AoS 1000k list vs horde Skaventide

[LordBaconBane]

Hey everyone,

The local GW is doing a casual escalation league next weekend and I know my buddy will be bringing his Skaventide forces. I have been struggling badly against him and I'm hoping to get some advice from you guys on a solid force.

What I have available:
Slann
Engine of the Gods or Stegadon (magentized)
Bastalidon (Sotek or Solar Engine)
30 Saurus Warriors
Carnosaur with Oldblood and Scar veteran
Troglodon
40 skinks with shields and blow pipes
1 Salamander & handlers
1 unit of Rippers
1 unit of Terradons
1 Skink starpriest.
1 Astrolith Starbearer
1 unit of chameleon skinks

What he normally brings:
2 units of 40 units of clan rats
2 Clawleaders
1 Warlock Engineer
2 units of 2 Rat Ogors
1 Skaventide Endless spell
1 unit of packmasters
He might bring a screaming bell.


Normally our matches end with him rushing me with clan rats, getting 40-60 attacks off in one combat phase, and ending the game right there, before he even uses any of his other units.

What I'm thinking of bringing

1 Slann Starmaster - General. Vast Intellect. I'm thinking Prism of Amyntok as item.

1 unit of Chameleon skinks
1 Salamander
1 unit of Ripperdactyls
1 unit of 20 skinks with Shields/boltspitters.
1 unit of 10 Saurus Warriors with spears

= 1000 points in the end. I'm not 100% certain about this list, but let me describe what I'm thinking.

The Great Plan

- Put distance between me and my opponent. He'll try to rush me, so spreading is the way to go. Use my hidden skinks to target packs of rats to reduce bonuses.
- Try to get the first charge in. Use spells like Mystic Shield & Summon Starlight on my Stegadon to do a devastating first charge.
- Try to get Rippers on a hero, but more than likely I'll use them in conjuction with my steg to wipe or nearly wipe a unit of clan rats before they get the double attack bonus.
- If I can, summon.
- Not sure what to do with the Saurus or skinks.. I feel like I am wasting points on them just to have them on my battleline.

Sorry for the novel, any advice would be well appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Stega]

Take out the saurus and have a second 20 block of skinks. Put them in your front line and stop him rushing you by holding him up. They've got the ability to retreat in the combat phase which means it'll annoy him and won't allow him to charge you and mince you up first turn.

Does your stegadon have sunfire throwers? You could stick this right behind your skinks, use the alpha ability to give them re rolls on 1s to hit when you want them to thin down the pack of rats a bit, then when you retreat with the skinks move them to the side and the stegadon can charge. 1 attack against every model in his big unit with the sunfore throwers, 3d6 attacks on the charge (with no wounds) and 3 attacks at -3 rend too.

You can work a variation of this tactic depending on who's turn it is etc.

I'd use the rippers to attack his important characters.

You can keep summoning skinks as well to hold him up if needs be.

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

Up to now, most of my battles have been against a good Skaven player. We're about even on wins/losses against each other. Here's my recommended list, based on your available units:

Allegiance: Seraphon
Mortal Realm: Ghur

Leaders
Slann Starmaster (260)
- General
- Trait: Great Rememberer
- Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices
Skink Starpriest (80)
- Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm

Battleline
10 x Skinks (60)
- Boltspitters & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (60)
- Boltspitters & Star Bucklers

Units
6 x Ripperdactyl Riders (280)

Battalions
Shadowstrike Starhost (180)

Endless Spells
Chronomantic Cogs (60)
Soulsnare Shackles (20)

Total: 1000 / 1000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 49

At 1K, Shadowstrike can be devastating! With a two drop list, you'll get to decide who goes first. After setup, you can deploy your two units of Skinks forward to road block his Clan Rats. This happens before deciding who will take the first turn!

After setup and Stealthy Advance, look over his deployment for a juicy target your Ripperdactyls in the sky can swoop into. Heros are great victims, but wiping away a unit of 40 Clan Rats is also great. Ideally, you want to position your Rippers so that you can murder your target, but he can't retaliate into, as they are a bit of a glass cannon. If they manage to survive, don't forget that once they are out of combat again, they are flying and can once again perform a swooping dive. Don't forget that Blot Toad, which is deployed in your first hero phase and moves D6 each of your movement phases.

Also in your first hero phase, keep the Starpriest within 21" of the Slann, so that you can use his cast on the Cogs and then have the Slann take it over (set it up 12" away from the Starpriest and it should be with 9" of the Slann), giving the Slann 4 spell casts T1 = 12 +1 Conjuration Points. This means at the end of your very first movement phase, you can bring in the other 20 Skinks (has to be 2x units of 10) as additional road blocks or screens and you should be able to have 14 Conjuration Points by the end of your T2 that can be used on the Salamander or even the Warriors, if you need more bodies. Your T2 you could also cast Shackles to tie up any Clan Rats left.

If you find he hasn't deployed in a manner that allows for the Rippers to be fully effective, consider giving him T1, and let him run into your road blocks, thus opening up his army for your Rippers.

