Editing Warhammer Army Project/Skaven (section)

===Lords & Heroes===
====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth. Among Skaven, this is doubly true, since one of the main advantages of Skaven characters is how cheap they are.

* '''[[Thanquol|Thanquol and Boneripper]]:''' 320/480pts. Do you want your army led by a drugged up failure with his mechanical bodyguard? Okay, so that's kinda mean, but he's not bad. He comes with some amusing special rules (his Ward Save deflecting onto a nearby model is funny, as is his kinda janky wound regeneration) and Boneripper can be nasty but like Skrolk, he costs way too much to be properly competitive (60 more than a vanilla Seer on a Bell when you take Boneripper classic). So he's non-competitive, but if you wanna take him for fluff reasons, he's an amusing addition. Keep him out of Tournament lists.
**'''Boneripper Mark II:''' If you spend 105 more points, you can upgrade your Boneripper into his End Times iteration, complete with Thanquol riding on top. This adds +1 to S, W, and A and also turns that one Warpfire Thrower into FOUR (Okay, it's really two with re-rolls to wound). These can also be replaced with Warpfire Braziers, huge fists that act like plague censers. While this makes Thanquol much more of a threat, he becomes an equally bigger target as Boneripper is now a Monster and still suffers from 1 Initiative.

* '''[[Skreech Verminking|Lord Skreech Verminking]]:''' 470pts. The greatest Vermin Lord and the avatar of the Horned Rat. Quite powerful in combat, being able to switch between ASF dagger and Multiple Wounds Doomglaive every turn, but that's not why you take this beauty. Being the biggest dick in a race of dicks, Skreech can take from the Lore of Ruin, Plague, and Stealth and always knows Curse of the Horned Rat (aka the Diet Dreaded Thirteenth) and CAN. REROLL. DICE. WHEN. CASTING. IT.  That said he has his downsides, it's very hard to cast and you're running the risk of cascading your 470 point monster in regular magic.  Like every other vermin lord, he is expensive, has no armour and only a 5+ ward, slow(8") with no flying, and unable to skitter leap himself. Still, he can be incredibly fun (and frustrating - for enemies) in casual games, and face it, you didn't pick up Skaven for boring reliability.

* '''[[Queek Head-Taker]]:''' 225pts. He's a reliable combat character, and unlike many Skaven heroes/lords, he can punch out other lords in a Challenge. He can be truly brutal against high armour save guys, which is always nice. If you're tailoring a list to take on Dwarves, definitely give this guy a look. Compared to 7th/8th he lost an attack & a point in armour for a 5+ ward and the ability to play nicely with Grey Seers & screaming bells. Fortunately, his Red Guard is only 2pts extra a model and just has +1S. 

*'''[[Spinetail]], Warlord of [[Clan Klaw]]:''' 160pts. comes out of [[Island of Blood]]. Fare Cheaper than Queek, Spinetail is a melee lord Practically Duelweading two Blade of Corruptions. He will roll off against an enemy character to see if they get strangled by his tail, and most importantly, rerolls wound roll of 1 for his unit. He can easily fit in small games and makes any Stormvermin or Clanrats with spears he leads dangerous.

*'''[[Nurglitch]]:''' 425pts. The true lord of Clan Pestilens rides atop a rat with a censer-flailing caddy. He's also a serious benefit for a Pestilens army since he not only renders his unit immune to Skaven and Nurgle spells but also renders them immune to their own plague censers. His unit also becomes permanently frenzied and gains hatred, while he himself grants an aura of -1 WS to non-Pestilens units and an immediate armor-negating S4 hit to anyone in b2b, which is separate from his staff's bound spell that can instantly wound someone on a 6, making it epic on mobs. 

* '''[[Lord Skrolk]]:''' Sadly no longer makes Plague Monks core. Seriously, that's the ONLY thing that justifies his inhumanly high entry cost of 385pts (165 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer). He comes with some fun abilities and magic items, but even they can probably be outdone for less cost (Liber Bubonicus would be more fun if it weren't for the current rules on Bound Spells and it's 1 in 6 chance of going dud when cast). Ultimately he's too pricey. If you're planning on taking a lot of Plague Monks, he can justify his points, but otherwise? Skip him.

*'''[[Morbus Sanguis]]:''' 230pts. Creator of the Yellow Death. He is not well-liked by his unit as his fear and -1 to hit penalties also affect his own unit, and he has a great weapon version of a Plague Censer. His more useful trick is upgrading a Plague Rats unit to Ws4 and S2. Now those swarms hit most units on 4s and wound Common T3 on +3s. Now getting fairly dangerous.

