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What do you guys suggest for a starter army for skaven?

Island of Blood from there it's up yo you. Generally more rats are needed then you can decide on toys like HPA, WLC, Bell or Furnace and work a list around it.

Go with 11 Ogres in a spam unit with a master moulder an minimum packmasters. 2 WL Cannons and some Storm Vermin. A Grey Seer on bell is good + Chieftain BSB, Warlock (Included) Warlord (included) and if points allow, plague priest. More Clanrats are also needed.

My friends skaven army only has 200 rats and he is always complaining he needs more so I am thinking 250 might be a good starting point if your playing around 1800-2000pts.

DreadlordMe! Your advice is incorrect I jump for joy when my I see a greyseer on a bell as It means not only is he going to be in LOS to everything with a missile attack but I will be able to target the bell and thus killer the greyseer.

A small bunker of clanrats is the default choice to place your BSB and greyseer.

So in conclusion you need a gakload of rats and DreadlordME! cant play the game.

Yeah, sorry Dread, but rat ogres suck. They hit hard, then die to return attacks. T 4 with no AS isn't quite enough for a 40 pt guy.
The bell is an epic model, but Jubear is correct: cannons will have a field day with a bell list. Mass small arms will bring it down too, or worse; kill the seer off of it. The bell also makes a horrible hero bunker. The unit is Unbreakable, so your heros can't leave the unit when that WoC Chosen Deathstar comes crashing down on them.
Storm vermin are ok, but point for point, clanrats are a better value.

As everyone else has said; more cow bell. And by cow bell I mean clanrats.

Other good units include: HPA,WLC,slaves (Lots and lots of slaves), and gutter runners.
Of course feel free to use whateer you want to in your list, I enjoy running large units of rat ogres and jezzails from time to time,(Yes, they still suck) just to mix things up a bit.

Jubear wrote:So in conclusion you need a gakload of rats and DreadlordME! cant play the game.

Well Dread's list isn't a very good starter army or a hyper-competitive WAAC build, but it certainly sounds like a lot more fun to face than the usual 'take 1-2 of everything that's awesome' skaven lists out there

But YMMV.

- Salvage

A starter army: 2 Isle of blood, 40 x2 clanrats, 40x2 slaves.
30-40 Stormvermin. I like Mortars for the clanrats and Stormvermin. 2x Cannon, 2x Hellpit, Bell. That's a good start.

The amount of models people are talking about in this thread are for higher point value games. I think the OP may be new to the hobby and looking to start of with a somewhat smaller force. If this is really the case, then I would advise the OP to find someone to also start the game (albeit with High Elves) and both get an Islands of Blood box and switch models.

2x Islands of blood, which is the start point of most of this, is close to a 2000 point army if you do it right.

Skaven Warlord w/Warrior Bane, Armor of destiny, Obsidian Lodestone:

Skaven Warlord w/Giant Blade, Talisman of endurance, Enchanted Shield:

Skaven Warlock Engineer, Level 2, Warplock rifle, Doom rocket, Warp energy Condensor:

Skaven Warlock Engineer, Level 2, Warplock Rifle, Dispell scroll, Blade of Nurglich, Talisman of Protection:

Chieftain, BSB, Banner of the Horned Rat:

Clanrats x20, Full Command, Poisoned Wind mortar, Shield:

Clanrats x20, Full Command, Poisoned Wind mortar, Shield:

Clanrats x 39, Musician, Champion, Warpfire Thrower, Spear, Shield:

Rat Ogres x4, Master Bred, Master Moulder/shock prod + Squeel Gnawtooth:

(not in 2x blood boxes)

1x Doomwheel:

Total: 1973

And for all the skaven players out there: What is the "standard" way to deal with big guys like treemen, shaggoths, and so on?

Are jezzails so overcosted?

I think 3-4 IoB sets are a great budget starter army. It won't make the best army, but all a player would need after that, is a WLC/HPA or whatever.
I do recommend picking up a grey seer for games over 1500 pts.
For a smaller starter army, just the IoB, and a WLC. Gives you a solid base of clanrats, a decent wizard/fighty hero, some hitting power from the rat ogres, and a long range way to deal with most any threat comming at you. If you want something more CC related, get the doom wheel instead of the WLC.

@Mandros: There are lots of ways to deal with monsters like that.
Tar pit with slaves. It will take a monster sevral rounds to fight it's way clear of 50 slaves, and you can shoot into combat.
WLC inflicts wounds, up to str 10.
HPA can go head to head with most other monsters.
Doom wheel has Zzzap! and a high number of str 6 impact hits.

Jezzails are over costed. The price of 5 clanrats, with BS 3 and non-skirmish/move or fire. It takes a good sized unit to do any damage to a unit, against monster/war machines: you need a 4-5 to hit, then a 4-6 (Curse you Tomb Kings!) to Wound. There are a lot of monsters with regen, or Lore of Life to heal wounds out there, so the jezzails just don't have the punch they used to.
They are still good against knights, but how many knight type units do you see out there that are worth the 160+ pts jezzail unit to deal with?

What do you all think of Deathmaster Skinitch? He looks really cool, but is he decent on the table?

I don't think he's worth it on the table. Just too many points for the deathmaster for what he does.
Yeah, he will totaly own one hero in combat, but combat res in later turns will be against you.
I think the skaven army has better ways to deal with thinks like uber heros/monsters than a 300ish point charater.

3 Hell Pit Abominations.

Kilgore19d wrote:3 Hell Pit Abominations.

unless playing grand army you can't have 3. although total filth until flaming cannons hit