# Versus... Skulltaker



## squeek

Hi all,

Continuing with the Fantasy Versus... series, next on the list is Skulltaker (suggested by Karix Bloodfist and Tim/Steve). If you want to add your suggestions as to who Fantasy Versus should deal with next, go here for the general thread.

So, Skulltaker, how do you combat the self-proclaimed king of the challenge? He has WS9 and I9 meaning he will strike before most and almost always on a 3+. He has universal hatred with 4 flaming attacks, a 3+SSS, MR(2), KB against all targets on a 5+ in challenges and is of course daemonic so all that comes with that, not least the 5+ ward, ItP and Fear.

If that isn't scary enough he is cheaper than most characters at just 150 points (he is an SC so points costs is ok! ). To make him worse still he can be mounted on a chariot or a juggernaut relatively cheaply. So adding further to his killing power, making him even quicker and in the case of the juggernaut giving him a total armour save of 0+!

So how do you plan to combat him? Do you have a preferred unit or tactic that works every time? Do you just rely on shooting and artillery and hope your opponent fails the saves enough? Are you always able to counter with tarpit or equally powerful units?

If you use him regularly and let's face it why not for the cost, what tactics work against you?


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## karlhunt

SCR is my answer. As you sid, he's a daemon with all that entails. I'll break him down with my SCR of 6+ (3 ranks, 1 std, 1 outnumber, 1 flank) against his potential ACR of 4. Even if he does kill me in the challenge I should be able to win the combat and kill him thanks to daemonic instability. As you said, "and is of course daemonic so all that comes with that, ".


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## MaidenManiac

Characters that are immune to Killing Blow are naturally _very_ good against Skulltaker. Various armies have diffrent ways of maybe achieving this, any such character with a good AS will have an as good as it gets chance against him.
If immunity to KB aint an option then charging him with some heavy hitting character can serve as a sollution, this however can backfire...
Monstrous Characters naturally rocks the boat fairly hard here:grin:

If neither of those are available then, just like karlhunt wrote, go for static CR. Dont leave any character for him to challenge in the unit he charges to prevent his usefullness and wear him downk:


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## neilbatte

Well last time I killed him I used a big block of chaos dwarfs with my lord with immune to fire armour and just let him unravel but to be honest its a rather expensive way to do it its nearly double his points. 
Dragon princes could cause him a headache as he can't wound them and they're fast enough to dictate when and where they fight.
With my Empire I just go longrifle heavy and he's usually dead by turn 2 unless I target a different herald.
While he's not that expensive he seems to be a psycological victory when ever he dies my opponents tend to lose focus for a turn or 2.


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## Franko1111

MaidenManiac said:


> If immunity to KB aint an option then charging him with some heavy hitting character can serve as a sollution, this however can backfire...
> Monstrous Characters naturally rocks the boat fairly hard here:grin:


the skulltaker has a ability that lets him KB any sized model 

SCR is the way to beat him as people have found out latly


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## HorusReborn

He's only got two wounds. That's his weakness! Definately SCR is the way to go. Though I don't know how dragon princes could be immune to him. I'm unfamiliar with them really, so I'd like to know! But He's strong, but not tough!


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## Vaz

Princes on Dragons, I assume. Incidentally, the entire High Army is built to kill him - potent magic, range and ASF in combat, and he wounds them on a 2+ in any case, and other than Cavalry (who have better targets), he ignores their armour in any case, so Killing Blow is wasted.

Lord of Nurgle, Helm of Many Eyes, Talisman that wounds any target failing a Toughness Test, and the Bronze Armour of Zhrakk/Crimson Armour.


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## neilbatte

High elf dragon prince cavalry wear armour that ignores flamming attacks so are immune to his attacks.
SCR is definately the way to deal with most of the Deamon army.


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## Vorag of Strigos

what I almost always do when Im afraid of a unit in particular...Prod it with a regiment of Zombies and see how it reacts, then destroy it with 8D6 Magic missiles S4


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## Tim/Steve

Hmm, immunity to killing blow- nope ogres dont have that (since Skulltaker is the only one who can KB them anyway)
Immunity to fire- nope, got lots of immunity to ice but have NEVER faced anything/one that uses it anyway.
SCR- not really.

