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

====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.