* '''[[Throt the Unclean]]:''' 175pts. Throt could be useful if you're planning on massing Rat Ogres and Giant Rats, in which case he acts as a general even when he isn't. But he's expensive (185 points), and while he can be nasty in close combat, especially against big things, but he's more than a little likely to eat an entire model from your own unit (including killing that Rat Ogre you really wanted to make one last round of attacks before going down). 

* '''[[Ikit Claw]]:''' 310pts. [[Warhammer 40,000|Wore power armor]] before it was [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|cool]] . Like Skrolk and Thanquol, Ikit is too expensive. Unlike them, I can say without reservation that you're not getting anywhere near enough for his cost. He seems like an odd attempt to combine a caster and a combat lord, and even more than other armies, that's a job you want to split. He also costs about as much as a fully upgraded Storm Daemon, and he doesn't do anything magic-wise that a Grey Seer couldn't do, nor anything in combat a tricked-out Warlord couldn't do (outside potentially dishing an absurd amount of S5 hits and having a Strength of 8 despite being an Lv 4 wizard). As far as melee goes, no, he won't go 10 rounds with Archaon, but he wasn't meant to. His combat aspects just mean that, unlike virtually every other wizard in the game, he won't get his ass kicked the moment some skirmishers pop out of nowhere. Still very expensive.
** '''Alternate Opinion:''' Uh, yes, he will get his ass kicked by Skirmishers. He's got high Strength but only 2 Attacks at Initiative 3, so unless you're up against REALLY weak Skirmishers/Fast Cavalries like Ungor Raiders or Mounted Yeomen, he's probably fucked (never mind if he winds up against good close combat Skirmishers: Try him against Great Weapon armed Shades, lemme know how that works). Statistically, he's only going to get 1 wound in per round so he can't fight off attackers very efficiently. He's so expensive (again: <s>395</s> now 310 points so still evaluating) that he makes a 'No duh' target, so every skirmisher and their <s>dog</s> Sabertusk is gonna be gunning for him. This means you have to keep him in a unit to keep him alive, but then the unit is a no-duh target because it's probably gonna cost upwards of 500 points, and he can't join a unit that can reliably fight off Mournfangs and the like and...are you starting to see the problem? Yeah, don't take Ikit.

*'''[[Klawmunkast]], Warlock Master:''' 260pts. A more supportive role for a named Master Warlock than the melee-oriented Ikit Claw. Let you reroll on the misfire table for Clan Skryre units, Turn Skavenslaves into Warpstone Mutants to be a cheap hoard of 2 S4 attacks (becomes S5 if considering giving them Polearms a total of 5ppm), has an Eye that shots a bound Warp Lighting which is extra easy to cast being a PL4 and holding Warp-Blades. His percentage in a Skryre will least make all your crazy killing machines less prone to go up in a warpstone cloud. 

* '''[[Deathmaster Snikch]]:''' 280pts. At first Deathmaster Snikch looks like a perfect Assassin until you read him, you guessed it, points cost. 150 points more than a basic Assassin, and all you're getting for that is some Weeping Blades (30 points), a Tail Weapon, and a Cloak that doesn't do jack if he's in combat (where you want him) or with a unit (where you want him). Aside from that, he has higher WS, BS, I, A, and LD, but not enough to make up for the over 250 points required to take him. He will almost never see enough action to justify that cost. Don't bother.

* '''[[Veskit]], High Executioner of Clan Eshin:''' 165pts. Cyborg Rat Ninja that stalks the ruins of [[Mordheim]]. He is a sniper that Comes with a pair of Warplock Pistols. 

* '''[[Tretch Craventail]]:''' 110pts. Tretch is, put simply, hilarious. He has the exact same stats as a Chieftain, for 100 points more, but he has some amusing abilities. He's got a 4+ ward (nothing to sneer at), a total of 5 attacks, a single reroll per game (do not forget it), and most amusingly, the ability to bamf out of a unit in combat and into another Clanrat/Slaves unit within 3D6. He also grants ambushers and rerolls to hit to his unit of Clanrats or Stormvermin if they're attacking on the flank or rear, but in practice, that's not as useful as you might think. Obviously, he's best in tightly packed battle lines, as if he fails to reach a viable unit with his leaving combat ability, he auto-dies. He can be fun to help countercharge (draw a unit in, leave combat, charge that unit on the flank next round) but that's not as reliable as you might think. Ultimately, he's a fun but non-competitive character. He can be funny in a casual game, but don't take him in a tournament.

