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About this blog

A blog dedicated to following the development, both hobby and competitive play, of Aiden Nicol's Clan Pestilens army, as well as other Skaven related content. Aiden is a hobbyist and active tournament player in Wellington, New Zealand.

Entries in this blog

Pre-Tournament Post: ChariCon

Event Preparation: ChariCon Upper Hutt First event with "New Skaven"   This coming weekend the Wellington Region in New Zealand (The Capital Region, the Best Region, the Once-and-Future Region) is playing host to a new style of event called ChariCon. The astute among you will notice this word is a mash-up of the words "Charity" and "Convention", which believe it or not is no mere coincidence. 100% of the proceeds and revenue generated by registrations and various charity raffles a

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

ALL SKAVEN WARSCROLL CHANGES BREAKDOWN

Skaventide Warscroll Changes All Clans Covered   Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls. Presented here for you, by popular demand, is a total recap of the changed to all the Skaven scrolls laid out by Games Workshop. To the regular readers you will notice the Pestilens scrolls are in here despite already having been covered in a separate article. This is so anyone seeking a total guide doesn’t have to jump between the two. If you’re Pestilens supremacist or an enterprising Nu

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Nervous Speculation: Part 3

Won't lie to you fellow ratkin I actually forgot that the warscrolls get revealed a week before the book itself due to how the retail website works so waking up here in NZ to all these changes was like Christmas. But the kind of Christmas where you're not sure if the gifts are cool or terrible. Without further ado, let us get stuck into the warscrolls and talk about what’s different, what’s better, and what’s worse. As ever, we still don’t have points so a lot of this is potentially subjective.

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AIdenNicol444

Nervous Speculation: Part 2

Didn't expect to be back so soon, but GW is throwing spoilers at us hard and fast and you know i'll be there to catch them. Today's article centred on Skaventide Endless Spells, as well as the Gnawhole terrain feature. As always, I preface this saying we don't have the full picture, any of my predictions could be wrong here based entirely on what we get caster wise and what's big in your local meta. We also don't know the point costs of these (Gnawhole is terrain and therefore free) so that can

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Nervous Speculation: Part 1

Hey there fellow Acolytes, figured I might as well do some posts relating to the rules spoilers we will be getting leading up to the battletome. To preface this, it's important to acknowledge all rules we are shown are in a vacuum, we have no idea what other changes may be coming that supplement or affect these rules. But that being said, let's dive straight into it.  Kicking off strong. Now "Overwhelming Mass" is exactly the sort of thing I expected with a new Skaven book, it both rew

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

All Praise to Horned Rat

So i guess by the 60 notifications and 13 (a good omen) missed messages I woke up to on here it finally happened.  Pestilens review of the book to come, I plan to leave the rest of the content to more educated minds than me.   See you all then

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Clan Pestilens: A list for the Masters

NZ Masters Tournament 2018 Road to the Top     Overview With the New Zealand Masters Tournament 3 weeks away, and list submissions due in 6 days, I figure it’s close enough to talk about my preparation for this tournament. Unsurprisingly, I’ll be running the Pestilens allegiance and going for the top, with the goal yet again of being the first Clan Pestilens player to win or place a major event. Over the last 2 months my list has gone through a heavy amount of

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Lore Post: The Roiling Horde

Acolytes of the Withered Word The Fecund Hordes of the Ashen Wastes     The Skaven Clans, and most particularly the teeming hordes of Clan Pestilens, are infamous for their Gnawholes, unstable tunnel-gates that run between the realms chiselled into being by the twisted claws and sorcery of the rat-men and guided by their insidious Verminlords. They can be seen dotting the realms, particularly great sites of battle during the Realmgate War, leaving warping and twisted

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Notorious Hammer Tournament

Notorious Hammer       Just got home from the Notorious Hammer event in Johnsonville, Wellington and I’m here to let everyone know how it went. The tournament went overall exceptionally well, big props to Shaun from Notorious AOS (https://notoriousaos.podbean.com/) for T.O’ing the event and running a tight ship. Once again, the New Zealand Warhammer scene is better for your efforts. Everyone had a great time and there was a great field present for 2 days of great games.

