Tonight, in the opening phase of our LGS's Mighty Empires campaign, my brave Estalians were absolutely torn asunder by the Skaven. Now, I must say, I have never had to fight the rat-men before, but I did some research, and thought I knew some of what to expect. I knew to fear ratling guns, and to hate the warp lightning cannon... but what I was not prepared for was the Skaven's overpowering magic!
A single plague spell gutted three units in the bottom half of the first turn, and it went to pieces from there.
Anyone have any general advice for dealing with this kind of thing? The Dogs are so magic light, it's very difficult I'm finding to face up to the several armies who are magic heavy.
Get two scroll caddies. Bout all you can do.
From the looks of the boards though, Dogs of War generally roam a bit magic-medium to heavy I think in 2k points. Usually you see something like Wizard Lord, Asarnil, Paymaster and a Hireling Wizard for character slots (Throwing in a Truthsayer if they're allowed in your region) in the lists around on this site.
Yeah, Truthsayer would work pretty well if you can use them.
I always include at least two units of knights without champions for mage hunting. Without challenges they've no defence and the heavy armour means enough will survive to make combat. You might not kill a grey seer in one charge but engineers are alot squishier.
At least one scroll caddy is a must though.
How many points was the game?
When I've gone against Skaven the Jazziels were more damaging than their magic. If memory serves warplonk engineer are basically level 1 that cannot be upgraded to level 2 so only 1 spell a piece. Now the gray seer is a Lord magic caster.
If it was me i get some big Oll cats !!
Shoot them !!!! empier gun line ogre lead belchers
Yes, shooting is the best option. Also some fear causing units are a good option for the skaven.
I play skaven myself and I seem to have difficulties when dealing with elite troops (good WS and AS) so maybe include some Ror in there. Try to screen your cav a bit from shooting. Also 2 scrollcaddies as metioned efore is a good option.
But this may change a bit with the new skaven book. We'll see if the army will change much then...
(10-09-2009 03:58 AM)Squirrelfreak Wrote: [ -> ]Try to screen your cav a bit from shooting.
Screening is impossible in the presense of a Warp Lightning Cannon, as my Paymaster so painfully learned 6 wounds later
use fear, ogres would be great you just have to screen them. if you have alot of problems with the warp cannon take a hero on a pegasus to take it out and help you with the mages, use scroll caddys but with lv.1 you will need the points,
i would use alot of norse marauders too.
ItP units would work well , they just need to be screened. It sound like you met the SAD skaven army. Skryre lists are always tough (with a few hints of cheese thrown in).
Pike blocks will rack up tons of kills against any unit in their army you just need to avoid taking too many shooting / magic casualties.
Doubling up on scroll caddies is a good idea, or a lvl 4 and a lvl 2 have worked well for me.
The anti-skaven tactics will have to be adjusted slighlty with the release of the new book but by and large it's still the same. Fear the doomwheel when it returns.
(10-09-2009 01:30 PM)Slick Wrote: [ -> ]The anti-skaven tactics will have to be adjusted slighlty with the release of the new book but by and large it's still the same. Fear the doomwheel when it returns.
becareful of the Vermin Lord too, He's Back.
Never have fought Skaven but using lots of Lbs 4 strong and unleash shooty death at their frail units !! Then charge and wack them with your cannons . Might not work but worth a go , my standard list always takes 4 Lb units they are so good for shooting, flanking with the heavy cav etc . And a giant causing terror on the flanks as long he does not become a big target for the Ratling snipers !
Ok, fougt my first game with skaven against dwarfs and here are a few remarks:
1. Try to kill off the warmachines if possible. The warpfire thrower has become very powerful with the new rule that everything under the template is a hit and no longer a partial.
2. Kill off plague censorbearers and plaguemonks. THe censorbeares had 15 S5 attacks on a charge due to the flails and 2 (+1 att for frenzy). Also the plaguesensor is a nifty ability (killed 2 dwarfs and 2 of my own models
)
3. Take with you a lot of scrollcadies. The scorch spell is just devastating. 24' range small template and everything it touches is a hit. It's S4 flaming attacks and when it causes wounds (and it will) it causes panick. So that means you have a unit of 20 pikemen or marauders or wathever were there will be 18 !! hits. With the dwarfs I took out 8 dwarfs with one spell.
4. Don't waste you bullets on the hellpit abomination unless you have a wizard with the fire lore or something. It has regeneration 6W T 5 and for 15 points magic resistance 1 so magic will be the best solution for that thing. It will eat up your units. With the dwarfs it caused 2 terror tests in them so it was a bit of a sucky diceroll for the dwarfplayer. Maybe Leopold can handle it although he will have a tough time wounding the thing.
5. Try to concentrate fire on 1 unit at a time. You have a lot of juicy targets and try to pick one off every turn. Also I don't think it will be worth to target units with a screaming bell of plaguefurnace in it. Sure you can reduce their numbers, but units with such a device in it are UNBREAKABLE. Also the screaming bell is very tough with a 4+ ward save for him and the seer. I also got off a scoch spell with the bell (bound level 5) which the dwarf player couldn't dispel (again sucky dicerolling).
My overall thought is that the skaven have gotten a lot of love frol Jeremy and have definitaly improved since the last book. A lot more choices and some very powerfull units have come into the fray.
Also one final thought on this: the template stuff about partials now becoming hits is maye a prelude for the next 8th edition that is coming around in the summer of next year. My friends and I were just speculating off course, but maybe there might be some thruth in this. Only time will tell.
Cursed Company may be an option. CC will score lots of kills and cause lots of fear against weak and low ld ratmen.
(11-10-2009 01:27 PM)Dark Shogun Wrote: [ -> ]Cursed Company may be an option. CC will score lots of kills and cause lots of fear against weak and low ld ratmen.
Only ears of Cursed Company will come to Skaven bricks.
