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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.

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Warscroll Spotlight: Verminlord Corruptor

Striding above the lesser rats as they charge screaming into battle is a monster the skaven fear more than any other. Verminlords are the truest incarnation of the Horned Rat, be they ascended champions rewarded for excellence, shards of the Horned Rat given form and function, or the hideous Lord Skreech Verminking, an abomination formed from the essence of the entire original Council of Thirteen. These entities lead the skaven, from the front and from the shadows, and of their number none are fouler than the Verminlord Corruptor. A Nurgle Daemon Unlike Any Other  The Verminlord Corruptor is the centrepiece model of a Clan Pestilens army. As the only unit in the book with a command ability, if they're in the list they'll be the general. Before Pestilens recoeved alleigance abilities this guy didn't see much use, he was an awkward out of place model that simply cost too much. Now, with a point reduction and command traits and artifacts that bring him into line with the rest of the army this chittering monstrosity makes for a formidable leader indeed. Disease Strides the Battlefield The Corruptor is best played thematically. He stalks behind a line of plague monks, casting his command ability on them while casting mystic shield to preserve nearby Plague Furnaces and unleashes his unique Plague spell on anything close, or anything close to his nearby expendable and targetable swarm. He only fights in close combat when victory is assured, and given his game changing command ability is willing to expend every last rat to preserve his own well-being. Equipped with the Blistervious, the Living Cyst and bearing the Master of Rot and Ruin trait this potent support general will stay alive on the back field, casting prayers and spells to support his minions and dealing with any enterprising assassins foolish enough to come close. Points to Remember 12 wounds and a 4+ save is not that durable. If the Corruptor tries to trade blows with anything bigger than a support hero, he will lose. The idea of this mighty creature cutting down hated Allariele the Everqueen is pleasant, until her beetle takes him out in literally one round of combat. Prayers used by a Corruptor who has Master of Rot and Ruin or the Liber Bubonicus cannot trigger Great Plagues. Can't fathom why, but rules as written he doesn't. Don't try it. We might be scum skaven players, but we aren't cheats. His unique spell can be chained through your own troops to reach the enemy. Not always smart, but always funny when it goes off and causes the enemy even more casualties. Parting Shots (With a Prehensile Tail) I've begun the hard task of repainting my corruptor, shown here in his original, if somewhat rough glory, and halfway through his new paint job with lovely crystalline horns.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

0

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 Lightning Cannon and Stormfiends. Shooting for the Moon This catapult outranges 90% of the units in Age of Sigmar, and doesn't even need to see those units to hit them. Furthermore, as appropriate for something that lore-wise just carpet bombs the enemy with sludge, it gets significant benefits for targeting units that have more than 10 models (Not 10 or more, MORE than 10). It's rend is -2, shockingly brutal for a ranged weapon, which compensates for not recieving the anti-horde bonus if targeting elite units with good armor saves like Stormcast Paladin units or Kurnoth Hunters. Landing in the Dumps Thank god this thing got a point reduction going into AOS2, or I wouldn't even be bothering to write this in the first place. Despite the above benefits, the thing just cost far too much to have more than 1 of as a token threat to hordes during AOS1. 160pts is much more bearable for it's often unreliable nature, and while it's unreliabilty can be directly combatted with the Foulrain Procession batallion, it's also a 700pt sink that will prevent you fielding a decently sized force, something critical to victory with Clan Pestilens. Plaguelord's Verdict I personally plan to be upping my catapult count to 2 heading into AOS2, the point reduction was nice and makes it easier to justify this unit as a support choice.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

2

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 taken in large groups. Their base rend on their weapons is -1, above the Plague Monks who need wound rolls of 6 to compete with that. Topping this off, in the hero phase each unit near them has a chance to take a mortal wound on the side.  They also reroll all failed hits and battleshock outcomes as long as they hang close to a unit of Plague Monks, which in any smart list they'll have at least 2 or 3 units nearby. Falling Short No save, and unlike Plague Monks, no way of acquiring one. Furthermore, they're 60pts for 5 models, and that's 60pts that can be erased by merely average shooting. This is an elite unit that cannot withstand ANY level of pressure, so they need a stack of buffs to hit their full potential. Plaguelord's Verdict With the Verminlord Corruptor's command ability, the Plague Furnace's Rabid Fever and Bless with Filth, and maybe an enemy debuffed with Wither for good measure, these guys will literally EAT anything they go up against. A unit of 10 swinging for 40 attacks rerolling all of it's failed hit and wound rolls is going to blitz ANYTHING short of a 2+ save rerolling fails. Taken in the Plaguesmog Congregation they will be -1 to hit with shooting and putting out far more proximity mortal wounds in the hero phase. However without these buffs, they'll get swatted turn 1 or 2 and you'll lose your high cost point sink. Take them in a group of 10 and a group of 5 as part of a Plaguesmog for the extra artifact and command point or don't take them at all.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

0

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 switches up his utlity, and he's a spellcaster packing the infamous Dreaded Thirteenth Spell. He has a command ability that will be at least slightly useful no matter what type of skaven force you take and he's exceptionally reasonably costed at only 300pts. Boons of the Rat-King The reason to take Skreech in the old edition was his surprising kill capabilities in close combat and his unleashing the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell to chunck a unit for between 5 and 10 wounds on average. In this edition, said sell now summons free clanrats because I don't know, it wasn't strong enough before or something silly. He also went down in cost and contributes as a spellcaster to deal with the new Endless Spells. He no longer has to be the general to use his command ability, a relief considering he can't take a command trait or artifacts. Drawbacks of Monarchy I mean, Skreech's only reaal weaknesses are the same as all the other Verminlords. He only has 12 wounds and a 4+ save, which honestly isn't even awful. He can't take traits or artifacts being a named character, but given his comman ability isn't tethered to being the general that doesn't come into play. Beseeching the Lord Taking Skreech is a no brainer if you've made the call to not use Thanquol and Boneripper (don't use both, it's cool but its 700pts). The real dream however is not taking Skreech, taking a Screaming Bell and summoning him for free, then instantly using the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell to kill a bunch of enemy troops and throw down a line of Clanrats in front of Skreech to cover him from a charge. Mixed Skaven can awlays find a home for the Lord Skreech, do so often and without hesitation.  
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

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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 guys really just pull their weight in any list they're in. 200pts for 40 bodies with a buffable armor save. Sit these blokes on an objective, screen your army with them, or just run them forward and let the plague monks flank and smack the enemy from the side. Clanrats retreat and charge, and add 2 to their run and charge rules, making them shockingly mobile for getting in the way of the enemy. I will never not recommend these, and every pestilens player should have at least 40 painted and ready to go. Arch Warlock (Clan Skryre) 140pts for a caster that knows 2 spells, I still feel a little dirty taking this guy because surely his costing is a typo. Factor in his unique spell is 3 Arcane Bolts to fire at your leisue, and you've got a sneaky, durable and brutal hero skulking around the back line obliterating any enemy that dares to come at you and forcing battleshock tests on 3-4 enemy infantry blocks every damn turn. Screaming Bell (The Masterclan) The bell tolls for FREE SUMMONING. I mean sure, it's on the roll of a 12, but imagine spending 200pts on a versatile mobile buff/debuff/damage output machine and accidentally summoning the Lord Skreech Verminking 100% free of charge and him dropping the Thirteenth Dreaded Spell on some poor unsuspecting elite infantry block. But I digress, even without the free Verminlord gimmick this is the bell for you, random damage output, a unique spell that puts stormcast in the oven and sets it to fanbake, and a command ability that can pretty much always be at least slightly useful. Lord Skreech Verminking (The Masterclan) Getting your ass royally beat? Reach for the king. Verminking does everything you'd expect from the lord of all Verminlords, he'll duel any character in the game and shred them (if he fights first, but that's just the Verminlord deal), he'll move across the board with incredible speed to lock down objectives, he'll heal himself if he has to and if anyone even DARES to come at him without a reliable dispell, the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell will blast a hole in anything it hits and then replace the casualties with FREE clanrats.  His command ability will always be useful in any skaven army (Skaven units reroll wound rolls when near Verminking) so that's nice. Gutter Runners (Clan Eshin) These guys weigh in at 60 for 5, or 200 for 20. Cheeky backfield bombers that pop in from a board edge in your movement phase and get to run and shot where necessary. Essentially what Gutter Runners are is the only reliable backfield mobility skaven has, given everything else has a dice roll or too many conditions. They're a niche, meta dependent pick but having a full strength unit of 20 in your list is basically never a waste. They're average when they're not needed, and amazing when they are. Verminlord Warpseer (The Masterclan) This lad wouldn't have made the list during General's Handbook 2017, but free summonig made his command ability at least not pointless, and being the Verminlord dedicated to being a wizard he's going to come in handy during the hype phase of Endless Spells. Also, watching his unique spell burn holes in the unique named characters that can fly (Pro Tip, all of them except ours) is always satisfying. He can rip through infantry with his Warp-Glaive, and he's surprisingly survivable getting to reroll all his failed save. A niche pick, but not a bad one. Warpgrinder Weapon Team (Clan Skryre) Fresh off the assembly line with a points drop for Generals Hanbook 2018, this beast can put 40 plague monks directly behind the enemy and essentially force the opponent to adjust their plans or get rammed by 240 points of absolutely balanced, totally fair and family friendly foetid blades. Which for reference will wind up being around 120 attacks. And lucky last... THANQUOL AND THE BONERIPPER You read that right, Mr Chosen of the Horned Rat himself just got yet another point reduction, 400pts for the greatest and most clever seer to ever live and his walking, chittering battering ram. Thanquol is an absolute unit, he does everything and he does it well. His unique spell is Arcane Bolt at greater range (before it got gimped), he heals himself every turn with no condition, he knows the spells of every skaven wizard near him (oh hey Arch Warlock) and casts those spells better, because he has the warpstone token rule the Grey Seer model has but with absolutely no negative consequences should it fail. His command ability is the AOS equivilent of an invulnerable save on any unit of skaven that gets better if there's more than 13 models in the unit, absolutely insane. And all these benefits are just the bloke on the top, lets talk about the four armed gentleman down bottom. Boneripper is one HELL of a beatstick, he comes with two weapon loadouts, one is a melee attack that outshines any weapon in the entire Skaven line. The other option is a ranged attack that does 2D6 mortal wounds to anything within 8inches. No aiming, no hit rolls, no mercy. Whichever you choose, he has a second melee attack that's respectable as hell. These two will consume your entire ally choice points at 2k, but ****** he will do work.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

