THRACKThe Splice
The legacy of Nova Eden’s fleshcrafting experiments: mutated survivors whose bodies continue to adapt long after the laboratories that created them were abandoned.
Nothing about them is fixed
The Splice are a loose collection of mutated survivors, escaped experiments and creatures descended from Nova Eden’s old fleshcrafting programmes. They share no government or common origin, but all of them live with bodies that can continue changing in response to injury, environment and instinct.
Some were once human. Others were grown in vats, assembled from engineered tissue or created for work that no longer exists. When the laboratories failed and the people running them disappeared, whatever remained had to survive on its own. Over generations, those survivors changed further and spread into the ruins.
There is no central Splice authority. Some packs follow whichever fighter is strong enough to keep them together, while others gather around individuals who seem unusually capable of guiding or controlling mutation. Many also speak of the Deep Flesh, something they believe exists beneath or behind their constant transformation. Whether that is a genuine shared instinct, a form of faith or simply a way of explaining what has happened to them is still unclear.
How the Splice plays
The Splice rarely stays the same for long. At the start of each activation, every fighter rolls on the Mutation Table, and the result lasts until its next activation.
That means the options available to you can shift from one activation to the next. A fighter might suddenly become faster, tougher, more accurate or much more dangerous in a fight. Playing the Splice well is less about waiting for the perfect mutation and more about spotting what the current result lets you do.
Flesh Flux: Mutation Table
Roll at the start of every activationSelect a result or roll below to see its effect.Mutation Rules
Sometimes the mutation you already have is more useful than anything you might roll next. At the start of its activation, a Splice fighter can attempt to keep its current mutation instead of making another Flesh Flux Mutation Roll.
On a 4+, the mutation holds. On a 2–3, it fades and the fighter gains no new mutation that activation. On a 1, the body rebels: the mutation is lost and the fighter gains 1 Nerve Token. Because Lingering Flux is resolved before any Nerve Test, that extra token can cause the fighter to take a Nerve Test immediately afterwards.
Holding onto a useful mutation can be worth the risk, but the flesh does not always cooperate.
Spend 2 Momentum at the start of a Splice fighter’s activation to replace its normal Flesh Flux Mutation Roll. Roll twice on the Mutation Table and apply both results.
If you roll doubles, the fighter gains that result only once and suffers 1 damage.
Overflux gives you the chance to create some particularly nasty combinations, but pushing the body harder always carries a risk.
What the Splice becomes
Every fighter in a Splice pack represents a different response to the same problem: survive, adapt and keep changing. Some remain close to human proportions, while others have been reshaped so extensively that little of their original form is left.
Four units are currently available during the Open Alpha, with more of the roster still to be revealed.
Rendfather
Rendfathers are the most aggressive fighters found in Splice packs. They lead through presence rather than command, pushing directly into close combat and drawing the rest of the brood forward with them.
Their Frenzy Aura makes nearby Splice fighters more dangerous in melee, so a Rendfather is usually most useful where the fighting is already becoming crowded.
Frenzy Aura: friendly Splice models starting their activation within 3" gain +1 FHT.
Graftkin
Graftkin are one of the more stable Splice strains, if “stable” can really be used for something that mutates every time it activates. Their bodies have developed into deliberate combinations of reinforced muscle, bone and weapon-like growths rather than uncontrolled masses of tissue.
They begin the game with a mutation of your choice, making them flexible fighters that can be prepared for the job you expect them to do.
Grafted: begins the game with one mutation of your choice.
Twitcher Drone
Twitcher Drones are fast, erratic scouts used to seize ground and force the enemy to react early. They are lightly built compared with most of the brood, but can move through terrain quickly and reach awkward positions before heavier fighters catch up.
Their Scuttle ability makes vertical terrain particularly useful, letting them climb without the usual movement penalty.
Scuttle: climbs as if gravity were a suggestion it declined.
Ribshrieker
Ribshriekers have developed specialised organs capable of producing a concussive burst powerful enough to disrupt nearby enemies. They work best close to the main engagement, where Marrowquake can add Nerve to several fighters before the rest of the brood moves in.
Their main job is disruption. Build Nerve on nearby enemies first, then let the rest of the brood take advantage of it.
