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So, I've been going through my miniatures and figuring out what I can do with 'em and have been wanting to field the Catapults and Mortars + Furnace as they're all neat and gimmicky. I wanted to use Skrolk, but he's just plain expensive and not really viable for 2000 points and the Furnace fills up the Hero slot fast. Well, this is my first pass, so here goes:

Lords (198):
Warlord w/ Shield, Warlock-Augmented Weapon, Warpstone Armour, Shadow Magnet Trinket

Heroes (496):
Plague Priest, Level 2, Plague Furnace, Plague Censer
Chieftan, BSB, Grand Banner of Clan Superiority, Shield
Warlock Engineer, Level 1, Warplock Pistol, Warp Energy Condenser

Core (775):
50 Clanrats, shields, spears, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
30 Clanrats, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
30 Clanrats, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special (330):
40 Plague Monks, full command, Banner of the Underempire

Rare (200):
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult

Probably sticking the warlord with the spear group (running them 10x5). Not exactly sure what I'm doing with this, but hey, I've got the models for it at least.

Hey Groat! I'm a huge fan of Skaven Plague lists, I run one myself. Here are a few suggestions that I would give:

-I don't really like the Banner of the UnderEmpire. Str. 2 hits just don't do it for me. I would probably give them something like the Razor Standard as it will help the high number of attacks they are putting out.

-Go with a flail on the Priest instead of the Plague Censor. The monks will die fast enough as it is, you don't want to be killing them yourself.

-Save the points and don't make your Engineer a lvl 1 mage. Give him a Doomrocket instead. Enemies go boom.

-And lastly I see that none of your characters have a Ward save. That is... dangerous. A lot of the people I play would take advantage of that as soon as they found out. Warpstone armor isn't the greatest in the world and for a couple more points at the very least you could give him the Armour of Fortune.

Well that's my two cents. Hope it is somewhat helpful.

i suggest making the plauge monks unit 35 instead of 40 so that you can field them in 5 rows of 10 instead of 5 rows of 10 and 1 row of 5.

thats all i can thoink of right now

Okay, round two (also, my first one was invalid - I overspent on the Warlord Magic Items; I've added a second chieftan and toned down the Warlord plus feedback from above) 1999 pts:

Lords (183):
Warlord w/ Shield, Blade of Nurglitch, Armour of Destiny, Shadow Magnet Trinket

Heroes (499):
Plague Priest, Level 2, Plague Furnace, Flail
Chieftan, BSB, Grand Banner of Clan Superiority, Shield
Chieftan, Enchanted Shield
Warlock Engineer, Warplock Pistol, Doomrocket

Core (802):
50 Clanrats, shields, spears, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
36 Clanrats, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
30 Clanrats, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special (315):
35 Plague Monks, full command, Banner of the Underempire

Rare (200):
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult

I think you have too many points in heros. Skaven heros are not that great, and will not win combats for you like WoC ones.
I'd take a seer, BSB, and a priest w/furnace. Kit out as you see fit, but keep them cheapish.
I'd recommend more plague monks. They are your hammer unit, and you want them to have the number to survive a combat or 2. Even against elite opponents.
All the shooting is all good for a skaven list, but with a plague list, you want to be in combat, not standing around tradeing shots back and forth and watching plague monks die in droves, as they ar your only combat threat.
I'd drop 2 of the PWM, if not all of them for slaves. Slaves can tie up units you don't want to get into HTH with yet, or hold them for a flank charge, taking away steadfast.
Plus you can shoot into combat with slaves. It's a great way to get rid of low AS units with the plague catapult.
I'd also take a grey seer in this list over a warlord. Same LD, and if you take the skaven lore of plague, you can get all 6 spells between the plague priest, and the seer. This will give you much better magic defence, and you know you'll get the spells you want, like plague, wither, and the 2 awesome one; bless with filth, and death frenzy.
With a kitted up warlord, you'll want to get him into combat. And against any more than basic troops, he will get punked. That's very bad, as you need the LD the lord level charaters provide in a skaven army.
Always protect your BSB. Skip the magic banner and give the BSB some protective magic items instead.
Hope this helped, and good luck!

I love the censor on the Furnace.
You're unbreakable, just go wide.
The furnace is 60mm wide, just add 5 ranks of plague priest to either side.
With a GIANT unit of 50, you're taking 10+1D6 toughness tests a turn, failing on 6's (figure 2-3 losses a turn).
Your opponent will be taking 4 or 5 tests, +1D6 tests, failing on 4+/5+ depending on who your fighting.
Those extra tests can really add up.
Also, the furnace is 1 model. When your opponent charges you, he has to maximize. Against any 5 wide opponent, he's getting at most 1 or 2 opponents touching the furnace which really cuts down his ability to kill it.
Math Hammer says that a 5point T3 enemy pays off in your advantage, as does a 7 point (or more) T4 enemy.
Basically, it's worth it.

-Matt

HawaiiMatt wrote:Also, the furnace is 1 model. When your opponent charges you, he has to maximize. Against any 5 wide opponent, he's getting at most 1 or 2 opponents touching the furnace which really cuts down his ability to kill it.

GreatScott! I never thought of that.

Okay, so for round 3, I got this to come in at exactly 2000 points. Key things here, #1: Slaves with Shields are mostly due to the Isle of Blood models having shields, but also, in theory, that helps them tarpit a little more for the catapults. I brought the Censer back for the Priest and swapped in a Grey Seer with a Charmed Shield for the final 5 points - I don't know how effective that is, but it was literally the only 5 pointer I could find (the other shield is 10 in the Skaven book, despite being 5 in the BRB).

Lords (310):
Grey Seer, Skalm, Power Scroll, Charmed Shield

Heroes (483):
Plague Priest, Level 2, Plague Furnace, Plague Censer
Chieftan, BSB, Armour of Destiny, Halberd
Warlock Engineer, Warpmusket, Doomrocket

Core (587):
50 Clanrats, shields, spears, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
50 Skavenslaves, shields, Musician + Pawleader
50 Skavenslaves, shields, Musician + Pawleader

Special (420):
50 Plague Monks, full command, Razor Standard

Rare (200):
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult

Sweet plague list, but the grey seer can't take any form of magic armor, as he has no option for a mundane version.
I'd just drop the shield, warp musket from the warlock, and the slave pawleaders to make the warlock a lv.1.

Drop the shields and pawleader from the slaves. They aren't going to matter at all and dumping them will free up enough points to give your Seer better items. You should also try to fit a dispel scroll in there somewhere. I'd also consider dropping shields from the clanrats, too, but that's your choice.

Your furnace has a 15 model footprint. Given that, you should drop your monks to 45 models, including any characters you plan on putting in there (other than the priest who's riding the furnace). That will give you a 10 model wide horde you need without having five extra rats hanging around in back with nothing to do.

I play TKS ... why is everyone so hot for BSB?

Cause for all non-undaed armies the BSB lets you reroll ALL LD based test.
It's a huge deal to be able to reroll a critical Break/Panic check.

For the OP, you could just "counts as" the slaves not having shields. Just be sure to say so at the start of the game.
The Furnace being one model means only one enemy model has to contact it to maximize model to model count.
So a chariot or monster wouldn't have to touch the furnace.