leadership scores than humans. So they’re more likely to hit, more likely to inflict damage, and are more likely to rout your forces than to run away themselves. Except for their average leadership, Big ‘Uns share these advantages - but they have higher initiative than normal Orcs, so you lose the advantage of striking first. If at all possible, avoid getting your infantry units into melee with either of these types of Orc, and use your stronger Cavalry units instead. If you can’t avoid it, try to Ôdouble team’, by attacking with two units at once and out-numbering them. Skaven These chaos worshipping ratmen are your true foe in Shadow Of The Horned Rat, and before you finish the game you’ll have killed literally hundreds of them. The average Skaven has two advantages over human troops - they move faster, and they have higher initiative, so they hit first in close combat. Balanced against this, though, is their low leadership - like real rats, Skaven are cowardly, and this makes them easy to rout. Considering the number that you normally face, this is just as well. The trick to defeating Skaven is to use this weakness. By concentrating your missile fire on the nearest unit, you can normally force them to rout. Immediately switch targets to the next unit, and do the same. With a little luck you’ll be able to rout one or two more regiments before the first rallies, at which point you simply start shooting it again. In this manner you can hold off a much larger force of Skaven for some time, whittling their numbers down so that when you are finally forced into close combat, you stand a much better chance of winning. The Skaven to watch for are the elite Stormvermin. These guys are stronger and have better weapon skills than a human, making them nasty opponents. However, they still suffer from low leadership scores, so the above tactic works just fine. Rat Ogres These hulking brutes pop up quite often, and if left unchecked can wipe out whole regiments. What’s more, they cause ‘fear’, and so can force your troops to rout just be charging at them. Luckily, there’s a simple answer to Rat Ogres - the Amber Wizard, Allor. His hunting spear spell drops them in their (rather large) tracks almost every time. Warpfire Throwers A bizarre blend of technology and magic, this Skaven invention can fire arcs of deadly green energy across the battlefield, and explodes when destroyed. For this reason you shouldn’t get into close combat with one - use magic or missile fire to blow it up from a distance, and make them priority targets, as a direct hit from one of their beams can kill a lot of soldiers with frightening ease. The (shortish) Road to Victory This is a step-by-step guide to one of the shortest practical routes to winning Shadow Of The Horned Rat. Because of this, though, it’s not necessarily the easiest. By skipping many of the optional missions available you miss out on many new regiments, reinforcements, magic items and, of course, experience points. It is, theoretically, possible to finish the game in even less time, but the more optional missions you skip, the tougher it gets. For each battle there’s a map showing the locations of any magical items, as well as an example army and initial deployment. Remember that these are only suggestions, and there are often several different strategies that will work for a given battle, so feel free to experiment. The note ‘reinforcements available’ indicates that you can hire replacement troops before the mission begins. Protect Schnappleburg Take both of your units, and deploy them as shown. When the mission starts, attack the Goblins with the Grudgebringer Infantry. Move the Cavalry to the north-west, then turn them towards the north-east and they’ll spot a unit of Goblin Wolfriders. Attack them with the Cavalry, remembering to use the sword’s fireball. That’s all there is to it. Once the mission is complete, get the Sword of Might - its location is marked with an ‘X’. The Sword of Might This magical weapon increases the strength of its wielder, making his blows more likely to inflict wounds in combat. It’s probably best to give this to Lieutenant Schepke, so use the Grudgebringer Infantry to pick it up. Escort to Holst (Reinforcements available) There are two ambushes in this mission, one on the way to Holst, the other on the return journey. Take both regiments, and when the first ambush starts, attack the visible Goblins with your Cavalry, then move the Infantry to the north-east. As soon as the next enemy regiment becomes visible, attack with the Infantry. When the Cavalry defeat the Goblins, move them east across the map, crossing ahead of the first caravan. By the time the third and final enemy regiment appears, the Infantry should have finished off their opponents, so