Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Skaven

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Why Play Skaven

The Skaven army is for people who like randomness, silliness and fantastic models, but don't think that liking those things should preclude you from winning. The current rules set favors large blocks of infantry, which the Skaven have in spades (to the point where they've been called overpowered in the current rules). They also have a selection of silly rules (one of which makes all warpstone attacks count as magic, great for trolling all-ethereal bastards), random abilities and powerful shooting. Plus, you can shoot at enemies in combat against your Slaves units. Also, DOOMWHEELS!!!! and after all what is better than mansized rats addicted to a glowing stone and an even bigger rat with horns.

Unit Analysis

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.

• Lord Skrolk: The reason you like Lord Skrolk is because he makes Plague Monks troops. Seriously, that's the ONLY thing that justifies his inhumanly high entry cost (230 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer, or 30 more than a Grey Seer on Screaming Bell). 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.

• Thanquol and Boneripper: 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 ganky wound regeneration) and Boneripper can be nasty but like Skrolk, he costs way too much to be properly competitive (210 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer). 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.

• Ikit Claw: Wore power armor before it was 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 nearly 400 points, and he doesn't do anything casting that a Grey Seer couldn't do, nor anything in combat a tricked out Warlord couldn't do. On top of all of that, you need at least 25% war machines to take this guy.

Unlike that last anon, I see great potential in Ikit. He's a level 4 wizard, and can take spells from ANY deck except Waagh. This means there are near infinite combos with this guy. Everything from pyromancy to Dark magic, and you know it'll piss off your opponent when you blast him with his army's own exclusive lore. 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.

• Throt the Unclean: Throt could be useful if you're planning on massing Rat Ogres and Giant Rats, in which case his LD ability can work. But, he's expensive (225 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 (which means he could end up chowing down an entire fucking Rat Ogre) and he's not powerful or durable enough to make up for that. He can make up his points, if you slap him in a unit of Giant Rats, but at that point you're just wasting him in a unit that's liable to get run over due to combat res. Not worth it.

• Queek Headtaker: Okay so he, like the others, runs a little too far on the expensive side, but he's a reliable combat character, and unlike a lot of Skaven heroes/lords, he can actually punch out other lords in a Challenge. He can be truly brutal against high armor save guys, which is always nice. If you're tailoring a list to take on Dwarves, definitely give this guy a look, as he'll do an average of 4-5 kills per round against them. Still a little too pricy, but a solid all around choice. Also the EMPRAH in disguise. Also a quick note I forgot to look into. He can upgrade a unit of Stormvermin for 4 points a model to add +1 WS and S to make a unit of S5 I5 WS5 Stormvermin. Its great weapon rats without the initiative penalty. Not to be overlooked as a strong way to cut through a horde.

• Deathmaster Snikch: At first Deathmaster Snikch looks like a perfect Assassin, until you read his, 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 the over 250 points required to take him. He will almost never see enough action to justify that cost. Don't bother.

• Tretch Craventail: 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 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.

Generic Characters

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

• Vermin Lord: 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, 5 wounds, S6, T5, 5+ ward, Level 4 Wizard with access to both Skaven Lores (and he's one of only two models to get access to the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell). Everything is slinky, right? Well then the issues set in. He can't join units, he's got no extra protection from shooting, he's not Unbreakable or even Stubborn, at T5 he's vulnerable to high volume S4 and above attacks, oh and did we mention that he costs 500 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 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.

• Warlord: Point for point, a Warlord is one of the most effective heroes in the Skaven book. He drops in at 90 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 (discussed later) 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.

• • Mounts:

• • Rat Ogre Bonebreaker: 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 65 points. If it had an armor save, it'd be perfect. 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.

• • War-Litter: Not as good as the Bonebreaker but..yeah, it's not terrible. 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 30 extra points for a Bonebreaker and you want a mount, you could go for this one. 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. Can also be taken as a mount for a Plague Priest, but it's not a good choice for him either.

