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As you've probably read, I've recently made a Lizardmen army. I've now had a few chances to play them and although they are fun, they're a bit TOO stable if you get my meaning

So I've went to the other side of the spectrum and got the Skaven codex and a box of clanrats.

They look BRILLIANT. Such unstable madness. I wouldn't risk them in a tournament but they look like a great laugh for casual games.


Does Dakka have any tips for a new Skaven player?

I'm looking to do a Skyre themed army, by the way.

Rats lots and rats. You can find deals on ebay or here on the swap shop for IoB sets and rats. You'll probably want over 150+ rats for clan rats and slaves, from there it's up to you. If you want to be competitive I would get 2 Hell Pits and 2 Warp Lightning Cannons, maybe a doomwheel if you want more fun. I'd pick up 2 boxes of plague monks at some point they also have about 16 giant rats on their sprue per box so 32 of those and 40 plague monks is a good number. If you get 2 IoB sets you'll also get some cool weapon teams, rat ogres, packmasters and warlocks and warlords/chieftens/BSB. A box of night runners is cool to use for Gutter Runners. 1 Gray Seer would be nice. Stormvermin are expensive, I would get them last will cost you $100 to run a decent 30-40 man block. A plague furnace would be cool to go with the plague monks, but you won't need them until 1750+

I too have started collecting an army for about $110 I was able to get a Skaven IoB army set, 100 hand weapon/shield IoB rats, I also got a WLC, a Doomwheel and a box of Night Runners to use as Gutter Runners, I still am about 10 slave rats short and short a gray seer. For my 1500 list I am looking at needed

Skaven can be absolutely ridonkulous. The following are a list of stupidly useful/overpowered units.

Engineer (specifically: with Doombolt, though the globes and orbs they can take aren't bad either)
Slaves (Best tarpit unit in the game)
Gutter Runners (my personal MVU almost every single time I play)
Warp Lightning Cannons
Hellpit Abomination (The sheer amount of bullets that these guys take for the rest of the team more than justifies their cost, let alone how utterly brutal they can be in cc)
Doomwheel (Assuming you roll decently for it's lightning)

There aren't any really horrible units, but I've never had any luck killing things with the plagueclaw catapult

Lore-wise, most of the spells have a use. Skitterleap is amazing with grenade-engineers, and the 13th is a game-changer.

The Storm Banner is in almost every list, and for good reason.

You'll probably hear good things about the screaming bell, but I've never had room to take one, so not the person to ask.

Apart from all that, the main point is to just have fun however you do it! If you like the idea of rats with machine guns, feel free to taking ratling teams and jezzails. God they're expensive, though.

Well, good news. I just got the full Skaven army from IoB on eBay for £23, so this should set me up well. Especially the plastic engineer if I'm going to be using a Skyre theme.

So, after the IoB army, what would be the best way to expand? I was thinking maybe a ratling gun.

You'll probably be wanting clanrats. They're the easiest way to do slaves, and you need them for weapon teams anyway. If you're interested in fielding Rat Ogres, the battalion is a decent buy.

You'll probably be wanting two WLCs at nearly any points level, so they're a good investment. Possibly a doomwheel?

2 WLCs?!

Sorry, I've just came from Lizardmen, so I'm not used to such mad stuff costing so little.

What kind of points level does fielding a Screaming Bell start working?

Well, the minimum you can take it at is 1760. Beyond that... I've never fielded one.

Fair enough.

I'll probably be fielding more than 1 doomwheel actually, keeping with my Skyre theme.

I just love the idea of every game either going well, or everything blowing itself up

You understand the Skaven way!

How much clanrats should make a block? I mean, being 10 wide is nice, but with strength in numbers, it actually DECREASES the value of wide ranks, as the wider ranks get, the less ranks there are.

I was thinking 7x5 blocks of 35.

You generally want to run as many ranks as you think you'll need +1. What are you using your clanrats for? Wizard protection? Tarpitting? That'll inform your thinking on unit size more than anything else.

No idea. I thought clanrats were just the general rank and file troops.

Sort of. In the fluff, they are. In game, you've got four core r&f.

First, slaves. These are the best unit in the game. I will not hear a word against them.
Second, clanrats.
Third, Stormvermin.
Fourth, Night Runners.

You've also got Giant Rats, but they're don't counts as core, so I'm ignoring them for the moment.

In order: Slaves are, hands down, the most broken unit in the codex. At the very least, take two units of 40. There are so many uses for them and they are so very, very cheap.

Clanrats are your cheapest source of banners/weapon teams, but beyond that, slaves are your friend.

Stormvermin are both extremely expensive $wise (a unit of anything over 20 would cost me $166 Australian D: ), and overpriced in game, but apart from plague monks and the BSB are your only source for magic banners. They aren't significantly more killy than clanrats point for point, and they die more easily, but it's not an entirely ridiculous notion to take a large unit of them with either the razor banner or the flame one.

Night runners: Unless you're running a clan eshin army, I would always max out my selection of gutter runners first. shrugshrug.

After reading their entry in the book, it's just sunk in that I can fire into slaves in CC. I need -thousands- of these. Skryre theme, so I use slaves to hold the enemy, even for a turn, then fire into the combat with the big guns.

