"Your paint-fu is improving Grasshopper.
Now...prepare to go to WAR!"
Well, if everything goes according to plan I may actually get my very first game of WFB in this weekend here in Tokyo. In preparation for that I would love to get some help from anyone reading this about what models I should take from my army (probably ALL of them as it isn't very big at the moment...)
You can see the current state of my army on my Warlord Clan Page
So, what kind of army do I think I need? Well, at the moment I can't tell you as I don't know my opponents army. What I DO know is that if possible I should bring a minimum of 2,000 pts, and if possible 2,500. I know that not knowing the opponent's forces may make it difficult to get help from you all, but I hope you may be able to help me with a well rounded list.
I do know I could do with more strength in several areas of my existing army:
- Screaming Bell.
- More Rat Ogres.
- More Slaves.
- Gutter Runners.
etc.
and although I do actually have all those models, let's assume I won't be able to get any more minis painted up by Sunday. As we will be playing at a GW store in Tokyo, I believe you are not allowed to field unpainted (or just undercoated) forces so literally, what you see on my army page is what we have to play around with.
Any and all help would be appreciated, especially when it comes to equipment for characters etc. I'm perfectly happy to run a "Vanilla" list (what choice do I have?) as this will help me get to grips with the core units in a Skaven army. If it is any help, I'm playing against a friend of mine who knows this is my first game, so it will be low-key and I wouldn't expect him to bring anything really hard-core (and he will expect the same from me.)
So, if you have a moment please pile in with your advice (or evil laughter at my impending doom if you wish) in the comments below. When the fog of war (and paralysis caused by Warpstone fumes) clears after the weekend I hope to post my first battle report...
...and so, to WAR!
Cheers!
*Squeek*
EDIT: My opponent, true gentleman that he is, has let me know what he intends to bring to the party. Orcs and Gobbo's... a 2,000 point general list with a little bit of everything.
EDIT: My opponent, true gentleman that he is, has let me know what he intends to bring to the party. Orcs and Gobbo's... a 2,000 point general list with a little bit of everything.
O&G List - 2000 points
Lords (Max 25%) - 298
Orc Warboss: Wyvern, Enchanted Shield, Biting Blade, Light Armor (LA), Luckstone 298
Heroes (max 25%) - 212
Orc Shaman: Level 2, Hand Weapon, Dispel Scroll 125
Orc Big Boss BSB: BSB (Battle Standard Bearer), Hand Weapon, LA, Shield, Ironcurse Icon 87
Core (Min 25%) - 630
Orc Arrer Boys x 20: Bows, hand weapon, LA 140
Orc Boys x 30: Full Command, Hand Weapon, LA, Shield 245
Night Goblins x 20: Short Bows, 2 Fanatics 110
Wolf Riders x 5: Spears, Shield, LA, Short Bows, Hand Weapon 65
Spider RIders x 5: Spears, Shield, Short Bows 70
Special (Max 50%) - 575
Black Orcs x 20: Pile O'weapons, Heavy Armor, Shields, Full Command 295
Orc Boar Chariot : Scythed wheels 85
Snotlings x 3: Exploding Spores 90
Trolls x 3: Fear, Regen, Stupid, Vomit 105
Rare (Max 25%) - 285
Giant 200
Rock Lobber 85
Any advice from you Skaven warlords out there?
Hey Queek,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, great to see this blog slowly coming back to life again.
About your question on your list for what to take with you to the upcoming battles, my 2 cents..
The first, second and last thing you need to know about skaven is that its all about having quantity. They are dirt cheap in comparison to most armies, and you can expect to win games due to static combat resolution rather than massacring the other unit.
The best thing a skaven army has it its disposal are.. Slaves! I´ve had a difficult time playing against my regular opponent´s Lizardmen. They are extremily tough and strong, and eat skaven for breakfast. But as I came to collect more and more models, my army slowly moved from a qualitative army (with lots of heavy equipment and tools) to a far more quantitative army, and finally started to win my share of games. Even our elite Stormvermin are a far shot away from being elite in other armies!
As such, it takes time to get a great skaven army. Not in the sense of collecting it, (as long as you have the money), but neatly painting it so that it just looks breathtaking on the tablefield. I've been painting my army for over a year now, but I've just finished a lil less than 100, meaning I'll still have some work to do.
Now with the first argument, that skaven look awesome on the board when they are beautifully painted, you plainly fit the bill. (no argue about that ;) Having the quantity of models however, will become a big issue.
In tournament games of around 2500 points, its no surprise to see a skaven player field 150 slaves! (Imagine the shudder of a High Elf player, when the slaves alone outnumber his total army on the board!). YOu probably see where I'm getting at.. warhammer is all about having fun and meeting and getting to know people, but don't go to gamesworkshop this weekend with the thought you will own the place, as you just need more models.
ReplyDeleteSkaven army list (What I recommend)
use all your skaven clanrats and slaves! considering that its still at the low amount, I would use them all as clan rats.
