Games Workshop - Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Skaven Clanrats

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Skaven climate preferences change depending on the faction (eg: Clan Rictus has different preferences from Clan Pestilens). However in general, Skaven have a wide range of climates suitable to them, reflecting their ability to swarm and infest any place. Out of all the armies within the known world, no army could match the impeccable numbers of the Skaven race. When the Skaven abandon their secretive ways and emerge from their subterranean lairs, they do so for only one reason; to unleash vicious, inhuman and lightning fast warfare. It is a nightmarish scene, a ravenous horde, a chaotic and rolling tide of verminous ratmen. An individual Skaven warrior is of little match against any of the other races on a one on one fight. Without allies to aid him, a Skaven's cowardice would naturally make him flee from direct combat, only fighting if there is no other alternative except death. As such, to each and every Skaven, there is only one racial strength, and that strength is numbers. [3]

What these vortexes do is twofold: first enemies within 3” of any of them can’t run, which is quite nice when you’re trying to keep your opponent out of your castle. Secondly you get to roll a dice when the spell is set up and at the end of each movement phase for each unit within 6” of a vortex and do d3 mortal wounds on a 4+. You get +1 to this roll for each vortex the unit is within 6” of, so that units having to move through it are in the most trouble. This is where your issues with setting it up and that inch away come in, it used to be possible to cast this over a unit to get it trapped inside immediately and that isn’t really possible now. Still, getting to double tap this damage on the turn the spell goes up is very nice if you can get it in the right location. Bell of Doom Edition: Warrior Clan Skaven: Hand Weapon. May have Chainmail or Metal Breastplate, Full Plate Armour, Halberd, Shield, Spear. May have Musician, Standard Bearer. [6a] The Gnawshard – Upgrades one of the bearer’s melee weapons, if it does any damage to a unit then that unit takes a mortal wound at the end of each turn. There’s only one Masterclan hero who can take an artefact and wants to be anywhere near melee and this effect is far too marginal to bother spending an artefact on, pass. Ratling Gun - A multi-barrled whirling death-dealing machine known as the Ratling Gun is one of Clan skryre's newest of inventions. So successful and deadly this piece of machinery is to the other Warlord clans that Clan skryre will always run out of Ratling Gun long before they run out of customers to sell them to. Plague Furnaces - The Plague Furnace is a diseased-ridden altar to the Great Horned Rat and an unholy Icon of the Clans power. The Furnace is pushed into battle by chanting Plague Monks, the creaking of the iron-shob wheels audible above the drone of devotional maledictions.

Skaven factions also have access to the Underway, a mechanic they share with Dwarfs and Greenskins.

Clanrats are usually armed with a Hand Weapon and Shield and wear Light Armour, some use Spears. [1] Regiments can include a Musician and Standard Bearer, [2] and be accompanied by a Clan Skryre Weapon Team. [1] That said, they’re one of the most enjoyable armies to play, thanks to their unique chance-based rules, and their huge armies that simply intimidate the opposition. Most units are paper – With very few exceptions, the army is very fragile and has a penchant for hurting itself into the mix. If your alpha doesn’t land, you can be losing huge amounts of your army in return. Warp-Grinder - A smaller variant of a similar machine, the larger machinery of this weapon was meant to carve large tunnels within the earth with relative ease, meant to allow passages for whole armies of troops to move with speed through the underground tunnels of the world. Although those machines were larger than the biggest Empire warships, the smaller version acts as a more portable and hand-held one, used for the same purpose, but also as a weapons platform to be used against infantry. Similar also is the need for a two-skaven team to operate; one to hold the ammunition and another to aim the shot.The underground cities will remain hidden for a long time if you are not too greedy with them early on. Just extend first the influence and ambush weaker armies before sending the Skaven steamroller! Before Total War: Warhammer released, Russian leakers found information saying that Skaven would come as DLC. This information was outdated. Over the next two hundred and eighty years or so the newly born Skaven race grew rapidly. There was pressure to expand the tunnels under the city, as the surface world was too dangerous for the Skaven. Eventually they began work on a huge device that they thought would open up large rifts beneath the ground for the Skaven to inhabit. Unfortunately for them the great warpstone-powered machine failed catastrophically - releasing huge waves of magical energy across the globe. The Worlds Edge Mountains - still recovering after the Great Realignment of the Slann - were hit hardest. Tunnels opened up beneath the Dwarf Holds through which lava from deep beneath the earth spilled up. [1c] Lurkers - An especially ferocious and bold unit of Clanrats that pledged their services to Clan Mordkin. Each Skaven Great Clan gets special rules of their own, even in mixed legions, but the following applies across the board to all of them.

