Editing Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven (section)

==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.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''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, anti-materiel 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. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''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.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''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.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': 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).