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My club is slowly getting a few people into Fantasy, and I've taken the lead in buying quite a bit of Skaven models. I've read up a bit on them and have a few ideas on how they play and their varying playstyles, but I'm a total Fantasy noob and don't know what's good or how to use what I have to it's best effect. I'll give a general list of what I have and then some playstyle ideas I'd like to shoot for and would love to get some advice from the more experienced players out there on what direction to choose.

I've got roughly 4 island of blood kits with all the skaven pieces. Then another 40 odd clan rats. Then a battleforce and a doomwheel. Last I counted it was 200 clan rats or slave models, half of which I believe have spears and shields.

I really want to play an either magic and shooting heavy army (warplock engineers with rockets, some cannons or plagueclaws, dreaded 13th) or an army with swarms of clanrats backed by a helpit and some rat ogres.

So my basic questions right now are:

What should I pick up next? Plagueclaws or warp lightning cannons? And which is better most of the time?

How big should I have my blocks of slaves and clan rats be most of the time. I have no idea what points level we'll be playing at. Probably low and working our way up, but low points in Fantasy seems to be high points in 40k terms.

Any suggestions or beginners tips would be greatly apprectiated. Thanks!

Get WLCs to deal with any monsters you encounter.

I'd recommand you check The UnderEmpire
Loads of helpful guides and wise players (as wise as a Skaven can be anyway), I could put a lenghty post, but you're much better off registering down there and checking the existing guides
to answer quickly your questions, WLC all the way, PCC are sub-par (even if decent)
Slaves/ClanRats units should usually be 40+ strong (no spears, shield for clanrats, eventually for slaves)
HPA is very good (... who am I kidding, it's brokenly good), the Doomwheel is great and I personnally prefer it to the HPA (but I play a themed Skryre army), notably in the current meta of MC / MI
"normal" games of WHFB, you are indeed looking at 2000-2500 pts

The under empire is great for Rat players, My favorite unit by far is the doomwheel, hands down. the gry seer, lv4, mage is amazing at his price. I never had good luck with the dreaded 13th spell. I like using skitterleap with a engineer and doom rocket to get behind the enemy lines. running as many warpfire throwers and mortars is fun. Some reason I had way better luck with the mortar teams. Skaven are such a blast to play.

 Wingeds wrote:
My club is slowly getting a few people into Fantasy, and I've taken the lead in buying quite a bit of Skaven models. I've read up a bit on them and have a few ideas on how they play and their varying playstyles, but I'm a total Fantasy noob and don't know what's good or how to use what I have to it's best effect. I'll give a general list of what I have and then some playstyle ideas I'd like to shoot for and would love to get some advice from the more experienced players out there on what direction to choose.

I've got roughly 4 island of blood kits with all the skaven pieces. Then another 40 odd clan rats. Then a battleforce and a doomwheel. Last I counted it was 200 clan rats or slave models, half of which I believe have spears and shields.

I really want to play an either magic and shooting heavy army (warplock engineers with rockets, some cannons or plagueclaws, dreaded 13th) or an army with swarms of clanrats backed by a helpit and some rat ogres.

So my basic questions right now are:

What should I pick up next? Plagueclaws or warp lightning cannons? And which is better most of the time?

How big should I have my blocks of slaves and clan rats be most of the time. I have no idea what points level we'll be playing at. Probably low and working our way up, but low points in Fantasy seems to be high points in 40k terms.

Any suggestions or beginners tips would be greatly apprectiated. Thanks!

WLC's are the bomb. Plague monks and plague banner make great school bus removers. Ohh and find people who are willing to sell you stuff on ebay.

I love my skaven! Just played this past weekend and my poisoned wind mortar misfired and took out a good chunk of my own army. You just don't get that hilarity with other armies.

My suggestion would be slaves, lots of them. Also if you have some models you can use for conversion, don't be afraid to use other armies models as slaves (it fits the lore).

I would recommend Ebay, thanks to skaven being in the IoB set there are a ton of great deals on massive amounts of clan rats, ogres and weapon teams. I would say our rares are exceptionally good, except the red headed step child that it's the plague claw catapult. A pack of stormvermin never hurt anyone and you just can't go wrong with plague monks. Now gutter runners are another excellent option but the night runner kit is a bit.... Aged.

Yeah as a Skaven player I swear by Plague monks, Plague priests, Warp lightning cannons and Lore of plague.

Here are my two Warptokens:

 Wingeds wrote:
What should I pick up next? Plagueclaws or warp lightning cannons? And which is better most of the time?

Warp Lightning Cannons are tons better, no contest. It is tons more versatile (S2-10, rather than 2, still ignores armour, does D6 wounds, hits in a line and a template) and costs 10pts less. It is, honestly, probably the best unit in the book.

 Wingeds wrote:
How big should I have my blocks of slaves and clan rats be most of the time. I have no idea what points level we'll be playing at. Probably low and working our way up, but low points in Fantasy seems to be high points in 40k terms.

Most people prefer their Clanrat blocks around 30. If they're pushing the Screaming Bell, I'd never go less than 40. Skaveslaves are usually take in blocks of 50 and up, but minimum-sized units of 20 serve a different function quite efficiently as well. Just always (always!) get a Musician.

 Wingeds wrote:
Any suggestions or beginners tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1. Keep your General and your BSB alive with the best magical protection warptokens can buy!
2. The "best" buys in the book, in likely order of awesomeness: Skavenslaves, Stormbanner, Warp Lightning Cannon, Warlock Engineer (+Doomrocket), Hell-Pit Abomination, Grey Seer, Gutter Runners (with Poisoned Attacks and slings), Giant Rats (units of 5, with 1 Packmaster, a.k.a. the "Rat-Dart")
3. Skaven units do not win combat on their own. They need to work together.
4. Skaven units with lots of durability usually don't have much killing power. And vise versa. Be sure to bring lots of different things to the table; target saturation is key. Your opponent will (hopefully) not be able to deal with all your gadgets and monstrosities before some of them hit home.
4. Skaven units are unreliable. Never put all your breeders in one den. Always have a plan B, and preferably plans C-Y, if possible.
6. Always have a dirty trick up your sleeve. And always have an escape plan. And always blame someone else when things go wrong.

I love my skaven. I purchased a bunch of rats on ebay and with the warhammer starter set.

My favorite list to run is several blocks of 40 clanrats w/weapon teams (preferably plague mortar, 2 compliments of 20 slaves, an abomination is always super fun, and a level 4 grey seer! I have had a good amount of success using 8 jezzails too. They are quite effective in taking out elites

I dont think any other army youll feel as happy about losing with knowing its probably because you skrewed yourself over. lots of lolz all around no matter what happens. true to their fluff and as fun as it gets with warhammer


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I should say 30-40 rats per unit of clanrats, you always want that rank bonus, and as was mentioned before keep your bsb protected as the reroll provided is quite valuable. I almost forgot to mention the DOOMWHEEL! kills on flank charges, although it can be put down by cannon fire. Just make sure to have lots of shenanigans so that your opponent has to choose wisely on where to focus his fire.