by Theo Kik-Jansen, Skryre Weapons Teams with Calvin Rarie (yes-yes)

Welcome to Plastic Craic’s second Faction review for 4th Edition. The Plastic Craic writing team has a boatload of event wins and podiums between us; and while nobody gets it right every time, across the years we’ve been doing this, I think our record stands up to scrutiny. We will be reviewing these Faction Packs with the care they deserve: our aim is to bring you better reviews, from better players.

Theo is a former captain of the Netherlands ETC team and a hard-core Skaven nerd, so let’s see what he makes of the new Faction pack for the Rats.

---

Finally! It’s been months Skaven were announced as a starter faction for 4th Ed. So now that we’ve got all the rules points, that can only mean one thing: Get working on the new minis! Make a million lists! Scream into the void of group chats and Discord!

All of the above, but for me: Play a bunch of games and then sit down with a hot brew and really break into what this army can do. This one is for all my rat boys! With 13,000+ points (in old money) of painted Skaven, I am invested. This  army is a passion and I’m keeping my beady little eyes out for more releases that will inevitably come this year.

A note on terminology before we start: In this article I’ll be using the term “Avg dmg” repeatedly. This is the calculated output against a 4+ armour save. And when I say “+2 D3”, It refers to the new rule where you do 0, 2 or 3 damage on a D3 roll. AoA= All out attack, AoD= All out Defence, BT’s= Battle tactics, CP= Command points, Skaven = The Best and so on.

This has turned out to be a massive article, but it’s a labor of love! Making sure I get everything correct, re-reading 5 times and calculating the profiles, was so awesome to do. I feel like I’ve built up a good understanding of this army now, so just come find me on the Discord or on Twitter if you have questions!

Overview: Playstyle and Win Condition

Move back slowly while you push your friend forward! Skaven win by being very, very annoying – all while your enemies squirt the musk of fear.

Test driving the army really heightened my enthusiasm for the army in 4th. I don’t believe it’s right up there in terms of strength, but it can hold its own. There are quite a few conclusions to be drawn on our playstyle so far:

• Skaven can still put a lot of wounds on the table, and our infantry does a lot for the army
• Gnawholes are extremely impactful
• There are a couple of different strategies available, but Skaven works best as a mixed arms force
• Skaven are not the masters of any one aspect of the game, but can compete in most phases
• Mono Clan is not mandatory, and also not likely to be optimal
• There are a lot of shenanigans going on and the army is very capable of pulling a rabbit out of its hat at any moment

Digesting everything, it became more and more clear how you win with this army and the power is still in the horde, specifically in recursion. There is one glaring weakness in the army: it lacks melee punch. There is very little that can lift a key enemy unit reliably. What it does have is recursion, shooting and tricks.

• To win, you need to play to your strengths. This is not going to be an easy army to win with
• Emphatic, walkover victories are going to be few and far between
• The army can put high control scores on the board
• It will deny a lot of tactics and make the enemy bleed points
• I’m convinced that a strong shooting line is likely your backbone of dmg output
• Being smart about your Gnawholes and recycling goes a long way

Stealing, sneaking and sacrificing your troops because there’s always more where they came from. Sounds like Skaven doesn’t it?

Army Mechanics

Battle Traits

The Battle traits for Skaven are familiar but different. First, a quick word on the Gnawholes: Due to the Deploy Faction Terrain ability from the Core Rules, you get to put down one Gnawhole in the Deployment Phase. Beware that the placement restrictions are different from those on the Splinters of the Vermindoom battle trait listed below!

All rules credit GW

If you skip ahead to the Splinters of the Vermindoom ability, you’ll see the second one goes on the board at the start of the first battle round. So the first one goes on in the Deployment Phase, and the second one after step two of the start of the battle round procedure, which means after the active player and underdog is determined but before the active player takes their turn (Core rules 12.0).

I hope that clears things up: You start with two Gnawholes on the table before the first turn starts. So, let’s dive into those battle traits: 

There is a pretty awesome set of BT’s here. I think it’s important that we don’t fall into the trap of comparing it to 3rd Edition, as most army rules are watered down in 4th. Comparing this to other armies, I think the Horned Rat was quite generous.

• Splinters of the Vermindoom This is how you set up your second and third Gnawhole. They can now be destroyed by your enemy, so this is also how you bring them back.
  Like stated before, you can start using this in the first battle round. It is done in the last step of the “start of battleround” sequence. So every battle round, after you know who will have the first turn. That allows you to better determine where to place it. Of you get the turn you can use it as part of your movement strategy.
  It is also not bound to board edges anymore. This means you could consider using it as a movement blocker. Just plop it in the middle of the field if you need to.
• Too Quick to Hit-Hit This may seem like a but of a nothing burger, but in truth it can be very useful in one specific scenario: if you take the Scurry away Heroic trait (see below). Makes it more viable as an option.
• Gnawhole Ambush We deploy our reserved unit with this ability. It happens at the end of the movement phase. It’s fine and with the way Gnawhole placement works, I can thing of a million ways to be very, very annoying with this.
• Always Three Clawsteps Ahead I only grasped the power of this rule when playing with it. It is simply amazing. You use this at the end of your enemy’s hero phase. Remember that you can also use this in the first battle round, as units are initially setup in the Deployment Phase, which is not part of either player’s turn. It allows you to counter battle tactics after they’ve been announced, to move block and overall to be very, very annoying. 
• The Lurking Vermintide We can set up a unit in reserve. Not bad at all! They can only stay under until your 3rd movement phase or they’ll be destroyed as per the core rules. You use the Gnawhole Ambush ability (mentioned above) to pop them back out. Note that there is no “Once Per” timing on this ability, so you can go as far as null-deploying if you wish.

