ross_lionheart:
I cant speak for anyone else but Im sure everyone will agree that facing skaven is a total nightmare. They use huge numbers, solid magic and pop up left right and centre.
Does anyone have any tatical advice for the members of CDâs Online?
The Flying Beaver:
Send some BCâs with extra hand weapons into their flank. They wonât last long against those suckers!
wallacer:
Well, Skaven tend to rely a lot on the bait and flee tactic with the Skaven slaves. You could do much the same tactic using Hobgoblins, and if they donât take the bait just shoot them to death with your bolt throwers/Earth Shaker/whatever.
Xander:
Stand fast, hold your ground, pound them with missile fire and watch them run. 
Ellimist:
-Earthshaker one of the flanks repeatedly to prevent these models reaching combat. Skaven thrive on bringing multiple large units into combat, upping their CR. Deny them this.
-Blunderbusses are your friend here. Consider multiple smaller units, as their toughness isnât brilliant, and youâll need all the shooting you can get!
-Remember that under the new rules weapons teams are more easily targeted.Make sure to take full advantage of this!
-Either use your BCs as a strong flanking unit (as was suggested), or keep them in reserve to quickly counter the tunneling teams.
-If you have a unit of wolf riders, put them on march-blocking duty.
This is all of course from a theoryhammer point of view.
ross_lionheart:
Iâve played Skaven in the past a couple of times and everytime Iâve been defeated. Normally they pop up behind my flanks on their first turn about 30 of them? and charge my war machines etcâŚ??
Hashutâs Blessing:
I would say go a little cheesey. Skaven like cheese (they are rats.) Two Earthshakers, at least four bolt throwers, maybe a death rocket, some Big Uns or Orc Arrer Boyz, A couple of big blocks of warriors several units of 10 BBs (S3 but with a width of 10 models or a width of 5 at S4, x however many units, x models in their units=lots of wounds!) and a few srocerers. That is also theoryhammer.
Xander:
I've played Skaven in the past a couple of times and everytime I've been defeated. Normally they pop up behind my flanks on their first turn about 30 of them? and charge my war machines etc....??Deploy some cheap hobbie units behind your war machines so they can't get charged. :)
ross_lionheart
Hashutâs Blessing:
Or have one massive unit of basic hobbos in a line or two behind your units, facing the other way! (Not really recommended due to the new flee and die type ruling.)
Lord Zarkov:
A unit of 10 for every warmachie or 3 could work, deploy them in a line with enoigh space for a unit between them and the table edge and they can buy time for your war machines
and at only 20pts/unit
qwe50:
My assault dwarf list managed a masacre against a shooty/magic skaven army points.
I got the first turn and flew the taurus up with in 6" of his warp cannon (wap where in a wood and taurus fased his line in flank ) and moved everything I could in charge range. One of my bolt trowers rolled a 6 and got the ratling closest to my lord. In his turn, the wap cannon failed a terror test and ran off. He targeted all shooting and magic on the wolves with bull centaur BSB that threatend his mages - cost 2 scrolls and all the wolf riders, but now I had him (he could not turn his units because of the BC��and cav in front and the taurus in flank.)
Funny things in that game were: Passing his panic test, the bull BSB got mad and being only one model now he could charge between two units and reach the 10 jezzails on the hill behind. Their stand and fire produced 6 hits and 4 wounds. I said: âWell, Iâll just have to roll something good,â and rolled 5,5,5 and 6 on the saves.
The âRush and hope for the bestâ - works against shooty skaven. I have done it 4 times with cav HE and once with chaos dwarfs. Now remember, under the new targeting rules you can pick out ratling guns and the new magic rules are bad for skaven too. Still, I think a gun fight is a bad idea. Even though CD have some good things (like blunderbusses,) the warp lightning S5 hits hurt too much and his tunnelers (especialy if he has 2 units) will take out your war machines too fast. You can place a hero with your earthshaker, that works too,ďż˝but iâd say get into CC as fast as you can and if you can take a engineer out, do so.
Ellimist: If youâre a native english speaker, please try to spell check and make sure your post is understandable. Iâve fixed it as much as possible. Also, please keep txt talk to a minimum.
metro_gnome:
psycheâŚ
the terror causing taurus is the place to beginâŚ
and if allowed take a hellcannon⌠good bye rat boyzâŚ
wallacer:
Outhording them with Hobgoblins might not be a bad idea. Soak up shots, bait and redirect. Basically use their sneaky slave tactics against them, but with a green tinge.
Lord Zarkov:
Have naked hobgoblins infront of your CD blocks, if you position them right, you can now get it so that they have to charge the hobgoblins instead of the CD (at which point the hobgoblins flee, forcing a fail charge which allows you a charge in the next turn); or they get charged by Both the Hobgoblins and the CD (note, it has to either be both or just the HGs for this to work)
w3rm:
The Skaven Are Invincible! Not really though we have our weaknesses. Static combat res doesnt really work on them becuase most skaven units will be 25+ models. Clanrats really dont like big flyie things coughtauruscough that land behind us make big fire boom and charge. Although a smart skaven general will take Warpstorm scrolls and/or Storm banner and really put the hurt on flyers. we have bad armour save too. Another strength of skaven is being one of the fastest infantry only armies ever! So an earthshaker isnt a bad idea. take atleast 2 bolt throwers and make little rat shish-kebabs. hope this was helpful.
grupax:
some small cost investments that might help out a lot:
against his magic:
if you empty the 2 dice in the common pool with the chalice first, then at best youâll just get the d6 str 5 instead of 2d6 str 5 on your units,
against his weapon teams:
10 arrer boys might help you vs his ratlings (24 inch range)
against gutter runners:
if you add one of your characters to the crew of your death rockets or earthshakers, they might hold out against his gutter runners
or place your machines between two chuncks of units so he canât draw line of sight (unless heâs extremely lucky where he comes out)
slev:
Iâve been playing rats for over a decade. To whit:
Rat Ogres, and large units of Slaves and Giant Rats are disctractions designed to keep you from committing your troops properly.
The main threats are units with characters in, especially Clanrats, Stormvermin and Plague Monks. If you can destroy these units, you should cause quite the panic reaction in the lines.
Watch out for Oblique lines.
Try and make the Skaven take the first turn. Skaven are an offensive reactive army. Making them act offensively weakens them somewhat.
You will almost never be able to do anything about Jezzails or Poison Wind Globes. Donât let them scare you, theyâll get you either way.
Baggronor:
2 Earth Shakers will put the wind up them. Use them to slow him and stop his weapon teams or jezzails firing.
Bring plenty of slaves. Hobgoblins are even cheaper than Skaven and your Generalâs Ld is better if he has a Grey Seer. A Battle Standard can work wonders.
Use your Bolt throwers to pick off the weapon teams turn 1. Then close in and give them a blunderbuss volley or 3:). They are T3 and will die in droves.
Wolf Riders with Bull Centaur Hero to hunt down the Jezzail teams/cannon.
I would avoid taking large monsters, even an average Skaven unit has Ld8 outside the Seerâs Ld range and a big monster is an easy target for his warp cannons and jezzails. Not to mention that if the monster dies, your M3 Lord is stranded in the middle of nowhere:hat. Sorcerer Lord on foot with lots of scrolls and power stones.
Ultimately, a solid battleline with good Ld and good magic defence backed up by some careful shooting will win you the day. Few Skaven units can take on CD warriors with command and a hero, just make sure the ratling guns and warpfire throwers are gone by the time you get close. Deploy war machines with units on either side, so he has a tough time getting tunnel teams into them.