AIdenNicol444

Utilizing a command point with the new rules for the battleshock phase. If a unit is within 12 inches of your general or 6 inches of a hero, you can spend one CP instead of rolling battleshock and they pass.

were it not for the laws of this nation I would kill you where you stand.

I agree it's good, but if you've ever used a Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace the Thermalrider Cloak is a gamechanger and more vital than having a character that can glass other characters only in close combat. The Magmaforged Blade is a weak Sword of Judgement, but it's still good for mowing away single wound infantry with a 10 attack creature.

NZ Masters Tournament 2018 Road to the Top Overview With the New Zealand Masters Tournament 3 weeks away, and list submissions due in 6 days, I figure it’s close enough to talk about my preparation for this tournament. Unsurprisingly, I’ll be running the Pestilens allegiance and going for the top, with the goal yet again of being the first Clan Pestilens player to win or place a major event. Over the last 2 months my list has gone through a heavy amount of changes, and I ran a version of the list at the recent Notorious Hammer tournament to test the waters as well as countless practice games with close friends to streamline the list and reach a standard of consistent performance I’m happy with. The NZ Masters tournament is an invitational tournament, where the top 20 players n the NZ rankings are offered places at the event and then the invites work there way up from 20 if people decline. The New Zealand tournament meta is relatively consistent and features roughly 20 consistent contenders at most tournaments with a few more players that make the odd tournament here and there, and most people are known clearly for the lists they take and change them rarely. The most popular armies currently are Stormcast Eternals, Nurgle and Legions of Nagash, with the rest of the players displaying a wide variety of forces from all Grand Alliances. This being the case, for anyone to be a contender for the top spots they have to pack tools that let their force deal with decent armor saves, long-range magic and large numbers. All the recent winners of local tournaments will be attending the Masters, and with every player being in the tier of rankings where they on average win 3 or more games in a 5-game event the competition is guaranteed to be fierce. The Event The tournament follows the same pattern as most tournaments, 5 games with 3 on day 1 and 2 more on the second day. Realm Artefacts are available for list building, but the Realm Spells and Realmscape effects will not be. While most NZ tournaments have relaxed painting standards, 3 color minimum at most with the incentive to paint your army being bonus hobby points for the soft scores, at the Masters a model that is not painted to a degree that demonstrates completion (based, highlighted, washed etc) will simply not be allowed to be used. The tournament is in the Kapiti Coast region of NZ, a 45 minute drive from the capital city hosted by the local wargaming club there, who hosted the event last year as well to great success. My List So without further ado, here is the list I’ll be taking in the tournament. Allegiance: Pestilens Mortal Realm: Aqshy Leaders Verminlord Corruptor (220) - General - Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin - Artefact: Magmaforged Blade Plague Furnace (180) - Artefact: Liber Bubonicus Plague Furnace (180) - Artefact: Thermalrider Cloak Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80) Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80) Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80) Battleline 40 x Plague Monks (240) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades Units 5 x Gutter Runners (60) - Allies 5 x Gutter Runners (60) - Allies 40 x Clanrats (200) - Rusty Spear - Allies Battalions Congregation of Filth (170) Congregation of Filth (170) Total: 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 2 Allies: 320 / 400 Wounds: 181 So to start from the top. The general of the list is the Verminlord Corruptor. I chose the Verminlord because him being the general means I can give him Master of Rot and Ruin, which means he can pray in the same manner as a Plague Priest (and as of AoS2, also generate Great Plagues on a 6 to pray), as well as him being incredibly mobile so his 12” range auto-pass battleshock range can get where it needs to