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.

Hi,

I'm a 40K player, and recently picked up the Island of Blood set mainly for fun of painting. I like the Skaven and consider putting together an army to actually play with.
I read up a bit online but get lost quickly in a myriad of choices/opinions on what (not) to do.

What could you recommend me? So far I have these units available from the box :

- 40 clanrats
- 20 clanrats (I purchased extra)
- 2 rat ogres
- 2 weapon teams
- warlock engineer
- warlord
- skaven plague furnace (purchased for painting fun)

I "like" clanrats just because they look good and embody the look/feel of Skaven very well.
For the rest I'm pretty much open to anything. I also like going for "horde" instead of more elite, I already have that with Marines where you have virtually no models on the table :-)

thanks for tips!

Chris


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh :

Because I enjoy the modeling/terrain/painting part possibly more than playing I plan to create awesome unit filler pieces to spice things up. This might also allow me to make more of the available models, although I don't plan to abuse it.

Get as many as possible of the crappy-looking Clanrats and paint them as slaves
they are the single best unit in the whole book (as long as you take them in big blocks with the General and BSB nearby)
Then you have loads of options, every rare choice ranges from decent (Catapult) to awesome (Cannon, Abomb, Wheel)
The grey seer is a very good lvl 4 caster, the Warlord is very decent, either as an expendable fighter or as a cowardly (2nd line) General
Plague Monks are a good fighting unit if you add a Furnace to them
Stormvermins helped by characters (especially Warlord on War-Litter) are solid as well (if not really "elite")
Gutter Runners with poison and slings are incredible warmachines / monster hunters
Rat darts (5 Rats+Packmaster) are very cheap and very expendable redirectors / annoyance

The Skaven Golden Rules are:
- You should have 1 model for every 10 points
- Half of those should be Slaves

Hey there,

Thanks for those tips.

Is it common to use clanrat models for slaves? And the clanrats themselves as a troop type are not used much in play I see?

You'll want to sit down and decide what type of list you are gunning for - WAAC or fun or somewhere in between.

the new clanrat models actually have some "slave" models and even "pestilens" rats included (some have chains and others have more mutactions or buboes, etc. You can use them for any type of rat you want. Unit fillers are a good idea, as after painting the friirst 100minis, you may get discouraged knowing you have another 200 to go. Slaves are good in large numbers, Clanrats are good in large numbers (usually just hand weapon and shield) Actually, besides poison wind globadiers and maybe one or two other units, everything in the book is useful and effective. There is nothing bad in the book. READ your FAQs as the rules were designed for 8th, but have been changed quite a bit back and forth.
Buy some sling arms from GW direct or your LGS and make some Night runners out of clanrats. You will need more clanrats and actually the boxed set is a decent deal. IOB also helps

So to understand correctly,

I would make slaves out of clanrat models and fit them with handweapons, no shields.
Seeing the slaves are usually taken in units of 40 to 50 I need 2 to 3 boxes of clan rats for just 1 unit of slaves? Ouch Suddenly Im liking my Marines a bit better now...

In a perfect world yes to the Clanrats without shield looking crappy
In reality, if your unit looks crappy and clothed in rags, nobody will care if you have some shields and spears in there
and Slaves with Shields are decent as well (for the parry save), there are two schools of "slaving" withint Skaven players
Spears are never worth it

Damn I glued almost everything with Spears on

That's okay..you probably need more anyway you can just do the next batch with hand weapons.
Sometimes running slaves in smaller units of 20 is a good way to go as well.
Whether there is 20 or 50 they are meant to die and shooting into your slaves in combat can be helpful

Ok i see

Just managed to buy 80 clanrats from iob set for 50,-
Ait!

Hi guys,

been away from Warhammer for some time. Some friends who play Fantasy invited me to start playing with them so I like to put a Skaven list together.
I have roughly 3x the Island of Blood box (gotten cheap second hand) plus some extra purchases so this is what I have painted up:


120x clan rats (150 with unit filler)
4x rat ogres
4x grenadiers / mortars
3x IOB warlord dude
3x IOB warlock dude
1x scratch made fat warlord dude (can be used as character)

1x plague furnace
1x doomwheel

Some pics to go with that (not all):











I like to start with some small battles to familiarize me with the rules. I've only played 40K so far.
Can someone advise me a basic simple to play list? What is a small point size army in Fantasy?
What magic, weapons, extra's to take ? I have no idea where to start, bit overwhelmed...



Thanks!

Chris

Awesome stuff so far dude, that's inspired me with the random 40 Clanrats and 20 Vermin I bought today at 50% off

I don't have much advice myself as I'm kind of in the same boat but just wanted to give my thumbs up seal of approval on what you've done so far...

 warspawned wrote:
Awesome stuff so far dude, that's inspired me with the random 40 Clanrats and 20 Vermin I bought today at 50% off

I don't have much advice myself as I'm kind of in the same boat but just wanted to give my thumbs up seal of approval on what you've done so far...

Hey,

Thanks, I paint better than I play Yeah dunno man I read somewhere I needed large bus formation units. So I made the 5x10 trays.
But I can easily break the rat blocks down to 30 or 40 per unit. I am waiting patiently on some advice by experienced skaven players.

Damn those look nice! How did you do that custom fat rat? I would buy that thing if I could! (For realz)

As for what you have and what you should play you are going to need a minimum of 40 (preferably 50) to push that plague furnace.
I would get at least 1 Warp Lightning Cannon and a Hellpit Abomination.

As for some of your questions a small point game for Fantasy is 1500 but can still play at 1000 points. Most people play at 2000-2500 points.

