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Hello Dakka! I am new to the skaven, and upon reading the fluff behind the skaven, I can say that I really like the asethetic of Clan Pestilens. I got my base of clanrats, slaves, weapon teams, etc. together, and now I am looking into expanding into more Pestilens stuff. Question for you all is, is the plaguemaw catapelt worth getting the majority of the time?

I know it is only strength 2, but landing 30+ hits with a large blast seems to make up for it.

If you feel like pie plating a unit tarpitted by slaves, go for it. The buffs to catapults make it pretty interesting and it lends more range than a lightning cannon I think

It scares elf players less

Right, I may pick up a Plaguemaw catapult. Thanks much for input!

Any other ideas on the plaguemaw?

BTW, its called the Plagueclaw Catapult. Not Plaguemaw

Its great. large blast template with no armor saves and causes panic tests from even one kill. Only S2 but if you can get in and get wither off once or twice that will help your cause a ton with it and everything else for that matter.

Its not that the plague claw is bad, its that the other skaven rare choices are WAY better.

That and I really dont like the fact that if i misfire my opponent can put it within 4d6 inches of my original target, usually doing quite a bit of damage.

ShivanAngel wrote:Its not that the plague claw is bad, its that the other skaven rare choices are WAY better.

That and I really dont like the fact that if i misfire my opponent can put it within 4d6 inches of my original target, usually doing quite a bit of damage.

I'd wait for the model to come out first....and then I would buy it, even for completeness' sake....

However, anything that shoots a large pie plate is great, especially in 8th ed. As an IG and empire player, I have a particular predisposition to them large pie plates....and as I have w sets of skaven from the Isle of Blood set already, that means I will definitely carry this habit with the skaven army...

ShivanAngel wrote:Its not that the plague claw is bad, its that the other skaven rare choices are WAY better.

That and I really dont like the fact that if i misfire my opponent can put it within 4d6 inches of my original target, usually doing quite a bit of damage.

True enough, but I can tell you from experience that most skaven misfires are bad for the army as a whole. Heheh...

I plan on running it in conjunction with the Hellpit Abomination or Doomwheel. Using Skavenslaves to tarpit an enemy is preferred before firing the shot.

MEh you havent lived until your WLC misfires and sends a S10 bolt through a dragon, and the large template ends smack in the middle of a block of pheonix guard.....

My opponent

"Arent misfires supposed to be bad"

I'm not so sure about the Plagueclaw. I run 2 WLC and 2 Doomwheels personally (2k) just because I prefer the general utility of the WLC. I feel skaven have enough devious ways to shred infantry, and I'd rather have monster killers in the rare slot.

I used a pair once, they did ok. Not great though. Probably made slightly more than their points up, but my WLCs (in that game I was running a pair of each) made up well over their points worth.

Aslo, subbing, I want to see where this discussion goes.

i built one out of bits of spure and plaugemonk stuff...
not used it YET
but i want to cus it seems quite cool.

but then i face a guy who is using nothing but goblins alot so......

Built mine from the bell/furnace kit.
Granted its not cheap, but i got the kit before i read the rules, and then decided the catapault would work better for me.

In 8th large templates are great since more people will run huge units, so even a scatter will see it land on an enemy unit.
Also, it does enough damage to make it well worth its points.

I generally run a plagueclaw, HPA and a wheel as my rares.
The catapault is the only one that doesent need special attention (HPA needs a shield unit to take the attention, wheel needs slaves as a shield against my own army)

I do however take a small unit of night runners if im against elves.
The last thing you want is a great eagle throwing its self at the catapault early on, so keep it covered if they have flyers.



Also, ill take some pics later on so you can see it.
Simply a furnace re-positioned with an extended arm, no wheels and quite a few more bitz here and there.

I run 1 HPA, 1 WLC & 1 PCC in my skaven army. The PCC I'm continually on the fence about, since it rarely comes close to paying for itself ... But I like the variety and frankly it does BAD things to elves as noted, as well as T3 knights. When not fighting these things? Mine often misfires and kills itself, saving me the trouble of rolling 6's to wound

- Salvage

Salvage, you can expect it though
All skaven things blow up and kill other skaven, thats thier life.

If i know ive got a win on the last turn i generally try and get 5 rolls on ratling guns just for the amusement.