• Grey Seer: Your general Lord Level Wizard, with a crap statline and a 240 points pricetag. Like the Vermin Lord, he can mix spells freely and get access to the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell, but don't count on him casting that too much (you need to roll approximately 7-8 dice (Correction, 8th edition rules dont allow more than 6 power dice per spell) to have a relatively sure chance of casting it). 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 LD7, meaning that he can end up being general by default, which you probably want to avoid, as your enemy is already going to be gunning for him, don't hand them more points for killing him.

• • The Screaming Bell: 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 pricetag, 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 center piece. 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.

• 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.

• Assassin: An Assassin is an incredibly expensive way of killing enemy Heroes and Wizards and maybe War Machines or small shooting units. That's about it. Unlike his Dark Elf counterpart (the comparison is inevitable, sorry), his mediocre stats (except for Initiative) means he can't be trusted to kill anything above a hero and he digs into Hero points. He's highly non-competitive, and 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. So while you should avoid him in tournament lists, he could be fun in casual games.

• Warlock Engineer: Don't you sit there expecting to get a hero for 15 points, if you're going to take a stripped Warlock, you might as well replace him with 4 extra Clanrats, it's a better use of the points. No, if you want to get use out of a Warlock Engineer, you're gonna wanna update him to level 2, give him a Warpmusket, maybe some Clan Skyre goodies and then you're in the hole for 150 points. But don't despair, he's a fantastic investment. Stick him in with a unit of Jezzails and have them blast things to pieces.

• Plague Priest: Can only get up to 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.

Core Units

• Clanrats: Your basic infantry. Very cheap so you can put them in HUGE units. They will die by the truckload, but you should have so many that even if they get blasted by a cannon, there will still be a good number left. Have them in units of thirty, forty, even fifty. They also have a host of neat special rules that your opponent won't be expecting. Highly recommended. Give them weapon teams for added lulz. It's funny when a ratling gun shoots up the enemy, but funnier when it shoots your own guys and then explodes. You'll have so many clanrats it's not as though your suffering a real loss here. ALWAYS take shields, doubles your chances of surviving a S3 hit. Spears are also usually a good move since they allow three ranks to attack (you did horde them up, right?)

• Skaven Slaves: See clanrats, but no weapons teams. These fuckers are twice as cheap as clanrats, meaning you'll have a lot of them. They have a leadership score similar to a Frenchman, so keep your general nearby to fix that. Make sure they don't get flanked and they're not going anywhere. Keep a warpfire thrower close and have it set the unit held by the slaves on fire, since Skaven are bastards and are allowed to shoot at units tied down with Slaves. Watch as your opponent quits in a huff. Laugh. Also never horde them up; make as many ranks as your wish so they can hold units in place for your ogres or plague monks to flank charge them. Slaves aren't meant to cause damage; they take it; cause they are whipped. Note that Slaves have the option to take slings. Generally won't do much but can be a nasty surprise for your opponent if he's not expecting it. Don't bother with spears or shields, Slaves are there to take damage, not dish it out.

• Stormvermin: Slightly more elite infantry. Still nice and cheap so huge units are not out of the question. Units of forty or fifty are not unreasonable. Can also take a weapon team. Shields are a preference choice, depending on how much fire you expect them to absorb, but a 4+ is nice if you're trying to take on elite infantry.

• Night Runners: Decent skirmishing infantry/harassers. Their scout move allows you to set them up as charge blockers but other than that; expect them to die rather quickly. As far as choosing them above slave or clanrats is up to you. They can also chose a Warp-Grinder, so you could go warmachine hunting/ rearcharging with these guys. Shame their models look like deranged chimps.

• Giant Rats: Make a very nice tarpit but Slaves are cheaper and do it better. If your looking for cheaper ways to get giant rats than the Rat Ogre/Giant Rat box set; there are about 12 rats in the doomwheel kit, the plague monk kit and several more in the screaming bell set as well. They are great to throw on those big bases but you can easily build up a nice pack of rats while your collecting on the side.

• Rat Swarms: It's a Swarm, usual rules apply.

Special Units

• Plague Monks: Your actual elite infantry. 3 attacks (1 base, +1 for two hand weapons, +1 for frenzy). They have frenzy and hatred which can work against them. Again, take in huge numbers. Make sure to deploy them in a way where they won't stray to far so they get the flank charge. They have no armor and are only I3 which means they will attack at the same time as the more well armored I3 cores out there. Put them with a Plague Furnace and shit will go down (in a positive way).

