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Hey, I am quite new to dakka but have been collecting GW products for years now. I have gamed a lot with my space pups but slowly getting bored. Instead of going for a new 40k army I looked at starting a small Skaven force (plus the awesome new minis coming out in Island of Blood provided a little temptation, and the fact it's a starter set so I can get a grip with the rules a little easier). I'm not sure if this is entirely the right forum (if not point the way!) but I have a few questions to be answered and I'm sure you folks will be good at answering them!

- What are the general tactics for Skaven, I see horde a lot but the trouble is I'm not the fastest painter - I like to spend a little time on each guy
- What points limit would you suggest for a new player like me?
- What individual skaven units are worth taking? Drawbacks and benefits maybe?
- And just any general tips for playing fantasy?

Thanks

I'm not an experienced Fantasy player, but I wrote up some first impressions on the system from the viewpoint of a 40k veteran that you might or might not find useful here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/307754.page.

I've been shooting for a 1,000 point army for starters. I don't think it's so big that it's intimidating (even the High Elves, a notoriously "small" army, have a much higher model count at 1,000 points than my 40k armies ever did) and it lets you play with some characters.

One important thing: when you're assembling your regiments, don't forget to assemble them together so they rank up properly. This might not be as important for you if you're just using the Isle of Blood Skaven because I think they're designed with this in mind, but if you're putting together one of the multi-piece kits be careful of crazy conversions that will make the models tough to use on the battlefield.

On having Models ranking up;

Unless they are skirmishes, they have to fight into their regimental shape. I've seen players at my FLGS get ten different kinds of pissed because they assumed that because some guy constantly adjusted his ill-fitting ranks, that he was fudging his movement by inches.

You can build up with your mini's, but not out.

Skaven can be painted quite easily, chaos black, brown fur, pink skin, some clan color, armor and then a wash.

The new starter kit is going to be the easiest and cheapest way for you to increase your armies size.

1000 points is good for starters, enough room to experiment with hero's/lords and have enough units to start using tactics.

Thanks for replies I have painted a couple of skaven took me several hours each though :/ considering batch painting.

Have fun painting swarms of Clanrats .

Just started a skaven army myself now im taking a break from 40k.

Painting wise, the unit will be ranked up, so a little tip:

Paint all the models to a tabletop standard, then spend extra time on the front rank, this way it blocks sight to the ones behind, and makes the whole unit look tons better without putting in another 40 hours painting.

Also, check how rank and file models go together before using glue.
chances are some pieces stick out alot, so will need to be in certain areas in the unit (spears forward, throw it in the front rank so it will fit)

Read instructions and dry-fit: common sense really, but fantasy kits tend to have more detail and tons more parts, so its best not to make any mistakes in the 1st place.

Movement trays: buy em.
£5 for 8 trays. (4x 20 model trays and 4x 10 model trays)
This helps to keep your sanity intact for a long time.

If a unit only fits together in 1 formation, number the underneath of thier bases, this way the unit will allways fit and saves tons of time.



On to the skaven:

Pick a theme when making a list.
1,000 points is a nice goal to start with, since basic games are around 2,500 - 3,000 now.

You dont have to go swarm either, can go with the skyre route and take tons of warmachines, jezzails, globadiers and then a few blocks of rats to fill out and waste some points.

Convertion: Ive found skaven to be tons of fun to convert.
Much better than any 40k army ive ever collected.
Just finished making a HPA, never made anything like it before.
So if you like converting, you can go crazy with skaven.


Units worth taking (IMO):

Lords:

queek - points heavy, but does alot of damage.
Grey seer - points heavy, but about the best magic you will get from skaven, the bell is a nice upgrade, but not allways useful.

Hero's:

Warlock engineers are nice and cheap with the lvl 1 upgrade and give you a nice magic missile (warplightning)

Plague priests are more points heavy, but alot nastier as they can fight to a decent standard aswell as cast.

Chief - Allways need a battle standard bearer in the army, helps boost your abilities to no end.


Core:

clanrats - not too bad, but dont have a real use.

Slaves - Cheap, you can fire into combat with them, and they can easily tarpit a unit or 2 for a game.

Stormvermin - Points heavy for a core choice, but with queeks upgrade they cost more, but can do some nice damage.


Special:

Rat ogres - not too bad, no armour lets them down though, but still not a bad hammer unit if you screen them with slaves.

Jezzails - Pure quality, a unit of 10 causes some nice damage against anything with alot of armour, or monsters.
Allways take them when possible.

Globadiers - Like the jezzails, they are great for hunting down heavily armoured troops.
Tarpit a unit with slaves then use globadiers to bombard them.

Gutter runners - Points heavy, but give you a unit capable of taking down war machines to some extent.


Rare:

Hellpit abomination - no armour, but it is 100% evil in combat.
It will tear through most units on the charge with an average of 4D6 attacks (D6 charge, D6 thunderstomp and 2D6 - 3D6 normal attacks)

Plagueclaw catapault - much like the jezzails, it causes damage, and since 8th is all about horde, the large template causes alot of damage, even if it scatters a bit.

Warplightning cannon - Still a great machine to use.
Will tear through most units, but better off aimed at lone characters, close warmachines and monsters.

Doomwheels - Like a multi-shot version of the cannon above, but not as deadly per shot (no bounce and movement in the shots)
It can however cause decent damage in combat.



Thats just a quick summary off the top of my head, hope it helps.

Take as many infantry as you can get. As a skaven army wide special rule, your Leadership is improved by the number of additional ranks you have.

Certain big units are considered a horde in warhammer,giving you additional attacks.

Thus, choosing a "horde" of 50 clanrats with spears and light armour/shields, you get 41 attacks, full ranks (necessary bonuses in cc ), banner, musician, champion, Ld improvement(see ranks) and
with a high possibility another rule that makes your unit braver in case of a defeat because it´s ranks likely outnumber the winning unit´s ranks.

Take solid blocks of infantry. A slave for example only costs 2 points. A unit of slaves won´t do much damage, but enemy units will get stuck in them so you can outmanouevre them. Or you just leave them allone - if your enemie´s elite knights are hacking at cheap slaves all of the time...

Skaven have a high movement value, so you will be quick, get long charges and sometimes can´t be shot at in a "stand and shoot reaction" by your enemy. ( In warhammer, there are different reactions an enemy unit can choose if attacked)

The skaven Doomwheel is just great. It has a ranged attack that hits automatically, has a high strength and can inflict huge amounts of damage when it attacks in cc.

There´s also a magic banner (stormbanner) that you can equip one of your more specialised units with (stormvermin; characters). It´s very good at saving your troops from enemy fire. It´s effect doesn´t last long, but again, with your high movement value you should be in close combat in a few turns and don´t have to care much about enemy fire anyway.

In warhammer I think the general key to winning the game and what makes it so interesting is manouevering. Try to build clever "traps" , bind units with slaves to later attack their flanks with something bigger, etc.

Hope that wasn´t overwhelming.... I myself can´t find any structure in my text