Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Skaven

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Grand Alliance Chaos

Skaven

DIE DIE SOLDIER MANTHINGS DIE!!!!

Lore
Tactics
General Tactics

The vermin horde is back with a bang! And a confusing battleline selection system!

Why Play Skaven

Pros

  • Hordes of vicious chaos ratmen.
  • Hordes of vicious rats and rat monsters too.
  • All the Skaven clans reunited under one faction.
  • Warpstone, yes-yes!
  • Gnawholes
  • Basically it's own mini Grand-Alliance with 40+ Warscrolls to choose from.
  • Your access to the various clans give you extreme versatility. Need highly mobile infantry to harass the backline or nab objectives? Eshin. Want monsters or inexpensive monstrous infantry? Moulder. Do you need hordes and hordes of chaff? Verminus. Maybe you want to claim ranged superiority at all costs. In that case, better grab some Skryre. Are you looking to play a highly offensive army that can dish out tons of mortal wounds? Pestilens are your guys. And if you ever need any magic, Masterclan are always there to help you out.
  • SKAVEN SCIENCE IS THE BEST-BEST OF THE WORLD!!!
  • Do you want unrestricted industrial total war with absolutely no redeeming quality capable to put to shame even the other Chaos aligned forces? Then look no further! Thematically speaking the Skaven use every single piece of nastiness developed by a WW1 tech level society including biochemical warfare, flamethrowers, snipers, gatling guns, human, eh, I mean (slave)rat-wave tactics as well as mechanized cavalry, all further powered by scifi-level technological stuff like dimensional portals and genetically engineered and cybernetically enhaced monstrosities as well as daemon-powered black magic, you can enjoy playing the villain seeing all the inferior fantasy/renaissance tech level "things" die against the skaven superior race while you twirl your evil whiskers, yes-yes!

Cons

  • Infantry as durable as wet paper.
  • Nothing with better than a 4+ save and good luck getting those 40 stormvermin in cover.
  • A huge chunk of the army is stuck with 20+ year old sculpts that aren't readily available (have to order directly of the GW store).
  • Clan Pestilens harms anything not-Pestilens that gets too close, including your own non-disease rats.
  • Spell lores are exclusive to Grey Seers or Clan Skryre; other mages limited to general and personal spells.
  • Skyre Overcharges have become more dangerous with a Higher chance of Death.
  • The requirements for Non-Verminus Battleline options is VERY strict. You are allowed a single Masterclan General, but the rest of you force has to be entirely composed of a particular clan. This makes building clan themed armies extremely limiting since there's not even a way to "ally" in other clans like before. The alternative is to run the minimum 60 clan rats and realize all the other horde units you want to run now feel completely redundant.
  • Speaking of allies, you only have one, Nurgle. And your general has to be Pestilens in order to use them. Which also means if you wanted Pestilens battleline and Nurgle allies, you have to forfeit your one Masterclan Hero allowance.
  • get ready to buy the screaming bell or the related endless spell, because without it your average hordes of rats would run away with minimal losses (skaven related, like loosing 10 guys in a 60 unit of clan rats would bring away others guy.)
  • this also means that any army who can debuff your bravery (like undeath in general) will probably be your worst enemies.
  • if you play eshin, pestilens or verminus as core army's units, accept an endless move phase and the hate of your adversary. (That's what movement trays are for)

Rulebooks

Faction rules and abilities: Battletome Skaven

Forgeworld warscrolls: Monstrous Arcanum

Latest Matched play points: Skaven Errata

Core rules: here

Matched play rules, battleplans and expansions: General's Handbook 2022-23 Season 2, plus the battleplans from the Core Book.

Supplement all the above with any Errata and Designers' Commentary from the FAQs.

Allegiance Abilities

Allegiance Traits

The first 4 ability affect all Skaventide units, while the rest Require you to take a hero from the corresponding clan to be used.

  • Overwhelming Mass: In melee, +1 hit rolls for units of at least 20 models, and an extra +1 to wound rolls for units of at least 30. At first, most Skaven units look weak, and then you remember you can amass 40 model units for 5 each head. Keep in mind that a unit size of 40 means you'll lose that +1 To Wound very quickly.
  • Strength in Numbers: for every 10 models of Skaventide unit, add 2 to Bravery instead of 1 during Battleshock tests.
    • Packs can absorb small losses better than most other living units, but like any other hoard, they still disintegrate when you lose half the unit.
  • Lead From The Back: Look Out Sir! applies to melee attacks and missile weapons if the target is a non-monster hero.
  • Scurry Away: During combat phase, a hero, instead of piling in, may retreat using a normal move.
  • Clan Eshin - Masters of Murder: for each Eshin hero, you can pick an enemy hero, and all Eshin units can re-roll wound rolls against them
  • Clan Moulder - Prized Creations: Each Master Moulder can pick a Fighting Beast Model in a unit in your army and it gains d3 wounds(roll separately for each model in your army being upgraded) and they re-roll 1s to hit for weapon attacks. Great to make Abominations more Abominable or Give a Rat Ogre unit a champion.
  • Clans Skryre - Warpstone Sparks: At the start of battle but before set up, you gain 3+d3 Warpstone Sparks. A Spark can be spent once per phase on your Skryre units to:
    1. Reroll a wizards' casting, dispelling and unbinding rolls for that phase.
    2. Reroll a Hero's to Hit rolls for that phase.
    3. Pick a hero and choose up to 3 SKRYRE units wholly within 13" of them. Add +1 to the Damage characteristic of missile weapons used by these units for that shooting phase.
    • Along with the theme of instability, at the end of the appropriate phase, roll a die, and on a 1 the wizard or hero chosen suffers D3 Mortal Wounds. Magical Uranium, everyone!
  • Clan Pestilens - Echoes of the Great Plagues: Once per turn, when a Pestilens Priest makes a successful prayer roll of a natural 6, you can manifest one of six Great plagues, but if you do, you can't manifest it again for the rest of the battle. 4/6 of the plague's effects the nearest eligible unit so have placement in mind and bring a lot of Priests to more reliably get a six once per turn.
  1. Redmaw Plague: The nearest enemy Hero within 13" becomes infected. If within 3" of friends but no enemies at the start of the combat phase, gain ownership of that hero for the rest of the phase.
  2. The Neverplague: Pestilens Priests may reroll prayer rolls for the rest of battle. Should always be the first you set off unless something horrible went wrong.
  3. Bubonic Blightplague: the nearest enemy unit within 13" suffers d6 mortal wounds. If the unit is then destroyed, pick another enemy unit 6" of the last model removed and inflicted D3 mortal wounds. Repeat this process until no unit gets wiped out or there are no other units in range.
  4. Undulant Scourge: the nearest enemy unit within 13" rolls 1D6 for each member of the unit; the unit takes a mortal wound for every 5+ rolled.
  5. Crimsonweal curse: the nearest enemy unit within 13" suffers 1 mortal wound, and it and other enemy units within 1" of that infected unit suffer a 1 mortal wound during your future hero phases
  • Clan Verminus - Mighty Warlords: each non-general Clawlord may take a Command Trait, and no Clawlord can can take the same trait. So it is always better to make another non-Clawlord hero your general to also give them a Command Trait.
  • Masterclan - Skilled Manipulators: Every time a Masterclan model uses a command ability, gain a command point on a roll of 5+.

Command Traits

Your General, depending on its type, gets to choose one trait from the appropriate list.

