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Grey Seer

2021-11-11T09:01:12Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:AD36:1047:46B6:FE66: /* Notable Figures */

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[[File:Grey Seers.jpg|thumb|right|400px]]

'''Grey Seers''' are powerful [[Skaven]] [[mage]]-[[priest]]s, capable of channeling eldritch energies and unleashing them in searing bolts of destruction. Their grey or white fur and the bony horns sprouting from their heads mark them as the chosen of the vile Skaven God, the Great [[Horned Rat]]. These prophets also act as the chief agents and emissaries for the Council of Thirteen. These twin roles mean that Grey Seers wield tremendous influence in the Under-Empire. Grey Seers possess a rank and position greater than all other Skaven (barring the Lords of Decay themselves). This isn't to say that Grey Seers are above the self-serving manipulations and treacherous scheming of the Skaven- indeed, they epitomize it. The Grey Seers guard their power jealously and it is a foolish Warlord indeed who doesn't immediately prostrate themselves at the feet of a Grey Seer and humbly acquiesce. The Rune of the Grey Seers is enough to strike fear into the hearts of friend and foe alike.

An interesting fact concerning Grey Seers- their numbers are always set for 169 (13 times 13, since 13 is a lucky number in Skaven society and squaring that number means more luck!); should a seer die, his apprentice may take his place. Their leader, the Seerlord, is given the prestigious position of seat #2 on the Council of Thirteen, as he is the "Right Hand of the Horned Rat".

==Notable Figures==
'''Grey Seer Thanquol'''- for more information, please visit his page, linked [[Thanquol|here]].

'''Seerlord Kritislik'''- the last Seerlord of the Skaven following the End Times, Big K has been credited with being truly self-serving, even by Grey Seer standards. He established [[Clan Scruten]] as his own personal army, showering them with fine clothes, powerful weapons and nearly endless warpstone tokens for spending. Of course, his reign couldn't last forever and, when he died, it was spectacularly painful! During the work for the Master Plan- the Skaven's idea for reaching the Great Ascendancy (the Skaven prophecy for world domination) -they decided to blow up Morrslieb- the Chaos Moon, which was made of warpstone (supposedly). To do so, the whole Grey Seer Order was to perform a ritual that would drag the moon out of orbit and insanely close to Mallus (the name of the Warhammer World, according to Age of Sigmar). Following a massive raid on both Estalia and Tilea, the Skaven broke up into typical clan bickering (as did the Council) and, during the attempt at restoring order, the Horned Rat appeared in the Council's chamber. Stating that Big K had wasted too many favors for his liking, the Horned Rat scooped his "right-hand rat" up and- after showing him one last bit of kindness -ate him whole!

'''Grey Seer Skrittar'''- see [[Clan Scruten]] page for more information.

'''Grey Seer Vulscreek'''- a Grey Seer making his grand debut in "Total War Warhammer 2", this Grey Seer has [[Clan Mors]] and, to a lesser extent, Clans [[Clan Pestilens|Pestilens]], [[Clan Skryre|Skryre]], and [[Clan Rictus|Rictus]] under his control. ([[Clan Eshin]] and [[Clan Moulder]] were too busy with their own agendas to bother with the Vortex.) His loyalty to the Council is absolute, as is his belief in their plan. He serves as adviser to [[Queek Head-Taker]], [[Lord Skrolk]], [[Tretch Craventail]] or [[Ikit Claw]], giving them small tasks to handle as they make their move against the Elves, Tomb Kings, Lizardmen and Vampire Coast. Alas, his faith in the Council's plan couldn't prepare him for an untimely death at the hands of a frantic Skavenslave scribe assigned to one of the Clans, who (upon finding out that his Clan- and he -will be sacrificed) tears his throat out and steals the ringing rod for the great device that the council has ordered built to summon the Horned Rat into the real world. Thus, all Grey Seers are marked for death by the mystical device and, if the Skaven win the game, then they are all consumed by the Horned Rat!

'''Kranskritt'''- one of the stronger Grey Seers, Kranskritt was called to watch over the City of Pillars (also known as Karak Eight Peaks). This put him into direct conflict with [[Clan Mors]] commander Queek Headtaker. Hoping to avoid dying, he had summoned a Verminlord- one '''Soothgnawer'''.

'''Grey Seer Farquan'''- a Skaven with a snobbish upbringing, Farquan had been born and raised within Skavenblight. He quickly clambered up the ranks of the Grey Seers but, as is typical of Skaven, he reached too far too soon. His enemies, however, were merciful and exiled him to reinforce an outpost at Karak Azgal, rather than kill him. What he found was pathetic. The local warlord- ruler of Clan Vechiare -was weak and his men scattered, so a takeover was quick to occur. After taking control, he built a shrine to the Horned Rat and set about building a clan large enough to break his exile and welcome him back to the Council of Thirteen. It's likely he could've achieved this goal had he not shooed away Warlock Engineer Skreet (who built Clan Skreet in retaliation). Much time has passed since then, leaving Farquan old and incapable of walking (unless aided by his one-of-a-kind mount, Skarl the Rat Squig). He has become a master of the sneak attack and sabotage.

'''Seer Lord Scrench'''- a dreaded Grey Seer of considerable skill, he was the first owner of the ancient relic known as the Amulet of the Horned One. As long as he wore it, nothing could kill him- knife wounds would easily heal, spells would fail and even poisoning fell apart. Alas, the Horned Rat's favor is nothing if not fickle, as it one day vanished when his students turned on him and killed him with a million knife stabs (a la Julius Ceasar). Though he died, the Amulet still survived- always appearing on those whose faith in the Horned Rat never waivered... which wasn't for long!

'''Grey Seer Gnawdoom'''- the Grey Seer responsible for reclaiming the Skaven's "Black Arc"- an artifact of awesome power, so the Skaven say -from the clutches of Bagrian, an Ancient Scholar and the master of La Maisontaal in Bretonnia. His assault in IC 2491 would've failed had he not allied himself with the undead forces under Lichemaster Heinrich Kimmler.

'''Grey Seers Peetsneek and Itchitt'''- Grey Seers born from the same mother/litter, both of these Seers were part of the "Blood in the Badlands" campaign. Peetsneek, the elder of the two, was sent to keep an eye on Warlord Fawsquikk, a rebellious former member of [[Clan Mors]] and did so with the aid of a Screaming Bell. Itchitt, the younger of the two, begrudgingly helped his brother, but was always scheming to steal the bell from his brother for "relief" purposes.

'''Grey Seer Skurrik'''- rebellious by Grey Seer standards, Skurrik (one of the Age of Sigmar Grey Seers) seeks to control the magic of life more so than the Skaven Magic Lores of Ruin and Plague. Years were wasted trying to glean that power from the fallen. During this time, Skurrik imagined creating "an army of arcane super-beings" so that he might take over the Masterclan. As luck would have it, the [[Stormcast Eternals]] came along... it seemed everything was in place! The problem- how to control such beings? One deal with Verminlord '''Vermalanx the Corruptor''' later and Skurrik now had access to a spell that could command (and bind) even Sigmar's storm-things for capture. When that power lands in Skurrik's paws... Sigmar preserve us!

'''Grey Seer Rasknitt'''- was the leader Clan Fester in game Warhammer The End Times: Vermintide. He's not so much of a boss so much as an occasional environmental hazard in the final level, raining down green lightning on you while he takes a breath for another round of his favorite activity: laughing evilly and making love to the sound of his own voice. Seriously, this guy has a laugh for every occasion, and each one is more gloriously hammy than the last. It's almost worth all the dying just to hear all of his chortles and gloats. He reappears in Vermintide 2, still hamming it up and spewing green lightning at you.

'''Grey Seer Reeknik'''- relic-hunting has captured Reeknik's attention and, right now, he searches for one Age of Sigmar artifact alone- the Wryd-Engine (or, to be more accurate, its heart). A relic apparently in the hands of the Fryeslayers, Reeknik began a bold plan of constructing a dangerous weapon that could burn the duardin to a crisp. Alas, it caused the Warpfire Flood, so a new approach was taken- the Verminous Machine (a robotic snake that could swallow dwarves and their fiery kin whole!). This failed, too, but has created a number of tombs in the Wryd-Engine that Reeknik will take full advantage of!

'''Seer lord Tisqueek'''- is the second most powerful of the Seerlords within the Priesthood and as such is Seerlord Kritislik greatest rival and ally. Little is known about Tisqueek, other then the fact that he orchestrated the attack on the invasion of Nuln 2499 IC, using Grey Seer Thanquol as his agent. He would later sell Thanquol's pelt to Clan Pestilen after the Grey Seer failed to recover the Wormstome from Under-Altdorf, a circumstance which failed when Clan Eshin took Thanquol under their protection!

'''Grey Seer Thratquee''' - the Grey Seer who rules over Under-Altdorf, the Skaven colony that, well, lies underneath the Empire city of [[Altdorf]]. Feigns being an shameless hedonist so debauched he elicits a level of envious disgust in other grey seers, but is actually a ''lot'' more clever than he seems. His secret weapon is that he has used his researches to transform his two personal breeders, transforming the normally docile and indolent [[Giant Rat|giant rat]] so that they possess powerful muscles, surprising vigor, and a ferocious protective streak; these [[amazon]]ian monsters are a lethally effective pair of bodyguards, as no other skaven suspects them of being dangerous until it's too late.