• Poison Wind Globadiers: Anyone they hit takes a wound on a 4+ with no saves. You want these. They also have a special rule that allows unengaged models to lob globes into the same combat the engaged models are fighting which can be funny as hell.

• Warplock Jezzails: Kind of a preference unit. Some people swear by them because their S6 -4 armor shots can make mincemeat of annoying heavy infantry. on the other side they are expensive to field in any high numbers to effectively shoot down a squad of 5 chaos knights and BS 3 with a 36 inch range means needing 5s and up for anything down range. Not a bad unit but you really need to consider what role they will perform. As mentioned earlier Pairing them up with a warlock engineer will help them get off the extra hits needed to bring down small cavalry units. Also These guys are easy to convert with some skaven shields and green stuff. The GW models are nice clearly outdated and they are over $100 for 6 "Finecast"s, which makes no fucking sense since a pack of 6 finecast Eldar aspect warriors will only run you $40 or so.

• Gutter Runners: A decent choice for war machine hunting as they can come from the back of the board. Slings and poisoned weapons are decent investments but you might want to skip on the champion to avoid challenges. If your worried about them not showing up you can run with 2 squads of 6 or 7 but they can get expensive in the special slot that can get loaded up with points quickly

• Rat Ogres: If hulk had a rodent counterpart: Seriously though In a unit of 6 with their masters they will rampage through anything they flank attack BUT they can be easily baited due to their high movement. Generally a good investment particularly if they have slaves or clanrats holding a unit in place for them.

• Plague Censor Bearers: At first glance; expensive for what they are but their plague censor special rule makes them useful for severely shrinking hordes down to size and whats better is that they can be fielded in small groups as speed bumps or charge deterrents. A lot more useful with a plague furnace around so they become stubborn and therefore get more use from their censors.

Rare Units

• DOOMWHEEL: Few things will scare a unit of heavy cavalry or heavy infantry more than just being in the general vicinity of the Doomwheel. As such, enemy war machines will want to shoot at it but, being the clever rat that you are, you know you have scarier rare choices liiiiike....

• Hell Pit Abomination: The Hell Pit Abomination is a really, really good DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. Mainly because its Adorable. So much so that no opponent can bear to look at it without clawing their eyes out. It's like baby kittens in shoes and jaunty hats only this kitten has a lot more heads to Awwww... at. The war machines will shoot at it and you will laugh as it shrugs off a lucky cannon shot or two (or six if your facing dwarfs) they will probably survive long enough to RIP AND TEAR at least one unit to shreds before he goes down. But that's the best part. The Abomination knows how cute it is and has the potential to bring itself back to life to spread its adorable brand of love to those that put it down. On a side note it can be on the expensive side and the Warp Lightning Cannon is generally a better use of points but its role as a fire magnet is unparalleled.

• Warp Lightning Cannon:Low risk, low price, high reward, and safe choice for rares. Its a cannon with a blast template at the end of it. The variable strength of the shot is chosen by the misfire dice which is FUN*.. Very reliable warmachine in an army who enjoys blowing themselves up.

• Plagueclaw Catapult: Decent but generally outshined by the Warp Lightning Cannon. S2 hits with no armor saves allowed is a decent pie plate to throw onto a large horde of (insert tarpit here) Take if you want a clan pestilens themed army otherwise not a must have.

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

Protip: if you are ok with modeling, do it. You'll save a lot of bucks, because you can do almost everything with Clanrats, Stormvermins, and Rat Ogres boxes, some scraps, and green stuff. Yes, it's still expensive, but what the hell did you expect from an army that fields more than 150 models at 1000 points?

Island of Blood is a great way to start up your Skaven clan mainly because if you are interested in Skaven you also probably have an ultrasmurf fanboy (or Eldar nut) that wants to try out Fantasy battles but wants an army to auto-win with. Buy two boxes, sell the spare rulebook and templates and keep the miniatures: you get a great starter for the Skaven army and some money back. Seriously though you get a good start on the multitude of clanrats/slaves and some pretty awesome looking weapon teams and heroes. The battalion is a decent buy but only if you are planning on running with plague monks. Otherwise its cheaper to buy Island of blood for what your getting.