it all depends on if you are a person that thrives on randomness or not. Ill tell you a story real fast. MY first Skaven game I took 4 Poisoned Wind Mortars and 2 Plague Claw Catapults. Sometimes you missfire, sometimes you direct hit, sometimes you wiff, sometimes you partially hit, EVERYTIME you have no clue whats going to happen. Now that game I had shooting phases that were Epic and phases that were poor at best. Heres what I realized: I like the randomness and variety of the Under Empire but I don't like the scatter dice variety of attacks. I'm not saying they are bad but I personally just need a little more consistency. I've chosen not to run the cannons either but thats another story so I have built myself a pair of Hell pit Abom's and plan on buying a couple doom wheels to mix and match as my rare choices. It also suits my style more because the big shooty army was a tad boreing just sitting back shooting, shooting, shooting. Its more fun to play an aggressive style. The other thing you can do and I have done to get sort of a plague claw feel/attack is run a Plague Grey Seer and hope to get the #6 spell 'Plague', this mixed with wither is just mighty. Also if you know you will be encountering an opponent that runs units of very expensive troops like Chaos Warriors or Temple Guard then the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell is just nasty if you get it off you will be killing about 14 models on average and if its Chaos warriors that will come to a total of 224pts in one wack. Just make sure you have yourself a 4+ ward save and some skalm as well as its needs a 25+ to cast and this means you will be pulling some miscasts a bit. Did I mention how good Skalm is? Its 5pts less then a healing pot and is better to boot.

I'll probably be building a PCC. I have a bunch of 1/4" balsa sticks, which I had planned for an R/C aircraft project.

Making a skaven-rickety trebuchet structure should be pretty easy. I'm thinking of using a bell as the counterweight.

Randomness I can live with. If I can laugh at myself as well as cheer my army on, it makes for a good game.

ZF-

Right on well thats the real point of this game, to have fun! gl with your build!

I demand you show us your finished catapult after it is done!

Because I want to see it.

I just used ork stone throwers and added bits from the plague monk box.. Then i used the goblin crew as the ammunition :p

Brother-Thunder wrote:I demand you show us your finished catapult after it is done!

Because I want to see it.

This sounds like the pressure I need to snap me out of this burnout.

I have something to look forward to after work.

I'm picturing a basic structure similar to the old metal screaming bell, minus the platforms. I'll have to figure out something for the wheels. Some plasticard would probably work to create a metal framework claw thingy at the end of the arm. I might have to look at a punch-die set for creating rivets.

ZF-

Well, I slapped this together, skaven style -- no mesurin', no nothin'.

Pretty much from here, it's adding various bitz. I wonder what to use for crew. Some variant of globadier, I would guess.

ZF-

Well plague monks man the catapult.

I just finished building the frame of mine, I'll see if I can get some pictures up for reference and such. I have to agree with Exodus for the most part though, the scatter die really does hate me. And on the off chance that I roll a hit, I generaly missfire.

But every once in a while, it all works out, and everything (your slaves included, of course) blows up. Thats what makes playing Skaven worth it.

Exodus2013 wrote:Well plague monks man the catapult.

Yeah, you're right. For some reason, I had the mortar in my head. I'm Pretty sure my FLGS has some old OOP metal monks on the rack.

ZF-


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Zygh wrote:I just finished building the frame of mine, I'll see if I can get some pictures up for reference and such. I have to agree with Exodus for the most part though, the scatter die really does hate me. And on the off chance that I roll a hit, I generaly missfire.

But every once in a while, it all works out, and everything (your slaves included, of course) blows up. Thats what makes playing Skaven worth it.

.

I look forward to seeing it. I figure there's no wrong way to build a catapult.

I do like the double-edged aspect of stuff. I used to laugh when my son's orc advance would grind to a halt from animosity. The hit from his 2 chariots took away any sympathy, though.

ZF-

Worried abput the low S2? Thats what wither is for.

Very good advice, though Wither is universaly good.

On a related note, my Skaven had a game against HE yesterday. The catapults basicaly won that game for them, forcing constant panic tests scattered them, even made Reavers and Sea Guard flee off the table.

Zygh wrote:Very good advice, though Wither is universaly good.

On a related note, my Skaven had a game against HE yesterday. The catapults basicaly won that game for them, forcing constant panic tests scattered them, even made Reavers and Sea Guard flee off the table.

Thats awesome! Chalk one up to psychological warfare!!

I have never seen the plague claw, but have seen the other terrors pestilens can bring, and S2 isnt something to truly worry about with skaven magic turning your target it groaning piles.

I don't think a lot of people realize yet how tough Skaven magic and the Skaven Army in general are. It is really really damn good. Personally for magic I take Plague. You got Wither, which has a crappy range of 12" but it reduces an enemy toughness by -1 for each time its cast...and its forever. Wither is great. Then pair it up with plage which has a decent range of 18" I believe and makes a unit take a toughness test or die, unfortunately it allows for ward saves but no armor saves. This spell is just pure nastyness for killing tough and weak opponents alike and not caring about armor. pair this up with a couple plague claw catapults and you have a very devastating combo. One last tip I have is if you know you are facing an opponent who takes a lot of expensive infantry then make sure and take the dreaded 13th spell and possibly a power scroll or at least a power stone. I fought a guy who took 40 WoC warriors which costs 640pts bare minimum and by turn 4 the unit was completely dead just from my Grey Seer casting the 13th spell on it. It does 4d6 woth of models and removes them, no armor saves, no ward, no nothing they just die or if you take out the whole unit with it you get that many clanrats in its stead. SUCH a great spell and it has a range of 24 inches !!!!