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Skaven]][[Category:Chaos]]

Thanquol

2021-11-11T07:37:45Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:AD36:1047:46B6:FE66:

[[File:Thanquol Grey Seer.png|thumb|right|400px|Living proof that you can in fact, fail upwards.]]
{{topquote|Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.|Arthur Miller}}
{{Topquote|He lives! NOOOO no no no no no it cannot BE! Not [[Gotrek & Felix|HIM]]! Not again! Not like this! Always the same! I want him dead dead dead! AAAAAAGH!|Thanquol's reaction to discovering Gotrek has shown up in the Mortal Realms and is already wrecking his plans}}

'''Grey Seer Thanquol''' is one of the main antagonists of [[Gotrek & Felix]] series and the first [[skaven]] to have his own trilogy of novels, featuring his attempts against the enemies of the Skaven, which, amusingly, always end in utter and complete disaster both for the skaven at his command and up to a point, to his enemies. Every time he is in a plot it's a death sentence for any Skaven surrounding him, with casualties mounting to entire skaven settlements. He's so bad at actually letting the skaven win that a [[Slann]] that has Thanquol dead to rights deliberately lets him go and whips up a favorable current to carry him back to the Old World, because he has visions of just how badly Thanquol will screw things over for the skaven.

Yes, that's right, the member of a race that considers skaven worse than ''[[daemon]]s'' is willing to let Thanquol go, as his survival will be ''that'' beneficial to the lives of everyone who are enemies to the skaven.

As any of the readers may attest Thanquol is also a source of endless lulz, as he often acts like your classical Saturday-morning cartoon villain, being a funny mixture of Team Rocket, Skeletor, Invader Zim, and Dr. Robotnik, with more than a little [[Transformers|Starscream]] in the mix. In other words, he is basically [[Abaddon]] as portrayed by /tg/.

He also does warpstone dust, as like [[Snowflame]], he is empowered by his use. Then again, this is common for all Grey Seers.

He is arguably the most powerful Grey Seer that ever existed and has even had Teclis thinking that maybe he should be practicing his spells more. However Thanquol's full potential is lost under a swarm of distractions, incompetence, cowardliness, anxiety, backstabbing, pesky kids and their damn dog or just plain fucking up because it wouldn't be Skaven if everything went according to plan. An example of this is when Thanquol attempted to summon a Vermin Lord but then accidentally summoned Skarbrand, the most powerful of Bloodthirsters, due to a spectacular mistake in interpreting the use of a powerful relic (it was a mummified Grey Seer's paw that had secretly been sabotaged long before Thanquol found it). Keep in mind that Chaos sorcerers have to sacrifice hundreds of slaves to even attempt this and even the sorcerers themselves are likely to explode from the backlash, but instead Thanquol, showing no signs of repercussion, simply chewed another warpstone rock candy, washed his hands of the entire mess and casually (but quickly) strolled away while both dwarfs and skaven proceeded to start killing EVERYTHING with Skarbrand happily smooshing single book exclusive characters out of continuity. Oh also Queek Headtaker was over there, who would NEVER trust Thanquol again for scaring him that hard, but what'evs.

As you might (or might not) have expected, Thanquol's the big boss character for the Skaven-focused fourth book of [[The End Times]], which is, fittingly, named ''Thanquol'' in his honor, yeah. No, seriously, he actually receives a massive competence boost as a well as a new mega-Boneripper, which he rides around on, much like how the [[Glottkin]] ride around on their youngest brother.

Considering Chaos won The End Times this makes him canonically more competent by default than Abby and his missfired warp rift "I-AM-BEST-ANTAGONIST-VILLAIN MORE THAN THE ARMLESS CHAOS-THING YES-YES!".

He was confirmed active in AoS as of Realmslayer making him the oldest known skaven alive. He is now a feared Skaven mastermind going by the moniker "The Grey Lord", whose brilliant master plan to destroy the multidimensional city of Hammerhal would have succeeded if a certain [[Gotrek & Felix|one-eyed dwarf]] hadn't returned from chaos and wrecked it almost incidentally. Thus stoking speculation that Gotrek's return is not to find Felix but to prove that Thanquol can never ever have nice things. Most recently Thanqoul caused one of the greatest fuck ups in skaven society and started the year of the Drowned Rat. How he did this was simple: he had thousands of skaven dig a tunnel into the realm of death from Skavenblight, "YES-YES A MOST CUNNING IDEA-THOUGHT!!" but this being Mother Fucking Thanquol it was bound to fuck up and so the tunnel opened up into the bottom of a sea. YES HE BUILT A TUNNEL INTO AN OCEAN OF SHYISH, which caused immense flooding and drowned thousands of skaven, "well at least it could not get worse-worse". Now because this being [[nagash|Old Naggie's]] domain and these waters being part of it, OF COURSE the water was full of zombies and OF COURSE any Skaven killed by the Shyishian waters or zombies became zombies themselves and the Age of the Drowned Rat began (this also means Thanquol unintentionally helped Nagash find the [[Idoneth Deepkin]]). "WELL AT LEAST WE STILL LIVE YES-YES, ISN'T THAT RIGHT BONERIPPER 999?". He somehow managed to stop the invasion, saving the Blight City, then he fled fearing envy and blame from his rivals.

So he actually gets shit done now. Sometimes. The new Skaven Battletome mentions how some of his plans can go spectacularly well or screw up in the most catastrophic ways. Also, nowadays he receives the occasional help in escaping from his own failed schemes from the Great Horned Rat himself, who finds his antics absolutely lulzy. Thanquol seems unaware of that fact thinking it's just his endless talent and skills. "LIES-LIES! I AM AWARE-KNOW HORNED SENPAI NOTICES ME AT LAST-LAST!".

Thanquol got his very first speaking role in ''Shadow of the Horned Rat'', although the credits are completely vague on who was responsible for his voice acting. If he had a NEW voice actor, you can bet it would be Joe Pasquale. Failing that, Richard Horvitz.

==Thanquol's Brilliance in Action==
[[File:Thanquol & Boneripper-model.jpg|thumb|right|300px|His 1st model, and ironically depicted with his 5th Boneripper.]]
''Thanquol paced. The plan was not going well. Surely, thought Thanquol, he was the most potent of mage-rats, the most exalted of the Council's agents. Why, then, did the Lords of Decay keep sending him inferiors to work with? Warlord Skrich of Clan Krik had jeopardised the task of destroying Citadelle La Bouef. True, Thanquol had promised the drawbridges would be down, but that had been the fault of those worthless Gutter Runners. Yes, the poison Thanquol had bought for them turned out to be so watered down as to be safely drinkable, but he had saved many warptokens. Thanquol gnawed his pale, rubbery tail, recalling how the Duke had counter-attacked, sending the Clanrats fleeing. The fool Assassin should have already slain that manling! Of course, Thanquol had reassigned the Assassin to kill several upstart Skaven in his own ranks, a mission from which the Clan Eshin agent had never returned. Such failures could only be devious sabotage! But who, thought Thanquol, would dare match wits with so mighty a personage as himself? The hidden foe must be dangerous indeed.''

==Relationship with Gotrek & Felix==
As mentioned above, Thanquol first appeared as a recurring nemesis in the tales of suicidal stuntie and mighty whitey, with Gotrek repeatedly destroying Thanquol's minions and plans, and slaying several incarnations of Boneripper. This culminated in ''Elfslayer'', when Thanquol finally captured Gotrek & Felix only to learn that they had never even known his name and they were not, as he had thought, dedicated to his personal destruction, but had merely butchered their way through what were to them nothing but random encounters. This did not sit well with Thanquol's ego, to say the least.

Here is an example of him using his limitless cunning and subtlety as he manipulates the duo into dealing with one of his rivals, a series of events which would directly lead to the failure of the invasion of Nuln that he was in charge of:

''Frends – be warned! Evil ratmen of the trecherus skaven klan Skryre – may they be poxed forever, espeshully that wicked feend Heskit Wan Eye – plan to attak the Colledge of Ingineering this nite during the dark of the moon. They wish to steel your secrets for their own nefare-i-us porpoises. You must stop them or they will be wan step closer to conquering the surface world,<br>
Yoor frend.''

Things have changed following the jump to AoS, as upon learning of Gotrek’s survival, Thanquol had a legendary freak out and ordered the slayer’s immediate death. Gotrek now sees the rat as a proper enemy and swore to cut him down in the name of Felix’s dead father, who had died previously due to Thanquol’s schemes. The seer and the slayer finally reunite face-to-bearded-face in “Blood of the Old World”, where they duel for control of a Realmgate leading to the World-That-Was. Thanquol lost and the gate was destroyed but the fight was spectacular.

==Thanquol on the Tabletop==
Thanquol is one of the oldest playable Skaven special characters, having appeared in the 4e skaven army book alongside [[Lord Skrolk]], [[Ikit Claw]], [[Throt the Unclean]], [[Deathmaster Snikch]] and [[Queek Head-Taker]], and by the Age of Sigmar he appears to be the only survivor of the bunch.

