Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So im a warhammer 40k player, and im starting up warhammer as skaven. Im just wondering about peoples thoughts on the vermin lord, does he die to fast, is he worth the points, etc etc

He works fine.
You pretty much need to build for him though; storm banner, and maybe a warlock or two shooting for the -1 shooting spell.
You also need to limit your own shooting as the shooting protection works against you too.

Abomination, doom wheel, Vermin Lord, and a pair of rat ogre units gives enough hard targets to take cannon pressure off the vermin lord.

When you do go into combat, make sure something else is going in to take up most of the frontage; that way the VL has limited attacks targeted against him.
Most of the time, I'd have him challenge. He should be able to take on most characters.

-Matt

Thanks, so he is probobly not a good idea if i was planning a strategy based around a circle of units around war machines for a path for them to fire, advancing slaves to slow enemy assults, and a bulk of core/ special units to protect and runners to destory enemy artilliary. So basically a hold back with artilliary and cannon fodder to slow them down strategy.

HawaiiMatt wrote:
Abomination, doom wheel, Vermin Lord, and a pair of rat ogre units gives enough hard targets to take cannon pressure off the vermin lord.

Maybe, but Vermin Lord would usually be the higher priority target due to its higher points cost. 20% of your army value (in a 2000 point game) plus the fact it will usually be your army's best spellcaster and best combat unit. Yep, it would be the first target for some concentrated fire power.

HawaiiMatt wrote:He works fine.
You pretty much need to build for him though; storm banner, and maybe a warlock or two shooting for the -1 shooting spell.
You also need to limit your own shooting as the shooting protection works against you too.

Abomination, doom wheel, Vermin Lord, and a pair of rat ogre units gives enough hard targets to take cannon pressure off the vermin lord.

When you do go into combat, make sure something else is going in to take up most of the frontage; that way the VL has limited attacks targeted against him.
Most of the time, I'd have him challenge. He should be able to take on most characters.

-Matt

THats also the build for every other skaven list (minus the rat ogres).. It works better with virtually any other lord. Vermin lord is just bad, too expensive.. too vulnerable and doesnt do much damage. Hes a skaven demon prince and those are the worst lords as well for chaos

Vermin Lord is like a Demon Prince for Chaos (with less options). He's a monster, so he can't join other units, so you can't shove him in with 300 other guys to protect him. He's a large target, so he's just begging for people to shoot him.

I'm a little iffy on having buff spellcasters. It seems better to have monsters do monster stuff and casters do caster stuff. He's too much of a melee powerhouse to leave sitting back casting spells, but moving him up makes him more of a target.

500 points is a lot. Just think, you could get a Grey Seer and Hell Pit Abom for that and have them do their respective jobs and the enemy has to choose which to try and negate.

On the other hand, he is able to better take advantage of the Lord of Plague. Those spells have a generally short range, and his high movement and relative toughness (relative to a Plague Priest at any rate) mean that he's better able to get into position to use those spells.

That said, he's still not going to win any one on one battles any time soon. He's better of hitting in the flank or rear of normal blocks, or marching straight past to deal with war machines and the like.

Maybe, but Vermin Lord would usually be the higher priority target due to its higher points cost. 20% of your army value (in a 2000 point game) plus the fact it will usually be your army's best spellcaster and best combat unit. Yep, it would be the first target for some concentrated fire power.

*25%

The Verminlord is worth expirementing with. Some people are very good at making it work. The rest of us... well, maybe in really big battles...

Kirasu wrote:

THats also the build for every other skaven list (minus the rat ogres).. It works better with virtually any other lord. Vermin lord is just bad, too expensive.. too vulnerable and doesnt do much damage. Hes a skaven demon prince and those are the worst lords as well for chaos

I hear that, but I don't see daemon prince at S6, or with D3 wounding no save weapons. He cost the same as most level 4 wizard daemon princes, but comes tool up for combat too.
IMO he lands better than a daemon prince, and cheaper but weaker than a Level 4 greater daemon.

-Matt