These rules are all about being a sneaky little rat, and they’re excellent.

Artefacts of Power

Since Skaven eat most of their acquired treasures, hoping to absorb some if their powers (but usually resulting in a massive obstipation), there wasn’t much left in the coffers. But these 3 might be all we need:

Foulhide Healing a potential 10 times per game. Pretty nifty if you run a Verminlord, a cart or a Gnawbeast that you need to stay alive. It makes it so chip damage doesn’t really affect it much. 

Warpstone charm Pretty nice to have an extra point of rend from a Verminlord, but it happens on a 3+, which is a bit of a bummer. There’s probably that one crucial time in each battle where you really need it, and for that it might be too unreliable. I do think it’s neat with a Deceiver: as you use this at the start of the combat phase, you can always opt to choose a different battle it this doesn’t go off, making the downside potentially less painful.

Skavenbrew This is pretty interesting, but might be less powerful than it seems. It scales better the fewer starting attacks the unit has, whereas All out Attack scales up in value as the baseline To Hit value worsens. You’d ideally use it in conjunction with All out Attack, so you’re throwing more dice while improving their efficiency, but to understand what kind of impact Skavenbrew has on a unit let’s compare it to All out Attack as a benchmark (since we mostly have a good understanding of the latter’s impact already):

• For a unit of Rat Ogors AoA adds 33% to it’s damage, while Skavenbrew adds only 20%. Anything with 4 or more attacks usually is out of contention for being an efficient unit to use Skaven brew  on. 
• Clanrats do have few baseline attacks per model, so it works quite well in this case. AoA adds 33% while Skavenbrew adds 50% to the damage. This however is a bit like putting lipstick on a Gnawbeast, as the output is still next to nothing.
• The best unit for Skavenbrew might be Stormvermin, sporting 35% increased damage versus 25% from AoA due to their good To Hit roll.
• There is one combo that might work a treat with this though, more on that later!

A lot of times you will choose one unit, to give them a 25-35% buff in damage. Pretty good if you run a melee heavy list.

All in all, not too bad as a selection!

Battle Formations

Ok, this is awesome. This is where we get our Clan flavour back, without being too restrictive. I imagine that there will be a lot more focus on the Clans in the upcoming battletome, but for now this will do us nicely. The absence of Eshin quite obviously points to a second wave with ninja rats, so get excited!

Warpcog Convocation If you were wondering where your punch is coming from, this might be it. This is used in your shooting phase, so unfortunately cannot be used with Covering Fire. There is no range on this, so just point at 3 Skryre units – that’s awesome. Most likely they will get +1 to wound for shooting. The bonus is extra rend on ranged weapons, and that’s like Mario finding a Star upgrade. A bouncy tune starts playing and the units starts lighting up. You have a phase of prize shooting on your hands! Pop that AoA and make some widows, son!

Calvin Note: For the sake of simplicity, go ahead and assume that when we get to the Weapons Teams we’re taking them in the Warpcog Convocation, with the exception of the Doomflayer since all he does is Melee things.

Prized creations This is solid. As stated, +1 attacks might not be as strong as it seems on units with a lot of attacks already. In practice, what you might be rolling for is the Ward. Survivability is very lacklustre, so adding a +5 Ward to Rat Ogors really goes a long way to keeping them on the field.

Virulent Procession It’s sad that Pestilence is so limited at the moment; this would be pretty neat if a unit like Plague Censer Bearers were still a thing. End of Turn abilities happen before controlling objectives (31.0) so you can scurry onto an objective and cap it, but even better, piling in late in the turn can tag units in combat and lock them down. The only real option you have for leveraging this currently is by running Plague Monk spam, which can legitimately be a thing, but a very skewed list that forces you to paint 120-ish monks. I don’t wish that on you (unless you’re the person who sent our little Priest to Legends). So this will not be an option I see myself choosing until more Pestilence units arrive, given how good the other three formations are.

Claw-Horde Giving rend is cool! It only happens in your turn and for units that charged, but again no range limitation. This is a big old bonus against the right target. It now allows you to stack buffs on a shit unit, to make it very much less shit!
The better the save, the bigger the bonus, adding 67% to your damage against a 3+ save target.

Overall, this structure is really cool. You can bring what you like in your army now, but choose where your damage comes from. I think that’s pretty elegant and some of the buffs are great.

Heroic Traits

Let’s call these Cowardice Traits, shall we? Thematically they are awesome and bang on-brand for Skaven. In terms of power, the short version is that these are all OK, and you can’t really go wrong with any of them. 

Scurry Away Your hero is known for being able to run from a fight as it’s about to go down. Nice one. It only happens on a 3+ now, but it does happen at the beginning of the combat phase and (for Skaven Infantry or Cavalry) does not result in D3 mortal damage (thanks to the battle trait). Most likely use case is when you get charged when you didn’t want to be. And it has the potential for to mess with someone’s BT plans (e.g. by denying a kill), which can be very, very annoying.

Short-tempered Does help getting that unit to stick a charge from set-up. Combined with the Master Moulder hero (further +2″ to charge, see below), this might be a legit strategy.

Skilled Manipulator If you are running a casting or shooting castle, this is how you keep that foot hero alive: just pop the wounds into a block of Clanrats. This doubles the effective wounds of your hero, resulting in a foot hero that takes 10 damage to pop. For the big boys it’s less effective, as they already have their own 5+ ward built in.

For Verminlords and carts, use Scurry; for Moulder, use Short Tempered and for foot heroes use Skilled Manipulator. Easy.