Shared

  • Malevolent: Re-roll melee wound rolls of 1
  • Verminous Valour: Allocate wound or mortal wound to friendly Skaventide unit within 3" on a 4+ (5+ for war machine or monster). Adds a huge amount of survivability to any Warlord as long as you have an ample supply of meat shields to throw in the way.
  • Savage Overlord: Add 1 to bravery for Skaventide units wholly within 18"

Masterclan

  • Supreme Manipulator: Re-roll the Skilled Manipulators roll
  • Master of Magic: Once Per hero phase add 1 to casting, dispelling, or unbinding. Amazing trait considering the Masterclan's high cast value spells. Stacks with the +1 to casting from Gnawholes.
  • Cunning: Roll a D6 each time your opponent receives a Command Point, on a 6 you receive it instead. This can be nerve-wracking for armies that rely on key command abilities for buffs/bravery mitigation. You're likely to steal a CP each game, which, depending on when it happens, can really throw a wrench in certain game plans.

Skryre

  • Masterful Scavanger: Receive 2 extra warpstone sparks. Not the flashiest of traits, but still generally preferable to the shared ones if you're taking a largely skryre army.
  • Deranged Inventor: 1 friendly unit wholly within 13" can re-roll hit rolls for missile attacks this phase. Take along a Bombardier with this, pop some warp-crack, and watch those Jezzails start pulling off 360 no-scopes with the precision of a mountain-dew infused CoD enthusiast (unfortunately this is a bit redundant with the Jezzails innate re-roll to hit rule). It seems this is specifically aimed towards buffing Stormfiends and Acolytes.
  • Overseer of Destuction: 3 friendly WEAPON TEAM units within 13" can re-roll hit rolls for attacks this phase. Take 3 Ratling Guns, pop a warpstone shard, and melt everything that was unfortunate enough to get too close.

Pestilens

  • Master of Rot and Ruin: Re-roll the dice that determines if a prayer is answered. Solid when thrown on a Plague Furnace w/ Liber Bubonicus. 3 prayers all being re-rollable is pretty solid and will help you get those Great Plagues faster than ever. Kind of redundant with The Neverplague, but also makes it to where you don't need to activate it immediately and can chuck some mortal wounds at a nearby enemy instead.
  • Architect of Death: Re-roll wound rolls for Pestilens missile attacks wholly within 18”. Only affects Plagueclaws and the Verminlord Corruptors tail attack. If you're spamming catapults, may as well throw this in.
  • Diseased: Roll a dice if within 3” of an enemy, on a 4+ inflict D3 mortal wounds on one of those units.

Verminus

  • Brutal Fury: Once per battle, add 3 to the attacks characteristic of this general's melee weapons. Use this on a Warbringer to absolutely fucking END whatever you put it in with.
  • Powerful: +1 Wounds. Always take Verminous Valour before this.
  • Devious Adversary: If an unmodified melee hit roll against this model is a 1, add 1 to this models attack characteristics until the end of the phase. Great for clearing that chaff out of your Verminlords way.

Moulder

  • Moulder Supreme: when using Prized Creation, a Chosen Fighting Beast model adds a flat 3 to wounds or rolls a D6 instead.
  • HordeMaster: Reduce Unleash-more-more-beasts to a 4+. If you're going pure Moulder, you'll likely be running a Fleshmeld Menagerie batallion, in which case this isn't necessary.
  • Burly: +1 wounds. Hard pass; if your Master Moudler is in Melee, chances are you're already fucked. Take Verminous Valour instead if you want your Master (and his juicy buffs) to last.

Eshin

  • Unrivalled Killer: Re-roll hits against a specific hero. Great when paired with certain Realm Artefacts like Sword of Judgement.
  • Incredible Agillity: Can fly. Lets you charge over units and reach key targets after you set up your Deathmaster.
  • Shadowmaster: Whilst within 1” of terrain unit is invisible over 6” away. Great way to keep your Deceiver from being sniped early in the game.

Artefacts Of Power

One Hero (plus an additional hero for each battalion), gets to choose an artefact from the appropriate list.

Masterclan

  • Warpstorm Scroll: Once per battle, 1 dice for each unit within 13", on a 4+ unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
  • Suspicous Stone: 5+ wound negation. Really only useful on a stock Grey Seer, since the other Masterclan heroes already have this ability built in.
  • The Gnawshard: Pick a melee weapon, if this weapon inflicts a wound it continues to inflict 1 mortal wound at the end of each battle round. (What's that sticking out of your neck?)
  • Skavenbrew: A favorite returning from WHFB. Once per battle, in the hero phase, 1 friendly unit within 3" suffers D3 mortal wounds but adds 1 to its attacks characteristic until your next hero phase.
  • Snoutgrovel Robes: No battleshock tests within 13" of the wearer (Great for those clanrats that keep running away!) This is redundant for anything but a footslogging Grey Seer, but on those it is by no means a bad choice.
  • Staff of Rightful Supremacy: -1 from enemy wizards casting rolls within 13". Once per battle it can automatically dispel an endless spell.

Skryre

  • The Brass Orb: Once per battle, at the start of your hero phase, the closest enemy model within 6" is slain on a 6+. Ever wanted to capture Nagash in a Pokéball? With this you can!
  • Warpstone Armour: Roll a dice for each non-negated wound allocated to the bearer, on a 5+ the attacker suffers 1 mortal wound. Decent enough on an Arch-Warlock.
  • Esoteric Warp Resonator: At the start of each battle round, gain a Warpstone Spark if the bearer is on the battlefield, only to be used for the bearer and only for this battle round.
  • Skryre's-breath Bellows: At the start of your hero phase, you may roll a die for each other unit within 3" (friend or foe), they take D3 Mortal Wounds on a 4+. A good deterrent for enemies, but if your Warlock is within melee range that often, then you might be doing something wrong.
  • Vial of the Fulminator: At the start of the Movement phase, a Skryre Warmachine within 3" can move twice as fast. At the end of the phase, roll a dice, on a 4+ the unit takes D3 mortal wounds.
  • Vigordust Injector: In the Hero Phase, a Skaventide unit wholly within 12" may gain +1 to Charge and Hit Rolls until your next Hero Phase, but they take D3 Mortal Wounds at the start of your next Hero Phase.

Pestilens

  • Blade of Corruption: Re-roll wound rolls for specific melee weapon.
  • The Foul Pendant: Unbind spells even if not a wizard.
  • Brooding Blade: Roll a D6 for each model wounded but not slain by chosen melee weapon, on a 2+ model’s unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
  • The Fumigatous: Start of each combat phase, pick 1 enemy unit within 6”, roll a D6, on a 2+ that unit suffers 1 mortal wound, on a 5+ it suffers D3 mortal wounds
  • Blistrevous the Living Cyst: Add 2” to move characteristic and may reroll hit rolls for all attacks. Must transfer to another Pestilens hero within 13” each hero phase.
  • Liber Bubonicus: Can use plague prayers ability from the Plague Priest warscroll. If already a Plague Priest, can use ability twice. Not altered in the current FAQ, so a Plague Priest on Plague Furnace can use Plague Prayers twice AND Noxious Prayers once each phase.

