Tactica: Skaven Magic

Magic is incredibly important in Warhammer, and Skaven have some of the most dangerous magic in the game. Maybe not the best casters, but if the Dreaded 13th isn't terrifying to the likes of Warriors of Chaos, all the elf variants and just about every elite unit and character ever, nothing is. The only thing that really lets Skaven magic down is the lack of a lore attribute which all of the newer books get, as well as lack of access to the lores in the rulebook.

Zzzap!

Spells of Ruin

You really can't go wrong with the Spells of Ruin. All of the spells are powerful in there own right and you'll rarely run into a situation in which you end up with a useless spell, but they're not all always useful. For example Howling Warpgale isn't any good against armies without shooting but wrecks Wood Elves and Dwarfs and Cracks Call isn't so great against any of the elves but annihilates Orcs and Goblins, Dwarfs, Undead and anything else with low initiative. In situations where you get a spell you don't need, just swap them out for the Dreaded 13th or Warp Lightning for your Grey Seers and Warlock Engineers respectively!

Spells

1. Skitterleap

Skitterleap is a pretty powerful spell really. It has some solid synergy with some of our more powerful items like the Doomrocket by Skitterleaping an Engineer on the flank of an army, it lets your characters disappear from combat if it's too dangerous or you can use it to cause serious issues with their movement phase with Warlock Engineers that you no longer need. You can use Engineers in this manner in basically the same way an elf player uses Great Eagles: place him on an angle an inch away from the unit so they have to charge him. Sacrifice the useless! Such is the Skaven way.

I'd almost never swap out Skitterleap unless I absolutely needed other spells, but that's not often. For only a 5+ to cast, it's just too good.

2. Warp Lightning

People take level 1 Warlock Engineers just for this spell. Warp-energy Condensor makes it even more powerful. It's incredible for removing chaff, light cavalry, hitting lone characters or models, and just in general causing some damage. An all-round good spell with a low casting value.

3. Howling Warpgale

One of the more situational spells, as mentioned. If you find yourself against any kind of missile-based gunline, it can be well worth it. Otherwise it's probably better swapped out for the 13th or Warp Lightning.

4. Death Frenzy

Turns Slaves into killing machines when you need to. Clanrats and Stormvermin too. Really, a nice spell to have, but not always as fantastic as other spells. If you don't see yourself using it during the game, just swap it out.

5. Scorch

Another damage spell, and a pretty interesting one at that. It's nearly double the casting cost of Warp Lightning and has one less strength, but it will hit more guys, doesn't hurt you on the roll of a one, has Flaming and causes a Panic Test if they take a single wound. I definitely think it's worth it. The main thing to remember with this one is that it [i]does not scatter[/i] because it says [i]place[/i] the template anywhere within 24". That's what really makes it good.

6. Cracks Call

A very powerful spell against low Initiative armies and units, and especially dangerous to War Machines. I'd even keep it over Howling Warpgale against High Elves (but not Wood Elves or Dark Elves; their shooting is far more powerful than High Elf shooting) for the chance you might snipe a character with it. It's also ridiculously powerful against Ogres. And when combined with Skitterleap. And especially when combined with Skitterleap against Ogres...

Spells of Plague

I'm going to be honest with you: the only reason Spells of Plague is even worth considering is because of Wither and Plague. Most of the spells are trash, but those two are so incredibly powerful it still makes it worth trying. It's a gamble, but it pays off when you get one or both of those spells.

Spells

1. Pestilent Breath

Meh. No armour allowed makes is nice, and it is cheap and has the potential to hit a bunch of guys, but it's nowhere near as flexible or powerful as Skitterleap and other similarly costed spells. Nice with Wither, though, especially being only S2.

2. Bless With Filth

The third best spell in the lore in my opinion, and the second cheapest to cast. Poisoned Attacks can really help your weak Skaven get some more wounds on. Very nasty against monsters. Especially if you manage to get Skavenslaves into them.

3. Wither

Probably the most subtly over-powered spell in the game. Dropping a big unit of High Elf Spearmen to T2 is just plain nasty. Ogre's only real survivability comes from their Toughness, but hit them with Wither and suddenly they're as easy to wound as Clanrats. It's a mean spell and not one to be underestimated.

4. Vermintide

This is my least favourite spell in the game, to be quite honest. 3D6 hits is nice, for sure, and you can hit a good number of units, but they don't ignore armour and the damage really ends up being very negligible when all is said and done. At least Pestilent Breath goes straight through 2+ armour saves. Not worth casting over other spells really.

5. Cloud of Corruption

A reasonable spell for a Plague Priest to have, seeing as he's the only Wizard you want that close that has access to the Spells of Plague. Skaven are meant to die. Get used to it. Just remember that every model of theirs is worth at least 2-3 of yours, if not more, so losing a few of your own guys for some of theirs is always a worthy trade.