Lores

Snort some Warpstone and get a load of this:

Wither You call it Wither, I call it Arcane bolt but with 13” range. Bummer.

Skitterleap Another opportunity to be very, very annoying. Love that this is still here, and it only needs a 6+ to cast too!

Warpgale This is where we play in the Activation Wars. And perhaps the reason why you take a Grey Seer every time (more on him later!). 18” is a generous range. It does cast on a 7, but that is reasonable I’d say.

In summary: the unlimited spell is a bit of a bummer, in terms of flavour, range and effect. The other two spells are staples and a good reason to take Wizards.

Now let’s take a moment of spiritual contemplation:

Ok, this is where GW did piss me off. Those fuckers decided to legend the Priest on foot, making our only options the Plague Furnace and the Corruptor. And that’s a real shame, because both of them are alright at best, and 350+ points. 

Filth-Crust This works on all Skaven infantry! Yes-yes! This is unlimited, but you will rarely have more than one Priest in your army unfortunately. You are going for the Crit mortals 100% of the time. This makes units like Clanrats and Plague Monks shit out 14 mortal damage per block of 40, and 20 mortal damage if they get an extra attack from Skavenbrew to boot. You can pop this one in your turn, potentially lasting through your opponent’s turn. Could make horde builds a legit thing.

Bile-Torrent Our horde clearer. This is strong. Use it if you don’t have the infantry block to buff. Since the range is within 13” and it targets all models in the enemy unit, just one guy in range lets you melt the unit away. Doing 20 mortal damage on avg (on that chanting roll of 8+) to a 40 guy blob is scary.

Rabid-Tough Again, works on all infantry. This one you use on valuable targets like Rogors and Stormfiends. The better your base save, the better this is. The worse you opponent’s wound roll is, the better this is. Something to keep in mind.

These are all great. God damn it, I need my foot Plague Priest back GW, you bastards! Still, with the right strategy, it’s probably worth it to take a Priest for access to this lore. It really is fantastic.

Warscroll Focus

See, Pete is a smart man. He was the first to call dibs on Sons of Behemat. Me however, like a fucking dumbass, elected to go Skaven. That was a big mistake, though luckily some warscrolls have very little going on, so that is something

You can download the full lot here, if you haven’t already:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/4VkQYYs8GQli8mnX.pdf

Gnawholes

As established: you set up two. Good. Now let’s see what they do. Like with other armies, they effectively contain more faction rules, hidden in their warscrolls. The most important one is The Endless Vermintide:

For one CP, non-Hero Infantry units can return half strength ww6” of a Gnawhole, outside 3” of enemies. That’s pretty cool, when you realize these things can be everywhere! That’s a potential 4 units returned, assuming you don’t get one killed Round 1. 

Here’s the play though: doing it in Round 5 is a baller move. Often your opponent will not be thinking about you being able to do that and it can result in a denial of BT’s and scoring opportunities. Often it can pay to keep a dead unit dead for use in Round 5. Give it a try.

Arch-Warlock 170

You are taking this guy for a couple of reasons:

1. He’s a Wizard, you need as many casts as you can get
2. His ability is amazing on Jezzails, allowing them to Cover Fire on 3’s. In the right list he can also accompany Stormfiends

That’s it. 

Clawlord 120

Unfortunately his ability isn’t useful, he’s crap in combat and his keywords don’t do anything. Leave this guy in the cupboard for now.

Clawlord on Gnaw-beast 170

This guy you use in the horde army strat. His control score ability is amazing. Just a Banner Clanrat will count for 7 on an objective if you sacrifice its mate. You do this in the hero phase, but for your enemy to have to kill the unit to its last model to even be able to control an objective is great. Leaving those 2-3 Clanrats alive before was a pain, now it can get very, very annoying indeed!

Deathmaster 160

Ouch, 160 points is rough! I don’t see any practical use for this guy currently. You are not taking enough of a Nightrunner contingent to make him worth the points. Unfortunate, but undoubtedly more to come for Eshin soon. Back in the cupboard!

Grey Seer 120

This guy is worth his weight in warpstone, with his ability to cast on 3d6 and select the highest 2 dice. He will be the one pumping out your manifestations and Warpgale. I don’t see me leaving home without it, unless I’m taking Thaquol or Skreetch, and even then you are likely taking him anyway.

Keep him secret, keep him safe. He’s a warpstone-snorting, disease-ridden little gem of a rat this one.

Grey Seer on Screaming Bell 350

350 points?! What the… The warscroll is alright. First, it can ride on its own. I like this because it will piss off our own Patrick Nevan no end. Why the Grey Seer doesn’t get a casting bonus is beyond me to be honest, but it does do a lot for the army. Let’s go through it:

Peal of Doom sucks. GW seems to think that D3 dmg is better than -1 to hit. It does have a 50% chance of rolling that -1 to hit bubble, which is ok.

+6 Ward bubble is nice, but not great. It adds 6-7 effective wounds to a clanrat blob or about 4 to a unit of 6 Rat Ogors.

Cracks Call goes off on a 6, and that’s good. Doesn’t work against Fly which doesn’t matter too much (since flying units are often too fast to hurt) unless you’re up against NH, in which case: ignore the entire ability. Against an infantry force, this spell works like a charm, so it is matchup dependent, but in 4th there’s likely plenty of other options to cast when this is not useful, so we can live with a situational option. The trick is to get casting bonuses, as it works off the modified casting roll. So Skreetch plus a Place of Power can really charge up this spell potentially.