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Notrious Hammer Tournament List

Hey guys, Aiden here again after my long hiatus learning how Microsoft Excel works and when it is or is not appropriate to assault office workers with a list write-up. Next weekend myself and the majority of Wellington’s die hard AOS scene will be competing in Notorious Hammer, a tournament set up by the members of the widely popular Notorious AOS Podcast (https://notoriousaos.podbean.com/). It’s also one of the last tournaments of the year that offer points contributing towards the 2018 Nationa

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Building a Skaven Army: Clan Pestilens

Building a Skaven List Clan Pestilens   The only Skaven clan with a “battletome” (it doesn’t feature any of the stuff modern tomes do, only warscrolls and a small handful of battalions, you need the General’s Handbook for the rest), Clan Pestilens were one of the first armies in the game to receive a book and their line repackaged into the new boxes with round bases and so on. Pestilens takes the existing theme of Skaven being mostly high damage, low durability and escalate

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Building a Skaven Army: Clan Moulder

Building a Skaven List Clan Moulder   Rats on rats. Moudler is the Skaven clan characterised by two things; the massive weight of monsters and numbers it can bring to the table, and the staple reliance it’s players have on Forgeworld. A cursory look at the Moulder GW line will give you an entire Online Order Only army, most of which has lacklustre rules. Fortunately, daddy Forgeworld has our back. Brood Horrors and Wolf Rats are massively underutilized Skaven units but are

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Building a Skaven Army: Clan Skryre

Building a Skaven List Clan Skryre     Gautfyre Skorch. Done. Go away. Ok fine, I’ll do this properly. First up in my series on building Skaven armies to a specific allegiance will be Clan Skryre. I chose Skryre because so far, they’re the most popular Skaven clan and actually see a lot of exposure in the percentages of tournaments. They’re also a relatively easy army to build, given most of the thinking is done for you with the Clan Skryre Enginecoven system.

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Skaven Elites: Premier Skaven Troop Choices

Skaven Elites Premier Troops of the Skaven Clans     Across the 5 Great Clans of the Skaven, there are a variety of powerful and varied units that when combined allow a Skaven army to manage itself against various threats. Among these units, each clan has an “elite unit”, a costly and specialized warscroll that best represents the strength of the clan they hail from.   Stormvermin Specialization: Damage Focused Support Infantry  

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Call to Arms Wellington Recap

Last weekend I played in New Zealand's AOS tournament Call to Arms, one of the biggest of its kind since the AOS Scene began. I had a great time, and the TO Fraser B did a fantastic job keeping things on time and running smoothly. Would happily attend another event if he was the TO. That being said, let’s do it. The List Allegiance: Chaos Mortal Realm: Ulgu Leaders Screaming Bell (200) - General - Trait: Malicious Conqueror - Artefact: Crown of Conquest Lord Skreech Verminking (

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Tournament Lists for Pestilens in AoS2

Gidday Skaven enthusiasts, I'm headed to a tournament in two weeks time and submitted my list last night, and I'd like to write a little about what has changed in AoS2 and how it affects our ist building. What's Changed for the Better? Realm Artefacts: These have been a total game changer, over 50 artifacts drawn from multiple realms to enhance lists or build lists around. Standouts for other factions like Lens of Refraction and Aetherial Amulet have already begun to change the game.