Lumbering Behemoth – Changes the Hell Pit’s move from 2d6” to 7”, and also means they always charge 7” instead of rolling. Unless you’ve cooked your dice, this works out to be a nice reliability boost. You can know that you’re guaranteed into any enemy you’re 14” away from, but equally you’re guaranteed to not be able to get into combat with anything any further away than that and redeploy can be awful for you here. Skaven have access to 4 rites, which provide various bonuses. These are the only way they can recruit the DOOOOM! Engineer and Pestilent Scheme Priest who can spread plagues. These Skaven belong to any one of thousands of Clans scattered throughout the underground burrows, strongholds and bursting cavern-cities that make up the whole of the Under-Empire. Of all the teeming masses, they are surpassed in number and contempt only by the Slave Rat worker dregs, the latter already considered the very bottom rung of Skaven society. [1a] Accelerated Regeneration – changes the Hell Pit’s d3 wound hero phase heal to work in every hero phase, not just yours. The default defensive profile of the Hell Pit is so poor there’s a big worry here that you just lose it before this gets to proc too many times.

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Their Warp Lightning Cannon artillery unit can be one of the most powerful ranged weapons in the entire game. Be warned, though: when playing Skaven, you should always bear in mind that everything comes with a risk. Overcharge this cannon before firing, and you’ll get 12 chances to inflict mortal wounds on your target, however, each ‘1’ you roll will see the cannon receive D3 mortal wounds. Half the time you’ll see your opponent become a smoking crater, the other half of the time you’ll curse the dice gods as your Warp Lightning Cannon blinks out of existence; that’s simply the way with Skaven. A lot of Skaven units have the ability to prowl in the trees undetected but I'm not sure how to capitalise on this - should I be using this ability to my advantage against the AI somehow? The rest of Skaven history is largely divided into the various wars fought with other races or among themselves. The most important of these are: For low cost and an extra drop you can give any non-monster or warmachine in your army the ability to deploy off the board and then set up at the end of one of your movement phases with the usual 9” restriction, and wholly within 13” of the grinder. On top of that, it fights like an un-overcharged flayer. If you need it, it’s there and it’s good at what it does. Warpfire Thrower c.100 IC The Rat and The Serpent - The war in Lustria between Clan Pestilens and the Lizardmen. [1d]

Moving distance light troops: Many Skaven skirmish infantry are able to fire whilst moving, combining this with stealth, and vanguard deployment, these can all be used for a combined advantage. You can hide some units within the path of the enemy army, or during the early battle, the skirmisher can force the army to split into several groups, so that you can use your artillery to clean up the oncoming groups towards your main line, effectively killing them before they reach your infantry lines. The opposing cavalry and faster characters will probably get to some of your units, so just make them quit the close combat and keep a good distance between your units so you can always have one or two firing. If the cavalry loses its time on lesser skirmisher units, you gain time for your artillery to absolutely destroy the enemy line.

The Great Clans Battle Traits

The rats, such as orcs or dwarves, are able to travel underground, this can be very useful to flee, or to opt for a central position strategy over the campaign map. Most of the early factions will not have several armies, instead they will have one main army and perhaps one other, light army. If you get between two cities with an aggressive underground move, and you are certain that your army is better than the enemies, you can force the fight or take one of the cities as they won't be able to follow you. Be careful not to jump straight in, if you face against stronger enemies. Just sit on a side of the map, put slaves at the front, do not move your army at the beginning, just let the canons and catapults destroy the defending tower. Afterwards, let your siege units destroy units on the wall, and magic will destroy everything that coulde try to contest it. Finally you will be able to overflow the walls and route the enemy units remaining on it, before taking out the cavalry or monsters waiting behind it. Not the highest placing Skaven list at the event, but a good example of the ‘classic’ competitive approach to Skaven – Thanquol, Stormfiends, Clanrats, buff pieces and flavour to taste. Additionally, Skaven factions can establish secret settlements called Under-Cities beneath the settlements of other races. These settlements have a chance to be discovered and destroyed, though. Shadow Magnet Trinket – Up front, it’s weird to me that the assassin subfaction gets no damage boost artefacts, but here we are. Three quite techy once-per-game options. For once-per-game, these are all OK. The Shadow Magnet Trinket gets activated at the start of any combat phase and gives the bearer the strike-first effect until your next hero phase. As we will see, Deceivers like going first quite a lot.