use them to charge the last unit, and then bring the Cavalry in behind and charge from the rear. Once at Holst, you can once again hire reinforcements, and a unit of Mercenary Crossbowmen is available for hire. When the second ambush begins, your newly hired Crossbowmen are on the wrong side of the caravan. Immediately move the Cavalry into the wagons’ path, blocking their movement, and then attack the bottom-right enemy regiment with the Infantry. Move the Crossbowmen north, past the Cavalry and caravans, and fire on the enemy regiments as they appear in the north-east of the map - don’t forget to use the Cavalry’s fireball attack as well. With a little luck you should be able to rout all the enemy with missile fire. Use the Cavalry and Infantry (once they’ve finished off their opponents) to mop up any survivors. Sven Carlsson (Reinforcements available) Take all three regiments, and deploy as shown. The important things to remember here are that you can’t prevent the Skaven assassin from killing Hiln, and neither can you kill the assassin, so forget about them. As soon as the battle starts, attack Hiln’s bodyguard with the Cavalry. By the time they finish them off, the assassin should have fled, and three regiments of Skaven warriors will arrive in the south-east corner of the map. Use your Crossbowmen to shoot the Skaven, while moving the Cavalry down to help. Mop up the surviving Skaven with the Infantry and Cavalry, once again trying to pin them with the Infantry, then charge them in the back with the Cavalry. Finally, get the Dragon Blade from the snowman behind the tower in the north- east corner. The Dragon Blade The Dragon Blade is a magical sword that causes any hits made by its wielder to count as two. It’s probably best to give it to your Cavalry, so pick it up with them. Patrol Take all three units, and reverse the standard marching order, so that the Crossbowmen lead and the Cavalry bring up the rear. Two ambushes will occur, both involving three regiments of Skaven warriors. Use the Crossbowmen to pepper the enemy units with arrows as described in the ‘Skaven’ section above, while moving the Cavalry off to one side (don’t forget the fireball!). Use the Cavalry and Infantry together to deal with the surviving Skaven. There’s quite a bit of luck involved in these missions, as to whether or not the Skaven rout and how quickly they rally, so be prepared to try it a few times. Rescue Illmarin (Reinforcements available) Take all three regiments. On the way to the battle you’ll encounter Allor, an Amber Wizard who’ll work for you for free. Once there, deploy as shown. In this mission it doesn’t really matter what happens to the Dwarves - even if the regiment gets killed, you still speak to them afterwards, so don’t worry too much about ‘saving’ them. Be sure to wait for a lot of magic points, then begin the battle. Set the Crossbowmen firing at the lower left group of Skaven warriors, and when the Rat Ogre gets closer let him have it with a Hunting Spear from Allor. Immediately move him north a bit, and try to cast a Curse of Anrahier on the Stormvermin. If the Skaven warriors haven’t routed yet, attack them with the Infantry, and use the Cavalry to charge the rear of the Skaven fighting the Dwarves. Once the Infantry are finished, send them north and attack any surviving Skaven. Finally, get the Shield of Ptolos from behind the trees at the far west of the map. The Shield of Ptolos This magical shield protects its bearer from missile weapons of all kinds. As such, you can happily give it to any of your regiments. Generally, though, the Cavalry are a good bet, as they’re more likely to be used to charge missile units in later battles. Orc Pursuit (Reinforcements available) This is the first really tough battle. There are a lot of Orcs to deal with, and several ways to go about it. The following is a risky plan, but if it works, it lets you win with minimal losses. Again, don’t worry too much about the Dwarves. Before the mission begins, hire the Black Avengers, then take all your regiments with you, and deploy as shown. As the battle begins, move the Cavalry and Infantry down the eastern side of the map, stopping to the east of the small clump of trees. While they’re moving, cast the Curse of Anrahier on the Orc Big ‘Uns that appear on the western side of the map, then shoot them with the Crossbowmen and Hunting Spear spells. Meanwhile, to the east, the Black Orcs should have continued to move west while the Orc Boys turn towards your Infantry. Charge them with the Infantry, then charge them in the rear with the Cavalry. Back on the western side, when the Orc Boys overtake the ‘cursed’ Big ‘Uns, attack them with Illmarin and the Black Avengers. Once the fight on the eastern edge is over (which shouldn’t