===4e Version===
In this edition, Thanquol costs 380 points and can be accompanied by Boneripper for +45 points. He has M5, WS6, BS6, S4, T4, W4, I7, A4 and Ld7, wields a sword, is a level 4 Grey Seer, and may carry up to 4 magic items. He has the special rules Warp Tests (reroll the dice for any Warp tests he takes) and Blessing of the Horned Rat (each time Thanquol is wounded, roll a D6 for each wound; on 4+, that wound is inflicted on a friendly model within 2" instead chosen by the skaven player), which protects him against spells, hand-to-hand and shooting attacks.

Boneripper has M6, WS5, BS0, S5, T5, W3, I6, A3 and Ld5, and the special rules Cause Fear, Stupidity and Bodyguard. With this latter rule, Boneripper must stay with Thanquol at all times; Thanquol can send him to attack an enemy model or unit within charge range, but once that foe is dead, Boneripper must immediately begin moving back to rejoin Thanquol. As long as they are together, Boneripper does not have to test for psychology separately.

===6e Version===
One of only two characters actually statted in his book, the other being [[Throt the Unclean]] of [[Clan Moulder]]. He comes as a pair with Boneripper the automaton, cosing 560 points for both of them and using up a Lord slot and a Hero slot.

He's a level 4 Skaven wizard and his stats are basically those of a Grey Seer, except for having +1 to both Initiative and Leadership in comparison. Thanquol is someone you don't want to be sticking in melee if you can, since he's got no armor and only a basic close combat weapon to fight with. You can stick him on a Screaming Bell for +200 points, if you want. He has the unique rules of Warpstone Addiction (can re-roll a 1 caused by a Warpstone Token, but the second result stands), Blessing of the Horned Rat (4+ Ward Save, but each successful save "deflects" the wound; if there is a Friendly model within 6", that model takes a wound instead), and Arch-rivals (Fears and Hates [[Gotrek & Felix]], who in this edition had rules in Warhammer Annual 2002). He carries the Staff of the Horned One (knows +1 spell), 13 Warpstone Tokens, and the Amulet of the Horned One (roll a D6 at the beginning of each turn in which Thanquol has 1 or 2 Wounds left; on a 5+, regain 1 Wound).

Boneripper has M5 WS3 BS- S5 T5 W3 I2 A3 LD10 and he sports close combat weapons and a 4+ armor save. He has the special rules of Automaton (Unbreakable + immune to poison attacks), Cause Fear, Warpfire Thrower (breath weapon that inflicts S4 hits with a flame template, casualties cause a Panic test), Safety Valve (cannot fight, fire upon or charge/overrun a unit containing a Clan Skyre member) and Pawn (dies if Thanquol dies, roll a D6 at the start of each turn; on a 1, he malfunctions and has a 50-50 chance of either just standing there doing nothing for the turn, or fighting under enemy player control for their next turn).

===7e Version===
Thanquol and Boneripper come as a matched set for 450 points, using up a Lords slot.

Thanquol is a Grey Seer with +1 Initiative. Not that you want to be sticking him in close combat if you can, since he's got no armor and only a basic close combat weapon to fight with. Thanquol's a level 4 wizard who can mix and match his spells from both the Ruin and Plague lists, and who can switch one generated spell for The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell. He starts with D6+2 Warptokens and bears the Warp-amulet (Talisman; roll a D6 at the beginning of each turn in which Thanquol has 1 or 2 Wounds left; on a 5+, regain 1 Wound) and the Staff of the Horned One (Arcane Item, Thanquol knows +1 Spell, giving him five in total). He has the common Skaven rules of Strength in Numbers, Verminous Valor, and Scurry Away! He also has the unique rules of Warpstone Addiction (can re-roll a 1 caused by a Warpstone Token, but the re-roll only works once and if re-rolled will cause a Wound on a 1 or a 2) and Blessing of the Horned Rat (4+ Ward Save, but each successful save "deflects" the wound; if there is a Friendly model within 6", that model takes a wound instead).

Boneripper is a Rat Ogre with - 1 Movement, Initiative 1, +1 Toughness and Attack, and Leadership 10. He causes Fear, is Unbreakable, has a once-per-game Warpfire Thrower shot, and his Bodyguard of Thanquol special rule means that he shuts down and is pretty much dead if Thanquol gets more than 12" away from him. If Thanquol dies/flees, Boneripper is lost too.

===End Times Version===
[[File:Thanquol-Boneripper.jpg|300px|thumb|right|"Death-death or glory! Or, to speak the truth, glory is for me over the manthings, and death is for you and your future brotherlings, Boneripper. I hope-hope that isn't a problem."]]
Alright, so, how does Thanquol change in the End Times?

For starters, he's another combined rules model, like [[Karl Franz]] Ascended, [[Malekith]] the Phoenix/Eternity King and the [[Glottkin]] before him. So you're looking at +200 points on his old 450pts cost for a single M6 WS4 BS3 S6 T5 W8 I5 A5 Ld7 Monster (Special Character) unit.

He keeps all of his old special gear and spellcasting abilities (Staff of the Horned Rat is +1 to Casting Rolls now, though). He's now an Unbreakable Large Target that causes Terror, and Warpstone Addiction now makes him immune to taking damage from warp-tokens. He still has Blessing of the Horned Rat as a danger to everyone else around him, though.

Boneripper sports two sets of Warpfire Projectors. He uses them as clubs in melee, but it gives him something to shoot in the Shooting Phase; Warpstone Ranged Weapons, S5 Flaming Attacks, Multiple Wounds(d3), Move or Fire, Quick to Fire, , Wildly Off-target (hits friendlies within 12" on a misfire). He's also got a special rule that lets him shoot at two different targets in the same shooting phase. Alternatively, if close combat's more your thing, you can trade them all out for Warpstone Braziers - Warpstone Melee Weapons, Strength +1, Flaming Attacks, Multiple Wounds(d3), Storm of Attacks(reroll failed to-wound rolls), Warp Fumes(all models in btb make T test or suffer a wound). This is a one or the other switch, you can't mix and match.

{{Skaven-Characters}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]
[[Category:Skaven]]

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs

2021-11-11T06:09:44Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:AD36:1047:46B6:FE66: /* Why play Dwarfs? */

{{Topquote|Kazukhan-kazakit-ha! (Look out, the Dwarfs are on the warpath!)|Game battle chant for Dwarfs}}
This is the tactics page for the Total War: Warhammer version of The Dwarfs.

==Why play Dwarfs?==
*Because you want to sit and watch as your enemies are blasted away while coming towards you.
*Cause you're under 5'5 and want '''vengeance''' for all the short jokes.
*You don't want to do too much micro, so an army without much in the way of mobility and cavalry doesn't bother you as much.
*You enjoy having infantry that won't die after being slapped by a wet noodle.
*Slay everything without a beard!!
*FLAMETHROWERS!!!
*SATISFY THE GRUDGE!!!!

===Pros===
*'''Durability''': You are a tank faction. Most of your units are categorized with high armour, melee defense and leadership. Even your tier one and chaff are very tanky compared to counterparts from other factions. This is further supplemented by the innate magic resist many of your units have, which ''slightly'' compensates for your otherwise complete lack of magic. Additionally, with their naturally high leadership, dwarfs do not usually break unless hopelessly outnumbered or if you screw up massively by getting cavalry charged in the rear. Frankly, your units will hold out forever.
**Your magic resistance got nerfed in the third game to ''only'' resist magical spells. Still useful, but now units with magic attacks, I.E Daemons, are going to be way better at cracking you open.
*'''Range''': Guns, guns and more guns! Dwarfs have some of the best blackpowder units in the entire game. Thunderers and Cannons can lay a whooping on anything they are firing on, and their artillery isn't anything to sneer at. Even their non-AP range units are very good for their price, and it's not hard for them to earn their points back as long as they are defended.
*'''If they get close, Nut 'em!''': As if being being one of the best factions at shooting was not enough, their missile units can also hold their own in close quarters better than most.
*'''Airforce''': Gyrocopters with their anti large can get you control over the air, and their ability to kite monsters into oblivion is a good skill to have. Even Gyrobombers have a niche for their blob killing capabilities after recent buffs.
*'''Runes''': Where other races rely on the fickle Winds of Magic, you have your reliable runes. Runes supply surprisingly good buffs and debuffs that can help your army out, making them a great way to make sure your infantry stays in the fight a bit longer. The fact that they aren't limited by a power reserve also means that they'll remain a viable option well into the latter stages of a fight, where other factions might begin to tap out of their mystical power.
*'''Anti-large''': You laugh when the enemy brings big monsters. With all your AP missiles, Anti Large artillery and slayers, you have the one of the easiest times killing monsters out of any faction in the game.
*'''Strong Economy''': It's campaign specific but yeah, it turns out the species who's renowned for being the best at making shit is also one of the best at making money. The resource building chains go up to level IV instead of stopping at level III, you can mass produce Dwarf Beer anywhere. Putting together Doomstacks of Top Tier Dawi troops is easier.
*'''Good for Beginners''': Everyone was just starting once, if you are new to Warhammer Total War or just Total War in general the Dawi are (ironically enough) forgiving. Something like the Wood Elves is fragile and has a limited margin for error, Dwarfs on the other hand have more of a fudge factor in most match ups. Not to say that it's easy mode playing dwarfs, but the likelihood of things going pear shaped in a second is lower.