Verminus

  • Things-Bane: Add 1 to damage characteristic of 1 melee weapon. This ends up boosting the damage output of your d3 weapons over 50%! Recommended artifact if you're just looking for a no-nonsense beatstick hero.
  • Shield of Distraction: Re-rolls saves of 1 and also nerf enemy heavy hitters and heroes with a -1 to the melee hit rolls of an enemy model within 3". This stacks with Lead from the Back, meaning that the affected model suffers from a -2 to hit for their melee against your War/Clawlord (and your other, non-monster heroes within 3" of it)
  • Screenskull Trophies: Subtract 1 from bravery characteristic of enemy units within 13".
  • Flaypelt Cloak: Re-roll hit and wound rolls of 1 for melee weapons.
  • Rustcursed Armour: Re-roll saves of 1. Pick an enemy hero with an artefact of power within 3" and roll 3D6. On a roll of 13 destroy the artefact (a 9.72% chance each turn).
  • Warpstone Charm: Every hero phase pick a unit within 3" and roll a dice. On 2-5 inflict 1 mortal wounds, on a 6 inflict D3 mortal wounds. (if no enemy units must pick a friendly unit or itself). Personally, I'd skip this one.

Moulder

  • Lash of Fangs: Pick 1 melee weapon, if unmodified hit roll is a 6 inflict 1 mortal wound in addition to normal damage.
  • Foulhide: Heal up to D3 wounds each of your hero phases. This one's probably tied with the Crown for the best of the lot, as keeping your Master Moulder alive is top priority as long if Moulder units make up an important chunk of your army.
  • Snap-snap Snarepole: Pick 1 enemy model within 3”, -1 to their hit rolls. Good for a Master that likes babysitting their Rat Ogors, but that's a risky business.
  • Rat-tail Snake: If unmodified save roll is a 6, attacker suffers 1 mortal wound.
  • Rabid Crown: Re-roll wound rolls for Moulder Pack units within 13”. This is very VERY useful for turning Giant Rats into piranhas on legs.
  • Fleshgift Vial: Once per battle in your shooting phase, pick an enemy unit within 6” and roll a D6. On a 1 they suffer 1 mortal wound, on a 2-5 it’s D3 mortal wounds, on a 6 it’s D6.

Eshin

  • Shadow Magnet Trinket: Once per battle the bearer can fight first in combat phase.
  • Farskitter Cloak: Once per battle remove the bearer and set them up anywhere on the battlefield more than 9” from the enemy.
  • The Three Fangs: Once per battle, in your shooting phase, pick an enemy hero within 6” and roll 3 D6. If all 3 rolls are 3+ and the total is more than the targets wounds characteristic it is slain.
  • Warpweeper Stars: One of the bearers missile weapons inflicts D3 mortal wounds if its unmodified wound roll is a 6.
  • The Cube of Mists: Once per battle pick an enemy unit within 6”. That unit cannot pile-in and suffers -1 to hit rolls.
  • Gnawbomb: Once per battle 1 terrain feature within 6” becomes a gnawhole until your next hero phase.

Spell Lore

Any Wizard Hero, depending on it's type, gets to choose one spell from the appropriate list.

Lore of Ruin

Grey Seers Only

  1. Scorch: casting 5, roll number of dice equal to casting roll, for each 6 an enemy unit within 13" suffers 1 mortal wound.
  2. Splinter: casting 6, roll a dice against a model within 6" and if you roll over its wounds, it is slain. Best against Unit command Models and elite units.
  3. Skitterleap: casting 6, 1 friendly hero with wounds characteristic of 12 or less (i.e. any hero except the bell, the furnace and Thanquol) can be placed anywhere on the battlefield more than 9" from enemy units. Teleporting: no longer for the Deceivers alone. Use this to nab objectives, send a Warbringer or Abom (Abom is not a hero) to crush the enemy backline, or even as a panic button to get your Warpseer/Bell/Seer (Bell is 13 wounds) out of whatever bullshit you've gotten them into. Combos well with the gnawholes allowing you to skitterleap a Verminlord/Seer next to a gnawhole deep in enemy territory, let off a couple of spells and then jump back in your movement phase.
  4. Plague: casting 7, roll a dice for each model in an enemy unit within 13", on a 5+ that model suffers 1 mortal wound.
  5. Death Frenzy: casting 7, pick 1 skaventide unit that is not a hero and wholly within 13", any model slain until the next hero phase can pile-in and attack.
    • its worth noting that this applies to death from any source, so if your models are in combat then you may use this in reaction to shooting, spell damage etc.
    • Anyone know if this pairs well with the Various suicide juices that skaven get (Skavenbrew, Vigourdust Injector, etc.)? Yes, Rules state "When slain" with no indication on which source slayed the model. So, model's slain from your Verminous Valor warlord trait will "death frenzy".
  6. Warpgale: casting 8, D3 mortal wounds against an enemy unit within 26". Charge and run rolls are halved, and flying units cannot fly until next hero phase.

Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism

Clan Skryre Only

  1. More-more-more Warp Power!: casting 7, 1 SKRYRE unit within 12" can re-roll hit and wound rolls until next hero phase. Then suffers D3 mortal wounds.
  2. Chain Warp Lightning: casting 6, select D6 enemy units within 18", each suffers 1 mortal wound.
  3. Warp Lightning Shield: casting 6, first 3 wounds allocated to the caster are negated. On a 4th wound the caster suffers D6 mortal wounds and the spell is unbound.

Endless Spells

  • Vermintide: useful as a Predatory Roadblock, when a Non-Skaventide unit is ends a normal move or charge near it, roll 13 dice and they take mortal wounds for each 6. Can also do this to one nearby unit when it moves, chosen by the moving player.
  • Warp Lightning Vortex: Note* the errata released July 2019 nerfed cast range to 13" down from the original 26". An Area Denial Spell, that creates a 7" equilateral Triangle( hard to set up on uneven Terrain) with any unit that is within 6" of it takes D3 mortal wounds on 4+ (D6 on an unmodified 6) with bonuses to the roll based on how many of the pylons they are in range of. If they happen to start their turn within 6" of it they can't run or fly. Because this thing activates in the movement phase, it'll fire off twice a round, three times when it's cast. Combo with shackles and the warp gale spell from the grey seer. If all that gets cast the effect is brutal.
  • Bell of Doom: Its a flying screaming bell! It has a janky "auto dispel itself and do damage" effect when cast or moved with a low probability of happening. Otherwise it is a 13" no battleshock bubble which also reduces enemy bravery by 1. However, it must roll 3d6 whenever it finishes a move, and on a 13 it explodes and does d3 mortal wounds to everything (this includes your poor rats) within 13". Decent, but likely to be outshone by the vortex due to its risk factor and the ready availability of other, less temporary (and volatile) methods of negating battleshock.

Warscrolls

  • the following True Skaven, Verminlord Daemons, and Moulder pack animals and Fighting beasts are all united by the Skaventide Keyword.