Also, don't debate about it just buy the DOOMWHEEL. NO I DON'T CARE IF YOU WON'T USE IT!! You'll want it! Its allure is too strong. Fantastic model too so just give in to the Great Horned Rat and get one... it will please him.

Army Composition

If you haven't gathered: Skaven are a horde army so you are going to need some big blocks of clanrats and slaves to absorb the enemy's hordes and elite units such as rat ogres, DOOMWHEELS, plague monks, and adorable abominations on the flanks to RIP AND TEAR! The nice thing with Skaven is that even the worst units in the codex can find a use in almost any army. You come from Nurgulite Warriors of Chaos? Clan Pestilence go for it! Do you like fancy, absolutely unreliable tech? Here comes Clan Skyre! Get the DOOMWHEELS rollin'! You like muscles? Clan Moulder then! Rat Ogres aplenty and those adorable Abominations out there to spread the love! Or you can go full ninja with Clan Eshin and use loads of night and gutter runners! Are these all competitive? Probably not. But regardless of winning potential, they are fun to play.

Magic Items

The Scavenge-Pile

Many of these items are available to all your lord and hero choices as well as your stormvermin fangleader

• Warpmusket: decent choice for a Warlock engineer hanging back with Jezzails.

• Poisoned Attacks: only one you'd probably use this on comes with it standard (assassin) situational use on a warlord; I'd pass but I'm not here to tell you how to play. :P

• Tail Weapon: honestly haven't bothered using it so can't say if the additional S3 attack is worth it. You can stack it with poisoned attacks though so could be a good use of 20+ points for the combo if you find yourself fighting monsters all the time; I'm looking at you, dark elves... freakin' hydras...

• Warplock Pistol: not as strong as the musket but still just as useful in the right character's hands. I always give my Fangleader one just so I can elect to stand and shoot. Is it game changing? Heck no! But when the rat version of Clint Eastwood stands in front of a Warrior of Chaos saying "You feel lucky punk!" your opponent will give you respect knuckles.

• Rat Hound Bodyguard: if you really just want to give yourself the chance of having your faithful giant rat bite your ankles and kill you be my guest.

Magic Weapons

• The Fellblade: feel like maxing out your magic item allowance on one weapon? You sure? Really? Ok. This is the one for you. Makes you S10, each wound caused rolls another D6 wounds, and successful ward saves must be rerolled. Ya. Its awesome but its up to you if your willing to drop the points on it. If you want one, take some skalm as well so you get maximum mileage out of this badboy. Only real use for it is if your facing nothing but ogres...or hydras...the bastards...

• Warpforged Blade: ignores armor so its ideal against armies that run heavy armor all the time. Expensive but useful.

• Warlock-Augmented Weapon: expensive but helps if you feel the need to spout out a ton of higher strength attacks.

• Blade of Corruption: cheap version of the Fellblade without S10. Potentially worth it against Ogres and enemy heroes.

• Weeping Blade: a solid option at a good points cost. Armor piercing is always nice and d3 wounds is a bonus that will pay off more than not.

• Dwarfbane: must have against dwarfs (if you haven't guessed) otherwise skip for one of the BRB options instead.

• Blade of Nurglitch: cheap as chips but hardly useful. Unsaved wounds cause -1T. Marginally effective vs WoC and Ogres.

Magic Armour

• Warpstone Armour: 4+ armor save; successful saves inflict damage on who done hit ya and your warlocks can wear it. Use it, love it.

• Worlds Edge Armour: 4+ armor save that disappears the second something strong enough breaks through it. Cheap but I'd pass.

• Shield of Distraction: interesting. -1A to enemies in base contact with the model, but situational, and there are better options in the BRB.

