# Fighting Skaven: Feasible?



## blackspine (Jun 9, 2010)

Ahoy all.

For a while, I detested the skaven army. Shooting that can decimate any list, blocks of dirt cheap troops that can point denial till the Minotaurs come home, broken magic...the list goes on.

I've learned that I hate most gun lines armies...but at least there's a ray of hope with them. Endure the 3-4 rounds of marching and get to combat...if you're alive. 
Hence, me hating most skaven meta armies. 
sit back
shoot doom rocket cannons etc.
Send in slaves. 
Shoot.
repeat for 2 turns. Send in Hell pit (if not 2 cannons)
magic. 
Shoot.
Clan rats stubborn 8-9-10 (?)

Anywho, I took a look at the books closer and wondered. Could a "Fighting" more elite army (by skaven standards) work?

Storm vermin are core. S4 and better statlines than most core out there...and for their price, they're absurdly good. A horde of them, with some characters and light shooting ( I stress light) or a doom flayer. Crown of command cheap lord goes in, refuses challenges and runs to back (still able to use crown)

Plague monks, plague furnace.
Globadiers. 
Gutter runners to take on war machines
rat dart chaff
small units of slaves (or big for combat res.) to fight.
Doom wheels to hit hard and grind.

Am I insane, or could this work? 
It has more models than horde armies. 
Less 'fickle' skaven tech to deal with 
fun to paint Storm Vermin with less of a model count (still higher than any other army than O&G or other skaven)

Could it work? or would it just be yet another skaven army of broken rules and rubbish?


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## Sir Whittaker (Jun 25, 2009)

The only thing that has stopped me from getting a skaven force is the number of models I would be required to paint to get some decent games in. Your theory's sound as far as I can tell, the beauty of skaven is that they be fielded in any number of ways and still be very effective. One thing I cannot escape from no matter how many times I flick through the book, watch or play games, is that skavenslaves are the linchpin of a skaven army. Absolutely massive units of 'em out in front to hold up an advance whilst the rest of the rats proceed to zap, gas and splat them (and hopefully some of the other guys as well). Whatever else you want to supplement your rodents with is a matter of taste and painting determination. Fickle and funny skaven tech are all part of the fun of choosing the army in the first place, sometimes it goes really good for you, other times disappointingly bad, but that's life when you're furry!


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

A freind of mine at club uses the (elite) skaven army, His standard list is Queek and about 50 super stormvermin with asst characters and a massive blob of plaguemonks with a furnace then a pair of hellpits and assorted Skaven contraptions,
It's a hard list to beat as you really need to concentrate on taking out 1 unit at a time and if you get it wrong then either the dual helpits or the massive high init hordes really rip into your smaller units.


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## olderplayer (Dec 11, 2009)

Many of the competitive skaven armies have a decent sized unit of plague monks (with or without the plague priest and plague furnace0 with the banner to re-roll to hit and wound one turn. 
I have also seem some success with stormvermin instead of clan rats for the leadership unit (including with the screaming bell). 
You can win with clan rats and stormvermin core and plague monks special with a mix of warp cannons, HPAs, doomwheels, etc. 

However, I just think that slaves are too undercosted with their strength in numbers rule to not play them. Their ability to hold up something and still allow you to shoot it up, and protect the leadership unit is pretty vital to the standard skaven army list.


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## blackspine (Jun 9, 2010)

Good points Olderplayer.

I wouldn't toss the slaves out the window, but the fact that one brick of them costs as much as a beastman chariot is crazy. There's plenty of shooting to do in combat with globadiers. 
That and the plague spells can work wonders. 

I realize that skaven need some shooting, but want to try a combat effective army. My few victories v skaven have come from the fact that they can't dent hardly anything in combat (save the plague priests)


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