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So I'm basically looking for a fun army that can still win but will be an enjoyable game either way. To me this means a lot of things that can blow up or are kind of all or nothing random. Here's what I came up with.

Warlord (General)

Grey Seer w/ Dispel Scroll

Chieftain w/ Storm Banner, Shield

Engineer w/ Lvl2 Upgrade, Warp-Energy Condenser

30 Clanrats w/ FC, Shields

30 Clanrats w/ FC, Shields

45 Slaves

45 Slaves

45 Slaves

100 Slaves

100 Slaves

10 Gutter Runners

10 Gutter Runners

10 Gutter Runners

Plagueclaw Catapult

Plagueclaw Catapult

Doom Wheel

Doom Wheel

Total=2437

Basic idea is to have a really impressive horde of models and shoot into combat. Decent magic and 4 war machines is enough to melt a lot of units while the Grey Seer and BSB keep the enemy off me. Gutter Runners are basically there because shooting is stupidly powerful and I'd prefer to keep that advantage to myself, most gunlines can't stop 30 Skirmishers, especially if I can Scout them into a wood or something.

So does it look like I have enough shooting to make this work? What about combat? What looks like it would be the biggest problem?

350 Slaves?

Holy gak

I'd have a hard time countering something like that, with the possible exception of Empire and a super-gunline.

I hope that list does you well and that you remain sane enough to play it after it's fully painted

He he.. I have just started to collect a Skaven force myself, and by looking at your list realize that's I will need to put some of my slaves to work at...painting up the other slaves if I am ever going to get that many done!!

I see a couple of issues with your list though:

1. Unless you will be fighting on a completely level field.. you will have a hard time manoeuvring that many slaves around.

2. Grinding down foes with large blocks of slaves only really works if they benefit from generals Ld and BSB... can you fit all those in range ?

3. When your Grey Seer (general) miscast and turns into a spawn....goo....explodes... .. your army is gone after the next round of CC.

I'd combine some of the slaves into a couple of unites of 100 or so... and give them spears.

Id go for a Warlord as the army general, and get some more chieftains for the units furthest from the army center.

I think the Leadership bubble isn't to big a deal, I would probably walk 3-4 Slave units up and they;d make contact while the Clanrats hugged middle and remaining Slaves protected flanks. War machines obviously hide and Gutter Runners are reserved or Scout up, depends on the army.

Warlord isn't a bad idea, what type of kit do you think would be nice? I would enjoy having a fighty character to shove in the flank and get some CR in my favor. Considering dropping the Flame Throwers they're VERY expensive, unreliable and 1 wound with a bad save and Toughness. Quite killable even with hard cover, worse with war machines.

I'm thinking a very defensive Lord to hide in the Clanrats, putting the BSB in the other. That'll limit my shooting but give me a more reliable anvil and really, the Fire Throwers would probably disappoint in my games.

I'm not 100% sold on the Cannons, but the other options are far worse. Globadiers have the awful new Skirmishing, Jezzails are WAY to expensive and Ratling Guns are a little TO risky. Poison Wind Mortars are decent for moving and firing but the wounds not so good, Doom Flayers are interesting though.

Not sure about units of 100, that would limit my drops and let opponents out-deploy me. Also hurts A LOT more if I fail a Leadership, even though they're just Slaves 100 going poof is bad news bears.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm gonna tinker with Warlord options.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
OP updated to reflect the new list, which I like a lot more. Still feel like I need a bit more shooting or combat but not sure what to add.

Thanks for the useful suggestions so far.

Very Interesting list!

I agree with Krede that you'll have a hard time keeping your general within 12" of 7 units of 50 slaves (especially if you use the horde formation). Of course, you could put your grey seer on a bell and increase inspiring presence to 18" which should be enough.

Also, unless you have hills in your deployment zone the cannons will have one hell of a time getting line of sight to anything. I'm not sure what I'd drop them to remain faithful to your list but I'd definitely consider removing them (of course if you removed them they would pay for the screaming bell).

The only thing I'd consider for this list is giving the slaves spears and the clanrats going for hand weapon and shield. Why? In this list the slaves will be there to hold up units and expose flanks (especially with steadfast Ld 10). So the clanrats will be doing most of the charging AND you'll want the extra armor save and ward save for them so they take fewer losses (who cares about slave losses).

Death Frenzy with this army would be hilarious by the way.

Overall kudos to you for making a wonderfully characterful list that should perform pretty well on the tabletop too!

I'm eager to hear how this list performs so if you ever get this on the table please let me know!

I like the Spears suggestion, especially because the Clanrats will see much less combat (and the models I'm using as Slaves have Spears!). I'm not a fan of the Bell because it's not very useful, most of the rings don't do a lot in the grand scheme. I like the war machine killing one but I have more reliable Gutter Runners. 14-17 are really the best rolls but my list isn't very combat oriented. I may proxy it at some point though, I adore the model.

Again, I'd have to lay everything out to really see how hard it is to be with 12" of the Slaves. I planned to run them as non-Hordes because that puts more of an opponent in combat for little return and also guts my ranks faster, making me run faster. Maybe use 2 blocks of 100 and 3 blocks of 50? The "smaller" blocks could protect flanks while the bigger ones say bring it on.

I don't see how the Cannon will have LoS issues, you can see through everything in 8th unless it ACTUALLY blocks LoS. Only buildings tend to do that and cover doesn't affect cannons. With terrain going down before deployment, I shouldn't have to big a problem seeing the enemy, especially if I combine some of those blocks.

My two big weaknesses would still be monsters (especially flyers) and not having any real CC punch. Storm Banner buys me 2-3 turns of Cannons at flying monsters, which is in line with slower ground ones. I'm kind of hoping the meta game will cover them though, with all the shooting other armies are tossing out, Dragons and such are not a healthy pick.

Thank you for the compliments on my list as well. :]

Screaming Bell is usually a personal choice. It doesn't do a huge amount of damage (usually) but making the unit your general is in Unbreakable is a very nice bonus. Still, I admit I rarely use mine and usually when I do it's more of a hindrance (I almost always roll the "move d6" forward" result which gets me into a fair amount of trouble).

Ranked units still block LOS. Given how many units of slaves you have on the table after the first one of two rounds of movement you'll have cut off a fair amount of firing lanes even if you don't use the horde formation.

Monsters won't be too bad unless your opponent brings some hefty magic. You should have warp lightning which will put enough wounds on monsters early enough that you can finish them off and if you get wither on the Grey Seer then you'll see your chances get even better (or crack's call for that matter).

Well they block true LoS, it's still not to bad firing from corners. In any case I decided to drop them because they lack that definite punch. On their best day they're slightly better than a regular Cannon for what, 10 points less? Not a smart buy the more I examine it.

The Bell is a great flavor piece, I see it as a nice possible buff unit. My list doesn't really utilize buffs though, in a Monk or Molder heavy army the extra attacks can be downright mean.

Right now I'm focused on reliable offense, everything else looks at least workable. My shooting defense is well above par, magic defense is so-so, troop reliability is high.

Once again the OP is edited to show what I'm working with. The offense looks better, now I need to kit out the Warlord for defense and as a respectable CR booster and I'll like where I'm at.

Edit: Maybe more evenly divide the Slaves? I've got 335, maybe 5 units of 60+?