I couldn’t see a tread on this anyway, which kind of surprised me, sorry if there is one, but I just wanted to know - how are you finding the new Skaven?
So far the things that have done me in are not the new ultimate things of doom that have been grabbing all of the attention, but Wither and Plague Censer Bearers
Wither is an excellent spell with just a casting value of 8, and there is no way to remove its effects. Three consecutive castings took out my otherwise undamaged unit of swordsmen, and greatly weakened my Greatswords
Plague Censer Bearers, which were pretty good in the old book appear to have been made better (+1 attack) and cheaper - go figure?
I’m not finding them too bad. I have yet to fight a Doomwheel or Abomination but Chaos Dwarfscan kill both easy. From my experience, you just take out the shooters and they have very little else.
I am finding them with the use of a cat! Just kidding I’ve only seen some models. I was going to play against them the day after they came out, but the guy randomly chose to use a gunline of Dwarfs instead. Not fun when he had 36 shots a turn that made my Chaos Warrior’ and Knights’ armour worth nothing and my rolls to save were pathetic, lol.
Censer Bearers are AWESOME. They can take a charge and do damage and survive to do more damage. Cast Bless With Filth, and they get even deadlier.
Warp Cannon is the ULTIMATE VC Bunker Buster. Bunch through the unit in front, explode in the bunker behind. Any characters hit are in deep trouble.
Warp Fire Throwers are nasty… as you can aim at one guy and possibly hit other units doing major damage to them.
The wheel is very good too. Being able to zap things and do a lot of wounds is brutal. Monsters, chariots, characters, etc will fear getting hit by this guy.
The bell is amazing. It turns clanrats into a very solid block, and be it spear rats or hw/sh… both will be very strong with the bell enhancing them.
Death frenzy is an amazing spell, and makes clanrat with spear just vile. I do mean vile. The number of attacks you can dish out will make any unit shudder… especially if they’re T3 or lightly armored.
I have had the new skaven book in my hand for some time now and while it tends to come out well balanced there are a few abusive builds. They will of course only be played by the worst players out there but should be noted. There has been a running post on Cheesy lists over on UnderEmpire.net but here are a few that might turn up at tournaments.
Mortar Spam -This list just oozes with cheese- Warlock Engineer
It has 15 Stone thrower like shots a turn with no armor allowed and a body count of of 299 models. Needless to say here panic is your friend against this list.
Large Target list Grey Seer Lvl2 Plague Priest on furnace with scroll and Flail Lvl2 Plague Priest on furnace with Flail
3X 21 Slaves with Musician 25 Clanrats with banner and Musician
2X 30 Plague Monks with Banner and Musician 2X 6 Plague Censer Bearers
2X Abomination with Warpspikes
This list is a little less cheesy but a lot harder to force off the table. I’m kind of at a loss as to how to counter this lit though as you have magic res on most things that matter and there are too many heavy hitters to stop before they hit your lines. I’m sure it can be done but I cant think of any at the moment. -EDIT- I remembered the flaw in this list is that the furnace units have frenzy so bait them around with fast cav.
There are a few others but they all depend on the FAQ to clarify the rules, like warpstone tokens not being one use only. Heck there are soo many holes in the rule for some things that the FAQ may be as large as the book . Check out the list of FAQ questions over on the Warhammer Forum Here.
I’m lovin the new skaven so far. I have yet to play a game with them but the book and models are great. I see potential to power game with the new rats. Bells and furnaces make entire units unbreakable and abominations are horrifically good for the points. However, when I finally sit down and game I just going to play a tame and underpowered list.
Kera, skaven are expensive but ebay has had severl great deals on them, with many of their merchandice at least 20% below retail. I got one of the new battalions for $80 including shipping and those retail for $105.
I’ve got the armybook for a while now (you’re either a Skaven, or you’re not, so I got the book the day it was released), and have to say that I’m highly in doubt whether to love it, or hate it… Aside from the many, many points that need to be clarified. If within a week there’s a HUGE Q&A that in many cases refer to “We aren’t really sure, as only GW knows”, there are really a fair amount of grey areas that can be abused. For some reason, GW seems to want Skaven be a nasty and disliked army at tournaments. (Guess that UE will be spending the next two years again trying to get people to understand you can play Skaven without making a powergamer list by default).
(Guess that UE will be spending the next two years again trying to get people to understand you can play Skaven without making a powergamer list by default).
Greetz
Skaven Lord Vinshqueek
It's not quite as bad as daemons I think. The randomness of things is still there.
GW seems to be making a habit of a hugely under priced rare monster, so that is not unexpected really.
As a dwarf player all the anti armour things look annoying, and pestilens is still a hard as ever (if not more so now).
I'm actually putting together a small skaven force, some of it using models straight from my dwarf army!
Guess that UE will be spending the next two years again trying to get people to understand you can play Skaven without making a powergamer list by default
As a VC player, that sounds familiar :)
Tbh, I'm very happy those Ratling guns were nerfed into the realms of sanity (ish). I remember charging one with a Chaos Chariot and dying to the stand and shoot once. It was that kind of thing that got me into armies that can shoot back :)
I don't mind the Pestilens guys so much, as they still have to come and fight you (ahh fond memories of my old 5th ed Plague Monk army).
The auto-hitting template weapons is kinda harsh, hoping everyone will get that in 8th and not just Skaven. If so, my Chaos Dwarfs will be rushing back to their foundries to make some more hellcannons-that-count-as-grudgethrowers :)
I think they are still a very strong book, the combination of reasonable but cheap M5 troops and volatile weapons makes them a right pain, not to mention EVERYTHING is magical :|
I haven’t had the (mis)fortune to face them yet, but to be honest, I dont think it will take too much to beat them. With the exception of Queek & Sniktch, I dont think their characters are much to be worried about, as most other armies’ characters can match them in combat.
Its just the sheer voulme of troops they can put out that gives them a psychological edge. But if their half of the board is full of units, they wont be able to out-manouvre you as effectively. And as their units arent particularly resilient (with a few exceptions, such as unbreakable bell pushers etc), a few well placed charges can break the back of the army quite quickly.
I’ve only seen some models. I was going to play against them the day after they came out, but the guy randomly chose to use a gunline of Dwarfs instead. Not fun when he had 36 shots a turn that made my Chaos Warrior’ and Knights’ armour worth nothing and my rolls to save were pathetic, lol.
. Check out the list of FAQ questions over on the Warhammer Forum