The scroll is alright, it’s just difficult to justify the cost at 350. There are attractive alternatives in this book, not the least of which is running 2 regular Grey Seers

Lord Skreech Verminking 430

Now this is a utility piece. I’ve become even more convinced of his value after playing a couple games with him. He is decent in combat too, kicking out 12 dmg avg! Skreetch is best ran in a castle build in my opinion.

His spell, The Dreaded Thirteenth is 13” range, which is short, but the effect is nice with 4mw avg and bringing the same amount of models back into a nearby Clanrat unit.

His rampage is classic Roar, but against infantry only. The D6 control score deduction is very situational, but can come in clutch.

But the real utility is in The Thirteen-Headed One. It lets you choose a buff in your turn, to complement the Clan keywords. In most lists you’ll have 2-3 Clans represented most likely, and he himself has all the keywords as well, so that helps. He benefits from his own charge, casting, rend and healing effects.

With the bubble being ww13”, it makes sense to huddle up, especially if you run shooting as part of your strategy. Since you can only have each buff once per battle, I’ve been finding that the ideal rotation is Masterclan>Skryre>Verminus (for the Clanrat counter charge)> Eshin (to buff himself in combat).

If you don’t run mixed Clans, his value is obviously diminished.  

Master Moulder 100

If your hammer is Rogors or Stormfiends, this is your chap. Bit of healing; sure. But he gives +2 to charge, and that’s what he’s there for. He does fuck all otherwise. The play is to use your Gnawholes to set up a Moulder unit, and this guy helps them nail a charge ouf of deepstrike.

Plague Priest on Plague Furnace 340

Friday afternoon at the GW office. They obviously didn’t feel like writing a lot of words. Why is this guy a Priest (1) you ask? Beats the fuck out of me. Priest (2) would have made him very attractive. And while the prayers are very good, I do not think he justifies spending 340 points on. He does about 9 dmg in combat on avg, which is ok.

Beyond that, he does two things: he has a 6” -1 Ward bubble. Sure could be nice, but is very match-up depended. And he hands out a 6” 6+ Ward. Convincingly meh.

Thanquol on Boneripper 360

No! Not my beautiful boy! Only does a disappointing 7 dmg avg in combat. A tragedy. His shooting attack now sucks ass with a sad 3dmg avg, and unlike other Warpfire weapons it can’t even shoot in combat. His Boneripper Rampage is mid as it does nothing one third of the time, but does add a couple of points of dmg on average.

His redeeming quality is that he is a Wizard (2). He has a handy spell in Terrible Madness, that shuts off commands and does a bit of horde dmg. He also packs a native +1 to cast thanks to Staff of the Horned Rat.

I would have hoped he would fill a more specific role in the army befitting a character of such renown, but at 360 he does feel a bit lackluster. 

Verminlord Corruptor 360

Our other Priest. Melee: shit, struggles to do 8dmg avg. Moving on quick-quick.

This is where the Great Plagues reside now, with Lord of the Great Plagues. Roll a natural 6 and get something amazing. Given that you will be making 6 Chanting rolls in the first 3 turns ideally, this is pretty likely to happen.

Let’s go through them, because they are awesome:

Crimsonweal Curse An enemy unit within 13” cops D3 mortal wounds for the rest of the battle, every time they use a Move ability. Wow! Every Move ability. Retreat, Run, Normal Move, Charge, Redeploy, Power Through and a lot of faction abilities too. Please, Move yourself to death, thanks.

The Neverplague Re-roll chanting rolls for all (lol) Priests for the rest of the battle. For when you are outside of 13”. Sure, I’ll take it.

Undulant Scourge 2D3 damage, in a pinch, not too shabby!

Very good, loving it.

He is, incidentally, also the Plaguemaster. This guy spreads the love! Pick 3 units in combat with the Corrupter himself for 2+ D3 damage and Ritual points. So this is a bit of a mixed bag, because what is your Priest doing hanging around in combat with 3 units?! That sounds like a plan gone wrong.

Most realistically he is in combat with 1 unit. Which would add 2-3 to his lacklustre damage and a Ritual point. The extra Ritual points are great and the reason why I pick him over the Furnace any day of the week. 

Verminlord Deceiver 410

It’s sad that Eshin isn’t really present in this book, because this Verminlord is very effective. Melee is a bit disappointing at 9dmg avg, but does add 4dmg avg in shooting, though can’t shoot in combat. (Why the hell is a ninja rat not capable of  chucking a star in someone’s head in combat though?!). His Redeploy reaction Lord of Assassins is sweet, but only applies to Nightrunners and I guess the Deathmaster. Both of which are not making the cut typically.

Burst From the Shadows might be the single coolest and perhaps best Rampage in the game. It allows, on a 4+, to teleport into a different combat up to 13”away. Now that is some ninja shit! Fuckers better not be taking a foot hero anywhere near the front line, cos that sucker will get stabbed by a Ninja-Rat-Deamon!

The question is, does he do enough when he gets there? Is 9dmg avg going to cut it? I think that it often just won’t. When taking the whole picture into consideration: 410 points, Rampage on a 4+, 9 damage, wizard (1)… As cool as he is, I do not think he is making the cut in the most competitive lists.

Verminlord Warbringer 360

The melee combat one! 10dmg avg! Omg! Can’t wait to tell all my friends! Wait… what? 10? That seems a bit lacking doesn’t it?

As the Verminus guy he buffs Verminus infantry with Tyrant of Battle. 2 Units can use AoD and AoA even if it’s been used before in this phase. They do however have to pay for the command. With how badly you need command points in this army: not great.

Killing Blow allows you to do D6 mortal damage if the roll is under the total damage already allocated to that unit. In practice meaning you do D6 damage to a wounded monster. What makes it ok, is that it happens end of turn. It is not, however, remotely nearly enough to take him.