6. Plague

A very, very powerful damage spell. Like, incredible. I'd put it second only to the Dreaded 13th in terms of the damage it can cause. The spell can backfire, but as long as you're thinking the way a Skaven general should, you won't care!

Story time!

I cast Wither on a unit of Dwarf Great Beards, then hit them with Plague in the same phase. Over half of the 30 models in the unit went down, the spell then bounced to a nearby Organ Gun and scored a wound, then it bounced to another Organ Gun and caused a wound, then a Cannon and also caused a wound, before finally hitting my own unit of 20-odd Clanrats with Warlord and Plague Priest, bringing the entire unit down to 3 Clanrats, the Warlord and a wounded Plague Priest. Needless to say, I've never had a more successful magic phase!

The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell

Time for more honesty I think, which is quite hard for me, being the mighty Skaven general that I am, but here goes: the Dreaded 13th is OP. Get used to it. In fact, love it. I do. Don't like having incredibly powerful spells? Maybe you're better suited to Ogres, because you're clearly not thinking like a rat.

Anyway, there's really no subtle tactics with this. We go from sneaky one-dicing Skitterleap for some cool movement tricks of setting up bombs, to just pointing at something, throwing 6 dice at the table, removing the previously pointed at unit and placing some more Clanrats that can kill stuff and offer up no Victory Points to the enemy.

A few tips:

• Small, expensive units (Chaos Chosen, Swordmasters, Wardancers, Grave Guard) are the best target for the Dreaded 13th
•  The Clanrats from the Dreaded 13th offer no Victory Points to the opponent and are essentially worthless, treat them as such (i.e. throw them at things to keep them away from your Grey Seer, use them to redirect, anything is viable)
•  The Clanrats from the Dreaded 13th can be given any kit, so always place a unit with Shields and Full Command
• Take the Dreaded 13th on your Grey Seer every single game unless facing Ogres. Nothing is as valuable.

A Guide to the Skaven Mindset

In my experience with Skaven, they require a pretty unique frame of mind when handling them on the tabletop, being a fairly unique army to command.

Honestly, this is mostly aimed at newer Skaven players to help them get the most out of their army and so they can make the right decisions with a Skaven army on the spot and, most importantly, enjoy standing behind the rats. But if you're not so new, well, I dunno. May as well keep reading anyway, right? Right.

Once you get the hang of it, playing Skaven is kinda like this...

*Disclaimer: I do not condone giving cocaine to babies..*

With that out of the way, let's get down to business, shall we? Yeah, I think we shall.

Rule No. 1: Skaven die. All the time.

The most fundamental part of playing Skaven is getting used to the deaths of your own units. It happens. A lot. And it mostly happens because of your stuff, not the enemy's. It happens because Skaven are a pretty random army, with Doomwheels Zzzaping your own guys and Doomrockets firing backwards onto the Engineer's own unit and Plague bouncing straight back onto the unit acting as a meat shield for the wizard that cast it. However, with all these mishaps and more, Skaven make up for it by means of having all of these powerful yet random items and units that do more damage to the enemy than something less random of the same cost normally would, so it's very possible (and likely) for you to wipe out half of your own army before completely tabling your opponents. I know, because I've done it before.

Rule No. 2: Running away is good!

Even the special rules help us do it, so make use of them. If you ever get charged by something you don't think you'll be able to handle and you actually want that unit alive (usually only happens when expensive characters are in the unit) then Flee! without hesitation. Well, maybe hesitate for a moment and check how far away you are from the table edge, but mostly without hesitation... And deny challenges too. All day long. Unless you're confident your character can beat theirs in a scrap, just throw him at the back of the unit.

Opponent's get mad, you laugh, you run away more, and they get mad some more. Such is the cycle of Trying to Charge Skaven Units With Expensive Characters in Them.

Happens to me all the time.

Rule No. 3: Rats like cheese

People will complain about your things being overpowered. Often they're pretty close to the truth, too. They'll winge and they'll moan and they'll cry. And you know what you do? You laugh. Because while things like the Hell Pit, Doomwheel, Warp Lightning Cannon, Doomrocket, the Dreaded 13th and so on are all insanely powerful when they hit properly, they're all incredibly random as well. So don't be disheartened by their foolish crying, because for every S10 Zzzap! you get off on 3 War Machines in a row, there's always those times when you need a 6 on 3 dice to slam into the side of a unit and you manage a 4. And if you ever think to yourself "This is pretty powerful, maybe a little too powerful even..." just remember: rats like cheese.

Rule No. 4: It's everyone's fault but mine

If you ever lose, you didn't lose, the dice lost. Or your opponent cheated. Or your Grey Seer got distracted. Start searching for the culprit and have them used to feed the Rat Ogres immediately!

Seriously though, if you are new and you're losing, don't get down on yourself. Skaven are the most enjoyable armies I've ever played and losing just comes with being new, whether it's new to the game or just the army. There's plenty of time to learn the art of sabotage! And one day your opponent will concede on turn two and you'll be like...

