Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

My group is about to begin to play some Age of Sigmar, after having checked it out a bit, and I'm going to join them with the minor horde I've had from the Island of Blood box, which has been sitting aside for AGES (of Sigmar and the kind), unpainted, because I couldn't imagine ever making an entire army... But now, with Age of Sigmar, my 40 Clanrats, 2 Weapon Teams, Warlord, Engineer, Slaver and 2 Rat Ogres are a sizable skirmish army!

If everything goes well, I plan to get the Start Collecting Pestilens box, but use the two big things as a Warp Lightning Cannon and Screaming Bell, respectively, but, before that, I need to know how to Skaven.

I see some glaring issues with the Skaven; the kind that impedes an otherwise pretty badass army. I see low Bravery all over and few ways to mitigate that (beyond the Banner of the Horned Rat, which I'll TOTALLY be getting!). Another issue is the lack of a strong CC leader in the Warlord, which seems a bit lackluster, compared to, say, the Freeguard General, who can kick all kinds of ass. Lastly, Clanrats are, even with numerous buffs, sort of meh, even as Horde infantry.

So what do you do? I think I'll make one hell of a Clanrat blob, 40 vermin with Shields and Spears, and then supply them with sort of buff from the Warlord in the back, with the Banner providing some very useful Battleshock immunity. Later, when I get the Start Collecting pack, I'll add 20 Plague Monks and the Plague Priest, the Screaming Bell and the Warp Lightning Cannon as my main support.

What'cha all think? How do you Skaven? Is there ways for me to Skaven better?

keep in mind that leadership isn't as big of a deal as it was in the old days. for example, a blood warrior only has a 6 compared to a clanrats 4 so they are only going to lose 2 more rats than warriors on an even roll. granted thoug the warriors are a bit harder to kill
gone are the days of whole units running away so its easier to mitigate the loses from leadership by just taking bigger units.
on a side note... I love the IoB clanrats. they actually make pretty decent stormvermin which are a ton better than clanrats.
keep in mind that the banner you're looking at is on a legacy model so some comp systems may not like it. I'm not 100% sure but just something to consider.
my warlord is on a palanquin that I made a while back so I run him as a warlord of brood beast. good stuff
the standard warlord is actually not that bad. the +1 attack buff is nice and his combat skills are nothing to scoff at.
I forgot. don't forget that your warlord can use his alternate hero ability to make one unit immune to battleshock.
its useful too.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

gone are the days of whole units running away so its easier to mitigate the loses from leadership by just taking bigger units.

Also with bigger units one can get a "steadfast" bonus to the unit's bravery (+1 for every 10 models).

Rats run away - that is what they do, so don't mind too much when they scarper. Other than that, Clanrats are perfectly solid - for basic troops, there is nothing really wrong with them.

Consider getting yourself 20 Stormvermin, These guys, especially when combined with a Warlord, are just plain mean - they can easily clock two units of Stormcasts in one round of combat without blinking. Or a big monster. They ,may even give Archaon something to think about.

However, if you do go Stormvermin, just take one unit, and make sure you also take those 40 Clanrats, so people don't think you are just cherrypicking Get the Clanrats to absorb attacks (and watch them run) then clean up with the Stormvermin.

If you are interested, I can show you two battle reports where the Stormvermin pretty much win the game for the Skaven

http://trade.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Island-of-Blood-AoS-Warscrolls-Compendium.pdf There are formations for the IOB set.

gone are the days of whole units running away

I had a unit of 20 clanrats wiped out from 3 retributors in one turn though attacks and battleshock. It was kind of comical though lol.

Skaven shooting was bonkers powerful in 8th. And is still no joke in AoS. Before buying or making lists is recommendation taking get look at the formations and some are top notch. If you somehow can't find a pic online or someone to show you the formations you could pay the $2 on the AoS app to unlock battalions. But that's a fine army you are build-start and you should have much kill-victory!

Remember that your general will always have Inspiring Presence to give one unit battleshock immunity! Also, be sure to negotiate or use a comp that will appropriately value your troops; something like wounds count will screw you. Other than that the previous posts pretty much have it IMO.

 The Wise Dane wrote:
My group is about to begin to play some Age of Sigmar, after having checked it out a bit, and I'm going to join them with the minor horde I've had from the Island of Blood box, which has been sitting aside for AGES (of Sigmar and the kind), unpainted, because I couldn't imagine ever making an entire army... But now, with Age of Sigmar, my 40 Clanrats, 2 Weapon Teams, Warlord, Engineer, Slaver and 2 Rat Ogres are a sizable skirmish army!

