Hello I am Making a skaven army. But have no idea of basic skaven stragties. I am looking for advise on buildig an army. Thanks.

Well, first of all, welcome aboard!

Basic strategy is to just charge straight ahead, shooting when/if you can. It really does matter what type of army you have picked out, so do you want to post an army list before we discuss strategies?

I made a rough army list it is 1250 points.

Master Moulder
whip
light armor
The foul Pendant

Warlock Engineer
Warplock pistol
Warp blades
Condenser and Acculator

assassin
smoke bombs
2 additional Warpstone tokens

30 clanrats
ratling gun

Plague rat swarm
(2 bases)

Giant rats
(2 packs)

10 Gutter runners
black skaven
poisoned stars

10 Warplock Jezzails

I picked these units because they looked flexable and/or I liked the models.
any suggestions are welcome. thanks

I should also state that I am making this army for my girlfriend who really like rats. She has never played warhammer so I would like to keep this army simple and effective. I would like to know what units are harder to use. (even if they aren't in my list) I have played Vampire counts and i am in the process of making a tomb kings army. The skaven seem really diffrent than V.C.

You cannot have an assassin in a Moulder army(I think; my book isn't with me). That clears up some points for another unit of clanrats. You should have atleast two units, or more if possible. Since you have 10 jezzails, I would somehow add in a large(25-30) unit of clanrat slaves, just to tie up then gun down enemy units.

Ok, lets see:

Master Mutator; ok, I would think a Cheiftan would be better but its up to you.

Warlock Engineer; I must need! The accumulator is useless. It waste points for an extra dice you can't use. I like to use a Storm Daemon and a Dispell scroll for this guy. Helps a lot!

Assasin; I think this is too many characters. I would take it away, but you could keep it if you want. Also the assasin can't have warpstone tokens.

30 Clanrats w/rattler; good, a full command may be a good chose to have.
*You should have another box of clanrats, possibly with another rattler.

Plague Rats; cool, if you have the points for another base these things can hold up a flank by themeselves.

Giant Rats; cool, fun for holding up the enemies. Although, if you are gonna get rid of the Master Moulder, also get rid of these.
*If Moulder will be a big part in your army you may want another pack would be a wise choice.

Gutter Runners; cool, fun against artillary and wizards. But you could get twice as much night runner for the same cost. Just a thought. Still, a great choice.

Jezzails; love these! Keep them!

Hope this helps?

You seem a bit light in good ole rank and file troops. I have 60 clan rats (two blocks of 30) and 30 slaves in my 1k list alone.... Consider adding some more of them, expendable is fantabulous!

I traded my master moulder for a cheiftan. I got 30 more clan rats instead for gutter runners. And I made a typo wrapstone are for the engineer but i decided to try the storm deamon and the dispell scroll instead. Should i not use the assassin in a army this size. But if not I could add I later. Any comments on my adjustments are appreciated.

Yeah, i would get rid of the Assasin. At this point level it won't do much. Although at 2,000 and up it would be a good chose.

Also what do you have for the Chieftan?

Same as the master moulder. I had a hard time getting to post anything.

How about taking a unit of slaves to tie up any expensive units, then blasting them with your Jezzails?

I will keep that in mind... probably a denfinate addition. Skaven should have a lot of large units. So I will use the extra points for slaves. and if enough beef up my swarm or giant rat pack. :unsure:

i'm just gonna jump in and ask how you could all overlook plague monks?
with the aditional hand wepon they have 3 attacks each! that rules,
give them the banner of burning hatred,
and if you have a plague preist with them equiped with a flail or bands of power (if you can give him that) he will own a challenge if you eccept it,
especialy if you give him the 4+ ward save and aditional hand wepon, and to top it off throw in a few censor bearers to help with heavy armored troops.

the only problem is that they are all metal modles, so you might find yourself spending a pretty penny on them.