Talismans

• Foul Pendant: cheap 5+ ward. Thanks. :)

• Shadow Magnet Trinket: can be really useful in a wizard bunker; which for the Skaven means a Warlock engineer and his unit of Jezzails. Any enemy archers or riflemen are going to have to throw a lot more dice at them with this trinket on hand. -1 to hit from shooting may not sound like much but when you take a BS3 bowmen shooting at long range will need 6+ to hit and that's with your jezzails sitting out in the open. A solid choice should you choose the Jezzail-Warlock combo. When used on a Screaming Bell it gives your Grey Seer, Bell AND whatever troop type is pushing the bell a -1 to hit from ballistics helping the unbreakable horde get to battle with less casualties. (Probably works with Plague Furnace too)

• Rival Hide Talisman: one use only to make your opponent reroll all successful to hits in base contact. Cheap. Extremely Situational. Yet potentially game changing in a challenge.

Arcane Items

• Warpstone Scroll: do you face eagles a lot? Like more than Sauron's orcs in LOTR? Then this scroll could be for you. But its expensive and the Skaven have plenty of weapons to counteract flying units.

• Warp-Energy Condenser: now we are talking! Slightly better chance at channeling but that's not why you pick the WEC. You pick it up for a more powerful warp lightning attack. The extra hits are well worth the cheap cost of this beautiful piece of vermin engineering.

• Scrying Stone: one time use 3+ ward save. I'd pass.

• Warpstone Tokens: sweet sweet Skaven crack. Allows you to throw more dice at whatever spell you NEED to get off. Has the potential to roll a one and wound you but hey, you didn't choose Skaven to play it safe. And you really want The Dreaded Thirteenth!

Enchanted Items

• Skavenbrew: a highly amusing item of much debate. On a roll of a 1... nothing happens except that your hero poisoned the punch bowl and now a bunch of rats fall down dead. 2-3 gives Hatred to everything because Skaven are mean drunks. 4-5 Frenzy because they are angry drunks. 6 They reach an Angry Marines level of rage getting +2 frenzy as opposed to +1 but since they aren't Astartes, every movement phase D6 of the little blighters' brains explode. Skavenbrew... it's a good thing.

• Skalm: regenerates all lost wounds (unless your dead). Its usefulness depends on who you are facing.

• Pipes of Piebald: force charging unit to perform Ld test or fail charge. Kind of counterproductive in an army of tarpits... but still useful on Plague Monks. It can be useful on jezzails as it can allow you to get another round of stand and shoot/shooting off.

• Portents of Verminous Doom: -1Ld isn't all that useful but there are tactical applications for it, main one that comes to mind is Beastmen's primal fury. Less than situational but again, I'm no tactical genius.

Clan Eshin Tools of War

• Warpstone Stars: a nice choice for the assassin that thinks he's badass enough to take down that hydra alone. 3X multiple S5 shots multiplying into D3 wounds. Probably won't kill a monster outright, but will soften him up a bit.

• Infernal Bomb: for a decent cost your assassin can drop a nice little present near or in the path of anything you don't want heading your way. It detonates on a 2+ and you really want to target either monsters or hordes with this puppy. In practice hordes are the better target due to the time consuming movement needed to get around the bomb. Area denial is a great thing to have in watchtower games too so pick it up if your slaves are too spineless to do it on their own.

• Smoke Bombs: really nice if you want to make sure your assassins stay around a bit longer. But if you had to use this your probably doing it wrong or they had the devil's luck rolling charge distance on your lone assassin.

Clan Skryre Gear of War, AKA the fun stuff

• Brass Orb: Mournfang Calvary getting you down? Demigriphs ruining your day? What about that big ol' stonehorn? Well get out your cheap as chips warlock, equip him with this, send him to his doom and put on your best trollface as 3 Mournfangs fail their initiative test and disappear! Now its not really safe, as they still could pass the test or you could scatter horribly but its a really cheap counter to those monstrous infantry options a lot of new armies are getting. Skullcrushers anyone? Skullcrushers are I5, so good luck with that. Or you could just throw it at a horde of dwarves.

• Doomrocket: rumor has it that it was developed by Doomrider himself. A cheap and fun way to make large horded up infantry disappear but this rocket is so freaking sporadic that it can overshoot or undershoot with reckless abandon. You nominate a direction and select anywhere from 4 to 10 dice to see how far it travels. If 3 or more 1's are rolled it misfires. Get into a position where at least 3 enemy units could be hit for maximum damage.