If everything goes well, I plan to get the Start Collecting Pestilens box, but use the two big things as a Warp Lightning Cannon and Screaming Bell

You're living my dream! I have the IoB Skaven on sprue to one side and wanted to do exactly that with the Start Collecting box - maybe a project for 2020?

I am also thinking about doing some skaven, to go with my Daemons, mostly of the nurgle veriety with a bit of slaanesh. My question is: How would you all run Storm Fiends? I like the idea of 1x Grinder Fists+ 2x Rattling cannons, though with the formation a shockfist+2x Warpflame squad precision digging onto an enemy sounds sweet. Either way, I'm open to ideas.

 Bottle wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:
My group is about to begin to play some Age of Sigmar, after having checked it out a bit, and I'm going to join them with the minor horde I've had from the Island of Blood box, which has been sitting aside for AGES (of Sigmar and the kind), unpainted, because I couldn't imagine ever making an entire army... But now, with Age of Sigmar, my 40 Clanrats, 2 Weapon Teams, Warlord, Engineer, Slaver and 2 Rat Ogres are a sizable skirmish army!

If everything goes well, I plan to get the Start Collecting Pestilens box, but use the two big things as a Warp Lightning Cannon and Screaming Bell

You're living my dream! I have the IoB Skaven on sprue to one side and wanted to do exactly that with the Start Collecting box - maybe a project for 2020?

Let me just intimidate you by mentioning that I painted all my Clanrats over three days

I tried painting, but when you have the contents of 8 IoB box's its a tad intimidating :p

Skaven shooting is ace.
Ratling guns are plain evil, so are ratling storm fiends.

Jezzails aren't too bad either for removing characters that are buffing units.



Main points.

Grab distraction units to soak charges.
Take a ton of artillery and shooting.

The main idea is to whittle down units through shooting, then have storm vermin wipe them out.

Most units in any army aren't bad, but buffs make them solid.
You need to pick off the characters buffing them so it's easier to remove them.

I find jezzails are ace at picking off stray characters dumb enough to get close.


Most armies will also throw out a monster, its almost a given.
The hell out abomination is pretty damn good, but be careful what you charge at as even infantry can drag down huge monsters now.

I'm considering picking up the Pestilens starter box to go with my Nurgle Daemons starter, and possibly also picking up a Soul Grinder. Combined with a Daemon prince (prolly slaanesh or khorne, though nurgle could be fun) would I have a solid "Screw your big dude\Stormcasts" Set up (Plague Furnace+Sword Prince+Claw Grinder?)

 The Wise Dane wrote:

 Bottle wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:
My group is about to begin to play some Age of Sigmar, after having checked it out a bit, and I'm going to join them with the minor horde I've had from the Island of Blood box, which has been sitting aside for AGES (of Sigmar and the kind), unpainted, because I couldn't imagine ever making an entire army... But now, with Age of Sigmar, my 40 Clanrats, 2 Weapon Teams, Warlord, Engineer, Slaver and 2 Rat Ogres are a sizable skirmish army!

If everything goes well, I plan to get the Start Collecting Pestilens box, but use the two big things as a Warp Lightning Cannon and Screaming Bell

You're living my dream! I have the IoB Skaven on sprue to one side and wanted to do exactly that with the Start Collecting box - maybe a project for 2020?

Let me just intimidate you by mentioning that I painted all my Clanrats over three days

Oh my! I've not managed to paint 40 models this year yet...

 Bottle wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:

 Bottle wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:
My group is about to begin to play some Age of Sigmar, after having checked it out a bit, and I'm going to join them with the minor horde I've had from the Island of Blood box, which has been sitting aside for AGES (of Sigmar and the kind), unpainted, because I couldn't imagine ever making an entire army... But now, with Age of Sigmar, my 40 Clanrats, 2 Weapon Teams, Warlord, Engineer, Slaver and 2 Rat Ogres are a sizable skirmish army!

If everything goes well, I plan to get the Start Collecting Pestilens box, but use the two big things as a Warp Lightning Cannon and Screaming Bell

You're living my dream! I have the IoB Skaven on sprue to one side and wanted to do exactly that with the Start Collecting box - maybe a project for 2020?

