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Of Rattus Norvegicus, among other things (a Blog!)


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The 2014 OFCC did not produce the same kind of burnout and frustration with WFB that the aftermath of OFCC's past have for me.  Where I once found exhaustion, I have found instead inspiration.  Seeing all the armies on display over that weekend only encouraged me to broaden my horizons and expand from my trustworthy, stalwart, (tricksy) elves; into something completely different.  Which brings me to Rattus norvegicus.  The common brown rat.  I'm talking Skaven here, people! 

 

I acquired the core of the army over a year ago in a BT pickup, at a heck of a discount.

 

20 Stormvermin

20 Plague Monks

16ish Night Runners

Somewhere between 40-80 Clanrats/Slaves (mix of HW/Spear, looks like 2/3 sets of IoB)

Rat Ogres

Screaming bell (in pieces)

Doomwheel

HPA

WLC

Handful of weapon teams, chieftans, warlock engineers, characters, etc.
 

My eye has been immediately drawn to Stormvermin, the quality of the kit is light years ahead of some of the older sclupts, such as Night Runners, Plague Monks, some of the Rat Ogres.  As a result, I'm driving towards the look of a heavy Infantry list, backed up by some Clan Skyre tech to even the fields.  I'm flirting with low/no magic, as well.

 

Stay tuned for more!

 

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Stormvermin are incredible models, even by the standards of the newest.  An army with lots of them will be effective, and look great.  You can do a pretty solid offensive screaming bell list with a horde of stormvermin pushing it into battle.  

The effective part isn't necessarily true.  They die too fast.  I would only consider taking a single unit of them at least 30 models strong.  Using stormvermin to push a bell is a huge waste of points, IMO.

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The effective part isn't necessarily true.  They die too fast.  I would only consider taking a single unit of them at least 30 models strong.  Using stormvermin to push a bell is a huge waste of points, IMO.

Now MN is a good player with a wealth of knowledge but he can be strongly opinionated at times. If you have the Stormvermin I say try them out and see if you like them. But as you probably already know numbers are very inportant for Skaven, so have a lot.
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Now MN is a good player with a wealth of knowledge but he can be strongly opinionated at times. If you have the Stormvermin I say try them out and see if you like them. But as you probably already know numbers are very inportant for Skaven, so have a lot.

That comment is coming from a past Skaven player.  I tested out 30 Stormvermin pushing a bell and they take too many casualties and you don't get as many attacks back.  They are a good flanking unit.  They are costly, as far as Skaven go, and you should have units who are "expendable" pushing the bell.  I found that 50 clanrats pushing a bell was the best way to go.

 

I'm not saying don't take Stormvermin.  I strongly believe them to be best used as a supporting unit.  They don't produce that much CR either and with only a 5+ save they end up giving up CR as well.

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Clanrats are good for a tarpit bell, but will never win combat against anything other than another unit of clanrats.  I have played skaven long enough to know this.  Admittedly, the bell with clanrats is one of the best anvils in the game, and will not move anywhere until the bell is destroyed.  But in an army of anvils, and anvil is nothing special.  40 Stormvermin and a bell with a seer (fencer's blades for extra defense) actually stand a chance of wrecking other units.  The random combat buffs that the bell can give are wasted on clanrats, but can turn SV into killing machines.  It is worth trying out.

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ML, yes the unit is unbreakable when pushing the bell, but people don't chew through 50 clan rats very fast.

 

Rudra34, we just ran our Skaven armies different.  Nothing bad.  I would just run the bell forward and lock something down.  I kitted my grey seer with a power scroll, talisman of preservation, and some other random stuff.  I used the stormvermin to house my bsb with armour of destiny and assassin with weeping blades.  They just sat on the flank of my clan rats as they moved forward.  However, I also ran 30 monks with a furnace and the triple march banner so most of my enemies shooting was targeting the monks before they charged stuff on turn two.  I will disagree about the random buffs being wasted on clan rats though.  They can still produce CR against a lot of units they fight.

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I'm a big fan of several things in the skaven book.

+ Stormvermin when deep and not horde.

+ clan rat CR generation squads (25-50) Die Slowly.

+ cheap chieftains. Because awesome 47 points.

+ weapon teams. Flames and mortars for days.

+ Rogres because they look good.

+ Plague Censer Bearers- god why don't I see these?

 

What I hate.

Bell/furnace. - not because they are bad but so obvious auto include

Plague monks with banner. DuH derp roll dice.

Gutter runners- because showing up behind me is awesome.(more because I'm a bad player and forget about them)

 

 

Pete- warlord clans all the way !

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