go. While I would rather give him Sword of Judgement over the Magmaforged Blade, I needed to pick Aqshy for another artefact in the list so I reached a compromise. The twin Plague Furnaces each fulfil a different role. One has been given Liber Bubonicus, shoring up it’s prayer capabilities so it can follow the large unit of Plague Monks around and keep them buffed up. The second has been given the Thermalrider Cloak, a devastatingly useful artefact for a Plague Furnace by giving it an extra 4” move as well as granting it the ability to FLY. By snaking 10 rats around the furnace you can fire the thing out of the deployment zone and halfway up the table, potentially into a devastating charge onto an objective. The 3 Plague Priests are here to spam their breath prayer on turn 1 to get the Neverplague Great Plague nice and early, then spend the rest of the game harassing unit clumps with their breath and stacking debuffs on vital targets. Keeping one of these lads near the two 40-man units ensures battleshock tests won’t ruin them utterly. The Plague Monks are the life of the party. One unit of 40 that can have buffs stacked on it easily and refuse to get off objectives and four units of 10 to run around and suicide into targets and harass flanks. Plague Monks really aren’t something opponents can afford to ignore, but spending time killing them is time spent not targeting the enormous 12 wound threats in the leader slots. If the 40-rat unit isn’t bled down in the early game, the opponent has to deal with an enormous footprint that will tear a hole in anything that can’t commit to destroying it in a single turn, and even then, the Rabid Fever prayer means they’ll still get to take a swing before they die. Gutter Runners are, for lack of any better description, a pain in the ass. They pop up behind the enemy ranks and throw a bunch of throwing knives into them before running in and shanking them. The shooting attack isn’t exactly Skyfire tier but their melee attacks are nasty with decent hit and wound chances and innate -1 rend. Their main strength is that the enemy needs to spend troops on zoning these bad boys out, while dealing with the massed Plague Monks hurtling towards them from the front. Caught between a rock and a very stabby place, such as it were. Clanrats, god bless them, rarely need any kind of explanation why they’re in a list. They’ll run, they’ll charge, they’ll run away and they’ll do it all again. Retreat and Charge is a crazy feature of a very cheap unit, meaning they won’t get tied up fighting other chaff and their big unit size means getting rid of them means a hefty commitment. The only weakness of Clanrats is their propensity to cut and run the moment they start taking casualties. Well, it would be, if we weren’t living in glorious AoS2 and a battleshock test is one Command Point to get out of jail free. The battalions in this list are 2 Congregations of Filth, each comprised of 1 Plague Furnace and 2 or more units of Plague Monks. The only reason I’m taking this is to shave the list drops down to less than 10 to out-drop other armies that don’t take battalions and for the big unit of 40 getting to reroll its charges. Also I needed a bunch of artefacts and command points. Cheers congregation. List Building Process The list above is actually no less than the 17th Pestilens list I’ve ran, with the goal of creating the ideal list for my meta. After every tournament and serious practice game I have gone over what works, what doesn’t, and made the necessary adjustments. The list has gone from no less than 240 wounds at the start of the year, to running multiple endless spells and allied wizards with the Malign Sorcery drop, and for about 2 weeks dropping it completely and angrily painting my Gautfyre Scorch. The end result is unlikely to be a perfect list but is the most streamlined for my current situation and hopefully will prove as much at the masters. Conclusion I’m hoping this will be the even where I at last bring in the big win for my Clan and the group of very scary people breathing down my neck expecting results. If I win or at least podium, I will have completed the goal I set for myself 2 years ago when I finished the second tournament I’d attended with 0 victories and risen to the top of the highly talented NZ Warhammer scene. If I lose I’ll probably nuke my army from orbit and start an Eshin army for the memes. Anyhoo, see you all after Masters in my new blog Clan Eshin Best Clan!