===Cons===
*'''Lack of Mobility''': With no Cav, monsters and slow infantry, Dwarfs are the least mobile faction in the game. You will spend the majority of the game standing still.
*'''Lack of Magic''': Though your most recent rework makes your runes a damn good alternative, you don't really have magic. This can pose a problem when you face similarly physically durable armies in battle and lack a reliable, magical alternative for damage. Additionally, though you defensively have a 25% resistance to the arcane, many large vortex spells will still sting quite a bit and your complete lack of magical healing means it'll be hard to bounce back from the damage you do take.
*'''Chariots''': Chariots are the bane of a Dwarf players existence. They don't have any real way to lock them down and, as you'd expect, AP anti infantry can really kill what the Dwarfs want to do on the battlefield. Due to the rework to how bracing and knock down works, this isn’t as bad as before, but chariots can still be a problem
*'''Predictability''': Most veteran players know what's going to happen when Dwarfs are picked. They are going to go for a cheap, numerous and sturdy front line and a lot of guns and artillery. This means that Dwarfs are easy to plan for as they only have one real viable tactic. Building an army around fighting Dwarfs is something players from all races know how to do.
*'''Lack of Good Lord Options''': Do you like the Runelord or Thorek? No? Well you better start because in multiplayer they're your only viable options. Grombrindal is an ok duelist but honestly Dwarf lords in general kind of suck. With no mounts and no way to stick to their targets it's hard for them to get anything done. This problem got better with the Twisted and the Twilight due to the changes to knockdown effects, but sticking to targets will still be hard
*'''Hard campaign''': With all the changes to the factions around them, the Dawi have fallen on some pretty hard times. The lifetime of WH2 dotted the landscape around Karaz-A-Karak alone with a huge number of guaranteed enemies that you will have to look out for, with your most reliable allies in the Empire being very far away. The other subfactions don't fare much better and your slow growth seriously hurts your ability to expand, especially when compared with your most dominant enemies, the Greenskins of the Badlands and Clan Mors further down the road.
*'''DLC''': A con for everyone, but fortunately you get off easier than many others. Unfortunately, a couple of your best units, namely Runelords and Rangers, are in fact locked behind DLC and if you want to really use your Dwarfs to the fullest, you'll need to pay the toll.

==Universal Traits==

*'''The Great Book of Grudges''': The fact that the sacred Dammaz Kron went unmentioned on this pages for so long merits an entry on its own. The Book of Grudges documents every slight committed against your faction, including legendary grudges that you start out with. Whenever something bad happens, i.e. you lose a settlement, get raided or a hostile faction repeatedly traspasses on your turf without you allowing it, it merits an entry in the book. These entries can (and will) accumulate over time, and depending on how much your Dorfs disliked the transgression, will vary in severity, which fills up a meter that gives you some penalties and some bonusses. High severity from unresolved Grudges gives you minor public order and research speed penalties, but it also gives all of your armies a charge bonus (since the Dwarfs are so pissed off) and increases the chance of Slayers and Giant Slayers popping up in your Regiments of Renown pool, where they can then be recruited instantly into your armies. Resolving Grudges and Legendary Grudges (such as retaking Karak Eight Peaks as Belegar Ironhammer) also earns you powerful bonusses (Money, Oathgold, small Buffs for the entire faction ) and special Runes.
*'''Oathgold''': The secondary resource of the Dwarfs. Practically identical to the Mortuary Cult of the Tomb Kings, with the key difference being that the Dwarfs can make much more stuff with Oathgold and that the stuff is much more abundant. Oathgold is earned through resolving Grudges, doing missions and quests, Gold Mines and some special buildings such as the Brightstone Mine in Mount Gunbad. Oathgold, combined with trade goods, can be used to create items for your Lords and Heroes, which makes it downright trivial to kit out every single character on the map with some special gizmos to make them really powerful. Oathgold can also be used to make Character and Banner Runes, the former can be applied as equipment to individual characters (with up to 3 individual runes at maximum), the latter functions like Banners that you can give units to give them special bonusses and abilities.
*'''Expert Charge Defense''': Barring Slayers, every single one of your units has Expert Charge Defense, which nullifies charge bonusses and also the momentum of units charging into your staunch line of angry Dwarfs.
*'''Magic Resistance''': Every Dwarf has a built in 25% Magic Resist (Spell Resist in WH3). Consult the main page for WHFB Dwarfs as to why.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Thorgrim Grudgebearer:''' The high king himself, and the only large non-war machine unit in your roster, as he is carried on a massive throne sled by some burly dwarfs, Thorgrim isn't huge on offence, better than say mid-tier combat lords, but he's mostly just a hard to kill brick of leadership. Dwarfs in range of him just become slightly harder to break, which isn't saying much given their default morale, and he's not easily sniped. This results in him being kind of underwhelming, you know he's not going to die like a bitch, but you also know that he's not exactly going to recoup even a quarter of his cost. Is kind of safe in campaign play for beginners, but Grombrindal is overall superior. - Pass.
*'''Ungrim Ironfist:''' The Slayer King, bane of anything taller than six feet, Ungrim is the opposite of Thorgrim; all offence, with low defence. Ungrim is actually pretty good in terms of being a hero-killer and monster-hunter, he's not going to solo Tyrion or Kroq-Gar, and don't even think of monster lords like Kholek or monstrous mounts such as a Tomb King on a war sphinx, without a unit to bog them down. The problem with Ungrim is that while he can throw hands and live up to his title, he eats a lot of damage for a dwarf, or just in general for a combat lord, he's easy to snipe with massed missiles if caught in the open, and while he can butcher most things sent his way, he'll only be able to do this once or twice in a battle before he's at serious risk of dying. Don't let that 120 armour & unbreakable make you think he's a tank, Ungrim's Melee Defence is quite low for a combat lord, and that low dwarf speed means he can by kited to death. Thorgrim lacks the damage to recoup his cost, Ungrim lacks the defence to recoup his costs. If playing with an ally that has access to Lore of Life he can be kept alive, but you're asking a lot of resources to support the Slayer King. - Pass.
*'''Grombrindal:''' THE WHITE DWARF, Grombrindal doesn't bring anything really special to the table, he's a decent duelist, although lacking the balls-to-the-wall offence of Ungrim Ironfist, Grombrinal is nowhere near as risky for a combat lord. The flashbomb ability can lockdown mobile heroes and give the white dwarf a few easy hits. Doesn't quite bring much for the rest of the army, but is the best legendary lord for cost-benefit tradeoffs. He can fight, he can survive, and he can make the entire army Unbreakable with a reusable map-wide buff. - Niche but competitive in that niche. In Campaign, he is easily the best LL the Dwarfs offer. His blue skill tree affects ''your entire faction'' and the four blessings you can choose every 20 turns (10 after picking a specific skill) are all very powerful, a whopping +25% Research Rate is no joke, as are +10 Melee Attack and Defense for every unit in Grombrindals army.
*'''Belegar Ironhammer:'''(DLC) Belegar is really just a wall, he's harder to kill than Thorgrim as they have comparable stats, but he has a silver shield for 55% missile resistance. That's all. Just an insanely hard to kill lord, sure his offence isn't terrible, being better than Thorgrim's on base stats and a nice buff can be popped to go higher. But honestly you're paying a lot for a lord that won't die, and generally speaking Dwarfs in Total War: Warhammer aren't a faction that is centred around their generals or heroes. No real wizards to throw high-impact spell effects, no mobile heroes that can exploit small gaps to flank units or hunt down supporting pieces like buffers, wizards or artillery crews. The only upshot to taking Belegar's subfaction in multiplayer is getting access the ancestor heroes who are damned hard to kill, but are also the only dwarf units that are scared of magic damage, which can sort of be a mind-games thing because the default assumption to seeing Clan Angrund picked is that ancestor heroes are on the field, so grab some magic damage to delete them, but then seeing that there are no ghost dwarfs means that the magic damage is actually a big waste considering all dwarfs have 25% Magic Resistance. - Pass.
*'''Thorek Ironbrow:'''(FLC): With the rework comes a new LL and Thorek serves this role, being the latest (and most likely last) new contender in the Lustrian Thunderdome in the Vortex Campaign, and starting at the southernmost tip of the map in Karak Zorn on Mortal Empires. He serves as a supercharged Runelord with access to a unique mount that messes quite a bit with enemy spellcasting and improved Runic Magic on his own part. In the campaign, his legendary conservativeness translates into bonusses for "traditional" Dwarfen ranged units like Quarrelers and Grudge Throwers. Not to worry though, since he starts with a Rune of Burning that makes the Catapult projectiles [[Awesome|FUCKING EXPLODE]] and dramatically increases the combat value of Quarrelers in his own Army quite significantly (arguably making them even better than Thunderers). His campaign goal revolves around finding several lost Dwarfen artifacts, which can then be used to craft powerful buffs for your whole faction. [[Derp|He also can make enemy casters explode.]] - Best Multiplayer lord pick.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''Dwarf Lord:''' No, just no, he suffers from the same issue that the legendary lords suffer from, being too slow. But wait there's more, the generic lord is easier to kill in combat, provides less army support, and does less damage. He's not even the cheapest option to help save costs. I mean he has a shield, but its only bronze. Unless you've got some kind of bet riding on a battle and there's a specific stipulation that you cannot use any other lord, screw the money because he's too crap. That said compared to generic foot lords in other factions he's quite difficult to kill, which is more advice for fighting Dwarf Lords in campaign really. PASS
*'''Runelord:'''(DLC) Yes, yes yes. The one competitive General in multiplayer, the Runelord is just a walking bubble of passive buffs that make your low tier units good, and your good infantry units even better. Has good active abilities, like Master Rune of Oath & Steel which gives +60 armour to all dwarfs in range, or Master Rune of Wrath & Ruin, that cuts move speed and charge speed of enemies in its area by 72%. This is the lord pick that supports the dwarf army, and don't think he's some kind of wizard that dies when someone looks at him funny, while the melee defence is low at 40, the Runelord has the same 120 armour as the other lords, plus up to 35% missile resistance, sharing 20% of that with nearby allies. Slapping him on an anvil of doom gives a map-wide buff of +15% magic resist to all friendlies. TL;DR fucks magic, gets buffs. - Good if you want Thorek but a bit cheaper.

