Games Workshop - Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Skaven Clanrats

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The entire infrastructure of the Under-Empire is run by slave labour. Skavenslaves perform all menial tasks, including mining, tunnelling, and food production. In lean times, they themselves become the food. The majority of slaves are Skaven born into bondage, the lowest class of a hierarchical society. Their ranks swell as rival clans are captured during internecine wars. At times, even non-Skaven become slaves, although few other mortal races last long under the whips of the ratmen overseers. [1a] c.100 IC The Rat and The Serpent - The war in Lustria between Clan Pestilens and the Lizardmen. [1d] The Skaven are ruled by the Council of Thirteen, an assembly of their most powerful leaders, tested and approved by the Horned Rat. The council forever tries to impose its rule over the rebellious Skaven clans, often resorting to threats, terror, assassination and brutal punishment. Needs Citation Magic

Skaven were not initially announced for Total War: Warhammer II. Rather, the game was announced as having four races but only three (High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen) were revealed. Skaven were teased in the initial cinematic trailer, with appearance of a red-eyed rat at the end. Eventually they were revealed to be the fourth race. 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] Blistervous, the Living Cyst – Strikes-first for the bearer if they charge. If you’ve got more than one Pestilens hero then from battle round two this artefact will start bouncing between them, which is not ideal for a subfaction with a Priest who doesn’t really want to be in melee. If you’re just running a solo Corruptor then it’ll stay with them, but then why are you running a solo corruptor? Rat Ogre - The most infamous of Clan Moulders many creations, these beast are one of the largest and most fearsome of their creations within their desposal. Larger then any human, these beast stand taller then two man, and has enough strenght and muscle to fight a whole company of soldiers. The ordinary Rat Ogre is a Skaven to a human, as an Rat Ogre is to a Ogre. Rat Ogres are usually covered with stiches, as many times their Clan Moulder masters has added "modifications" to their already formidable bulk, either adding large saw-like blades, weapon attachments, and even an extra arm to those few Skaven Warlords willing to pay a few extra warp-tokens.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 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 Plague Priests of Clan Pestilens also have terrible powers of plague that are akin to magic but are gained through different methods. [1g] Clan Prestilens claim that the disease and plague is a gift of the Horned Rat and so their magic is also a divine blessing. [4a] Redmaw Plague – This targets the nearest enemy hero within 13” and infects them for the rest of the battle. At the start of the combat phase, if that hero is within 3” of any enemy models and not within 3” of any of your models you can count it as a friendly model for that phase. There’s obviously a fair amount of play your opponent has with positioning to avoid this, but sometimes you are going to be able to engineer Arachaon to batter his own army and that’s hilarious. For spells you get dreaded warpgale, a CV8 spell with an 18” range that does d6 mortal wounds and halves the target unit’s run and charge rolls and switches off fly. That’s amazing, but CV8 with maybe a +1 from arcane terrain is not happening as often as you’d like. Finally, the Warpseer gets +1 to its save from its scry orb, which you can sacrifice to throw at an enemy unit within 13” and do d6 mortal wounds.

There’s a case to be made for a unit of 3 of these as a troubleshooter in an army going in another direction for pure damage, and in that case the warpfire thrower probably wins out over the windlauncher, but this is unusual. Clans Pestilens Plague Monks If you’ve played with or against a Skaven army any time in the history of Age of Sigmar, there’s a good chance these were involved. Infamously one of the most points expensive non-hero units in the whole game, due to costing 320 points and wanting to be reinforced. Infamously one of the most real money expensive non-hero units in the whole game due to being a unit taken in fives and sold as single, expensive, models. Outside of this rep, they’re hobgrots on steroids. You get five of them for kind of cheap, and they get a single 9” range shot with rend -2 and d3 damage.

Skaven have been blessed with a bit of a grab bag here, no absolutely safe gimmes but it’s all just about doable if you build for it specifically.

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] Quotes The chittering hordes and strength of the Skaven are the Clanrats. They fill-fill our domain to bursting. It is their duty to die-die for us. Often is there need, and often do they give. This is one of the most iconic Skaven pieces, and for good reason. The Warp Lightning Cannon is one of the most powerful Warmachines available to the Skaven, and can devastate even the most heavily armored units. It spews out Mortal Wounds, but has a high chance of damaging itself for its most potent shots. 6. Deathmaster

The Spirit of Durthu

The Goblin Wars - The time when the Dwarf realm was surrounded on all sides by the Skaven and the greenskins. [1d]

The most expensive unit in the Skaven arsenal, Thanquol is the mainstay of competitive play and worth every point. Thanquol has access to the most powerful spellcasting in the battletome, being a two-spell caster with a degrading cast/dispel/unbind bonus that starts at an impressive +3. He can also choose to guzzle some warpstone for one of his casts each turn to roll 3d6 for a cast and choose two to use as the casting roll (or if the roll is a natural 13, to take d6 mortal wounds and have the spell go off without opportunity to be unbound). The issue here is that there aren’t that many spells worth using this spellcasting ability on: his warscroll spell has a 3” range for some unreliable mortal wounds, the spell lore he has access to is of limited utility as he can’t Skitterleap himself, and as a named character Thanquol can’t take flaming weapon. 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. Chained Ones - The Chained Ones were the hardy survivors of those Warlord Clans that once challenged Clan Pestilens.

Overseer of Destruction – This lets you save your weapons teams from being removed if the unit they are hidden in is destroyed. As with many of these Skaven command traits this is very niche, but if you’ve invested a lot of points in hidden weapons teams then this is useful. Skaven society is divided into many Clans which rule over slaves and compete for power and influence. Clan Eshin are highly secretive masters of stealth and their Assassins are feared in the Under-Empire and beyond. Clan Skryre are engineers, combining magic and technology to create devastating weapons and war-machines. Clan Pestilens are a cult of religious fanatics who worship the Horned Rat in his aspect as the bringer of plague and disease. Clan Moulder hail from Hell Pit, and create horrifying mutated monsters. Clan Rictus and Clan Mors are "warlord clans" producing the elite Stormvermin. Diabolical Schemer – When a model issues a command within 13” of your general then on a 5+ that command isn’t received, the command point is lost and you gain a command point. It’s a huge effect when it happens, but the model issuing the command having to be so close and the dice roll can make it difficult to use and then unlikely even when the situation occurs.