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I've sometimes considered starting a Skaven army, but I'm curious how they play at the moment? Anyone able to give me an idea?

I'm especially curious about the different clans - Is the idea to focus on a single clan? I find the idea of Eshin ninja/assassin rats amusing, but they don't seem to have a whole lot of units (especially compared to Clan Skryre, say).

Also, they seem to have gained huge daemon-rat HQs at some point. Is the intent for them to be your generals (rather than a Deathmaster or other, smaller leader)?

So like most AoS armies Skaven had a mixed start.

Originally in Old World it was all one single army. There were factions within the lore ,but the tabletop army was designed around the idea of combined clans. You could, of course, theme to one clan over another, but the core of the army concept was one single force.

AoS came around and they got shattered into separate clan armies for a spell.

Now around the time of Old World ending and AoS starting the Great Horned Rat played his gamble and pushed from being purely an entity of the Skaven to being a full blown Warp God. He is now the 5th major Chaos God within the Warp of AoS.

Along with that the Vermin Lords, which have always been around for years and were the Great Horned Rats direct agents, gained a new enlarged model. Similar to how Greater Demons and such also got much larger models over their original metal counterparts. Beefing them up to Forgeworld size.

Then when AoS actually got formal rules the Skaven army was rolled back into one; though now there are slightly more themed forces you can build within it with more focus on allowing individual clan armies to work. Though Eshin was nearly always aimed at being allied/used within another clan and if you did built a force with them you are more limited on choice for pure units.


As for generals, you can 100% take named or generic rat leaders and they work great. Just like Chaos you don't have to take the biggest greater demon models to have a working army.

Vermin Lords are there as an option.




Also interesting lore point; when skaven die in the AoS setting they don't go to the warp like the followers of other Chaos Gods do. Instead they head to the realm of death where they've their own twisted afterlife. It's also one of the ones that openly resists Nagash taking it over - conducting vast undead rat wars against his legions of nighthaunt and skeletons.

The 2nd ed tome had some wonkyness but current one makes mixing easy. Basically clanrats and stormvermin you can take freely. Every clan has those.

Then for every clan hero you unlock units as battleline. Eshin hero for example unlocks 1 night runnar and 1 gutter runner. 2 heroes, 2 of each.

This way you can build pure armies(just take at least 2 clan hero and fill units) but you don't have to. You can mix clans as you wish. Want some clan moulder to give hard hitters to your eshin? You can.

Note you get clan bonuses if you have 1 clan hero. Often improved if you have at least 3. For example 1 eshrn hero, all eshin units gets +1 to hit and wound vs 1 hero. 3 heroes, vs every hero. You can mix these bonuses as well hero limit allowedx

So it's basically how you wish to play. Pure eshin probably bit trickier to play. Adding some clanrats probably help. And adding another clan certainlw help. But seen eshin armies do well. Not impossible but requires some finence and punishesh mistakes.

 Overread wrote:
Also interesting lore point; when skaven die in the AoS setting they don't go to the warp like the followers of other Chaos Gods do. Instead they head to the realm of death where they've their own twisted afterlife. It's also one of the ones that openly resists Nagash taking it over - conducting vast undead rat wars against his legions of nighthaunt and skeletons.

that's a neat bit overread, where did you read that?

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Also interesting lore point; when skaven die in the AoS setting they don't go to the warp like the followers of other Chaos Gods do. Instead they head to the realm of death where they've their own twisted afterlife. It's also one of the ones that openly resists Nagash taking it over - conducting vast undead rat wars against his legions of nighthaunt and skeletons.

that's a neat bit overread, where did you read that?

I believe its buried in one of the Gotrek stories. I honestly do not remember which, its either one of the audio novels or the earlier books. It's a scene in passing as I recall where they pass through the warzone for a brief moment.

thank you sir!
still very neat though.
skaven and undead are two of my favorites so its a cool combo

Makes me tempted to start 2nd skaven army. Ghost ones.

Wish i had known when i started skaven army!

Thanks for the replies, guys. Sorry for not responding sooner.

tneva82 wrote:
The 2nd ed tome had some wonkyness but current one makes mixing easy. Basically clanrats and stormvermin you can take freely. Every clan has those.

Then for every clan hero you unlock units as battleline. Eshin hero for example unlocks 1 night runnar and 1 gutter runner. 2 heroes, 2 of each.

This way you can build pure armies(just take at least 2 clan hero and fill units) but you don't have to. You can mix clans as you wish. Want some clan moulder to give hard hitters to your eshin? You can.

Oh that's neat. I hadn't realised heroes unlocked one of each of the relevant units.

tneva82 wrote:
Note you get clan bonuses if you have 1 clan hero. Often improved if you have at least 3. For example 1 eshrn hero, all eshin units gets +1 to hit and wound vs 1 hero. 3 heroes, vs every hero. You can mix these bonuses as well hero limit allowedx

So it's basically how you wish to play. Pure eshin probably bit trickier to play. Adding some clanrats probably help. And adding another clan certainlw help. But seen eshin armies do well. Not impossible but requires some finence and punishesh mistakes.

 Overread wrote:

Then when AoS actually got formal rules the Skaven army was rolled back into one; though now there are slightly more themed forces you can build within it with more focus on allowing individual clan armies to work. Though Eshin was nearly always aimed at being allied/used within another clan and if you did built a force with them you are more limited on choice for pure units.

Fair enough.

In that case, would Skryre/Eshin (maybe with a Grey Seer?) be a reasonable choice?

 Overread wrote:

As for generals, you can 100% take named or generic rat leaders and they work great. Just like Chaos you don't have to take the biggest greater demon models to have a working army.

Vermin Lords are there as an option.

Okay, that's reassuring. I thought I should ask as I can't recall seeing any Skaven armies with a small model as their general.

That said, assuming I'm not going mono-clan, is there any actual benefit in having a Deathmaster general? Or is it 'You can technically do this but it's completely pointless and disadvantageous compared to all other options'?

 Overread wrote:

Also interesting lore point; when skaven die in the AoS setting they don't go to the warp like the followers of other Chaos Gods do. Instead they head to the realm of death where they've their own twisted afterlife. It's also one of the ones that openly resists Nagash taking it over - conducting vast undead rat wars against his legions of nighthaunt and skeletons.

Oh that's awesome. Now I want an army of undead Skaven.

Have to say none of eshin command traits appeal. 1 is ok if plenty terrain but in sparse less so. 1 okay if you have 2 eshin hero, won't take 3rd, have lots of eshin units and enemy is hero heavy...

On big general flying verminlord sounds fun and twice finest hour gives durability help.

 Overread wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Also interesting lore point; when skaven die in the AoS setting they don't go to the warp like the followers of other Chaos Gods do. Instead they head to the realm of death where they've their own twisted afterlife. It's also one of the ones that openly resists Nagash taking it over - conducting vast undead rat wars against his legions of nighthaunt and skeletons.

that's a neat bit overread, where did you read that?

I believe its buried in one of the Gotrek stories. I honestly do not remember which, its either one of the audio novels or the earlier books. It's a scene in passing as I recall where they pass through the warzone for a brief moment.

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ruin

The Realm of Ruin is the chief demesne of the Great Horned Rat and within it are the many, myriad afterlives of the Skaven race. Each day uncounted millions of skaven souls stream into Ruin via vast black tunnels, entering via a vortex of green and purple lightning. There they tumble into a grey oily, stinking sea and are sucked down into whirlpools.

Its in Inferno! Volume 4

Ahh yeah I got it wrong its in Inferno not Gotrek!

The Prince Maesa novel would be the resource that goes into the most detail. Though there are also some informative snippets in the current battletome.