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Are Clanrats a Thing of the Past?


hobgoblinclub

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When AoS dropped (and I'd gotten over my misguided rage) I rebased all of my skaven, including many clanrats and slaves.  The more I play the game, the more I'm veering towards bigger multi-wound models, partly because they hit hard, partly because it makes the game quicker, partly because they look cool.  Infantry is becoming less appealing to me (how AoS has changed me!) and now that the slaves have gone from the alliance, even my skaven lists have very few single wound troops.

I played a friend who fielded 60 clanrats the other day and I felt like they posed very little threat at all.  My Nurgle/Tzeentch list squashed them with ease. 

So, is this happening with other people?  Are we seeing a migration away from massed armies towards big toys?  If so, does this mean the era of the clanrat is over?

 

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What we need to reverse this trend is scenarios that don't allow scoring monsters/heroes/big guys. Most chaos armies I write are just monsters and skullcannons or equivalent. 

I'm not dead against clanrats, and there are plenty of verminus/skaven buffs that improve them, but when the same buffs are applied to Stormvermin they just scare me more because of the rend. 

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How is your opponent using his infantry? If he isn't buffing them properly, of course they'll die. 60 wounds not taking battleshock is hard to move. And with spears, every buff will have exponential benefits.

 

They're harder to use than they were. But I feel like they have a place. Might be a bit overcosted, or scenarios are a little easier to use with multi-wound models.

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I've played with clanrats and against clanrats. Buffed, they're better. They can hold objectives and last a while when immune to battleshock. They just don't kick out enough damage for me. Even slaves were better! If they serve a purpose, it's probably controlling the movement/teleportation of enemy troops. 

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My next tournament list with Skaven is a mere 18 models... Ridiculous for Skaven if you ask me!

I am not a fan of moving loads of individual models, even though I love the look of a big Skaven army.

Not sure what future my 100+ Clanrats/Slaves has!

When I did play with 60 odd Clanrats I found them great for tar pits but it's moving them that drags a bit. 

I also feel that we need a Clan Verminus book before we see any real benefit for these units.

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I used a unit of Clanrats in a friendly battle recently, just to try them out and fill up my list, but they worked fine for me. Yeah, wound for wound they can't be compared to Stormvermin, but hopefully with the new point system in the general's handbook they might return to being the cost-effective way to field a lot of models that they used to be. As far as I'm concerned Clanrats should still be the mainstay of any fluffy Skaven force.

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I think mob units absolutely have a place in AoS. I run blocks of 20 state troops and they aren't too bad on their own, but buffed they become very good, and having big blobs of infantry has massive use in area denial to your opponent, It's much easier to make a big wall of horde units to stop your opponent getting to objectives than it is to use more elite units that they could slip by easier.

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  • 7 months later...

Ive found them to be good at cappung objectives and getting in the way or lockimg down enemies. A big chunk of 40 clanrats might not be a threat in the way that they will kill a great deal of things, but they are a serious problem cus such a big unit will prevent the enemy from summoming, movimg, running, shooting at the stuff the want to get to! They are no killers really, so thats ehat i think theyre made for 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A 40 man units of Clanrats in a Verminus Batallion buffed with Tretch Craventail's Hack Hack, Slash Slash, a Skaven Warlord's Gnash Gnaw on Their Bones, and the Verminlord Warbringer's Death Frenzy is pretty epic; the Clanrats will do good damage, and the faster they die the more damage they do thanks to Death Frenzy.

Basically you'll be hitting and wounding on 3s, with -1 rend, and a second round of attacks when they die. Send the buffed Clanrats in first, then after the Clanrats die down in size you retreat them, fully buff up the Stormvermin and send them in to clean up. 

Here is a good example by Nico of what Clanrats are capable of. Albeit this is a much more exaggerated synergy for the little rats. 

 

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Clanrats and similar units are great and still have a place in the game.

Not only can bigger units be used to comfortably sit on objectives, but you can also take smaller units as chaff to help dictate the pace of the game and protect your other units.

I played @Snoopdom yesterday and he used 3x 10 Clanrats to great effect vs me, screening off his troops and eventually almost herding me with them. Obviously for Ironjawz this is more of a problem than for some other armies as these soft screens could be shot away.

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It's an interesting situation imo. Cheap, not-super-effective infantry will hold points but not kill anything and will likely die easily. On the other hand, lots of different units of cheap infantry will stay alive pretty well because

a) no one wants to focus chaff units when there's more scary stuff and 

b) redundant units can actually take a reasonable amount of time to get through, since splitting fire is less effective than focusing one thing down

 

A few units of Clanrats (3+) costs very little in the grand scheme of things (assuming 2000) and will fold to just about anything, but they will actually require your opponent to take care of them lest they lose or tie the objective game. 

The key is to present your army as one cohesive item, which involves a lot of positioning and maneuvering. When you just put your one scary thing out there and leave the chaff sitting in the back, they can be (mostly) safely ignored until the main threat is dead. Conversely, if you hide your scary thing and only present your chaff, it'll get removed in one turn and now you're playing down a considerable number of points. But, the key is to force your opponent to choose between hunting down cheap units that are doing objective things, kill cheap units that are protecting big things, or killing your big things. If he's torn in multiple directions because of cheap, efficient battleline, they're worth double their cost.

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9 minutes ago, il_direttore_sgravato_skiz said:

it looks super cool i really love it! is there any tutorial for your selective desaturation method?

I kind of stumbled through the process, but I'm happy to share. 

The "Ashen Rat" theme is kind of popular, there are several variants. In this case, I wanted red and green to be the prevalent colors. I thought it would save me time. But in the long run, it ended up being just as lengthy to paint them like this than it would have been to do traditionally, I think. 

That said, here's what I did: 

1. Complete basing (kitty litter in this case), Prime Black

2. Zenithal airbrush (spray the model from the top) with Caledor Sky

3. Zenithal airbrush with Administratum Grey

4. Drybrush with Celestra Grey

5. Inkwash with Nuln Oil

6. Painstakingly re-apply highlights of Celestra Grey with a detail brush, picking out faces, mainly

7. Swords are based with a Dark Green, then layered up moot green, blending it with white until I ended up with a pale green and yellow line

8. Red Banners with Mephiston Red, Agrax Earthshade, then Wyldrider Red layered on

9. Pick out the eyes and teeth with white

 

I learned a lot about brush control and painting by doing a "Monochrome" army but I wouldn't do it again. :)

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On 1/4/2017 at 6:27 AM, Shoe said:

I learned a lot about brush control and painting by doing a "Monochrome" army but I wouldn't do it again. :)

Love your rats have you done any other units in the same style? Im considering doing this as I have 120 to paint :(

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On 1/5/2017 at 2:48 PM, Sneak said:

Love your rats have you done any other units in the same style? Im considering doing this as I have 120 to paint :(

Thanks!
Yes, I did the whole army this way. Not quite as hardcore, about 90 or so models. :) 

To avoid hijacking the thread any further, here are some non preview links: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIe3f7WBZh1/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIcKD78hi47/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIpGCdZBWrk/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI65gmPhcXW/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJFRMuXh98Z/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIcKAAWBsaP/

 

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On 1/6/2017 at 9:15 PM, Shoe said:

Thanks!
Yes, I did the whole army this way. Not quite as hardcore, about 90 or so models. :) 

To avoid hijacking the thread any further, here are some non preview links: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIe3f7WBZh1/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIcKD78hi47/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIpGCdZBWrk/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI65gmPhcXW/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJFRMuXh98Z/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIcKAAWBsaP/

 

cheers! TY! 

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