Hate to think of how ogres could counter him for- if Im trying to avoid totally surrounding him with ~400pts of ogres again (damn its hard to wound him... and he got VERY lucky on armour saves and Ld tests).
If I cant use any cool ways to stop him I might have to try to mob him with gnoblars... not easy when he's either alone and a lot faster then they are or he'll be with a unit... if goblins can beat them up everything can.


I'm guessing I'll have to resort to my usual methods- toothcracker (2d6 S2 no srmour saves) if he's alone or charge the opposite flank of his unit with an MSU ogre unit (without champion) and dont let him fight.


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## neilbatte

With ogres I find 2 units of 3 leadbelchers a cure for petty much any of my worries Skulltaker included but then I'm a beloved son of the dice gods so don't concern myself to much with misfires (They're someone elses problem)
I think I've only misfired twice in my last 10 games with my ogre gun line army and even then the most wounds I've caused is 2 which when you compare that to units wiped out or running it works out as fair odds, People even let me stand still and reload ready to stand and shoot too which in my opinion is a mistake on their part.
And if that fails there's always gnoblar sharp stuff to fall back on.


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## MaidenManiac

Franko1111 said:


> the skulltaker has a ability that lets him KB any sized model
> 
> SCR is the way to beat him as people have found out latly


Meh I knew I fudged something:laugh:

Oh add anything Immune to Firebased attacks to the list of "good things against him" since he, as pointed out with DPs has flaming attacks. Treemen are totally out of the question here


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## NagashKhemmler

Tim/Steve said:


> Hmm, immunity to killing blow- nope ogres dont have that (since Skulltaker is the only one who can KB them anyway)
> Immunity to fire- nope, got lots of immunity to ice but have NEVER faced anything/one that uses it anyway.
> SCR- not really.
> 
> Hate to think of how ogres could counter him for- if Im trying to avoid totally surrounding him with ~400pts of ogres again (damn its hard to wound him... and he got VERY lucky on armour saves and Ld tests).
> If I cant use any cool ways to stop him I might have to try to mob him with gnoblars... not easy when he's either alone and a lot faster then they are or he'll be with a unit... if goblins can beat them up everything can.
> 
> 
> I'm guessing I'll have to resort to my usual methods- toothcracker (2d6 S2 no srmour saves) if he's alone or charge the opposite flank of his unit with an MSU ogre unit (without champion) and dont let him fight.


He has to be in contact with models in a combat in order to issue a challenge according to the warhammer rulebook, so if he's in a unit charge it from a side he isn't on with a decent unit, long as you win the combat, he's stuck outside of the combat.....This works great with your own lord choices as their unit keeps losing and getting chewed up whilst you plough it into destruction/retreat....


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## Harry_the_Hammer

Skulltaker is not the only person who has KB agains ogres....Throt The Unclean has KB on ogres aswell


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## Harry_the_Hammer

Skulltaker is not the only one with KB against Ogres..Throt The Unclean also has KB against Ogres.....but against the Skulltaker i would use Exalted Hero MoS on a steed of slaanesh and equip him with Helm Of Manyeyes and The Bronze Armour of Zhrakk and then give him Blood curdling roar simply cause ur getting 2D6 shots even thou they r STR1 ur going to wound him at least twice if u get a high amount of shots.


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## jigplums

for the gt last year i took a dark elf master on manticore armed with deathpiercer. 7 hatred killing blow attacks between him and the maticore, with charge 20". He killed skulltaker in 3 of my 6 games.


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## Fen-Dweller

Ooo; above post made me think Pendant of Kaleth. :grin:

Anyway, every time I've faced Skulltaker he's been on a Jugg with two or three BC bodyguards, and SCR does not work against them because they dish out so many wounds. If you have HE or Dwarf heroes than that'll help you out (DPs perform especially well), but for the rest of us he's a bit of a problem. Once you spend and entire shooting phase or two sniping his bodyguard he's not too horrible if you can stick him with SCR and/or put him up against a lot of ward saves.

