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Let's chat Skaven tactics


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On November 26, 2016 at 0:39 PM, Tasman said:

I've really been thinking on Verminus for my next army/chaos expansion for next year. Lots of cool synergy, and the chaos/skaven keywords open up so much potential destruction.

Hey Tas saw you wrecking on warhammer live with those storm fiends! Pretty sick! I play verminus quite a bit.     competitively if you're thinking about playing them

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Remember though you need to include formation points (if you want to use it)

You want to compliment what's there. Your battleline is sorted at 1000 points but more often than not you'll be using Inspiring Presence rather than the Warlord's Command Ability to keep one of those units up. 

The Wind Mortar is ok, you'll probably want to concentrate it on the Swordmasters but 4+ to hit isn't the best! At least you get +1 if the enemy unit is at full strength.

If you can get one, another Warpfire Thrower would be great as potential for 2D6 MW would really help you out. Only problem is the short range of course. 

So a Warp Lightning Cannon would bring this army to bang on 1000 pointsand give you he long range threat which you sorely miss.

If you use the formation you'll only have two drops two which might give you the choice of who gets turn one :) 

edit - the HElf Mage has a great 6+ ward save spell so you might want to blast him off the table first ?

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1 hour ago, NiallJC1984 said:

Remember though you need to include formation points (if you want to use it)

You want to compliment what's there. Your battleline is sorted at 1000 points but more often than not you'll be using Inspiring Presence rather than the Warlord's Command Ability to keep one of those units up. 

The Wind Mortar is ok, you'll probably want to concentrate it on the Swordmasters but 4+ to hit isn't the best! At least you get +1 if the enemy unit is at full strength.

If you can get one, another Warpfire Thrower would be great as potential for 2D6 MW would really help you out. Only problem is the short range of course. 

So a Warp Lightning Cannon would bring this army to bang on 1000 pointsand give you he long range threat which you sorely miss.

If you use the formation you'll only have two drops two which might give you the choice of who gets turn one :) 

edit - the HElf Mage has a great 6+ ward save spell so you might want to blast him off the table first ?

Haha thanks. I won't actually be fighting the elf army, will hopefully find someone who wants to buy it or trade me for the skaven bit.

 

I notice the warpfire launchers are great but the model seems hard to find esp the plastic one. Maybe I should get a second spire of dawn box? I don't really want to but could.

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16 minutes ago, Riavan said:

Haha thanks. I won't actually be fighting the elf army, will hopefully find someone who wants to buy it or trade me for the skaven bit.

 

I notice the warpfire launchers are great but the model seems hard to find esp the plastic one. Maybe I should get a second spire of dawn box? I don't really want to but could.

If you know you could sell the rest... To be honest eventually you are going to use the extra bodies. Fielding only 2 Rat Ogres, they are quite vunerable so adding two is good idea. Then you are just left with an extra: warlord, warlock and mortar... Not the worst thing. You could definetly field the extra warlock on accasion. Maybe convert to a battle standard bearer. 

so yeah..... You could use everything. I honestly started writing with the idea that plenty would be left to sell. But it's all good xD

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I thought I had posted this here earlier, but here are my thoughts on Skaven alpha strike:

My Warlords List - Archaon's Furry Friends

I've not bettered my Archaon's Furry Friends list without resorting to Stormfiends:

Here are the Battle Reports:

It's worth saying that it was a fun army as well. Even when opponents lost heavily, they still killed a lot of my stuff and were still in the game. Definitely Archaon fluffy style sacrifice others for the greater evil.

I'm not sure how it would fare against Husktusks, protected by Fanatics. I think it would depend on whether the opponent committed the Stonelord into combat with the unit of 30 Clanrats pinned by Fanatics in front of it or just lobbed Snowballs at it. Death Frenzy makes it suicidal for almost anything without a super save to engage the Clanrats in melee.

My matchups were spectacularly bad (6/6 gunlines, zero combat armies, two armies with Fanatics, yet the army still fared pretty well). Have you ever even seen a Prosecutor spam army let alone played two at one event....?

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Just saw this thread and thought it might be interesting. Then I read it and discovered that the best Skaven tactics are to use non-Skaven units! (Sayl, Chaos Sorcerer Lord, Archaon) - Booo!

Are there any good tactics / lists that just use Skaven? Or is the only competitive Skaven list Clan Skryre?

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Are there any good tactics / lists that just use Skaven? Or is the only competitive Skaven list Clan Skryre?

Yes, there are, but they are frankly worse than the ones that involve mixing. They will struggle against the Destruction Mixed armies for example (Kunning Rukk Arrer Boyz, plus Husktusks or Stonelords, plus Moonclan optionally plus Spiderfang).

Clan Skryre is much more competitive in a one day event, where you're more likely to avoid bad battleplans or hard counter opponents (Kunning Rukk can barely lose to this army due to the huge weight of bodies involved for example and the fact that the Stormfiends aren't super tough armour wise). I'm not aware of anyone in the UK at least who has won all their games with Clan Skryre over 2 Days. @Darran came very close at SCGT - I was watching as I had finished my game 6 early.

