How many Rat Kings are really needed for Hamelin?

[Rat King]

Hello,

I've fallen in love with the concept of Hamelin.   Swarms of Rats, spawning, evolving, and recycling, combined with a lot of control over Schemes.

I've already bought the Hamelin box, but I'm not really digging the rat on a rock due to it not really working with my basing (I'm going with clear bases to see the rats scurry over the terrain), so the box gave me 3 usable rats.

I've got a Brotherhood of the Rat box on the way, so that will be another 6 usable rats and the two Rat Kings.

My question is: Will 9 Rats and 2 Rat Kings be enough if I intend to play a lot with the rat machine?

I'm ok with ordering a second Brotherhood box just for a couple models out of it if I need to, I just don't want to be caught lacking models in my first couple games.  But if I don't need to, cool. 

[the proxy union]

Two Rat kings should be fine if you don't want to focus super heavily on the summoning aspect of the crew. In most games I don't have more than 2 at any given time, but I have gone up to four when the cards were with me and it was a good idea to do so. If you don't mind getting a second box, then do it; Hamelin can easily make the third and sometimes fourth king, but then you start to get into the realm of diminishing returns.

-Proxy

[Rathnard]

I once summoned three Rat Kings in one game. That was with just an Obedient Wretch and three Rats in a Misaki crew, although it was also a freak occurance - lots of Crows flipped for the trigger and not alot of enemy models able to clean them out!

 

Under more normal circumstances two should be fine, although having a third or fourth as backup would come in handy.

[Math Mathonwy]

5 minutes ago, Rathnard said:

I once summoned three Rat Kings in one game. That was with just an Obedient Wretch and three Rats in a Misaki crew, although it was also a freak occurance - lots of Crows flipped for the trigger and not alot of enemy models able to clean them out!

 

Under more normal circumstances two should be fine, although having a third or fourth as backup would come in handy.

With a non-Hamelin two should be enough but Hamelin can pretty easily summon one Rat King a turn so having two is kinda few, IMO.

[lusciousmccabe]

I have run Hamelin with exactly 9 rats and two rat kings and never felt it restricted my summoning options.

You could potentially need more, but if your opponent has any sense they'll stop that from happening.

[Rat King]

Thank you all for the responses!

It looks like I'll end up getting 2 Brotherhood boxes, one coming this weekend, another coming next week.
This way I can paint a variety of rat colors AND have 4 Rat Kings ready "just in case."

Of course the extra Rat Catchers will be ummm...  I dunno what I'll do with them.

[paxmiles]

On 1/7/2016 at 6:52 PM, Rat King said:

(I'm going with clear bases to see the rats scurry over the terrain), so the box gave me 3 usable rats.

If looking for alternate rats, the GW skaven "giant rats" are about the same size as the malifaux ones. I bet other companies have some too. There are also older metal Malifaux Rats.

I've not considered the clear base approach, so I'm really not sure which models will would best for the theme.

1 minute ago, Rat King said:

Of course the extra Rat Catchers will be ummm...  I dunno what I'll do with them.

There is a trade section on this site. http://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/forum/98-trading-forum/

Good if you have excess models.

[steel762]

I use the stolen-rat king loop almost always on turn one so I only have two but I do need 12 or so rats on hand. 

[MMW-Kyle]

I've never needed more than two. I also never seem to need more than 8 rats personally.