New to Skaven, Army Tips?

[excalibur]

Hey there!

 

So, I recently bought a WH Fantasy Skaven army off my friend. I have ZERO experience with Skaven (I’m also relatively new to Warhammer,) so I have no idea what to expect, or if I need to completely remodel the whole thing. I’d like big battles with these guys just rushing in the enemy lines. He told me he was going for Clan Skyre with some other clans tossed in, so that’s a thing, and the whole army’s aimed towards 1000 pts. So, without further ado, I’ll get right into the army:

 

(Warmachines)

 

Doomwheel (should I go for another one?)

 

Warp Lightning Cannon 

 

(Individual Guys)

 

Warlord

 

Warlock Engineer 

 

Warlock Engineer 

 

Poisoned Wind Globadier

 

Poisoned Wind Globadier (More of these guys or just cut ‘em?)

 

(Core)

 

10 x Stormvermin (Planning on getting 10 more)

Full Command 

 

29 x Clanrats

 

29 x Clanrats

 

(Was also thinking about Stormfiends)

 

Overall: 987(?) pts

 

What kind of army would you categorize this as? Should I cram some more Clanrats in here, or should I fix in a Grey Seer to bump up the points? 

Also, I was thinking about buying the Start Collecting Pestilens set to snag the behemoth and was trying to decide what I should build the plagueclaw/cannon and the bell/censer as. I have ZERO idea on anything, so any help would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks guys!

 

[Kugane]

I think your best bet would be with a Skryre list along the lines of

1 arch warlock

2 engineer

3 stormfiends

40 clanrats

After that you can pick up whichever kind of skryre army you want. I read that doomwheels are very inconsistent, so I wouldn't bother getting another. Perhaps you can get a few more clanrats so you have 2 groups of 40.

How many poisonwind globadiers do you have btw? Just 2?

At 1000 points you could probably run this for now:

 

Allegiance: Skryre

Leaders Arch Warlock (140)

Warlock Engineer (100)

Units

3 x Stormfiends (300)

5 x Skryre Acolytes (60)

40 x Clanrats (200) -Rusty Spear - Allies

War Machines

Warp Lightning Cannon (180)

Total: 980 / 1000

 

So all you need is 3 more acolytes (those are poison wind globadiers), a box of stormfiends and an archwarlock. You could probably convert 1 of your engineers to an arch warlock.

[EMMachine]

10 hours ago, excalibur said:

29 x Clanrats

 

 

29 x Clanrats

...

What kind of army would you categorize this as? Should I cram some more Clanrats in here, or should I fix in a Grey Seer to bump up the points?

This won't work. With the matched Play rules, you are buying the Models as blocks. Clanrats have a Min size of 20 and a Max size of 40. You are paying for multiples of min sizes (or if you have max size and the unit has two values the larger value is the cost)

In the case of clanrats you pay 120 Points for 20 models or 200 for 40 models (after 40 is the max size). Even if you only would take 21 models you would pay 200 Points because you would buy 40 models but only setting up 21.

If you want to play clan Skryre you need Stormfiends or Skryre Acolythes as battlelines (after clanrats would be allies they can't fill that spot)

In your case I would play a mixed list (with chaos allegiance after there is no skaven allegiance). In this case your Clanrats could fill the battleline.

[Slaanesh]

So I think you got some good models for a fun army. I would just try out different builds when you play games.

But as a core just use the Warlord as your general and one unit of 20 clanrats and another 40 clanrats as your battle line for 1000p.

And the warplightning cannon and archwarlock are really good so they should probably be in the list also!

Allegiance: Chaos
Arch Warlock (140)
Skaven Warlord (100)
- War Halberd
40 x Clanrats (200)
- Rusty Spear
20 x Clanrats (120)
- Rusty Blade
Warp Lightning Cannon (180)

Total: 740 / 2000
Wounds: 77

So as core like this and then try out different things and learn what you like, but you can do alot of cool stuff with Skaven!

[excalibur]

Thanks to all of you! You’ve helped someone brand new out immensely, hopefully I can get some nice games in with these guys. I genuinely feel like I can get to know what I’m doing(!)

You’re all fantastic!

[excalibur]

And (sorry,) one more thing to add, I know there is a Skaven Start Collecting box out, but it’s Pestilens. But I know you can alternate-build the plagueclaw into another Warp Lightning Cannon and the Censer into a Bell. Right now, I don’t know if this would be my best bet. It can juice me up in points, but I might want to test out my mini-army first. However, the same part of my brain is telling me it would be awesome to get a Behemoth and paint that monster.  But, of course, that doesn’t matter if they suck, or I don’t like how they play. I know the right answer here would be to wait, but Plague Bell!

