I'm playing against Skaven somewhere in the next month (we haven't picked a date yet), so I was wondering if anyone has any basic tips for me. What to expect, what to field, etc. I've played three matches so far, against Beastmen, Empire and Bretonnia, and with that last one I felt I was starting to get familiar with the rules Anyway, it's 2000pt, and I can field pretty much anything I want because I'll use proxies for most of it anyway.
Salamanders. They will walk through the Clan Rats and Slaves. Use Chameleon's to take out weapon teams and warmachines. I would also consider an anti magic Slaan build.
mighty slann with TG saurus skinks (chamo and vanilla) salamanders DONE weapon teams are unpredictable, and should be handled asap with skinks. saurus murder his infantry, but it might take a while due to his overwhelming numbers. use salamanders to soften him up to mitigate that. you shouldnt have to go out of your way with some crazy tactics to fight skaven. they feel fairly standard. the normal cookie cutter army mentioned above should work fine, assuming you are on equal skill lvl with your opponent.
Against skaven, I also find that skrox are better than against most other armies. There are several advantages they bring when fighting skaven: 1) Skrox are immune to the dreaded 13th spell since the spell only affects "pure" infantry 2) They are immune to stomp/thunderstomp. When facing a helpit, this is useful since with S6 it will wound just about anything on a 2+ anyhow and skrox at least deny the d6 thunderstomps and can hit back with S6 of their own. Also useful for tackling doomwheels and rat ogres. 3) In addition, since they move fairly fast and cause fear, they can get into a flank and cause skaven to fail fear checks. Even over the front they are not prone to give away as many wounds as normal since most skaven rank and file are T3/S3. 4) They can move and shoot with quick to fire. A good tactic is to move up and use their shooting to target either weapon teams or to go after units to weaken them slightly before combat. 5) No one cares if skinks die, they are always more in the breeding pools
As was said, chamos to take out warmachines, but don't forget the regular skirmishers. Those guys are great for taking out a doomwheel/hamsterwheel.
Thanks! I was already thinking about salamanders, good to hear they're a good idea. My opponent still hasn't replied about a date so I really hope we can still plan it this month... I should have time to make an armylist this weekend, I'll be sure to use your advice.
When I played against skaven my saurii(with spears) were just walking through clantrats. And like many said use camos to kill war machines.
Life Slann, Mystery, Rumination, Folding Tower, BSB, Flame Banner 100+ Skinks (in the tower) 2 Reg Stegs 2 Ancient Stegs Of course if he has a bell your screwed.
Depends on how much warmachine spam he engages in, but generally speaking; Slann with Light gives you some gun-magic to soften up his hordes, 'Net' for slowing Rat Ogres (the only close-combat problem aside from the Hell Pit you'll face), 'Pha's Protection' to shut down his warmachines, and of course the combat buffs to make your Saurus go first. Shadow is also a good Lore, and of course Life because 'Dwellers' will remove entire blocks at will. Old-Blood will chew through most of their characters with no problem, so he's kinda overkill. Scar-Vets will probably be enough. Sword of the Hornet/Swift Slaying is an excellent choice, as it solves your low Initiative EOTG makes Skaven cry, because it hands out ward saves against their warmachine fire, and once they reach your battleline you can switch to 'Burning Alignment' and rack up the kills. 'Blizzard' from the Priest on top is also useful for shutting down a warmachine. Of course, if you roll 'Chain Lightning' or 'Comet', you'll also be killing stuff. Saurus need to be buffed, as static combat rez will be against them and you're gonna take a lot of S3 before you get to strike (Skaven specialise in outnumbering every army ever with just their Core blocks). Light magic helps here, but once you have 'Speed of Light' or 'Timewarp' up (or both haha), you'll demolish even Stormvermin. Skinks with blowpipes are a pretty good way of eliminating weapon teams and warmachine crews, as per usual. Just be sure to blow away the attached unit of the weapon team first with magic or Salamanders, as if you don't, they get a 4+ ward (which might let them survive your hail of darts). Stegs are good as counter-chargers, just be aware that warp cannons, warpfire throwers and his magic can all obliterate them. So, hide inside the Gungan shield, and flank charge stuff that tries to engage the Saurus battleline. Camo Skinks obviously as good, but extremely suicidal as per usual. Temple Guard will outfight most things, Rat Ogres will rip them up but ultimately succumb, and if you buff them with Light magic or nerf enemy Initiative to 1 with 'Miasma' from Shadow, you'll cut them down before they can swing. Salamanders are, as per usual, worth their weight in gold. Skaven in particular hate Leadership tests (even in BSB range, they're usually taking them on an 8), and nothing in their army is heavily armoured or especially tough (except Rat Ogres). If you snipe out the BSB early with Blood Statuette or magic, Salamanders will route his entire army after two turns uninterrupted fire. And, if he wastes warmachines, magic or Rat Ogres trying to kill them, thats more Saurus or Stegs not taking wounds.