I think the only reason no one said anything about Plague Monks with all the goodies, is because of the point value. It would devastate a lot but you would have used up so many points just on that squad, you wouldn't have enough to cover all the other fields. They are awesome, but you probably shouldn't have that unit until 1500 points, unless your army is Pestilance Themed.

fair enough, but plague monks are only 3 more points that clanrats (with the aditional hand wepon) granted that's not cheep but it's not exactly expensive either,
censor bearers are the expencive thing, but they can easly be droped, and so can the plague preist's equipment (eccept bands of power) because S-8 can easly clobber heavy calvery, the banner isn't a must, but very usefull (so many rerolls)
and they all have T-4 (plague preist= T-5) and that's well....... not too shabby.

but i do agree with you that a fully equiped squad would not be ideal for a small game, i just thought id sugest something alittle more that just more clanrats and slaves although slaves are a must, and i would have 2 squads of clanrats at least 30 in each :D

One reason why they didn't suggest taking them may be because Plague Monks are not really effective. It is true that they mince though lightly armoured troops but they get lead around easily and are actually more prone to dying than clan rats (except against armour piercing S5 shots). If you give them the banner of burning hatred you will see them go the opposite direction to what they want to go half the game!!! It is, in my opinion one of the worst items in the game and also one of the most misused. If you screen the monks then a hill or large target will mean they will go up to your screen. Monks are often far too risky, especially in small games to take.

Owaria

Use the Grey Seer and give them Death Frenzy!

4 Attacks. Thats alot of attacks, it sounds ace but really it isnt.
I play skaven all the time and my opponents army always has a unit of 50 (5 rows of 10). I always send 20 black orcs against them. They always win the first round of combat because of bonuses and at the most two wounds. I always stay and they lap around. Thats forty five attacks agaisnt my measly 6. But i always cause more wounds and they always flee and i catch. :D

The large amount of attacks :o doesnt make up for their crap strength. They should have flails or somethink that at lest gives them extra strength on the charge. :wacko:

He makes a good point. Plague Monks become especially diminished vs T4 units, or any unit with a 4+ save or better (and with hand weapons, light armor+shield gives a 4+). Any unit that frenzies must be appropriately screened and maneuvered so they're not charging until you want them too. I rarely take more than 20 monks in a unit. Their own T4 makes them bad targets vs shooty enemies.

plauge monks work well with deth frenzy. But what works even better is equipting the unit with banner of burning hatered. Now not only does ur unit get 4 attacks eahc (5 for champ) but it is under the effects of hatred for all enemys despite being under the effects of frenzy!(whitch nomaly does not allow the unit to hate)

o and soulgnawer, ur info is incorrect. Exuse me for pointing it out but hand wepons sheilds and light aurmor is only a 5+ save.

4+ save in close combat.
+1 for hand weapon and shiled in close combat. HEs right <_<

xxskavenxx you a) double posted b ) got your facts wrong. Under the weapons section of the warhammer rule book it states that if you are using hand weapon and shield you get an additional armour save. So light armour (6+), sheild (5+) which is combined with a hand weapon give you a 4+ save.

You have also got on my nerves, you are using necromancy and spamming as what you have said have already been covered in this topic (your first post at least). Any topics that I consider dead (like this one), I will either delete your post or lock the topic. I will not have this spam going on in my fourm.

Owaria

The Ultimate Warlock Engineer=

Warlock Engineer
+ Warp Blades
+ Accumulator
+ Condenser
+ Eye of the Horned Rat
+ Dispel Scroll

Thats
2 dice for a 5up warplightning
3 dice for a 9up warplightning
and lots of dispelingness

I hesitate to reply cuz I REALLY don't want to call down the wrath of Owaria but.. you cannot cast the same spell more than once, this means that you can't cast 5+ then 9+ off the same mage in the same turn. If that was possible HE magic would rule (although it is really awsome as it is) anyway!
If HE's could cast all 3 version of's drain magic, it'd be all bad for their opponent.
Unless I'm wrong... :rolleyes:

Gorod is right, you can only cast the spell once even if you have the ability to cast it at 2 different power levels.

BUT, my wrath will come down here; you are bringing up old topics, topics that were dead and you brought them up without a good reason for bringing them up. This is against the rules and if you keep pushing the rules you will get a warning.

CLANG!!!!

Owaria