* '''[[Skweel Gnawtooth]]:''' 85pts. Everyone's favorite Clan Moulder monster-wrangler, mostly because he's the closest thing any of the named Skaven come to being actually cost-effective (100 points, more affordable than some generic heroes.) Skweel is an apex support-unit, and you'll never be remiss with adding his special ability (whether that be natural Poison, an extra Attack, or even Regeneration) to an attached pack of Giant Rats. This is an unfortunate nerf when compared to before, as this limits the viability of all his abilities, and he's now counting as a Mixed Unit rather than an ordinary Character. Simply put, he needs that pack to live in order to be useful. That said, he can usually be counted on to do enough damage to justify his initial extra down payment and is surprisingly capable when it comes to self-defense, especially since he has that massive mob attached to him.

* '''[[Ghoritch|Ghoritch, Castellan of Hell Pit]]:''' 180pts. Khorn Marauder turned into the world's smartest Rat Ogre. A hulking and Frenzied Cyborg Beastmaster that will shred any physical armour.

====Generic Characters====
'''Note:''' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

* '''[[Verminlord]]:''' 450pts. The Great [[Horned Rat]] looked at the Greater [[Daemons]] and thought 'Why should [[Chaos]] have all the fun?' At first blush, this guy is horrifying. M8, WS8, I10, 5 attacks, 6 wounds, S6, T6, 5+ ward, Level 4 Wizard with access to both Lore of Ruin and Plague like Grayseers in default form. Everything is slinky, right? Well, that's when the issues set in. He can't join units, he's got no extra protection from shooting, but at T6 he's resistant to high volume shoots but still at risk against consitrated warmachines fire despite the ward. oh and did we mention that he costs 450 FUCKING POINTS? Don't get us wrong, he's a beast if you get him into combat and he can be a nasty caster under a lot of circumstances (he can even, in theory, drop a Bloodthirster, though don't count on that). But his price of entry is inhumanly high and he's a really big and obvious target (a solid [[Ogre Kingdoms]] or [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarf]] list will have his ass dropped on turn 1), he's weak against getting tar pitted and he has a troubling lack of Always Strikes First. You can safely leave him out of a tournament list, but he'll make a big splash in casual games.
** '''Verminlord Deceiver:''' Clan Eshin themed Verminlord, not too strong in duels due to lack of Doomglaive with Multiple Wounds, but has a nasty ranged attack (number of shots is equal to number of models in target unit's front rank), is -1 to hit when shot at and can Skitterleap around, and so is a perfect Verminlord for Warmachine hunting, chaff killing and general dickery thanks to owning all the Stealth Lore. Although those roles can be performed better for 475 points. Fun tactic: skitterleap behind that huge horde of goblins, outside of their range and charge them next turn. If your terror doesn't make them flee, just skitterleap back again before combat, and try again next turn.
** '''Verminlord Warbringer:''' Has Doomglaive and a paired weapon with Killing Blow, and as such is the best duelist from all the Verminlords. Adept at casting Death Frenzy so he is perfect for leading a charge, slaughtering enemy characters in duels and buffing your hordes, so they slaughter rank and file. Maybe the best combat Verminlord.
** '''Verminlord Warpseer:''' Always knows Warp Lightning and cast re-roll the dice when casting it, and always scoring max hits makes it a powerful blaster, although a few Warlock Engineers can do the same thing for much, much cheaper (this beauty costs 500 points). Has a Doomglaive and 4++ Ward save (as opposed to regular 5++ of other Verminlords) which you want to bring into melee, although at the same time you want to keep back and shoot lightnings at your foes... Just take Warbringer and a few Warlock Engineers. You can also sacrifice your boosted Ward save, dropping down to just 5++, for a once-off small round template attack that kills anything that fails Initiative tests. But it's hardly worth it unless you're looking at high-value low Initiative foes, like the [[Glottkin]].
** '''Verminlord Corruptor:''' The cheapest of the ET Verminlords, only being 5 points over the base. Always knows Plague and can reroll dice when casting it. Not too brilliant in combat (trading Doomglaive for an additional attack and ASF), although that ASF may prove handy in challenges. Reliable Plague is more interesting, being a hilarious spell, allowing you to fuck up whole games with bouncing Plague every bloody turn. 
*** '''Note:''' Again remember, these guys will be shot to smithereens by a solid gun-line, making them very uncompetitive.

