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Hi!

I'm returning to WHF or AOS with the new Skaven Battletome. Skaven were my first warhammer army ever until one day i left them in my car and someone stole them i guess thinking that they were tools as i had them in gw carrying cases. This was more than 10 years ago. This got me out of wargaming for a long time until the last 2 years when some of my old gaming pals convince me to come back. As this hobby can be an expensive one i started buying Chaos Daemons so i could use them in both systems(they mainly play 40k). But with a new Battletome out i"m returning to my one true love army.

I always play horde so i"m changing things up a bit and going for elite trroops. Both because of budget and because the allure of using a one clan army to focus. Also i split a box of Carrion Empire so that's in there already. And since i"m not that much of a painter i think a low model count would help me focus on the models more. literally 20 models. The list is as follows:

Allegiance: Skaventide

Leaders
Arch-Warlock (160)
Grey Seer (120)
Warlock Bombardier (100)
Warlock Engineer (100)
Warlock Engineer (100)

Battleline

Units
3 x Stormfiends (260)
3 x Stormfiends (260)
3 x Stormfiends (260)
1 x Ratling Gun (80)
1 x Ratling Gun (80)
1 x Warpfire Thrower (70)
1 x Warpfire Thrower (70)

War Machines
Doomwheel (160)
Warp Lightning Cannon (180)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 108

For battleline i"m thinking 2 of the stormfiend units would be armed with Ratling/Windlauncher/Doomflayer and are goona be backed by the 2 warpfire thrower units and both engineers. The other stromfiend unit i was thinking of going more combat oriented with warpfire/grinderfist/shock gaunlets. This last one would try and infiltrate or attack any enemy territory objectives as i don't have the gnawholes yet.

The warlock bombadier would stay behind near the Warp lighting cannon and ratling guns to defend my area and buff those units.

I am guessing the sheer amount of firepower and spells have enough to do damage and the stormfiends can handle themselves in cc.

I'm debating of getting the doomwheel out and putting in another Cannon.

I have not played the list yet but any recommendations as of changes or additions and even tactics or combos would be very welcomed. Thanks for looking!

Ps.: i would also like to understand how allies would work with this army. How many points of allies can i take. Could it be an abomination for example? Would an abomination break the battleline rules for the stormfiends?

Quoting myself from another thread:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
So I got around to running the numbers on Stormfiend weapons. Short version; don't take windlaunchers, everything else is viable.

To start with windlaunchers, the average damage is somewhat poor. 1.5 average wounds, or 2 if targeting a unit of ten or more (bumping up to 2.25/3 if a spark is used). Having it hit better against large units does not do much because when looking for an anti-horde weapon the warpfire is better by far. Speaking of warpfire, it is now anti-horde instead of anti-elite but IMO it got better. Certainly it is incredibly strong. The only reason I would see to take windlaunchers is deliberately weakening a list (which to be clear, is a good reason).

Ratling cannons do not have high numbers either; 3.5 wounds average but only at rend -1, so 2.33 against a 4+ or 2.91 against 5+. However with a spark to add to the damage characteristic those numbers double (4.66/5.82) and perhaps more importantly the other weapon for that 'slot' is a melee one.

Speaking of, warp grinders. Obviously if you want to use their reserve capability you'll need them, though personally I wouldn't due to its unreliability coupled with gnawholes being available. However they are worth taking just for melee potential since the damage output is good.

As for the melee-only slot both are good; the doom flayers have a higher average on the charge, the shock gauntlets have higher damage overall (but are very inconsistent).

Doomwheels and WLC are both solid, though note the doomwheel is a mobile shooting unit that can fight in melee; using it as a conventional chariot yields poor results.

The warpfire thrower is decent for its ability to delete hordes on a budget, but the ratling gun is a bit sub-par. However they are both worse than just more stormfiends since the made the latter much cheaper than they should be.

Going clan-specific is a bit unusual; it does not use the ally rules and instead says that every unit in the army must be from that clan, barring the general which can be masterclan. So with the list above the grey seer must be your general or you lose stormfiend battleline.

Getting to artifacts, the warp-resonator is awesome but putting scales of ignax (from the malign sorcery supplement) on an arch-warlock for a 4+ against mortal wounds makes him tremendously durable.

However, the caveat to all of the above is how strong you want to make the list. Depending on the local meta what you have could end up being too strong or too weak, though given the learning curve for Skryre is somewhat steep I would lean towards the strong end.

Thanks for your input!

So i can't have a Hell Pit Abomination as ally cause that would make the Stormfiends lose being battleine?

Also, would you recommend maybe get the Grey seer out?
If i get a warlock engineer and the grey seer out i could bring an Abomination as an ally?

I could also get rid of the weapon teams and add one Stormfiend.

Maybe getting rid of the grey seer i can make the Bombardier the general and give him Overseer of Destruction to get the re-rolls for the weapon teams. As your experience, would this help them be more effective?

As for meta, all of them play 40k, but some have some aos stuff, so there really isn"t one yet.

Again, thanks for your input!

There is no way to get an abomination without losing stormfiend battleline, unfortunately.

Overseer of destruction makes ratling guns solid (warpfire does not roll to hit) but it is a matter of using buffs to make them perform as well as stormfiends do just for showing up. Better to go with the seer general and give him the skitterleap spell (very useful) and verminous valor as a command trait (very good at keeping him alive).

For the low low price of 60 Clanrats we get to use any Skaven unit we want! So worth it.

20-man clanrat units are barely worth the points though, while 40-man ones are OP. For a player looking to build a stronger army, three units of 40 clanrats are the better choice by far. Consider that one unit of 40 beats the snot out of two units of 20, and costs less.

That said, building skaven deliberately sub-par is a good idea against most of the armies in the game to ensure a decent matchup. And, you know, 60 less models to worry about.

I feel it's time for the world to have miniatures-painting robots.