===Legendary Heros (Clan Angrund Only)===
All [[Clan Angrund]] has such a strong relationship with their ancestors, they come back as ghosts. like all ghosts, they have a 75% physical resistance instead of magic resistance, With magic attacks, Unbreakable, but no armor and less heath than normal. they have Frear and terror making them good at chasing the enemy off. They themselves are weak to magic attacks, but who takes that much offense magic against dwarfs anyway?

*'''King Lunn Ironhammer:''' is one of the two ghost Thanes, being the offensive one, with slightly more Melee attack than a normal thane.
*'''Halkenhaf Stonebeard:''' the other ghost Thane, being the most defensive of the par with significantly lower melee attack but a very high defense of 65 and silver shield, letting him minge with enemies for a protracted time to proc terror routs.
*'''Throni Ironbrow:''' Mostlickly to take as he is a Runesmith, so someone that needs protection while also being in the front lines.
*'''Dramar Hammerfist:''' the ghost engineer so paying extra for a harder to kill gun lines buffer and better at chasing away those that try to disrupt them.

===Heroes===
*'''Master Engineer:''' Basically a must if you're running more than 2 artillery pieces, buffs artillery, has a decent sniper rifle of his own, not great in a fight with anything beyond hound packs and light cavalry, so don't expect him to be an effective guard for the cannons he's buffing. However if there is another unit nearby casting Entrenchment right before they rout will make the unit hold the line and fight even after being routed. On campaign they also boost your army's mobility. Aaaaaand the Dwarf Rework happened, buffing him even further with the ability of the Vampirate Gunnery Wight to restore lost ammo to artillery pieces for up to five times. Just too good to miss out on if you're bringing a bunch of cannons (and who doesn't, honestly).
*'''Runesmith:''' Basically a squishier version of the Runelord, has many of the same buffs, both passive and active. With the Dwarf rework, these guys have gone from being merely decent to amazing. While utilizing a rune puts every other rune on a shared cooldown, this only applies per caster; having multiple Runesmiths allows you to stack multiple buffs simultaneously or across multiple units without having to wait out the full 60 second global cooldown. They might not necessarily be an auto-include persay, but having one or two of these guys in your army is strongly recommended.
*'''Thane:''' While they still suffer from being slow, Thanes can be used more aggressively than legendary lords. Kit them out with the Rune of Slowness to gimp enemy mobility, or give them the Ironbeard's Ring and coordinate with a source of fire damage: Flame Cannons, Dragonback Slayers, Warriors of Dragonfire Pass, basic Irondrakes, or Brimstone Gyrocopters, all of these will deal serious damage to units inside the debuff aura.

===Infantry===
*'''Miners''': The closest thing to cannon fodder in the Dwarf Roster, miners are cheap AP units. Also give "speed" and breadth to Dawi list by vangarding.
*'''Dwarf Warriors''': Did you know that a unit of Dwarf Warriors costs 475 gold but can hold against 3 units of Empire Swordsmen, costing 400 gold each, for just over 2 minutes and racking up roughly 90-100 kills before dying/breaking? Dwarf Warriors aren't great, just good, and are very much just a shield wall frontline. They will trade positively against most infantry that are tier 1-3 excluding units with high AP values or anti-infantry buffs. Dwarf Warriors aren't the same as elite heavy infantry however, they will break in time, if rear charged, if attacked by great weapon units, if hit with leadership debuffs, or if attacked by characters. This is a unit that buys time for a unit in the second line to get in position to assist, do not assume you can just deploy them as a single line and have artillery sit safely behind them.
**'''Warriors of Dragonfire Pass'''(ROR): Slightly better warriors that deal fire damage in combat, not a guaranteed pick most of the time, but good against any faction that is vulnerable to fire, consider pairing with a Thane carrying Ironbeard's Ring to boost damage.
*'''Dwarf Warriors (Great Weapons)''': You know how Dwarf Warriors can hold frontlines for a time but need a second line unit to assist them, this is cheapest of the second line units. Regular warriors have shields, 40 Melee Defence, and charge defence against large units, Warriors with Great Weapons don't have those defences, they get armour piercing damage which is the kind of offence needed to make up for the vanilla warriors' shortcomings. Don't try and use them as a frontline unit, and replace them when you can with other melee infantry.
*'''Longbeards''': Warriors +1 really, they buff the leadership of other units (its the generic Encourage passive so no stacking with lords), so consider mixing them with warriors. Cost-wise your mostly paying for better Melee Defence, better Leadership, the leadership aura, and Immune to Psychology compared to vanilla Warriors. A common question is which is better for cost, Longbeards or Warriors, but outside of fighting undead armies that have tons of fear/terror effects, the answer to the question is; use both. While the differences between the two units are obvious in comparison, to the player on the other side of the battlefield it doesn't matter much because a Dwarf line is still a solid formation that is hard to break. Longbeards work good in the wings to buff leadership in the flanks, and having warrior units means you can save gold for more missile units and artillery.
*'''Longbeards (Great Weapons)''': While the difference between shield Warriors and shield Longbeards isn't much, the great weapon variant favours the Longbeards. Being behind the line means you can reposition them to apply their auras and a common occurrence is for fast-moving skirmish infantry to run around the frontline and charge the second line units. GW Longbeards can handle these surprises a lot better than the GW Warriors, but on the other hand, you may not be deploying wide enough to need the aura effects, in which case the Warriors can save you gold.
**'''The Grumbling Guard'''(ROR): Not too bad, stat wise its a bit more armour & melee attack, 10 more leadership, and 13 more Melee Defence, which puts them at a whopping 51 Melee Defence. You don't get any improved damage output with these guys, instead you get an ability that replenishes 9% of vigour for them and nearby allies. This may not sound like much, but fatigue debuffs are crippling for units, and Dwarfs rely on grinding things out so even a small vigour buff to some units is good even if it just moves them from exhausted to very tired. But wait, this ability has infinite uses and a low cooldown so spam it away. While Hammerers do the same job but better, the Grumbling Guard are fantastic for keeping Ironbreakers in better condition than their enemies.
*'''Slayers''': Slayers are kind of weird. They're unbreakable, quick (for a Dwarf), hit hard, and do a lot of damage with no consideration to survivability. This means that they can seriously fuck up higher-tier units but on the same time are vulnerable to cannon fodder. It does not matter if you're a crappy goblin with a crappy spear, it's getting through a Slayer's hide as much as a Chosen's Daemonforged Axe. When using Slayers, hold them back so that other units, especially ones with charge defense, take the brunt of the charge before moving the slayers to counter-attack, and while it might cost you the charge bonus, having them attack through the buffer unit really improves the lifespan of your slayers (Probably much to their chagrin). Note that if you ever leave them in the open, missile units just have to imagine shooting them to wipe the unit, which is an expensive mistake. Also a definite must take against vampire counts and Tomb Kings with all their fear effects but do not ever think about using them against Vampire Pirates because they will get shot to pieces before any fear/terror units get close for the unbreakable to matter. Also, leave them at home against Wood Elves, or if you have fore-knowledge that your opponent likes horse-archer tactics.
With the Dwarf rework that dropped together with Thorek Ironbrow, they went from terrible in Single Player to a pretty good choice for the early game, since you can now recruit them anywhere as long as your grudge meter is up. It also makes unlimited Slayer Doomstacks lead by Ungrim Ironfist a terrifying sight to behold.
**'''Dragonback Slayers'''(ROR): Slayers with better MA & MD, and they get physical resistance on top of the shield defense. The real value comes with their passive that activates in melee, it gives them fire damage, fire resistance, and applies slow debuff and the flammable trait for weakness to fire (doesn't stack if the enemy already has the flammable trait, but will stack with other effects of a different name that reduce fire resistance). The physical resist, slow debuff and the combo of fire damage and flammable debuff makes this unit a generally better pick over vanilla slayers, note that they do not get the fire resistance outside of combat so getting hit by flaming missiles outside of combat will hurt, the lore of fire spells are still subject to dwarf magic resistance though.
*'''Giant Slayers''': These are just super slayers, too costly to run a lot of, they will instantly blend light cavalry units like marauder horsemen or Ellyrian Reavers that dare to charge them, not that you should be using them to counter these units, it's just funny to see happen. Giant Slayers are basically Thorgrim Ironfist as a many Dwarfs instead of one. What they don't kill will be pretty close to death. Cannon fodder might counter slayers, but Giant Slayers dish out enough melee damage that you only need to worry about elite infantry and high mass units charging them. More vulnerable to shooting as they don't get the missile defense that Slayers get, these guys are expensive but do the job. Not recommended as a staple unit in army builds due to their cost, but good to pick if you're against monster or cavalry heavy armies.
*'''Hammerers''': Your well-armored, AP Damage dealing elite Dwarfs, not the same tank as a Longbeard but will deal serious AP damage. They have two major problems, though: First is the issue that they are not as tanky as their ungodly pricetag might suggest, the second and far worse one is that they are more of an offensive unit meant to break through enemy lines - in a faction whose entire shtick is turtle up and grind it out. In practice they often fall flat because they bring neither the tankiness of Ironbreakers that makes them withstand charges from Black Orcs, Swordmasters and the like, nor do they have the speed and offensive power needed to compete with units they are supposed to go toe to toe with, demoting them to mere chaff clearing duty, for which you have far more efficient options for. It's best to not bother them, sadly.
**Peak Gate Guard(ROR): The ultimate anti-armor unit, they go through heavily armored units like swordsmen through skavenslaves and then let other Dawi also participate in the fun.

