TACTICS

I've been playing Skaven for a while now, and I'd liek to think that over time Ive come uppon some unique ways to shred the enemy to bits.

I play an agressive style, that reflects the old philosophy that the Skaven must charge or be whiped out by war machine fire and bow shots.
While I have found that this is not true, it makes for far less risky tactics, and give a greater sense of certaninty to your plans.

However a blind charge is not my advice. Usualy I hold very intricate formations with my troops.

In almost all of my strategies I try to Trap the enemy with flank charges, and then trample them with a large heavey hitting unit.

So, with out Further adoo, here is my "General Tactics section".

When the Enemy is packin'
Contrary to popular sentiment, I do not believe that the Skaven's major weakness is thier leadership. As long as there are at least 16 modles in the unit, they will have no problems passing morale checks.
Also, dont really fet getting shot at. 50 arrows will rearely kill more than 5 skaven, then take into account that there are more than 50 soldiers in the unit, and its not a big deal.

If you are still warry about an important unit getting too shot up, just put the ruby chalice in it, then no one will be shooting it up too badly. Plus it makes them even more of a monster in combat.

Here is my usual formula to avoid loosing too much to missle fire. Have a very large unit of clan rats. You could try a large unit of slaves, but as soon as the enemy finds out that they are just slaves they wont shoot at them anymore (besides, slaves are much more useful in otherways than getting shot at). Anyway, a large unit of clan rats, 60 or more (having a smaller unit wont hurt you too much, so dont worry if you can only field 30 or 40), with the ruby chalice can withstand alot of missle abuse, and stil pack an earth cracking whalop in Hand to hand combat. Now with that large presence of Clan Rats, place several smaller units of elite troops, 16 plague monks, 25 Storm Vermin, a couple of small rat ogre packs and what ever else you need, but keep them smaller, with narrow froantages of 5 or 6 and no more than 5 ranks.

With this type of strategy the enemy will fire with futility into the main block trying to cut down thier numbers and save thier butts, while these smaller units of elites sneak up on the sides and deliver the wrath of the Horned one. Even if they shoot at the smaller units, they may chase one, and if they're lucky two away, but the key to using small units effectively, is the same as using anythign in the skaven army effectively,
HAVE LOTS OF THEM!!!

Covering Your Ass
Shooting and leadership arent the weaknesses of the Skaven. In fact just because you cant do something doesnt mean that its your weakness. The Skaven do have a weakness, in fact they have three really big ones.

The first is fast hard hitting units. Cavalry is what Im talking about. When fighting cavlry, NEVER put your best foot forward, because kinghts with lances will always win combat aginst you if you get charged. Its never happened that Charging knights failed to kill at least 10 skaven, against me, and that is always more than enough to scare my Skaven off.

In order to effectively comabat cavalry, you'll need to be a little craft. Set a trap for them. March your large battle line up at uniform speed. Always keep a unit of at least 2 rat ogres, or 16 slaves on each flank. Out side of that have smal units of manuverable elite troops (gutter runners, plague monks, and storm vermin) to deal with other threats and gaurd the flanks better.

Anyway, when the main cavalry unit starts to get close, IE if they can presumeabley charge you the next turn, DO NOT advance the main block. Merely manuver the flanking units of Slaves or Orges so that they will catch the charge instead of the main block. Make sure they will hold the enemy within the charge range of the main block. Then, when the cavalry charges, have the screening units flee as thier charge reaction. If they are set at the righ angle during your preceeding movement phase (which is why these units need to be small so that they can move into position and at the correct angle in one turn) they will flee from in front of the main skaven battle line in the next movement phase and leave the big heavy cavalry unit expose to a devistation charge. Try to get as many character modles into contact with the knights (so that they can punch throguh thier armor) and the heavy cavlary, if they're lucky, will run away. If they don't, the high initiative of the Skaven will alow you to kill even more of them int he next hand to hand combat phase.. Against an army like Chaos, or Brettonia, eliminating thier cavalry will destroy the ultra point heavy core of thier army, and give you an easy road to victory

Also, before you engauge them, make sure to shoot as many as you can with Jezzails. Remeber, a unit needs to hav at least 25% of its original members to rally.

The second big weakness is big units of skirmishers. Flank Charges will totaly throw you off. After all, your basic clan rat is a respectable fighter, but they need the massive casualties that characters inflict to win combat.

You really dont want to get hung up fighting a skirmishing unit of 40+ skinks from the flank. There are three solutions to this problem. The first is to put out some gutter runners and have them do their destructive magic (when aided by assassins) at the beginging of the battle. Most skirmishers (not including high elf shadow warriors) are not very hard hitters or damage takers. The second is the have some Rat Ogres on you flanks. Rat ogres can stand to be charged by weak little skirmishers and still fight back, and also win comabt by by right of strength. Its not a diffictult manuver to pull off. The third is pretty obvious, try to cast plague on them. As with most troop types this spell will anhialate them.