First of all, love the color scheme my friend and would love to see more if it. Seraphon are indeed tricky, the way to beat them is to shamelessly string allied clanrats around your army to catch what they thrw, then slam a counter punch with plague monks similar to what you did with the Ironjawz player. If they instead wall up and sit back to get ready to summon, that's your cue to push up hard (burn command points for 6 inch runs if you have them) and spread your army out so he has nowhere he can summon or teleport his units. Spam your prayers as much as possible and kill the slann with them from behind enemy lines. I would recommend the same strategy against Order Draconis, but the trick there is targetting down the big dragons one after another. Most importantly, never be afraid to retreat. You don't lose the game if you lose more troops than the enemy, and sometimes retreating onto an objective to contest it before being wiped out is a more valuable spend of skaven than sending them to die in combat. I'd very much like to hear how you get on in the future as well

Please let me know how you do, I would enjoy to hear your experiences. We can both learn from one another

Great to hear my friend! I'll be running my Clan Pestilens at the NZ Masters tournament on the 1st of December, and I'm hoping I'll be the forst Pestilens player ever to podium in the world

cheers man, pics of the relevant terrain ive made coming soon too

Cheers! really appreciate the feedback

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.

90, arranged in 3 groups of 30 which were supported by two allied blocks of 40 clanrats. With Tzeentch meta finally over I feel safer taking the large numbers again.

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.

