Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Skaven (section)

===Lords & Heroes===
====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth. Among Skaven this is double true, since one of the main advantages of Skaven characters is how cheap they are.

* '''Lord Skreech Verminking:''' The greatest Vermin Lord and the avatar of the Horned Rat. Quite powerful in combat, being able to switch between ASF dagger and Multiple Wounds Doomglaive every turn, but that's not why you take this beauty. Being the biggest dick in a race of dicks, Skreech always knows the Dreaded 13th Spell and CAN. REROLL. DICE. WHEN. CASTING. IT.  That said he has his downsides, it's very hard to cast with Khaine magic (even with re-rolls) and you're running the risk of cascading your 650 point monster in regular magic.  Like every other vermin lord, he is expensive, has no armour and only a 5+ ward, slow with no flying and unable to skitter leap himself. Still, he can be incredibly fun (and frustrating - for enemies) in casual games and face it, you didn't pick up Skaven for boring realiability. Leave him out of tournament lists though.

* '''Lord Skrolk:''' The reason you like Lord Skrolk is because he makes Plague Monks core. Seriously, that's the ONLY thing that justifies his inhumanly high entry cost (230 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer, or 30 more than a Grey Seer on Screaming Bell). He comes with some fun abilities and magic items, but even they can probably be outdone for less cost (Liber Bubonicus would be more fun if it weren't for the current rules on Bound Spells and it's 1 in 6 chance of going dud when cast). Ultimately he's too pricey. If you're planning on taking a lot of Plague Monks, he can justify his points, but otherwise? Skip him.

* '''Thanquol and Boneripper:''' Do you want your army led by a drugged up failure with his mechanical bodyguard? Okay, so that's kinda mean, but he's not bad. He comes with some amusing special rules (his Ward Save deflecting onto a nearby model is funny, as is his kinda ganky wound regeneration) and Boneripper can be nasty but like Skrolk, he costs way too much to be properly competitive (210 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer). So he's non-competitive, but if you wanna take him for fluff reasons, he's an amusing addition. Keep him out of Tournament lists.
** '''End Times Version:''' End Times bring us a new and upgraded Boneripper as well as Thanquol being elevated to somewhat of a chosen of the Horned Rat and riding his faithful bodyguard. Sporting a new model and combined statline (like most End Times characters), Thanquol is a typical Grey Seer magic-wise, but gains +1 to casting spell of Ruin and Plague (but not the Dreaded 13th, as it doesn't belong to those lores). He retains his healing amulets (though it has been toned down), gets whoooping 2d6 Warpstone Tokens and his addiction now makes him completely immune to rolling a 1 when consuming a token. Boneripper can choose to be armed either with Warpfire Braziers or Warpfire Throwers. The former grant him +1S in melee, while the latter are basically a regular Warpfire Thrower - no longer one-use - with a hilarious misfire: instead of exploding (Thanquol is lucky as fuck, if you remember), it automatically hits a nearby allied unit. However, this is one of those models that don't know what they want to do. Even equipped with Warfire Throwers, Boneripper is likely to stand close to the enemy and get into melee soon, while a level 4 wizard is best kept away from the front lines, and 6+/4++ is not enough to save it. A hilarious and powerful character for casual games, but leave him out of tournament lists, much like original version.

* '''Ikit Claw:''' [[Warhammer 40,000|Wore power armor]] before it was [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|cool]] . Like Skrolk and Thanquol, Ikit is too expensive. Unlike them, I can say without reservation that you're not getting anywhere near enough for his cost. He seems like an odd attempt to combine a caster and a combat lord and even more than other armies, that's a job you want to split. He also costs nearly 400 points, and he doesn't do anything casting that a Grey Seer couldn't do, nor anything in combat a tricked out Warlord couldn't do. As far as melee goes, no he won't go 10 rounds with Archaon, but he wasn't meant to. His combat aspects just mean that unlike virtually every other wizard in the game, he won't get his ass kicked the moment some skirmishers pop out of nowhere. Still too expensive.
** '''Alternate Opinion:''' Uh, yes he will get his ass kicked by Skirmishers. He's got high Strength, but only 2 Attacks at Initiative 3, so unless you're up against REALLY weak Skirmishers/Fast Cavalry like Ungor Raiders or Mounted Yeomen, he's probably fucked (never mind if he winds up against good close combat Skirmishers: Try him against Great Weapon armed Shades, lemme know how that works). Statistically he's only going to get 1 wound in per round so he can't fight off attackers very efficiently and he's so expensive (again: 395 points) that he makes a 'No duh' target, so every skirmisher and their <s>dog</s> Sabertusk is gonna be gunning for him. This means you have to keep him in a unit to keep him alive, but then the unit is a no duh target because it's probably gonna cost upwards of 500 points and he can't join a unit that can reliably fight off Mournfangs and the like and...are you starting to see the problem? Yeah, don't take Ikit.