Verminlord Warpseer 340

The Warpseer is another Verminlord whose damage output underwhelms: avg 6dmg in combat, holy moley it keeps getting worse. Divine the Future is such a good ability, allowing you to move 2” further in the enemy hero phase. It could make the difference in closing down a charge lane for example.

Then it can Hurl the Scry-Orb. 2+ D6 dmg is cool and makes up for its lack of regular combat damage, but removes the Divine the Future ability from the warscroll. It can deliver Strike-Last with the Arch Manipulator Rampage, but that’s locked behind a 4+.

The Warpseer’s spell is SO good, 18“ is the new standard and I’m just glad it isn’t 13”, so I won’t say anything. But it does cast on a 7+, making it unreliable, with no decent way of getting a casting bonus.

His big redeeming quality is that he is a Wizard (2). Which in and of itself (combined with his points cost) might even be enough to get him in competitive lists.

Warlock Bombardier 130

You bring this guy if you run out of points and you need an Engineer for the cannon or the blaster, that’s the short of it. He shoots his Doomrocket, but it is thoroughly unimpressive as it struggles to do 3dmg avg even with More-More Doom. He’s not a wizard either, he’s the cheap engineer, that’s it..

Warlock Engineer 150

New sculpt, new rules. Hit attack is not what you take him for, a bit over 2dmg avg, which he can deliver over 24”.  You take this guy to accompany units of Jezzails as a Sniper-Master. He picks an enemy unit, then Jezzail units ww13” can ignore Guarded Hero and snipe that bastard right out:

So your Jezzails can line up the killshot and blast away. Note that this rule counts for all heroes except Monsters and Warmachines, so Cavalry heroes do enjoy the -1 to hit. Note that per the FAQ, this ability is only allowing the Jezzails to target Infantry heroes from outside of 12″, and they do still suffer the -1 to hit penalty as normal.

This means some good old pinging off heroes. And they’ll do it 10 times a game if you are willing to spend the CP for Cover fire. It’s going to be a tough choice between this boy and the Arch Warlock.

Acolyte Globadiers 130

There hasn’t been nearly enough recognition for this unit in my opinion. But to start: I am really hoping that the mentioned 28,5mm base size was a mistake by GW, because if it is, I might cry (I have 40 converted models on 32mm).

Anyway, they are cool. You use these guys against Infantry units with 10 or more models to use their Gas Clouds ability for a pip of extra dmg, moving it up to D3+1. They’ll put out a healthy 12dmg avg for a reinforced unit. Since they are a Skryre unit, they benefit from the Warpcog buff, moving their dmg to 14-18 depending on how much you buff them. They shoot in combat, which is not as useful as it sounds: if they do end up in a fist fight, any opponent worth their salt is going to batter them. Still useful if they’re only tagged in combat because your opponent tries to shut them down with Murderlust-style movement, though.

Clanrats 160

Ah, the iconic Clanrat. The sacrificial backbone to any Skaven warlord’s plans for battle. First off, they do piss-all in combat, with their 5’s to wound. Auto wound does help a little bit, but the zero rend situation kills any dreams of doing dmg most of the time. 

To get some dmg out of these boys, you do need to go all in and treat them as an aggressive charging unit. More on that as we discuss combos. 

At 160 points, they’ve clearly factored in the recursion from the Gnawholes, allowing to bring half the unit back once. With 1 champion, 1 musician and 1 standard bearer per 20, you can bring the full command group back if you put 10 back through the Gnawhole. That is pretty generous. Between that and their Seething Swarm ability to bring back D3 slain models at the end of every turn, they have the potential to be very, very annoying indeed.

Doom-Flayer 80

Is this the new Bonesplitterz Big Stabba? Not really, but it’s still pretty damn good. With +1 Damage on the Charge and Anti-Infantry (+1 Rend), just one one of these little fuckers with the right amount of luck and a good charge deals ridiculous damage for its points. It does an avg of 5dmg on the charge, and way higher potential if you can roll box cars:

The writers might have been hitting the Warpstone when they put a rule like Whirling Doom on an 80 point unit. Adding even a couple of mortals to an 80 point package is huge. If you roll hot, there is a good chance this boy blows up a small unit or generic monster!

Being only 4 wounds on a 4+ save means even a LIGHT amount of attention makes them fall over dead, but May the Horned Rat help your opponent if you get a mass charge off with these. They don’t benefit from the Warpcog Convocation, but otherwise this might be the best “Fuck it, I’ve got 80 points to burn” unit that’s in the game, by far. A great asset in listbuilding.

Doomwheel 140

No unit embodies the Skaven lunacy more than the infamous Doomwheel. This insane contraption was contrived in some Warsptone-crazed snortfest and has captured the hearts of Skaven players and Total War Warhammer fans alike ever since.

Its role in the army has changed a couple of times and the last time we frequently encountered it on the battlefield, it was a decently efficient shooting unit. Alas, it’s not that anymore as it struggles to put out 2dmg avg. Ouch!

In combat it’s equally shite at 2dmg avg on the charge. You can use Rolling Doom instead of a Normal Move to run over up to 3 units and deal +2 D3mw to each. If you shoot at, run into and fight with a single target you’ll average 6 dmg. With an average 14″ move, that can be effective, but it needs a bit of luck and it’s mostly effective into low-save units.

Hell Pit Abomination 270

Infantry meta? Send in the Hellpit! I do like that we have a unit with such a dedicated role in the army. It isn’t bad against non-Infantry either, with 9 dmg avg being respectable for its points.