===Ranged Infantry===
*'''Thunderers''': Like Empire handgunners, but you don't need to babysit them as much. A very useful unit even in the lategame that won't break the bank.
*'''Irondrakes:''' Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. Their flamethrowers are considered artillery so they cannot be blocked by shields and inflict morale penalty upon anything they hit. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Skolder Guard'''(ROR): Replaces Lava for Steam to be an anti-armor unit. Much tougher than an Irondrakes with Physical resistance which is nice to have when the enemy gets a sneaky charge. They will multch full-plate units quickly given they have an even faster reload speed but watch out as you will also burn through the Irondrakes limited ammunition just as quickly.
*'''Irondrakes (Trollhammer Torpedo)''': the Anti large version of the Irondrakes, having rocket launchers instead of Flammers. Often times Irondrakess can just melt through the armor of most things they are pointed at, sometimes they are Calvary or monsters that have enough armor to shrug off that current of magma.

===Combined Infantry===
*'''Quarrellers''': Boring but practical. Like dwarf warriors, they're able to trade shots with the tier 1 ranged units of pretty much every other faction and winning. They also come with armor piercing, which makes them a budget option for shooting stuff like chaos warriors. However, they do less DPS per gold spent than similar units like empire crossbowmen and darkshards.
*'''Quarrellers (Great Weapons)''': Similar to Quarrelers, except they give up shields in exchange for armor-piercing melee weapons. Won't win much in close combat, but they'll take down more enemies before they're overwhelmed, particularly against squishy units like harpies.
*'''Miners (Blasting Charges)''': take that Cheap miner, then give them a single volley for bomb-throwing. Each model only gets one bomb, so make it count. Turn off ''Fire at Will'' and select the targets manually. A well-thrown Blasting Charge will decimate most charging infantry.
**'''Ekrund Miners'''(ROR): A regiment that Gets 3 Blasting Charges instead of 1. Depending on how well you managed them, that's paying less gold then recruiting 3 Blasting Charge Miners which matter very much in the gold restricted multiplayer.
*'''Ironbreakers''': The fact that Ironbreakers are one of the toughest units in the game would make them a key part of a Dawi late game army. Add to that blasting charges and you have something which can stomp most other infantry into the ground, blowing away a quarter of their hitpoints and ruining their charge before finishing off the survivors. Their only downside is that their damage in hand to hand is not that great, but that's what thunderers, slayers and artillery is for.
**'''Norgrimlings Ironbreakers''':(ROR) Even better Ironbreakers, With bigger model size (so more bombes and unit health), a faster throwing arm, Vanguard, and Immune to Psychology. Overall a more powerful unit that can holds back the hords for longer while dealing more casualties.
*'''Rangers''': Sneaky Dwarf Quarrellers getting Vanguard and Stalk for a surprise dwarf ambush. They have better speed to help with positioning and catching enemies at least when compared to other Dawi. They're armour is pretty good for most armies, but among dwarfs they're on the lower end of defenses.
*'''Rangers (Great Weapons)''': Ranger equivalent of Quarrellers(Great Weapons) with a one key difference; unlike the great weapon quarreler the rangers give up their crossbows entirely in favor of shorter ranged, higher AP throwing axes. Surprise AP flanking is a thing any dwarf list could ask for. Keep in mind that each dwarf only carries 8 axes, so they'll run out much quicker than other rangers. Once they run out of throwing axes they become a decent anti-armour skirmishing unit, although they're low defense means they need to chose their opponents carefully.
**'''Ulthar's Raiders'''(ROR) a unit your should be more careful with than just normal Rangers with Great Weapons, as they get the [[witch hunter]]s ability to Marked a unit for death. You do get a fair amount of range despite having only infantry speed, being able to strip an enemy of a lot of their protection they had against ranged weapons. Good take if your using a Focus fire strategy, assuming your can keep the Raiders safe while making back their cost.
*'''Bugman's Rangers''' Surprisingly not a ROR. Improved Rangers, having the regenerative and drunkenness properties of Bugman's liquid courage. they are better at fighting off harassers while their improved shooting and HP recovery help them win archer fights. These are to rangers as longbeards are to warriors: a straight upgrade assuming you can afford it. In MP, they can last longer without support and work best if you're good at micro. If not, you're probably better just leaving them at home in favor of more units of regular rangers.

===Cavalry===
Does not exist. See Slayers, Rangers and Air Units if you want something fast, you beardling.

===Artillery===
*'''Bolt Thrower:''' Your cheaper anti-large Artillery. More accurate and shoots faster than a cannon, but limited splash and penetration power. Best used to take out elite cavalry and monsters early campaign. Outclassed by cannons.
*'''Grudge Thrower''': Your first artillery unit. Fills a role like an empire mortar as a long-range anti-infantry weapon giving it has the largest radius of splash damage on impact.
**'''Gob-Lobber (Grudge Thrower)(ROR)''': Like the Grudge Thrower, but better. Also has live Goblins bolted to the projectiles. Causes morale penalties to targets, which stacks with the penalty for being hit by artillery.
*'''Cannon:''' Your classical artillery, Slow to fire but harder to dodge, Best used as an Anti-large weapon while also killing models in high armor units, through can have difficulties hitting if the energy zigzags too much like most Artillery units.
*'''Organ Gun:''' An effective armor unit clearer by being 4 mini cannons per model. Organ Gun is one of the best artillery at clearing out infantry but not efficient when eliminating swarms of the cheap chaff that is more common in mulitplayer.
*'''Flame Cannon''' Jack-of-all-trades artillery. Great area damage to deal with blobs of infantry and while it doesn't cause AP damage its base damage is high enough that it doesn't matter.

===Air Units===
The closest thing to a "cavalry". Flying Bombers. Fill a role as the fast-moving guns to shoot at enemy flanks and drop anti-infantry bombs. the rotor blades can also dish out a good amount of melee damage but having almost no melee defense makes them relatively fragile despite having high armor. They are often safe in the air but keep them away from other flyers and AP missiles. Despite this, they are absurdly fast having speed in the 200s to run from most problems (only Pegasus Knights or Hawk Riders could catch them without nets or debuffs). To use effectively will require some mico.

*'''Gyrobomber:''' Your dedicated bomber and sacrifice other aspects to be best at that. As a single mobile dedicated to hovering over infantry to drop annihilating bombs multiple times during a game, they obviously require the most micromanagement. A well placed carpet bombing can absolutely devastate the enemy frontline, and its machine gun can put out Ratling-Gun levels of DPS on a much more mobile platform.
**'''Skyhammer(ROR)''': Drops cluster bombs so be aware that the damaged area is greater than the marker shows. Basically the Dwarfs answer to big aoe magic to obliterate chaff and elite units alike.
*'''Gyrocopter:''' Your anti-infantry skirmishers, shooting and bombing out those enemy gunners and artillery that though safe so far in the back. Also good at harassing the harassers that thought they could run a circle around the slowly pivoting Dawi gun lines.
*'''Gyrocopter (Brimstone Gun):''' Switches from general anti-infantry to majority AP damage to harass and focus down targets with more armor. Generally speaking, superior in almost every way to regular Gyrocopters. Fire damage puts a serious dent in units with regeneration (and Wood Elves) and the lower base damage is negliable when you take AP into consideration.

==Tactics==
===Multiplayer Strategies===
Dwarfs are one of the most unique factions in the game battle wise with an utter lack of mobility and magic and focusing everything on tanky infantry that can deal decent damage and powerful guns and artillery. Unfortunately for them, this uniqueness means that unless you're fighting other Dwarfs you don't have any balanced match ups against other races. Against some you have a clear, obvious advantage and tend to stomp and against others they give you swirlies in the bathroom for your lunch money. This is why most competitive players think they're one of the best counterpick factions as you can avoid your bad match ups and play in a favorable situation. Anyway, here's how you can satisfy the grudge against the other races:

*'''Beastmen''': A rush faction, Beastmen will have a hell of a time against you if you play your cards right. Their complete lack of armor leaves them quite vulnerable to Thunderer fire on the approach and Bolt Throwers can slice through Minotaurs and Cygors with relative ease. Keep a solid screen of staunch Dwarf Warriors between your ranged units and the enemy and bring (Giant) Slayers to turn the Bestigor and Centigor Herds into ground beef.

