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Hello again Dakka.

I started playing warhammer fantasy recently, me and a friend played afew games about 3 year ago so im pretty much new to it again. Ive started a skaven army because I have always loved the look of those damn rat warmachines. I have a battleforce to start but will be expanding with more clanrats and some slave units but for now I bought myself a screaming bell as somthing to kickstart my skaven painting off.

But im not sure which i should build it as, its been sugested using magnets but id rather just build it as one and build my army around it for now. I need advice which would be good for a new player of sorts, the rest of the internets answers are mixed half say screaming bell the other plague furnace.

Build the Bell

There are pros and cons to each one. Please keep in mind that these lists are certainly not exhaustive.

Screaming Bell
Pros:
4+ ward save (with MR2) for both it and the Seer riding it. Save your Talisman of Preservation for someone else!
Makes a unit unbreakable, always nice.
Expands line of site for the grey seer on top.
Random effect table can be very, very useful (extra attacks, free skorch, etc.)
If the Seer is your general, the IP range is increased to 18" thanks to Large Target
Impact Hits

Cons:
Large frontage to attack the Grey Seer.
Random effect table can be very, very useless and even destroy the bell
High cost. Between the Seer and the Bell you're talking 440 points. Can't be fielded in games less than 1760 points, and even in a 2,500 point game it eats up almost 20% of your army budget.


Plague Furnace
Pros:
Makes a Plague Monk unit Unbreakable
Enshrouding Fog and Wrecker attack are killers
Impact Hits
MR(2) for a unit (meh)
Wider base for Plague Spells

Cons:
No real protection at all. No armor, no ward, nothing but MR(2)
Hurts 16% of the plague monks around it
Large frontage to kill the Plague Monk

Overall both are nice. The Furnace can be fielded in lower point games, but requires Plague Monks to push it. The Bell can be pushed by either Clan Rats or Stormvermin, both of which are Core choices.

Everything steamdragon said is right on but at the end of the day, what ever your play style is should help you to decide. I have done way more damage in games with my furnace but have also suffered some real defeat because of it. The bell has never really done anything but help boost my gray seers LOS and allow me to spend 45 points ( talis of protection) on other war gear since the bell offers that.

How large a footprint does the Bell have in a unit? Ie. how many clanrat bases of space does it take up.

Build both. Its easy to make them interchangeable

http://spearofruss.blogspot.com/2011/08/screaming-bell-plague-furnace-magnetic.html

The bell is good but really expensive the plague furnace is cheaper so can fit in smaller armies

Eldarain wrote:How large a footprint does the Bell have in a unit? Ie. how many clanrat bases of space does it take up.

60mmx100mm, or 3x5 clan rats.

I rarely use the bell because simply put miscasts suck and you need your Seer to be casting spells but the plague furnance is very nice because it actually does a lot of combat damage on its own

streamdragon wrote:

Eldarain wrote:How large a footprint does the Bell have in a unit? Ie. how many clanrat bases of space does it take up.

60mmx100mm, or 3x5 clan rats.

Thanks.

Thanks for the advice im going to build a plague furnace
How many plague monks would i need to push it?

How many Plague Monks can you scrounge up?

30 is probably a minimum, 40 is better, 50 may be best (or might be too many, depending on your playstyle).