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So I have recently decided that I'm going to start a new army and overall and looking for some advice as I have recently bought a couple of sets from island of blood, and am just interested to find out what is the best loadout for, slaves/clan rats i.e. spears or hand weapons.

And any other tips and tactics that I should maybe thinking about.

Slaves are generally run naked, with just a musician upgrade.

Clan Rats get gear depending on their purpose:

1. Bunker characters - They usually get hand weapon + shield for durability

2. Kill stuff - Usually spears

As Clan Rats aren't all that great at #2, you'll usually see them with shields and musician/standard bearer. Some people (myself included) use the Champion as he can absorb a challenge if necessary.

Im new to Skaven too, but from asking other people who played skaven, they said the Island of Blood set is a great start (you just need more than one) other than that it seems that the choice really becomes what special and rare units you want.

Stormvermin seem pretty good, especially for core, but as I talk to others seem to lack a certain "oompf" sure theyre WS and BS 4 and str 4 with Halberd. That's still good, but when compared with clanrats you get more bang for your buck (bang in this case simply being more bodies to throw at the enemy)

Plague Monks seem more preferable for an elite unit as they are toughness 4 and with their clan specific banner they can reroll hits and wounds making them tough and fierce.

Jezzails also seem pretty nice, despite being BS 3, they still back a wallop and are great at killing of some cavalry models and once they lose just a few models, their ferociousness in combat drops tremendously. The only downside? $50 frickin' dollars for 3 of them. I think I'll still take them, just convert them from somthing else.

As for rare, all are a good option, most of all (i heard most emphatically from the other skaven players) is the Hell pit abomination. Understandable so, with a chance to do 3D6 str 6 attacks and the ability to come back to life after dying means this is one creature you certainly want to stay away from.

Anyways like I said, im new to skaven too so I might have gotten a thing or two wrong, but I got most of this from more experienced players. Hope it helps!

I just started myself, but I see a lot of batreps using Doomwheels as flanking/herding choices, too.

Just played my first game yesterday, while I didnt win I did learn a lot. Just some general tips for someone whose only played one game so take it with a grain of salt.

A grey seer on a Screaming Bell is amazing. Not only does it greatly help keep your seer alive, but it makes the unit pushing it unbreakable and for skaven that is a really nice thing since I had pretty much every other unit break at least once during the game. Also, if the Grey Seer is your general then its increases his leadership bonus radius from 12" to 18"

Doomwheels are fun units and could certainly wreak a lot of havoc, both on you and your enemy. You ideally want to put them next to a unit that can survive its warp blast since it has to take a ld test anytime you DONT want to fire. I put them next to some plague monks since they have the increased toughness. They have to take compulsory moves so trying to set up a charge is a little unpredictable. Another key note, they are not Immune to Psychology or Unbreakable. They do have to take break tests and there's nothing worst than seeing your Doomwheel break to a goblin chariot and then get overrun by it. Still despite this happening I really feel they are a good unit, in my game it just went a little wrong (expect that with skaven)

Warplightning Cannons are very fun and have a chance to be insanely destructive, but the fact that you have to roll twice on the artillery dice for every shot means there's a good chance something will go wrong once or twice a game, but for 90pts it cant be beat.

djdutton,

Do you field your Clanrats 5-wide or 10-wide? Horde mode might be funny, but it seems unwieldy and lowers the number of ranks (which hurt Leadership immensely.)

yeah i generally play it 5 wide so i can be sure they are much less likely to break. Horde mode is fun though too and you wont lose ranks as quickly. I tend to do horde mode more often now since the last time i played 5-wide I got a goblin shaman to do a spell (the name slips my mind) where a small temp ran through the whole pack and I lost 23 clanrats. not cool, haha