One of the things that enamoured me to the skaven when I first
started to think seriously about playing them was the fact that the army book was written
by Andy Chambers himself. This was the man who had played Skaven in the various GW Studio
campaigns and he was effectively writting the rules for his own favourite race. And people
wonder why Skaven armies are so damm good!!!!!!
In fact Andy has written a lot of this article already with his
excellent tretise on Skaven tactics included in the Skaven Army Book. Following these
tactics gives a Skaven player a nice starting point especially as Andy continually
mentions the biggest tactic that Skaven players should use, that of large units. Large
units give you two big advantages that you as a Skaven Player should be exploiting to the
full. Large units give you those rank bonuses that you'll need to win combats against
harder troops and will also increase your basic rats leadership to a respectable value -
all without increasing your troops basic points cost. Huzzah
What follows is the tactics that I have evolved after 4 years of
playing Skaven. Hope you find them useful.
Based on an article by Tuomas Pirinen (Yes the bloke from GW)
Skaven are a very interesting case. In straight hand to hand, they
have advantage over the closest thing, the Humans, since their I and M are better,
allowing them to charge and strike first. But Leadership 5, inability to use cavalry and
the lack of missile troops swing the balance in the favor of Humans. Then again, Skaven
cost just 4.5 points... just cheap enough to get the special WHFB discount of 50 per cent
on equipment! The one thing that always holds true about the Skaven is that you've got to
have lots of them. The bigger their units are, the better. This way you can increase their
Leadership to a more acceptable level.
Characters
Plague Priests are good close-combat monster! Get them while they are frenzied! Only
73 points! Plaque priests are very good value for the points, and it is a rare day that I
leave my Clanhold without one. I often give him a Blade of Darting Steel (automatic hits)
against the Elves and the like who have low toughness and armor save, or Ogre Blade (+2 S)
against Chaos or such. For extra magical power, equip him with the Liber Bubonicus and
grab those Nurgle spells.
One of the most powerful characters in WHFB, Vermin Lords are truly powerful but also a
bit problematic. They are pretty cheap compared to most Greater Daemons, but that 600
points comes out of your Character allowance...
One good trick is to put Vermin Lord in to a unit of Rat Ogres. This gives him a
protection against missiles and War Machines, and he can't be picked out as target for
missile fire. The merits of the Vermin Lord also include it's magical powers. It has an
access to the Dark Magic deck, and in larger games this is a Good Thing since Skaven have
only one deck available to them without Crown of Sorcery or such. Against Chaos he is
almost essential since he can beat up practically anybody except the Bloodthirster, and
Chaos lacks the War Machines that are very dangerous to this rat. However as he is a
character he CAN be challenged so watch out for this.
Grey Seers are your best wizards, and your rats can be served with a Screaming Bell side
order. Grey Seers are as powerful warriors as your General, just as good leaders, have
greater resilience and the ability to use some of the best Skaven spells. Thus it is no
wonder that I always include one in my army. Very often I don't buy anything
combat-orientated to my wizards, but Grey Seers are an exception and quite often get at
least Warpstone Armor or Black Amulet for protection. Their only negative side is that
they are truly expensive.
Regiments
Stormvermin are a problematical unit. On the other hand, they are much better warriors
than almost any other unit of rats, but their high point cost is un-Skavenish. Since IMHO
there is no sense cutting the corners with a Skaven unit, a small unit is out of the
question. I have two answers.
Simply drop some of the auxiliary troops and take a large regiment of the Stormvermin as
your core unit. The Ruby Chalice is probably a good buy against opponents with lots of
missile weapons, since -2 to shoot is something that bothers even the Elves. Put all the
usual Skaven paraphernalia of Screaming Bells, Warlords and assassins with this unit, plus
perhaps the Black amulet and Banner of Might, and off you go.
Buy some 20 Stormvermin to act as a bait for enemy missile fire. It
is not a very good option against armies with very powerful missile weapons, but if your
Undead opponent targets your Stormvermin instead of your main unit of Clanrats with his
Skull Chukers as he is bound to do, it might save you. In this devious tactic, don't buy
stormvermin any additional equipment (except perhaps halberds) to keep the cost low.
Deploy as narrow and deep unit as possible to keep the leadership value as high as
possible. This is a risky option, but sometimes worth it.
For their core unit, many people use the clanrats with spears since A) they are cheap B)
with spears your rats might even get a chance to fight back! Since they are very cheap,
you often find that you have points for an additional unit that might be worth it just to
draw missile fire and transport assassins, globadiers and a Warpfire thrower. Unit sizes
should start at 30-40, and can go up to infinity.
Weak, weaker, Skavenslave, but don't ignore them! They are cannon fodder par excellence!
If you are playing on a battlefield with relatively few hills, you'll do well by using
slaves as living shields against the enemy missile fire. If your opponent has a nasty
habit of using frenzied troops, you can use slaves to take the charges of these very
dangerous things. With a Crown of Command and 40+ slaves you can lock that Khornate knight
unit in a futile and endless combat.