Man-things will drown in a deluge of filth Burn the stormkeeps rat-war now

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.

Alright my friends, this is a debate had many times and I'm happy to satisfy it. The concensus is that stave and blade is better is TECHNICALLY correct, however that is only in a vaccum where the conditions for such (Verminlord has buffed them, unit has Bless with Filth) are met and in effect. HOWEVER, the situation where this occurs is actually very rare. Consider also that yes, with the stick they can strike over the first row of monks. This is good for units like Stormvermin and Clanrats, who indeed are sustained fighters that drag fights out. Plague Monks aren't, and are almost always best taken in multiple small groups of 10 and 20 with only a single large unit of 40 to heap buffs on. With this considered, I would say that while sword and stave is better on paper, double sword is much better for flexibility and utility, and responds much better to being buffed overall. I am confident enough in my reasoning here to have built all 160 of my Plague Monks with double swords, and would encourage you to do the same. The only situation where I would take sword and stave would be if it was a single group of 40 Monks, and it was in a Maggotkin army, not a Pestilens army.

good eyes my friend, I have trouble remembering these things as they never used to be relevant. In that case I would drop 60 points of giant rats and sub in the Verminlord Warpseer

Building a Skaven List Clan Pestilens The only Skaven clan with a “battletome” (it doesn’t feature any of the stuff modern tomes do, only warscrolls and a small handful of battalions, you need the General’s Handbook for the rest), Clan Pestilens were one of the first armies in the game to receive a book and their line repackaged into the new boxes with round bases and so on. Pestilens takes the existing theme of Skaven being mostly high damage, low durability and escalates it severely. Everything in the book is a melee powerhouse but lacks any form of self-defence. What Makes the Perfect Virus Plague Monks. Everything about this army hinges on and builds around it’s most numerous battleline option. The army features a whole SEVEN warscrolls (people with other armies will think this is a joke, but only Clan Skryre has more options than Pestilens), and all of these bar one are either Plague Monks, or something that makes Plague Monks more useful. It’s unsurprising that the exception, the Plagueclaw, is awful and almost never sees use. Plague Furnace and Plague Priests have access to prayers that buff Pestilens units, or debuff the enemy to make your army more effective at harming them. These prayers are also integrated into the army’s allegiance abilities in a key way. Allegiance to the Great Corruptor Pestilens have 2 allegiance abilities, one is extraordinarily simple and the other is somewhat more complex. Strength in Numbers gives 2 bravery for every 10 models in a unit instead of 1, which makes I far more viable to take 40 stacks of Plague Monks. Echoes of the Great Plagues is where the thinking comes in. Every natural roll of a 6 when praying allows a once per turn use of one of a selection of super plagues. Bar one, all of the Great Plagues hit the nearest target within 13 inches and have devastating effects like body blows of mortal wounds or even making enemies pile into each other. As your army will usually feature a stack of priests who will all be praying their maximum amount every turn, the odds of receiving these are good. MC Corruptor, Straight outta Ulgu Malign Sorcery gave us new artefact tables to draw from, and these come in handy as only 2 of the Pestilens artefacts (Liber Bubonicus and Vexler’s Shroud) are useful. My personal favourite is the Sword of Judgement from Ulgu, which causes d6 mortal wounds on every hit roll of a 6 or more, which single-handedly makes the Verminlord Corruptor the best Hero/Behemoth hunter in the game. Play around with these tables and find what suits you best. Ghur and Ghyran have some gems as well. Unfurling the Plague Scroll Given I’ve actually played well over 100 games with Clan Pestilens and started playing AoS with them, I feel somewhat confident in writing an example list. Over the course of my time in the NZ scene, I meant from 5 Major Defeats with this army to maintaining a win-rate of 3/5 games or better. While most wouldn’t consider this an impressive brag by any stretch, I feel it’s pretty good in a meta that mostly only features the battletome armies. Allegiance: Pestilens Mortal Realm: Ulgu Leaders Verminlord Corruptor (220) - General - Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin - Artefact: Sword of Judgement Plaguesmog Furnace (180) Plague Furnace - Artefact: Liber Bubonicus Congregation Furnace (180) Plague Furnace - Artefact: Doppelganger Cloak 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) 40 x Plague Monks (240) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades Units 10 x Gutter Runners (120) - Allies 10 x Gutter Runners (120) - Allies Battalions Congregation of Filth (170) Plaguesmog Congregation (140) Total: 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 2 Allies: 240 / 400 Wounds: 166 Plan here is simple. Charge the enemy with the 40-man unit of Plague Monks with both the Bless with Filth and Rabid Fever buffs active. This unit will likely die to counter charges, but the active buffs will ensure it takes well over its own point cost with it. This is followed up in the next turn by both Furnaces hitting the enemy. Both will get full chance to fight as the one activated second has Doppelganger’s Cloak and so can’t be fought till it’s activated. The small units of Plague Monks and the Censer Bearers are there to follow up aggression and take objectives, and the Gutter Runners coming on behind the enemy force them to split their deployment, so they can’t present 100% of their defence against the front charge. I myself have ran this list several times and can confirm it will have no trouble taking down combat armies, but has trouble against heavy magic lists. To counteract this, utilize Gutter Runners to harass backfield mages and split the enemy’s focus. Don’t forget to remember the Plague Monk’s once per game activations and the radiant mortal wounds on the censers and furnaces. Go forth, and embrace the 3/2 glory that only an army getting absolutely murdered by Tzeentch can know.

