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Hey Dakka,

I started off in the hobby with CSM in 40k but after that I started a Beastmen force. Beastmen came and gone and my fantasy army became Empire and still was until only 2010 where I actually gamed for a month day-after-day with the force (in inclusion with other games of course) when my younger brother, bless him, begged and begged for them and I gave in and gave him them, giving him a full fantasy force of his Dwarfs and then an Empire ally. Well, I've gotten into 40k badly with the new release of the Horus Heresy series by Forge World and although I'll be building my pre-Heresy Alpha Legion force before venturing into fantasy again but I have my eye set on Skaven. The crooked minions of the Under-Empire, the slaves of the Thirteen. Just wanted to ask is there anything major I should know of them? Nothing of putting mind you. To begin with I'm aiming on going 50/50 on the Island of Blood box set with somebody and then buying a Skaven battalion. Got the 2010 Skaven Warlord Games Day model so I have a leader sorted.

Skaven are a win big/lose big army. Their equipment is devestating, but has a chance of exploding and killing your own dudes.

You will take casualities, lots of casualities. So if you don't like losing tons of models its not the army for you.

They have really low Leadership on their characters, which makes having as high a Ld as possable plus a BSB is essential. If you lose either of those and start taking ld tests it can go bad really fast.

Don't forget: Before you can loose that bunch of dudes, you have to buy and paint that bunch of dudes! A skaven army will often number 200 models and more.

It takes a special kind of insanity - I mean, dedication to play skaven.

Hey I'm as insane as you say, er, um, dedicated. I love my lil ratz. With what you said you will have a good core force but you need to figure your play style. I like plague monks puching a furnace with a plague priest on board as well as lotsa 25-30 clan rats at least 3-4 units with gatlins. I mix it up everytime I play with hell pits and doom wheels as well as cannons and catapults. You just have to use them and find your flavor. Good luck.

Thanks for all the advice. As for the thing about losing models, you'll lose them anyway, sometimes all at once, sometimes maybe not at all, it just depends on luck really. It doesn't bother me that I'd be losing loads the only thing that bothers me even slightly would be the fact that I would have to paint LOTS and I mean LOTS, I'm a slow casual and rather-bad painter so that doesn't fare well for me but I'll put in the effort.

@Azure: not sure what I would field or even play like as I haven't took a peek at the book yet. Maybe hordes of Clanrats supported by Stormvermin and the obscene and bizarrely insane weaponry? Yeh, sounds good but before I have a go I'll need a look at the army book.

It might be worth it seeing if anyone you know would be willing to paint your verminous hordes, so you don't get bogged down in Clanrats and Slaves. Just to decent table top quality.

 Grey Templar wrote:
It might be worth it seeing if anyone you know would be willing to paint your verminous hordes, so you don't get bogged down in Clanrats and Slaves. Just to decent table top quality.

Tsss, a real MANN paints by himself, everything.

 Grey Templar wrote:


They have really low Leadership on their characters, which makes having as high a Ld as possable plus a BSB is essential. If you lose either of those and start taking ld tests it can go bad really fast.

LD is one of the smallest problems Skaven have. A common Skaven unit will run around with LD 9 or 10 due to their Strength In Masses (iirc).

And yes, if you're not big in painting, skip Skaven. They got OH SO MANY models on the field and those slaves are overpowered yet a major pita to paint.

You will need a LOT of clanrats. My advice is to never feild clanrats in blocks of less than 25-30. There main strength lies in numbers and you should always have a minimum of 5 ranks.

Stormvermin yet again are best feilded in large blocks but you can sometimes get away with blocks of 20.

Screaming Bells are incredibly useful. put them in your hardest hitting unit.

Plague monks are best feilded in large numbers. Get them into combat and they are devestating-3 attacks and toughness 4 each but be aware that they have no armour so can be quickly wittled away.

Rat ogres are devestating and can smash heavy units easily but again have no armour.


If you want any advice just contact me

MOO veteran Skaven player

Thanks a lot master, if I have any querries I'll ask away