* '''Warlord:''' Point for point, a Warlord is one of the most effective heroes in the Skaven book. He drops in at 85 points for a solid statline, along with the precious LD7 that lets all units with 3 ranks in his General LD Bubble hit LD10. He can have some solid magic equipment and can actually be an unusually effective combat lord (don't expect him to go 10 rounds with most other Lords though). He's a good choice. He can also take mounts (below) which are generally not the best choice but can be fun and if you expect him to do some frontline fighting and want him to cause casualties there are worse ways to up his kill count. Also, one of the few Lords who can be taken in 500pts games and be effective in them with almost no magic items.
** '''Note:''' Although kitting out a Warlord for close combat is right and proper, don't try to make him a challenge Lord. There's a reason Skaven can run from Challenges without losing LD bonuses, and that's because a Skaven in a Challenge is a Skaven who's a corpse. Even Empire, Bretonnian and Wood Elf Lords will stand a good chance of stomping him, and if you're up against a real challenge monster (Ogres, VC, WoC, DE) you might as well remove him. No, kit your Warlord out to kill basic dudes to up your combat res, it's better for him. 
*** '''Counternote:''' If kitted out properly, a Warlord can easily reach a 2+ armor save. Stuck with an Amulet of Endurance and you could have a pretty damn tanky warlord, but...consider how many clanrats you could have bought for that protection.

* '''Chieftain:''' Your basic Hero choice, and a bloody good one at that. With a relatively good statline (as Skaven go, don't expect him to beat anything better than a Chaos Warrior unit champion. Hell, my Marauder Champion even bested one in a challenge) and access to some nifty magic items can turn him into a cheap wizard hunter in a unit of Night Runners. However, you really need him as your BSB. If you play Skaven, you MUST HAVE A BSB OR YOU DIE HORRIBLY. Srsly, if one of your Clanrat units is shot up a bit by war machines or spells, running away CANNOT BE AFFORDED. Not to worry, because they are easily cheap enough to take 2.

* '''Grey Seer:''' Your general Lord Level Wizard, with a crap statline (though he has T4, which is kinda awesome for a wizard - especially if you gonna make him a general) and a 220 points pricetag. Like the Vermin Lord, he can mix Ruin and Plague spells freely, though if you want skitterleap, grab an Eshin sorcerer. He's a good caster for his points and you'll probably get a lot of mileage out of him, so if you have the points free, he's a good investment. Note that he too has LD6, a bastion of Skaven bravery, but a bad Idea as General as your enemy is already going to be gunning for him, don't hand them more points for killing him.

*'''Master Mutator/Master Moulder:''' The Moulder Leaders for 80/30 points. Able to join Giant Rats or Rat Ogres as another handler or get up in front (to use that non-reach magic weapon), they also let all Moulder units within 12"/6" roll 3D6 (minus the highest die) on all Leadership checks. If you're fielding a bunch of unattended beasts, he could be useful if you're confident in your rolling. They are also ok fighters with S&T4 and armed with a Greatweapon, KB Things-Catcher, or the armor-ignoring Beast-Prods (still need to enchant their light armour).  

*'''Warlock Master/Warlock Engineer:''' Cheaper Lore of ruin casters with light armour at 160/65pts respectively. The Master caps off at Lvl3 but going past that is not what you want. they can also have other uses as they drew gear from magic and Skryer items: they can do shooting with  Warlock Optics and a pistol or Warpmusket, + a maybe a Doomrocket; They magic spam with Warp-Blades, Upgraded Warp-Energy Condenser, and Supercharged Warp-Power Accumulator; or go close range with a unit of Clanrats or Stormvermin armed with an Enchanted armour, a Warp-Blades, Warpforged Blade, a Brass or Death Orb for all that Armour negation and -1Ld Lore Attribute goodness.

* '''Master Assassin/Assassin:''' An Assassin is an expensive way of killing enemy Heroes, Wizards, and maybe War Machines or small shooting units. That's about it. With changes to the power of characters, his stats are good, but characters can't be trusted to kill anything above a character, and they dig into Hero points. There will be games where you take him, and he gets killed without accomplishing a thing. But hey, you played Skaven cuz you liked the randomness, and given to a unit of Scouting Gutter Runners, they'll excel at War Machine and the like, removal. They can still support other Eshin units like extra DPS, let them discage with Smoke Bombs, and area denial with an Infernal Bomb. The Master Assassin can also be a General, with the highest Skaven Ld of 8 (must not be hidden for others to use it)

*'''Eshin Sorcerer Lord/Eshin Sorcerer:''' Your source of Stealth magic. Only go up to Lvl3; only Verminlords can get max. They do a lot of stealthy things like teleporting characters, running fast and climbing over everything, arrow protection, and damage. They also do little melee with poison attacks, and attribute softens enemy armour for Eshin daggers.