0
 

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 flow chart to remind me of all the small rules that I would sometimes forget that culd have shifted the balance of a game, and as soon as i made this chart i went from an average of 1 Major Victory to 3 Major Victories almost overnight. This can be applied to any army, but I've posted below the flowchart I was following for the NZ Masters tournament last year (Adapted for AoS2) where until Round 4, i was one of the favorites to win the event (Fate is fickle, ****** you Tzeentch).   Pestilens Turn Progression   Hero Phase   ·        Choose whether to spend command abilities (not advised in the first battle round, save them for turn 2 charges). ·        Use all prayers of all priests (If first battle round things won’t be in range of Pestilent Breath, however you can still do it targeting nowhere to potentially get The Neverplgaue great plague). ·        Cast spells with the Verminlord Corruptor. ·        Choose whether or not to use one-use only effects in the Plague Monk and Plague Priest warscrolls, ideally the Plague Monk tome that deals mortal wounds or the enemy debuffs from the scroll. ·        Check if any enemies are within range of proximity-based damage (Plague Furnace, Plague Censer Bearers). Movement   ·        Plagueclaw Catapults can move without a penalty to its shooting. ·        Move Plague Monks and Censer Bearers forward, however if they cannot possibly make a successful charge stay out of enemy charge range or bubblewrap with Plague Monks that have the Rabid Fever prayer active. Shooting   ·        Prioritise infantry blocks with good saves as the Plagueclaw target, or soften up targets about to be charged by your Plague Monks. ·        Verminlord has a shooting attack, it isn’t awful against low save units. Charge/Combat   ·        Command points can be spent to reroll failed charges, so roll charges before spending the points. ·        Charge in groups of 2 or 3 units, avoid sending you entire army in in a single phase. Battleshock   ·        Remember that Pestilens allegiance gives you 2 bravery for every 10 monks in a unit, not 1. ·        If you wish to use Inspiring Presence it has to be done before any battleshock rolls are made.   If you play Pestilens, I recommend taking this and adapting it to the list you run. If you don't play Pestilens (Normies leave reeee) I recommend constructing one for your own army regardless of how good a player you are. It only takes one lapse of memory to lose a game.  
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

0

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. For Pestilens, the Ulgu artefacts have given us an incredible boost. Sword of Judgement, Doppleganger's Cloak and Betrayer's Crown give us access to options we previously never had. Points Changes: Plague Furnace and Plagueclaw Catapult got needed reductions while the rest of our already very affordable and well costed units remained unchanged, no complaints there. Endless Spells: Finally the fact the Verminlord Corruptor can cast twice has relevance. Also makes allying an Arch Warlock even more of a god tier selection. Chronomantic Cogs and Aethervoid Pendulum do things for our army we couldn't previously do, unlocking new ways of playing the game. Turn One charges and long range threats were never something Pestilens could do, but now it's an option. Look out Sir!: With Plague Priests now able to tuck themselves in for -1 to being hit and Plague Furnaces recieving the same benefit due to lacking the MONSTER keyword, the only hero in our list vulnerable to shooting is the Verminlord Corruptor. What's Changed for the Worst? Endless Spells: OMG Take your stupid Purple Sun of whatever the hell and leave me alone. Gemenids are a massive pain in the censer and an Aethervoid Pendulum sweeping through the Plague Furnace and both monk units pusing it will give you type 2 Redmaw Plague. Magic Meta: Wizards, wizards as far as the eye can see. Every army that can take some will take several to make sure they have unbinding potential and the ability to get their endless spells on the table. With only the Verminlord Corruptor casting, he's going to get ganged up on. Endless Spells: oh cool man you put down a Prismatic Pallisade in front of the objective, guess I'll just fly over it OH WAIT List Building in AoS2 So for a start we need to ally a wizard, and take some endless spells. That's just the game right now. Yeah it'll change eventually and we'll be in some new and bizarre meta (fingers crossed for all Maggotkin meta personally, give me your wheel you loser) but until then we need to adapt to survive. Arch Warlock, Warlock Engineers, Screaming Bell and the Masterclan selection are great picks for the ally section and Thanquol has gotten a reduction to fir into 2k ally slots. Pick one or two that you like and suit your play style and put them in. The best endless spells for our army are of course the ChronoCogs, Aethervoid Pendulum and Pallisade. Mobility, long range threats and area deniability are important and these spells cover our backsides with them. End Product So below is my list for the Call to Arms tournament in Wellington New Zealand. This is expected to be the biggest tournament in the country for the year and will have a massive range of armies on display. I'd ask for feedback, but list submissions are final so it's too late to save me. Here she is. Allegiance: Pestilens
Mortal Realm: Ulgu

Leaders
Verminlord Corruptor (220)
- General
- Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin
- Artefact: Sword of Judgement
Plague Furnace (180)
- Artefact: Liber Bubonicus
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Lord Skreech Verminkin (300) - Allies

Battleline
10 x Plague Censer Bearers (120)
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
10 x Plague Monks (70)
- Foetid Blades
10 x Plague Monks (70)
- Foetid Blades
10 x Plague Monks (70)
- Foetid Blades

War Machines
Plagueclaw (160)

Battalions
Congregation of Filth (170)

Endless Spells
Chronomantic Cogs (60)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 300 / 400
Wounds: 152 So my plan basically is the same as always. Spam prayers with Priests who are safer than they once were, advance up quickly and sweep away priority targets with the monks. The catapult can force battleshock tests on hordes and the cogs can have lethal spellcaster Skreech Verminking being doubly survivable in the centre of the table, wiping away units and replacing them with Clanrats. The Plague Furnace fulfills its purpose as a buff engine while the Corruptor annhilates literally any hero without a mortal wound save (come get some Alarielle). There will be a follow up to this after the tournament so we can review what went well and where to improve. Let me know your thoughts below.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

