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I want to use a clanrat heavy force but just can't wrap my head around their lackluster stats.
Any advice on making this happen?

If you want something in skaven that does damage, look anywhere except Clan Rats. Clan Rats ought to be used to stop the stuff that deals damage from dying.

If you want to do melee horde Skaven, look to Stormvermin as your damage dealers. Or, Clan Pestilens.

For buffing melee, you want;

Claw Lord for their +1 Attack Command Ability
Verminlord Warbringer, reroll hits of 1 and wounds of 1. And their spell, Dreaded Death Frenzy, to let models fight before they're slain.
Grey Seer with Death Frenzy spell. Same as Dreaded Death Frenzy. Both of those spells on the same unit do stack, letting models fight twice before death.

Grey Seer on Screaming bell would probably be the good choice instead of a foot seer, since it has a Battleshock immunity aura.

With the new army construction rules limiting unit size it should be noted that Clanrats are purchased in blocks of 20 models.

Ive just got sooo many. Seems a waste not to use them

60 clan rats runs you 390pts.

120 is 780. Even with a sizable horde of rats, you have a lot of points leftt to fill with support pieces and things that actually do damage.

Clan rats are great, even if they dont do damage. They don't have to do damage.

Grey Seer on Bell. Whatever quantity of Clanrat you enjoy. 40/20/20 is popular but you can run more.

The Kragnos book allows you to hide Weapon Teams within them and ruin your opponents day when they close the distance.

This is very powerful as the Bell makes them all Battleshock immune. Sprinkle in whatever else you like. Warp Lightning Cannons, Verminlords, the engineer dudes to further buff the weapon teams.

Whats the kragnos rule skaven got? I never got the book cause it didnt have anything for my armies I thought.

 Thadin wrote:
Whats the kragnos rule skaven got? I never got the book cause it didnt have anything for my armies I thought.

You can hide Weapon Teams in Clanrat/Stormvermin units like Assassins. Keeping them safe before jumping out and gunning/melting things.

There are also Moulder upgrades adding more value to Hellpits/Rat Ogres. Mutations that add wounds/improved saves or more attacks.

The important thing about Skaven is they get +1 to hit at 20+ models in a unit and +1 to wound at 30+ models.

With clanrats, you can take spears for a 2" weapon range (three 'ranks' of attacks) coupled with a wide formation one can reasonably get ~30 models in range.

An unsupported min-size unit is doing ~20 attacks at 4+/4+ and that amounts to 5 damage before saves.

But a 40-man unit is doing ~30 attacks at 4+/3+ which is 10 damage before saves; despite having a good portion of the unit out of combat the damage is still similar to what two 20-man units would be doing.

But why not just run those two 20-man units? Casualties. Kill 1 clanrat off a 20-man and it loses the hit buff; that 5 damage drops to 3.2 from just losing ONE guy. But the 40-man unit can lose 10 guys and its damage output is the same.

Also, one big unit can be hit by the clawlord's command ability all at once to double their offense and is one pick to fight. With two smaller units, one fights then the opponent gets a chance to swing back before the other does; an ideal opportunity to kill the one dude required to nerf offense.

A 40-man spear blob with the warlord buff is 20 damage before saves, which is not super offensive but nothing to sneeze at either. That will put 10 wounds on 4+ save infantry, knock a KO frigate down enough that it can't fly high, or kill most 5+ save monsters in one go. And they can still do it after losing 10 rats. And chances are they outnumber the opponent (for objectives) to boot. And they fill battleline. For 365 points including the clawlord, who gets a free command trait from allegiance and can fight quite well himself (or retreat in the combat phase if he doesn't want to).

That's the true strength of clanrats; not what they do but how little points they cost to do it.