I love seeing what pestilens players take in their mixed skaven lists besides the 3 groups of 20 clanrats, it shows what playstyles they favor. For example in place of your Moulder units I have the same list but with 2 units of Gutter Runners and a Screaming Bell

agreed, the forgeworld models are gorgeous but resin is a pain. Yeah Plague Priests are just super flexible, the way their buff works means any army can make use of it.

Building a Skaven List Clan Moulder Rats on rats. Moudler is the Skaven clan characterised by two things; the massive weight of monsters and numbers it can bring to the table, and the staple reliance it’s players have on Forgeworld. A cursory look at the Moulder GW line will give you an entire Online Order Only army, most of which has lacklustre rules. Fortunately, daddy Forgeworld has our back. Brood Horrors and Wolf Rats are massively underutilized Skaven units but are both absolutely fantastic units, and very strong in the current meta. Building a Better Rat Moulder have no battalions since the gutting of the clawpacks, and no allegiance abilities either. This means we’re going high drop counts, and we’re going in with one artefact. A Moulder list hinges on it’s Packmasters, a specialized hero who provides a swathe of buffs to nearby Moulder monsters. He can whip a nearby unit to make it charge further and hit harder, and Moulder units near him double their bravery during the battleshock phase. Their battleline options are the cheap swarms of Giant Rats that get better the more there are, and the hard hitting Rat Ogors. Go Big or Go Home You have 4 behemoth slots at 2k games, and we need to fill all 4. The best unit for the job is the Brood Horror, a Forgeworld warscroll who boasts an impressive combat profile and the ability to heal itself for d3 wounds every turn. The Hellpit Abomination is also a contender for this slot, but their higher points cost, lack of durability and random modifiers tend to make them subpar compared to the Brood Horror. You’ll need speedy units for objectives, and again Forgeworld provides with the Wolf Rats. These fast moving units hit hard on the charge and are great targets for Packmaster buffs. The final piece of the puzzle is something that can tie the enemy up and keep them from counter-charging your Horrors and Wolves, and what better for this than massive units of Giant Rats. Their stats decline horrifically as they lose models, but at their best these things will slam hard into enemy infantry. Imperfect Monsters The army’s weaknesses lie in it’s vulnerability to battleshock and bravery shenanigans, it’s lack of wizards and absence of reliable shooting. Strong units to ally can be the Verminlord Corruptor, who’s command ability will aid your army while also providing a valuable wizard, and the Gutter Runners of Eshin who flank behind your horde and harass support heroes. Pestilens Plague Priests can buff the army’s wound rolls and allow rerolls to wound, making Giant Rats and Wolf Rats even more lethal on impact. The Horde Unleashed Here I’ve constructed a list designed to capitalize on the impact of the army. Given the enemy will be deciding who goes first more than likely, the best case scenario is going second and setting up a double turn. Praying for Wither on the enemy and then hitting them with the Giant Rats, as well as flashing the same enemy with the Plague Tome, will ensure the Giant Rats annihilate the front row. This leaves the Brood Horrors free to advance and take hit buffs from the Packmasters. Allegiance: Moulder Leaders Packmaster (60) - General - Herding Whip & Blade - Trait: Malicious Conqueror - Artefact: Crown of Conquest Packmaster (60) - Herding Whip & Blade Packmaster (60) - Herding Whip & Blade Verminlord Corruptor (220) - Allies Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80) - Allies Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80) - Allies Battleline 40 x Giant Rats (200) 40 x Giant Rats (200) 10 x Giant Rats (60) 10 x Giant Rats (60) Units 10 x Wolf Rats (200) 10 x Wolf Rats (200) Behemoths Brood Horror (160) Brood Horror (160) Brood Horror (160) Total: 1960 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 0 Allies: 380 / 400 Wounds: 195 This is one hell of a lot of bodies. Hit up your local Pestilens player for their spare decorative rats to get a lot of Giant Rats quickly. Purchase a can of Mournfang Brown and a small bucket of Agrax Earthshade. And finally, develop both an intimate understanding of the British Pound exchange rate and the virtue of patience as you deal with our Forgeworld Overlords.

