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Hey there, I'm starting a Skaven warband, and I have Grey Seer, 20 Clanrats (hand weapon, command) and 20 Plague Monks (command, both musicians). My friend plays with Daemons and his collection consists of lots of basic demons, lots of screamers, lots of hell hounds, fiends, plague drones, seekers, greater demons, princes, chariots, soul grinders. What do you suggest I should get for my warband against demons?

I believe one of Skaven's strengths is ranged combat. Maybe get a Plagueclaw, Warp Lightning Cannon? I don't play Skaven so that may not be worth much. lol

I would recommend going for the clan verminus clawpack formation, the bonus on that thing is great. So more clanrats, some stormvermin, a warlord and some weapon teams I think.

Also warmachines to snipe off anything that's anti-horde.

Try and see if you can find the Skaven side of the old Island of Blood starter. A box of Stormvermin, Warp Lightning Cannon and a Rattling gun will give you a really solid army.

Ah-Ha! A new underlin..."Friend" to show-show the ways of the Man-Rats! Wewewewelcome!

I can't speak Skavenese very well


So, Skaven are a very defensive army, unless you want to run Moulder, in which case they become super aggressive! Here are a few tricks for you:

(Ive split these up into smaller sections, i don't know about all the units, so ill just talk about what i know)

Masterclan:

Grey Seers are useful, but i tend to lead towards Warlocks to fill my wizarding needs. They do have a nice command ability though.
Verminlords. Whats not to love? Taking one can be fun, but a better option is the
SCREAMING BELL! These things are awesome! You've got yourself a Wizard, Leader with a great command ability and a bucket load of attacks for only 260 points. And it can summon Verminords, make your Underlings fight harder or blow itself up! Whats not to love?

Verminus:

Warlords are a basic melee leader. Gnash-Gnaw on their bones! is ok, and I run one in bigger games, but a Masterclan Hero is a better general.
Chieftain with Battle Standard. A nice defensive character that can hold its own in Close Combat. Useful for keeping your Clanrats in line.
Clanrats are your rank-and-file dudes. Take the Rusty Blades, +1" of range isn't worth losing 4+/4+ and making it 5+/4+. Their bravery (4) is their main weakness, so keeping a BSB nearby is useful. Use them to defend your Warmachines and/or characters.
Skavenslaves Don't take them . Thy were useful in WHFB, but suck in AoS.

Skyre, aka The Fun Stuffs

Warlocks and Archwarlocks are decent spell casters, i prefer Warlocks because of their accumulators, that give you a 18", d6 mortal wound spell (If the Casting attempt fails the caster suffers d3 mortal wounds instead, yay!). I run at least one, and have run up to 4 at one time (in really big games). They make good bodyguards for Seers, Warlords and anything else you want hanging back.

Weapon Teams All of these guys have a special-special "POWER UP" (Aka "Super Saiyn) mode, that makes them better, or dead if you fail the dice roll. Fun.
Warpfire Throwers are good mid-ranged weapons. At 60p they are great at filling in that last points gap to make your list an even number.
Warpgrinders are interesting. They can be helpful for getting hard hitting units like Plague Monks or Gutter Runners up close and have a decent melee attack.
Ratling Gun. On paper, this guy is amazing. In games, not so much. Again, nice for points filler but I prefer Warpfire Throwers with their d6 mortal wounds.
Doomflayer Never used one. Sorry.
Poisoned Wind Mortar A good, cheap artillery piece for taking out single targets (i.e. Heros or Warmachines) at range. One of them can be useful, but i wouldn't bother taking more than 2.
Jezzails Are too expensive (points and money) for what they do. I sometimes run them to take out edit units, but normally they just miss and then die.
Stormfiends Again, haven't used zem.
Warplightning Canon TAKE IT! The chance of rolling a 1 for power and getting 6 1+ mortal wounds is to much to withstand. I (almost) never leave home without one!
Skyre Acolytes Don't know if these are useful. On paper, they seem weak, but they might be fun in bigger games, for Warmachine/Wizard hunting, maybe with a Warpgrinder to back them up? Or Stormfiends? Dunno...