As for tactics you should run a list something like this at 1500 points:

Heroes:
Chieftain 117 Points
- Battle Standard Bearer, Halberd, Talisman of Preservation
Plague Priest 250
- Plague Furnace

Core:
30 Clanrats 217
- Shields, Hand weapons, Standard, Musician, Warpfire Thrower

45 Slaves 92
- Musician

45 Slaves 92
- Musician

5 Giant rats (rat dart) 23
5 Giant rats (rat dart) 23

Special:
7 Gutter Runners 126
- Poisoned attacks, slings

40 Plague Monks 315
- Musician, bringer of the word, Standard Bearer (magic banner, banner of verminous scurrying)

Rare:
Doomwheel 150
Warp Lightning Cannon 90

Total 1495 Points

Now this is a fairly standard setup for low points game. Only problem see with my own lit is your general is the plague priest who has no protection so maybe drop the warpfire thrower or doomwheel and put a warlord in the lord slot with a halberd, armour of destiny etc.
With this list you put your chieftain in your 30 clanrat unit and protect it with your rat darts and slaves.

Rush in as fast as possible with your doomwheel (which has 3D6inch movement) and your plague furnace/plague monks.
Cast as much magic with your priest as possible.

Gutter runners hold them in reserve and bring them in later to go for enemy cannons etc.

At higher point games add in a hellpit abomination, an engineer with a doomrocket (no wizard level), a level 1 engineer with a dispell scroll. You could also add in a unit of 30-50 Stormvermin as well. Grey seer is also a solid choice but I don't really like the screaming bell all that much.

Hope that helps a bit though ask anything else if you need some more help!

Hi Chief red man!

thanks for that great advice. I will start putting together a list based on your suggestions and aim for 1500 points to start.
In terms of playstyle I think I will like a big horde feel, swarming across the battlefield, while some characters (gray seer?) rains down corrupted magic terror I'm not a fan of shooty stuff (I have marines for that ahah) but I understand the Warplightning cannon is really powerful.

I plan on selling my Plague Furnace as I don't really like the model and read its not that good in the game anyway. It will allow me to invest in some other models maybe. Also I want to try and sculpt/cast my own giant rats and rat swarms, just for fun. Don't love the GW models so it doesn't hurt to try my own sculpting.

The kitbashed warlord is actually done quite simple.



You need the torso of a Boar model (from an ork chariot kit) and cut of the legs, leaving stumps. Turn it upright to form the rat body. Then use bits like the arm of a Rat Ogre as a leg and the head etc. The arms are from a Ork boy, added fur with green stuff to make it look like rat arms. Fill up the seams with green stuff and paint it. The chair was made of scrap ork chariot parts.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and yeah I would love a Hellpit Abomination.
I think the GW model is pretty awesome, but I also want to try and make one myself, seeing I can pour a lot of my creative ideas and modelbuilding talents into it.

Well its good that you want a hordey army because skaven are the hordiest of hordes...haha

Anyways shooting is pretty minimum in a skaven army with gutter runners and warp lightning cannons because the best and usually a must in most lists.
I would keep the furnace if I were you (although I'm sure you would get a pretty penny for your since its wonderfully painted I'd buy it if I didn't have one already). The thing about the furnace is it can cause a ton of damage when you have it in a big old unit of monks and is unbreakable. The downside is that it has no saves and will get busted apart by cannons etc. That is why you should take banner of scurrying to get it into combat as fast as you possibly can.

I'm going to have to try to make a lord like that thanks for the walkthrough!

Hellpit abominations are really good and if you had 2 in an army that wouldn't be a bad thing (has to be high points value game though) problem is the regeneration save is kind of low and flaming attacks negates that. Your either going to have it die within first round of combat and not come back to life or have it devestate your opponents whole army coming back to life once or twice. Mine always seems to do its job just have to pick what you go against. But that's what skaven is all about....randomness love it or hate it most games come down to randomness of our army (kind of a generalisation but still).

Hi couple of questions on the suggested list:

- does the chieftain go into a unit or walk alone? If in a unit which unit?
- does he hold the banner left and then a halberd right hand? No shield?
- the warpfire thrower is that a weapon team longer based model inside a unit? Island of blood models is what i have

More questions might pop up! Thanks

You will put the chieftain inside the unit of 30 clanrats. That is considered your bunker unit. Don't get it into combat but keep it close to your other units so they can use the reroll failed leadership tests.
I would probably edit this list to bring a warlock to be your general because the plague priest will probably die. Warlock is super cheap.

What hand weapons are in don't matter but he doesn't have a shield. The talisman of preservation is a 4+ ward save.

The weapon team is the long one yes and it just has to start within 3 inches of its parent unit then can move wherever it wants but when within 3 inches of its parent unit it gets a 4+ ward save.

 chiefbigredman wrote:
You will put the chieftain inside the unit of 30 clanrats. That is considered your bunker unit. Don't get it into combat but keep it close to your other units so they can use the reroll failed leadership tests.
I would probably edit this list to bring a warlock to be your general because the plague priest will probably die. Warlock is super cheap.

What hand weapons are in don't matter but he doesn't have a shield. The talisman of preservation is a 4+ ward save.

The weapon team is the long one yes and it just has to start within 3 inches of its parent unit then can move wherever it wants but when within 3 inches of its parent unit it gets a 4+ ward save.

Ok thanks I get it I think !
Hopefully next week I am playing my first fantasy battle

You necro'd this thread after just over a year... and i ain't even mad. Awesome work, these all look fantastic!

alex87 wrote:
You necro'd this thread after just over a year... and i ain't even mad. Awesome work, these all look fantastic!

yeah sorry about that lol, I've been away from the hobby and recently picked up again.
I think like so many of us it comes in waves.