Skaven list - inputs welcome

[Ahemme]

Hello everyone! 

I recently took a trip down memory lane, and started looking at Warhammer miniatures again. I quickly decided that i wanted to paint some again, and came back from my local Warhammer store with 3 Stormfiends, an Arch-Warlock and 20 Plague Monks. The Stormfiends and the Arch-Warlock looked too cool to not buy them, and i figured i needed a battleline unit to practice on, to get my painting skills going again. 
 

Now, i've really enjoyed painting the units i already bought, and i'm almost done with them. So i'm looking to expand my army a bit.  But only after i'd bought the units, i found out that Skaven is not an alliance/allegiance/whatever you wanna call in itself, Since i'm still mostly in this for the painting, i'm not looking to focus on one Skaven clan, as the different clans have too many cool units to be ignored. But i'm probably going to want to play with my army at some point, so i've started to look into what might work as a 1500 points Skaven army. Here's my suggestion: 

Verminlord Deceiver (320)

Arch Warlock (140)

Skaven Warlord (100)

Packmaster (80)

Clanrats - 3 units of 20 (360)

Stormfiends (With Warpfire, Shock Gauntlet and Grinderfists) (300)

Warp Lightning Cannon (180)

1480 points total 

So i of course included the units i've already bought - Stormfiends and the Arch Warlock. As far as i can tell, most people agree that they're pretty strong units. I haven't included the plague monks, because i can't use them as battleline, so i had to include the three units of clanrats. Although i'm a little unsure if i really need three battlelines for a 1500 point army, or only two? 
Anyway, i was thinking i could use the warlord as my general to buff up the Clanrats, and the packmaster to buff up the Stormfiends, to get the most out of the Shock Gauntlets and ginderfists. Besides that, i'm thinking theres a decent amount of mortal wounds, pretty good mobility, and a shitload of clanrats as meatshield. 

What do you all think? Is this list complete garbage, or would it be viable for "for-fun" games? (Bear in mind, half this list is because i pretty much wanna paint the models, so i'm not thinking viable for tournaments and the like). 

 

 

 

[Num]

Hi and welcome to the Skaven fun

You did the right thing purchasing and painting the models you found cool. Just watch yourself there, because we have so many cool models in the Skaven army that you might end up like most of us with 3000+ points of cool Skavens...

Starting from what you bought, you could also build a Skryre list with stormfiends and skryre acolytes as battle lines, and plague monks and packmaster as allies.

If you find the plague monks models cool, you could also purchase some more and convert them into skryre acolytes (stick a globe on one arm and a backpack). A start collecting pestilens or two may be good value (cannons included and bells).

Or a moulder list because stormfiends are moulder as well (need giant rats of rat ogirs battle line though)

If you go down the mixed clans route, then yes you'll have to play tons of clanrats. Make sure you play them in units of 40 if possible. We have many interesting discussions about them in the Verminus thread.

As for the list you suggest, I'm not sure about the verminlord deceiver because it doesn't combo that much here. The points could be used for extra rats and cannon for instance.

Whatever you choose, keep having fun with those cool rats

[Mayple]

There are a number of ways to go about building a skaven list in the style of what you've got so far. I can point out some immediate, sort of rule of thumb, points to take into account for your list here in particular 

If you want a warlord as your general, make sure you have at least two units of 40 clanrats, as they're far too weak at 20 to benefit from his command ability. Their ability to dish out damage goes from respectable to pitiful very quickly. The warplightning cannon, packmaster, or a verminlord swap are all options for how you'll allow this unit growth.

 

In the case where you don't do that, the warlord is dead weight. Warlock-engineer is a solid replacement, and the arch-warlock a good choice of general  (due to being tanky) - unless you're getting additional eshin units, at which point the verminlord deceiver becomes a candidate.

 

@Num pretty much mentions everything else of importance go Skryre if you don't want a horde. Go pestilens if you want a horde AND allegiance abilities. Go mixed skaven if you want a horde that everyone underestimates.

The latter choice will drown you in clanrats, be warned. 120 are the minimum amount if you want to have any fighting chance at all. On the upside, that will make you a master of movement and pile-ins, so you benefit regardless

Definitely check out the let's chat: Verminus thread if you want to go mixed. We talk a lot about that there, and also in a Let's chat skaven tactics thread, whatever it was called welcome to the underburrow, child of the Great horned rat.

 

[Ahemme]

Thanks for the input guys! Yeah, i've been looking around in the different 'let's chat' threads, a lot of useful information there! 

But it seems i'm gonna have to dump the Verminlord for a bunch of clan-rats. I kind of expected to be told that, but i'm probably gonna buy one anyway, Because of course i want a big flashy unit as a new (returning) player, even if it's just gonna be for painting and showcasing  But well, I'd better wrap my head around the fact that i'll have to paint a literal ******-ton of clanrats if i wanna go down this mixed clans route. 

[Num]

If you like big shiny miniatures, you could also play the Deceiver+Thanquol combo. Its not that competitive but it deals some damages and is imposing on the board: jumps a thanquol in the melee, flame around and enjoy the destruction

Otherwise on the skryre thread some people have suggested deceiver to teleport an arch warlock into the fight with an assassin hidden "inside" (ouch). Not sure how that works though

Or you could even teleport a packmaster into a unit of stormfiends with gauntlets for some surprise effect...

Cheers

[Ahemme]

Yeah, i've thought about doing the skitterleap with a warlock + assassin, because the assassin model is cool as hell! But i was thinking i would come across too extremely as being a rookie composing a list only because of the cool models to actually put it in there  If it's actually viable, i'd jump right in though. Having both the Verminlord Deceiver and the assassin in my list - Count me in!

[Mayple]

In terms of offensive output, simply teleporting the deceiver himself is the best way of ensuring he gets the job done. Few other Skaven heroes can match his consistent damage output teleporting the arch-warlock wouldn't be very scary, and Thanquol would get squished. 

The packmaster was a very solid suggestion, so kudos to that @Num his ability only works in the hero phase, so the ability to reposition him during that phase allows the stormfiends to move much more freely and still receive the buff. Nice!

[TheMuphinMan]

If you dont mind ordering forgeworld models you could skitterleap a warlord on brood horror with a band of merry rats (assassins) clinging to the underside