Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Chaos/Skaven/Clans Verminus

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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These are the rules prior to the release of the Skaven Battletome, and as such are no longer matched play valid.

Warscrolls

The common keywords of these warscrolls are: CHAOS, SKAVEN and VERMINUS.

Named Heros

• Queek Headtaker: (1 per army) Not in the grand alliance book but they still have the Verminus keyword. 5 wounds like the warlord but much more killy. 3 3+/3+/-1/D3 attacks with his Dwarf Gouger which do double damage (note 2xD3, not D6) against DUARDIN, and 3 more 3+/3+/-/1 attacks, oh and if he's targeting a hero he re-rolls to wound, neat. In addition, he gains +1 save with a special rule that means if he passes a save with a roll of 6+ (cough mystic shield cough) the unit that attacked him suffers a mortal wound. His command ability means you can re-reroll 1's to hit for all VERMINUS units within 13". Oh yeah and he costs THE SAME AMOUNT as a standard warlord and GW still sell his model.

• Warlord Spinetail: (1 per army) Not in the grand alliance book but they still have the Verminus keyword. Another named Warlord, Spinetail is less of a straight killy upgrade. 3 3+/3+/-/D3 attacks with his blade of corruption which has a special rule where for all enemy models that suffered a wound from it but survived (see: at most one) you roll a dice and on a 6 it suffers a mortal wound except NURGLE units who don't, and 3 3+/4+/-/1 attacks. What he does get is an ability that lets him attempt to throttle an enemy hero within 3" at the start of a combat phase, you and your opponent roll of if your roll is higher it suffers a mortal wound, if yours is double it suffers D3. Yeah, his abilities are pretty much garbage. His command ability is a 13" re-roll 1's to wound bubble for VERMINUS units. He's at least 20 points cheaper than a regular warlord, but unless you really don't have 20 points to spare just take Queek for god's sake.

• Tretch Craventail: (1 per army) Not in the grand alliance book but they still have the Verminus keyword. Another named Warlord, Craventail is not a killy upgrade. He has 2 2" 3+/4+/-/1 attacks 2 4+/3+/-/1 attacks and 2 4+/5+/-/1 attacks making him offensively the worst named warlord. What he does have going for him is a 4+ rerollable save and an ability that lets him retreat at the end of any (see: enemy) charge phase on the roll of 2+. Because of this, he's pretty survivable if you really don't want to give up slay the leader or lose his command ability which gives a single unit an additional -1 rend on their weapons which is a fun pick against amour reliant armies again he costs the same amount as a standard warlord.

Heroes

• Verminlord Warbringer: The close combat monster among the Verminlords, the Warbringer swings two very strong weapons and can reroll To Hit when he charges. He can also cast a spell a turn, with his unique spell basically giving the Blood Warriors' No Respite rule to a Skaven unit (can pile in and attack if killed in melee). His command ability is also pretty great but really grows with the game size as his Command targets all Verminus around him. The Warlord's Command is a stronger buff, but only targets one unit, so it's quality versus quantity here.

• Skaven Warlord: Your standard hero with 5 wounds, a 4+ save (3+ against damage 1 attacks) and 3 weapon options, either a warp-forged blade that gives him 3 3+/3+/-2/D3 attacks, a halberd and a barbed blade which gives him 3 3+/3+/-1/1 attacks and 6 3+/4+/-/1 attacks, or two barbed blades which gives him the latter profile and re-rolls of 1 to hit. Don't even bother with the twin blades and take the halberd its the most reliable. Not that you actually want this guy in close combat as his true worth is his command ability which lets you pick a VERMINUS unit within 13" and give it an extra attack with each of its melee weapons. This is an amazing command ability for your rat horde as it gives your clanrats 100% increased damage output and your stormvermin 50% increased damage output.

• Skaven Chieftain with Battle Standard: Not in the grand alliance book but they still have the Verminus keyword. With the recent changes to the Skaven rules, he got rather nerfed. He is still 6" move, 5 wounds a 4+ save (has a banner instead of clan shield), 4 3+/3+/-/1 attacks BUT he no lost his banner of 13" awesomeness (for a recap, 13" bubble of no battleshock tests and re-rerollable 1's to hit for models with the SKAVEN keyword) . Now he has a Banner with 10" range (but only when it's planted). In your hero phase Roll a d6 for each enemy unit within range, causing 1 mortal wound on the unit if you roll a 4+. He went from great to shit and the only reason to take him is if you think the odd chance might come up that your general will have only 1 wound left, be within 1" of this guy, and you really want to keep your general's command ability.

