# Empire vs Skaven Horde - please help vs the Rat



## wors101

Hi,

I am due to face this nonsense this coming week:

Greyseer, bsb, warlock engineer
20 skaven, ratling gun
20 clanrats, ratling gun
20 clanrats, warpfire thrower
40 clanrats, screaming bell, warpfire thrower
60 slaves
60 slaves
2 hellpit abominations
11 jezzails


My normal List s as follows:

Arch Lector, heavy armour, charmed shield, talisman preservation, War Altar
Wizard Lord, level 4, Dragonbane gem, dispel scroll (hides out on archer bunker, ala Griffon style)
Warrior Priest (halberdiers), Heavy, shield, dragonhelm, van horstman’s speculum
Captain, BSB (halberdiers), Full plate, enchanted shield, crown of command
Captain (IC knights), Full plate, shield, barded warhorse, lance, white cloak of ulric?
38x Halberdiers, full command
7x archer detachment
7x archer detachment
9x Inner Circle Knights, full command, Gleaming Pennant
10x Archers, standard bearer
4x Demi Gryphs, full command, Banner of Discipline
1x Cannon
1x HBVG
1x Luminark of Hysh
1x Steam Tank


Any suggestions/tactical advice/etc?


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## dutchy1982

The hellpits and the 40 clanrats will be your biggest problem I imagine. I would suggest concentrating fire on the abom's whole letting your halberdiers go toe to toe with the large clanrat unit. Strength in numbers is a cow to beat. The other units shouldn't be too difficult. Although slaves seem scary, they aren't worth much points wise and can easily flee like most skzven. I would suggest slowing them down with throw-asay units until the screaming bell and clanrats are dealt with.


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## blackspine

I don't normally say this, 

but the hellstorm could be a decent (not great) idea. 
so many templates hitting a lot of huge blocks. 


Beware the dreaded 13th. Some core knights, with a flaming banner will rid you of the HPA fast. 

that or lore of fire. + Warrior priests prayers
fireball, flamestorm, flamecage...all will do wonders.

Flaming sword of Rhuin, that's the bad boy. Your detachments will mow through them.

Flagellants will be great to face off vs them. Ubreakable. Just hold up their giant blocks and work on them while knights/ Demigryphs get the flank.

Demigryphs are an auto include. They'll hold vs most of what skaven have and dish out damage. 

cannons x 2
maybe a stank.

have some archers or detatchments protect your wm's as there's TONS of cheap gutter runners out there.

good luck


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## Grimful

I'm pretty sure you've already played them, but I want to post anyway.

Demi's, minus any terrible roles should tear through Skaven like it's going out of style.

Slaves are almost certainly going to be thrown at you solely to bog down your knights/demis/everything. So if you can, avoid them.

Something like the Dwellers Below could be amazing, and if you get Throne of Vines/Regrowth you can better survive their war of attrition.

If anything, I would try to kill the Jezz's first, though I don't have much experience with Hellpits, I know I'd probably stick a big scary unit in my army to try and distract from squisher targets.

I feel like full command on Demi's isn't worth it. Their Champion isn't very great.

That's all I have at the moment. Hope it's not terrible advice.


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## NoPoet

I haven't played with either my Skaven or Daemons of Nurgle armies yet, so my advice is based on what I've heard and how I interpret the rules.

Skavenslaves are there to take an utter thrashing in order to spare more valuable units (i.e. everybody). In large ranks and near the General, they can be hard to panic due to their Strength In Numbers rule. However, force them to flee and the entire unit breaks up immediately, which will trigger panic tests in other Slave units. 

I'd be tempted to take the Lore of Death against Skaven as it tends to target Leadership. Also kill their characters, much easier said than done as they can retreat from a challenge but still offer their Ld boost.

The Screaming Bell seems to be the ultimate weapon of mass destruction in Warhammer and should be destroyed as soon as possible. The downside is, high-strength hits will ring the bell and the majority of results are favourable or VERY favourable to the Skaven player. Removing this will make the Seer vulnerable and removes the Unbreakable bonus.

I doubt you'd have much trouble chewing through a 20-strong Clanrat unit which can trigger panic tests - fair enough, Strength In Numbers is awesome but one failed Ld test is bad news for the Skaven side. 

Skaven ranged weapons are more powerful than those of the Empire, but are far less reliable, so you'll have the advantage in the shooting phase. He will probably dominate the magic phase with that Grey Seer. You might need that dispel scroll with the amount of warp-magic that will head your way every turn.

Finally, your army seems like a "proper" army intended to be fun and fit the fluff. Your opponent's seems utterly without character and I doubt he would be as much fun to play against as you. So in a sense you've already won.


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