Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat

This guide to Warhammer: Shadow Of The Horned Rat is split into two sections. 
First theres a short list of general hints and tips for playing the game and then 
theres a brief discussion of the different opponents youll 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. Its 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. Its 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. Its vital to keep your regiments as near 
to maximum capacity as possible if youre going to succeed.

Remember that you can take only 13 regiments into a battle, but those that you 
dont use still have to be paid. Although the amounts are small, they quickly add 
up. If you find that youre just not using a regiment, fire it. The savings will be 
worth it.

Dont 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 dont rotate duty unless you have 
to. Its 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 youre going to be starting in a position 
where you can use spells within the first minute of the battle, its 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 its worth taking the time to get a feel for how far 
you can fire. In particular, theres nothing more annoying than trying to cast a 
spell and finding that youre out of range - the magic points used are wasted.

Dont 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 nows the time to search for them. 
What youre 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. Dont 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 dragons 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 enemys 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.

Dont underestimate the usefulness of magic. Always try to use every available 
magic point in every magic cycle, and experiment with different tactics. Likewise, 
dont
forget to use your swords 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 youll 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 shouldnt 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 arent 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 - theyll just rip your regiment apart. 
Instead, draw them out by moving a mounted regiment past them. Fanatics move 
randomly once theyve revealed themselves, and most of the time theyll 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 theyre 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 cant avoid it,
try to double 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 youll 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 youll 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. Whats more, they cause fear, and so can force your troops to rout 
just be charging at them. Luckily, theres 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 shouldnt 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, its 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 theres 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 theyll spot a unit
of Goblin Wolfriders. Attack them with the Cavalry, remembering to use the 
swords fireball. Thats 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. Its 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 - dont forget to use 
the Cavalrys 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 theyve 
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 cant 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 Hilns 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. Its 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 (dont forget the fireball!). Use the 
Cavalry and Infantry together to deal with the surviving Skaven.
Theres 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 youll encounter Allor, an 
Amber Wizard wholl work for you for free. Once there, deploy as shown. In this 
mission it doesnt really matter what happens to the Dwarves - even if the 
regiment gets killed, you still speak to them afterwards, so dont 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 havent 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 theyre 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, dont 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 theyre 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 shouldnt 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 Finns Rest, hire reinforcements and the jolly hard Vannheims 75th.
When you reach the entrance to the Underway, youll 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 youll be attacked by Squig Riders - imagine a Goblin on the 
back of a very large living Space Hopper, and youll get the picture. These guys 
are a real pain, and theres 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 harms 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, its actually not a 
very hard mission. Take your Cavalry, the 75th, Allor and your Crossbowmen. 
Youll 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 shock troops for dealing with tough opponents.

Escort Engrol Goldentongue
Take only your Cavalry on this mission - youll 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 - theres 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 dragons flames, and rout, running north. Then 
theyll 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, youll stop in Averheim. Reinforcements are available 
here, as are Keelers Longbows, so hire them as well.
Between Averheim and Nuln youll 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 youll 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 March to Loren 
mission youll also receive a regiment of Reiksguard Knights. Take the Knights, 
your Cavalry, the 75th, Crossbowmen, Longbows and both Wizards with you. 
Youll also meet a Celestial Wizard on the way, who will join you, then youll 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
Its vital that you complete this mission, or youll be ambushed twice more on the 
way to Loren. Take your Cavalry, the 75th, Crossbowmen, Longbows, Allor and 
Luther, and the Hammerers. Youll 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. Youll 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 youll meet 
up with the Dwarves again, and get any of their units that survived Extermination. 
Eventually youll decide to make for Nuln, but to get there youll have to deal 
with that Orc Warlord that youve 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 youve 
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 youll be lucky to do much damage. Likewise, 
Allors Hunting Spears are a good bet, but you have to wait until its landed for 
them to hit - by which time youre normally in trouble. If you have enough time to 
see it coming, your best bet is the unit with the Dread Banner, as theyll be 
immune to the fear caused by the Wyvern. Even then, though, theyll take very 
heavy losses...
If you defeat the Orcs, youll make your way to Nuln - the last stop before the 
grand finale. Here youll have a chance to reinforce, and get some new units. 
Which is just as well, because youll need them.
Were 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 dont have to worry about the 
losses. If only one man remains standing, youll still win the game.
That said, dont 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 
youve 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...        