Against Infantry it really shines. Its damage goes to 11 avg and on top of that it does its Avalanche of Flesh on a 3+, smashing out an extra 3mw avg on a block of 10. That really isn’t bad. It has its own recursion through Too Horrible to Die on a 5+, bringing it back with D6 health. 

I do think you mostly take it if you were running a larger contingent of Moulder to start with. Because he is slow and fragile, you will want to use the Master Moulder to deepstrike this boy into the target it needs to wipe.  Great kitbash opportunity too.

Night Runners 130

These guys looks like those dudes the Power Rangers used to fight back in the day – let’s look at the warscroll, and see if we have to suffer their depressing presence this edition. 

Even though they come in 10’s, they have about the same dmg output per point as Clanrats, thanks to their Crit Mortals. These guys can shoot in combat, adding another 3dmg avg to their total, getting them to 7-8dmg avg for 10 dudes. Which is pretty decent to be honest.

Then they add utility by way of Slinking Advance, giving them a 7” Normal move in the deployment phase. With the Three Claw Steps in the enemy hero phase, plus your own movement phase, these guys can move a cool 21” in the first battle round. That is cool, not gonna lie.

To top it off, Sneaky Infiltrators makes it so they cannot get shot from 9”+ when within 1” of terrain. WITHIN! If only we could conjure up terrain anywhere as an army rule…

Wait? I like Nightrunners now? God damn it! It’s like that scruffy smelly family dog that you can’t stand the look of but can’t help loving either. Please do me a favour though, just print these, or get a proxy. Don’t give GW your money for these abominations.

Plague Monks 140

This scroll has been a problem since forever. GW classically struggles with mw abilities on hordes. Luckily, they have now successfully nurtured this scroll, so you don’t have to worry about that anymore…

They have the exact same profile as a Clanrat, because… the writer was tired I’m guessing. There isn’t really any specific buff for them anymore either within Pestilence.

They are Spreaders of Filth and Disease, potentially kicking back a whole bunch of mortal damage if you can roll hot. That is a heavyweight rule for a cheap screen. The issue is that it is a bit too easy to play around, as it only works for monks that die in combat range (note that the model has to be in combat, with the enemy unit).

Regardless, they are perfectly viable chaff, that you’ll see plenty of in lists. They are the most efficient delivery vehicle of the FilthCrust prayer for its Crit Mortals too. Averaging 13mw for 40 monks is a serious threat. If they get killed on the clap back, that could spike further if you play your cards right.

Plagueclaw 150

So close! Let me elaborate. Its damage is piss poor, with about 3dmg avg against infantry, or 2 against anything else.

You are taking it for the Bubonic Barrage, whereby you roll against the number of models you’ve just slain in the target unit to dish out Strikes Last. For a 1 Health unit, that works out to around a 50% chance. With 2 Plagueclaws, that’s ~75% chance. The problem is: how many 1 Health units are worth 300 points to make them strike last? For a 2 wound unit the chance goes down to 16-33% avg. 

They could have easily taken the roll out and made it “ any models slain”, which would have been a challenge in itself for most units. I hate to say it, but these stay on the shelf for a little bit longer. Almost there GW!

Rat Ogors 170

This unit got big hype! First off, the models are fantastic. Gone are the days where you could convince your opponent you had legit Rat Ogor models by popping a potato on a 50mm base and drawing a face and hands on it. 

I used to say that they could improve that model by replacing it with a lump of clay you throw down a flight of stairs. But reflecting on that statement, I might have been a bit harsh on the clay lump.

Aaaaaanyway, back to the warscroll. Because Rogors are Infantry they enjoy access to most of the buffs we have talked about previously. We’ll come back to it, but if you buff them into the Sky, you can get very close to one-shotting a Mega Gargant  with 6 of these laddo’s. Not without some luck though.

Delivering them into combat probably does require grabbing a Master Moulder for 100 points and taking the “Fleshmeld Menagerie” Moulder Battle Formation though, plus a Priest to get the mortal damage pumping. So that’s close to an 800 point investment at that point. But even without the mortals from the FilthCrust prayer, the unit can dish out 12dmg avg quite comfortably. Not to mention, they can be brought back as half the starting unit for a CP.

Ratling Gun 100

Rest In Power, “Push the button” mechanics! Ratling Guns are now just fairly reliable little pea shooters, putting out on average about 10 shots which converts into 3-4dmg a turn at 100 points. Is that really worth it? Not to me, not when a Warp Blaster is available that has the psychological benefit of threatening to spike an absolute shit ton of damage. Or for 10 points less you get one hell of a Covering Fire deterrent in the Warp-Fire Thrower.

Ratling Warpblaster 190

Now we’re talking! This edition is quickly looking to be the “Oops All Infantry” edition, with a smattering of Heavy Cavalry around the place. The native +1 to hit from the Ratling Warpblaster when targeting units with 10 or more models, when paired with the Arch-Warlock eliminating the -1 to hit from Covering Fire, makes it a WONDERFUL target for that Command and cheap as chips for what it can do. 3d6+3 shots at 20″ hitting on 3+ with Crit (Auto-Wound) for 5dmg avg? Yes, please.

On your turn it gets even more Skaven: everyone’s favorite push-your-luck mechanic is back for this one , with some truly apocalyptic levels of output becoming possible here. Now -obviously- what I’m about to describe is not something that you necessarily should do, but it lights up the child in me that loves to see numbers go up, because if you slam your hand down on that BIG RED BUTTON, the Warpblasters jump up to 6d6+3 shots in your shooting phase for 8dmg avg… But you take 1 mortal damage for every 1 to hit that you roll. That’s an average of 4 mortal damage back into your own 7 Health model, or around 50% of the damage you put into your opponent.