For Chaos I generally have to waste a unit or two of MHorsemen w/flails to get rid of the bodyguard and then try to stick him with a unit of Tzeentch Marauders with great weapons and hope. Possibly hit him in the flanks/rear with something else to make him crumble. Slannesh Giants work superbly, as well. *Interesting fact:* Once he KB'd my Hellcannon.

WE & Dwarfs just shoot him a lot. 

O&G is all about the fanatics&warmachines.

He's not fun to deal with overall...


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## xaiff101

Things that ASF tend to get rid of him, unless they roll crap or I roll good. There's this guy at my Local gaming club that if he even suspects me of taking Skulltaker he'll take some one with dragon armour and challenge my Skulltaker.

I try not to play him or his cheese (lol considering I play Daemons), but he's an aight guy. So I play him from time to time. He has a friend who does the same thing with VC but takes that thing that makes him immune to KB.


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## bobss

Cavanderous Cuirass, counts as Heavy Armour and ignores Poisened attacks and Killing blow:biggrin:, and only costs `bout 15 points to boot:laugh:


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## Aldred

Van Horstmann's Speculum


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## Orochi

You have to bare in mind however, that although suggested a lord choice on whatever mount will kill him...this guy is a hero choice.

He's designed to kill characters, all characters, any characters.

Just shoot him.


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## bobss

Skulltakers attacks count as flaming right?

So, High Elf Noble:
- Dragon Armour
- Blade of Sea Gold
- Talisman of Loec

Dragon Armour negates the flaming attacks, and with ASF you can have a crack at him first, with Blade of Sea gold that ignores armour saves and Talisman of Loec, allows you to re-roll all rolls to hit and wound, thus, only 2 out of those 3 WS6 S4 attacks need to actually inflict wounds and Khornes favorite Bloodletter is sent back to the realm of chaos.

points: 141


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## dreamslayer

Fen-Dweller said:


> *Interesting fact:* Once he KB'd my Hellcannon.


I think it's written that: 
In a challenge he has KB on 5+, and can affect creatures of all sizes. 
So that means if he's not in a challenge he can't affect Hellcannon and would KB only on 6+, and only human size models. Then again, he can't challenge a Hellcannon.


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## Tim/Steve

yup- out of a challenge his KB only works on US1-2 models... in challenges it'll work on anyone. Means that I basically have to keep any and all of my ogre characters well clear of him: its not nice when a 5W tyrant dies in a heartbeat (and with the best possible ward of 5+ he really isnt going to survive).
Whats worse is that because its normally impossible for an ogre to be killing blowed they have no equipment that protects them from its effects :cray:


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## Karnox

Vaz said:


> Princes on Dragons, I assume. Incidentally, the entire High Army is built to kill him - potent magic, range and ASF in combat, and he wounds them on a 2+ in any case, and other than Cavalry (who have better targets), he ignores their armour in any case, so Killing Blow is wasted.
> 
> Lord of Nurgle, Helm of Many Eyes, Talisman that wounds any target failing a Toughness Test, and the Bronze Armour of Zhrakk/Crimson Armour.


Add the word of agony to that or a bloodskull pendant and your sorted, but of course with the Bloodskull Pendant you cant have the helmet so you'd have to rely on charging him first.
You could also go for armour of morslieb and MoT and give him a 3+ ward against magic attacks, and since they are daemons all their attacks are magical.


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## Inquisitor Aurelius

Armour of Morrslieb only works against NON-magical attacks, mate.

Yes, WoC Wards do indeed suck...


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## Muffinman

I find that using Gor-Rok generally works whenever I play aginst Skulltaker. He's imune to killing blow, all succesful wounds against him have to be re-rolled, he's strength and toughness 5, no charge bonuses when attacking him and he gets to re-roll to hit in the first round of combat. Overall he's my tool to taking out Skulltaker.


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## the-graven

Combat Resolution works best, I mean he has 4 attacks, so can only cause 4 wounds max, if he is alone this is way too easy. What could work are spells(even though he has MR 2,if he has used up all his DP he only has 2)wich ignore armor saves, or lore of metal.
Characters who are immune to KB/ignore flaming attacks and have something wich ignores armor saves can kill him easily.


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## theoldnagg

I hilled him with my skaven assasain easily. I attack first so he can't kb me.


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