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

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

* '''Deathmaster Snikch:''' At first Deathmaster Snikch looks like a perfect Assassin, until you read his, you guessed it, points cost. 150 points more than a basic Assassin, and all you're getting for that is some Weeping Blades (30 points), a Tail Weapon and a Cloak that doesn't do jack if he's in combat (where you want him) or with a unit (where you want him). Aside from that, he has higher WS, BS, I, A and LD, but not enough to make up for the the over 250 points required to take him. He will almost never see enough action to justify that cost. Don't bother.

* '''Tretch Craventail:''' Tretch is, put simply, hilarious. He has the exact same stats as a Chieftain, for 100 points more, but he has some amusing abilities. He's got a 4+ ward (nothing to sneer at), a total of 5 attacks, a single reroll per game (do not forget it) and most amusingly, the ability to bamf out of a unit in combat and into another Clanrat/Slaves unit within 3D6. He also grants rerolls to hit to his unit of Clanrats or Stormvermin if they're attacking on the flank or rear, but in practice that's not as useful as you might think. Obviously, he's best in tightly packed battle lines, as if he fails to reach a viable unit with his leaving combat ability, he auto-dies. He can be fun to help countercharge (draw a unit in, leave combat, charge that unit on the flank next round) but that's not as reliable as you might think. Ultimately, he's a fun but non-competitive character. He can be funny in a casual game, but don't take him in a tournament.

* '''Skweel Gnawtooth:''' Everyone's favorite Clan Moulder monster-wrangler, mostly because he's the closest thing any of the named Skaven come to being actually cost effective (100 points, more affordable than some generic heroes.) Skweel is an apex support-unit, and you'll never be remiss with adding his special ability (whether that be natural Poison, an extra +1 Attack, or even Regeneration) to one of your beast stacks. Stick him in with a half-dozen Rat Ogres and watch his soft touch with animals propel them to hit the enemy like a meteor. The main issue with the uppity runt is that he's too much of a snob to latch on to a new unit if his personal retinue all bite it, and if you're unlucky and don't roll Regen on your Rat Ogres you'll probably have your investment on the lot fall apart after a couple of flank passes. That said, he can usually be counted on to do enough damage to justify his initial extra down payment, and is surprisingly capable when it comes to self-defense, all things considered.