• Death Globe: the Brass Orb's little brother, effective at bringing down cavalry and infantry alike on a 4+ with no armor saves, but you should only target models with 1W with it. Use the Brass Orb for the multiwound ones.

• Warlock Optics: +1 BS for your Warlock and he ignores cover modifiers. Stick it on a Warpmusket Warlock.

Clan Pestilens Befouled Items

• Warp Sroll: it's a bound spell, so only cast it if you know your opponent has no dice left. Target the most numerous horde of enemy troops on the field and let loose as every model takes a S2 hit with no armour saves allowed. Is it great? Your call. Though there are better options like...

• Plague Banner: ... this. One use only, all Plague Monks in the unit get rerolls to hit and wound. Activate this on a flank charge and watch the enemy melting. It may only be once in a couple of games that you can pull this off but it's worth investing into if you really like your rotten rats.

Clan Moulder Beast-Prods

• Shock Prod: you get to ignore armor saves. Decent, but Rat Ogres tend to RIP AND TEAR good enough even without it.

• Electro-Whip: +D3 attacks while attacking from the rear rank. With a Master Moulder able to attack from behind Rat Ogres or multiple ranks of Giant Rats, it could be very useful.

Magic Standards

• Sacred Banner of The Horned Rat: expensive but worth the investment against certain opponents. All enemy units within 12" have -1Ld and any unit in base contact with the banner must reroll successful Ld test. Morale can be everything in battles and being able to weaken your opponents resistance is a great boon. Careful though: a unit with this banner will be heavily targeted so plan accordingly.

• Storm Banner: a beastly beastly banner. Seriously any elf player or dwarf gunline that has faced a Skaven army hates this banner. Once activated it disallows flying movement and all missile fire has a -2 modifier. It also affects magic attacks that don't require BS by making them roll a 4+ before they can use the spell itself. At the end of each player turn on a roll of 4+ the effect ends. Beautiful.

• Grand Banner of Clan Superiority: a decent cost for a banner that adds D3 to combat resolution as opposed to the usual +1. Worth it in most situations.

• Shroud of Dripping Death: generally a banner not worth taking as it only affects models in base contact and activates a smaller attack if you are fleeing. Not useless but generally overshadowed by more favorable ones.

• Banner of the Under-Empire: a nice banner to put in a unit of Stormvermin. At the beginning of each and EVERY close combat phase the enemy unit in base contact with this puppy suffer 2D6 S2 hits. May not sound like much but the weight of hits will equate to more wounds caused which leads to a better combat resolution. A worthwhile investment.

• Dwarf-Hide Banner: cheap and causes Hatred Dwarfs and Dwarfs in contact gain hatred too. Dwarves already hate Skaven in their new book so you might as well take it if you're tailoring a list to them. On a side note, the Skaven Warlord kit from GW is already equipped with one of these.

• Banner of Verminous Scurrying: allows the unit (once per game) to march at triple speed instead of double at the cost of a few skaven falling down dead. Useful if you need to get into a different position quickly and cheap as well.

Magic

Skaven Spells of Ruin

• Skitterleap (5+): a rather cheap and effective way of getting important characters out of harms way. Any infantry character within 12" can be placed anywhere on the board as long as they are at least 1" away from the enemy. So if your warlord or BSB is about to bite it in the next combat phase you can easily place him into a nearby unit with out loosing that precious bonus they provide. Grey Seers can elect to take this as one of their standard spells.

• Warp Lightning (6+): Warlocks that are at least level 1 can take this by standard. An amazing magic missile that causes D6 (+2 with the Condenser) at S5. Cheap enough to spam with several different Warlocks, but Gray Seers should focus on something else.

• Howling Warpgale (7+): remember the Storm Banner? Well this spell does the same thing only it's -1 to hit and doesn't affect the magic abilities of your opponent. though it stacks with the -2 from the banner. Engage Trollface.

• Death Frenzy (9+): gives a unit +2 frenzy attacks instead of +1 and cause D6 automatic wounds to the unit. Not the greatest spell but useful in the occasional flank charge scenario.