*'''Bretonnia''': The peasantry of the Bretonnians can safely be ignored (except Foot Squires, after their buffs they can actually fuck you up pretty good), as they'll struggle to do anything to your heavy armor. Instead, you'll want to focus on bringing down their armored cavalry, particularly the Grail Knights and Grail Guardians leading the charges into you. Trollhammer Irondrakes serve fantastically as a powerful Horse-B-Gone tool and your Giant Slayers can chunk through most of their cavalry so long as they're not the ones receiving the initial charge. Bolt Throwers are, again, a powerful tool to use while the Bretonnian cav is on the approach. Just make sure that you keep your flanks thoroughly secure.

*'''Chaos Warriors''': For Grungni's sake, keep your distance! Chaos Warriors are as tough as you are and hit harder in melee. Stock up on thunderers and cannons, and bring some great weapon fighters to finish them off. Slayers can help as long as you're careful to make sure the enemy can't hit back. Keep your eyes out for flanking cavalry and chariots, and pray to the gods you can shoot those heathens before they reach your lines!

*'''Dark Elves''': This is a really tricky matchup for you; Dark Elves are fast and bring absurd AP damage in melee and at a range. Your biggest advantage is your superior range and you'll need to lean on it heavily to stand a chance. Grab cannons, grudge throwers, rangers, and quarrelers and hope to Grungi you can shoot them down before they get close enough to return the favor.

*'''Dwarfs''': Hopefully you have a general idea on the strengths of this faction, you're playing as them! Anti-Armor, full stop. Organ Guns, take the Skolder Guard and bring some Hammerers to crack open your opponent's can.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can be a tricky one because they're almost as good at artillery as you are while also having good cavalry and skirmishers. You'll need to stock up on gyrobombers to disrupt their flanking cavalry and slayers to take out their knights. Irondrakes can also work well at deleting any aggressive demigryphs or knights. Beyond that, you should double down on your strengths and keep your artillery safe; the human lines will break before yours do.

*'''Greenskins''': As satisfying as it is to bury an axe in a greenskins skull, your better off dealing with these guys from a distance. Quarrelers and rangers are your friends here; quantity is as important as quality when fending off a green tide. Organ Guns and Cannons will be better at dealing with monsters than your slayers, you don't want to send unarmoured units against Arachnarok Spiders or Rogue Idols. Don't forget your irondrakes and/or your flame cannons, they can melt down anything from goblins to stone trolls. And keep your flanks protected from chariots and pump-wagons, they can wreak havoc on your lines and just ruin your day.

*'''High Elves''': Don't let the War of the Beard fool you, this will be one of your hardest match ups. High Elves have a lot of things that threaten you, but the things to fear the most would be their Chariots, Mages, White Lions and <s>Sisters of Averlorn</s> (they do magic damage so their AP isn't as useful as you think). Seriously, any High Elf player who knows what they're doing is going to spam White Lions and it is going to SUCK. Your best bet is to spam either Gyrocopters or Cannons and spread the field. Force the High Elves to have to either attack your artillery emplacements one at a time, allowing your others to fire freely, or use your air power and artillery to spread them apart and pick off pockets. Hammerers also have a niche in this match up because they beat White Lions pretty hard one on one and with support from guns or chaff they can go toe to toe with Swordmasters (Though don't count on that). Of course, these plans aren't perfect. There's a 99% chance they will bring Alarielle for Tempest and heals to deal with Gyros and they have plenty of mobility to get at your cannons to give the White Lions time to get in. Sadly this is one of those match ups where even if you bring the most optimized Anti Elgi list possible, there's still a pretty decent chance you'll lose. Avoid this match up if you can.

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, you can scoff at all the skinks as they ping impotently off of your armor (unless they're the Red-Crested variety). On the other, Saurus are just as stubborn as you are and will take days to chew through without good AP. Bring some Hammerers to eek out an advantage in the inevitable grindfest you'll end up in. Take advantage of the Lizardmen's dearth of ranged firepower and massacre their forces with Irondrakes and Thunderers while your Dwarf Warriors hold their front line at bay. You have excellent anti-monster units in the form of your Giant Slayers who absolutely will butcher any big dinosaur thrown into your ranks so long as you have some chaff to help trap and soak the damage the beasties can toss about. Though Skinks will largely prove a minor nuisance at best to a majority of your forces, you will ''definitely'' want to screen your (Giant) Slayers from the Skirmishing variety. Key players to watch out for are going to be the Slann Mage-Priests, Skink Priests and Kroxigors. Slann, especially fire/high slann and Heavens Skink Priests can wreak utter havoc upon your forces with the myriad of vortex spells they can toss out like candy from a parade float and they should absolutely be prioritized if you find them on the field. (Sacred) Kroxigors, if fielded, are surprisingly vicious anti-infantry monsters and will bowl over a majority of the infantry they're pointed at. Giant Slayers and Trollhammer Irondrakes serve as a solid counter, but you'll still want to swamp the Kroxigors in chaff to mitigate the damage they deal in turn.

*'''Norsca''': This is an easy fight for you. All of that monster hunting anti-large equipment the Norscans bring is going to fly right over your head as you bury your axes in their unarmoured pecs. Bring plenty of cannons and bolt throwers to shoot down enemy mammoths, and bring some irondrakes to shoot down anything else. Norscans are usually unarmoured, so you can trade your thunderers for quarrelers for the better range. Stick to the basics and you'll do fine.

*'''Skaven''': This is probably the closest we'll get to a 40k-esque matchup (you know, aside the irony of neither the [[Squats|Dwarfs]] or Skaven being in that setting). Between your guns and artillery and their guns and artillery, most of the damage either of you will be dealing to each other will be done from afar. A majority of the Skaven infantry is quite helpless against your frontline infantry, but you'll have a hell of a time pinning anything down with the Skaven's quicker movement speeds. Grudge Throwers are going to be king against most Skaven infantry builds while Bolt Throwers or Cannons should be fielded to snipe any Warp-Lighting Cannons, Plagueclaw Catapults or Hellpit Abominations they have downfield. Warplock Jezails will be a priority target to focus fire down, as are Warpfire Throwers and Poison Wind Globadiers should they start getting too close. Aside utilizing their missile units against them, Skaven have absolutely no aerial presence, meaning your Gyrocopters will have virtually free reign to gun down rats at will.

*'''Tomb Kings''': The good news is that Tomb Kings don't like fire, and you have fire aplenty. Brimstone Gun-equipped gyrocoptors are your fastest fire-delivery system, but irondrakes and flame-cannons are useful as well. The bad news is that you don't like chariots, and they have chariots aplenty. Use every trick you can to soften up the chariots before they hit your lines; but it's unlikely you'll be able to stop them all. Grab some giant slayers to finish off the ones that survive your barrage and hope it's enough to keep them down. Tomb Kings infantry is no match for you, so you should build your army against their monsters and chariots.

*'''Vampire Coast''': The most common Vampire Coast strategy is to bunker up with a large number of cheap ranged units and heavy artillery. If that sounds familiar it's because it's the same thing you like to do, you're just better at it. Bring plenty of cannons and some slayers to deal with the enemy monsters (hint: kill the necrofex colossi first). Once the big monsters have been dealt with the pirates are basically just an inferior version of you, clumps of quarrelers and thunderers are plenty to take down the zombies. And remember not to bunker up too tightly; you may have magic resistance but Winds of Death will still <i>hurt</i>.

*'''Vampire Counts''': Virtually nothing that makes up the rank and file of the Vampire Counts will pose a significant threat to you. Skeletons and Zombies will only serve to slow down your already plodding advance and only deal any meaningful "damage" to you simply by sponging your limited ranged firepower meant for something else. The only standard units that you'll find yourself at a significant disadvantage against will be the Cairn and Hex Wraiths, given your general lack of magical damage. You'll want to engage them with missile attacks for maximum effect and make sure that you are braced for their charges. The main thing you should be focused on taking down will be the Lords and Heroes leading the army; without them, the undead hordes will quickly fall apart (literally). They also pose the single biggest threat to everything you have, as their Lore of Death casters can delete swathes of your army with a single well placed cast if you are positioned carelessly.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are an extremely annoying foe who are fundamentally the exact opposite of you. Their infantry can run circles around yours and they can deal frightening amounts of damage against their intended targets, but you'll snap their twiggy spines if you whip 'em with your beards. In general, you're going to be engaged in a very tedious game of "keep away", where the Wood Elves are going to be dancing just outside of your reach while their Glade Guard and Waywatchers pepper you with AP arrows and occasionally test your flanks for weaknesses via Wild Rider/Great Stag Knight cycle charges. Fortunately, you do have a couple tools the elves don't: Artillery. Grudge Throwers excel against WE infantry and can discourage them from trying to camp too far away while Bolt Throwers and Flame Cannons will make mince-meat of the cavalry/forest spirits that may try to break through your lines. Speaking of forest spirits, irondrakes will ''incinerate'' them. Slayers also help against the bigger tree spirits in theory, but the range power the wood elves bring make them a dicey proposition. As far as their melee infantry options are concerned, the only ones that majorly threaten you are the Bladesingers; their anti-armor magical attacks will scythe through your armor will jaw-dropping speed. Use Thunderers to soften them up on the charge then use Slayers to cut them down swiftly.