Ok, now your flanks are safe, and the thunderous charge of knights is nullified, lets tackle the last weakness of the Skaven, big assed, super powewrful, god-demons. There are two types of these beasts, ones that fly, and ones that don't.

If it flys, it will nvariably come down to attack either your jezzails or your general. If its decides to atack the Jezzails, it might be worth getting a champion with the sword of fortitude to keep terror from scaring them off. With terror taken care of, no matter where it lands you will be abl to shoot at it at least once. If it lands behind or on the flank, do an about face and point all every barrel down the roaring beast's throat, when t charges, stand and fire.  If it comes from the front, jsut stand and fire. Just about any pegasus, griffon, or other monster will get hurt really bad from this exercise, and you might weaken a demon, which is usualy more than you would have asked for anyway.

So, if it comes down on the main unit try to have the talisman of ravens dark and something that will increase your combat score. That way your precious general will never be knocked off by a crusading Knight on a Pegasus/dragon/prostitute.

If it doent fly, try to get your poisoned wind globadiers on it. If I know Im fighting a Slaan mage preist I always bring a unit of 6 or so poisoned wind globadiers. They usualy will kill what ever they target, and even if they dont, they'll invariably weaken it to a point that your characters can pick it off with less than exoritant magic items.

If you cant gas it, always try to charge it, put a rat pack on it till you can charge it or something, but have confidence in your combat skills. Seriously, they rock, I'd choose Skaven stats over any other races (considering points as a stat)

The Egg Nog Shit That'll Break They's Necks

Ok, enough about covering up the weaknesses of the Skaven, now its time to exploit thier strenghts.

The Skaven are probably one of the most laughed at races in Warhammer. People who have never played with them or against them just assume that everything that they have will
missfire and all thier plans will always collapse

ontop of them. This is the first strength of the Skaven. Most opponents will just mark you off as an easy victory and put a less than perfectly tweaked army and strategy on the table.

Ok, before I go any further, I want to make this disclaimer. I have been playing for 6 years, and through that course of time I have been able to slowly cultivate my army. Now-a-days its really freakin' hudge, so I have alot of selection. But I will try to give applicable advise for those who have only been playing a year or so. I remember being a newbie, and loking for strategy on the net and everything that wasn't already in the book  required 5 doomwheels, 200 slaves, 3 vermin lords, and a six figure income to pull off, and it really pissed me unmercifully. However, should you see that a strategy that is an ultra (money) expensive one, just e-mail me at weetsy@hotmail.com and I will re-work it for you so that even your fledgeling clan can execute it.

Ok, so here's the skinny. My favorite unit are gutter-runers. I have never played a game where they didn't serve me well. They are supreme beasts in hand to hand comabt, and are well worth thier high point cost. There's only one point to consider when using them, who to atack. Seriously, I wouldnt use them in every battle. They're better for chasing off large units of weak troops, and neutralising light cavalry and war machines early int he game. Never use them against chaos, and be careful where you put them versus Elves and Brettonia. While getting them to distract a big character of unit of cavalry would be well worth thier points, you could get way more out of them by locking up a massive unit of foot troops for three or more turns.They can do mega damage to weak troops, especialy when they have assassins on thier side. Plus, you never need more than 8 to 10 models to do heaps of havoc.

Next in line are Rat Ogres. Rat Ogres are probably the most versitle part of the Skaven army. I never leave the clan hold with less that four of them. However, back in the day, two was always more than enough to get what I needed them to do done. They serve so many purposes. They have great psychological value onthe enemy. A large group of them will completely re-direct the movemetn of the opposing army (as they all turn to combat the giant foes). Also, their presence will draw alot of missle fire off of your less tough units. Its great to watch 45 arrows hit them and then they take only 3 wounds. Most arrows will only woud them on a 6, so they can take ALOT of abuse. However, they are best on the flank positions of the main unit. From there they can gaurd agianst skirmishers, trap fast moving cavalry units, and also help to over take especialy strong opponents. All in all, they have saved my butt countless times, and are the most cared for modles in my collection.

Jezzails are a nice dependable area of your force. They're mildly effective, so when there are more than one unit of cavalry thundering down the battle field, just let loose a few shells and watch those proud silverey night armor run red with blood as thier horses turn and flee under the spooky rain of carnage. Plus, if some one has the balls to but down a pig monster, chariot, or something else, just use the Jezzails to bitch slap them till they pack it up and go home.