Take three Ratling Warpblasters and an Arch-Warlock in the Warpcog Convocation. Juice them up with the Convocation, and pray you hit the 6’s on the dice. Probably won’t happen, but for fun let’s imagine that it does, and then have each of those Warpblasters shoot a unit with 10 or models each.

Assuming all of the above pays off, that is–on average–24 Shots (when overcharged) or 14 shots (otherwise) on a 3+/2+/-2/1 with Auto-Wound at 20″, for a total average number of shots between three Ratling Warpblasters (assuming one is overcharged) at a mouth-watering 51 shots for 17dmg avg (nice).

Is it great damage output for the points? Probably not. Is it fun as hell? You know it is. The spike potential will freak people out, and also, it looks sweet! Just bring one to every friendly game. It’ll bring a smile to your little snout, I promise.

Stormfiends 260

Gone are the days of buffing a unit of 9 Stormfiends to the moon and back and banking on their shooting to split open your enemy’s army before it can get across the board. Instead, Stormfiends are now more a melee unit than anything.

Since Ratling Cannons only do 2dmg avg (because we don’t get sparks anymore), it’s not a big sacrifice to offer one up to be a Grinderfist. This is what I think a proper unit of 6 looks like now #hottake:

So That’s 1 Ratling Cannon, 2 Projectors, 2 Doomflayers and 1 Grinderfist. As you can see below, the Ratling is never going to be a very efficient shooting unit, so we might as well bank on getting these guys into combat. Take a Master Moulder, sling him up the field, pop out the Fiends, charge. Skabbik’s your uncle! Here’s the average output (on the charge) for you to nerd out over:

Stormvermin 140

There is just one core unit I don’t have painted up in this army… And naturally, they are the best ones. Classic GW. Let’s start with their Bodyguard passive ability. It states that Infantry heroes have a 5+ Ward in this unit’s combat range. And if I told you that, you would assume some things, knowing GW’s rules writing. Not this time. It’s just as simple as that. They have a Ward. No passing on wounds, not just for combat attacks. Just always, all the time. I like it! makes your foot heroes survive 33% longer. Can’t complain.

But that’s not what really makes them good. It’s their melee prowess. A unit of 20 will deal an avg of 17dmg, with just the rend buff. In the Clawhorde battle formation that happens either on the charge or when getting charged, so it’s pretty flexible. They have the potential to add an attack, To Hit bonus and double rend, pumping out avg dmg number north of 30. but even unbuffed they are just nasty.

Warp Lightning Cannon 180

In my last article I mentioned that I liked what they did with the Cannon. I still do, despite its points coming in a bit high. Let’s do the maths on this bad boy, shall we?

The avg and median dmg is 4-5mw. In overcharge through More-More Warp Lightning it does an avg of 6-7mw. You do kick back an avg of 4mw on that output; you will take about 75% of the dmg you dish out. It’ll last you 2 rounds of overcharged shooting typically. It’s well worth add +1 to hit, upping its avg dmg to 5mw, or 9mw overcharged. Its kick back ratio is more efficient that way at about 50%.

What I like it for is blasting a big whole into Big Bads and elite Cavalry. Even faced with a 5+ ward it’ll pump in 6 damage with overcharge and AoA. It’ll put work in where the rest of the army will struggle: high armour saves. I will regularly be putting one in my list.

Warpfire Thrower 90

Another super-efficient, sub-100 point unit! The shooting on this thing is pretty good, averaging about 7 shots a turn, and with it hitting on 2s you can really lay down some reliable 3-4dmg avg with this in a Warpcog Convocation. Very dependable output when you really need it. Ranged sources of Rend-2 are rare and valuable, letting you squeeze out crucial damage to high save units for a low opportunity cost, and it has Shoot in Combat! If you’ve got 90 points and want a mild amount more of ranged output, it’s hard to go wrong here.

Warplock Jezzails 150

Saving the best for last? Might very well be the case. GW unexpectedly decided to grace us with new sculpts for this model. Fortunately they stayed true to the old recipe and produced something stunning.

You may have caught the buzz around these, and rightfully so. Six of these guys cough up an easy 10dmg avg in a shooting phase from 24” away, using the free To Hit bonus from their Warpstone Snipers ability (in your shooting phase only). But with the Arch-Warlock nearby, they also won’t suffer the -1 To Hit penalty when using Covering Fire. Without the Warlock around, they do around 8dmg avg in Covering Fire.

I really struggle to see how these would not be of value in any list. I think in any list you should consider working with 1700 points and lock 6 Jezzails in there every time.

Key Combos

AoA: All-out Acolytes

Granted, they are a bit squishy. But Acolyte Globadiers can be buffed into the fucking stratosphere. You start by running the Warpcog Convocation, adding +1 to wound rolls most of the time and rend every 3 turns on avg.

Between that, the Arch-Warlock and All-out Attack, you can pretty much hit on 2+2+ all day long. The preferred target for these fellas is 10-man Infantry units.

If you really don’t need friends in your life, you then yeet a Purple Sun up the board to effectively improve the Rend further. Lord Skreech could be another good choice to get that +1 to Hit, to negate any penalties. 

That results in 21dmg avg, for 260 points without any specific investments! Fun-fun, no?

Horde Fuckery

Are you sitting down? The horde dmg per point award goes to… 

Relax, it’s Stormvermin. Quite convincingly as well. Interestingly, the extra rend for Verminus from the Claw-Horde formation doesn’t grant Clanrats enough of a boost to offset the price advantage on the Monks, although it will of course win out against targets with a 3+ save and better targets.

