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Can skavenslaves be armed with spears, shields and slings?

Why would you want to, equipment add ones are a sizable fraction of the cost of the rat, which defeats the object of slaves.

But to actually answer your question, yes, they can in fact be armed with all three.

Orlanth does have a valid point that you nearly double the cost of each slave, but they can have all three if you want.

Giving the slaves shields is decent for the 6+ Parry. Coupling that with spears means you end up with a 6+ armor. If anything, I'd go with spears and slings.

Actually, I've participated in a few 500pt tournaments, and I've been known to bring along my slave army (a Warlock Engineer, with no upgrades, and slaves).
I've seen the benefit to a block of 40-50 slaves in the horde formation with spears and slings.

Yea but if you have spears and shields you don't get parry.

3.5 points per rat is a pretty good deal for all the options.
The only reason I see to take them all is that you want a smaller foot print in your army.

I like the idea of the slings, just because you don't really need to, or want to, charge with slaves. Slings give you something to do for that turn where you waiting to take it.

Yeah, BS2 blows, but at half a point, you get what you pay for. Volume over Quality is the skaven way. Really, with the volume of fire that skaven can produce, those slings can be useful. Keep an eye on fast cav on the flanks, and read up on the rapid reform rules.

I'm not saying take them all the time, but it is a far from useless option.

-Matt

Sorry, are they actually half a point?

Yup i believe all the skavenslave upgrades are 1/2 pts per model.

Correct.

And Killjoy...that is exactly my point.

To summarize, then. It seems the consensus is: Shields? Meh. Spears? Slightly better. Slings? Slight more. Spears and Slings? If you really want to. Spears and Shields? No. Shields and Slings? Sure, I guess.