"I was just losing so I could crush your spirit later!"

Story time!

Writing about laughing at my own guys dying reminded me of part of a game that illustrates my point pretty well, so here goes:

I was facing Dwarfs in a 1250 point game, and was testing out a Warlord on Rat Ogre Bonebreaker build (which is godlike, mind you) so I had no Grey Seer and a Level 2 Plague Priest as my only mage. Fortunately enough, my spells were Wither and Plague. I had a legendary magic phase, and managed to cast Wither on a unit of Dwarf Longbeard, then hit the same unit with Plague. The unit was brought down from 40 models + character to about 20 models. But it didn't end there...

Plague then bounced from the unit to an Organ Gun, managed to cause a wound, bounced to another Organ Gun, caused another wound, bounced to a Cannon, caused another wound and then, finally, bounced straight back onto the Clanrat unit in which the Plague Priest who cast the spell was in. Now I have never rolled more 4+'s in my life, because the unit went from being 20 Clanrats with Full Command, a Plague Priest and Warlord to the Clanrat's unit champion and standard bearer, a wounded Plague Priest and the Warlord.

It is by far the most enjoyable (and successful) magic phase I've ever had. I went on to win that game after my Warlord beat his Dwarf Lord in a challenge after many, many rounds of combat. Many 6's were rolled that game.

Anywayz, thanks for reading! Thoughts and comments always welcome.

Skaven Weapon Teams Roles and Comparisons

All dem weapon teams... Which one do I choose? Should I mix it up? How many? Well, let's find out!

Warpfire Thrower
The most expensive team you can buy, and for good reason. At S5 it cuts through armour and wounds better than any of the other Weapon Teams, as well as causing D3 wounds per unsaved wound. This thing is a monster against the likes of Ogres and Monstrous Cavalry and it can be put to good use against Monster-riding Lords/Heroes if you must. Doing just that won me a game once, actually.

Unfortunately, however, the Warpfire Thrower is a move or fire weapon and its Misfire Chart is brutal. If you roll a misfire you only have a 1/6 chance of not losing your Weapon Team instantly.

Despite its downsides, the Warpfire Thrower is my favourite Weapon Team. It causes huge damage with a high strength and D3 wounds, and being a Template Weapon it hits huge amounts of models. It can also Stand and Shoot if anyone decides to charge it, which is nice. There's really no army the Warpfire Thrower isn't good against.

Preferably fire it into large clumps of expensive Infantry, but really it can be used in any situation you need it for.

Ratling Gun
The cheapest option, and on the surface it doesn't look too bad, but once you dig a little deeper I don't think it's as great as it first appears.

The first issue is that it is very random. You can either play it safe and only roll 2-3 time to see how many shots you get with a small risk of getting a misfire or you can roll 4+ times for maximum shots but put yourself in a very dangerous situation in terms of misfire chances. The first option, while safer, means fewer shots and less casualties, while the latter is a more high risk, high rewards kind of thing.

Random shots aside, you also have to roll To Hit and with the poor BS of the Weapon Teams only half the number of shots will even hit. Then with only a S of 4, it won't wound as much as the Warpfire Thrower team either.

With all that taken into account, the Ratling Gun really won't do a whole bunch of damage.

Either way though, I do think Ratling Guns have a place in an army. I'd consider taking 1-2 in a list as chaff-removal. Unlike the Warpfire Thrower there's no chance of the Ratling Gun over shooting and it has a lower chance of a misfire, so you'll almost definitely get some hits on the target and against a lot of chaff only 1-2 wounds are all that's needed. 6 is the most number of wounds I can think of for a small chaff unit, and that's our own Rat Darts. So while not extremely powerful, Ratling Guns do have a place!

Doom-flayer
On-par with the Ratling Gun in points, and a very, very interesting option as well. It's the toughest of the Weapon Teams with a 3+ armour save to the front and a 5+ to the side, it does D3 Impact Hits as well as an Artillery Dice worth of S4 auto-hits in combat and it has Armour Piercing.

I haven't used this Team, but I think it'd be good fun to use. Considering its superior armour save, I'd say throwing it into the side of a unit that some Slaves have held up would be a good use, otherwise I'd use it to take on Archers and chaff. It seems fairly flexible in its roles, being able to take on just about any lightly-armoured opponent, just avoid anything heavily armed and armoured and it should do alright.

I think I'd only use it in friendly games though. Save competitive games for the Warpfire Throwers and Ratling Guns.

Poisoned Wind Mortar
The most mobile of the standard Weapon Teams, but it's really my least favourite.

It may be able to move and fire, but it only fires a small blast, and with the way things scatter in Fantasy it's an extremely inaccurate weapon. It rarely hits anything, rarely wounds what it does hit and then explodes horribly.