Any tips regarding this?

[Mayple]

5 minutes ago, excalibur said:

And (sorry,) one more thing to add, I know there is a Skaven Start Collecting box out, but it’s Pestilens. But I know you can alternate-build the plagueclaw into another Warp Lightning Cannon and the Censer into a Bell. Right now, I don’t know if this would be my best bet. It can juice me up in points, but I might want to test out my mini-army first. However, the same part of my brain is telling me it would be awesome to get a Behemoth and paint that monster.  But, of course, that doesn’t matter if they suck, or I don’t like how they play. I know the right answer here would be to wait, but Plague Bell!

Any tips regarding this?

You can also build giant rats instead of plague monks the start collecting box is great value, you really can't go wrong with at least one. You get a lot of good leftover Skaven bits as well, which is neat

[Num]

5 hours ago, Mayple said:

You can also build giant rats instead of plague monks the start collecting box is great value, you really can't go wrong with at least one. You get a lot of good leftover Skaven bits as well, which is neat

Hi, what do you mean by giant rats instead of plague monks? Are there any on the sprues?

Thanks

[Mayple]

50 minutes ago, Num said:

Hi, what do you mean by giant rats instead of plague monks? Are there any on the sprues?

Thanks

Yupp 20 rats per 20 plague monks.  They come in the plague monk boxes.

Whether those rats are big enough to look good on 25mm bases, I wouldn't know, but I can find out on Monday

[excalibur]

Sounds like there’s a lot of value in that box, at my stage (just starting out and zero games with the army,) would you recommend the box? I haven’t played Warhammer in ridiculously long, and even then it was Fantasy Battles, so I’ll take any info I can get!  Would it even synergise well with what the people above said? (Slaanesh’s idea particularly takes my fancy.) I would love to have a nice chunk of an army, but at the same time, I don’t want to regret buying what I did because it’s not as fun as I thought. Is what comes in the box “good” competitively, or can I kitbash something good out of it?

Again, you guys are amazing!

[Mayple]

6 hours ago, excalibur said:

Sounds like there’s a lot of value in that box, at my stage (just starting out and zero games with the army,) would you recommend the box? I haven’t played Warhammer in ridiculously long, and even then it was Fantasy Battles, so I’ll take any info I can get!  Would it even synergise well with what the people above said? (Slaanesh’s idea particularly takes my fancy.) I would love to have a nice chunk of an army, but at the same time, I don’t want to regret buying what I did because it’s not as fun as I thought. Is what comes in the box “good” competitively, or can I kitbash something good out of it?

Again, you guys are amazing!

I would personally recommend the starting box, yes. You get so much out of it, and all of it is useful at some point (especially if you're into kitbashing) 

You get:

Plague furnace/screaming bell (bell is the safe bet outside of pestilens, but if you don't mind poisoning your own rats, furnace is better in actual combat)

Plague priest and a Grey Seer - if neither are mounted on the above, you've gotten two useful heroes on foot.

Warplightning/Plagueclaw - Warplightning is best if you're into Skryre. Plagueclaw is not bad in general.

20 plague monks and 20 giant rats. You only get 20 bases, but with more, you could conceivably build both. Giant rats are comparable to clanrats in cheapness and usefulness

 

I would reccommend that you find out which clan attracts you the most, and focus accordingly. One starter pack will help you out regardless of clan, however. Only one though

[excalibur]

7 hours ago, Mayple said:

Only one though

By this do you mean I should just buy one and see how to use it, or just buy one period?

Any way, I think that just about answers all my questions(!). You’ve been amazingly helpful, and I got my questions answered better and faster than I could ever imagine. Thank you Mayple and everyone else who put their two cents for in, it really helps me and I think I can get into this awesome hobby outside of painting.

Thanks!!

 

[Mayple]

2 hours ago, excalibur said:

By this do you mean I should just buy one and see how to use it, or just buy one period?

Any way, I think that just about answers all my questions(!). You’ve been amazingly helpful, and I got my questions answered better and faster than I could ever imagine. Thank you Mayple and everyone else who put their two cents for in, it really helps me and I think I can get into this awesome hobby outside of painting.

Thanks!!

 

One, and then see how to use it your choice in clan will sort of decide where to go from there. 

Good luck, and don't forget to fight dirty, like a true Skaven general!