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

* '''[[Verminlord|Vermin Lord]]:''' The Great [[Horned Rat]] looked at the Greater [[Daemons]] and thought 'Why should [[Chaos]] have all the fun?' At first blush, this guy is horrifying. M8, WS8, I10, 5 attacks, 5 wounds, S6, T5, 5+ ward, Level 4 Wizard with access to both Skaven Lores (and he's one of only two models to get access to the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell). Everything is slinky, right? Well then the issues set in. He can't join units, he's got no extra protection from shooting, he's not Unbreakable or even Stubborn, at T5 he's vulnerable to high volume S4 and above attacks, oh and did we mention that he costs 500 FUCKING POINTS! Don't get us wrong, he's a beast if you get him into combat and he can be a nasty caster under a lot of circumstances (he can even, in theory, drop a Bloodthirster, though don't count on that). But his price of entry is inhumanly high and he's a really big and obvious target (a solid [[Ogre Kingdoms]] or [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarf]] list will have his ass dropped on turn 1), he's weak against getting tar pitted and he has a troubling lack of Always Strikes First. You can safely leave him out of a tournament list, but he'll make a big splash in casual games.
** '''Exalted Vermin Lord (Forge World):''' Forge World has a variant that clocks in at 775 points. His Strength, Toughness, and Wounds have all been boosted to 7 each, although his Initiative is now 9. He also gains some special rules the vanilla lord lacks, namely Always Strikes First, Stubborn, and Loremaster for both Skaven magic schools. He also gains a Multiple Shots (D6) Poisoned shooting attack and Multiple Wounds (D6) for melee combat. Still costs way too much for most games, but if you want to go nuts in a Grand Army or End Times match he can definitely turn heads. KEEP IN MIND, he's not a character, but a Scroll of Binding monster, that can be taken by any army!
** '''Verminlord Deceiver:''' New beastie brought to you by End Times. Clan Eshin themed Verminlord, not too strong in duels due to lack of Doomglaive with Multiple Wounds, but has a nasty ranged attack (number of shots is equal to number of models in target unit's front rank), is -1 to hit when shot at and can Skitterleap around, and so is a perfect Verminlord for Warmachine hunting, chaff killing and general dickery. Although those roles can be performed better for 500 points. This variant upgrades from the original 8th ed version to have 6s for Wounds and Toughness, so it's a little more survivable. Fun tactic: skitterleap behind that huge horde of goblins, outside of their range and charge them next turn. If your terror doesn't make them flee, just skitterleap back again before combat, and try again next turn. His name is '''Lurklox - Master of Deception''' and Verminlord of Clan Eshin.
** '''Verminlord Warbringer:''' New beastie brought to you by End Times. Has Doomglaive and a paired weapon with Killing Blow, and as such is the best duelist from all the Verminlords. Adept at casting Death Frenzy so he is perfect for leading a charge, slaughtering enemy characters in duels and buffing your hordes, so they slaughter rank and file. May be the best combat Verminlord. This variant upgrades from the original 8th ed version to have 6s for Wounds and Toughness, so it's a little more survivable. This one also has 6 Attacks, whereas the others only have 5. His name is  '''Kreeskuttle''' Verminlord of the Warlord Clans.
** '''Verminlord Warpseer:''' New beastie brought to you by End Times. Always knows Warp Lightning and cast reroll the dice when casting it, making it a powerful blaster, although a few Warlock Engineers can do the same thing for much, much cheaper (this beauty costs 550 points as per the end times books and the rules in the box, the WD point cost appears to be wrong). Has a Doomglaive and 4++ Ward save (as opposed to regular 5++ of other End Times Verminlords) which you want to bring into melee, although at the same time you want to keep back and shoot lightnings at your foes... Just take Warbringer and a few Warlock Engineers. This variant upgrades from the original 8th ed version to have 6s for Wounds and Toughness, so it's a little more survivable. You can also sacrifice your boosted Ward save, dropping down to just 5++, for a once-off small round template attack that kills anything that fails Initiative tests. But it's hardly worth it unless you're looking at high-value low Initiative foes, like the [[Glottkin]]. His name is '''Soothgnawer''' - Verminlord of Clan Scruten.
** '''Verminlord Corruptor:''' New beastie brought to you by End Times. Always knows Plague and can reroll dice when casting it. Not too brilliant in combat (trading Doomglaive for additional attack and ASF), although that ASF may prove handy in challenges. Reliable Plague is more interesting, being a hilarious spell, allowing you to fuck up whole games with bouncing Plague every bloody turn. This variant upgrades from the original 8th ed version to have 6s for Wounds and Toughness, so it's a little more survivable. His name is '''Vermalanx the Poxlord'''- Verminlord of Clan Pestilen.
*** '''Note:''' Again remember, these guys will be shot to smithereens by a solid gun-line, making them very uncompetitive.

