Hey, I am new to WHFB although I played a bit of 40k. I play with a group of guys, one being skaven (other two being dwarf, and WE). After flipping through the skaven rulebook they look pretty scary. So I was wondering what I should look out for? To be more specific we are playing at the 1500pt lvl. I know he has a doomwheel a greyseer, tons of slaves and clanrats, gutterrunners, ogre rats, and a few weapon teams I believe. I haven't played a single WHFB game yet (although I have studied the rules quite thoroughly). Which of those troop types have you found to be the most dangerous (in your opinion) and how did you deal with them? Thanks
Saurus wariors and a lot of salamanders would be a good start. Also some chamelions would help. Prety much all the skaven units are dangerous, to themselves as well as to us.
First up, I suggest you take a slann mage-priest with lore of life as your general. You can equip him with Focused Rumination, Focus of Mystery and give him BSB. Get 2 blocks of 25 SW warriors with HW (full command) 1 block of 16 TG (full command) 10 skink skirmishers 2 Salamanders with extra handlers 1491 pts atm. You can free some points by dropping the champions in the saurus blocks and dropping the numbers in one block to 20. This would allow you to fit in some chameleon skinks (I strongly advice you to go that way!). Salamanders will tear appart troops on 20mm bases. Use your sallies as 2 different units and have one on each flank. Move the 3 infantry blocks in the middle, make sure they are decently spread out to avoid 2 units being hit from the same template. Use skinks to take out shooting threats, mess their charges up and kill lone characters or high T models. Unless he has some abominations, you are pretty much good to go!
heh, its funny because my list is very similar to the one you just posted. Slaan Mage Priest - Focuses Rumination, Focus Mystery (life), cupped hands. 20 saurus - musician - SB - HW 20 saurus - musician - SB - HW 10 skink skirmishers 1 skink priest - plaque of Tepok - staff of the lost suns 10 TG - musician - SB 1 sally + handler 1 sally + handler 6 chameleon skinks utilizes all the troops i currently own...except a few extra skinks and a skink chief.
You do realise one casting of the 13th spell will see that Temple Guard and Slann gone. My regular opponent has a nasty Skaven list. I run 3 blocks of saurus 25 strong and float my Slann between them to keep him safe. Suppose there is nothing you can do when they throw 6 dice at it with a powerscroll. The salamanders are a must. I had 3 blocks of 10 Skinks as well just to delay his advance. The delay dont last long but its enough to let you pump put a bucket loads of shots to soften up his harder units. Good luck with your game though. Oh also watch for the skitterleaping Warlock who then throws the brass orb on your slann. Yeah you get a look out sir roll but just bear it in mind. Cheers Luke.
The 13th spell is very strong. But in order to completly destroy your unit, he needs good rolls on his 4d6 roll. And he might end up blowing his own grey-seer, a 240+ pts investment. As a matter of fact, he can end up on the losing end of the bargain... Also, even with the IF from the power scroll, he still has to reach the minim cast value of 25+. While blowing up his own wizard might work sometimes, it's more likely to end up being very costly, and it's definitely something I wouldn't rely on. It's more a double edge sword than a true ace up his sleeve.
Chameleons are just great at taking out warmachines/lone mages and harassing enemy units. As a matter of fact, they are a must have in every army, kind of like salamanders.
oh my 2000 point army dosent have any just two blocks of 10 skink skirmishers should i change it on the skaven front i like a few dispel scrolls just if the 13 gets cast thanks SEBM you seem to know a lot
A Chameleon skink unit isn't much more expensive than a skink skirmisher unit (unit of 6 vs unit of 10) and is usually much more effective. The extra BS with the scout rules and the extra -1 to hit makes them very good at what they do.
Chameleons will suffer from lack of numbers though. Played a skaven opponent who brought 3 solo warlock engineers, all with warp lightning and a grey seer. On top of that he had some sort of an extra channeling chanse in his own turn with one of then because of an item. This means he channeled a lot of dice and could one-dice warp-lightning on my 2 units of 6 chameleons and later on my 2 units of 10 skinks. They were a real pain since I kept becalming on the seer. However I agree that chameleons and skinks are great and should be mandatory in a competitive list. I also wonder if you realy need to meet the casting value when using the power-scroll. I know that the FAQ made it so that Teclis and BoH has to, but I didnt know that it covered the powerscroll. If that is the case then we will never fear the dreaded 13 again. In order to pull it off with an average diceroll when you have becalming you need 8 dice. Seems reassuring.
I have played against skaven many of times now with the lizardmen....first off dont be afraid of the doom wheel cause every time i play against it i notice that it goes around basically shooting his own unit its kind of funny there is no telling where that thing goes. The slaves are expendable so they die off very easy. When i ran last against skaven I ran my mage priest and took the lore of life and added the extra dice for each spell cast (which is amazing) in a unit with 20 temple guard. 2 units of warriors 6x3 a ancient stegadon and 5 chameleon skinks. it was great and i ran over everything he had. Now if your buddy decides to get the hell pit watch out......flaming attacks was the only way to bring it down fast (until it comes back from the dead or brings back rat swarms) salamanders will work there though but that thing is freaking ridiculous
You just need becalming on the slann to mostly negate thirteenth and maybe keep a dispel scroll in case he manages to cast it without rolling 6's. Also bear in mind the cube of darkness may add more magical defense but counteract the life slann's throne of vines so watch out.
@ rammramm: It's very clear in the FAQ, check page 5 on this link. Also, a maximum of 6 dice can be used on a casting attempt (SRB, page 32, probably the same in the BRB).
First of all that was my point exactly, 8 dice to reliably cast a spell is realy not a problem since they max out at 6. However i am pretty sure that a grey seer can use his "warp tokens" (not sure on the name) to increase his casting to more than 6 dice. This would give him something like a 50/50 chance of gettng the spell off. However a dispel scroll looks pretty nice in that situation. On the second part is this the FAQ you mean? Q: Some magical items and special rules cause a miscast to occur on casting rolls other than that of a double six. For example, you might have to roll on the Miscast table if you roll any double. When this occurs, is the spell still cast? (p34) A: Yes, as long as the casting value is met. In that case I disagree that it does what you say it does since the powerscroll doesnt trigger a miscast but a irresistible force/miscast. In my opinion this answer is for things that only trigger miscasts of which there are plenty in the 7th edition armybooks.
Yup there are such items (in the beastmen and DE books i believe), and that answer is for them. And the powerscroll dosent cause a miscast it causes an IF which then causes a miscast. The book/Teclis are different as their castings containing doubles count as IF provided the casting value was also met.