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Hi all,

I recently found most of the skaven half of Island of Blood and a few random models that I had sitting in an old box so I have 15 clanrats with spears, 17 clanrats with hand weapons, a warplock engineer, a clawleader(?), and a master moulder(?), as well as 4 rat ogres, 2 more metal skaven lords, an old metal banner bearer, 2 ratling guns, the flamer team, and the poison wind mortar thing.

Is this enough of a start that building up a relatively decent force at 1250-1500pts or so wouldn't break the bank? I remember wanting to start skaven but being daunted by how they used to have to field literally hundreds of models but I've heard that now they can get away with just a few big blobs of 20-40 rats.

I'm fairly open to the different builds so long as they're affordable, although I'm more partial to clan skryre stuff aesthetically.

Here's what you have that I can confirm

Clawlord - 100pts
Clawlord - 100pts
Master Moulder - 100pts
Skaven Chieftain w/ Battle Standard - 140pts
Warlock Engineer - 110pts

I'd need specifics on the 'metal skaven lords' to tell you what they are now.

Clanrat unit, 20 models - 120pts
With 12 leftover. You have to take Clanrats in sets of 20, or 40 per unit. No inbetween cost, they're either 120pts for '20' or 200pts for 21-40 (Large unit discount, some units in AoS get a discount on cost for having maximum unit sizes)

Rat Ogres, x2 - 90pts
Rat Ogres, x2 - 90pts
Ratling Gun - 60pts
Ratling Gun - 60pts
Warpfire Thrower - 70pts

Poison Wind Mortar is no longer in the game, but you could Proxy/Count-As it for another Weapon Team. Anybody who complains about you doing that isn't worth playing against anyways.

What I have listed out for you, without the Poison Mortar or the unknwon 2 metal lords, gets you 1040pts, but it's an illegal list. Can't be played for Matched Play (same as it is in 40k, if you've played it. The 'structured' rules as oppposed to Open or Narritive play)

To be a legal list, you need 2 Battleline units at 1000pts or lower, or 3 battleline at 1001-2000pt games. Thats where most games happen.

Skaven Battleline can be tricky to understand for some people. At the baseline, your battleline units are Clanrats and Stormvermin.

If your army is entirely made up of Skryre models, with an optional Masterclan model, this changes your Battleline from Clanrats/Stormvermin to Stormfiends and Acolytes. There's different rules for each major Clan, but they all follow that same rule of replacing battleline.

On to the meat. If you want to play a Skryre army, going off of what you have right now, this is what I would make for 2k points.

2,000pts total
Warlock Engineer - 110pts
Warlock Bombadier - 120pts
Grey Seer - 140pts

Doomwheel -150pts
Hellpit Abomination - 220

Clanrats x20 - 120
Clanrats x20 - 120
Clanrats x20 - 120

Warp Lightning Cannon - 180pts
Warplock Jezzails x6 -280

Ratling gun -60pts
Ratling gun -60pts
Ratling gun -60pts - Proxy the Mortar, it's what I do too
Stormfiends x3 - 260pts

It's a lot to buy for sure, and most of the heroes don't get used, but that's just the name of the game with Skaven. They have so many things to use, choosing what to take and what to drop can be hard sometimes. This is for, if you want to go Skryre mainly. I play Skryre mostly myself, but I never, ever leave home without Clanrat Battleline. They're fantastic at what they do, holding objectives and tying the enemy up long enough so you can gun them down.


To start with, I'd suggest picking up two more Clan Rat boxes. That will cover your battleline requirements. 1250-1500pt games are pretty rare. I've only seen them played maybe once or twice. 1k or 2k is far more common.

Example 1k list - 980pts total
Warlock Engineer - 110
Warlock Bombadier - 120

Doomwheel - 150

Warp Lightning Cannon - 180

Clanrats x20 - 120
Clanrats x20 - 120

Ratling gun -60pts
Ratling gun -60pts
Ratling gun -60pts - Proxy the Mortar, it's what I do too.

Thanks for the detailed advice! Definitely a lot to build up to but it does seem doable. I'm glad that you don't have to spam hundreds of rats to have a viable Skaven list. I'm trying to get some of my friends interested in the game when the pandemic is over so I'm planning on building a 1K force to go up against my 1k seraphon list in an attempt to have a balanced starter without going stormcast versus nighthaunt.

Also, I noticed that the Clan Skyre Acolytes are only available at like $15 per model and they're taken in units of 5-20... but I also noticed that the plague monks from the start collecting box have suitable robes. I was thinking of trying to convert some by throwing backpacks on them and greenstuffing orbs or stick grenades for them, do you think people would be cool with that conversion for most games?

 TheArchmagos wrote:
Thanks for the detailed advice! Definitely a lot to build up to but it does seem doable. I'm glad that you don't have to spam hundreds of rats to have a viable Skaven list. I'm trying to get some of my friends interested in the game when the pandemic is over so I'm planning on building a 1K force to go up against my 1k seraphon list in an attempt to have a balanced starter without going stormcast versus nighthaunt.

Also, I noticed that the Clan Skyre Acolytes are only available at like $15 per model and they're taken in units of 5-20... but I also noticed that the plague monks from the start collecting box have suitable robes. I was thinking of trying to convert some by throwing backpacks on them and greenstuffing orbs or stick grenades for them, do you think people would be cool with that conversion for most games?

It would vary, but I would say absolutely! Thanks for the idea

Skryre acolytes are obscenely expensive. Like, even for GW's standard of high prices, thats pretty bad for old, metal models. That sort of kitbash has been done before, using Clanrats or Plague Monks, with greenstuffed orbs and sticks, such as the below spoiler



If you're someone who's not so creatively inclined in that direction, like myself, you can instead buy an alternate model. Lubart Miniatures sells their own offbrand minis that are similar to GW models, but with a bit more of a WW2 vibe going on with their Skaven-like models. I bought 2 packs of their "Vermin Swarm Grenadiers" for about 89 CAD, instead of having to pay 150 CAD for 10 Acolytes. I think the Grenadiers look better, too. It did take me a long time to get the minis I ordered however, and the resin was really easy to break. The delay was explained by an email saying they made an error and the limbs ended up being too thin. So, not all perfect from them, but the models are nice. And cost less.