* '''Warlord:''' Point for point, a Warlord is one of the most effective heroes in the Skaven book. He drops in at 90 points for a solid statline, along with the precious LD7 that lets all units with 3 ranks in his General LD Bubble hit LD10. He can have some solid magic equipment (discussed later) and can actually be an unusually effective combat lord (don't expect him to go 10 rounds with most other Lords though). He's a good choice. He can also take mounts (below) which are generally not the best choice, but can be fun and if you expect him to do some frontline fighting and want him to cause casualties there are worse ways to up his kill count. Also, one of the few Lords who can be taken in 500pts games and be effective in them with almost no magic items.
** '''Note:''' Although kitting out a Warlord for close combat is right and proper, don't try to make him a challenge Lord. There's a reason Skaven can run from Challenges without losing LD bonuses, and that's because a Skaven in a Challenge is a Skaven who's a corpse. Even Empire, Bretonian and Wood Elf Lords will stand a good chance of stomping him, and if you're up against a real challenge monster (Ogres, VC, WoC, DE) you might as well remove him. No, kit your Warlord out to kill basic dudes to up your combat res, it's better for him. 
*** '''Counternote:''' If kitted out properly, a Warlord can easily reach a 2+ armor save.
**** '''Counter Counternote:''' a 2+ armor save is shit against a proper challenge lord, and unfortunately you have to dip into magic allowance to get above a 4+. 

* '''Mounts:'''
** '''Rat Ogre Bonebreaker:''' If you're up for modeling it, and you need a mount, this is the one you want. It's got a good statline, lets him push up rank bonuses in whatever unit he joins, runs fairly cheap at 65 points. If it had an armor save, it'd be perfect (but since it is a mount, you actually get it.). As is, it's a fun choice if you're in the mood and easily the best mount option. Just remember, he can't join infantry units outside Clanrats and Stormvermin (what a sacrifice). The warlord riding it also gains get +1 W (and an additional point of T). <strike> However, unless he rolls with Rat Ogres (which is sub-optimal due to frenzy) he has no Look Out, Sir!, making him a free kill for bearded buggers. </strike> Actually, being mounted on a monstrous beast changes his type to monstrous cavalry, while Rat Ogres are monstrous infantry. There is no way, using just the Skaven book, to give a Bonebreaker mounted Warlord a Look Out, Sir! save, unfortunately.
** '''War-Litter:''' Not as good as the Bonebreaker but..yeah, still good. It's a cheap way of dropping a bunch of attacks on him, and pushing up his armor save. If you really can't spare the 30 extra points for a Bonebreaker and you want a mount, you could go for this one. (alternate take: kit out 3 warlords with this, a ward save, and throw them in a an unit with 6-wide ranks and possibly your BSB. Laugh as you opponent is forced to divide its attacks on very defensive lords, and loses to combat res.) It also counts as infantry, so he gets a Look Out, Sir! in a unit of Stormvermin. It also can look badass. Anyway, there are worse choices liiiiiike...
** '''Great Pox Rat:''' This. You're paying 30 points for 1 armor save and 2 S4 poisoned attacks. Woo fucking hoo. It doesn't even come with extra movement, and you can't use the Swiftstride ability for cavalry when he's in a unit (and trying to make him run touchdowns on his own is a surefire way to get him killed). If you're committed to him having a mount, drop a Clanrat and give him a War-Litter. Can also be taken as a mount for a Plague Priest, but it's not a good choice for him either.
** '''Brood horror (Forge World):''' Once in a blue moon the Forge World production team stop designing new overpriced shit for 40K, and instead design overpriced shit for Fantasy, finally delivering one of the most hideously overpriced things in the game.  For 130 points more than the Rat Ogre Bonebreaker, you get an Extra Wound, Thunderstomps, Regeneration, an option to buy an armour save, an option to buy an extra attack to make its attacks on par with the Rat Ogre, an option to make it Armour Piercing+Magical, and an option for a breath weapon that ignores armour.  If this seems fine, then remember, it's a monster, it can't fly, it's toughness 5, so it can't avoid getting killed the second your opponent sees it and points their archers/guns/cannons its way and you watch it dissolve into nothing on turn 1.  Even against armies with terrible archers it'll end up crushed against their monsters who are almost always going to be stronger and sometimes cheaper too.  Not to mention all of these points could be spent on far more useful slaves or just regular Clan Rats, not on a Lord character in a Horde army.