It looks good on paper, but in my experience I don't think it's worth the points. If it was cheaper than I think it'd definitely be worth it, but as is you'd be far better off forking out the extra 5 points for a Warpfire Thrower.

Maybe you've had better luck with it than I, but it has been extremely lack-lustre for me.

If you do want to use it, however, I suggest targetting any large, heavily armoured units first. Things like Knights make good targets if you're feeling lucky and think you can get some hits, while hordes will almost definitely get you some hits but the innate armour-ignoring abilities of the weapon will be wasted and you'll have a hard time killing many. The Warpfire Thrower is better in just about all situations.

Warp-grinder
An interesting one. It can only be taken on Night Runners and Gutter Runners, and is only taken for its deployment capabilities.

So let's look at those capabilities, shall we? The unit goes into reserve and comes in on a 4+ from turn 2 onwards. They come in from a marker that's placed at the beginning of the game and scatter using a Scatter Die and an Artillery Die. So it's extremely random, and the enemy can avoid you or place a big, fat combat unit right on top of the marker. If you pop up and didn't scatter too much you'll be in combat with someone who will wreck you instantly.

Personally I'd never take a Warp-grinder with either Night or Gutter Runners. It's too random and you have a good chance of losing the entire unit with a misfire. In combat it only does D3 S4 hits too, so barely anything noticeable. Too random and far too dangerous for the Skaven player to be considered if you ask me.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Skaven Sabotaged at Local Tournament!

Someone loaded my dice, I swear!

...

Seriously though, I finally got to compete in my first tournament with my Skaven. It was a great day. Ten players went along, payed $10 each and got three games with first and second place splitting the money in Games Workshop vouchers.

It was played at 1500 points, and there was a few different armies around. There was, however, a good 3 or 4 Warriors of Chaos armies. One of them was played by a guy who had only just started Fantasy about a week earlier, but he still did surprisingly well considering his experience. He placed 4th overall with a completely unpainted army.

Anyway, from what I could gather, you could score a maximum of 30 points for painting, something like 15 points for sportsmanship and... Uh... Well I honestly don't know about the games. I know that winning is good though, and that's what counts, right?

Let's get down to it. Here's the army list I brought along:
Lords - 240pts.
Grey Seer - 240pts.

Heroes - 169pts.
Warlock Engineer - Doomrocket - 45pts.
Chieftain - BSB, Storm Banner, Great Weapon - 124pts.

Core - 384pts.
20 Clanrats - Shields, Full Command - 110pts.
20 Clanrats - Shields, Full Command - 110pts.
40 Skavenslaves - Musician - 82pts.
40 Skavenslaves - Musician - 82pts.

Special - 407pts.
32 Plague Monks - Full Command, Plague Banner - 279pts.
8 Plague Censer Bearers - 128pts.

Rare - 300pts.
Doomwheel - 150pts.
Doomwheel - 150pts.

TOTAL - 1500pts.

So there were some issues with it that only really became apparent after playing in a tournament setting like this against a number of army lists that varied from what I'd previously faced, but we'll get into that more at the end. Unfortunately the army type didn't vary a whole bunch, as you might expect in a 3 game tournament, but I ended up facing Dwarfs, Warriors of Chaos and Warriors of Chaos again. Fortunately the WoC armies were pretty different from each other, so it's not such an issue.

Game 1: Skaven vs Dwarfs
Game one was a tough one for me honestly. I've only ever faced Dwarfs once with this specific army list and won that, although I've faced them plenty of other times at different points and whatnot and lost all of them. In short, I hate Dwarfs.

The game was Battleline. His army consisted of an Organ Gun, a Grudge Thrower, a Cannon, 40 Long Beards with Great Weapons joined by a Thane and another smaller unit of Warriors with Great Weapons joined by a Rune Priest.

Apologies in advance for my not-completely-painted army. I can't speak for everyone else, but as far as I can see they're trying!

Dwarf deployment.

Skaven deployment.

Unfortunately my significantly larger amount of guys and the initial placement of some Slaves seriously screwed over my deployment. I couldn't react properly and it was really going to be a tremendous effort for me to make it to him. I think a better deployment would've helped me far more in this game, but I really don't think I could do too much considering the size and number of my units.

Dwarfs got first turn.

The first couple of turns went as pretty much anyone could predict: I moved forward and he sat back and shot me. His Cannon smashed my Doomwheel and his Grudge Thrower did a number on my units. The Storm Banner didn't stop anything and then ended on my first turn. My magic also did nothing at all ever all game, so I won't even bother mentioning it anymore.

By the end of turn two we had this:

Notice the zero Dwarf casulties...

From there it was pretty downhill. There's no breaking those Warrior units and with one unit of Slaves gone, the other way too far away to do anything and a Doomwheel that would die next turn, leaving me with no real hard-hitting units, there wasn't a whole lot I could do. The Plague Monks even failed a 10" charge on the War Machines by an inch.