9
 

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 wreck us so retreat away or prepare for it with buffs like Rabid Fever. Daughters of Khaine - Neutral You know that image of the two spidermen pointing at each other? This is gonna feel a lot like that. A prayer based army that uses cheap, low survivability infantry taken in large numbers with hero support to charge across the table and try and sweep the opponent away while being supported by close range war machines, low reliability shooting and a single large hero character who forms the lynchpin of the force. Was I describing us or them? Doesn't matter. Target blobs of infantry with Plagueclaws and dump the Plague Spell on them. Form a line of Plague Monks to catch the Witch Aelves and buff em up with Rabid Fever and Bless with Filth. Maggotkin of Nurgle - Major Advantage to Clan Pestilens LOL this one almost feels unfair. Half of their spells and AOE damage effects can't even affect you due to Pestilens also having the NURGLE keyword. Their vulnerability is massive amounts of attacks to combat their saves, and that's our whole thing. These two things are enough to tilt the balance towards us, but there is one last itsy bitsy detail. That buff wheel they get to work through each turn? All nurgle units. Not THEIR nurgle units. ALL nurgle units. Laugh at them and drink their tears. Blades of Khorne - Minor Advantage to Blades of Khorne A combat based army, and a good one. Ordinarily Pestilens will blenderize anything that fancies itself a combat favoring army but these guys are a little different. They have a massive range of options, we have 6 models all up. The build paths open to them let them be MORE than a combat army, something Pestilens can't actually do. Essentially it boils down to who hits who first. This is one the few matchups were Plagueclaws are actually good due to the favoribility of Bloodletter Bombs and Bloodreaver Hordes. Overall you want to be the one who gets the first charge off and make sure your units have the Furnace prayer that lets them fight one dead, you'll need it. Disciples of Tzeentch - Major Advantage to Disciples of Tzeentch Lol don't even get me started, the weakness of Clan Pestilens is no ability to deal with long range and movement shenanigans. Run up, charge to get closer to objectives and pray you can last longer than they can throw spells. Skyfires are the devil, Horrors are just annoying and the Gaunt Summoner will quite literally light you on fire and roast marshmellows on the corpse. The best strategy when facing Tzeentch with Pestilens is to either avoid it or whine about balance in chat groups. Take an Arch Warlock with a Balewind and try play them at their own game, but ultimately this one is a little skewed. Sylvaneth - Minor Advantage to Clan Pestilens This one used to feel on par with Disciples of Tzeentch until playing them a bit more, and of course the meta no longer favoring Kurnoth with bows. The trick is to take the field before they take the field, by any means necessary. Run in the first movement phase, charge anything within reach if you went second, do anything you can to get in their face. They put wildwoods in front of you? ****** em, run straight through it. Charge through it ideally. If you think the Dangerous Terrain effect is something to be afraid of, you are a coward or too considerate of your rat's lives, and neither of these traits are found in good Pestilens players. Get on top of 2 or so objectives and refuse to leave like a disenfranchised family member on Christmas, and god willing victory shall be yours. In a perfect world they'll run lots of Revenants over dryads and you drown them in dice, asking your opponent with a smug smile if he'd like to use Martial Memories to reroll one of the failed 30 saves. Kharadron Overlords - Neutral This is a weird one. Kharadron Overlords are dwarves, but only in the sense that they're short. They aren't slow, they aren't sturdy and their beards are a solid source of iron intake. Kharadron are like life, they come at you hard and fast. This is sometimes a good thing, sometimes terrible. So basically, what it comes down to is if the Overlord player invested in weight of shots (good for you) or they invested in high damage weapons like Drill Cannons (You're screwed). With weight of shots they can't actually kill enough rats for it to matter before they're on the recieving end of a plague monk charge, and oddly despite those boats being in the sky we can still smack them back down. Surround the boat and they can't deploy it's contents, which is even better. However with the Drill Cannons and so on we lose our Plague Furnaces on turn 2, Corruptor turn 3, and the game shortly after. Their weakness is the terrible range of pretty much all shooting that isn;t on a Thunderer or Ironclad, ours is they actually have guns. Play the objectives and bait them into range. Flesh Eater Courts - Major Advantage to Clan Pestilens This one is fun. They have no shooting, and they want to be in close combat. Naysayers would say "but Aiden, they can bring back their troops and we can't!". To that i say, ever seen Ghouls put out 40 wounds + several mortal wounds before saves are made? Probably not. Yeah Ghouls can regnerate lost troops, but only when a nearby Courtier does it for them. A wee, little Courtier with a weak save and fewer wounds. Slash him down to size with prayer spam. Flesh Eater Courts are an infantry spam buff army, just like Clan Pestilens, we just happen to be WAY better at it than they are. Butcher what they throw at you and take the field, if their characters get wise deal with them by throwing a Plague Furnace their way. Ironjaws - Minor Advantage to Clan Pestilens Ironjaws are a semi-elite army that don't put out massive damage but make up for it by being relatively tricky to kill. This is the matchup where discretion is the better part of valor for Pestilens. Try and go around them to get to objectives, don't hesitate to retreat if it means snaking behind them to get where you need to go. Multiwound infantry means no half measures, if you engage them engage them with all possible force and sweep them aside. Time spent fighting them is time wasted and that's what they want. Use prayers to make sure your monks can easily wound and trigger dice roll of 6 or more effects, don't waste time trying to d3 mortal wounds them to death it takes way too long. Bonesplitterz - Major Advantage to Bonesplitterz Interestingly this is an easy game really if they don't take Kunnun Rukk. Jokes on you however, they pretty much always do. Theyre surprisinly resilient and tying them up in combat doesn't stop them shooting you. And dear god will they shoot you, again and again and again. It's like facing the easier to batch paint version of Free Peoples. Try and kill the leaders to stop the batallions workind and take a Plaguesmog with Vexlers Shroud on the Furnace so it's -2 to hit. Thats basically all the counterplay there is here. Stormcast Eternals - Minor Advantage to Pestilens The boys in gold, a very diverse force with a lot of options. If we assess Stormcast at their base weaknesses, which is having to deal with weight of numbers and mortal wounds, we have a clear and easy advantage. If they play Vanguard and keep running away and shooting us it's a bit harder. If they play Aetherstrike it's an uphill footslog through the shittiest parts of Chernobyl. Play the game to the objectives, take the table to prevent Borne by the Storm and Lightning Chariot and do your best to retain your high numbers. Fireslayers - Major Advantage to Fireslayers If they're smart and take a bucketload of Vulkites you'll drown in them. If you can get around that or maybe pepper them with Plagueclaws it will be ok and you'll pull an objective victory. Magmadroths are terrible, 20 plague monks will wipe one out easily. They can't get their axes into range (unless under runic effect) without coming into charge range so bear that in mind. They're hard to shift, and they'll outlast you ten times out of ten. Avoid getting bogged down and charge the less defensive stuff like Auric Bezerkers and Hearthguard, and for the love of god stay away from the Grimrath Bezerker. Seraphon - Minor Advantage to Seraphon Our mortal foes, the artist formerly known as Lizardmen. Their strengths are defense against rend, their weakness is mortal wounds, so you might think, where is their advantage. Lords of Space and TIme. They can retreat across the table without it even being a retreat, dump a line of Saurus Guard in our way, and abuse long range magic which we can;t really unbind, as well as unbinding any few attempts we make at casting. Also the Verminlord is a Chaos Daemon which they specifically do well against.   Comment what more you'd like to see, fellow Pestilens player.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

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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 inches of your general or 3 inches of a hero, and on the roll of a 6 they add one to all their hit rolls. I like this one (on the event anyone remembers to actually roll for it) because Skaven field a lot of heroes and a lot of units that really benefit from +1 to hit like Clanrats, Plague Monks and Gutter Runners, and I'll be adding this to my reminder sheet. Command Traits Dark Avenger - This grants +1 to hit against order units for the general. Not great really. Spiteful Duelist - Reroll one wound roll per combat for the general. Somehow worse than the above. Cunning Deciever - Roll a dice at the start of your turn, with a 5+ netting you a free command point. This is pretty cool to be honest, great for a pasive long range force like a heavy Skryre or a Moulder force that needs all the command points it can get. Lord of War - Pick a unit within 3 inches and roll a dice, on a 4+ it gets +1 to hit. Definitely neat, this one will usually not ever be a waste especially considering Unbridled Malice as a rule. Terrifying Pressence - Enemies within 3 inches of the general suffer -1 to bravery. Not awful, definitely not better than Lord of War or Cunning Deciever. Malicious Conqueror - Add 1 to all Unbridled Malice rolls made within 12 inches of the general. I like this one, and in my army that runs a heavy amount of minimum size Plague Monk units i'll be taking this every time. Artifacts I literally have no interest in covering 5 out of the 6 artifacts in this list because they're absolutely worthless. However one of them is a classic from the last two editions of the GHB, and it got one HELL of a remake. The Crown of Conquest - Friendly CHAOS units within 6 inches of the bearer don't need to test for battleshock. I'm sorry, what? How on earth did this get past the design team? Did they think the new coherence rule somehow would make this not completely broken? I'm switching from Pestilens Allegiance for this. That's how big a deal this is. This takes Strength in Numbers and kicks it out the door. This thing on a Plaguesmog Congregation Plague Furnace pushed by clanrats for the Look Out Sir rule? Totally broken. This is now a 12 wound model with -2 to hit it providing a 6 inch bubble of NO BATTLESHOCK. This is stupid. I basically wrote this entire blog post to cover this ridiculous artifact.  
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