After that, it's just a matter of keeping the Slann alive and keep summoning. If you can clear his Clan Rats, you've got a great edge on winning, especially if there are objectives.

If he brings Warp Lighting Vortex as his Endless Spell, don't cluster your units! Be mindful of Gnaw Holes, but with proper screening, they aren't

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

I'm guessing these are the lists your opponent brings:

Allegiance: Skaventide
Clawlord (100)
Clawlord (100)
Warlock Engineer (100)
40 x Clanrats (200)
- Rusty Blade
40 x Clanrats (200)
- Rusty Blade
2 x Rat Ogors (100)
2 x Rat Ogors (100)
3 x Packmasters (60)
Vermintide (40)

Total: 1000 / 1000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 117
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allegiance: Skaventide

Leaders
Warlock Engineer (100)
Grey Seer on Screaming Bell (200)

Battleline
40 x Clanrats (200)
- Rusty Blade
40 x Clanrats (200)
- Rusty Blade

Units
2 x Rat Ogors (100)
2 x Rat Ogors (100)
3 x Packmasters (60)

Endless Spells
Vermintide (40)

Total: 1000 / 1000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 120

 

[LordBaconBane]

Up to now, most of my battles have been against a good Skaven player. We're about even on wins/losses against each other. Here's my recommended list, based on your available units:

I love the list I unfortunately only have 3 Rippers/3 Terradons and no endless spells, but maybe he'll let me proxy them (he will be proxying Vermintide afterall). I'm still building up my army.

If you find he hasn't deployed in a manner that allows for the Rippers to be fully effective, consider giving him T1, and let him run into your road blocks, thus opening up his army for your Rippers.

This is the part I'm going to struggle with. My buddy will most certainly form what I call the "Death Star-tide" of rats, where he will try to clump his clan rats and heroes into a big block and goooooooooo (his word) towards my precious lizards. I'm thinking I might just have to take t1, swoop in, smack as hard as I possibly can and try to force him to take a harsh battleshock test.

As for summoning, I'm likely just going to summon in more Skinks for road blocking in T1, but if I can, I'll try to get a T3 Carnosaur Scar-vet, if not, Trog or replace my Rippers/Terradons. A Carnosaur is such a good counter to mass rats if I can give him some support.

I'm guessing these are the lists your opponent brings:

Pretty much. If his Screaming Bell isn't ready for the weekend, it will just be another 200 points worth of clan rats -.-

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

Yeah, I figured you only had 3x each of Rippers/Terradons, but I was assuming you'd be able to proxy them. Are you playing at a GW or another game shop that might have Endless Spells you could borrow? Otherwise, you might see if your opponent is willing to allow for a proxy model or item.

Ok, that helps with planning a bit. I would absolutely recommend taking T1 then. This will allow you to summon your additional two units of Skinks and provide further road blocks. Space your models out in such a way to maximize board coverage, making use of the 1" coherency, and either force him to have to stop and fight, or break up his force to move around them. Each unit he hits stops the deathstar, even if he wipes it out. You don't have to bring your Rippers down on T1 either. Depending on how he deals with the Skink road blocks, you might get a great target of opportunity. In his list, those Clan Rats are absolutely the biggest threat, as the Engineer is really only there to cast Vermintide. Hopefully, he won't bring the Screaming Bell, as it's aura that negates Battle Shock really makes it hard to whittle down the Clan Rat hoards.

T3 Carnosaur is a good idea. If you're going after a hoard with it, try to charge it into a corner, to reduce the units ability to strike back. Remember, all attacks happen at the same time, so even if he removes models in front of the Carno, if you have more attacks, they are still hitting the unit.

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

Another question: Are y'all just playing kill games, or are you using objectives?

 

[LordBaconBane]

Well be rolling for a game, so it might end up being a kill game, but it could be objective.

 

[LordBaconBane]

Yeah, I figured you only had 3x each of Rippers/Terradons, but I was assuming you'd be able to proxy them. Are you playing at a GW or another game shop that might have Endless Spells you could borrow? Otherwise, you might see if your opponent is willing to allow for a proxy model or item.

Ok, that helps with planning a bit. I would absolutely recommend taking T1 then. This will allow you to summon your additional two units of Skinks and provide further road blocks. Space your models out in such a way to maximize board coverage, making use of the 1" coherency, and either force him to have to stop and fight, or break up his force to move around them. Each unit he hits stops the deathstar, even if he wipes it out. You don't have to bring your Rippers down on T1 either. Depending on how he deals with the Skink road blocks, you might get a great target of opportunity. In his list, those Clan Rats are absolutely the biggest threat, as the Engineer is really only there to cast Vermintide. Hopefully, he won't bring the Screaming Bell, as it's aura that negates Battle Shock really makes it hard to whittle down the Clan Rat hoards.

He should be OK with me doing proxies (considering he is doing one lol). I also have the right base sizes for everything too, so I should be able to make this work. And I should be able to draw him to my Slann using my skinks & summoning. I'm thinking either a T1 swoop depending on deployment or waiting until T2.

I'll try running this list and put it in a battle report later after the weekend.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

Great! I look forward to reading your battle report.