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Warscroll Spotlight: Lord Skreech Verminking

Something a little different this time, we're reaching out of the pestilent pond and talking about the model that literally made me want to play Skaven as an army (Pre AOS even), the dreaded lord of all Verminlords, Skreech the Verminking. Royal Introductions Skreech is the skaven named character that does a little bit of everything. He has a solid combat profile, he has a toolkit of abilities that let him recieve a small buff of yur choice each turn based on each skaven clan that swit

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Skaven in AOS2 - Mixed Skaven

Welcome to Age of Sigmar second edition people. Lets kick off the first blog post for this edition with how mixed skaven measures up thanks to the chages to Grand Alliance: Chaos rules. Allegiance Ability The GA: Chaos allegiance ability is nothing too overpowered, par the course for the Grand Alliances. "Unbridled Malice" is a slight rework of the old ability they had, in this edition you roll a dice for a unit when you select it to fight in the combat phase if that unit is within 12

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Warscroll Spotlight: Plagueclaw Catapult

Skaven armies are famous for two things; the collosal numbers they slap on the table and the ramshackle war machines they drag behind them. The Plagueclaw is one such machine. You may be more familiar with this weapon of war from seeing it shoehorned into a Maggotkin list, or spamming them to win Mortal Empires in Total War Warhammer (I have no regrets, Mazdamundi had it coming). It isn't often fielded in any chaos list not of Pestilens or Nurgle, a distinction that seperates it from the Warp Li

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Skaven Matchups: Updated for AOS2

Here's the 2018 Matchups list as i see it, I'll be updating as the year unfolds.   Idoneth Deepkin - Neutral Look man I dunno. This army is just weird. We wreck their infantry with sickening ease but the eels are annoying. Their magic is good and the Ishraan Rites are pretty non interactive. The big turtle thing goes down like a sack of cheap seafood but they never take it so it's irrelevant. Stay away from the shipwrecks, kill the support heroes. And on the High Tide they'll wrec

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Warscroll Spotlight: Plague Censer Bearers

Most armies have their dedicated elite infantry, and from the Freeguild Greatswords to the Kharadron Grundstock Thunderers they bear an infamous reputation on the battlefield.  Each of the Skaven Clans have their own as well, and those fielded by the Clans Pestilens are known as Plague Censer Bearers. Swinging High The standout strengths of the Censer Bearers are evident. Unlike Plague Monks their weapon range is 2 inches, meaning they can actually swing over the top of themselves when

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Tournament Tactics: Reminder Sheet

When I first started playing tournaments I would usually finish on a comfortable 4 or 5 Major Defeats. This was happening to me because I wasn't just a new player, I was a bad player. Losing doesn't make you bad, but losing consistently and not taking steps to improve does. My first step to improving was to read my warscrolls. Not just read, but really dig in and memorize them (Clan Pestilens has about 6 warscrolls, so no excuse not to really). From there I constructed a small phase by phase flo

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Useful Idiots: The Ally Choices of Clan Pestilens

In this blog entry I'd like to explain the best options we have for ally choices when running the Clan Pestilens alleigance. As a Skaven army, we can ally with all the other Skaven factions (Clans Verminus, Eshin, Skryre, Moulder and the Masterclan) as well as Nurgle Daemons. Obviously covering every single model we can ally in is a bit fruitless, so I'll just be talking the best options for matched play. Clanrats (Clan Verminus) Oh Clanrats, don't you ever go changing on me. These guy

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Looking Back: 2018 NICon

Last weekend I took the rats to the North Island Convention (NICon) tournament in Napier, New Zealand. The event was a competitive matched play tournament utilizing scenarios made out of the Games Workshop Open War cards, so they were not like anything most competitive players were used to and made for interesting list building.  I myself took the usual list of Verminlord Corruptor, 2 Plague Furnaces, 3 Plague Priests, 2 units of 40 allied clanrats and filled the rest of my list with as many Pla

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

Disorganised Religion: Clan Pestilens Tactics

Today we're going to talk about the strategies available to the enterprising Clan Pestilens player and the tricks and tools of the disease trade. Some of these aren't exactly unique to Pestilens, but all of them are useful to them. The Prayers of a Righteous Rat Did you know you can cast the damage prayer on the Plague Priest scroll without an actual target? It targets an area, not a unit. Interesting info, but not really useful right? Wrong. Spam this turn 1 with no valid target and g

AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

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