42

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   Starting with the most recognizable, Stormvermin are the clenched fist of the Verminus Clans, forming the centre of their sizable infantry force. They come with a respectable attack profile that features both rend and decent range, and their 5+ save that grows stronger against attacks that are only 1 damage.   Pros ·        A powerful attack profile that heavily rewards being buffed by command abilities like Gnash Gnaw Their Bones and Tyrants of Battle. ·        2 Inch range allows large clusters of Stormvermin to all fight or even fight over the top of lines of Clanrats. ·        Their ability to retreat and still charge, as well as the +2 to run and retreat rolls make them insanely manoeuvrable for elite horde infantry. ·        Murderous Ferocity gives them a bonus if they outnumber their victim, which they almost always do.   Cons ·        140pts for 10 rats is a very hefty price tag. They receive a discount for a full-size regiment but that weighs in at 500pts. ·        Other elite infantry will smash them aside with their poor save and single wound each if they don’t fight them first. ·        No protection from being shot at and no resistance to battleshock built in.     Plague Censer Bearers Specialization: Objective Holding and Harassment   The glass cannon version of Stormvermin, they pack the same attack profile but also receive bonus attacks for charging and rerolls for being near Plague Monks. Their presence is deadly, radiating mortal wounds on nearby opponents.   Pros ·        2 Inch range weapons on a 32mm base unit makes for a very large footprint capable of tying up multiple units. ·        One of the few sources Clan Pestilens has of guaranteed, unconditional rend. ·        Can be taken in a Plaguesmog Congregation, further boosting their damage output with their radiant damage and giving them a protection against being shot at. ·        60pts for 5 is a very affordable cost, especially for their purpose as harassers and objective holders.   Cons ·        No armor save means any successful attack against them, no matter how lowly, will kill them. ·        No mobility steroids means a very slow, expensive unit. ·        Must be selected first in combat or they won’t likely fight at all.     Stormfiends Specialization: Wound Output and Game Closing   The big baddies of the Skaven roster. People who know nothing about the Clans know what Stormfiends are and what they do. The centrepiece of many comp lists, nothing about this unit is subtle. They’re big, they’re nasty and they put out one hell of a beating.   Pros ·        The most powerful weaponry in all the Skaven Clans. Warpfire Throwers that fountain mortal wounds on the enemy, Ratling Guns that mow down infantry and a range of brutal and horrific melee weapons are just mere options for the Stormfiends. ·        Massive durability, packing both a 4+ save and 6 wounds as well as decent bravery. ·        Synergy with Clan Moulder Packmasters to further enhance their damage capabilities.   Cons ·        290pts for 3. Maximum firepower isn’t cheap, and every loss will be severely felt. ·        Large unit footprint but slow moving, it is easy for the enemy to tie these up with cheap chaff. ·        Poor choice for allying from other clans due to their prohibitive cost and lack of utility. This is a luxury unit, not a support one.     Gutter Runners Specialization: Flanking and Harassment   Ninja rats that emerge from the board edge and drown the enemy in a storm of throwing stars and poisoned knives. Mobility, speed, shooting and utility are just the order of business for the lethal foot soldiers of Clan Eshin.   Pros ·        Emerging from any board edge on turn 1 is massive for an army that has no flying or high movement units. ·        A powerful combat profile that benefits well from being allied into other armies, synergizing well with Pestilens to-wound buffs and Verminus command abilities. ·        Running and shooting makes them a very fast and mobile harassment unit. ·        60ps for 5 is very cheap. 200pts for 20 is even better.   Cons ·        Not the most survivable, the armor save won’t save them from much and low bravery means large unit sizes are easily punished. ·        Requires buff assistance from units like Plague Priests or Skaven Warlords to be effective. ·        Little to no synergy with their own heroes, Skaven Assassins don’t help them, and they will often be out of range of the Verminlord Deciever’s command ability.     Rat Ogors Specialization: Line Breakers   The hulking masterworks of Clan Moulder throw themselves savagely at the enemy, using their superior durability and destructive strength to bat aside enemy chaff. Synergizing strongly with both their own clan and others, Rat Ogors are a force to be feared.   Pros ·        Benefitting from Packmasters, Plague Priests, Skaven Warlords and more, their basic stats are a solid foundation to buff and build on. ·        Under the effects of buffs, their ability to gain bonus attacks will see them laying the pain. ·        Chaff will have trouble chipping them down due to multiple wounds, and won’t stand up to their 2 damage attacks.   Cons ·        Too expensive and bought in lots of 2. Not good enough to warrant allying. ·        Awful bravery means if a Packmaster isn’t near, one casualty will see them buckle. ·        Shooting attack looks good on paper but will rarely come into play.  
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

3
 

Repainting the Rats

no big blog post today, just a progress shot. I've repainted 40 so far. Here's a comparison between when they were first painted two years ago and a finished repaint.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

2
 

Rats in need of Makeover

decided to touch up my rats after a year of neglect. The rat on the left is from when I had a spurt of inspiration months ago, and the other one is from when I first started playing. These lads are in need of a little tender loving care to get them up to the standard the New Zealand scene often displays.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

0

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 National Rankings, which in turn decide who gets invited to the Masters Tournament in December. And let’s just say this Plague Priest right here needs a good result if he wants to be slinging filth with the big boys in a few months. After having poor results with the Mixed Chaos Skaven list I threw together for Call to Arms, I’ve decided to stick with what I already know and am confident with in my standard Clan Pestilens list. It’ll also be the first tournament in a while where I won’t spend the week beforehand aggressively painting Clanrats, so win-win. With the lists out for the tournament it also gives me a chance to compare and contrast what I’ve put forward and see which of my list building tactics paid off and where I should have spent more focus. There are a grand total of 7 Stormcast armies, which I’m sure (Evocators) isn’t related to the release (Evocators) of some crazy new undercosted (Evocators) unit that is absolutely broken and unfair (EVOCATORRRRS). On top of that there’s a good friend of mine and his iconic 4 Zombie Dragon list and an absolute Mad-lad running a magic themed Bonesplitterz army. Also a boatload of Ironjawz players and a solitary Skaven player besides myself running the Skryre Clan, which is a shame because he seemed nice. But with the exposition complete, here’s a peek at what I’ll be running. Allegiance: Pestilens
Mortal Realm: Ulgu

Leaders
Verminlord Corruptor (220)
- General
- Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin
- Artefact: Sword of Judgement
Plague Furnace (180)
- Artefact: Liber Bubonicus
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)

Battleline
5 x Plague Censer Bearers (60)
5 x Plague Censer Bearers (60)
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
40 x Clanrats (200)
- Rusty Spear
40 x Clanrats (200)
- Rusty Spear

Battalions
Plaguesmog Congregation (140)

Endless Spells
Chronomantic Cogs (60)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 219


With the Stormcast Meta in full swing, I no longer need to run minimum sized Plague Monk units to dodge getting immolated by the lethal spell of a roaming Gaunt Summoner. Great Plague spam is once again the name of my game, because Wither is potentially my favourite ability in the whole game I’ve made sure every single character in my army can use it, and with a grand total of 6 prayers per turn it’s incredibly likely I’ll be getting the Neverplague on turn 1. As the Clanrats don’t benefit from the Strength in Numbers buff they’ll either be forming a highly disposable screen against Ironjawz and Sacrosanct or sitting behind the army holding objectives and refusing to leave them while the Plague Monks do all the actual work. Sword of Judgement Corruptor can more or less do whatever he wants. If the enemy knows anything about what he does to any hero or behemoth he encounters they’ll build a wall smack between him and their Lord Arcanum / Alarielle / Glottkin to prevent him from running in and basically tearing it in half. Those that don’t know what he does will lose said characters by the end of turn 2 after they try to “smash the rat” with their big guy. The Plague Priests and the Furnace will roll around slapping anything within eyeshot of a Plague Monk to make sure they rip and tear them to pieces. When this isn’t the case, the enemy is going to have a LOT of Pestilential Breath raining down on their clustered units as they try to form a shield wall against the swarm. The Censer Bearers will shunt the Furnace up, the battalion providing their survivability against shooting, so they can advance in the centre. The Furnace can more or less serve as the ideal hammer and threat magnet while shooting Rabid Fever and Wither down on the soon-to-be victims of the monks accompanying it. Here’s hoping all goes according to plan and I can secure myself an invite to the Masters Tournament, or I won’t be able to do another write-up.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

6

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.       Game 1: Shaun T – Daughters of Khaine Scenario: Focal Points Outcome: Major Defeat 720 Kill Points Wow. Set up my army with a Clanrat screen 40 long and 4 lines deep to brunt the massive Witch Aelf assault and Shaun just wasn’t having it. Smoothly punching through my lines and delivering a powerful follow up punch making use of the army’s ability to pile in effectively, and supporting his front line with the Cauldron of Blood and Morathi herself, Shaun schooled me hard on playing an all melee army. This tips the balance towards Shaun in our ongoing tug of war for supremacy, and I’ll absolutely be gunning for him next tournament.     Game 2: Shaun B – Stormcast Eternals Scenario: Better Part of Valor Outcome: Major Victory 2000 Kill Points Shaun (Big Shaun for Notorious listeners) opened with the same strategy he used to wipe the floor with me at Call to Arms 2 months ago. Deploying his Sequitors and Evocators along the line ready to charge in after absolutely smacking the hell out of me with an Everblaze Comet, Shaun lined my head up on the block from the start of the game. Unfortunately, his comet failed to cast and his alpha-strike play was unable to clear me off the objectives due to burning a command point to pass battleshock (cheers battalion people said not to take). This prevent Shaun burning my objectives on turn 1, and I retaliated with a lethal counter-surge with Plague Monks that saw Shaun pushed backward and eventually cleared away.     Game 3: Regan – Stormcast Eternals Scenario: Shifting Objectives Outcome: Major Victory 2000 Kill Points The Realmscape rules here saw units unable to fly banned from run moves, forcing myself and Regan to aggressively footslog towards the objectives shooting each other nasty glares. Regan arrived first, scoring an early lead and building a wall out of Anvils of the Heldenhammer, but my counter-offensive benefitted from some choice dice rolls and superior mobility with the Clanrats retreating and charging around their slower, more powerful opponents. With the points under lock, I turned my focus to exterminating the lethal Anvils before they could use their formidable command ability in conjunction with their Evocators to send me packing.     Game 4: Cameron – Seraphon Scenario: Starstrike Outcome: Major Victory 2000 Kill Points Cameron and his 3 Engines of the Gods opened the game by summoning 60 Skinks to the table to shore up his middle position while I spread my army out without committing to any one side. This proved to be a wise move, with the centre and enemy objectives being in the left board side and my own on the far right (appropriate). My Clanrats on the right retreated immediately to secure the home point while the rest of my army slammed into his endless ranks of Skinks and set about punching through them. With a gap formed, the Verminlord darted through and artfully brought the Astrolith Bearer and an Engine to the ground, while blocking the summoning range of the other engines and the Slann. With all objectives tightly in my grip and staring down the barrel of a slow and steady death at the hands of pestilence, my opponent conceded to save time.     Game 5: Lee – Sylvaneth Scenario: Total Conquest Outcome: Major Defeat 1450 Kill Points Match of the century at the top table, with the winner set to win the whole tournament, nothing about this match was carefree. Me and Lee are actually neighbours and play each other more regularly than any other opponents, so this was set to be a great game. Lee artfully matched my playstyle of massive aggression followed by retreats and more aggression with his defensive, never committing to any one area till late-game style. The points were neck to neck with the leader changing each battle round, each of us making counter-moves we’ve practised against one another a dozen times to throw the other back and upset their plans. Highlights were Lee committing allied Idoneth eels on a suicide mission to kill a lone Plague Priest who was actually a core component of my left flank strategy (Lee never throws units away, so he knew he could set this up without me expecting it) and the would-be assassination of the outlaw Verminlord Corruptor by the Treelord Ancient into that scene from Avengers where Captain America tears a log in half. Lee won with a clever last-minute commitment to my crippled left flank and took the game, a well-earned victory.     Final Placings   1st Place: Lee W – Sylvaneth 2nd Place: Shaun T – Daughters of Khaine 3rd Place: Matt B – Legion of Blood Best Sports – Regan Best Painted – Sloane D     Everyone had a great time and there were no dramas or last-minute point corrections. I ended up 4th, almost clinching the title of first Pestilens player in the world to podium at a registered event, and learned a lot on how to improve my play. Looking forward to the next events of the year, and to the upcoming Notorious AOS GT coming next year. If it’s as good as this event, it’ll be one I can’t afford to miss.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