The rest of my army was pretty much just shot to bits, my Grey Seer and his Clanrats fled and failed their leadership 7 rally test twice to run off the table and the BSB's unit was massacred by the Long Beards.

Luckily my opponent was a decent guy though, but apparently has some reputation, seeing as when I told one of the other players that I lost he was all like "What, how did... Oh, you were facing Peter B."

I still need to work out how to beat those damn Dwarfs...

Game 2: Skaven vs Warriors of Chaos
This was the game against the new guy, and arguably the most enjoyable game I had all day. Unfortunately it was Dawn Attack, so deployment ended up getting seriously spastic...

His army was a unit of Mark of Tzeentch Shield Warriors, Mark of Khorne Shield Warriors (might have been Chosen?) and a unit of the new Juggernought-riding-guys, an Exalted Champion on a Juggernought and Festus with the Tzeentch Warriors.

He ended up having to deploy the Juggers and Khorne Warriors in the middle and the Tzeentch Warriors on his right flank.

Warriors of Chaos deployment.

 As you can see, my deployment was just a little but more spastic with all my units. From left to right we've got a unit of Slaves on my left flank (the guy out the front is where they're actually meant to be, but they'd have fallen over if I placed them that far forward on the hill), both Doomwheels had to be deployed in the middle (they were also the last things placed, leaving them with very little room) with the Grey Seer and Clanrats just behind them, followed by the other Slaves, Plague Censer Bearers and then the Plague Monks, Clanrats and BSB on the right flank.

My apologies for the blurry picture, I had to hold the camera above my head to get the shot.



Skaven deployment

 We both just moved forward with my Doomwheels moving away from each other so I didn't lose them to their own Zzzap!'s and the Slaves moving to tarpit some Warriors. I Dreaded 13th'd the unit of Khorne Warriors and then finished them off with a Doomwheel.

I did have a few unfortunate accidents though. Mainly the Doomrocket. I threw four dice at it, and ended up with three 1's, followed by another 1 on the Misfire chart. The result was, well, lots of dead Slaves. Meanwhile the other Slave unit failed their leadership 10 test, were out of range of my BSB who was on the other side of the board and exploded. The Doomwheel involved in that fight also fled, but luckily it was towards my opponents own table edge. I also tried to charge the Juggers with both my Plague Monks and Plague Censer Bearers. It would've gone a lot better if my Monks had made it so that my Censer Bearers actually lived to cause some damage, but alas the Monks moved up 3" while the Censer Bearers charged headlong into the beasts of Khorne...

On my second attempt to cast the Dreaded 13th I had Vorrik eat all 3 of his Warpstone Tokens, and rolled two ones with them as well as failing my attempt to cast, so he was down to one wound :sadface:

His Juggers overran into and then thoroughly mutilated my Plague Monks.

By the end of turn 2 we had this:



The Warriors in the top left are dead.


After this he did some wheeling with the Juggers and Warriors, I tried to do some manoeuvring with my Clanrats to get out of the path of those Knights-on-steroids. I charged the Warriors with my remaining Slaves as well as both of my Doomwheels. Unfortunately this didn't go quite as I was expecting, but oh well...

I honestly thought I had this one...

After that horrid combat ended, the Juggers massacred my BSB and co. and then my Grey Seer miscast Death Frenzy on 4 dice, rolled a 4 on the miscast table and then died horribly, taking 11 Clanrats with him and causing them to lose their shit and bail.

That's pretty much that. Those Khornate Super Knights are pretty insane.

Game 3: Skaven vs Warriors of Chaos (again)
The last game was that diagonal deployment one (I honestly have no idea what it's called) where you have to roll a die for every unit to see if it goes into reserves or not. My opponent deployed first and didn't have any issues with the reserves. I also wasn't having any troubles. That is, until I rolled for my Grey Seer...

His army consisted of 2 units of Warhounds, 2-3 WoC units, a unit of Knights, 2 Sorcerers and a couple of Spawn.

Seriously, of all models, not having my Lord on the table was slightly annoying, but what can you do?

Deployment.

My opponent decided to give me first turn. The Doomwheels killed both the Spawn and I moved everything else up in a way that would hopefully prevent him from making any charges I didn't want, i.e. I placed my Slaves about an inch or two from his Knights and my Plague Monks about the same distance from the Warhounds who were shielding a small unit of Warriors. I also totally forgot to fire my Doomrocket, even though that was exactly why I left that unit of Slaves so far back.

He cast Treason of Tzeentch on my Censer Bearers, which hurt a bit, but it wasn't too bad. The Knights caused my Slaves to explode, but then my Doomwheel pwned the Knights.

My other Doomwheel took on some Warriors and another unit of Hounds by itself for a turn or two before the Censer Bearers could make it. They then quickly finished the Hounds and caused the Warriors to flee, who then rallied and then turned back around, only to get flattened again and chased off the table. My Grey Seer also entered the field turn two, but didn't do a whole lot.