Marrowquake: a concussive shriek; every enemy within 3" gains a Nerve Token.
More of the brood is still changing
More units will be revealed as the Open Alpha continues.
The Changing Choir
Position the Rendfather so the most bodies start their activation within 3". That aura is the plan, not a bonus.
Twitchers climb early and claim objectives. They are cheap enough to trade away every single game.
Overflux for two mutations on the model about to charge. Bone Spikes plus Frenzy Aura is +2 FHT on one activation.
| Unit | Role | Thracks |
|---|---|---|
| Rendfather | Combat Leader | 55 |
| Graftkin | Core Fighter | 26 |
| Graftkin | Core Fighter | 26 |
| Graftkin | Core Fighter | 26 |
| Twitcher Drone | Core Scout | 18 |
| Twitcher Drone | Core Scout | 18 |
| Ribshrieker | Specialist Disruptor | 26 |
| Total | 195 ₮ |
Mustered: 1 Leader, 5 Core, 1 Specialist. 195 of 200 Thracks spent, 5 left for gear.
Why these fighters
Frenzy Aura hands +1 FHT to anything starting its activation within 3". Directed Evolution bends the Mutation Table your way.
Grafted lets them pick a mutation instead of rolling in round one, and Adaptive Form rerolls the roll after that.
M6 and Scuttle for vertical ground. Expendable means the warband feels nothing when they die.
Dread Resonance is a standing −1 to enemy Nerve Tests within 5". Marrowquake tops that up for free.
Opening three rounds
- Round 01
Twitcher Drones sprint for the objectives. Everything else clusters within 3" of the Rendfather and stays there.
- Round 02
The Ribshrieker moves to within 5" and calls Marrowquake. The Graftkin charge whoever is now testing Nerve at −1.
- Round 03
Overflux the Rendfather and commit. Frenzy Aura stacked on Bone Spikes is where this warband wins the game.
Every Splice activation begins with a Mutation Table roll. Plan for the average, not the best case.
Watch out: You roll a mutation each activation. Lingering Flux holds a good one on a 4+, but a 1 loses it and gives the fighter a Nerve Token.
Adapt the plan to the flesh
The Splice are at their best in messy, fluid fights where you can react to what happens rather than follow a fixed sequence. A useful mutation, a failed enemy Nerve Test or an exposed route can all change which fighter should act next. Treat the Mutation Table as a source of opportunities rather than something your original plan depends on.
Flexible stat boosts through mutation, strong close-quarters pressure, reliable Nerve disruption, and sudden mobility from mutation effects and specialist units.
Limited long-range lethality, vulnerability to concentrated fire, and reliance on positioning to fully exploit mutation results.
Use fast units to force reactions early. Let disruption and Nerve pressure destabilise the enemy before committing your strongest mutations, then strike quickly before your opponent can recover.
Building a Splice warband
The Splice is a good excuse to make every fighter different. Their mutations should look as though the body has changed for a reason: an enlarged arm capable of delivering heavier blows, bone thickening into armour, altered legs built for speed or sensory organs developing where they should not be.
Asymmetry helps enormously. One heavily mutated limb is often more convincing than covering the entire model in spikes and tentacles. Some fighters can remain recognisably human, while others may have changed so far that only scraps of clothing or old equipment hint at what they once were.
Sculpting putty is especially useful for stretched skin, exposed muscle, claws and growths around kit-bashed joins. Old clothing, armour and weapons can be partially buried in new tissue to suggest that the transformation happened around them rather than the fighter simply putting on different equipment.
When painting them, keep the flesh looking alive. Bruising, inflammation, visible veins and small areas of gloss around fresh growth can make the mutations feel much more uncomfortable than simply painting everything as rotting tissue.
What to hunt for
Almost any humanoid miniature can provide a starting point for the Splice. Human bodies mixed with monster limbs, ghoul parts, claws, insect pieces and sculpted tissue can produce fighters that still have traces of their original anatomy beneath the changes.
Try to make the joins part of the mutation. Build putty up around replacement limbs, push bone through armour at stress points, stretch skin around new growths and use fine wire for exposed sinew or tendons.
The goal is not to make every fighter as complicated as possible. A few well-placed changes usually make a model more unsettling than covering every available surface.
"Your body already knows how to become us."
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