14

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.   Verminlord Corruptor ·        Unique Spell changed so that it does more damage, but no longer spreads. ·        Plaguereapers don’t reroll all their hits anymore but inflict mortal wounds on unmodified 6s to hit. ·        Plaguemaster now does AoE mortals around the Verminlord rather than tick off creatures that have already been hurt by it. ·        Received a 5+ ward save. ·        Received a passive bravery debuff to nearby enemies. ·        Command ability now grants rerolls rather than additional attacks. Big Cheese himself came out looking pretty good. Can’t help but feel that Plaguereaper change will have an FAQ saying he can’t take the Sword of Judgement on top of that ability so goodbye to that. His prior weaknesses (no rend, terrible survivability) have been fixed, and his strengths (two casts, high attack volume) made it through unscathed. Good changes, though I will miss his old unique spell even if it wasn’t exactly good.   Plague Furnace ·        Altar of the Horned Rat now just makes anything wholly within 13 inches ignore Battleshock. ·        The wrecking ball does far more damage but is a single target instead of AoE now. ·        The Plague Monk crew actually have attacks now. ·        It has the same ward save as the Verminlord Corruptor. ·        It has keywords that prevent it from receiving Look Out Sir now. Good lord GW the Plague Furnace didn’t actually need to be stronger. Yeah it can’t benefit from look out sir anymore, but they give it mini Crown of Conquest and a ward save? Like what? This thing only got better. Thank the Horned Rat I have 4.   Plague Priest (Both Variants) ·        Tumbled into one warscroll. ·        Gained the attack profiles of both original priests. ·        The Plague Tome once per game activation is gone. ·        Pestilent Prayers are all reworked (addressed at the bottom of the post) This was always going to happen. Plague Tome + Wither was one of the strongest combos in the Chaos grand alliance, and people were starting to wake up to it. A shame that they had to change him, but it makes sense why they did. A small price to pay for the rest of the changes, as Iskandar Khayon said in Black Legion, a sacrifice is only a sacrifice if it diminishes the giver.   Plague Monks ·        All once per game effects removed from command options. ·        Improved Rend on 6s and rats doing damage when they die left untouched. ·        Banner now causes 6s to wound to do double damage. ·        Doom Gong now boosts running and charge rolls. ·        Rerolls for two swords is still here, as is +1 attack for charging. The meat and bones of the army. This one was always going to get changed due to it being a troop unit with more rules than Kairos Fateweaver. But the changes are for the good… or so it seems. All the changes are really strong and benefit the unit. HOWEVER the warscroll specifies 1 in 20 for it’s command options, which likely means the minimum unit size has been upped to 20. Squashes a few of my tactics and will mean some changes. I will however roll with these changes and no doubt actually be better off with them (ideally).   Plague Censer Bearers ·        Aura of damage effect is slightly better. ·        They receive bonuses for being near monks at a slightly larger range now. I expected nothing and wasn’t disappointed. I was terrified these guys would be the recipient of random buffing that meant I would need to convert another 20 ****** Stormvermin into these, thanks for actually having my back there GW.   Plagueclaw Catapult ·        Receives artillery bonuses if there is 10 or more models in the unit, instead of more than 10. ·        Does a bravery debuff to victims. I was afraid this thing would get worse not because I use it (I have 3 fully panted to a high standard and they sit in a drawer somewhere) but because I’ve already ragged on it so hard, I wasn’t sure how I would somehow step that up. Pleased to say… that won’t be necessary. It’s slightly better.   Changes to Pestilent Prayers and Noxious Prayers The original prayers on the warscrolls of the Plague Priest and Plague Furnace are now gone. They’ve been replaced with new effects that are fundamentally different with bizarre names. Disease-Disease! (Formerly Wither): So instead of making it easier to wound the victim ala Wither, this is ow the Gaunt Summoner unique spell on a 6. Boo hiss. Pestilence-Pestilence! (Formerly Plague Breath): It’s the same as before but the bubble is 3” not 2”. It also doesn’t affect Pestilens units, rather than Nurgle units. Neat. Filth-Filth (Formerly Bless with Filth): Thank Christ it’s still the same. No changes here, and what a boon that is. Rabid-Rabid! (Formerly Rabid Fever): Add 1 to the attacks of something nearby. So this is where they shoved the Verminlord command ability. I’ll forever miss the old one of this, my monks fighting after death is a MASSIVE part of my army’s reputation in NZ due to me taking 2 Furnaces and making sure it was always active. Pouring one out for you my lad.   The Battalions Well, the book isn’t out yet so we can’t really say. I can however say that I know all the Pestilens battalions made it through in some form or another, so all I need to see now is what they actually do. Worry not, I will make another one of these posts as leaks emerge.   Well, a lot to take in. Most of it really good news too. Let me know your thoughts and let’s talk pestilence in the Mortal Realms.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

11

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 be a factor. Lets get stuck in with Vermintide. More than just a fantastic video game series, "Vermintide" makes a triumphant return to form from it's glory days in Fantasy Battle and Total War Warhammer, and it's somewhat less glorious days as the Grey Seer unique spell. This thing got an upgrade to say the least, it's a predatory endless spell that can't harm it's own army or even body-block them. The thing is on an enormous base too, so everything about this thing screams choke point blocker. Also it will squeeze out maybe 3 or so mortal wounds on anything that dares to bump and grind against it, nice. At first this was my least favorite, due to it's high casting roll and pseudo Geminids-but-not-as-good deployment. Then after seeing the casting buffs we will have access to in addition to the ones we already have, I changed my mind. The damage on this thing isn't it's draw, though it definitely has potential. The real devil is in the details however. Notice how this doesn't actually fly. Now notice it strips the ability to fly off enemy units. But Aiden, Pestilent Lord of all that Rots, how could that be a good thing when it's immobile? THIS THING IS SOULSNARE SHACKLES BUT IT CAN STOP FLYING MODELS. Cya Bloodthirster. Stop right there Ironclad. Morathi? I hardly knew ye (she will probably just unbind it but still). Worth it. Oh hey you. Now a good parent doesn't play favorites, but I never claimed to be the best. This thing, this prodigal son, this apple of the eye of Skreech Verminking himself. It's crown of conquest at 13 inch range and it flies around the table and ONLY BENEFITS US. Oh but the enemy can take it and move it you say. Well yes they can, but good luck getting it away from everything in our army when it doesn't specify wholly within. Not much more to say, love it. Tunnel Through Reality is fine. It's more going to be useful for moving heroes than units due to the wholly within caveat but that's fine, it does what it needs to do. Aura of the Horned Rat however is quite toasty, free arcane terrain is amazing in an army that (historically) has few actual buffs to cast. It will pair well with Grey Seers and their ability to reroll failed casts to say the least. Also while Deadly isn't the slaughterhouse it used to be, it will be worth keeping note of as a fun extra way of chipping out extra damage. See you all in the next episode, it will probably be next week knowing GW. Then again we also have LVO reveals in less than 24 hours, not that I think anything is coming that will affect us too much. As always, let me know your thoughts and let's get a discussion going.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