Plague Censer Bearers to the rescue!


His Khorne Warriors then did a number on my Plague Monks, but were positioned right near everything else in my army. He conceded at that point, as my Doomwheels were poised to cause serious damage and my Grey Seer had a couple of Warpstone Tokens to use for a Dreaded 13th.


The Plague Monks honestly did nothing all tournament.


So the last game was a victory to Skaven! Huzzah!
8th place overall out of 10, although it would've been 4th if my army was painted...

I'm not complaining though, seeing as it was my first Fantasy tournament. I'm just disappointed in myself for not getting off my ass and painting my army completely.

Anyway, I've been thinking about what went wrong, and there are a few things. First of all, the dice didn't entirely go my way, and Skaven are a very random army that rely on that a bit more than other armies on luck, however I'm not going to blame my losses on luck alone. If I were good enough I should've been able to play my way out of it.

The other issue was my inability to deal with enemies from a distance or get to them fast enough, which meant that Dwarfs were always going to cave my head in and taking on those Juggers was going to be a very difficult feat.

Deployment wasn't exactly fantastic, although in the first two games I don't really know how I could've changed that a whole lot, especially in the second game. I'll just have to work on that I guess.

Last of all, the Plague Monks take a huge chunk of points out of my army and their efforts really were quite pathetic. They're good for pushing a Plague Furnace (which hit like nothing else), but unless I'm taking a Furnace I don't think I'm going to bother with the Monks anymore.

So what to do? Well, I'm going to be trying out taking 2 Warp Lightning Cannons instead of 2 Doomwheels (or maybe even just one Doomwheel and the 2 Cannons...? We'll see) and I'm going to try pretty hard to get myself some Gutter Runners just to deal with those Dwarfs.

Some other things I've been contemplating are taking another Engineer at Level 2 with a Dispel Scroll, dropping the Grey Seer and taking my Warlord on Rat Ogre Bonebreaker with a 2+ rerollable save that causes S4 hits on the unit that causes the wound for every save passed. I used to play with him before I had my Grey Seer, and he was tremendous fun. Whether I actually use him in my next tournament or not is to be seen, but I'm definitely going to start using him again in some friendly games and see how he works out!

Does anyone else have any ideas? I was even thinking about a unit of Rat Ogres, or even just breaking out the Plague Furnace...

One More Week...

...until my 1500 Fantasy tournament with my Skaven. Unfortunately I've been getting a bit side-tracked with all my Chaos Space Marines and a little Wood Elves, and so have only really spent about an hour on my Plague Monks in the last week...

Seriously hoping for no Misfires!

Anyway, I think I'm going to be leaving my Plague Monks half done as they currently are and am going to get started on my Slaves. I know for sure that I'm definitely not going to get a very good score for my painting, but I'd at least like to get as much as I can!

So here's to hoping for the best, I guess!

Help! My Doomwheels Won't Stop Owning!

Seriously, I had another 1500 game yesterday against a Dwarf player and my Doomwheels wrecked face. Together they destroyed a Cannon, a unit of Thunderers and helped defeat a unit of Long Beards that my Slaves had held up. It may not sound like much, but the only units they didn't have a hand in destroying were a unit of Warriors or whatever the basic Dwarf Core with Great Weapons is called (defeated by some Death Frenzied Skavenslaves) and the Organ Gun (destroyed by the same unit of Slaves).

Bare in mind, I'm not saying I'm the greatest player here, just that Doomwheels are amazing. It's quite frustrating when all the Internet-kings-of-fucking-everything-Warhammer waltz in and declare that a unit sucks because some other douchebag on the Internet said so. Doomwheels are insane, especially at lower points levels, and at higher points levels they have the benefit of being cheaper than Hell Pit Abominations, allowing for a pair of Cannons.

No more need be said...

That said, my Warpfire Throwers have consistently being doing nothing. They just don't have the time to fire when I'm rushing Slaves in and then Doomwheels into the side, so I've changed my 1500 point Skaven list up a bit and added in some Plague Censer Bearers.

I'm going in the 1500 Fantasy tournament at my store next month to really test out my list. Half of it is still unpainted, so I think my chances of winning overall are quite slim, but it'll still be nice to test out how the list plays in a more serious environment. At 1500 my Skaven are still currently undefeated, but I hardly think that's much to brag about until I throw it against some serious competition. Fingers crossed though!

That aside, I also ordered a pair of Noise Marine Sonic Weapon kits, so hopefully in about a week or two I'll be able to turn my Chaos Space Marines into Noise Marines and start causing some serious headaches.

Hang around and I should be able to get some WiP pics of my Noise Marines in the next couple of weeks.

So Little Time...

