by Tuomas Pirinen
Taken with permission of Skavenblight
[With thanks to the sadly deceased Shannon. I paid a vast fortune to the Clan Pestilence to infect his Clanhold with the Black Plague. Can`t have competitors you know... Neek-neek!]
Young warlord Kreekish stepped inside the dark cell. Old, one-eyed skaven, dressed in rags rose slowly to his feet, blinking his only eye in the light of the visitors' torch. Once this prisoner had been a mighty, dark-furred Warrior, but now his arms had withered away almost to nothing, and his skin was bald and blotched. Still, he was tall, and his eye glared vengefully from its socket.
"Sraqual," said Kreekish. "Your accursed son defeated yet another army I sent against him. My allies, warriors of Clan Kritus complain that he is too good strategist for the likes of me. Still, I know that it was you who taught him everything he knows about the Arts of War." The Warlord bent over his enfeebled prisoner, brandishing a serrated knife. "Now you`ll share your knowledge with ME or I shall cut you up and feed your carcass to my breeders!"
For a while Sraqual smiled the Dark Smile. Finally he answered. "Yes-yes. I will tell. This was how I won those victories, all those years ago..."
Skaven are a very interesting case. In straight H-T-H, they have advantage over the closest thing, the humans, since their I and M are better, allowing them to charge and strike first. But LD 5, inability to use cavalry and the lack of missile troops swing the balance in the favour of humans. Then again, Skaven cost just 4,5 points... just cheap enough to get the special WH discount of 50 per cent on equipment! The one thing that always holds true about the Skaven is that you`ve gotta have lots of them.
| SKAVEN WARLORD, CHIEFTAINS, CHAMPIONS |
If leading a big unit the low LD of the Skaven isn`t so much of a problem, and since they are good value for points in H-T-H. Your characters are cheap, so you should be able to give them good deal of magical toys. |
| PLAGUE PRIESTS | Close-combat monster! Get them while they are frenzied! Only 73 points! Plague priests are very good value for the points, and it is a rare day that I leave my Clanhold without one. I often give him a Blade of Darting Steel (automatic hits) against the Elves and the like who have low T and armour save, or Ogre Blade (+2 S) against Chaos or such. For extra magical power, equip him with the Liber Bubonicus and grab those Nurgle spells. |
| VERMIN LORDS | One of the most powerful
characters in WH, Verin Lords are truly powerful but also
a bit problematic. They are pretty cheap compared to
mosts Greater Daemons, but that 600 points comes out of
your Character allowance... One good trick is to put Vermin Lord in to a unit of Rat Ogres. This gives him a protection against missiles and War Machines, and he can`t be picked out as target for missile fire. The merits of the Vermin Lord also include it`s magical powers. It has an access to the Dark Magic deck, and in larger games this is a Good Thing since Skaven have only one deck aviable to them without Crown of Sorcery or such. Against Chaos he is almost essential since he can beat up practically anybody except the Bloodthirster, and Chaos lacks the War Machines that are very dangerous to this rat. |
| SKAVEN WARLOCKS | These wizards are cheap, but unlike many other sorcerers they are very weak in combat. Also, they can`t use many of the best spells in the Skaven deck. They are good of keeping the winds of magic rolling 2D6, carrying dispell scrolls and (in the case of the Warlock Master) leading units. |
| GREY SEERS | These are your best
wizards, and your rats can be served with a Screaming
Bell side order. Grey Seers are as powerful warriors as your General, just as good leaders, have greater resilience and the ability to use some of the best Skaven spells. Thus it is no wonder that I always include one in my army. Very often I don`t buy anything combat-orientated to my wizards, but Grey Seers are an exception and quite often get at least Warpstone Armour or Black Amulet for protection. Their only negative side is that they are truly expensive. As far as the magic is concerned, try to get the Death Frenzy, Plaque, Curse of the Horned Rat and the Madness from the Skaven deck. |
| STORMVERMIN | Cream of the Clanrats, these Skaven warriors are very unSkavenlike: They are expensive! As the units go, they are your best basic infantry unit. Also, they are one of the three chances Skaven get to field Magical Standard without allies. | |
| Weaknesses | High point cost plus low T and armour save. Your enemy will shoot at them with a fury of an ape. | |
| Uses | Stormvermin are a
problematical unit. On the other hand, they are much
better warriors than almost any other unit of rats, but
they have other very un-Skavenish trend: they cost many
points. Since IMHO there is no sense cutting the corners
with a Skaven unit, a small unit is out of the question.
