Skaven and Stormcast

[sinscaptain]

Hey guys, just wanting to shoot a couple of questions out here to the internet.  I have been playing Skaven since early 8th edition - not nearly as long as many people, but long enough to know that they are the greatest army in the Realms.  I love my rats to death, especially all of the love that Clan Pestilens has been getting lately.  

HOWEVER, I seem to have issues going toe to toe with Stormcasts.  My game group goes with either Azyr comp or SCGT, but will most likely change over to the new points system when it comes out.  I almost always give our stormcast players a run for their money, but by the end game the momentum and the game has swung in their favor.

The issue, from what I can tell, is the abundance of shooting that my opponent usually takes.  We play with plenty of terrain, but he usually castles up / slow rolls it up while peppering me the entire way with super bows.  I have run warpgrinder teams and burrowing stormfiends to try and tie them up while I skitter across the table, and I try to take a fair number of shooting myself to drop some of the boys in gold.  

Does anyone have any suggestions that are more outside of the box for dealing with shooty stormcasts?  My lists usually consist of 70% Clan Pestilens - monks, censers, furnace, catapult, etc.  and then fill out with skyre toys - usually weapons teams, stormfiends.  

Thanks for the ideas!  

[yarrickson]

Have you tried a Verminlord deceiver with Thanquol/Warpseer(s)? Can skitterleap thanquol up to something to flame 2d6 mortal wounds or leap the warpseer up to throw his orb and do 6w to an integral slow hero like a vexilor or castellant. Combined with the gautfyre skorch element of a clan skryre formation and you have one of the few armies capable of spamming even more mortal wounds than the Stormcast. 

Marginally more outside the box, Sayl the faithless could be used to give a big horde of plague monks a quick flight across the field, although this might risk leaving your buff units behind. 

 

[sinscaptain]

I haven't tried that!  I've been looking for an excuse to pick up Thanquol, so that may happen in the near future.  I really like the look of Sayl the Faithless as well.  I'll have to look at proxying him to see if it works well.  Thanks!

[Liam Cook]

I'm a fellow skaven player and have to say I love playing against stormcast. The amount of attacks and mortal wounds that get thrown around seem to cause them a ton of problems.

In the early game Skitterleap is your friend, along with arch warlocks. If those guys get into stormcast lines it's just good fun. Warpstorm just whittles down their usually small units (especially Judicators) and he has a second spell to throw around. If there is a character like a heraldor then use the D3 mortal wounds of warpflame on him! And paired with demonic power from a Sorcerer Lord his couple of little attacks can start ripping them as well - or kill that key character. His 3+ (should be a 2+ before sending him) just has to be dealt with so the shooting will usually be targeted at him - giving the rest of your army time to do what it needs to.

Also warp-grinders, if shooting is hurting your slog across the battlefield. Just chuck a massive unit in with a warp-grinder and have it pop up next to the stormcasts. If you get that, Stormfiends and a arch warlock all in one turn the Stars have aligned - especially if you get a charge off one. But I wouldn't completely rely on it - skaven are treachorous!

I tend to use more Skyre stuff instead of pestilens, and especially stormvermin as their attacks and ability to retreat and charge is super handy to slingshot your unit into the meat of the stormcast army.

I hope this is helpful!

[NiallJC1984]

Skryre Enginecovens are brilliant, although expensive. But the WLC and Gautfyre Scorch covens dish out so many Mortal Wounds. Tie that in with the Deceiver and Thanquol combo like Yarrickson said and you've got a lot of threat moving around.

im finding with AoS that Skaven are more about elite units...I feel kind of bad fielding units of Clanrats and Vermin especially when I get a double turn. It's a lot to move!

[hobgoblinclub]

I'm yet to play against stormcast, but I'd have thought that skaven would be one of the armies best equipped to handle them. 

Skaven can counter the teleporting with tunnelling warp grinders and stormfiends, they've a ton of shooting, and, more importantly, massive mortal wound potential. Get in their faces with warlocks and clan skryre stuff. I'd imagine rat ogres wouldn't be a bad choice either - make them pick on someone their own size. 

[NiallJC1984]

The only downside for the regular Grinders and Stormfiends are the random element to them tunneling up.

Clan Skryre version is far more threatening, however, it's damn expensive under SCGT   But hey, it's a shed load of mortal wounds, enough to take out even the mightiest!

I must admit the Prime is a bit of a beast when he lands.  Relatively easy to nuke down in subsequent rounds but when he does land not much survives haha.  The Dracoth's can be a pain to grind down too.

[sinscaptain]

Thanks for all the input!  I will be getting a match in against stormcast this weekend so I will put the tunneling to the test.  I have been fairly rooted in the "lets up and charge from across the table" mindset since the beginning, but I will try to get some tunneling and teleporting action in against them this weekend and let you guys know how it rolls.  I'll have to see how a couple units of Plague Censer bearers and Stormvermin popping up near his lines goes.

[Shane]

My friend plays Stormcast and they are the perfect counter to my force (Pestilens).

The lack of rend, little to no save, lack of range and a poor Verminlord does not do well against an elite force.

Pestilens would be good against horde armies (with low saves). But we appear to be moving away from that.

As more stuff comes out/rebases I'll no doubt add in more non-Pestilens Skaven, though I did want to keep it as a fluffy force. I have thought about a slight conversion on my Verminlord so he looks the piece but can use another's rules.

 

 

[Nico]

If you're going to use Sayl for an alpha strike, much better to buff a block of Stormvermin with the Skaven General (hello 91 attacks) or a unit of 5 Stormfiends (either with Warpfire Throwers or with Packmaster buff and Shock Gauntlets).

You can use Gutter Runners to take out Judicators as well.

One option is to put a Warplightning Cannon in with the Warp Grinder, so they cannot kill it before it pops up and melts a hero.