Moulder

Packmaster Keeps your beasties in line! Thats about all their good for.
Rat Swarms Meh. Don't take them unless you really want to.
Rat Ogres, or Rogers Good suicide units, they can take down big units of heavily armed infantry (read: Ironbreakers, Greatswords, Black Guard, Swordmasters, Blood Warriors, Grave Guard...) and with a Packmaster they can be hard to get rid of.
Giant Rats.[b] These things seem weak. But they have a rule called Wave of Rats, so a unit of 30 rats gets 30 2+/5+ ATTACKS! WITH A PACKMASTER, THIS BECOMES 30 1+/5+ ATTACKS! AND WITH 50, YOU GET [b]150 1+/5+ ATTACKS So take them if you want, but only in big groups.[/b]
Hellpit Abomination I have no idea what this thing does. Ive never used one.

Pestilence:

Remember to keep these away from your non-Nurgle units. Trust me

Plague Priests are mediocre ("Good" in Skavenese) priest characters. Take them to back up your...
Plague Monks! I had a unit of 5 of these wipe out a Phoenix in melee. Give them twin blades, a Book of Woes, an Icon of Pestilence and Bale Chimes and they will deal with almost anything. Their real strength is in charging, getting that extra attack is great for a Skaven unit. Make sure they can finish of the unit they've charged in one turn, or else they become rather... boring. The Icon of Pestilence means that even DEAD monks become a welcome sight, causing a mortal wound on the enemy on a 6+. Good for taking out small, heavily armed units with good weapons.
Plague Censer Bearers. Newbie Plague Monks with better weapons (go figure ). Seem fun, i haven't finished my converted unit so i haven't had time to test them. Sorry.
Plague Furnace. Seems good if you want to bring bucketloads of Plague Monks and other Pestilence units, otherwise the Screaming Bell is better. I magnetized mine, but haven't had a chance to try out the Furnace variant.
Plagueclaw Catapults seem a lot worse than WARPLIGHTNENG CANONS, but remember that target units with more than 10 models increase the damage to 2d6! These are still regular wounds, although with -2, and are 3+/3+, so one miss means its all over. Can be fun against Greenskins and Undead, but a Warplightneng Canon is better for taking down non-horde armies, like your friends Daemons.

Eshin

I have not run anything except Gutter Runners, that did amazingly, so take them!


Hope this helps!

Ember

New update-update for my Skaven-Skaven Tact-Tact-Tactica!

I just finished playing a 1000 point Matched Play/General's Handbook tournament with 10 people using Skaven Clans Pestilens. We weren't using the mysterious terrain or sudden death rules (normal for tournaments), but were otherwise sticking with standard Matched Play rules.

My army was...

Verminlord Corruptor (General)
Congregation of Filth
- Plague Furnace
- 20x Plague Monks w/full command
- 20x Plague Monks w/full command
Plagueclaw

I placed 4th and could have placed 2nd but for a ridiculous save by my 2nd round opponent (saved 27/28 wounds in one combat).

My experience is that Plague Monks are absolutely brutal on the charge. The Verminlord Corruptor as General has an ability that allows one unit to add 1 attack to each melee weapon. The Plague Furnace has an ability that allows a unit to re-roll all wounds. Add in dual foetid blades and the charge bonus and Plague Monks can get 4 attacks, re-rolls to hit, re-rolls to wound. Wound rolls of 6 are Rend -1 AND you get to roll another die and apply an additional mortal wound on another 6. I devastated EVERYTHING I charged except for a Sylvaneth Spirit of Durthu. He's the one who saved 27/28 wounds.

The biggest issue I saw is that the Plague Monks become less useful in subsequent rounds of combat. I'm considering breaking the 2x 20-man units into 4x 10-man units. This will let me send the rats to combat in waves, always giving the next way the +1 attack and re-roll for wounds. Realistically, I don't think I ever got more than 12 of the 20-man squads into combat on a charge.

The Plagueclaw was VERY hit or miss. Against small units, it's just a 3+/3+ spray and pray. You lob your shot and hope it hits. In my first game, it never hit. In my second game, it hit twice... killing 6 and 7 Dryads from 2x units of 10. The remainder died in Battleshock. The Foulrain Congregation Battalion would absolutely make them more worthwhile, but requires you to sink almost 700 point into the Battalion. I think swarms of Plague Monks are just better.