Named Leaders

  • Lord Skreech Verminking: combining weapons from several of the vermin lord options and the same 5+ save versus all damage, the king of the rats also brings a "choose each turn" multi-option buff that has six different effects. He can choose from +1 to spell casting, d3 wounds self-heal, exploding sixes mortal wounds off his plague reaper, - 1 to be hit by enemies or increased rend of the glaive from -1 to -3. In addition, he has the warpseer two spell cast and a really good spell that rolls 13d6 and does mortal wounds on a 4+ per dice. It then summons a unit of clan rats equal to wounds caused, making it go from good to amazing due to the potential swing on an objective being 14 on average (seven mortal wounds, seven new rats). He rounds off with a command ability that's a bubble of reroll 1s to hit within 13". A great character, although possibly outshone by the next guy...
  • Thanquol on Boneripper: oh lordy it's 400 points but you get a lot of bang for your buck here! The great grey seer and his custom ride are better than ever, combining solid spell casting and impressive ranged and melee damage with good resilience and a strong command ability in an all-round excellent package. Firstly, he's a 14 wound slab of health with the same 5+ save after save on top of a 4+ normal save. This is supported by a one wound self heal every turn. The behemoth drop off isn't too bad either and bone ripper will be useful as long as it is alive. The good stuff is with Thanquol and his magic, boasting Arkhan the Black levels of casting buff, double cast and dispel, and a fantastic spell which forces enemy heroes to fight either their allies or even themselves. Hit the five times waagh buffed Warboss with this and he will literally beat himself to death! Thanquol also access the excellent lore of ruin as a grey seer. Bone ripper is no slouch either and can be equipped with any combination of up to four weapons chosen from warpfire projectors or braziers. The damage output can get crazy high and he has clubbing blows to back up whichever option suits you best. Four warpfire throwers are possibly one of the most rage-inducing answers to horde lists ever created...(Actually, that seems like huge overkill, two will on average hit every model in the unit that is in range for a mortal wound). Finally, Thanquol has a command ability which, whilst situational, will be amazing when needed. He spends one cp and grants, three other heroes, the ability to use the rules book standard command abilities for no cost. Combine this with the masterclan CP regain and you could harvest 3cp back for spending one...can anyone else say "faq"?
    • Updated as of 08/07/2019: the Designer's Commentary states that 4 Warpfire Projectors will not allow you to roll 4 dices per model in target enemy unit, you only roll 1 dice for each model regardless of your equipped Warpfire Projectors. (It actually says the opposite of that, you roll 1 dice per model for each warpfire projector. The FAQ asked if they could do 4 times 4 dice per model)
  • Skritch Spiteclaw: Quite similar to the Clawlord, with a few key differences. His Wicked Halberd has a 2" range, and he returns models to his Swarm. But, he lacks the +1 attack per suffered wound ability of the standard Clawlord. Else, the stats are all the same. Overall, a pretty good pick, take alongside his Swarm for obvious reasons.

Leaders

  • Verminlord Warbringer: (Verminus, Behemoth, 280pts)Clan Verminus wizard daemon. like all Verminlords, he has 12 wounds, two spells per turn, degrading stats, a 5+ save against wounds and mortal wound, and a -1 bravery aura. Warbringers also re-roll wounds when near friendly swarms, and their punch-knife can deal extra damage. His best stuff is his command ability that lest Verminus to Reroll 1s to hit and wound and a spell that let d3 Skaventide Attack before they are killed.
  • Verminlord Deceiver: (Eshin, Behemoth, 320pts) Clan Eshin wizard daemon. A sneaker Verminlord, with an anti-horde shuriken, an increased ability to dodge missiles, and the ability to teleport almost any distant Skaventide hero to anywhere on the board more than 6" from an enemy. Teleport your Arch-Warlock smack in the middle of your opponent's forces, add a little bath-salts, and watch as your tesla bomb deals an absurd number of mortal wounds to everything around it (or explode in a blaze of drug-laced glory). A lot of dice need to be rolled for this to work out, but hey, why not?
  • Verminlord Corruptor: (Nurgle Pestilens, Behemoth, 280pts) a Daemon of Clan Pestilens. Cast two spells and abilities to deal mortal wounds. His COMMAND ABILITY gives Pestilens wholly within 13" re-roll to hit (his previous ability was converted into a Plague Furnace prayer). With his insane 10 attacks on his melee weapon, he can equip the Sword of Judgement from the Shadow Realm artifact list and have 10 chances to absolutely murder heroes and monsters. Otherwise, you can take the Blade of Symmetry (Hysh) for +1 Damage and double his already solid damage output.
  • Verminlord Warpseer: (Masterclan, Behemoth, 320pts) More Wizard of the Greater daemons, able to generate more command points each round and has an orb that gives a Re-roll to saves until you feel like chucking it a hero for D6 mortal wounds at 13". Its command ability is the no battleshock aura off the Screaming Bell (but at 26"), basically, which is fucking excellent. Between its orb and access to the Suspicious Stone artifact, this is easily the toughest of the Verminlords and makes a great general for any mixed Skaven army. Weirdly, due to the keyword restriction on spell lore, it can chuck out two spells per turn but can't know any of the lore spells. Good for the endless spells I guess?

  • Warpgnaw Verminlord (Forgeworld): (Masterclan, Behemoth, 320pts) The former Exalted Verminlord. He's generally inferior to the GW ones with only a glaive that's not as good as a doomglaive but has consistent damage (though it is subject to damage). He lacks a Command Ability, his only ability is being able to make a sudden arrival through a vanguard Gnawhole. It also can cast two spells, with a unique spell that can kill a single model if you roll a d6 and roll higher than its wounds, making it only useful on foot heroes and really weak things otherwise.
    • Link is outdated. The new Warscroll is only in Azyr. The Warpgnaw Verminlord no longer brings a unit with him. Instead only the Verminlord deepstrikes in next to a Gnawhole. It has gained 2 wounds and Terrifying.
  • Clawlord: (Verminus, 100pts)Your standard hero with 5 wounds, a 4+ save. he has 3 3+/3+/-1/d3 attacks and gains +1 attack for each missing wound he has. 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 wholly 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.