Units

Clanrats: (Battleline) In their (old) minimum squad size of ten, Clanrats are garbage, 1 1" 4+/4+/-/1 or 2" 5+/4+/-/1 attack each a measly 6+ save (5+ against damage 1) and bravery 4, but at 20 models they get +1 to wound and at 30 a +1 to their hit rolls (FAQ specified that they get +1 to hit and wound rolls INSTEAD of just +1 to wound rolls in other words the wound rolls DO NOT STACK), and don't forget units get +1 to their bravery as standard for every 10 models in the unit.

• Generals Handbook 2017 increased the min size of a clanrat unit to 20 so you now only have 2 options units of 20 and units of 40.
  • Units of 20: You won't be having that +1 to wound bonus for very long if you're facing an army with any ranged at all so don't count on it. Take hand weapons on them and run them out ahead of your other stuff and send them on suicide missions into enemy territory. They're generally not big enough to be seen as threatening and can easily survive a turn of close combat with small Liberator-profile units. use their +2" to run and retreat and their ability to charge after retreating to infiltrate enemy lines and maybe get some charges on backline enemy heroes or squishy ranged units. But be smart with them or they will die for nothing.
  • Units of 40: Massive Regiment discount + strength in numbers bonuses = 5 point models with 1" 3+/3+/-/1 attacks or 2" 4+/3+/-/1 attacks. That's pretty nasty. Double the amount of attacks 10 liberators get for the same price. Boosting a unit of 40 clanrats with a warlord makes them much killier than anyone expects.

Stormvermin: (Battleline with VERMINUS allegiance) Stormvermin are your elite infantry and they're a lot better than you might expect. For over double the cost of a clanrat they get +1 save (with the same shields so 4+ vs Damage 1), +1 bravery and trade their spears and blades for halberds with which they make 2 2" 4+/3+/-1/1 attacks each. In addition, they have a rule which gives them +1 to their hit rolls if they target a unit with fewer models which makes them ideal for killing enemy elite infantry and monsters.

• Generals Handbook 2018 decreased the max size of a stormvermin unit from 40 to 30! AND fucked them in the ass hard for their points. Instead of getting a discount for taking a squad of 30, you have to pay an 80 more points to do it with no additional benefit. They can still outnumber anything they want to kill, just be aware it's now a lot more costly for them to try do that (you might even be better off just getting 2 units of 20 so that you don't have to pay the increased amount). This has since been FAQ'd to be back to 40 at 500 points.

Skavenslaves: Not in the grand alliance book but they still have the Verminus keyword. With a massive bravery 3 and 6+ save, they're gonna die. A lot. Slaves are your only source of ranged attacks in Verminus though their 9" 5+/5+/-/1 slings are well, garbage and they stop you from taking melee weapons or the shield. Like clanrats they have the option of spears or hand weapons, giving you either 1 6+/4+/-/1 attack or 2 5+/4+/-/1 attacks, so when I say option I mean, take the hand weapons for the great horned rat's sake. Unlike clanrats, their maximum squad size is 60, not 40. Also unlike clanrats, they gain nothing more than the standard +1 to bravery per 10 for having big units. Instead, they get a rule where for every one that flees you can roll a dice and on a 6+ they cause a mortal wound on the nearest unit within 6" (note this includes your own units). Potentially of use as a suicide squad or for fun games but otherwise consider that a skavenslave costs one point more than a clanrat each and a minimum size squad costs the same as a minimum size squad of stormvermin and they're not even battleline.

Battalions

Verminus Clawpack

From the Compendium. A Warlord, 3 units of Clanrats, a unit of Stormvermin and 3 Weapon Teams of any type. Gives your units +2 to their bravery for each ten models in the unit rather than +1. The warlord can use his command ability even if he's not your general and it affects every unit from the clawpack within 13", but only if there are no enemy units within 3". And the weapons teams while within 3" of a unit of clanrats can, when suffering wounds in the shooting phase, attempt to make the clanrats take them instead on a die roll of a 4+. Minimum 680 points though theres no point to take it with such small units, Maximum 1640 points.

Army Building

Buying tips

Spire of Dawn is out/back! Plus it's only £10 more expensive than the 2 boxes worth of Clanrats you get in it anyway and you get a warlord, 2 weapon teams, a warlock engineer, a Packmaster and 2 rat ogres in it too.