6

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 rewards and strongly pushes taking large unit sizes, which often with Pestilens I wasn't wont to do due to it potentially setting up a bad battleshock. THAT BEING SAID, I think it is extremely, EXTREMELY unlikely the Plague Monk warscroll hasn't had more than a few changed to accommodate this rule. "Strength in Numbers" is also here making a return. I've sung this one's praises in previous blog posts before, it's neat it's clean and it does exactly what you need it to do. Glad you're still here with us buddy. Well well well. "Lead From the Back" is one hell of a rule. Sylvaneth Superstar Lee who I play regularly has started making a habit of shooting his allied Deepkin eels across the table at me and assassinating Priests / heavily damaging Furnaces, and this will provide some insurance against that. It also helps to negate the drawback of the Priests needing to be right in the thick of it with their 13" range prayers. "Scurry Away" is neat as hell. If the enemy doesn't activate into it in time, the Plague Priests and Plague Furnaces can just LEAVE the combat instead of fighting. If the Verminlords get this I'll be shocked, but if they do I'll be a very happy man. This one is a spell for Grey Seers specifically, but it's not far fetched to imagine we will be making a greater use of those under the new ruleset. "Splinter" is funny as hell, you can either use it to casually remove that Daemon Icon Bearer and prevent them from cheesing their way through the battleshock phase, or you can shoot for the moon and try get that cheeky 3+ and knock off a Blood Knight. It's neat and has decent enough utility. On top of all this there were a few little hints scattered throughout the article. "Pestilens players will find their allegiance abilities familiar" implies the return of Echoes of the Great Plagues, but given they gave us 4 other allegiance rules I wouldn't be surprised for it to be a little diminished. The confirmation that every clan has Command Traits and Artefacts means there's a good chance our existing ones have been reworked somewhat to accommodate the new rules.  I imagine we'll have a few days of Flesh Eater Courts spoilers (boo, hiss, who cares) interspersed between glorious Skaven rule releases, so i'll check back in a few days when we have more info. As always, leave your thoughts below.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

8

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 effects upon the nearby landscape. However despite their repeated attempts to achieve such, the clans have yet to successfully penetrate the dark and mysterious realm of Ulgu, the infamous realm of shadow.   The Roiling Basin Deep within the twisting ash-storms of Aspiria in the fiery realm of Aqshy lies the realmgate known as the Shadowhame. One of the few stable realmgates that runs to the realm of Ulgu, it sits deep in the centre of a shattered volcano in what appears to be ancient azyrite ruins. The crater, known as the Roiling Basin due to the ash storms that whip around it’s interior walls as they blow in from the eastern plains before churning out over the western seas, has been settled by an enormous contingent of Skaven Great Clans hailing directly from the Blight City itself. Towering and haphazard Skaven constructions are piled atop ancient Azyrite heritage sites as the industrious Skaven claw the skies with their fell machinery, their destructive and corrupting presence going so far as to warp the nearby landscape and even the weather. Wealthier members of the clans have their residences and bases of operations in the high towers, with Skryre and Pestilens holding dominion over their respective supporters from on high. Moulder Clan members prefer to practise their disgusting bio-science in the depths of the crater and Clan Eshin’s base naturally remains a mystery as to its location. The lowest members of the system such as Skavenslaves and lowly Clanrats eek out an existence in the Depths, killing one another for scraps that fall from above and mysteriously disappearing into the Moulder surgery-labs. The Shadowhame realmgate itself lies in the Pestilent Knave known as the Prior Vermalanx, deep in the structure and well-guarded by acolytes and the Plague Guard.   The Church of Contagion Skaven city-warrens are usually inhabited by clans belonging to a single Great Clan or an uneasy alliance of multiple clans present for their own interests. While the Roiling Basin is inhabited by representatives of all the Great Clans, Clan Pestilens is currently ascendant amongst the group due to the overwhelming ranks they currently count in their faithful throng. No mere no-name virulent procession, Clan Morbidus of the Pestilens are an ancient and wealthy clan that proudly boast of heritage that dates back to the World-That-Was. Faithful to their god and mindless in their devotion to his ascension, Morbidus offers it’s prayers up to the Verminlord known as Vermalanx, a legend among the pestilent clans who lead the Pestilens Clans during the Realmgate Wars and dared to scheme against the Glott Brothers and Nurgle himself, all while seeming to aid them in their goals. Allegedly defeated by the Stormcast Eternals at Rotwater Swill, Vermalanx has since arisen once more by the Corruptor’s claw to lead his most faithful of children. Bearing twin Plaguereapers forged from raw warpstone dipped in the filth of the Horned One itself, plague monks gladly throw themselves to a gory death at the orders of the dark servant of The Great Witherer itself. The dominance of Morbidus has forced the other Great Clans to toe the line against them feebly for now, with them offering up gifts of arcane ingenuity, shadow operatives and hordes of lowly rats to break against the ranks of the enemy before the Plague Monks destroy all opposition.   Ruler of the Rat-Race Ruling over the Church of Contagion and by extension the Roiling Basin itself, Archdeacon Skirik Vileclaw presides over his “beloved” flock with sharp claws and a tendency to hurl those who oppose him from the high points down into the Depths. Quite unlike most rulers of his race, Skirik has little in the way of cunning or subtlety. Prone to fits of deranged madness due to the fever in his brain and the poison in his veins, Skirik’s temperament veers wildly between the faithful servant of the Great Corruptor and behaving like a rabid animal. Riding an enormous Plague Furnace into battle known as the Altar of the Redmaw, named for the Great Plague Skirik so famously brought back to the faithful long decades ago. His lifetime long enhanced by the righteous fury in his body and the ministrations of the absolute pinnacle of Skryre and Moulder sciences, Skirik has plagued Aqshy for as long as many in Aspiria can recall.   The Shadowhame Gate The focal point of the entire settlement, deep within the Pestilent Knave lies the Shadowhame Gate. One of only a mere handful of stable gateways to Ulgu, and one of the scant few held by the forces of Chaos, this gateway represents an incredible potential advantage to the chaos forces as Malerion and Morathi’s machinations are kept secret beyond the twisting fold of the realm they rule over. Forces from the Roiling Basin have established a foothold on the other side of the gate, a continuous supply of troops marching through to man the defences and fortify the location further. Known as the Rotted Claw warren, Malerion has been forced to drop his façade of bored contempt for the Skaven to actively destroy the gateaway, knowing that while he faces Plague Monks and baying Clanrats today, tomorrow it could well be the Varangard riding through the mists.   Schemes Within Schemes With Malerion and Morathi throwing their forces into the fortification of the Rotted Claw bastion and increasing aggression from the resurgent forces of Order in Aqshy, the Roiling Basin’s constant threat may yet be dealt with by the allied forces of Order. However, while the fighting forces of the rats hold back their aggressors Clan Skryre has begun a grand undertaking in the Warpstorm Tower, the only tower to rise higher than the Prior Vermalanx (a fact that Skirik has hurled many a warlock engineer to their doom over when reminded), with their research into the construction of a stable Gnawhole built using the arcane secrets gleaned from the Shadowhame Gate that will lead directly to the Blight City, enabling an enormous horde of Skaven without number to storm through. The completion of this gate will see all of Aspiria brought to it’s knees by the Skaven, and Ulgu flooded with resurgent forces to bring an end to the God of Shadow’s dominion.  
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Looking Back: My 2017 List

An important part of improving play is constantly working and innoavting your list, changing it as you learn new things about your army. This post is taking a look at the force I personally ran for the majority of the NZ AOS 2017 tournaments, and an overview of how it went. Here's the list. Allegiance: Skaven Pestilens

Leaders
Plague Furnace (200)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)

Battleline
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
- Pestilens Battleline
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
- Pestilens Battleline
10 x Plague Monks (70)
- Foetid Blades
- Pestilens Battleline
30 x Plaguebearers Of Nurgle (270)

War Machines
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)

Battalions
Congregation of Filth (140)
Foulrain Congregation (200)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140   Not a terrible list, but looking back with a bit more experience this list needs a lot of improvement to be competitive. Two big errors that are immediately apparent to me now are clear, the first is the fact that Clan Pestilens is a horde army but I only have 70 rats here, and the second is the fact that I'm spending 720pts on a catapult formation that over the course of the tournament would on average only ever kill cheap battleline chaff. Furthermore, the prayers on the Plague Furnace are absolutely vital if you want to run Plague Monks in units of 30 or more, so you shoul take at least one Plague Furnace per unit of 30+, something I haven't done here. The plaguebearers are nice, but this is an agressive army and any point spent towards defensive takes away from the overall army strategy.  The last tournament this list was used was NZ Inpeticon in October last year. I went 3 Major Voctories 2 Major Defeats, which isn't a bad result at all. However to learn we look to our defeats, not our victories.  I faced a moderately elite, multi wound destruction army that I absolutely should have run over the top of, but lost due to persuing character kills and not reaching objectives fast enough. While hindsight is 20/20, i recognize the mistakes I made here and won't be making them again. My second loss however was against Sylvaneth, a good friend of mine called Lee who I regularly practise against. I went into this game fresh with a jumble of different skaven strats tumbling about in my head raring to go but Lee manipulated the table extremely well, locking me off from sections and forcing me to funnel my rats into a killbox where his Kurnoth Scythes were waiting.  This game was straight up murder, I don't think there was any stage where I had a viable method of pulling it back into my favor. Sylvaneth are often a problem for rats, especially when the Sylvaneth player is experienced. I'll get ya next time Lee. Soon I'll post my list for the NZ Masters tournament last month, and go over the results had there.
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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 Plague Monks as I could (8 groups of 10, 1 group of 20). I finished on 3 Major Victories,  2 Major Defeats. My victories were against Mixed Destruction, Blades of Khorne and Seraphon (remove the lizards). My defeats were against the Sylvaneth and Clan Skryre. I finished 5th out of 12 people, keeping up with my goal to always be in at least the top 5 no matter how many players, but regrettably fell short of my goal to stand on a podium once again. Lessons Learned While we are reaching the end of AoS in it's current iteration as we know it, and therefore any tactics I explain may be short lived, there were definitely a few takeaways from this tournament. Clanrats remain without a doubt a vital ally choice to any Skaven clan, being able to squat on objectives or conga line around the table to prevent the opponent teleporting or using alternative deployment abilities is phenomenal, and at 200pts for 40 of the wretches why wouldn't you? Minimum size unit spam with Plague Monks is the superior way to utilize them, they are fine without having buffs stacked on them and they can easily mobilize around the board. Also abusing the plague scroll by having one each in 10 units mean potentially pinging every enemy model within 13 inches with 10 mortal wounds is pure cheese. Speed is not this force's forte, and any scenario that sees you having to walk across a table for several turns probably isnt going to favor you. Consider deploying as close to the enemy as possible and running your units wherever possible if they won't arrive ag comfortable charging distance.  
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Looking Back: 2017 Masters

