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So I'm getting a bit bored with my dark elves, I love them, but I've been playing elite armies in both warhammer games, and kinda thought a hordeish army might be a good change of pace. As OnG are already taken, empire holds no appeal, and ew, VC, I thought about skaven. Now I know that clan skyre, lead by a grey seer, is one of the tougher builds out there, and after looking over the book I can see why. Doesn't do much for me though, as such, I was thinking of building a clan pestilens army. This is pretty restricting, but I figure they would have clan rats/slave rats like any other clan, with some small conversion work I can have a grey seer who uses plague spells, and poison wind globadiers would be scratch built throwing rotten pieces of meat. Of course to really do the theme, I'd need lord-i'm-470-points-of-probably-not-worth it. I mean he is -really- cool, but my word batman is that a lot of points. I have a couple of questions, really.

-Plagueclaw catapult, seems nifty, obviously inferior to the cheaper WLC, but S2 large blast with no armor saves isn't that shadey when you always wound on a 6. Is it any real use? I'd like to think so, but theory hammer only gets you so far.

-Plague Censors, I wanna like these guys. The weapon is tasty, I appreciate that it goes before -any- other blows are struck. Lack of armor will hurt them a lot, but nothing is going to be sporting any really, so thats only a partial concern. With their skirmishing status, I'd like to assume good flank chargers. Going nice and wide to ensure multiple censor hits, and hopefully living long enough to provide a +2 on the flank.

-Plague Monks. I like them, they have a boat load of attacks, and with the poison spell seem like they'd be dead killy. Without, they seem like they would be lacking. Would definitely require support, but with all the attrition fire going on, might actually be able to grind down their foes. I like the +d3 resolution banner on them, but may switch to a warbanner for the constant +2.

-Globadiers, these guys, I like. They just whittle down any opposition, and I can see me taking a unit with attached mortar. Minor conversion work would be needed to make them pestilens over skyre, but honestly there are enough VC players in the area for them to be lobbing zombie parts within a week. Wish I could take more than one unit, but I really want to avoid running clan rats.

-Lord Skrolk, my word is he a LOT of points. He is really good, but yeeeeeeesh. Aside from him allowing me to take plague monks as core, I really am not a fan. Granted his mumbling from the big bad book of blisters is nifty, and could potentially cause a lot of harm, I don't think there is much he is going to do to earn himself his nearly 500 point price tag. I'll take him for theme and plague monks, but I'll gripe about it.

-Plague Furnance seems really good on paper. It can cause a lot of damage, and is a pretty much insta win on keeping stubborn. with the giant censor, and the censor on the plague monk, should deal some damage. Am I overestimating it?

-Lore of Plague. I really like this lore over ruin, the perma toughness reduction is nifty, and has synergies with a full pestilens approach to warfare. Poison attacks turn plague monks into something approaching intimidating, plague seems phenomenal, and so on and so forth. Will probably end up with all 6 spells.

I guess that is pretty much everything I'd be taking. I wrote up a sample list, and thought I'd run it by you guys. I've got my DE for GT events, and would really like another fun army to play. So I guess I'm saying I don't need to win all the time, but we all know that loosing constantly blows. So, here is the 2.5k "EWWWWW RATS!" list.

Lord Skrolk

Plague Priest
Lvl 2
Talisman of Preservation
Plague Furnace

Plague Priest
Dispel Scroll.

Chieftan
BSB
Shield, armor of destiny

45 Plague Monks
FC (Furnace Goes Here)
Grand Banner

47 Plague Monks
FC (Other 3 go here)

10 Plague Censors

10 Plague Censors

10 Globadiers
Poison Wind Mortar

Plague Claw Catapult

Plague Claw Catapult

Well yah gotta love theme. Furnace is amazing but I would chuck PLauge banner in the unit and storm banner in the other one!

To get the most out of your plague furnace you need to make sure you get the charge off. Here is the setup that I have had success with:

Plague Priest
lvl 2
Plague Furnace, Plague Censor, Pipes of Piebald

Chieftain
BSB
Sacred Banner of the Horned Rat

40 - 45 Plague Monks
FC
Grand Banner of Clan Superiority

Yes it is vulnerable to shooting BUT, you end up with a hard hitting unit that in order for your opponant to charge it they have to pass 2 leadership tests at -1 and as long as you outnumber them, (which should be most of the time) you add D3 to your CR and again they have to pass their leadership test twice at -1 on top of however much they loose combat by. If you support this unit well with the censor bearers and globadiers this unit can cause a lot of damage. Be carefull of units that are imune to psycology.

Okay, here goes:

First- Clan Skyre is not the strongest clan. The best Skaven lists out there use all the clans.

Second- the catapults are...not that great. I tried to make them good, but they're basically inferior.
Monks are actually really, really good. T4 with 3A each. Censer Bearers need to be in small units; every model in contact with them needs to make the T test each phase, including the Bearers not in combat.
Globadiers are decent. I'd consider getting a Bombardier with a Death Globe, actually.
Skrolk...eh. He's okay. But I think you can do a Pestilens list without him.
The Furnace makes your Plague Monks unbreakable. That's enough said, I think, but I'll also mention this: I recently popped my Banner with Bless with Filth, but I rolled a Misfire on my wrecker attack and rolled...a second CC phase. 80 unsaved wounds? I think so.

Don't forget to give your Priests flails/censers! And the Ironcurse Icon on your Furnace driver!