  • Clawlord on Brood Horror (Forgeworld): (Verminus, Behemoth 160pts) Note: This model has been removed from the Forgeworld site. A Clawlord riding a giant rat and getting +3", +3 wounds, d3 wound regen, and a +1 Bravery Aura. Also bumped the blade's Rend to -2 for whatever reason (although it does lose 'Cornered Fury'). Don't have the monster keyword so it doesn't lose Scurry Away and gains the full benefit of Verminous Valor (which is strange given the giant rat). The rat itself is no slouch with two weapons putting out a total of 9 well hitting and wounding attacks. After a massive point drop to 160, this unit is seriously worth considering over a Clawlord. With Verminous Valor a Clawlord on Brood Horror can be a massive pain the arse and likely worth the 60 extra points if you can spare them (do you need that extra endless spell?).
  • Warlock Engineer: (Skryre, 100pts) your Mad Science wizards. armed with a Wizard staff and Pistol. The staff can be overcharged for more damage. The only spells Warlocks know are Warp Lightning and one from the Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism. Warp Lightning is a 13" upgraded Arcane Bolt that has no limit to the number of times it can be cast and can be overcharged following the usual method.
  • Warlock Bombardier: (Skryre, 120pts) A Warlock with a Bazooka, which can overcharge its single shot's damage from d6 to 2d6. Otherwise, all the same stuff and engineer can do. Now 20 points more than his pistol-wielding counterpart. Not as much of a no brainer since the engineer's pistol wasn't actually much worse and actually more reliable when in range. With points going up all over the place in this army, these 20 points might make or break a list.
  • Arch-Warlock: (Skryre, 160pts) A Wizard in Power Armor. Has a Warlock staff, Powerclaw and can cast two spells. His Unique spell is a Warp Lightning that effects d3 units instead of one, but on a bad overcharge, you can kiss his furry arse goodbye.
  • Deathmaster: (Eshin, 100pts) The Skaven Ninja, able to hide in every skaven unit at once like Schrodinger's Fanatic. They throw a bunch of stars then charge in with either a dagger with rend and d3 damage or claws with 7 attacks. Always best to give this guy artifacts that improve his hero killing powers.
  • Master Moulder: (Moulder, 100pts) A heroic Packmaster with two very respectable weapon options. It can Heal a Pack model d3 wounds and also gives Pack units +1 to hit in melee. A steal for 100 points if you plan on making Moulder a pillar of your army. His Command ability can replace a destroyed Moulder Pack unit on a roll of 5+, on the border edge of your deployment zone. This might not sound like much initially, but it has a global range (so even if the unit dies on the other end of the table, you can attempt to bring it back) and can be used multiple times on the same unit. Having that blob of 40 Giant Rats you just spend three turns hacking away at coming right back is some of the most demoralizing shit imaginable. However, it both costing a command point AND needing a 5+ makes it incredibly situational and unreliable. The model is still a solid hero despite this.
  • Plague Priest: (Pestilens, 80pts) Your standard Pestilens hero. Surprisingly killy since he gets an extra attack for each weapon on the charge. He now only has two damage Prayers and deals more mortal wounds after combat to all non PESTILENS units (so keep him away from your not PESTILENS rats). Fairly inexpensive for the damage they can do and an easy way to get extra chances at a GREAT PLAGUE.
  • Plague Priest on Plague Furnace: (Pestilens, Behemoth 200pts) It's 3 Plague Monks with a Plague Priest on a huge censer-thing. It can't move its 6" unless within 6" of 10 or more friendly Skaventide models and it makes 2D6 attacks with Rusty Wheels and Spikes instead of D6 when it charges. At full health, the Great Plague Censer now does an impressive 1d3+4 mortal wounds on a 2+. On top of this, it stops battleshock for Skaventide and damages all the non-Clans Pestilens units that approach it. The Plague Priest on it gets different prayers, boosting Pestilens units either by giving them +1 weapon attacks or by allowing them to reroll wounds. You probably want 2 to make sure one or both of these buffs goes off on your Plague Monks. It's clearly a centerpiece. It will pack a punch thanks to the Censer, but it needs Plague Monks to push it around and pushing stuff around and not charging is something Plague Monks with their awful survivability really don't like to do. On the other hand, the Monks do very much like those tasty tasty buffs, yes-yes.
  • Grey Seer: (Grey Seer, 140pts) A generic spellcaster, but to be honest he's quite good at that. Can now cast and unbind 2 spells and has a unique spell, Wither, which can cause D3 damage to most units and hero's alike, and it also debuffs them for the next combat round. However, his best ability is probably the Warpstone Token; when you cast a spell you can use a token ( you have infinite, by the way ) and if you do so you roll 3D6, if the result is 13 then the spell is cast and cannot be unbound... BUT your Grey Seer is slain after the effects of the spell. On anything other than a 13 you can remove one dice and use the remaining result as your casting. Pretty good, but has a 10% chance of killing him. For what it costs ( 140 pts ) the Grey Seer is pretty good, and it's not a bad idea to use him in almost every Skaven list.
  • Grey Seer on Screaming Bell: (Grey Seer, Behemoth 240pts) Take a Grey Seer and put him on a GIANT BELL OF DOOM, and you have the Screaming Bell. The first thing to know about the Bell is that it can't move on its own and needs to be pushed by other SKAVENTIDE models. It can move 6" so long as there are 10 or more SKAVENTIDE models within 6". This movement reduces as the bell takes damage. This obviously means that it should stay close to the Skaven Infantry (which is where it should be in the first place). The most important ability of the Bell, however, is, of course, the bell! It peals in your Hero Phase, and to do so you have to roll two dices and see what effect the peal has. You only hurt yourself on a roll of 2, and that's D3 mortal wounds. The other effects are mixed, you can buff your army, damage the opponent's army or simply SUMMON A FUCKING VERMINLORD. Oh, and did I mention that even if your bell takes damage the effect of the peals doesn't change? Yeah. The only thing that decreases is the range of the buffs and debuffs, as well as the melee statistics, but that shouldn't bother you. The Seer on top of the Bell knows a different spell from the dismounted one, this time it damages units with low Move. Unfortunately, the Seer loses the Warpstone Tokens. The Bell also has a 5+ ward save and has a pretty good ability that negates battleshock tests within 13". It costs 100 points more than a vanilla Seer, but I'm sure it will repay its price.

Battleline

If you run a mixed SKAVENTIDE army these are your minimum required battlelines

  • Clanrats: , (Clan Verminus Min:20 Max:40 120/200pts) your Baseline Skaven unit, a hoard of cowardly rats that get stronger and braver when they have the numbers. Can have 40 of them for 200pts. They have a 6" move and shields that improve save as long as they have 10+ models, an ability that lets them retreat and charge and +2 to run. A possible strategy is to use enemy units as a slingshot to reach weaker targets or contest objectives by a series of move+charge+retreat+move+charge another unit. You have the usual decision of a better chance to hit or getting more models in range.
  • Stormvermin: (Clan Verminus Min:10 Max:40 120/450pts) An elite upgrade to clanrats with 2 attack rending halberds and 5+ save + shield. These used to be good, but with the loss of their old rule that let's them add 1 to hit rolls if they outnumbered their opponent, it made taking groups of 20 viable, but with the new rules, they encourage taking as many as possible, which is a massive price sink. They can be good for a 10 man fluffy bodyguard for your Clawlord or Grey Seer though (and if you're sick of 3x20 minimum clanrat battleline)

Eshin Battleline

Battleline if the army has Skaventide Allegiance and a Masterclan or Eshin general and all other non-Allies units are Eshin

  • Night Runners: (Min:10 Max:40 80/280pts) the mass vanguard slingers of Skaven. They can move 2d6” after setup and run and shoot. They have better aim than Grot Shootas and generate another hit on a natural 6. Pretty decent with proper Eshin synergies in place, but generally outclassed by the significantly cheaper clan rat, or the excessively killier plague monk in mixed lists.
    • Since they can be taken in units of 10, minimum sized units make for great cheap vanguard objective grabbers that are much easier to hide than 20 clan rats. They can also double as roadblocks and give your artillery/spell casters an extra turn of harassment before the proper engagements begin.
    • On a turn they get to shoot and charge, 20 Night Runners will do almost twice the damage an equivalent number of Clan Rats would do, but for only 33% more points. This makes them ideal for taking down other lightly armored targets as long as you can get the jump on them. Delivering a Deathmaster can also help with this.
  • Gutter Runners: (Min:5 Max:20 60/200pts) Elite version of Night Runners. Point for point, they do significantly more damage than night runners, but only have a marginally better save. Instead of vanguarding, they come onto any board edge on the first turn. Pretty cheap for an elite infantry option, especially since their small unit size makes it easy to get the regiment discount. A single unit of 20 and a Deathmaster won't set you back very many points but gives you a very flexible way of dealing with key heroes or even a pesky behemoth hero. At worst you have a strong backline harassment unit that packs a really solid punch.

Moulder Battleline

Battleline if the army has Skaventide Allegiance and a Masterclan or Moulder general and all other non-Allies units are Moulder

  • Giant Rats: (PACK, Min:10 Max:40 60/200pts) A weaker but faster than Clanrats with a more variable size. They have no save and the reach of their attacks increases the more models they have. Command points are likely required to keep them in line. Sit a couple of packmasters by them though, and they WILL NOT BREAK. These guys still benefit from the battle trait horde bonus, so they can be pretty killy. Just don't expect them to stick around too long.
  • Rat Ogors: ( FIGHTING BEAST, PACK, Min:2 Max:8 100pts) as the name implies they are Ogors like Fighting beast Pack unit with strong attacks and 1 out of 2 can have a Gunhand. Keep them near your Handler for +1 to hit and make them your champions for more wounds.