take long) send the Cavalry into the centre of the map to help the Dwarves, and attack the Archers by the bridge with the Infantry. When Illmarin and the Avengers finish of the Orc Boys, send them into the centre to help out the Cavalry. Phew. March to Zufbar Time to help the Dwarves. Take only the Cavalry, Allor and the Crossbowmen with you. At Finn’s Rest, hire reinforcements and the jolly hard Vannheim’s 75th. When you reach the entrance to the Underway, you’ll have to fight a small band of Goblins. The only danger here is from the Fanatics hidden in the two Night Goblin regiments. Move your Cavalry and the 75th north, then cut across the path of the Night Goblin units. Judge the timing right, and the Fanatics will surge forward, while your two units move off to the side. Pick off any persistent Fanatics with the Crossbowmen and Allor, then order the Cavalry and the 75th to charge the Night Goblins. Attack the Goblin Spearmen with the Dwarves, target the Archers with your Crossbowmen, and send Allor north to give the Goblin Shamen a nice shiny Hunting Spear. Simple. In the Underpass you’ll be attacked by Squig Riders - imagine a Goblin on the back of a very large living Space Hopper, and you’ll get the picture. These guys are a real pain, and there’s little point in trying to engage them in melee combat - they just jump up and splat you. Instead, pick them off with Hunting Spear spells and arrows, while moving the rest of your units to the south-east corner of the map, out of harm’s way. A lot here depends on the luck of the Winds of Magic - get enough and Allor can mop up the Squig Riders easily - so be prepared to reload a couple of times. Finally, ignore the honour mission and continue to Zufbar itself. Slave Assault This looks tough, but because the Skavenslaves are so wimpy, it’s actually not a very hard mission. Take your Cavalry, the 75th, Allor and your Crossbowmen. You’ll also be given a regiment of Dwarven Crossbowmen and a regiment of Iron Breakers. Deploy as shown, and gleefully pepper the Skavenslaves with arrows. You should be able to kill most of them like this, but use the Cavalry and 75th to mop up. Once the first batch is killed, move your Cavalry north until the gate in the top west opens, then bring them back down again. Use Allor to take care of the Rat Ogres, and decimate the last two Skavenslave regiments in whatever fashion takes your fancy. Finally, get the Banner of Might from the rocks at the northern end of the map. The Banner of Might This magical standard increases the strength of every soldier in its unit, and as such is a very powerful item. Either your Cavalry or the 75th should be the bearer, making them great Ôshock troops’ for dealing with tough opponents. Escort Engrol Goldentongue Take only your Cavalry on this mission - you’ll be given Ceridan, the envoy, a unit of Hammerers and Gotrek Gurnisson as well. When the mission starts, Gotrek, a confirmed psychopath, will charge the dragon - there’s nothing you can do to stop him. Run Ceridan past the fight, using the manual Charge button if necessary to avoid the flames, and continue moving him north until he spots the Orcs. Then simply run him south, back past the dragon, and wait. The Orcs will trudge south, straight into the dragon’s flames, and rout, running north. Then they’ll rally, and like good little Orcs, come back for more. Eventually some will probably get through, so just hack the survivors to pieces with your Cavalry, and when all the Orcs are dead or have left the map, run Ceridan north once more to finish the battle. After a bit more travel, you’ll stop in Averheim. Reinforcements are available here, as are Keeler’s Longbows, so hire them as well. Between Averheim and Nuln you’ll encounter a wolf attack on a Bright Wizard. Use your Cavalry to deal with the single ‘roving’ pack (which starts just to the east of the magician), and then pick off the rest with the Longbows. The wizard, Luther Flamestrike, will join you. March to Loren (Reinforcements available) Finally you’ll reach Nuln and see the Emperor himself, as well as getting the chance to hire some new units. Both cannon crews are something of a must for later missions, so be sure to hire them. Upon choosing the ÔMarch to Loren’ mission you’ll also receive a regiment of Reiksguard Knights. Take the Knights, your Cavalry, the 75th, Crossbowmen, Longbows and both Wizards with you. You’ll also meet a Celestial Wizard on the way, who will join you, then you’ll be ambushed by a lot of Skaven. Charge the regiments that attack from the north with all three mounted regiments, while moving the Crossbowmen, Longbows and both Wizards to the east. Use these units to deal with the Skaven reinforcements that arrive from the south-east corner of the map. Extermination