Building a Skaven List Clan Skryre Gautfyre Skorch. Done. Go away. Ok fine, I’ll do this properly. First up in my series on building Skaven armies to a specific allegiance will be Clan Skryre. I chose Skryre because so far, they’re the most popular Skaven clan and actually see a lot of exposure in the percentages of tournaments. They’re also a relatively easy army to build, given most of the thinking is done for you with the Clan Skryre Enginecoven system. Allegiance to the Skryre Clans The Skryre ability gives you a bunch of tokens you can use to either reroll casting rolls, reroll hit and wound rolls, or add 1 to the damage characteristic of an attack. Essentially, they let you reroll casting rolls. The other two options are almost entirely pointless. As for traits and artefacts, the Cunning Creature trait will keep the Arch Warlock alive and Vigordust Injector will let you buff the Stormfiends, who by now you will understand are the army’s poster child. Start Your Enginecovens Clan Skryre features a battalion that is unique amongst the battalions of the game. It’s composed of one battalion, Clan Skryre, and 2 “Enginecovens”, which are sub battalions. A Clan Skryre battalion must be composed of at least 2 of these. As we can see from the image, the battalion requires at the very least an Arch Warlock and two Warlock Engineers. You’ll also need some Stormfiends and probably a Warp Lightning Cannon. From there you decide what kind of army you want to go with. Clan Skryre The Arch Warlock gets to reroll any one dice for himself each turn. He can however pass on this to give it to a Warlock Engineer on the table, who can in turn use it on any model in his Enginecoven. Handy for Arkhspark and Gautfyre who can hurt themselves with bad rolls. Whyrlblade Threshik Pick a Doomwheel or one of the Doomflayers and roll 2 dice, it moves that distance. If it’s a double, it also takes D3 wounds. Meh. Arkhspark Voltik Popular because it’s the cheapest Enginecoven. You shoot the Warp Lightning Cannon in the hero phase and roll a dice, on a 4+ it hurts itself. Pretty decent as you get more uses out of the cannon and its stats don’t decline with damage. It probably won’t die the first or second time, so you can get 4 shots out of 2 turns easily. Gascloud Chokelung The acolytes / wind-mortar battalion. This lets you throw a warpstone nuke at the enemy each hero phase, dealing D6 mortal wounds with a chance to fail and deal D3 wounds to the thrower. Rattleguage Warplock The dakka battalion. Lets a unit in the battalion fire during the hero phase, then take D3 wounds which can’t be avoided. Good on the Stormfiends as they won’t die to D3 mortal wounds. Gautfyre Skorch Hooooh boy, it’s the big bad wolf of Skaven competitive lists. This is the battalion that takes the concept of winning or losing the game on a single cheese strategy and just runs with it. The Warp Grinder can be set up anywhere on the table and then everything else gets to come up within 8 inches, with everything within 3 inches of the enemy taking wounds. Basically, this lets you drop a full unit of Warpfire Thrower Stormfiends right in front of the enemy, hose whatever you want with 18d3 mortal wounds, and then leave whatever happens to even survive boxed in with fiends. You can use this to kill every single hero in the enemy army. You can use this to obliterate everything in the enemy army via shooting, charging then the battleshock phase. Essentially, this gives your opponent cancer. Adding Allies Clan Skryre is the Skaven clan that doesn’t need to ally wizards, already having the best wizards in the Skaven line-up. Usually what Skryre needs is objective holders as the most effective Skryre build is the Gautfyre + Arkhspark build. Consider Clanrats, Gutter Runners and Plague Monks. A melee focused Stormfiend army will roll around on the enemy if you ally in Packmasters (Stormfiends have both the Skryre and Moudler keywords). Assemble the Doom Machine Here’s my take on Clan Skryre. I’ve gone for the most meta build, but have swapped out the usual 20 Clanrats for 2 units of 5 Gutter Runners. Their mobility and the fact they appear in the movement phase means they’re deployed after the Gautfyre comes down enabling you to better position them for taking objectives. The Acolytes are only there to take backfield objectives. Allegiance: Skryre Leaders Arch Warlock (140) - General - Trait: Cunning Creature - Artefact: Esoteric Warp Resonator Warlock Engineer (100) - Artefact: Vigordust Injector Warlock Engineer (100) Battleline 9 x Stormfiends (870) 5 x Skryre Acolytes (60) 5 x Skryre Acolytes (60) Units 1 x Warpfire Thrower Weapon Team (70) 5 x Gutter Runners (60) 5 x Gutter Runners (60) War Machines Warp Lightning Cannon (180) Battalions Clan Skryre (80) Arkhspark Voltik (70) Gautfyre Skorch (150) Total: 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 99 This was a really long way of typing out Gautfyre Skorch is da best. Seriously, it’s super flexible and good in a meta where you don’t need to roll to hit with the Warpflame (get rekt look out sir). You will win or lose the game depending on how your hotdrop on top of the enemy goes. If they’re a static elite army like Stormcast or Sylvaneth, GGEZ. If they’re a bubblewrapping horde army like Moonclan or any chaos horde army with Crown of Conquest, touch luck buddy. Go with the Horned Rat and cheese in his name.