Those units of 40, what formation am I running them in? 5x8 or 8x5?

I can't think of a single situation that would make me want to run slaves in anything over ranks of 5. They're going to lose the combat. They're going to lose it badly. You're going to be taking HUGE casualties. Max out your rank bonus for strength in numbers.

Right, so 8 ranks of five, gotcha.

But hey, at least some (if not most) of those casualties will be caused by my weapons

(If you can't tell, I'm not even remotely trying to be competitive with this This is purely for fun.)

So, I have a Warlock Engineer and Warlord from IoB. What sort of gear should I be putting on them?

WARBOSS just to clarify on the slaves 5 wide correct? I was thinking units of 40-50 so 5 wide 8-10 deep?

Cerebrium wrote:Right, so 8 ranks of five, gotcha.

But hey, at least some (if not most) of those casualties will be caused by my weapons

(If you can't tell, I'm not even remotely trying to be competitive with this This is purely for fun.)

So, I have a Warlock Engineer and Warlord from IoB. What sort of gear should I be putting on them?

I tend to use the Warlord as a BSB. He carries the Storm Banner for me, IDK if that's going to be nearly as useful for you? A skyre engineer... Doombolt and Level 2?

Hargus56 wrote:WARBOSS just to clarify on the slaves 5 wide correct? I was thinking units of 40-50 so 5 wide 8-10 deep?

Yep.

I'm probably going to do the same with the warlord, but with the engineer, I'm probably gonna give him level 1, warp lightning and the condenser. Little ball of warp lightning-y goodness. Maybe a warplock pistol if I'm feeling extravagant.

Now I have not tried it out yet, but a lone warlock caster appears to be lacking on paper. At level 1 you get one spell, warp lightening is your best choice with the condenser. So you have 1 spell to use. You will likely get 6 or more dice to throw at it if you get less then 6 then your opponent gets a lot less chances to throw dispell dice at it, so the condensor is kind of a waste IMO except the +2 on hits. So you throw 6 dice at a fairly weak spell, that is a magic missile, so it's use is limited to when you and your target are not in combat so you might cast it twice a game maybe 3 times. Throwing 6 dice increases the chance of a IF (not worth it for this spell, a game changer like 13th is worth it) and your opponent has no downside throwing all his dice at it, and all he needs is a double 6 for a IF dispel. I truly think your better off not making him a caster and not giving him the condensor. I think you will kill more guys with the doom rocket or brass orb. If you had 2 casters this would spread your dice out between other spells and you would be better off.

Since you like Skyre for the 30 more pts as the Warlock you mentioned you could get 2, 1 with the brass globe the other with doomrocket and you probably do more damage with them. The lack of magic defense is to be considered though too, but a 1 in 6 chance of generating an extra dispel dice and a +1 to dispel is not that much.

Also on your BSB you may want to think about equipping him defensively rather then a magic banner, a smart opponent will direct attacks at him and it won't take much to take him down and he is so important to making sure your rats and slaves hold their ground.

Why would I throw 6 dice at a 6+ spell? I'd be throwing 2, 3 max, a couple of times per magic phase.

But I do see where you're coming from. I might ditch the magic idea until I invest in a furnace with grey seer.

In my experience, unless you're playing under 1K, bring more magic than a single Lvl1(and even then, you should have at least Lvl2). Magic for Skaven really is go big or go home. Also, Skitterleap plus a Rocket Engineer is golden.

Hm, so a couple of Lvl2s?

And I'm not seeing the bonus of taking doomrockets if I'm gonna be taking a WLC. I mean, the doomrocket is single use, meaning it's either hit, or I've wasted the equivalent of 3 ranks of slaves.

Cerebrium wrote:Hm, so a couple of Lvl2s?

And I'm not seeing the bonus of taking doomrockets if I'm gonna be taking a WLC.

Skitterleap the Engineer so that you're firing down their line. The Rocket's more portable.

And what if I don't generate Skitterleap? Wasted points, surely?

Engineers are still fast enough to be where you most need the shot. I've never seen a Doomrocket be a waste of points.

I've seen it be hilariously disastrous, though.

Hilariously disasterous is what skaven do best. As my friend said, "You don't mind losing with Skaven because it is ALWAYS funny."

Indeed.

Right, heading into town tomorrow evening. Need to decide, WLC or Doomwheel?

Cerebrium wrote:Why would I throw 6 dice at a 6+ spell? I'd be throwing 2, 3 max, a couple of times per magic phase

Cause your opponent will be throwing all his dispel dice at it, since it's the only one you're using. So he's throwing 1-6 dice at it no matter what and if he gets 2 6s and you don't it's automatically dispelled.

And the Doomrocket while it can be hit and miss is pretty cheap at 15 pts, just throw 4 dice at in when the middle of the unit you want to hit is 12 inches from you, it's a large template so chances are it's gonna hit something. By skitterleaping you can shoot the rocket down the line, so if you overshoot you could hit a 2nd unit




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WLC would probably be more effective, though there is a chance it could misfire and blow up a turn or 2 in, Doom Wheel is funner.