Pestilens Battleline

Battleline if the army has Skaventide Allegiance and a Masterclan or Pestilens general and all other non-Allies units are Pestilens

  • Plague Monks: (Min:10 Max:40 80/280pts) IT HAPPENED! As expected, Plague Monks have been hit by the nerf hammer in the most recent FAQ.
    • These are your basic Pestilens troop. They have less armour than your clan rats, but make up for it in raw damage potential. They have recently removed most of their command items, so that they just have these three: +1" to advance/charge; deal a mortal wound on a 6 when dying; and deal a mortal wound to a target within 3" on a 4+ or d3 mortal wounds on a 6. The old command items have been more or less converted into a new passive the unit has, which allows them to cause two saves on an unmodified wound roll of 6.
    • They recently went up by a point each, but this is entirely fair since they received two sizable buffs in Overwhelming Mass and the shiny new 6+ save. However, their bread and butter synergy engine (the plague furnace) went up by 20 points, which makes spamming these units a bit more taxing (also entirely fair). *After the warscroll nerf, we can only hope they might go back down in points
    • With the changes to their weapon options, the math has gotten much simpler when comparing them:
      • Plague Monks with two foetid blades no longer reroll hits, but instead hit on 3+. This is a slight nerf mathhammer-wise, but actually allows them to better synergize with Verminlord Corruptors who can give them reroll to hits anyways. When accounting for the Foetid Weapons ability, they will cause an average of 0.88 (1.38 with both Overwhelming Mass buffs) saves per model.
      • Plague Monks with a foetid blade and a woe-stave hit on 4s instead, but have a 2" reach. Since they're on 25mm bases, this means it's pretty realistic to have the entire unit get their attacks in. Each monk will cause an average of 0.67(1.11) saves per model. Remember, these are no longer two separate weapons. Gone are the days of 9 attack Plague Monks melting literally anything in the game.
      • The choice now basically boils down to how large your unit of monks is. At max unit size, the staves will likely be pumping out 50-100% more attacks than the blades, which equates to 12-50% more damage overall. Once the model count drop below 25 or so, however, the blades will outclass the staves in most situations.
  • Plague Censer Bearers: (Min:5 Max:20 60pts) Get an extra attack when charging, deal a mortal wound to every non-Clan Pestilence unit within 3" on a 4+ during your hero phase, and can reroll hits and Battleshock if they're within 13" from a Plague Monk unit. Basically, Censer Bearers on their own are nigh useless, but with proper support, they are even deadlier wound-per-wound than Plague Monks. The best use for these is swinging over the top of a line of Plague Monks. Yes, you won't be getting that charge bonus but these are too expensive point for point to be throwing away like, well, Plague Monks.

Skryre Battleline

Battleline if the army has Skaventide Allegiance and a Masterclan or Skryre general and all other non-Allies units are Skryre

  • Stormfiends: (Clan Moulder, Clan Skryre, Min:3 Max:6 260pts) The Unholy Collaboration Between Skryre and Moulder. Has Taken-taken a similar nerf Grundstok Thunderers suffers, the weapons are divided up between a Trio. the anti-infantry Rat can take either Warpthrowers or mortars, another can take Gatling guns or the ability for the unit to deep strike, and finally, another can take a pair of reliable or random fists. Skaven players who used them pre battletome will lament the loss of the triple warpfire projector unit. In their current incarnation, this may be the least attractive ranged choice. The projectors do not benefit from the engineer buffs available to the unit, nor can the be used after using gnawholes or grinder fists. The other weapon options do due to their longer range and standard hit mechanics.
    • they are also are part Moulder, lending their array of Weaponry to but they lack the Keywords to properly interact with them.
      • This also means that they can be included in pure Moulder armies, and are those armies' only dedicated range.
  • Skryre Acolytes: (Min:5 Max:30 60/320pts) Mass bomb-throwers, able to run and throw their globes with -2 rend and d3 damage. They look pretty bad on paper, but if you add in the buffs available to Skryre and you don't mind taking damage (hey its skaven) then this missile attack can become pretty impressive, with hit bonus and hit and wound rerolls and a damage buff all available.
    • A large unit is still quite cheap and makes a good hiding place for warpfire throwers too. Shame that you have to build them, one model, at a time for $10 USD per model. Better get ready to do some conversion (the now-defunct poison wind mortars make decent acolytes).
      • A quicker out of the box method for Acolytes would be the Skaven Bloodbowl team. Their Warpstone Footballs can be “passed off” as cluster mines that serve the same purpose as the poisoned wind globes.

Other Units

  • Ratling Gun: (Clan Skryre weapons team 60pts). Weapon teams are always a cheap way to increase your damage output, though lacks protection against retaliation. An infantry mower of 2d6 attack, that can double its roll, but like all weapon teams now, on a double the team auto-dies after it shoots.
  • Warpfire Thrower: (Clan Skryre weapons team 70pts). Close range anti-blobs that rolls for each model and deals mortal wounds on a 4+. When you overcharge, you roll 2 dice for each model but the Thrower dies on a roll of 1 or 2 made after dealing damage.
  • Warp-Grinder: (Clan Skryre weapons team 80pts). Allow you to deepstrike them and another unit. Similar to the Stormfiend Warp Grinder
  • Doom-Flayer: (Clan Skryre weapons team 60pts). A melee sports unit. can have some troubles with a movement of 2d6, but can give your clanrats the needed buzzsaws. They can boost their attacks from a d6 to 2d6s but will die after attacking on a roll of doubles or a 7.
  • Rat Swarms: (Clan Moulder Min:2 Max:8 60pts). what happens when you condense 5 Giant rats into a single unit, they can never get the numbers to benefit from Overwhelming Mass. They can resurrect one 4 wound model a turn. Wound per models and number of attacks Giant rats hit better and have more wounds, but Swarms are less likely to suffer battleshock and recover models. NOPE. Skip these. Any self-respecting unit in the game can put these guys down in two turns of melee, even with their returning models. Use Giant Rats instead, they can at least benefit from the Battle Trait horde bonuses.
  • Packmasters: (Clan Moulder Min:3 Max:12 60pts). No longer heroes. 1 in 3 may take a Things-Catcher. +1 to Melee Hit Rolls and double Bravery of friendly Clans Moulder Pack units wholly within 12". At 60 points, they should be considered. Just remember their buffs don't stack with each other, or a Master Moulder. Can't buff Stormfiends any more.

  • Skaven Wolf Rats (Forgeworld): (Clan Moulder, PACK, Min:5 Max:30 100pts). Giant Rats on steroids. With a Save to boot. Gets +1 to wounds the turn the charge. When normally hitting on 3s and wounding on 3s, have them charge, and keep them all in range of a pack of Packmasters or a Master Moulder, they're hitting and wounding on 2s. Overall, a very solid and relatively cheap cavalry option that'll rip into any soft target you launch them at.
    • The cheapest way to convert them (and still look good) is Chaos Warhounds with Stormvermin heads (add gasmasks and beads and you also have 10 Skryre Acolytes)
  • Spiteclaw's Swarm: These guys can be nasty little buggers. 4 models, each with a different weapon. All are hitting on 4's, wounding on 4's, most with 2 attacks, one with 1, most with 1" range, one with 2", a 6+ save, they're a mixed bunch. Ideally, you're keeping these guys within 13" of Skritch, so he can give them back D3 models per turn. Just don't let Krrk die, he can't come back. If Skritch kicks it, Krrk gets 2 extra attacks. Should the unit take a Wound, or a Mortal Wound, on all successive Wounds and Mortal Wounds in that turn roll a dice, on a 5+ you ignore it. Sit these guys in cover, cast Mystic Shield, they've got a 5+ save, re-rolling 1s, ignoring all past the first Wound on a 5+, D3 coming back in your Hero Phase. All in all, they're alright. Can be a nuisance.