I have two answers. First is to simply drop some of the
auxilary troops and take a large regiment of the
Stormvermin as your core unit. The Ruby Chalice is
propably a good buy against opponents with lots of
missile weapons, since -2 to shoot is something that
bothers even the Elves... Put all the usual Skaven parabelia of Screaming Bells, Warlords and assassins with this unit, plus perhaps the Black amulet and Banner of Might, and off you go. The second option is buy some 20 Stormvermin to act as a bait for enemy missile fire. It is not a very good option against armies with very powerful missile weapons, but if your Undead opponent targets your Stormvermin instead of your main unit of Clanrats with his Skull Chukers as he is bound to do, it might save you. In this devious tactic, don`t buy stormvermin any additional equipment (except perhaps halberds) to cut down the cost. Deploy as narrow and deep unit as possible to keep the LD score as high as possible. This is a risky option, but sometimes worth it. |
|
| CLANRAT WARRIORS |
Basic Skaven -- the only real fault is their low LD, but as long as you have your extra three ranks, you should be OK. | |
| Weaknesses | LD 5 and average stats. | |
| Uses | For their core unit, many
people use the clanrats with spears since A) they are
cheap B) with spears your rats might even get a chance to
fight back! Since they are very cheap, you often find
that you have points for an additional unit that might be
worth it just to draw missile fire and transport
assassins, globadiers and a Warpfire thrower. Unit sizes should start at 30-40, and can go up to infinite. |
|
| GUTTER RUNNERS |
Fast,
strong, well-equipped, expensive... Their special deployment is very useful since they don`t have to suffer from the hail of missiles as your other units. |
|
| Weaknesses | Can`t field a magic standard. Expensive. Low T. | |
| Uses | The usual method is equip
them with everything imaginable, use their special
deployment rule, and harrass War Machines, marching units
and such. Unit sizes from 6 to 12 should be enough. The other method I use is sneaky and frighteningly risky: Since Gutter Runners are great fighters, (WS 4, S 4, and 2 A with additional hand weapons) they can be formed into a standard regiment instead of skirmishing and deployed near the enemy. You should be able to charege your opponents on a first or second turn. With assassins, good leaders and wise choise of magic equipment, there are not many regiments that can stand their charge. Of course this option is very costly and can cause you your worst defeat, but it is an entertaining variation. |
|
| ASSASSINS | Poisoned blades, WS 5, 2 Attacks and a handy disguise rule make Adepts of Clan Eshin very useful rats to have. | |
| Weaknesses | Elven and Dwarven elites have as high WS as they and thus are hard to hit. S 4 isn`t that hot against a Nurgle Character with T 6. | |
| Uses | I almost always take as many assassins as I can. Good fighters, dangerous against characters and they don`t eat up my character allowance. Though it must be said that when I need more points, the assassins are the ones that go. | |
| SKAVENSLAVES | Weak, weaker, Skavenslave... still, don`t ignore them! They are cannon fodder par excellence! | |
| Weaknesses | LD 4, WS and BS 2. Need I say more? | |
| Uses | If you are playing on a battlefield with relatively few hills, you`ll do well by using slaves as living shields against the enemy missile fire. If your opponent has a nasty habit of using frenzied troops, you can use slaves to take the charges of these very dangerous things. With a crown of command and 40+ slaves you can lock that Khornate knight unit in a futile and endless combat. | |
| PLAGUE CENSER BEARERS |
If there ever was a good troop type, it`s plague censer bearers. 2 attacks, re-rolls on the first turn, hard to hit, WS 4, LD 10 for break tests, and the poison wind effect. 15 points! | |
| Weaknesses | Sometimes an unlucky row
of dice rolls can thwart your plans and the globadiers
kill themselves with the poisonous fumes, or break
regardless of their UM LD of 10. You can`t have a really
big regiment since their formation. Other than that, no Weaknesses. |
|
| Uses | Try to find toughest
possible target for them. On the first round of their
charge the Cencer Bearers always cause immense damage,
and even after that they tie the enemy up because of the
hatred, and the fact that they are T 4 troops and thus
very hard to hurt. They are very useful for their brother Plaque Monk`s also, since they can act as a missile shield as they are -2 to hit. The one problem is to get the unit size right since otherwise they get in each others way an possibly poison themselves. 12 should serve you well. As a final word, don`t ever forget these troops! They are IMHO the essential part of any Skaven army. |
|
| PLAGUE MONKS |
The initiates of infection and the diciples of disease have T4, ability to carry a magical standard and they are affected by the rules for frenzy. | |
| Weaknesses | Low S. Spells wich require armour save are dangerous. | |
| Uses | As they give access to
Plague priests, Censer Bearers and additional Magic