• Scorch (10+): a very reliable small template S4 hit that's flaming and causes panic on unsaved wounds. Extremely useful and more powerful than Warp Lightning on large blocks of infantry.

• Cracks Call (11+): this spell is nasty in all the right ways. Form a 4D6-long line from the caster and any models under the line either passes an Initiative test or dies. If a building is in the lines path it collapses on a 5+ and any unit occupying it has to take the initiative test on top of that. A bit random due to not knowing the exact distance the line will be, but fantastic on any board with a lot of buildings to occupy.

Skaven Spells of Plague

• Pestilent Breath (5+): a flame template spell and therefore quite useful. Causes S2 hits with no armor saves allowed, it can be cast in close combat causing d6 hits instead of using the template. Very cheap to spam with multiple Plague Priests, who can take it as a standard spell.

• Bless with Filth (7+): gives a target unit poisoned attacks, especially effective on frenzied Plague Monks in CC. The best part is that it can effect units already in combat, so if you need a few more wounds this spell is a solid choice.

• Wither (8+): oh hell yes! Target unit within 12" gets -1T, I'll let that sink in. You say big whoop? Well hold on I haven't mentioned the best part: it last all game and it STACKS. Get two Plague Priest casting this on a T3 unit in the same turn and they will be wounded on 2+. Insert evil laugh. Remember if a model's toughness reaches 0 it is removed as a casualty.

• Vermintide (8+): Cracks Call lite It's effective and hits a lot more models but is restricted by impassable terrain and water. Causes 3D6 S2 to any unit caught under the template (which has a 4D6 range) so combined with a couple of withers from the turn before it can be quite catastrophic.

• Cloud of Corruption (11+): kind of a mixed bag. You roll a dice for each unit within 12": on a 2+ (enemy unit), 4+ (friendly unit) or 5+ (Clan Pestilens) that unit takes D6 S5 hits with no armour saves allowed. Not bad if you have no friendly units nearby but will probably bite you in the butt if you cast it at the wrong moment.

• Plague (13+): neat and quite potentially hilarious. Units within 18" must take a Toughness test per model: if failed, model looses 1W. If cast on a unit in CC it affects all units involved. After that roll a D6, if you roll a 1 your opponent gets to pick one of your units to infect. FUN*

The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (25+)

Roll up your sleeves and eat some Warp Tokens 'cause if you pull this off you WILL have a trollface as big as a pauldron whilst your opponent rage-quits. Select a unit... no, not the small group of Swordsmen, pick that unit of Warriors of Chaos, or that unit of Ironguts ('fraid not, doesn't affect Monsterous Infantry), that unit of White Lions looks good too... Much better. Now roll 4D6... 12. Before your opponent can sneer that your roll was below average, 12 of his soldiers are dead, just like that. Wait, that was a small unit and there's no survivors? Now all of them are Clan Rats instead, and you control them. This does include special characters, so you can just unleash your trollface when Teclis suddenly grows a twitchy nose and tail. There is a reason the spell stands alone. It's game breaking and Grey Knights Seers can elect to take it standard. Only use against opponents you don't mind never fighting again.

Tactics

Models. More models. MOAR! Seriously, this is a horde army. You will buy at least 200 rats, you will assemble, paint, and base them all, and you will love it. A good guideline is around 1 model per ten points, and at least 1 slave per 20 points. Aim for at least 2 Hordes of 40-60 Clanrats in any game with a high enough points limit. Adding more is not just fine but recommended. Use slaves, love slaves, field 3 blocks of 50 slaves and watch your opponent's deathstar never do anything but much 300 points all game (while getting shot at!). Never, ever skimp on protection for your general (heavy armour, shield, 4+ Ward). If he dies, your rats drop down to their (generally shitty) base Leadership.

Some armies (VC and Tomb Kings mostly) will ruin your day if you let them get in to a grind-fest. Flank them hard and don't let them get into the stand up fight that they want.

Also note, if fighting an OaG army with lots of goblins, or a VC army with a lot of zombies, your number advantage won't be as great as a good Skaven player should be comfortable with. Blow holes in 'em with warmachines and casters, and hope for the best.