The last tournament I attended in 2017 was the NZ Masters. Attended by just under 20 people (suck it 9th Age), it was a massive event attended by a host of extremely skilled players. I was there too. This is the list I ran for the event. Allegiance: Skaven Pestilens

Leaders
Verminlord Corruptor (220)
Plague Furnace (200)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Screaming Bell (200)

Battleline
30 x Plague Monks (210)
- Foetid Blades
- Pestilens Battleline
20 x Plague Monks (140)
- Foetid Blades
- Pestilens Battleline
20 x Plague Monks (140)
- Foetid Blades
- Pestilens Battleline
20 x Plague Monks (140)
- Foetid Blades
- Pestilens Battleline

War Machines
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)

Battalions
Congregation of Filth (140)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Allies: 200 / 400
Wounds: 153   With this list I managed to go 3/5 Major WIns, a huge achievment for me as all 3 of the players I defeated are in my eyes leaps and bounds ahead of me in skill and all people I would aspire to be as good as at the game. Frankly looking back I'm honestly not sure how i beat them. Game 1 was VS Lee and his tree people, in the GHB16 scenario "Border War". Lee took the Dreadwood Wargrove, which for those unfamiliar is the spooky sylvaneth batllion that makes use of Spite Revenants and let's the army gain d3 starting abilities, which all affect the first turn of the game. He teleported a bunch of dryads directly in front of my forces to prevent me from leaving my deployment, then shuffled his troops around the table taking 3 of the 4 available obectives, shooting up to 5 Victory Points.  As my turn begun I let loose all my firepower on the line of dryads (The Screaming Bell rung up a bonus to casting rolls, handy) and mortal wounded them into oblivion, washing away 18 of the 30 dryads. This gave my plague monks room to leave deployment, and I had my eyes on revenge. I immediately moved them in the direction of the eastern midfield objective and charged 20 rats through a wyldwood. I lost 2 rats to the trees and they immediately shoved the Revenants they reached via charge into a meatgrinder, taking the objective for the Horned Rat. I also managed to take the western midfield objective by swarming 30 rats at some Revenants over there, taking it over by weight of numbers. Once i secured these two points I essentially spent the rest of the game keeping my rats smack on the two midfield objectives and shaved down any threats at distance with my catapults and magic. In the end Pestilens won the day, dribing back the hated trees. Game 2 was VS Tim and his Skeletal Legion, playing "Starstrike".  Never been keen on facing TIm, anyone hard enough to play Death through the long winter of it's discontent and still come out on top against armies with updates and battletomes is not someone you want to take lightly. However, fortunately for me the matchup was favorable in my direction and even the dreaded 40 man skeleton bubble crumpled before the buff stacked 30 man plague monks. I got off a Great Plague every single turn, which was a massive boost. At one stage Arkhan the Black erratically turned his Dread Abyssal onto a group of Morghast Archai floating next to him, which was disturbing. I held all objectives for the majority of the game, despite losing 80% of my army by the end. Major Victory to Pestilens. Game 3 was VS Shaun and his Murderhost, playing the GHB16 scenario "Escalation". Man, this game was horrific. Shaun is a deadly player who brings actual strategy to Khorne, never good for his oponents. Shaun actually handed me my frst major defeat in a tournament,  in my very first tournament game. Being seasoned AOS players and both being aware the game is nothing more than a brawl in the middle, we did the gentlemanly thing and lined up our bloodletters and plague monks as close to each other as we could in deployment, and proceeded to throw buckets of dice at each other for the next hour and a half. Pestilens' ability to fight after being killed however assured that my troops were getting at least a chance to fight, and at best two chances to fight. Also the fact that bloodletters' mortal wound ability is what makes them lethal isn't as useful against an army with no saves anyway was quite the boon. In the end after an hour of 2 lines of troops fighting one another I pushed out my half of the table and took the field, winning objectively. Game 4 was VS Matt and his Aetherstrike Force playing "Three Places of Power". You know when looking back at life you can spot one particular moment where it all went bad? Good god it was here in this game. I didn't even leave my deployment mostly, I lost 5/6 of my heroes before my second turn, scored a single point to his 14 or something and barely even moved my army before taking it off the table. Shooting is a terrible matchup for Pestilens, and Aetherstrike is the premier shooting list. Feedback from this game? Matt should have at least taken me to dinner first. Major Defeat to Pestilens. Game 5 was VS James and his Changehost playing "Scorched Earth". I've always wanted to beat James Page, when I first started playing he was the top of the scene, and took out the first tournament I played in with 5 Major Victories handily. However today wasn't fated to be the day. He used the Changeling and the Changehost ability to swap a big unit into my army on turn 1, and destroyed 2 of the 3 objectives on my side. This effectively ended the game for me, but not knowing when to give up is one of my issues. I pulled back a respectable amount of points, bringing the table to 8/12 to him, but couldn't cope with the Tzeentch mortal wounds and went down in the end. Major Defeat to Pestilens (I'll get you one day Jim).   Overall a great day of gaming, I caused a lot of unexpected upsets and played to the best of my ability. Next year I'm going for podium at the masters, so look forward to that.
AIdenNicol444

AIdenNicol444

2
 

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 go for a great plague, and select the Neverplague. The only excuse to not be spamming plague breath on empty spaces is of there's actual targets available or you already have the Neverplague. Weather the Storm So the enemy is unpacking his Beastclaw/Khorne/Daughters of Khaine. Our rats don't have a chance against such famous combat geared armies right? Wrong, they're as good as dead already. When the enemy is running an all charging minimum shooting list there is but one answer. Lines of single file plague monks across the edge of the deployment. Ideally 2 or 3 groups of 10, 6" gaps between them to stop the enemy squeezing past. Behind this line, 6" back (for safety) is a gigantic blob of plague monks. The first line will gey hit like an avalanche and they will almost certainly die. The enemy is now within range of a fully buffed, fully packed Plague Monk swarm. Chuck on some prayers of Wither on the enemy, move forward into range and charge (taking the Congregation of Filth will prevent double 1 rolls). Doesn't matter what they're running, they're dead. Conga Line of Death Never move your rats around in squares, this isn't fantasy battle. Squeeze as much use out of the rat squads as possible, form a long line and hold an objective while also screening for a priest and keeping an enemy tied up in a dud fight. Form circles around objectives, wrap monks around furnaces to prevent units with 1" range weapons bringing the furnace to battle. It's not dirty, it's alternative tactics. Discretion is the Better Part of Murder Retreat, it's the golden move no one ever uses to their advantage. Charge an enemy, then retreat around the side of them the next turn. Your enemy is likely to know he can't actually beat plague monks in a fight and won't charge them, so if you're already holding an objective don't charge off it. There isn't always a nees to fight. Know when to fight, and when to wait. Below are some pictures of silly rat movements that would win me the game. Doesn't matter if it looks stupid, as long as you win.
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Clan Pestilens: Matchups