It’s vital that you complete this mission, or you’ll be ambushed twice more on the way to Loren. Take your Cavalry, the 75th, Crossbowmen, Longbows, Allor and Luther, and the Hammerers. You’ll be given three dwarf Gyrocopters and a unit of Dwarven warriors. Deploy as shown, and use the ‘copters as much as possible. Their steam cannons seem to have no rate of fire limit, and so you can fire as quickly as you can click the mouse. The bombs, while inaccurate, can wipe out a whole unit of Skavenslaves in a single direct hit. Unfortunately, there is a tendency for the ‘copters to get involved in hand-to-hand combat, so be careful. If any Skaven make it to the mouth of the passageway with the rest of your army, let ‘em have it with missiles and magic. As soon as the coast is clear, run Allor forward to use his Hunting Spear against the two Grey Seers. Finally, destroy all nine Skaven ‘bolt-holes’ by attacking them, and get the Dread Banner from the south-east corner of the cave. The Dread Banner This standard gives the unit that carries it the ability to instill fear in opponents, and thus gives them a chance to force any enemy regiment to rout simply by charging them. Perhaps even more handily, though, it makes the unit that carries it immune to fear. As such, either the 75th or your Cavalry are a good choice to carry it, as they will then become a useful ‘monster killing’ unit. To Loren Provided you completed Extermination, there is little chance of an ambush on the way, so take as few units as possible. Poisoned Wind Take both cannons, the Crossbowmen, Longbows, Allor and whichever unit you gave the Dread Banner to. You’ll also be given some Wood Elf Archers and a Treeman. The objective here is to avoid melee combat, as the Plague Monks almost continually emit black vapours similar to the Skaven Pestilent Breath spell. So, blow them to bits with the cannon, pepper them with arrows and force routs with the Treeman and Dread Banner if any of them get too close. There are a lot a Plague Monks, but a direct hit with a cannon will kill nearly a whole regiment, and the Wood Elf Archers are accurate and have an incredible rate of fire... Rescue High Elder Nearly there - the end is in sight. Take your Cavalry, the 75th, the Knights, Hammerers, Allor and Marius (the Celestial Wizard), as well as both cannons. Deploy as shown, and once again let ‘em have it with the cannon and arrows. Move the Knights and Treeman to the east and then attack any Stormvermin that get too close with them, doing the same on the western flank with the 75th and your Cavalry. Be sure to kill the pesky Grey Seer as soon as possible, either with a Hunting Spear from Allor, or in close combat with Ceridan. The Final Battle Well, not quite. Take everything you can with you. On the way north you’ll meet up with the Dwarves again, and get any of their units that survived Extermination. Eventually you’ll decide to make for Nuln, but to get there you’ll have to deal with that Orc Warlord that you’ve been hearing so much about. This is a big, tough fight, and can be very tricky to win. Deploy on the hill as shown, and try to do as much damage as possible from a distance. Use any Gyrocopters to draw out the Goblin Fanatics as early as possible, then if you’ve got time, try to use them to deal with the numerous War Machines. The real danger here comes from the Orc Shaman on his Wyvern. You can try peppering it with arrows, but you’ll be lucky to do much damage. Likewise, Allor’s Hunting Spears are a good bet, but you have to wait until it’s landed for them to hit - by which time you’re normally in trouble. If you have enough time to see it coming, your best bet is the unit with the Dread Banner, as they’ll be immune to the fear caused by the Wyvern. Even then, though, they’ll take very heavy losses... If you defeat the Orcs, you’ll make your way to Nuln - the last stop before the grand finale. Here you’ll have a chance to reinforce, and get some new units. Which is just as well, because you’ll need them. We’re not going to show you the last map - it would only spoil the fun. However, there are some things to bear in mind. First of all, this battle is unlike any other in the game, because the sole objective is to win - you don’t have to worry about the losses. If only one man remains standing, you’ll still win the game. That said, don’t go charging in willy-nilly. Your cannons are once more your best friends here, as none of your other units has quite the same potential for large scale carnage. Blow as many Skaven to bits as you can, then charge everything you’ve got into the fray. Try to ‘double team’ enemy regiments with Infantry from the fray and Cavalry from the side or rear where you can. Remember, the fate of the world hangs on your decisions...