Unfortunately for the past week or so school has insisted on keeping my schedule absolutely packed, leaving almost no time for any real hobby. All I've been able to get done during my weekdays in terms of hobbies and games is posting over on MiniWarGaming and looking into Infinity. Although on the weekend I did get some Fantasy and Magic done, so I'll go into that and Infinity a bit.

"Doomwheels are so OP"

So on Fantasy first, I had a game at 1250 points against a Vampire Counts player. I didn't get any pictures of the game because I didn't have my camera, but my army was only about half-painted and his was almost entirely base-coated, so I don't think many would care too much anyway...

Regardless, the game was over pretty quick. I ran a Grey Seer, some Clanrats, a unit of Slaves, Warpfire Throwers, Plague Censer Bearers, Doomrocket Engineer and 2 Doomwheels. He slapped down a couple of small units of Zombies, a Master Necro, Vampire, Ethereal Hero thing, Ghouls, Crypt Horrors and a Terrorgheist.

Before the game began he was joking a bit about the Terrorgheist, and one of his friends asked what the leadership of Skaven was. When I told them 5, they both had a good chuckle. They also claimed the thing would just scream away my leadership 7 Doomwheels. I was really looking to end the boasting and show them that Doomwheels are not something to be messed with. And I succeeded.

The game went to turn 3, where one of my Doomwheels got S8 on it's Zzzap! and killed the Terrorgheist. I'd fired my Doomrocket at his Ghouls the turn before and pretty much destroyed them, as well as taking out the Crypt Horrors with a Cracks Call and the Plague Censer Bearers. He conceded with a few Zombies and his characters left, whilst I had my entire army minus the Slaves, one Censer Bearer and one Doomwheel was down a single wound.

If I had a dollar for the number of times "Doomwheels are so OP" or something to that effect was said during and after that game, I'd be a very, very rich man.

So very, very sick.

Onto Magic: the Gathering. I'm still a complete and utter n00b, but I did get myself quite a large number of games Friday night and Saturday against the friend I started with and my High Elf playing friend who'd started on Saturday himself with a Blue and Red deck. I've currently beat my R/B friend three more times than he's beat me, and it's nice to put a bit of a gap between our win/loss ratios, if just for bragging rights.

I think I've worked out the kind of deck I want to go for, and I'm pretty much just going to follow on with the theme the starter deck I got has. Golgari Growth. I originally wanted a Zombie Graveyard deck, but I'm really liking buffing monsters to huge levels, and the general thematics of the whole deck appeals to me as well. Dreg Manglers and Corpsejack Menaces are easily my favourite cards in my deck currently.

I'm still building on my deck, but we'll get there eventually, and it will be glorious.

Infinitely awesome.

The last thing I'm going to cover is my interest in Infinity. It looks like an extremely interesting game, and should be one that's quite different to 40k and Fantasy, which should be quite nice. The Factions look incredibly cool, and being a fan of anime and pretty much everything Japanese in general, the style appeals to me even more.

Everything I've heard of the game is extremely positive and it's very cheap to get into (compared to the likes of Games Workshop's games at least), so now it's just down to convincing some friends to grab some stuff with me and I'll be good to go. Naturally, I think I'm going to go with Yu Jing right now, but my opinion may change given a little more research.

As usual, thanks for reading and feel free to give any thoughts and/or advice. I do quite desperately need it for MTG...

Hobbyhammer: Skaven Clanrats and Doomwheel Complete!

So if you scroll down to about 2 posts before this one, you'll know that I'm trying to get 1500 points of Skaven painted up for the local tournaments they run just about monthly. I don't really know why it's at that points level, but that's what it is. The only thing I still need to do is all the spiky bits on the Doomwheel.

Also, I'm no pro painter! These are done to a tabletop standard, and to be honest they're only slightly worse than the best I could do...

Group shot.

My first unit of Clanrats

The second unit.

Doomwheel side-shot.

Sorry about the poor quality of the shots and lighting, these were just some quick shots to show progress more than anything. Let me know what you think!

1500 Skaven Tournament List - Doing Well So Far!

So for whatever reason my local Games Workshop has Fantasy tournaments at 1500 points. The tournaments are nothing big, with a maximum of 10 people who pay $5 each to play 3 games on a Sunday where the money paid is split between the winner and runner-up in Games Workshop vouchers, but they're a good way to get to know the players around the store, get some practice in and have some fun.

Skaven aren't OP, they just like their cheese.

So this is what I'm currently getting painted up for these local tournaments:
Lords - 260pts.
Grey Seer - Power Stone - 260pts.

Heroes - 167pts.
Chieftain - BSB, Storm Banner, Shield - 122pts.
Warlock Engineer - Doomrocket - 45pts.

Core - 508pts.
20 Clanrats - Shields, Musician, Standard Bearer, Warpfire Thrower - 172pts.
20 Clanrats - Shields, Musician, Standard Bearer, Warpfire Thrower - 172pts.
40 Skavenslaves - Musician - 82pts.
40 Skavenslaves - Musician - 82pts.