Behemoths

  • Hell Pit Abomination: (Clan Moulder 240pts). With a 2d6 move, it can keep pace with a Doomwheel, or lag behind your entire army. Has a melee weapon that deals mortal wounds for every 2+ (degrading) rolled (one dice per model from target unit that is within 3"). Heals d3 wounds in the Hero Phase, all enemies in 3" subtract 1 from their Bravery, it can flat out ignore spells that target it on a 4+, and it has a 1/3 chance to heal d6 wounds the first time it's killed. It won't be dying quickly based on this. But with a 5+ save, and 12 wounds, it could just as easily die with good enough rend and some poor dice rolls.
    • If you want something that looks less like a centipede, the Beastman Ghorgon offers a good base for a Ratzilla.

  • 'Brood Horror (Forgeworld): (Clan Moulder FIGHTING BEAST 160pts). Note: This model has been removed from the Forgeworld site. Your Macharius to a Baneblade. It's not that impressive. Its rules read like they took the rules of the Abomination, made the move the above-average roll on a 2d6, improved the save by 1, knocked off 4 wounds, most of the abilities, and nerfed it's weapons a tad. One of them appears to be designed to fight from behind a line of your chosen Battleline, with a 3" range, but it only has 3 attacks with it, the average 3+/4+, no rend and 1 damage. It shines from the fact it's not a Monster and its other weapon is 6 attacks 3+/4+/-1/D2. Not too shabby.
    • If you want a livelier pose (and pay less), Skavify a Carnosaur. The 40K Lord Discordant offers a good model if you want a more mechanized look.
  • Doomwheel: (Clan Skryre 160pts). A Chariot with an overchargeable Gun and can run over and Mortal wound almost everything that was near it during the movement phase. You can also reroll its 4d6 move but any rolls of a 1 the second time, your opponent can run over your lines if you roll a 1 on a dice. It has a gnarly gun (1d6/3+/3+/-1/d3) that can potentially evaporate anything with decent rolls. Like most of the Skryre things, it can overcharge its Warp Bolts, but on a double, you take 2d6 mortal wounds. This is definitely a go big or go home type of unit and you'll be overcharging it every chance you get. Its speed will ensure you get in range of key targets (elite infantry/behemoths) and even with lower-end rolls (4-6 shots), you'll be doing a decent amount of damage. All in all, this is somewhat random and a little risky. It can win you the game or lose it for you. Fun times all around though.

Artillery

  • Warp Lightning Cannon: (Clan Skryre 180pts). Although it's fairly random, it can deal up to 6 mortal wounds when shooting and averages around 3-4. If a Warlock is next to it, he can overcharge the thing and double the number of dice rolled at the risk of a mortal wound for each 1 you roll. Interesting to note is that because of the way these things fire, they couldn't give less of a fuck about "Look Out, Sir!" rules. 3-4 mortal wounds can peel most of the wounds off of a support hero while overcharging it can straight up OHKO most heroes (although your Lightning Cannon will eat some mortal wounds itself). Use this to show those smug Sigmarine zoomers how we did things in the World-That-Was.
    • If you want a more high-tech look, the Myphitic Blighthauler is a good base - and you can use the parts you have left over from building the Plagueclaw.
  • Plagueclaw: (Clan Pestilens, 160pts). It's an indirect firing war machine. You know those. They have a nice range and can stand waaay back. Brutal against big hordes, okay against heroes and monsters (as D6 wounds at 30 inches, rend -2, is pretty good), and subtracts 1 from the target's bravery even if it doesn't hit. When targeting units of 10 or more, it'll force a save 55% of the time; 69% in the foulrain battalions. With only one shot per round, it is rather inconsistent. You'll want at least 2 if you really plan on them having an effect on the fight. An average war machine when used to it's fullest potential, and a terrible one when not.
  • Warplock Jezzails: (Clan Skryre, 180pts). your Rat Snipers. Park on the backfield and pick off the support units. They Re-roll to hit if they don't move, deal 2 mortal wounds on 6 to hit. and gain +2 against missiles in addition to the cover you should be standing on. Potent 3+ save right there. Mystic Shield, and it's 3+ re-rolling 1s. Another unit that gets a little crazy good with the engineer buffs in skryre. Extra damage on them is great and if you really want to kill off something at the range, then you can buff the hit roll and give them a wound reroll option of the low low price of d3 Jezzails dropping dead at the end of the shooting phase. As the game has very few long-range attacks, jezzails will mess with your opponent as they are a great medium wound hero killer.
    • Without any buffs (just their innate re-roll to hit), a unit of 3 is causing an average of 1.5 saves at -2 and 2 damage. A reliable way to deal 2-4 damage at a long-range, but not all that impressive given their point cost. They really start to shine when you take larger units and stack a couple of buffs. Take a unit of 6 with an accompanying skryre hero with the Vigordust Injector artefact (+1 to hit rolls). Use the artefact and a warpstone shard for +1 Damage, and now you have a 30" volley that averages around 3.5 saves at -2 and 3 damage. That's 9 damage against anything with a 4+ save (not even accounting for the potential mortal wounds on 6s). Even with Look Out Sir! taken into consideration, you're averaging 7 damage, which is enough to take out a large number of heroes in the game.
    • If you want some extra reach, throw "More-more-more warp power" on them too, and it bumps the damage output against a 4+ save to 11.85 damage. Again, this is before accounting for mortal wounds. This means you're likely killing a pesky 12 wound behemoth in a single volley with this setup. While it seems like a big investment for a unit that ends up self-destructing relatively quickly, there's not a lot of things in the game that can consistently pull that kind of damage off at such a long-range.

Scenery

  • Gnawholes: They might not seem like much, but the Skaventide terrain piece has a couple of nifty abilities that most Skaventide lists should try and take advantage of. Their only downside is that you are limited to 3 and they all have to be setup along the board edges.
    • As long as there is a Skaventide Hero within 6" of a gnawhole, you can transport any Skaventide unit wholly within 6" of that gnawhole to another gnawhole (within 6" but 9" from enemies). This can let you play whack-a-mole(rat?) with weapons teams or artillery pieces that might have become compromised. Or you can set one up in your opponents backfield and force them to baby sit it or risk an unpleasant surprise later in the game. It's a welcome mobility option and something to consider when scheming you army lists.
    • In addition, Skaventide Wizards and Priests get +1 to Casting, Unbinding, and Prayer rolls when within 1" of a gnawhole. Great for making sure you get that Warpgale or Warplightning Storm off, or getting that yummy prayer buff on your flanking Plague Monks. The +1 to unbinding is a juicy cherry on top. Synergizes well with your wizards' various drug addictions, giving Skaven a strong presence in the hero phase that many factions can't compete with.
    • Lastly, each gnawhole acts as deadly terrain for any enemy that ends a move/charge within (a rather pitiful) 1".

Battalions

Virulent Procession

(100pts) One Verminlord Corruptor, 2+ Congregations of Filth, 0-1 Foulrain Congregation, 0-1 Plaguesmog Congregation

At the start of your hero phase pick 1 terrain feature within 13" of the Verminlord Corruptor. Roll a D6 for each enemy unit within 3" of that terrain feature. On a 4+ they suffer D3 mortal wounds. Not a bad super battalion in a Pestilens list since you're likely running all these units anyways. 420 points for 3 CP, 3 Artefacts and some okay buffs - it's gonna depend on how much you value the CP/artefacts.