Todays post is all about matchups, and how Pestilens fares in them. Now because of the nature of the army, matchups are more important than I would like to be honest, so it helps to know them. These are based primarily off experience, I haven't faced all the armies (popular ones at least) in the game so some of these will be experience and some will be educated comparisons. I'll grade them in advantage, major and minor. Blades of Khorne - Minor Advantage to Blades of Khorne A combat based army, and a good one. Ordinarily Pestilens will blenderize anything that fancies itself a combat favoring army but these guys are a little different. They have a massive range of options, we have 6 models all up. The build paths open to them let them be MORE than a combat army, something Pestilens can't actually do. Essentially it boils down to who hits who first. This is one the few matchups were Plagueclaws are actually good due to the favoribility of Bloodletter Bombs and Bloodreaver Hordes. Overall you want to be the one who gets the first charge off and make sure your units have the Furnace prayer that lets them fight one dead, you'll need it. Disciples of Tzeentch - Major Advantage to Disciples of Tzeentch Lol don't even get me started, the weakness of Clan Pestilens is no ability to deal with long range and movement shenanigans. Run up, charge to get closer to objectives and pray you can last longer than they can throw spells. Skyfires are the devil, Horrors are just annoying and the Gaunt Summoner will quite literally light you on fire and roast marshmellows on the corpse. The best strategy when facing Tzeentch with Pestilens is to either avoid it or whine about balance in chat groups. Take an Arch Warlock with a Balewind and try play them at their own game, but ultimately this one is a little skewed. Sylvaneth - Minor Advantage to Clan Pestilens This one used to feel on par with Disciples of Tzeentch until playing them a bit more, and of course the meta no longer favoring Kurnoth with bows. The trick is to take the field before they take the field, by any means necessary. Run in the first movement phase, charge anything within reach if you went second, do anything you can to get in their face. They put wildwoods in front of you? ****** em, run straight through it. Charge through it ideally. If you think the Dangerous Terrain effect is something to be afraid of, you are a coward or too considerate of your rat's lives, and neither of these traits are found in good Pestilens players. Get on top of 2 or so objectives and refuse to leave like a disenfranchised family member on Christmas, and god willing victory shall be yours. In a perfect world they'll run lots of Revenants over dryads and you drown them in dice, asking your opponent with a smug smile if he'd like to use Martial Memories to reroll one of the failed 30 saves. Kharadron Overlords - Neutral This is a weird one. Kharadron Overlords are dwarves, but only in the sense that they're short. They aren't slow, they aren't sturdy and their beards are a solid source of iron intake. Kharadron are like life, they come at you hard and fast. This is sometimes a good thing, sometimes terrible. So basically, what it comes down to is if the Overlord player invested in weight of shots (good for you) or they invested in high damage weapons like Drill Cannons (You're screwed). With weight of shots they can't actually kill enough rats for it to matter before they're on the recieving end of a plague monk charge, and oddly despite those boats being in the sky we can still smack them back down. Surround the boat and they can't deploy it's contents, which is even better. However with the Drill Cannons and so on we lose our Plague Furnaces on turn 2, Corruptor turn 3, and the game shortly after. Their weakness is the terrible range of pretty much all shooting that isn;t on a Thunderer or Ironclad, ours is they actually have guns. Play the objectives and bait them into range. Flesh Eater Courts - Major Advantage to Clan Pestilens This one is fun. They have no shooting, and they want to be in close combat. Naysayers would say "but Aiden, they can bring back their troops and we can't!". To that i say, ever seen Ghouls put out 40 wounds + several mortal wounds before saves are made? Probably not. Yeah Ghouls can regnerate lost troops, but only when a nearby Courtier does it for them. A wee, little Courtier with a weak save and fewer wounds. Slash him down to size with prayer spam. Flesh Eater Courts are an infantry spam buff army, just like Clan Pestilens, we just happen to be WAY better at it than they are. Butcher what they throw at you and take the field, if their characters get wise deal with them by throwing a Plague Furnace their way. Ironjaws - Minor Advantage to Clan Pestilens Ironjaws are a semi-elite army that don't put out massive damage but make up for it by being relatively tricky to kill. This is the matchup where discretion is the better part of valor for Pestilens. Try and go around them to get to objectives, don't hesitate to retreat if it means snaking behind them to get where you need to go. Multiwound infantry means no half measures, if you engage them engage them with all possible force and sweep them aside. Time spent fighting them is time wasted and that's what they want. Use prayers to make sure your monks can easily wound and trigger dice roll of 6 or more effects, don't waste time trying to d3 mortal wounds them to death it takes way too long. Bonesplitterz - Major Advantage to Bonesplitterz Interestingly this is an easy game really if they don't take Kunnun Rukk. Jokes on you however, they pretty much always do. Theyre surprisinly resilient and tying them up in combat doesn't stop them shooting you. And dear god will they shoot you, again and again and again. It's like facing the easier to batch paint version of Free Peoples. Try and kill the leaders to stop the batallions workind and take a Plaguesmog with Vexlers Shroud on the Furnace so it's -2 to hit. Thats basically all the counterplay there is here. Stormcast Eternals - Minor Advantage to Pestilens The boys in gold, a very diverse force with a lot of options. If we assess Stormcast at their base weaknesses, which is having to deal with weight of numbers and mortal wounds, we have a clear and easy advantage. If they play Vanguard and keep running away and shooting us it's a bit harder. If they play Aetherstrike it's an uphill footslog through the shittiest parts of Chernobyl. Play the game to the objectives, take the table to prevent Borne by the Storm and Lightning Chariot and do your best to retain your high numbers. Fireslayers - Major Advantage to Fireslayers If they're smart and take a bucketload of Vulkites you'll drown in them. If you can get around that or maybe pepper them with Plagueclaws it will be ok and you'll pull an objective victory. Magmadroths are terrible, 20 plague monks will wipe one out easily. They can't get their axes into range (unless under runic effect) without coming into charge range so bear that in mind. They're hard to shift, and they'll outlast you ten times out of ten. Avoid getting bogged down and charge the less defensive stuff like Auric Bezerkers and Hearthguard, and for the love of god stay away from the Grimrath Bezerker. Seraphon - Minor Advantage to Seraphon Our mortal foes, the artist formerly known as Lizardmen. Their strengths are defense against rend, their weakness is mortal wounds, so you might think, where is their advantage. Lords of Space and TIme. They can retreat across the table without it even being a retreat, dump a line of Saurus Guard in our way, and abuse long range magic which we can;t really unbind, as well as unbinding any few attempts we make at casting. Also the Verminlord is a Chaos Daemon which they specifically do well against.   Comment what more you'd like to see, fellow Pestilens player.        
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Clan Pestilens: Command Traits and Artifacts

Alrght up next on my overview of the Skaven Pestilens overview, we're lloking at the Command Traits available as well as Artifacts Skaven Pestilens characters have the option of taking. No need for fanfare, lets get stuck in. Command Traits Malevolent - The general gets to reroll wound rolls of 1. Not great, if you're putting your hopes on a Verminlord Corruptor to face down the enemy army and sweep it aside you're in the wrong army, Clan Verminus has it's dens further down the street. Only ever going to come into effect on a Plague Furnace, and there are better options. NEXT. Diseased - I like the thematic nature of this one. Basically, you roll a dice in the hero phase and on a 5+ someone within 3 inches of the general gets smacked with d3 mortal wounds. Not terrible, just remember to actually do it if you chose it. Master of Rot and Ruin - Hello hello, this is the one you want. If they're a Plague Priest, reroll to prayers. If not, they get to the Pestilent Prayers rule from the Plague Priest scroll. Neat ona Verminlord, and cool on a Plague Furnace too. Hard to go wrong with this one. Fanatical Leader- Add 1 to the attacks characteristic of all the general's melee weapons. Jesus, the Verminlord already hits 10 damn times adding 1 more isn't going to suddenly make him a Warbringer. Funny on a Furnace, useless everywhere else. Verminous Valor - You'd be hard pressed to find a more thematic ability in the entire game. On a dice roll of 4+, the general hands off any normal or mortal wounds suffered onto a hapless group of rats nearby. This is fantastic ona furnace because it's always surrounded by rats anyway. Architect of Death - Pestilens shooting missile units near the general get to reroll their wound rolls of 1. Obviously designed for the Plagueclaw Catapults, unless the Verminlord's tail has finally become a weapon to surpass Metal Gear. Artifacts of Clan Pestilens The Fumigatous - In the combat phase, someone within 6 inches of the bearer takes a mortal wound on a dice roll of 3+. Not bad on the Corruptor, his Plaguemaster ability is triggered by all damage he deals regardless of the source. Not quite an auto take, but not worthless. Brooding Blade - You pick one of the weapons of your general, and any model that took a wound from that weapon but didn't die takes d3 mortal wounds at the end of combat on a dice roll of 6. If you're a clever cookie who splits his attacks between multiple units this isn't half bad. Billious Bell - In your hero phase roll a D6 for all enemies within 12 inches of the holder, on a 4+ they subtract 1 from their bravery. Pretty cool on a Plague Furnace given they're usually in the thick of things. Blistervious, the Living Cyst - Jesus this one is fun. Gives a small buff, reroll 1s to hit and move 2 extra inches, not bad. If you're within 12 inches of a pestilens character in yoursecond or later hero phase however, it jumps to them. Give it to a dud character, then have it jump to the Verminlord who already is running about with his Vexler's Shroud. Godspeed you rabies infested murder monster. The Liber Bubonicus - Well well, the only artifact with massive lore behind it. Plaguemaster Skrolk's old book lets it's bearer be a Plague Priest if they ain't one, and pray twice if they are. This plus Master of Rot and Ruin on  a generic Plague Priest makes for a nasty little rat with a chip on his shoulder, and probably the funniest general this army can field in casual or 1k games, The Vexler's Shroud - Enemies subtract 1 from hit rolls when targeting the bearer in the shooting phase. Simple, clean and always useful.   That's it for the Pestilens Traits and Artifacts. Next I'll do a unit analysis of the HQ characters, and follow it with the rest.
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