Plague cencer bearers... wow.... how much more destructive can one unit be. The liquify just about everything they encounter. No human, elf, skink, or goblin is safe when these cazy mother fuckers show up to the battle. They're kinda like the sharp pain that the opposition feels after the rest of the clan has them bent over a saw horse.. In a sinch, they can take a charge from heavey human and elfe cavalry easily, because their fume ALWAYS strike first, and with a low toughness like humans and elves (and especialy skink cold one riders) have they're gonna get whipped harder than Marve Albert on payday.  After the fumes then you've got to worry about their strength six atacks, hatred, frenzy, and all that If only they had two wounds there would be no reason skaven would not rule the human world already...

Storm Vermin, these are the biggest joke in the Army. Sure, they're the pamperd uber-rats, but when it comes down to it, they've rarely seen and action under my command, as it makes way more sense to castdeath frenzy on a 60 member unit of clan rats than 25 storm vermin. Then the clan rats rush forward, shred the opposition, and the Storm Vermin are all they way accross the battle field, just chillin' I usualy bring them only for a sense of completion. They're too expensive and not anywhere numerous enough  to fit into the bulk of Skaven strategy.

Plague monks.. Also vey Effecive. Bring these dude for no reason other than the fact that you have to have them to have Plague Cencer Bearers.  Also, if they see combat, you'll be happy you brought them, they're tough, they're fast, and they get wads of attacks. The perfect way to fill in gaps in your ranks with some death dealing  cazies.

Monsters... Ok, this is a pretty unorthodox way to play. However,  the skaven monster list has two really awsome things. Rat swarms and Harpies. Harpies area great way to lay the smack down on war machines, and just a few of them make the perfect screen for your big units. However, they arent rats, and I rarely use them out of a sense of rat-racial purity. Rat swarms though can do the same thing, as that they wont break, and can stay infront of the main unit. However, since they all have to be put together into one unit, you cant have them all over the place.

Assassins are good additon to any unit that can have them. They can pull you out of tricky situations, and really drive up your combat bonus by taking on characters and freeing your Characters to take on the rank and file of the opposing force.

Warpfire throwers are very hard to use, as the units they are atached to raresly stop moving. However, they really are worth bringing just in case you get caught in combat for more than one turn. I've never had one missfire on me. They arent spectacular, but they do serve a good purpose when you need them.

The doomwheel makes me drool when I think about it. A low point cost carnage machine. It's a hand to hand combat monstrocity, and also it can blast near-by individual models with a possible strength ten, and d6 wounds AND no armor saves. Also, if the pilot gets killed, then the game get real fun, and the Skaveney things start to happen.... random movement and discharges... pure fun. A doomwheel can easily dominate an entire quarter of the table by itself.If you have one, there is no reason to ever not bring it to battle... and if you have two, brign them both... and then three oh my, what fun!!!

BONG! BONG! BANG!!! put a twist of randomocity into the battle with the screaming bell. What is more Skaveney than the big brass bell? Unpredictable, and more fun than lethal. Sometiems it will frenzy you, or make the enemy automaticaly fear you. but most of the time it just blows shit up, which makes the game more fun for every one. Also, it give the grey seer some pretty cool protections from hostile magics, a spare magic card each turn, and make the unit more beastly in combat.

The Vermin Lord isnt worth it. There are too many things that kill deamons easier than goblins out there. He's got some nice stats, but I assure you, as soon as yo uput him on the table, down will come a hero on a pegasus. With all kinds of magic dildos to ram into him. A Grey Seer for most purposes is just as good, and plus he's not as much of a trophy kill as a big assed demon... he's just a rat.

Characters

My armies tend be a little character heavey, but the cheapness of the troops tends to compensate. However, I would say its always good to hav a champion and something else in every non-elite unit, jsut for the sake of adding bite to combat. For Plague monks a plague priest is nice... they are really destructive. Bring a Grey Seer if you can, they're a great "Spare General", also, a Warlock Master is always a good thing to think about, as they have a base LD of 7. Always ive the skaven brew to a Champion. That makes sure that the other more deadly characters have plenty of room for destructive weapons.

Items

Here's some of my favorite magic items
Dwarf Gouger- Its great to punch through armor. So if you're fighting Knights, bring it. It will give them a nice suprise when thier armor doesnt work so well anymore.
Bands of Power- IT doubles your strenght, and its not a sword, so you can use other weapons (like the dwarf gouger or the weeping blade) with it. If you put the weeping blade on a streght 8 (doubled character) It will wound most non-super characters automaticaly.
Flail of Skulls- 30 poitns +2 Strength, doubled wounds, its a great buy

One Final word- If you're pressed for points, you can usualy sub in a flail for a magic weapon. It gives a really nice strength bonus, and its only 2 points.

Check out my Warlord Clan's History.

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