* '''Grey Seer:''' Your general Lord Level Wizard, with a crap statline (though he has T4, which is kinda awesome for a wizard - especially if you gonna make him a general) and a 240 points pricetag. Like the Vermin Lord, he can mix spells freely and get access to the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell, but don't count on him casting that too much (you need to roll all 6 dice to have a relatively sure chance of casting it). He's a good caster for his points and you'll probably get a lot of mileage out of him, so if you have the points free, he's a good investment. Note that he too has LD7, meaning that he can end up being general by default, which you probably want to avoid, as your enemy is already going to be gunning for him, don't hand them more points for killing him.
** '''The Screaming Bell:''' The Screaming Bell is for players who love randomness and who are playing in a non-competitive environment. The Bell doesn't come into it's own until well above the usual tournament level (recommended size is 3000 points or so). The major reason is the huge pricetag, attached to an already pricey model (a Bell mounted Seer will clock in at 440 points without any equipment). But, if you can fit it in your army, it makes a great center piece. It can cause a lot of damage with a little luck and if there are buildings on the board, it can make everything really hilarious really quickly. Be aware, everyone will be gunning for it. Also, under the current rules, it might be worth it to make a Bell mounted Seer the General, as his LD range will be 18 inches as opposed to the usual 12.

* '''Chieftain:''' Your basic Hero choice, and a bloody good one at that. With a relatively good statline (as Skaven go, don't expect him to beat anything better than a Chaos Warrior unit champion. Hell, my Marauder Champion even bested one in a challenge) and access to some nifty magic items can turn him into a cheap wizard hunter in a unit of Night Runners. However, you really need him as your BSB. If you play Skaven, you MUST HAVE A BSB OR YOU DIE HORRIBLY. Srsly, if one of your Clanrat units is shot up a bit by war machines or spells, running away CANNOT BE AFFORDED. Not to worry, because they are easily cheap enough to take 2.

* '''Assassin:''' An Assassin is an incredibly expensive way of killing enemy Heroes and Wizards and maybe War Machines or small shooting units. That's about it. Unlike his Dark Elf counterpart (the comparison is inevitable, sorry), his mediocre stats (except for Initiative) means he can't be trusted to kill anything above a hero and he digs into Hero points. He's highly non-competitive, and there will be games where you take him and he gets killed without accomplishing a thing. But hey, you played Skaven cuz you liked the randomness, and given to a unit of Scouting Gutter Runners, they'll excel at War Machine, and the like, removal. So while you should avoid him in tournament lists, he could be fun in casual games.

* '''Warlock Engineer:''' Don't you sit there expecting to get a hero for 15 points, if you're going to take a stripped Warlock, you might as well replace him with 4 extra Clanrats, it's a better use of the points. <strike> No, if you want to get use out of a Warlock Engineer, you're gonna wanna update him to level 2, give him some Clan Skryre goodies and then you're in the hole for 150 points. But don't despair, he's a fantastic investment. </strike> Actually 15 points Engineer are extremely powerful, since they can be skitterleaped everywhere, acting as: charge redirector, fanatic hardcounters against goblins, slannsnipers (with bronze globe) or even as a cheap leadership boost to your slaves (+3 LD for 15 points, are you kidding me?).  <strike>Stick him in with a unit of Jezzails and have them blast things to pieces</strike> (except that in that case you either will have to position Jezzails closer to enemies than is wise, or be constantly out of range. Better ditch that musket and buy 4 slaves instead). Having one-two level one engineers purely for the sake of throwing warp-lightnings is actually nice. WL is quite cheap, and if you haven't got a Grey Seer, you have to use all those power dice somewhere, right? Also, obligatory scroll caddy.

* '''Plague Priest:''' Can only get up to level 2 But can equip a Plague Censer and uses spells of plague. (go figure) Essentially mandatory for any Clan Pestilens themed armies due to how much they increase plague monks effectiveness in battle. Other than that, their only use is to take Plague Furnace. If you just want plague magic, grab a Grey Seer.
** '''Plague Furnace:''' This monstrous contraption is an attrition monster. It kills everything around itself - including your Plague Monks... only Plague Monks die much slower from it than enemies. Don't forget to cackle maniacally as a small part of your Plague Monks choke around it along with majority of enemy's deathstar unit.

* '''Master Moulder:''' For an extra 25 points over a bog-standard Packmaster, you gain the ability to roll 3D6 (minus the highest die) on all Leadership checks involving any Monstrous/War Beast units in a 6" radius of him (ALL monsters and beasts, not just Giant Rats and Rat Ogres.) If you're fielding a whole bunch of unattended beasts, he could maybe be useful if you're confident in your rolling.