Tretch Craventail
"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest."
- – Benjamin Franklin
"I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly … stupid."
- – Jack Sparrow
Tretch Craventail is a Skaven special character introduced in the 7th edition of Warhammer Fantasy. He is the second "generic" skaven character, following in the paws of Queek Head-Taker.
In a race known for their duplicity, Tretch is famous for being incredibly cunning, which really speaks quite highly to his abilities to deceive and plot. In short, he's the shiftiest bastard that ever shifted, and, combined with amazingly impressive lucky streak, he's basically living the Skaven version of the American dream. Also, his name Tretch, is obviously taken from "treachery" (say it out loud).
Born into Clan Rictus, one of the richest clans in all of Skavendom and big rivals to Clan Mors, he started out as a simple clanrat soldier in the ranks of an unnamed regiment. While normally one would expect the life of a clanrat to be nasty, brutish, and short, Tretch is a real go-getter who knows when to grab life by the horns and take it for a ride. After his regiment took part in a raiding force that captured a group of Night Goblins near Crookback Mountain, Tretch was left in charge of the valuables recovered from the greenskins as a reward for his plan of spiking their fungus beer with sedatives so that the Skaven could capture them alive for slavery purposes. Apparently, his Clawleader didn't pay much attention to the implications of one of his underlings coming up with such a devious plan, because he left the ambitious young ratman alive after the Night Goblins were secured.
Tretch, realizing that if it worked once, it might work again, waited until all the Clawleaders and Chieftains present in the raiding force met to discuss (read: argue furiously) over what direction the column and its newly acquired slaves should take. While his superiors were busy debating (read: trying to claw one another's eyes out), Tretch distributed the contents of a small keg of mad cap mushrooms among his prisoners. Mad cap mushrooms, for reference, are what Night Goblins eat before battle to turn themselves into berserk balls of death, and in this case, they worked to perfection. Chained together, the greenskins starting spinning and whirling in a maddened frenzy through the packed tunnel, catching up the Skaven leaders in the murderous chaos. Sooner rather than later, Tretch's Clawpack needed a new commander, and he happily volunteered.
Since that day, Tretch's star has pretty much permanently been on the rise, supplemented with good luck that would put someone literally covered in horseshoes and baptized in four-leaf clovers to shame. At the Battle of Black Crag, it was Tretch who found the hidden path that allowed the Skaven to attack the Dwarfen gunline and turn the fight in their favor. It was Tretch who led the digging of a tunnel underneath the camp of Orc warlord Dagbad, Scourge of the Darklands, so that the Skaven could steal every goblin in his camp right out from underneath his nose. When Skaven forces attempted to capture an Imperial galleon on the River Aver (the Horned Rat only knows why), only Tretch swam free from the wreckage. Time and again, Tretch survives when all those around him die, whether it be escaping the blast of a malfunctioning weapon team, avoiding being mauled by ravenous monsters, or somehow emerging alive from a murderous clash on the battlefield that left his entire force devastated.
Most recently, Tretch assumed the illustrious position of Grand Chieftain of the Deep Warrens for Clan Rictus after disguising himself as a stalactite dropping down atop his predecessor's head. They never expect the old stalactite surprise! Now, with his trusty, lucky skull-helm made from the skeleton of one of his old rivals, he raids the Empire, steals warpstone from the Dark Lands, and performs other feats of Skaven derring-do, presumably all while twirling his mustache and laughing evilly. Tretch's superiors, no doubt jealous of his amazing cunning and definitely not concerned about getting impaled from below by a stalagmite, often send him on the most dangerous and suicidal missions they can find, but Tretch always walks back into headquarters alive and successful, ready to be rewarded for his achievements.
We never hear about Tretch in The End Times, so we really don't know what happened to him. Presumably, the sneaky bastard heard about the whole impending doom of the Warhammer Fantasy world coming down the pipe and made his daring escape into the Age of Sigmar. Hell, when Sigmar showed up to turn the lights back on, Tretch was probably already there with his paws up, drinking a brew and reminiscing about that time he escaped the most certain of certain deaths. That or he died horribly like everyone else, or teleported out with Skavenblight, use your imagination!
He hasn't been seen in the Age of Sigmar yet either, but maybe that's all part of his plan.
Total War Warhammer
I'll lead... from rear!
And he is in Total Warhammer II as a free DLC Legendary Lord! It seems he also is a student of Creed alongside Vlad cause he gets VANGUARD DEPLOYMENT as well!
He starts out close to both Malekith and Khatep's locations in Naggarond, playing as the most skaven skaven who ever skavened. Not only does he get the aforementioned vanguard deployment bonus but he also gets a public order boost whenever he breaks treaties, grants a significant +13 melee attack bonus to his entire army when they pull off an ambush or when they are forced to fight after having already retreated, and on the battlefield he gets the ability *Stay here, I'll get help* which boosts surrounding units' leadership and gives him stealth so he can run the fuck away. His unique skills further his EXTRA-Skaven-y style by: granting more income from raiding, giving a damage and attack boost to allies nearby to him that are already winning combat, a charge bonus to Stormvermin; more campaign movement, missile resistance and in-battle speed to Clanrats and Stormvermin; +20% evasion of ambushes or underway interception and ambush chance for his army; cooldown reduction and more charges for *Stay here, I'll get help*; and Regeneration, an amazing +10% replenishment rate to his army and -1 turn to wound recovery. His Lucky Skullhelm gives him 10% more speed, physical resistance, +15% ambush chance to his army and a fitting passive effect that grants him even more speed and damage resistance when he's losing combat so he can get the hell out of dodge and give him enough space from melee combat to convince his allies he's totally just going off to get some help-aid, yes-yes.
Also, he starts with a DOOMWHEEL, 'nuff said.
All around a pretty fun lord in campaign though much like Queek he constantly runs out of food (at least it's more understandable here because it's goddamn Naggaroth). However, the introduction of the "Undercity" mechanic, which offers a way to get food, mitigates this problem. Especially now that he starts with one, at least in Mortal Empires.
In TW:WHIII he gives his army Devastating Flanker. He no longer starts with giving his army vanguard deployment, but as of update 2.20, if you are playing Clan Rictus (Tretch's starting faction), if you declare war on another faction, then for the next three turns with all your armies getting a variety of benefits, including vanguard deployment.
Gallery
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The Miniature for Tretch from 7th onward, only to disappear entirely in Age of Sigmar.
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Allying with Tretch, let alone any other Skaven, is more along the lines of "Stabbing outward in the same general direction of the enemy until they decide to stop and stab you instead."