If there ever was a good troop type, it's plague censer bearers. 2 attacks, re-rolls on
the first turn, hard to hit, weapon skill 4, leadership 10 for break tests, and the poison
wind effect, all at 15 points! Try to find toughest possible target for them. On the first
round of their charge the Cencer Bearers always cause immense damage, and even after that
they tie the enemy up because of their hatred, and the fact that they are toughness 4
troops and thus very hard to hurt. They are very useful for their brother Plague Monk's
also, since they can act as a missile shield as they are -2 to hit. The one problem is to
get the unit size right since otherwise they get in each others way an possibly poison
themselves. 12 should serve you well. As a final word, don't ever forget these troops!
They are IMHO an essential part of any Skaven army.
As they give access to Plaque Priests, Censer Bearers and additional magic standard, I
always field at least one unit of Plague Monks. With toughness of 4, they can take quite a
lot of punishment from missile fire, and it partially offsets their low armor save. I
always give them additional hand weapons, and if facing somebody with regular bows, like
Wood Elves, I consider giving them light armor.
The other more esoteric troop types should be used in moderation. If you want to see what
Tomuas says about them then just read his article
Warmachines
When Warpfire Throwers work they are deadly to extreme. Remember that the crew have
heavy armor! That 5+ armor save has helped me time and again. If used as their own units
(You must be very brave or stupid to do this since they have leadership of 5) keep them
away from the rest of your troops! They have the worst misfires in the whole game! I
recommend using them attached to units.
If you regularly fight against Chaos and other armies with little or no missile power and
dangerous hand to hand troops, a Doomwheel is almost essential. It is one of the few
things in Skaven army that can operate alone, for the Warlock Engineer driving it has a
leadership of 10! Obviously too much warpstone snuff.
It is a good idea to keep the Doomwheel on a hill in the beginning of the game since it
gains extra impetus when it rolls down the slopes. Don't forget that the Engineer wears
heavy armor! This has saved my hide now and then.
Jezzails are one of the few long-ranged Skaven weapons. The trouble is that their
leadership 5 causes them to run away practically every time there is a panic test to take.
They are also uncommonly expensive rats. They have ballistic skill of only 3 so you
generally hit with 5+ on D6. Because of this, choose your targets! Go for knights, ogres,
chariots and such. Because of their strength of 5 and D3 wounds you can hurt almost
anything badly. I recommend targeting anything larger than 10' since you gain +1 to hit
bonus. Don't over rely on them! They are too expensive to compensate for your lack of
bowmen.
As a package, Screaming Bell is cheap. It charges as a chariot, has 4+ dispel, makes the
Grey Seer and the Bell Slave immune to psychology and gives them hatred, grants you one
extra magic card, plus gives you the random powers of the Bell itself! On the other hand,
it slows down the regiment pushing it, can be targeted with missile weapons, may explode
if strung with too high note and becomes a prime target for the enemy. I wouldn't field it
against Elves or such since it is far too easy to lose your invaluable Grey Seer, and even
the loss of the Striker is a sad blow. It might be a good idea to give the Grey Seer a
Warpstone armor when he is riding Screaming Bell. Recommended against assault armies like
Chaos.
Monsters
I avoid mounting Skaven characters on monsters since they often become the prime
targets for enemy missile fire. The problems are even greater if you send your Warlord or
Grey Seer to face the enemy alone. The low leadership of the Skaven Characters will
probably be the death of you.
A powerful monster might be able to swing the balance to your favor in hand to hand, and
without rider it doesn't eat up your character allowance.
Rat Swarms are the best buy on this list. They are cheap, but above all, they are immune
to psychology and break tests. There is a unit you don't want to fight? Send couple of
swarms to bug it down!
Special Characters
If you want good value for points, choose Thanquol. He is accompanied by extra-strong
rat-ogre, is able to re-roll warpstone tests, and costs only little more than normal Grey
Seer. Since he replaces the general you can save couple of points in smaller battles. In
bigger ones, you must use Special characters to field Skaven Lords with Thanquol. He is
pretty good if you feel you must take risks since his Special Blessing from the Horned Rat
that shifts wounds suffered by him to other Skaven. Just remember to keep him with units
or near them!
Need to kill somebody? Lord Skrolk is your rat. With 8 attacks while frenzied and one of
the deadliest weapons in the game, Lord Skrolk really send shivers up your opponent's
spine. He is actually pretty good against big monsters since they don't wear magical
armor, and they will die on a roll of 6 on D6 regardless of their toughness. While he is
expensive, I consider him every time when my Stormvermin start pressing Clanrats into
service.
I like Ikit very much since he can take his spells from any spell deck, overcoming the
normal Skaven problem of limited choice of magic. He is actually pretty tough in hand to
hand and is immune to psychology and rout tests. He also can act as an extra poison wind
globadier from the middle of the unit if you don't fancy your chances in hand to hand, and
besides he is not even that expensive.
On the down side, he has to take the Storm-Daemon, which is a good weapon but the wizards
really need those power scrolls and such. He also replaces your general and forces you to
field 25 per cent of your points as war machines. I've seen him defeat the Undead and the
Chaos very handily with High Magic Spells.