Let me just intimidate you by mentioning that I painted all my Clanrats over three days

Oh my! I've not managed to paint 40 models this year yet...

But then again, you've got your hands full with your projects either way, so that takes some time out of the day

Usually I wouldn't paint this much either; I'm more of a 1 model, 100% attention kind of guy. My friends often lend me their models to paint, which is often heroes and the like, so I usually don't paint a lot either!

I've actually thought about making a Painting Blog with whatever I'm making at the moment, but I lack a proper lighting setup

My local club uses SCGT pool points.

For the 100 points you can get a Clan Skryre formation (I use Arkspark and Gautfyre Scorch) a Verminlord Deceiver and Thanquol.

It's a Mortal Wound spam list with about 17 points to spare using new point system. It practically guarantees first turn.

Archwarlock shields Thanquol.
Thanquol steal's Skitterleap jumps across.
A nearby Warlock shields Deceiver.
Deceiver Skitterleaps across.
Thanquol uses Scorch as Second spell (and 5th final spell as per SCGT rules)

Warpgrinder pops up near enemy, all other units (Stormfiends all have Warpfire Throwers).

As you might imagine the shooting phase is hilarious.
Thanquol doing 2D6 mortal wounds. Stormfiends plus WFT doing 7D3 mortal wounds. Deceiver (hopefully) hitting with Doomstar.

Whatever's left gets charged and locked in combat.

It's a filthy list!

 Swampmist wrote:
I am also thinking about doing some skaven, to go with my Daemons, mostly of the nurgle veriety with a bit of slaanesh. My question is: How would you all run Storm Fiends? I like the idea of 1x Grinder Fists+ 2x Rattling cannons, though with the formation a shockfist+2x Warpflame squad precision digging onto an enemy sounds sweet. Either way, I'm open to ideas.

Burn, baby, burn. Warpfire all the way.

So, I just picked up Iki...I mean the Archmagos (in metal) and metal a grinder team from one of the lgs near me, and am planning on getting the pestilens box. How good is using the grinder-team+Plague furnace? Is it too good, in fact? Or will people laugh as much as I will when imagining the thing hoping out of the tiny hole ?

 Swampmist wrote:
So, I just picked up Iki...I mean the Archmagos (in metal) and metal a grinder team from one of the lgs near me, and am planning on getting the pestilens box. How good is using the grinder-team+Plague furnace? Is it too good, in fact? Or will people laugh as much as I will when imagining the thing hoping out of the tiny hole ?

Well, I imagined the ground caving in, and the Furnace flipping up a ramp of dirt with a gigantic cloud of filth escaping the hole. Quite nightmarish, actually.

Also, that means the Grinder Team propably died. You should remove the model when drilling up

Skaven don't just dig holes in the ground, but can rend reality aswell. See how they laugh when the grinder teams tear the space, mid-air and the bell rolls out from the breach trampling them .

 The Wise Dane wrote:

 Swampmist wrote:
So, I just picked up Iki...I mean the Archmagos (in metal) and metal a grinder team from one of the lgs near me, and am planning on getting the pestilens box. How good is using the grinder-team+Plague furnace? Is it too good, in fact? Or will people laugh as much as I will when imagining the thing hoping out of the tiny hole ?

Well, I imagined the ground caving in, and the Furnace flipping up a ramp of dirt with a gigantic cloud of filth escaping the hole. Quite nightmarish, actually.

Also, that means the Grinder Team propably died. You should remove the model when drilling up

AAAAAnd now I can't stop imagining it doing a full front-flip out of the ground at a bajillion miles per hour and crunching a group of nurglings...

 Swampmist wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:

 Swampmist wrote:
So, I just picked up Iki...I mean the Archmagos (in metal) and metal a grinder team from one of the lgs near me, and am planning on getting the pestilens box. How good is using the grinder-team+Plague furnace? Is it too good, in fact? Or will people laugh as much as I will when imagining the thing hoping out of the tiny hole ?

Well, I imagined the ground caving in, and the Furnace flipping up a ramp of dirt with a gigantic cloud of filth escaping the hole. Quite nightmarish, actually.

Also, that means the Grinder Team propably died. You should remove the model when drilling up

AAAAAnd now I can't stop imagining it doing a full front-flip out of the ground at a bajillion miles per hour and crunching a group of nurglings...

Well that wasn't... Exactly what I had in mind...