Congregation of Filth

(160pts) One Plague Priest on Plague Furnace, 2+ units of Plague Monks

Roll a dice each time you allocate wounds to the Plague Monks whilst within 18" of the battalion's Plague Furnace. On a 6 that wound is negated.

  • Under "ideal" circumstances, this probably saves 5 out of 30 monks that would have been killed before you fight back. Maybe it happens twice in a match, but that's still only worth 80 points and super situational. You are usually better off with more monks. Taking this is contingent on how much you value CP/Artefact/First Turn.

Foulrain Congregation

(110pts) One Plague Priest, 3 Plagueclaws

Add 1 to wound rolls for missile attacks whilst within 13" of the battalion's Plague Priest. Bumps each Plagueclaws success rate from 55% to 69% (when targeting units of 10 or more). You may as well go all in and give the Plague Priest Architect of Death to bump it up to a respectable 80%.

Plaguesmog Congregation

(120pts) One Plague Priest on Plague Furnace, 2+ units of Plague Censer Bearers

Re-roll the dice that determines if any enemy units suffer mortal wounds when using the Poisonous Fumes ability.

Warpcog Convocation

(60pts) One Arch-Warlock, 2-5 Enginecovens chosen from the list below

Weird sort of miniature Super Battalion which consists of an Arch-Warlock and some smaller Battalions that can only ever be included via this battalion. All of them convey buffs to certain units, so long as they're within 13" of either the Warlock you took with the coven, or the Arch-Warlock leading the whole Convocation.

Rather expensive point-wise, as each enginecoven is priced like a "real" battalion but do not grant you the bonus CP or artefact (you'll get only one CP/artefact from the entire Warpcog Convocation). (Points dropped in July19 FAQ) If you're taking this, you'll want to lean into the buffs you get and take large amounts of the units that benefit from them. This would probably make for a fun 1-drop army that has a lot of pretty efficient ranged weapons.

Arkhspark Voltik

(60pts) One Warlock Engineer or Warlock Bombardier, 1-3 Warp Lightning Cannon

In your shooting phase, pick one of the included Warp Lightning Cannons and lower the result of dice roll to determine that cannon's power by 1.

  • You can apply the buff to one Warp Lightning Cannon per phase, even if you take more than one with the coven.
  • The only Enginecoven that doesn't have a Stormfiend tax. This makes it the cheapest of all the Enginecovens.

Gautfyre Skorch

(70pts) One Warlock Engineer or Warlock Bombardier, 1-4 units of Stormfiends, 1-5 units of Warp-Grinders, 1-5 Warpfire Throwers

2 units can travel with the coven's Warp-Grinders instead of 1, as long as they're all part of the same enginecoven. Now that the FAQ made it actually cheaper than just buying a second Warp-Grinder, this is a solid enginecoven to take if you were already planning on using them. You don't get the extra body to warp-shank people with, but it helps fill out your Warp Convocation and get those battalion benefits.

Gascloud Chokelung

(90pts) One Warlock Engineer or Warlock Bombardier, 1-3 units of Stormfiends, 2-5 units of Skryre Acolytes

Reroll hit rolls of 1 with missile attacks from the coven's Acolytes or Stormfiend's Wind Launchers.

Rattlegauge Warplock

(70pts) One Warlock Engineer or Warlock Bombardier, 1-3 units of Stormfiends, 1-3 units of Warplock Jezzails, 1-5 Ratling Guns

Reroll 1s for missile attacks from the coven's Jezzails and Ratling Guns. This sounds like a promising enginecoven at first, but unfortunately it doesn't affect the Stormfiends' Ratling Cannons and the Jezzails are already usually getting rerolls to hit.

Whyrlblade Threshik

(80pts) One Warlock Engineer or Warlock Bombardier, 1-3 units of Stormfiends, 1-3 Doomwheels, 1-5 Doom-Flayers

Add 3" to moves for any units from the coven as long as they started in range of the buff.

Skratchnik's Warpcoven

(40pts) One Warlock Bombardier, 1 units of Stormfiends, 1 Doomwheels, 1 Warp Lighting Cannon

The exclusive battalion comes with the Carrion Empire box. As I don't have that box myself, I don't know if this needs to be part of Warpcog Convocation or can be independent. In the first battle round, roll a dice each time a wound or mortal wound is allocated to a model from this battalion. On a 5+ that wound or mortal wound is negated.

Claw-Horde

(180pts) One Clawlord, 1-3 units of Stormvermin and 2-9 units of Clanrats

When the Clawlord uses their Gnash-gnaw ability, instead of picking 1 unit within 13", pick all battalion units within 13". Conveniently contains 3 battleline units. The buff itself is pretty situational since it can be tricky/clunky trying to keep two or more units wholly within range.

Fleshmeld Menagerie

(160pts) One Master Moulder, 0-3 Hell Pit Abominations, 1-3 units of Packmasters, 1-4 units of Rat Swarms or Giant Rats and 1-4 units of Rat Ogres

When the Master Moulder uses Unleash More-More Beasts ability, a new unit is added on a 4+ instead of a 5+.

Slinktalon

(160pts) One Deathmaster, 1-4 units of Gutter Runners and 2-8 units of Night Runners

During the combat phase in which the Deathmaster is deployed, re-roll all hit rolls for units in the battalion. Arguably a must have for any Eshin-heavy lists. The main reason to take this battalion is for that extra relic to make your Deathmaster more killy.

Allied Armies

if you devote yourself to a particular clan it's been FAQ'ed that you can’t take another skaventide clan as allies. FAQ explicitly states that models with the SKAVEN keyword (which is pretty much everything Skaven) cannot be taken as allies in a Skaventide army.

Nurgle

Our one and only ally option. Only permitted if you take a Pestilens Warlord. There are a lot of options here (over 30 leaders!) so it's recommended you look through the Maggotkin of Nurgle Tactics page if you're considering them as an ally.

  • Horticulous Slimux can spawn a single Feculent Gnarlmaw that allows your Nurgle units to advance and charge when near it. This can make spacing your forces a lot easier and help ensure you get to initiate fights on your terms.

A quick note here - you, unfortunately, can't use any of the Nurgle spells like Blades of Putrefaction when allying with Nurgle, since you will only get access to these spells if your army is NURGLE allegiance (as "the Lores of Nurgle" is an Allegiance Ability).

Mercenary Companies

Why ANY of these companies would work with Skaven, even for the “promise” of coin, is beyond comprehension. But at least you got options if you do have a reason.

  • Blacksmoke Battery: For your non-exploding cannons. Vital if you are not playing Pestilens or Skryre
  • Greyfyrd: Worth a try with Skryre
  • Grugg Brothers: Adds the necessary heavy hitters to your army if you are playing pure Eshin
  • Gutstuffers: Good choice if you do not take Moulder
  • Nimyard’s Rough-Riders: Can be quite useful as you do not really have a Skaven equivalent (except the Doomwheel if you squint really hard).
    • Building your own Skaven version would start at some wolf rat riders converted from Chaos Hounds, and hand-building all their guns from toothpicks.
  • Order of the Blood-Drenched Rose: Blood Knights make a fine addition to the usual Doomwheels and Hellpit Abominations.
    • Making them more Skaven-like is a bit difficult, but you could e.g. make Stormvermin bikers.
  • Rampagers: You already have cheap melee fodder. They are more reliable when it comes to Bravery, though. Can be worth it with Skryre or Eshin.
  • Skroug’s Menagerie: Also a good choice for pure Eshin
  • Sons of the Lichemaster: Resurrecting meatshields, what more do you want? Just do a head swap on the necromancer and you are golden.
  • Tenebrous Court:
Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
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