Stormvermin is clearly your Deathstar unit of choice. Note that this includes the FilthCrust prayer and Skavenbrew.

Honorable mention for the Nightrunner, who don’t need the prayer for Crit mortals and save you a 350 point Priest.

Activation Wars 

This might prove to be a big weakness of the army. It has only one generic source of Strike Last, being the CV7 Warpgale spell. Outside of that, we are looking at the Verminlord Warpseer doing it on a 4+ in combat. It’s going be interesting to see how that impacts the competitive scene.

Preferred Manifestations

There are two obvious choices I think: either the Faction Manifestations of Doom, or the Morbid Conjurations.

Manifestations of Doom

DOOM! Everything casts and gets banished on a 7+. I love these, and if you don’t want to overthink it: take them and cast them every turn!

Warp Lightning Vortex Still great, super annoying and does very decent damage. It has a big downside though: it is very squishy with its 6+ save and 7 health. Each unit within 6” gets whacked with D3mw on a 4+, and when you pass through it (a massive 7” triangle!) you wear D3 again.

You also get to subtract 2” from run and charge for every enemy within 6” which can make short to mid-range charges highly dicey. Skaven are now immune to it too. And to top it off, its range is super awesome: the first one needs to be ww18”, but the second and third have to be 7” from the first. That’s 25” of being very, very annoying.

Vermintide Is fine. Does fuck all in combat. What is does well is get in the way, and has 13 Health that heals itself. Yes-yes!

Bell of Doom This is a defensive Manifestation. It gives a ww13” -1 to Wound bubble. Pretty sweet. It does move, so can keep up with your army and block movement.

Then just clog up the board:

Morbid Conjuration

Also works pretty well for what Skaven tries to do.

Suffocating Gravetide Perfectly usable stand-in-the-way Manifestation, that does some actual work in combat too if it charges! When it moves over a unit of 20 guys, it pumps out an avg of 7 mortal damage on 4+s, then around another 6dmg avg in combat. Neat!

Purple Sun of Shyish Yeah, pretty cool, cv8. But! Hands out -1 to saves w3”. That is pretty freaking useful in a shooting army. Amazing value.

Soulsnare Shackles Slowing the enemy down is big for Skaven, relying on keeping your enemy from scoring as a strategy, so them not getting where they need to be is right up our alley. For each targeted unit, you have a 66% chance to reduce their movement by D3”.

Malevolent Maelstrom Also fits Skaven pretty well, as it feeds on models slain (ay?! we get those!) and magic. It then explodes, hurting everyone around it +2 D6mw. The player can actually choose whether to Declare that it will explode, but luckily, we don’t give a shit if Clanrats die, do we?

Sample List

I’ll leave you with a couple of lists that I’ve been trying out, and which I think will work well in this edition.

Lord Skreech and the Warpcogs

This list plays as a castle around Skreech and the Jezzails. The Stormfiends can setup in the Tunnels to act as your mobile threat. The Jezzails proceed to blast away every turn, so 1 CP is reserved for Covering Fire, and from Turn 2 onwards one further CP is reserved to bring back a unit. Your goal is to keep Skreech cowering behind the Clanrats until Turn 3 in most missions.

More-More Horde Rats

It’s not Skaven if we never play the horde way:

In this list we’re going 4 drop to allow for at least 2 casts in the army. Being so body heavy, I think we can easily take being high drop. We use a CP to make a prayer roll in every enemy turn, because we need 8 Ritual points for FilthCrust as often as we can possibly get it. We use Warpgale and the Manifestations to pick favorable combats, and then straight to murder.

Let Rats be Rats

I’m actually not convinced we need the big rats in our lists at all. They are all pretty costly and often lack utility. 

Here we have a healthy 5 drop list. I ran this as a Warpcog myself, but a Fleshmeld Menagerie works fine too. Rat Ogors with a Master Moulder will be your scalpel, to get in there and remove a key threat from your enemy’s army. This is where I used the Morbid Conjuration Lore to boost the value of the Jezzails and Rogors. The Nightrunners make it easy to get into position and provoke attacks from the enemy, drawing them into the Sun! This list is very fun, and very Skaven. Another option is to run Stormvermin instead of Nightrunners, if you feel you need more threats.

Final Verdict: Is It Cool? Is It Good?

We’ve debated this one quite a bit in the Writer’s Room – some of the PC team think the Rats are top tier, but I think Skaven lands solidly in the middle of the pack, albeit with definite potential to spike given the right list in the right hands. It has a deep toolbox, and gives you everything you need to win games. In tournaments we might see scoring based on Major Wins more often, and that’s something the Skaven might struggle in, as they lack the punch to go for all-or-nothing strategies. 

The army has some great rules, centered around movement and recursion. On the flipside, they are squishy and lack some major output buffs, which paints a picture of an army with a high skill floor. Meaning it will take a decent level of skill and experience to get the most out of what the army can do.

Where Skaven really excels is in shooting. If you want to go that route, I think Jezzail spam is a real thing. They are efficient for a shooting unit and you will be able to whizz them across the board to avoid getting killed, or to get an angle on a preferred target. Not to mention you can bring them back. This army needs you to build the right list, not necessarily the list that you would want to build flavor wise. To me there is very little here that encourages spam and a lot that promotes a mixed arms (and Clans) lists. All in all, this is a fantastic set of rules, that I can’t wait to master. Bring on 4th, bring on 2024! Glory to the Horned Rat!

What the army needs now is a good combat monster…

If you’d like to help us continue our work, we’d love to have your support. All Patreon Tiers include Discord access, exclusive articles and regular contests. Our Tiers are priced to be within everyone’s reach, so please click here to join us today!