Hoppers are believed to be some form of Orkoid squig, probably bred as game for hunting. They only seem to appear on planets that have had an Ork presence at some point and share a common cell structure with the numerous squiq breeds. In appearance they are roughly sphere shaped, with small but powerfull clawed feet. The majority of the body is taken up by a huge fanged mouth, large enough to bite a human in half. Hoppers normally have dens in caves, dense forests or other dark areas, where they live in large packs. They are agressive predators and will attack anything, even there own kind.

They get their name from their strange hopping movement, while it looks comical Hoppers can move extremely fast, many a unsuspecting human has been caught and eaten while laughing at Hoppers.

SPECIAL RULES

Almost Fearless: Hoppers will not back down or run from anything and will fight to the death. They pass any morale based checks in close combat. They suffer as normal from shooting attacks and if they fail a moral test will fall back to their Den.

The Den: After the battlefield has been set up, both players choose a terrain piece to be the Hopper's Den, this must be either a wood, cave or other dark area. Roll a dice to determine which players choice of terrain piece is used. Use a scatter dice and a D6 to position each Hopper relative to the centre of the Den.

Boing!: Each Hopper moves at the beginning of BOTH player's turns. Roll a scatter dice and D6 for each Hopper to determine the direction and distance. If this movement brings a Hopper within 6 inches of an infantry unit or character it will immedietly make an assault move into base contact with that unit. That unit can not move away, shoot or do anything, it is too busy fighting the Hopper. Fight combat with the Hopper as usual in the Assault phase.

Tank taste bad!: Hoppers know better than to go near big nasty vehicles, if their movement takes them within 6 inches of a vehicle (including Bikes) move the Hopper back D6 inches in the opposite direction.

Pack Mentality: At the beginning of each turn any Hoppers within 12 inches of another Hopper in combat will move 2D6 towards the combat, when this happens ignore the Tank taste Bad! rule.

JAWS: In combat on a to hit roll of a 6, Hoppers wound automatically and ignore armour saves.

Munchies: Hoppers never pursue routing opponents, they'd much rather enjoy their meal! If they win a combat they just stay in place and eat!