* '''PlagueLord/Plague Priest:''' The Lord version can only get to wizard level 2, but can equip a Plague Censer and uses spells of plague. (go figure) Essentially mandatory for any Clan Pestilens themed armies due to how much they increase plague monks' effectiveness in battle. Other than that, their only use is to take Plague Furnace. If you just want plague magic, grab a Grey Seer.

====Mounts====
* '''Rat Ogre Bonebreaker:''' only Warlord, Master Mutator or Master Moulder. If you're up for modeling it, and you need a mount, this is the one you want. It's got a good statline, lets him push up rank bonuses in whatever unit he joins, runs fairly cheap at 75 points. If it had an armor save, it'd be perfect (but since it is a mount, you actually get it.). As is, it's a fun choice if you're in the mood and easily the best mount option. Just remember, he can't join infantry units outside Clanrats and Stormvermin (what a sacrifice). The warlord riding it also gains get +1 W (and an additional point of T). However, unless he rolls with Rat Ogres (which is sub-optimal due to frenzy) he has no LookOut, Sir!, making him a free kill for bearded buggers.

* '''War-Litter:''' Not as good as the Bonebreaker but...yeah, still good. It's a cheap way of dropping a bunch of attacks on him and pushing up his armor save. If you really can't spare the extra points for a Bonebreaker and you want a mount, you could go for this one. (alternate take: kit out 3 warlords with this, a ward save, and throw them in a unit with 6-wide ranks and possibly your BSB. Laugh as your opponent is forced to divide its attacks on very defensive lords, and loses to combat res.) It also counts as infantry, so he gets a Look Out, Sir! in a unit of Stormvermin. It also can look badass. Anyway, there are worse choices liiiiiike...

* '''Great Pox Rat:''' This. You're paying 30 points for +1 armor save and 2 S4 poisoned attacks. Woo fucking hoo. It doesn't even come with extra movement, and you can't use the Swiftstride ability for cavalry when he's in a unit (and trying to make him run touchdowns on his own is a surefire way to get him killed). If you're committed to him having a mount, drop a Clanrat and give him a War-Litter. It can also be taken as a mount for a Plague Priest or Master Moulder, but it's not a good choice for them either.

* '''Brood Horror:''' Once in a blue moon the Forge World production team stops designing new overpriced shit for 40K, and instead designs overpriced shit for Fantasy, finally delivering one of the most hideously overpriced things in the game.  For 75 points more than the Rat Ogre Bonebreaker, you get an Extra 2 Wound, stomps, an option to buy an armour save, an option to buy an extra attack to make its attacks on par with the Rat Ogre, an option to make it Armour Piercing+Magical, and an option for a breath weapon that ignores armour.  If this seems fine, then remember, it's a monster, it can't fly, it's toughness 5, so it can't avoid getting killed the second your opponent sees it and points their archers/guns/cannons its way and you watch it dissolve into nothing on turn 1.  Even against armies with terrible archers, it'll end up crushed against their monsters who are almost always going to be stronger and sometimes cheaper too.  Not to mention all of these points could be spent on far more useful slaves or just regular Clan Rats, not on a Lord character in a Horde army.

* '''The Screaming Bell:''' Gray Seers only. The Screaming Bell is for players who love randomness and who are playing in a non-competitive environment. The Bell doesn't come into it's own until well above the usual tournament level (recommended size is 3000 points or so). The major reason is the huge price tag, attached to an already pricey model (a Bell mounted Seer will clock in at 440 points without any equipment). But, if you can fit it in your army, it makes a great centerpiece. It can cause a lot of damage with a little luck and if there are buildings on the board, it can make everything really hilarious really quickly. Be aware, everyone will be gunning for it. Also, under the current rules, it might be worth it to make a Bell mounted Seer the General, as his LD range will be 18 inches as opposed to the usual 12.

*'''Plague Furnace:''' Plaguelord and Plague Priest only. This monstrous contraption is an attrition monster. It kills everything around itself - including your Plague Monks... only Plague Monks die from accidents. can Shoots a Breathweapon every turn and makes stomp attacks equal to an Artillery dice roll. Don't forget to cackle maniacally as a small part of your Plague Monks choke around it along with the majority of enemy's deathstar unit.