The Verminlord Corruptor is useful for the +1 Attack, but is otherwise useless in combat. It's nice to have a Wizard... but I'm seriously considering cutting him for more rats. He's 240 points. 20 Clan Rats and 20 Plague Monks work out to 260. I just think that's a better investment. Maybe 20 Clan Rats and a Wizard of some sort for unbinding/shielding.

The Plague Furnace is also a buff unit. If you're looking for combat capability, spend the 220 points on 30 Plague Monks (210 points) instead. HOWEVER, the "give a unit re-rolls to wound" is fantastic and can make the difference between a charge hurting a unit and wiping out a unit.

I'm tentatively thinking of this for my 1500 point list. We're incrementing 500 points at a time. I'm ultimately deciding on the Foulrain Congregation AND swarms of rats!

Congregation of Filth (770 points)
- Plague Furnace
- 20x Plague Monks
- 10x Plague Monks
- 10x Plague Monks
- 10x Plague Monks
- 10x Plague Monks
- 10x Plague Monks
Foulrain Congregation (720 points)
- Plague Priest (General)
- Plagueclaw
- Plagueclaw
- Plagueclaw
(1490 points total)

Go to Ebay and for about $10 a pop you can get yourself Poison Wind Mortar Weapon Teams out of the old Island of Blood starter box. They are stupidly good at taking wounds off of ANYTHING. I recently was privy to a battle in which 4 of them stripped 10 wounds off Nagash in the first turn of shooting.

My experience is that Plague Monks are absolutely brutal on the charge. The Verminlord Corruptor as General has an ability that allows one unit to add 1 attack to each melee weapon. The Plague Furnace has an ability that allows a unit to re-roll all wounds. Add in dual foetid blades and the charge bonus and Plague Monks can get 4 attacks

Isn't it possible for them to hit up to 6 attacks on the charge if they take the Woe-stave and Fetid Blade? You'd get 3 attacks with the blade on charge, 1 attack from the staff, and then the Verminlord adds +1 to each of those for 6, You won't get the re-roll all hits however, but you'll have extra range for those models that can't quite reach combat so they can poke with the staffs.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

My experience is that Plague Monks are absolutely brutal on the charge. The Verminlord Corruptor as General has an ability that allows one unit to add 1 attack to each melee weapon. The Plague Furnace has an ability that allows a unit to re-roll all wounds. Add in dual foetid blades and the charge bonus and Plague Monks can get 4 attacks

Isn't it possible for them to hit up to 6 attacks on the charge if they take the Woe-stave and Fetid Blade? You'd get 3 attacks with the blade on charge, 1 attack from the staff, and then the Verminlord adds +1 to each of those for 6, You won't get the re-roll all hits however, but you'll have extra range for those models that can't quite reach combat so they can poke with the staffs.

Yeah, it kind of depends on the combat. Rats are small enough that even with a 1" weapon range, the second row can usually get into the fight if you stagger a bit. Woe Staves would let you fight 3-4 deep. I've only played a relatively small number of games, but I'm usually able to spread out enough that very few rats are in that 3rd or 4th row.

Having said that, I'm sure I'll model some up because they look pretty cool with staves and it gives an otherwise limited allegiance some model variety.

While a small allegiance, they do have the most allied variance of the Skaven Clans, benefitting from Mortal and Daemons of Nurgle is a surprising benefit at times.

Also yeah the staves look pretty awesome when trussed up.

The old Island of Blood set is a great place to start.

With any army synergy is key.
Warlords are a great choice, if kept near your clan rats, as they are cheap and he gives them all an extra attack.

Chieftain with Battle Standard. A great addition. Skaven have such low bravery, but he prevents them from routing if his banner is planted.

Clanrats are your rank-and-file dudes. Take the Rusty Blades. They are small, so the second row can hit with 1" range. Their bravery (4) is their main weakness, so keeping a BSB nearby is useful.

Most of the special weapons are great. The doom wheel isn't worth it but the mortar, ratling gun and warpgrinders are all good.
The warplightning cannon is the best way to take out the big tough bosses. The chance to get 6 mortal wounds in a shot is definitely worth the points.

Kriswall's advice seems great for bigger games.