You can do reasonably well with a Verminus Clawpack, a Verminlord Warbringer as the general (so you've got 2 command abilities); and a bunch of artillery behind that.

It's effectively a bunker list. Enemies charge into the Clanrat Chaff Wall. Stomvermin reach over the top (they can reach over 2 models if needed) and hit back hard with the aura buffs.

It's faster than many bunkers due to movement 6 and retreat plus charge abilities. However, it's not necessarily very fun/interesting (the fatal flaw of all bunker lists).

You can supplement the bunker with a Verminlord Deceiver who can counter enemy shooting or unprotected heroes or units on the Flanks.

My preference is 12 Jezzails to which you apply Lord of War and Crown of Conquest - however, this is still very risky if they go first, pop down some pew pew near you and shoot 6 of the Jezzails off the table only for the other 6 to flee (e.g. Skyborne Slayers or Kurnoth Hunters). They could just pop down, cripple your pew pew and then start walking backwards (towards objectives) while shooting some more and feeding you Liberators. Verminus Clawpack would be a better list if you have a sideboard for that reason. 

I haven't actually checked whether the Verminus Clawpack survives the keyword FAQ answer (are all the constituent unit names still the same as the new ones). Has the Warlord been renamed for example? The Weapons Teams might have been....It's also a compendium battalion so no use for SCGT. 

 

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Thanks for the reply Nico. Some interesting insights.

I actually ran the Verminus Clawpack at Warlords along with a load of other random Skaven stuff. 40 Clanrats and 30 Stormvermin all with +1 attacks is quite funny, although it does take a while to roll all those dice! - I found the list worked well against inexperienced players, but anyone who knew what they were doing would just snipe my Warlord away.

Does anyone have any experience with Thanquol?

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Does anyone have any experience with Thanquol?

Yes - overcosted, underwhelming, too risky with a 4+ save. I've just recalled that he isn't a monster, so he can actually get a cover save (which is a big deal). Might be worth another look with 3+ Stormvermin as your target for the 5+ Ward save.

Check up higher in the thread.

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  • 3 months later...
On Tuesday, January 03, 2017 at 8:31 AM, Nico said:

I've just recalled that he isn't a monster, so he can actually get a cover save (which is a big deal).

Where in the rules does it say that a monster doesnt get a cover bonus?

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  • 4 weeks later...

My "Pure" Verminus list at 1500 is; 

Skaven Warlord with Brood Horror

Verminlord Warbringer

Verminus Clawpack

Skaven Warlord

20 Storm Vermin

40 Clan Rats

10 Clan Rats

10 Clan Rats

Warpfire Thrower

Warpfire Thrower

Warpfire Thrower

Total: 1500/1500

3 Drops. Hammer and Anvil style of play. Great synergies when you combine all the buffs together. Verminlord's command ability lets them reroll 1's on to hit and wound rolls. Gnaw Gnaw from the formation gives them extra attacks, and death frenzy lets them swing again when they die.  I have seen almost an entire Breyherd army implode against my unit of 40 clan rats thanks to these buffs.

For the jump to 2k, I will add a chieftain with a battle standard for bubble battleshock immunity, and 2 warp lightning cannons.

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I just played a list of sayl-storm fiend bomb and 30 stormvermin.  I was using my death army. He hit my ghoul king on terrorgheist with 32 mortal wounds over the first 2.5 turns. Did end up kill it but not before I wiped that unit out. My 60 zombies slowly whittled and locked his stormvermin. And rest of the army sucked. So just watch it for tough armies that can survive and big mobs of zombies

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9 hours ago, Dead_Ghost said:

So, kitting out Stormfiends. 

Do folks go straight for the warpfire? or is there any love for Shock Gauntlets etc?
Does this change as you add more models to the mix? 

I run warfare projectors. My friend uses gauntlets. They both have their uses but,

Once they inevitably get charged, the gauntlets REALLY put out a ****ton of hurt.

So much so that I'm getting some more and giving them gauntlets. Shoulda magnetized them when I first assembled them....

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17 hours ago, Dead_Ghost said:

@cooleyo, nice list. how do you find the brood horror?



Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
 

I assume you were asking me about the Brood Horror. I originally got it, as every other army seemed to have a general on an impressive mount, and I wanted mine too, lol. The model is great, in a disgusting way.

 
On the table he does pretty well. He has 8 wounds, but with his healing it is closer to having 12 on average.... if he survives. Offensively he is nearly on par with the Vermin Lord, but he is no Vampire on a zombie dragon. He can clear chaff or weakened elite units, but you rarely want to charge him alone into anything full strength. His leadership buff is great, and helps when you have to leave a unit uninspired. It's also a Behemoth that doesn't get worse as it gets wounded, so it never loses effectiveness.
 
Overall I like it a lot, and it's priced about right for what it does. I have no regrets purchasing it, and it has been performing decently for me. Some games he is a force of destruction and others he gets charged and killed in one go. If I could use him in the Verminus clawpack I would love him even more, but by the RAW he doesn't.
 
Hope that answers your questions.
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