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

====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.