5x giant rats
15 points
5x giant rats
15 points
35x clan rats
- full command
- poisoned wind mortar
- shield & handweapon
242.5 points
35x clan rats
- full command
- shield & handweapon
177.5 points
40x clan rats
- full command
- warpfire thrower team
- shield & handweapon
270 points
30x plague monks
- full command
- storm banner (Very handy and crucial against shooting armies, dont forget to use it in the first turn!)
285 points
2x rat ogres
- packmaster with Tail weapon + elector whip
(gives an additional attack and the elector whip convers 1 attack to d3)
151 points
Doomwheel
150 points
Plague Priest lvl2
-135 points
warlock engineer (no lvl!)
-doomrocket
Grey Seer lvl 4 (automatic)
-240 points
All together: 1726 points
25% Lords & Heroes, 42% Core, 26% Special, 9% Rare.
(I can't really seem to fill the rest of the points effectively, but maybe you still have things on the shelf which might fill in the gaps? for instance those jezzails, if you have more than 3?)
A small introduction to some of the decisions in the list above.
- In a skaven army list, units of clanrats are most preferred when they are around 50. Since you don't have that many laying around, I thought splitting them up in 3 groups would be best, since you always needs to have more units on the field than your opponent.
- plague monks and their Storm banner. Skaven can be shot to bits by empire cannons or other warmachines and archers. To keep the casualties at the minimum, use the banner ^^. It greatly decreases the chances of your opponent to even fire their warmachines, and you might have a chance the banner stays in play if you roll succesfully.
- poisoned wind mortar. This is a true sweety. It can even kill Chaos Chosen ones with a well fired shot, as no armour saves are allowed, and anything under the template dies at a 5+ (1/3 chance), and the miniature directly in the middle on a 4+). Keep this weapon team always away from line of sight LOS, and put it behind your parent unit, and use their line of sight.
- giant rats. In this list I've put in 2 units of 5 rats. Giant rats can truly become fearfull in large numbers. (40 or bigger). I once was able to put them in a flank of a saurus unit, beside that they negated the opponents ranks, they even killed 4 saurus, almost instantly getting their points back!
BUT, that is not what these 2 small groups of 5 are for. You can use them during the deployment phase, where each of you will have to put down units one by one. If you start of with these, you can better deploy the rest of your units when you already know where 2~3 of your opponent's units are fielded on the board ;) very cheap for the possible advantages it might give you.
- plague priest lvl 2. I forgot to put it in the list, but you better give the priest or your great seer a disspel scroll ;). If you roll "Plague" during the roll for spells, you are VERY lucky.
- grey seer. Use this as your General in your army, as it has the highest leadership around. put it in the unit of 40 clanrats, so you will have more ranks which keeps you on the board longer.
ReplyDelete- warlock engineer with doom rocket. Now this rocket is insanely awesome if you manage to hit it right in the middle of a big unit. Its completely random, as most things skaven, as you have to roll atleast 3 or 4 dice, sum up the amount, and thats how many inches away it will hit. (It once killed 12 saurus for me, while the rocket only costs 30! meaning winning 144 points for only 30 points investment).
If you roll Skitterleap for your Grey seer, you could potentially use it to zap your warlock engineer to the other side of the table and fire the rocket in his flank. (as a true skaven).
Lastly, don't expect your clan rats or weapon teams to win the game. They are only there to stall the enemy. Skaven is not an easy army to play, and requires lots of tactics and strategy. YOu will want to use the hammer and anvil strategy. Stall the enemy with your core units, and then hit them in the sides with your rat ogres, plague monks and/or doomwheel.
Doomwheel is however best used against big warmachines or other big 1 man units. (dragons, giants, stegadons). As each wound it does on them with zzzaappp!! becomes 6d wounds! (I've used the doomwheel sometimes to just smash in a big units front, but you are bound to lose it due to static results.
Hope all this was a bit usefull, and that you can fill the points with other stuff :)
Other than that, I'm really interested in your experience at the Tokyo gamesworkshop. As I'll be going to Japan upcoming August, and probably stay half a year in tokyo, I wonder what your personal experience will be :)
Good luck and have fun!
Shendar
(sorry for using 3 posts, but it only allowed me to type in 4000 letters.. quite insane I had to use 3 posts then actually..
Hi Shendar,
ReplyDeleteBig thanks for taking the time and trouble to post at such length! Just so you know, I have had the Warlock Engineer responsible for "Comments settings" whipped and drowned. His replacement is hurriedly looking into increasing the comment size.
In other news, I posted an edit as my opponent has shared his list with me:
O&G List - 2000 points
Lords (Max 25%) - 298
Orc Warboss: Wyvern, Enchanted Shield, Biting Blade, Light Armor (LA), Luckstone 298
Heroes (max 25%) - 212
Orc Shaman: Level 2, Hand Weapon, Dispel Scroll 125
Orc Big Boss BSB: BSB (Battle Standard Bearer), Hand Weapon, LA, Shield, Ironcurse Icon 87
Core (Min 25%) - 630
Orc Arrer Boys x 20: Bows, hand weapon, LA 140
Orc Boys x 30: Full Command, Hand Weapon, LA, Shield 245
Night Goblins x 20: Short Bows, 2 Fanatics 110
Wolf Riders x 5: Spears, Shield, LA, Short Bows, Hand Weapon 65
Spider RIders x 5: Spears, Shield, Short Bows 70
Special (Max 50%) - 575
Black Orcs x 20: Pile O'weapons, Heavy Armor, Shields, Full Command 295
Orc Boar Chariot : Scythed wheels 85
Snotlings x 3: Exploding Spores 90
Trolls x 3: Fear, Regen, Stupid, Vomit 105
Rare (Max 25%) - 285
Giant 200
Rock Lobber 85
Any advice against orcs and gobbos?
sorry mate, up till now Haven't had the chance to play against them. I believe they might prove to be quite tough against skaven, as orcs can become a possible horde army, while they still have a very strong backbone (black orcs).