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.

that's why I do it, I want to create interest and generate a groundswell of people picking up skaven, even if it isnt necessarily Clan Pestilens. Our time in the sun is coming

Last weekend I played in New Zealand's AOS tournament Call to Arms, one of the biggest of its kind since the AOS Scene began. I had a great time, and the TO Fraser B did a fantastic job keeping things on time and running smoothly. Would happily attend another event if he was the TO. That being said, let’s do it. The List Allegiance: Chaos Mortal Realm: Ulgu Leaders Screaming Bell (200) - General - Trait: Malicious Conqueror - Artefact: Crown of Conquest Lord Skreech Verminking (300) Plague Furnace (180) Verminlord Corruptor (220) - Artefact: Sword of Judgement Battleline 20 x Clanrats (120) - Rusty Spear 20 x Clanrats (120) - Rusty Spear 20 x Clanrats (120) - Rusty Spear Units 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 Battalions Plaguesmog Congregation (140) Endless Spells Chronomantic Cogs (60) Total: 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 178 For the people that read my blogs, you'll notice this ISN'T the list I said I planned to use. After the FAQ dropped the TO allowed people to submit different lists, and I took this opportunity to take an army that uses magic with the nerf to Lens of Refraction. The list also was designed to perform strongly against Death and Nurgle, the two most popular lists in the meta. While almost half of players at the tournament ran Death or Nurgle, this didn't play in my favour. I didn't match a single one. Game 1: Disciples of Tzeentch Scenario: Duality of Death Outcome: Major Loss This was the closest game of the tournament by far. The scores were close all game and the game came down to a single victory point of difference. My opponent is a highly skilled player who played Tzeentch all through their changes and does consistently well, so I went into the game expecting some seriously tactical plays. I was not disappointed, Matt consistently pre-empted my moves and was rarely caught by surprise. He sacrificed control of half the table once he had gained a majority of points and focused on heavily protecting the initial victory point from me. His Lord of Change was running the -2 to melee against it which prevented the corruptor assassinating him off the point, as well as Verminking being unable to reach him past a line of Horrors. The game continued to turn 5, with me unable to remove the Lord of Change. Solid, close game was had. Game 2: Ironjawz Scenario: Better Part of Valour Outcome: Major Win Already a difficult matchup for the Ironjawz due to my high numbers and mortal wound output, my already disadvantaged opponent was not able to both hold a line and break my own simultaneously to win. My tide of rats shattered through the Ard Boyz and Brutes easily, shaving wounds off the Maw Krusha and easily tangling up the Gore Gruntas. Verminlord Corruptor ran in and kill-stealed both the Maw Krusha and the Fungoid Shaman with ease. My board domination forced him to burn his points early or lose them to me, meaning all I had to do was keep pushing and burn my own a turn later. Game resulted in both a win and full kill points to me. Game 3: Stormcast Eternals Scenario: Focal Points Outcome: Major Loss Wow, heavily underestimated the new Sacrosanct Chamber. I deployed along the line, expecting the usual Stormcast tactic of spreading onto objectives and trying to hold them for as long as possible before eventually dying off to numbers and mortal wounds. Shaun promptly told me to go ****** myself, charged across the table as hard and fast as possible on turn 1 and destroyed a third of my army. I constantly got smacked with an Everblaze Comet and any attempts at spellcasting were laughingly deflected by a Knight Incantor. I went for kill points as hard as possible after realizing defeat was inevitable and ended up taking maybe a third of his force. Easy win for Shaun. Game 4: Legion of Azgorh Scenario: Gift from the Heavens Outcome: Major Win Always a hard game against an army that very few people play. I out deployed my opponent opted to play first, using my clanrats to screen off charges from the Taur'uk and his Bull Centaurs, as well as sending 30 Plague Monks around the side to flank Shar'tor the Executioner and block line of sight from the artillery. The Magma Cannons opened fire on the Screaming Bell, which survived with a single wound. My opponent proceeded to double turn me, easily taking out around half of my army. What remained however were Plague Monks, both the Verminlords, a Plague Furnace and my Censer Bearers. I proceeded to match my opponent's punch with a heavy counterpunch that shattered the Ironsworn's defensive line around the war machines and reached the squishy interior. I then rolled well in priority, receiving a double turn of my own and proceeded to completely table my opponent with the momentum gained in the previous turn. Mess with the Ratto, you get the stabbo. Game 5: Daughters of Khaine Scenario: Relocation Orb Outcome: Major Loss A much-desired match for my opponent Shaun T, a good friend of mine who I was able to beat in one of the critical games at the NZ Masters. Shaun has wanted a rematch since, and he took the opportunity and RAN with it. Easily zeroing Verminking off the tale with Morathi and a Knight Venator in turn 1, the momentum continued smoothly with him simply creating walls to prevent me taking the objectives before he could reach them, ensuring that even with me slowly marching forward and killing his troops I wasn't able to score points. Shaun knew my strengths and made sure I wasn't able to use them against him and secured himself a very clean victory. Verdict Should have kept my army as it was before changes. I knew the list well but opted to try a counter-list instead and paid the price for it. I made a few critical misplays, namely not walling against Sacrosanct Chamber and playing too defensively initially against Daughters of Khaine. Positives Censer Bearers severely overperformed in every game, either holding objectives or following up the Plague Furnace to deliver solid, consistent damage. Screaming Bell did well, the bravery immunity from Crown of Conquest enabled Plague Monks to remain in the fight for far longer than usual and Clanrats to hold the enemy off. The Chaos Grand Alliance ability went off WAY more than you would expect. Sword of Judgement is utter filth on the Verminlord Corruptor and effectively ensured the enemy had to deal with him or lose their characters. Plague Furnace was a super effective line breaker and the Plaguesmog Congregation battalion kept it safe from shooting allowing it to reach the front line of enemy armies with ease. Cons Clanrats could easily have been replaced with Plague Monks and had the same outcome, units of 20 died too quickly to benefit from their mobility. Skreech Verminking either died too early to be useful or simply didn't kill enough to warrant his cost, paling severely next to the Verminlord Corruptor. Chronomantic Cogs either were too risky to use for fear of causing the enemy to come back from defeat or allowed the enemy to out-position me and prevent valuable charges from the Plague Monks and characters. Changes for Next Time Revert to Pestilens allegiance, Great Plagues and Strength in Numbers are far more useful than the +1 to hit, as useful as it was on the occasion it happened. Instead of allying Clanrats, ally in Gutter Runners to force a fight on two fronts. Swap out Cogs for more bodies. Take Congregation of Filth for the 6+ ward save and the reroll charges as I found several times that I wished I had them to fall back on like normal. In summary, the Great Corruptor punished me for my treason against Him and I throw myself upon his mercy. Great tournament, had a great time with my friends, and was stoked to see a good friend of mine with his new Nighthaunt army he hadn't even had a chance to test podium with 2nd. Hopefully some of his skill rubs off on me when we play alongside one another at the coming Doubles Tournament in September.