If you're starting off get 3. Swap the elves if you can/want. Now get a box of Stormvermin. You now have enough of a respectable clawpack of 3 units of 40 clanrats, a 20 man unit of stormvermin your choice of 3 poisoned wind mortars or warpfire throwers and two warlords. This is just shy of 1500 points and you can use the rest of your skaven to build up to 2000 (2500 is potentially possible but you'd have to run smaller than max size clanrat units (if you have to do this run 2 37's and a 36 i your clawpack and a spare 10 and swallow paying 60 points for nothing, it's more important your big clanrat units can take a little beating before dropping below 30 models and losing combat effectiveness)).

Army composition

Take a clawpack and an additional hero as a base at anything over 1000 points, Queek would be a great pick, though another warlord is easier on the wallet. Beyond that remember you don't really get anything for being verminus or hell even skaven exclusive so go wild.

1000 points or less the clawpack is too unwieldy. 1 warlord 30 stormvermin and 80 clanrats is bang on 1000 and 1 warlord 20 stormvermin and 20 clanrats fits under 500.

UPDATE! As of GHB2017 there IS a reason to have verminus allegience and it's name is Battleline Stormvermin. Rejoice friends! 1 warlord, 3x40 Stormvermin & 400pts of allies lists are here.

Allied Armies

Masterclan

Grey Seer

A wizard with a pretty good unique spell (pick a unit within 26" roll a dice for each model in it, on a 6 the unit suffers a mortal wound) and a command ability that means for any SKAVEN that flee within 26" roll a dic on a 4+ it doesn't flee. Pretty good if you have no battleshock bolstering in your army anyway.

Lord Skreech Verminking

He has The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell which turns your opponents units into Verminus units. Except its more like summoning a Verminus unit because it needs to be taken from your summoning allowance also you have no idea how many models its going to summon and Verminus units are all weak with low model counts. So yeah. Maybe not in pitched battles eh? He also has warlord spinetails' command ability.

Screaming Bell

A behemoth with random effects based on a 2d6 roll, one gives all skaven models within 13" an extra attack but you need to roll a 10 or 11 to get it. It's also wizard with a unique spell that hurts slower units (COUGH PALADINS COUGH) more. It moves 3" more for every Skaven within an inch at the start of the movement phase so its designed to work with your big clanrat units. A solid pick though the command ability of giving +1 bravery and move to everything that can see the screaming bell doesn't seem as impressive as some of the others offered to Verminus and Masterclan.

Skyre

Weapon Teams

Poisoned Wind Mortar

Potentially a very nasty ranged attack which can be shot without line of sight. 1 4+/4+/-2/D6 shot that gets a +1 to hit against a unit with 10+ models and swaps D6 damage for guranteed 6 against units with 20+ models. Good for thinning down big units for your stormvermin to finish off.

Warpfire Thrower

Simply target a unit within 8" it suffers D3 mortal wounds. You can also attempt to boost the damage to D6 mortal wounds on a dice roll of a 2+, though if it fails this roll it suffers D3 mortal wounds itself. The team that benefits most from the clawpack as it needs the protection.

Rattling Gun

See: Dakka. 2D6 18" 4+/4+/-1/1 shots that get +1 to hit within 9" and on a dice roll of 2+ can fire FOUR D6 shots instead with the usual caveat that failing the roll means D3 mortal wounds. Like the Wapfire thrower it benifits from the protection, however moving it forwards isn't a necessity.

Doom-Flayer

The only melee weapon team with D3 3+/3+/-2/D3 attacks that get +1 to hit on the turn it charges and on a dice roll of 2+ makes D6 attacks instead, with the usual D3 mortal wound penalty for failing the roll.

Warp-Grinder

This weapon team can be deployed in any of your movement phases with an accompanying SKAVEN unit as long as it's deployed 9" away from the enemy units. When they arrive, you have to roll a dice:on 1 or 2 you have to try again next turn ( Unlike WHFB, in which the Weapon Team and the units could die if they failed the roll ). Remember, there are no limitations on which unit you can set up this way, so imagine to do that with your Verminlord(No, you can't take verminlord since they do not have the SKAVEN keyword), or a powerful unit of Stormvermin. You have to think before the game starts what are you going to do, but the results can be very devastating if used well. The units also can't move, but they can charge, so if you're lucky you can attack almost immediately. Also, the 2 attacks of the crew and the 4+/3+/-2/3 attack of the drill are nothing to spit at, but don't rely on them, because the Warp Grinder has a pretty bad Save of 6+.

External links

Rules are here:

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-skaven-warlord-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-clanrats-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-stormvermin-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Compendiums/warhammer-aos-skaven-en.pdf