As he always acts as a general, try to keep him alive. He is actually extremely good at
leading army because of his unheard of leadership of 9! He really puts some backbone to
your army's morale.
Throt the Unclean can act as a extra-strong packmaster that your opponents fear since he
tends to snap their necks with his Man-Catcher. Typically dirty trick is to give him a
Sword of Swift Slaying that can really shock your opponents. A good place for extra
points, but not essential.
Deathmaster Snikch is one of my answers for too powerful characters, the Deathmaster will
put fear of the Horned Rat into the hearts of your opponents. Give him the Black Amulet
and put him on the orders of terminating everything non-Skaven. All in all, I can't
recommend him highly enough. There is almost no easy way to take the Deathmaster on.
Against the Dwarfs and Orcs and Goblins, I try to always include Queek Headtaker. Mind
you, a Chaos Lord will usually have him for lunch in challenge match, and you might need
that Warpstone Armor somewhere else. Remember that in a challenge match against Dwarfs he
wounds automatically since he gets +1 to wound rolls and the Dwarf-Gouger wounds Dwarfs on
2+!
Magic Items
Skaven have access some of the best magic items in whole game, so read the Skaven book
thoroughly. Crown of Command is compulsory, don't even think of not taking it. The only
problem is where to put it. Weeping Blade is one of the most point cost effective things
you can get and should always be a high priority. Warpstone Armor is good, since it can
give an unmodified save even to the wizards of your army. Since your army generally
includes large units, a things like Skavenbrew work very well.
Because it is very, very hard to rally fleeing Skaven, the Horn of Urgok is a good buy.
Also, since you don't want to roll against that lousy leadership of yours, you should
consider Sword of Fortitude.
According to GWUK all weapons that include warpstone are classified as magical.
Lets face it, Dwarfs are hard to beat whatever army you are fighting
them with. They have hard infantry with high armour saving throws that your rats will have
a difficult time hurting. They have the best magic items in the game and can include a
standard that means that you are never going to get any spells off. Finally they have all
that accursed artillery that can blow your big units to smithereens even before you get
close enough to hit the short little buggers.
So what can you do???
Well fortunately the children of the horned one have some useful
little tricks of their own that can send even the most powerful dwarf force crashing to
its doom, and here they are
 | Globadiers are excellent at killing dwarf troops. All that heavy armour doesn't help you diddly when you get a whiff of warpstone gas. On the same lines Censor Bearers are also excellent at killing dwarfs, not only do they get the gas but also have 2 Str 6 attacks in the first round. Not to shabby!!! |
| Use Harpies and Gutter Runners to kill off those pesky Warmachines. All you need to do is stop them firing for 1 maybe 2 rounds and then you'll be in combat. Jezzails are also good at shooting machines though if you opponent has a Throne of Power shoot that instead. |
| Take big units. This way you can absorb those missile casualties and still keep your bonuses intact. Put Assassins in these units because they can kill dwarf heros easily. |
| Cast as much magic as you can. Your opponent will fail his throws eventually and then you can blast him. |
| Engage Troll Slayers with Rat Swarms. Nothing annoys a dwarf player more than to see his unbreakable troops locked in combat with another unit of unbreakable troops, especially if he has put a Giantslayer or higher in the unit. |
| Finally don't panic. When your playing against a dwarf army you often see your units take massive casualties in the early turns. Don't worry about this because once you get into Hand to Hand you'll be able to bring your superior numbers to play and kick stunty butt. |
There is no army that I like facing more than a Chaos Army. Like you they have to get into hand to hand to do any damage so again like you they will be charging across the battlefield as fast as they can. The most scary thing about Chaos Armies is the characters. They tend to be very tough and well equiped with magic equipment. However with the advent of Arcane Mgic and Cronicles of War there are many items that have been designed to eliminate charactrers such as these, most noteable amongst these is the Black Gem of Gnar, a lovely little item.
Here are a few interesting stratagies to try out on Chaos Troops
| Dragon Ogres. If you hit them with Warp Lightning, either from Storm Deamon or via the spell they become frenzied. Bugger you think frenzying dragon ogres. But frenzy means that they must charge the nearest troops and this means that you can tie them up with a big slave block for the whole game. |
| Chaos Characters are immensly powerful. They tend however to wander about on their own, confident of their invunrability. Queek with the Amulet of Power and the Boots of Flight should be able to destroy most of them in a challenge. Remember that Khorne Champions are only frenzied if they were within their charge range at the beginning of their turn. Careful manouvering should enable you to take them on in an unfrenzied state and give you a far better chance of killing them. |
| Remember to use your warpfire throwers on beastmen. Those 2 wounds won't help them as much as it does against bows. |
| As with dwarfs all those heavy 80 point Chaos Knights are well vunerable to Globadiers |
This is the worst army to fight with Skaven in my opinion. Why? Because they neutralise the biggest advantage that you have, that of numbers. Most of the losses that my armies have sustained have been against O & G forces. I can't really offer decent tactics against this foe apart from kill the leaders. O & G rely on their leaders even more than you do so if you kill them they will flee.