Special - 264pts.
32 Plague Monks - Standard Bearer, Plague Banner - 264pts.

Rare - 300pts.
Doomwheel - 150pts.
Doomwheel - 150pts.

TOTAL - 1499pts.

Now before anyone bitches at me: no, it's not like your retarded meta list. Why? Because 2 Doomwheels are better than 1 Hell Pit, because I don't need another tar pit with a unit of 40 Clanrats and because Warpfire Throwers are cool. I know the Clanrats will not hold anything up or beat anything in combat, but they're not meant to. They're not even meant to be in combat at all, just like all my characters. They act as bunkers for those characters for protection against Canonballs, missile weapons, spells and so on. They're there so I can take those Warpfire Throwers. And to be honest, 40 Clanrats are never going to beat anything in combat either. If I wanted another tar pit I'd take more slaves.

I'm not saying units of 40 Clanrats are bad, I'm just saying that I don't need them in my list and the units of 20 suit how I play and the tactics I use. What? I use different tactics to other players on the Internet?

That's fucking insane!

With that out of the way, the list has been performing quite well in the few test games I've played with it thus far. It has been tweaked a little, but I think it's about done for now. The latest two games I had the other day were against High Elves and Warriors of Chaos. I tabled my opponents in both games, coming out both times with a pile of dead Slaves and the unit of Plague Monks, but the rest of the army was otherwise untouched.

Well, that was a lie. In the second game, there was quite the highlight. I hit my opponents Chaos Knights and brought them down to a man with Impact Hits. He managed to hold his ground. During the second round of combat he passed all 3 armour saves caused by Grinding Down the Foe, failed To Wound with his Knight, but then his horse hit and wounded, my Doomwheel failed its armour save, lost its shit and ran away. It was chased down by the Knight who went 12" to my fairly sad 9" with 3D6 movement.

Thoughts? Comments?

Hellpits, Doomwheels and Cannons: Oh My!

As just about anyone should be aware, Hellpit Abominations are pretty popular. As in, just about every Skaven list has one. But that's part of the problem: most people only take one.

He's pissed.

See, one Hellpit is usually pretty easy to deal with for anyone prepared. Hell, even Wood Elves should nail it in a turn or two with a unit of Glade Guard with the Banner of Eternal Flame. As such, it's really a matter of two Hellpits or none, unless you're playing a game too small to fit a pair.

Another thing that's pretty common knowledge is that Warp Lightning Cannons are damn powerful. Top 5 Skaven units powerful. But then if you're taking your pair of Hellpits, you won't have any room for any Cannons until 2250 point games, and you won't be able to take a pair of them until 2600 points, which is a bit above the average (here at least). Thus, in my opinion, I think 2 Doomwheels and 2 Cannons is the superior option up until that level.

In terms of ranged fire power, 2 Cannons will mean fairly consistent firing, even when one screws up, as Skaven machines so often do, and, obviously, more dead stuff overall. I don't think I can adaquately describe the amount of damage a pair of Cannons has done for me, so I won't try. But you get the picture...

As for the Doomwheels, those things are insane. Some douche on the internet that clearly thought he was the lord of all Warhammer ever, told me that I must be using "better i.e. different" Doomwheels to the one's he's seen in his travels. That guy is either playing Dwarfs with as many War Machines as possible against opponents who don't bring a Storm Banner or, more likely, he's a moron.

The major benefit of Doomwheels though is their ability to wreck 3 machines, monsters, Ogres or what-have-you in a single shooting phase. I will admit that 3 Ogres isn't that impressive, but rolling up beside a Dragon, hitting it at S8 or 10, killing it with the first Zzzap! or two and then finishing off the rider with the third is always nice. Same with hitting 3 Cannons, Bolt Throwers or Catapults and taking them all out in one go with your relatively cheap Doomwheel. Then you can also fire whilst in combat and you completely ignore cover. Not much is really safe, provided you're in range. That includes your own slaves though, but they're slaves, so who cares?

In terms of survivability, the 4+ armour save is going to hold up much better against flaming attacks than the Regen the Hellpit relies on. Unfortunately Cannons are a pain, but that's what Gutter Runners and Storm Banners are for, and if they're not dead when you get close enough, your Doomwheels too.

2 Cannons and 2 Doomwheels will also annihilate enemy Hellpits you come across. They may not ignore the Regen, but they can only pass so many 4+ saves and when you're doing D6 wounds they won't be around very long. Or you could shoot them with Warpfire Throwers if you prefer, but that's going a bit off-topic.

Anyway, that's just what I've found with my experiences with Skaven. If people around your store don't have flaming attacks or lots of multi-wound shots, then do what you want. I just feel that 2 Doomwheels and 2 Cannons is stronger that 1/2 Hellpits and 2/1 Cannons.