===Campaign Strategies===

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2021-11-11T05:58:55Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:AD36:1047:46B6:FE66: /* Why play Skaven */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==

*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, antimaterial sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===

*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Aerial Inferiority''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==

*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==

*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw)and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the Penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only legendary lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. He excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===

*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===

*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has Access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===

*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces) they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry in the game and armour smashers and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armoured ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing peoples heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their Weapon Teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Ungodly amounts of armor, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators with Vanguard Deployment and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Greenskins''': While orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but wolf and spider riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those dragons, pin the Elven Cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of Tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large Options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Skaven''':

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotech to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their catapults, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause fear and terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mornguls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and wolfrats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayer will kill virtually any elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Night Runners and Gutter Runners. ALL of the Gutter Runners. You start out surrounded by two factions (Imrik and Malus) that will absolutely trounce you in melee, so you might as well not bother having a frontline at all. However, the only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. Remember, rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packamsters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2021-11-11T05:35:13Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:AD36:1047:46B6:FE66: /* Why play Skaven */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==

*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was on warpstone, which your characters certainly are on.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dosis of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CAs Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due the heroes plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting there is something quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, antimaterial sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===

*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Aerial Inferiority''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==

*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==

*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw)and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the Penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only legendary lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. He excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===

*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===

*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has Access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===

*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces) they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry in the game and armour smashers and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armoured ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing peoples heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their Weapon Teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Ungodly amounts of armor, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators with Vanguard Deployment and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Greenskins''': While orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but wolf and spider riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those dragons, pin the Elven Cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of Tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large Options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Skaven''':

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotech to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their catapults, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause fear and terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mornguls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and wolfrats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayer will kill virtually any elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Night Runners and Gutter Runners. ALL of the Gutter Runners. You start out surrounded by two factions (Imrik and Malus) that will absolutely trounce you in melee, so you might as well not bother having a frontline at all. However, the only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. Remember, rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packamsters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms

2021-11-11T05:15:55Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:AD36:1047:46B6:FE66: /* Why Play Ogre Kingdoms? */

This is the general tactics page on how to play [[Ogre Kingdoms]] in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]]. On the 4th of November, they were confirmed to be a pre-order DLC, and although we still don't have much info, at least we know that all those rumours were true all along.

==Why Play Ogre Kingdoms?==
*You like doomstacking with monsters anyway so why not play a faction that is 95% monsters?
*You love the satisfaction of seeing a unit's health drop heavily from the impact of a massive charge.
*Because you are the one person on the planet who has asked themselves "What if the Mongols were a bunch of big fat dudes with prehistoric animals and magic chefs backing them up?"
*Because you love meat. In fact, you are likely eating a pork chop wrapped in bacon as you read this.
*You relate to their body image a little too much.

===Pros===
*'''THICC''': The vast majority of your troops are going to be composed of monsters and large units. If you only play this game to build up large monster stacks to take over the world with, this is the race for you.
*'''High Charge''': Given your rules on the tabletop you will likely be one of the most devastating armies off the charge. If the ogres are done justice a lot of armies are going to evaporate once you make contact.
*'''Quality''': Stat wise, expect Ogres to be one of the scariest armies in terms of pure stats. Few other factions will be able to compare to you pound for pound.
*'''Armor? What's that?''': Everything you have pierces armour. No amount of armour is going to protect your enemies from a 4-meter tall hulk of flesh that swings a hammer the size of a small building.
*'''Monsters''': Monsters, monsters and more monsters, you are the primo monster faction with only 2 (unless otherwise) infantry units that aren’t monsters. One way or another you will have little trouble winning the monster mash.
===Cons===
*'''Lack of Numbers''': Your units have a super low model count, and while the mercenaries are currently cheap, we can assume standard Ogres will want a bit more pay. Even a single casualty in a unit of anything other than Gnoblars will hurt a lot more than what other factions will suffer.
*'''Anti Large/Charge Defense''': Given how reliant you are on size and charge, factions that have plentiful anti large and charge defence might be a massive pain in your giant, 2-ton ass (grins in Dwarf.) Ogre charge does help with Charge Defense somewhat, though you will still be losing a good chunk of your damage.
*'''One Trick Pony''': Yeah, charging around with a bunch of thicc bois is really all you could do. You're wasting your massive charge bonus if you play defence and while you do have some good ranged units and a probably quite decent set of artillery/chariots they will likely be expensive. A lot of factions can figure out how to plan around you.
*'''Armor? What's that?''': I mean, to be fair it's probably hard for them to find armour in their size, but it does mean armour values for Ogres seem to be on the low side. Combine this with their massive hitboxes and archers can have a field day fighting them.
*'''DLC?''': On launch, the Ogres missed out on Yhetees and Thundertusks. It remains to be seen if these will be added as FLC units later or will be added as DLC.

==Universal Traits==
*'''Ogre Charge''': If an ogre unit charges a braced unit with charge defence, they will only lose half of their charge bonus. This is very important for a faction that is so reliant on getting the charge for their damage it's nice that they have a way to not get completely cockblocked because the enemy is just standing still. That said most opponents, even the AI usually don't just sit there and let you charge them and even if they do you're probably better of circumnavigating their frontline and going for their skirmishers in the rear. So while not the most practical trait in the game it's still nice for the Ogres to have.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Greasus Goldtooth]]''': Overtyrant of all ogres, in his beautiful and shockingly obese glory. Sadly seems to not be constantly carried by gnoblars throwing gold in his path, and instead is carried by a cart
*'''Skrag The Slaughterer''': Your legendary caster lord, but now he's a ogre that brings ruin to the Great Maw's enemies through gut magic.

===Generic Lords===
*'''Tyrant''': Standard melee lord. Should be an absolute beatstick in combat.

*'''Slaughtermaster''': Generic caster lord, supporting the ogres through Gastromancy.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Butcher''':
*'''Firebelly''': A caster hero, cooking the army's next meal during battle with the lore of fire.
*'''Hunter''':

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Gnoblar Fighters''': Your chaff unit. Surprisingly tankier than you would think, having the same statline as Goblins. However, that lack of shield really hurts them in the long run. Use them as even more fragile goblins to absorb charges, tarpit units for a small while, and to plug gaps whilst your chungus boys get into position.
*'''Gnoblar Trappers''': Gnoblars, but they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and have ranged attack. Also come with the ability to slow down enemies in an area around them, making them surprisingly good support skirmishers.

===Monsterous Infantry===
*'''Ogres''': Your "standard" infantry, they come in the usual monstrous infantry size and a tremendous charge bonus to batter the enemy with. They will cause fear and come with siege attacker to help get past those city walls so you don't have to wait out in a siege. They come in two variants, a Generalist mace variant and a dual weapon anti-infantry variant.

*'''Ironguts''':

*'''Maneaters''': The well-travelled mercenaries of your army, they are far more flexible than your standard unit of ogres. They come in both a pistol and a great weapon variant, the pistol for helping them pepper the enemy before the battle itself is joined and the great weapon for increased charge and a bonus vs large. They also come with Immune to Psych so don't expect to see these guys running away any time soon.

*'''Leadbelchers''':

===Beast & Monsters===
*'''Sabretusks''':
*'''Gorgers''': Come in groups of eight, unbreakable and vanguard deployment. Use them as you would Mourngals, sneaky flankers to rip apart tasty and tender backlines.
*'''Slavegiant''': Your normal giant unit, except this time cajoled and beaten into battle by the very people who destroyed their race rather than bribed with booze. Sometimes the Ogres are the absolute worst.
*'''Stonehorn''':

===Monster Cavalry===
*'''Mournfang Cavalry''': One of the most powerful cavalry units from the tabletop game. And at least their mercenary counterparts don't disappoint. Their statline is scary, they have about the same mass as a carnosaur and their lack of armour actually works in their favour too, since the things enemies would normally roll out to counter monstrous cavalry usually have lower base damage, making them even beefier than they already appear on paper. They don't have Ogre Charge for some reason, but their speed and heavy mass will usually make up for it. Comes with an ironfist variant besides standard.
*'''Crushers''': Rhinox cavalry. I know. We’re surprised they’ve shown up too. Essentially acting as an even better version of Mournfangs, they come in two variants, standard and great weapons.

===Chariots===

===Artillery===
*'''Gnoblar Scraplauncher''': A single entity catapult, with surprising speed and charge stats. When they run out of ammo, using them as a chariot may not be out of the question.
*'''Ironblaster''':
*'''Stonehorn Harpoon Launcher''':

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are THE monster faction of the trilogy. You have a grand total of 2 normal infantry units, neither of which is going to carry the day for you, and a bunch of big fat boys in all manners of flavours. You are going to be a scary force on the charge and have some of the scariest units in the entire game. Mournfangs make elite cav from other factions cry and they're your lowest tier cavalry unit. Of course, your reliance on monsters comes with an obvious weakness as you will struggle against... well, pretty much anyone who can bring a decent amount of Anti-Large to the field. You may also struggle since your army tends to be predictable, and I imagine veterans will learn how to counter you fast. Still, if you want to grab a monster horde to feast on your enemies this is the race for you. Here's how to win glory for The Maw:

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''':

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

==Campaign Strategies==

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}