[DravenHavok]

So their new book is out, I will probably be facing a skaven player for the first time tomorrow. I have never played against them so I don't know what to expect. I'm thinking of taking a hell cannon to mess with his back rank, some marauder horsemen and doggies to screen and keep the shooting to a minimum. Knights to hurt him and warriors to make him bleed. Nurgle seems appropriate for magic and CC since the -1 to shooting and -1 WS, the wonderful foul magic that nurgle has should be helpful. Any thought, comments? Should I be a jerk and get the doom totem and sorcerers with the death lore and hope for doom and darkness and make him squirm with cannon blasts and fear causing knights? Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[stratovarion]

My summing up of the new Skaven book can best be summed up with this noise:
Eeewwwrrreehhgggghhhhhjjjahhh.

Bad news my fellow ally of Chaos, you are in an uphill battle on this one.

From what I can see, the Skaven book has been deliberately written to combat our book (I dont know why they would do this, but they have).

Things to beware of:
Hell-pit Abomination - If he brings one of these, you are in serious bother. There is nothing in our army that can reliably take this monstrousity on (maybe barring a combat Lord, I wouldbn't know). It does however have random movement so you may just have to hope that it rolls low. Wolves will be able to redirect it to an extent, but remember that if you flee from a charge they HPA will not follow you, it will still go down the line it planned. IT IS NOT IMMUNE TO PANIC (Hellshriek anyone?)

Doomwheel - Another nasty piece of work. This thing does impact hits to you even if you charge it (filth). Again random movement but much more relaible than the HPA. It is tough (and Immune to Psychology) but can easily be smashed up by Dragon Ogres or beaten on combat Res by a decent sized unit of Marauders (risky) or Warriors (safer)

Plague Censor Bearers - KEEP YOUR KINGHTS AWAY FROM THEM!!!!! The toughness checks alone are very nasty (ignore armour saves - also beware of Plague Lords for this) but then 3 Hatred attacks each at S5 WILL rip a nice hole in your knights. If you get the charge you should be OK, but a cannae Skaven general will have them in woods to make things difficult.

Warp Lightning Cannon - Not as bad as it was in my opinion, but can still make a mess of Warriors and Knights. Shouldn't be too much of a problem unless you give it a shot down a flank.

Unbreakable things - I dont rate the Furnace and Screaming Bell too highly, but they make the unit pushing them unbreakable. When that unit is a load of plague monks you have a nasty problem unit. You could lead them around with fast cave but remember that the furnace has a breath weapon so you dont want to get too close (apparently rolling for partials is SOOOO 7th edition...)


THINGS YOU CAN EXPLOIT:
Low Leadership (sometimes) - any isolated of small units will be susceptible to a nice panic of fear check, and if you can flank our ratty friends you should have won combat before you start.

Big units - even with M5 big 30 man units aren't the most manouverable of things, try and find a way to make this work for you.

Weak characters - Warp-lock engineers and Grey Seers are PUNY. Consider sending in Marauder Horsemen or a spawn (nothing that has to challenge) in order to assassinate these weedy mages, then enjoy magic supremacy for the rest of the game.



Good luck, I hope this has been some use. The Skaven book is VERY nasty (on a par with Lizards and Vampires in my opinion - just below the big 2). Hope all goes well and give us a quick summing up after.

Regards

 

[DravenHavok]

Eek, that does not look too good for me. I have seen this player play before briefly, I know I will see the bell, plague monks, the lighting cannon and the grey seer. Oh and the guys with the gunman, shield bearer combo. I have a list put together see what you guys think.

Chaos Lord
Chaos daemon sword, helm of many eyes, and juggernaut

Chaos sorcerer
Lore of Death, Book of secrets (death spell) Power familiar and Conjoined Homunculus

Chaos marauders of Slaanesh x20
Flails, LS, FC
Chaos marauders of Slaanesh x20
LS, FC

Marauder horsemen of Slaanesh x5
Flails, standard & musician

Chaos Warriors of Khorne x18
2nd hand weapon, shields, FC War Banner (Set in 6x3)

Chaos Warhounds
3 blocks of 5

Chaos Knights of Nurgle
FC, Banner of Rage

Hellcannon

1999 pts

The basic idea is to put the lord with the knights and protect me from shooting with the hounds. The Sorcered can snipe at grey seers with the death spells, book of secrets and power familiar makes him a poor man's lvl 3 sorcerer. 3 spells, 6 casting dice and a unit of marauders to protect him. the cannon will hopefully break his back like and I can make the jerks in the cannons and lighting guns panic.

 

[Lord Borak]

I play ratmen quite alot and it's tough but you just have to put your head down, trust your armour and your ability to smash up units and get on with it.

The list looks good to be honest with you. I think, against skaven, you could probably do without the Lord. A plain Exalted Champ on Jugger should be enough to splat most things in a Skaven list. This should free up alot of points to spend on other things which might be more useful.

You could also do with a few Dispel scrolls. Skaven have some nasty spells out there and you might need to stop them. Killing their wizards is a safer bet but having a Scroll or two to fall back on is never a bad thing.

 

[stratovarion]

I would be wary of Frenzied units.

Skaven can now run units of 5 giant rats and a handler for just 23 points. You will end up just chasing these all game. Maybe not such a problem for the warriors but for the cavalry you will have big problems.

The more I think about it the more I hate the new skaven.

They are the new number one enemy of Slaanesh.

 

[Mal]

Having played a few games against the new Skaven, I must say they are still easily terrified/feared and their low leadership means you can break the back of their army pretty quickly with massive attacks on their centre units. Their big sticks (Doom Wheel and Abominations) can be avoided, so are point sinks for the general unless he gets lucky. I agree with the above, kill their character's sharpish and watch the army run away.

 

[DravenHavok]

Thanks to everyone that gave suggestions! I fought the player today but instead of bringing his Skaven I had to fight....dwarves.. I was not expecting so. Time to post that on another thread.

 

[stratovarion]

ooooh - my area of expertise