ReplyDeleteLooking at the list above however, that aint his strategy. I recommend protecting your flanks as much as possible, when a skaven get flanked, its almost sure to flee.. Seeing he uses 5x wolf riders and 5x spider riders and orc boar chariot, that might be their assigned roles.
Keep in mind the Black Orcs and Trolls however, they are frightingly strong. Black orcs are on par with chaos warriors, and the trolls have regeneration, and each wound makes them more and more powerful.
Use your warp fire thrower to deal with the trolls, as it negates their regeneration ;), and each wound becomes a d3 wound! Now the weapon team is quite.. unstable, but if you manage to hit them, they are probably down.
your opponent also uses 2 big miniatures. the lord on wyvern and teh giant. (298 and 200 points respectively). As he can't put them in another unit, they aren't allowed a 'look out sir' special rule. Meaning they can be fried with your doomwheel withthose luck ;)
(If you manage to kill the wyvern, his whole army will have to do a panic check).
Watch out for the FANATICS! they will have to automatically charge out of the night goblin unit when you are in charge range. And they are DEVASTATING when they fall, charge, stumble in the middle of your unit. He clearly only picked the night goblins for the fanatics alone, cause 20x night globlins you can sneaze at and they blow away. You can use your giant rats to lure them out of that unit. (if you give them a pack master you can control to which unit they are running too, instead of just charging the closest unit without packmaster). This quickly exposes the fanatics, and after the first turn they are just as likely to charge their parent unit as your own.
Another viable strategy would be to just blow that unit to bits with a few well placed magic spells ;).
I'm however unsure what you can put against the black orcs.. You might want to use your plague monks, but the black orcs will most likely bat them to bits before they can attack back. the best way would be to stall them and then put your rat ogres or plague monks in the flank ;).
The grey seer can always swap one of his spells to skitterleap or the dreaded thirteenth spell. I would pick the 13th spell and hope you can get it off on the black orcs. (Just roll all your dice and hope for an irresistible force. When the damage has been done, pray that it aint as bad as it could be on the miscast table. (if it is bad, blame your closest chief!).
anyways, thats bout it. Is your opponent English or Japanese? (the thought of having to play this game in Japanese with all these game terms seems.. difficult XD.
Good luck!
Shendar
A warp lightning canon works wonders against large monsters and other war machines.
ReplyDeleteThere was some errors and some missing points so i redid the list so it's valid,
ReplyDeleteI added a bsb with stormbanner goes with greyseer
Added plaguebanner to monks and a plague censor to priest
added another warlock engineer with death globe
and a team of 3 jezzails works really nice against chariots or giant
2000 Pts - Skaven Roster
Grey Seer 270 pts)
1 Grey Seer, General
1 Earthing Rod Reroll miscat one use
1 Ironcurse Icon 6+ward on unit agains warmachines
Plague Priest 166 pts
1 Plague Priest,
Level 2 Upgrade
Plague Censer
Poisoned Attacks
Warlock Engineer 40 pts
1 Warlock Engineer,
1 Death Globe
Warlock Engineer 45 pts
1 Warlock Engineer,
1 Doomrocket
Chieftain 122 pts
1 Chieftain
Battle Standard Bearer
1 Storm Banner
Clanrats 35, 242.5 pts
34 Clanrats,
Full Command
Hand weapon, sh
1 Poisoned Wind Mortar Weapon Team
Clanrats 35 177.5 pts
34 Clanrats,
Full Command
Clanrats 40, 270 pts
39 Clanrats,
Full Command
Hand weapon ,sh
1 Warpfire Thrower Weapon Team
Giant Rats 5 23 pts
5 Giant Rats,
1 Packmaster (Hand Weapon; Whip; Light Armour)
Giant Rats 5 23 pts
5 Giant Rats,
1 Packmaster (Hand Weapon; Whip; Light Armour)
Rat Ogres 2 136 pts)
2 Rat Ogres,
1 ×Master Moulder
1 Electro-Whip
1 Tail Weapon
Plague Monks 30 265 pts)
29 Plague Monks
Full command
1 Plague Banner
Doomwheel
1 Doomwheel, 150 pts
Warplock Jezzails 3, 70 pts
2 Warplock Jezzails
1 Sharpshooter
Composition Report:
Points of Lords: 270 (0 - 500)
Points of Heroes: 373 (0 - 500)
Points of Core: 690 (500 - Unlimited)
Points of Special: 471 (0 - 1000)
Points of Rare: 150 (0 - 500)