Standard, I always field at least one unit. With T of 4, they can take quite a lot of punisment from missile fire, and it partially offsets their low Armour save. I always give them additional hand weapons, and if facing somebody with regular bows, like Wood Elves, I consider giving them light armour. |
|
| PACKMASTERS RAT OGRES |
Rat Ogres are your heavy hitters. | |
| Weaknesses | If you lose all your packmasters, the Rat Ogres are history. Stupidity and LD 4 are a deadly combination... | |
| Uses | As shock troops since you
lack the heavy cavalry. I`ve seen many different units,
ranging from a single handler and Rat Ogre to a monster
unit of 24 Rat Ogres! I would say that a large unit is
better than smaller one, since spells like Death Frenzy
are of much more use. But remember that if your unit of
12+ Rat Ogres breaks and is destroyed, it could well mean
the end of you. Crown of Command is a good buy to the
character leading such an expensive unit. It is sometimes worth to separate a Skaven Character from one of the regular units if their packmasters get all killed, since characters can act as packmasters. |
|
| PACKMASTERS GIANT RATS |
Since they are so cheap, they are a good place to invest some extra points. | |
| Weaknesses | Of course they can`t beat heavy cavalry. Don`t even try. | |
| Uses | There are couple of
pitfalls to avoid. Don`t fight opponents with WS of 5 or
more, since you`ll hit them only with 5+. Also, don`t
take too many packmasters, since the cost of the unit
will be too high then. Giant Rats can fight against Skeletons, Goblins and such, act as a knight-trap with Crown of Command, and draw out charges of the frenzied troops. Remember that they can always lap around their enemies. |
|
| POISON WIND GLOBADIERS |
At 30 points, they are expensive and must be always used for the best effect. | |
| Weaknesses | You really can`t use them in their own regiments. They can`t stand any H-T-H combat, and their "Stand and Shoot" reaches only 6 inches. | |
| Uses | Since they can hurt
anybody, they are a valuable part of any Skaven force.
You should always include them in every regiment allowed,
for even though the often let you down, their
psychological effect is so great that your opponent often
uses too much time trying to kill them, neglecting your
real units. Always target your Worst Nightmares with these things since they can hurt even a Dwarf Lord with Toughness of 10. |
|
| WARPFIRE THROWERS |
When these things work, they are deadly to an extreme. Remember that the crew have heavy armour! That 5+ armour save has helped me time and again. If used as their own units (You must be very brave or stupid to do this since they have LD of 5) keep them away from the rest of your troops! They have the worst misfires in the whole game! I recommend using them attached to units. |
| DOOMWHEEL | Against Chaos and other armies with little or no missile power and dangerous H-T-H troops, Doomwheel is almost essential. It is one of the few things in Skaven army that can operate alone, for the Warlock Engineer driving it has LD of 10! Obviously too much warpstone snuff... It is a good idea to keep the Doomwheel on a hill in the beginning of the game, since it gains extra impetus when it rolls down the slopes. |
| JEZZAIL TEAMS |
These are one of the few
long-ranged Skaven weapons. The trouble is that their LD
5 causes them to run away practically every time there is
a panic test to take. They are also uncommonly expensive
rats. They have BS of only 3 so you genrally hit with 5+ on D6. Because of this, choose your targets! Go for knights, Ogres, Chariots and such. Because of their S of 5 and D3 W you can hurt almost anything badly. I recommend targetting anything larger than 10` since you gain +1 to hit bonus. Don`t over-rely on them! They are too expensive to compensate for your lack of bowmen. |
| SCREAMING BELL |
As a package, Screaming Bell is cheap: it charges as a chariot, has 4+ dispel, makes the Grey Seer and the Bell Slave immune to psychology and gives them hatred, grants you one extra magic card, plus gives you the random powers of the Bell itself! On the other hand, it slows down the regiment pushing it, can be targetted with missile weapons, may explode if strung with too high note and becomes a prime target for the enemy. I wouldn`t field it against Elves or such since it is far too easy to lose your invaluable Grey Seer, and even the loss of th Striker is a sad blow. It might be a good idea to give the Grey Seer a Warpstone armour when he is riding Screaming Bell. Recommended against assault armies like Chaos. |
| I avoid mounting Skaven
characters on monsters since they often become the prime
targets for enemy missile fire. The problems are even
greater if you send your Warlord or Grey Seer to face the
enemy alone, since the low LD of the Skaven Characters
will propably be the death of you. Still, a powerful
monster might be able to swing the balance to your favour
in H-T-H, and without rider it doesn`t eat up your
character allowance. Rat Swarms are the best buy on this list. They are cheap, but above all, they are immune to psychology and break tests. There is a unit you don`t want to fight? Send couple of swarms to bug it down! |