The Skaven mod is yet another mod created by Sombre (don't you ever sleep?) the mod can be found here at
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=34920
The Skaven are a race of malevolent rat-men that inhabit the underground of the Warhammer world. The tunnels of their vast under-empire reach from the steaming jungles of the Southlands to the snow-covered steppes of Kislev, from the western borders of Estalia and Bretonnia to the lost realms of the Far East. Their capital is the mysterious city of Skavenblight, hidden in the centre of the foul marshes lying on the western borders of Tilea. There, the mighty Lords of Decay, ruthless rulers of all Skaven, sit on the Council of Thirteen, scheming and preparing for the time when their armies will emerge from the subterranean realm to raze the entire surface of the world. Such is the ultimate ambition of the Skaven race, a destiny preached by the Grey Seers, who are powerful Wizards and prophets of the Horned Rat, the malevolent Skaven deity.
I decided to write this guide for a couple of reasons. One was that I had been kicking around the idea of writing a Skaven guide for a couple of months now and another is that I was inspired by Amahzairs excellent guide to Arga Dis to turn my own hand to writing a guide to my own favourite mod nation.
A. Units
Skavens units have several things in common they all get at least:
Darkvision 50%
Mountain Survival
Poison Res 35%
Stealth 0
Siegebonus 1
To balance this however they have much weaker stats than humans and really low morale (their highest morale units get a whopping 12 and most don't even get over 9)
1.Skavenslaves:(10g 5r) these are your very cheap and nasty chaff that have abysmal morale and very poor stats. However they have one big advantage over their fellow rat men in that they are Size 3 units compared to the others size 2 making them slightly more useful against tramplers and as
2.Clanrats:(7g 9r) and (8g 14r) These are your basic infantry with the falchion armed version being slightly more expensive than the spear carriers nothing particularly special but they make a good all-round unit to use as the core of your army.
3.Stormvermin:(11g 17r) This unit is a more expensive version of the clanrat armed with a glaive and better stats I don't find myself using them much due to almost always taking a sloth scale so cant really comment on what tactical use they have on the battlefield.
4.Pestilens Plague Monks:(8g 3r) these are your other cheap chaff unit which has better stats than the Skavenslaves and is armed with a short sword and a bite attack which causes disease, They also have fairly good poison resistance (80%) and are a good unit to use in squads with your Censer bearers as they can better survive their poisonous AOE attacks.These units can also berserk making them fight to the death when hit by the enemy meaning that they can be invaluable to prevent your low morale armies from routing. All this comes at a cost in that they totally lack any armour or shield making them vulnerable to enemy archers and AOE magic's.
5.Pestilens Censer Bearers:(25g 6r) Though they share the plague monks lack of armour these recruitable anywhere sacreds make up for it by being the sort of sacred unit that makes jaguar warriors run home and cry to their mommas about unfairness. Armed with the standard plague monk bite and also an AOE poison producing censer that can do one hell of a lot of damage to any non poison resistant enemy troops these berserking sacreds can carve through chaff like practically nothing else. however they share the same weaknesses as the plague monks and also have a tendency to rack up afflictions fairly quickly.Despite this however I would recommend that whether you choose a bless strategy or not you recruit as many of these as you can.
6.Eshin Gutter Runners:(9g 5r) another cheap chaff unit this time armed with a short sword and a net making them perfect to break up incoming cavalry charges. However they are very fragile and vulnerable to the standard skaven counters.
7.Eshin Gutter Runners (20g 7r):these are armed with two poisoned blades as well as being armed with a poison shuriken (making them your only recruitable with missile weapons). I rarely use these units so again I am not really sure what their niche is supposed to be but I suppose they could be on the flanks of your main force to chew up heavily armoured units with their poison weapons.
8.Council Guard (20g 17r): has excellent stats (for a Skaven) which almost equal those of a human elite unit and is also your other recuritable sacred unit (capital only). These are actually pretty good units if not the powerhouses the censer bearers are I like to mix a few of these in with a normal squad of clan rats where their superior morale can help prevent routs and they can also do some damage with the right bless making them great at killing the tough enemy units your chaff hordes might otherwise have problems with.
B.Commanders
1. Skaven scout (20g7r): your typical national scout why tie up a fort recruiting these when you can get indy scouts instead?
2.Chieftain (45g 17r): your basic leader who can lead 40 troops pretty useless compared to the next commander. Its only use is that it can autosummon Skavenslaves.
3.Warlord (90 32r): although nearly double the price of a chieftain the warlord can lead a whopping 120 troops and is much better armoured and also has much better stats. Like the chieftan it can also autosummon although in this case it gets the more valuable stormvermin. If you must recruit a non mage commander these are the ratmen for you!
4. Moulder Packmaster (50g 5r): can only lead 10 troops and is even more useless than the chieftain although these do come with animal awe and can summon 3 giant rats a turn which can add to your hordes of chaff.
5. Moulder Mutator:(130g 8r)(E1 B1): your best blood hunter as it comes with dowsing 1 making it bloodhunt as a B2 mage and your only mage with a guaranteed blood pick if you decide to go down the blood path. These can with the addition of a pair of earth boots (made by warlock engineers) be turned into a bloodstone producing factory giving you a good supply of earth gems.
6..Pestilens Plague Chantor (65g 5r) (H1 100%BD): A sacred and fairly cheap mage the B1 version make excellent cheap bloodhunters while the D1 version can be a handy researcher if you take a magic scale. They do not really find much use on the battlefield for me as they come with beserking which is not something you want a mage to be doing in my opinion
7.Pestilens Plague Priest (160g 9r) (H2 D1 50%D 50%B 20%BD): An upgraded version of the Plague Chantor with a greater chance of magic diversity these will be the backbone of your military as the Skaven units biggest weakness is their low morale which can be countered by sermon of courage spam from these commanders. They can also lead 40 troops making them good all round commanders. Their only weakness is that they require both a temple and a lab to recruit from a fort making setting up the intial infrastructure to mass produce them fairly expensive.
8.Eshin Assassin (80g 4r): An Assassin/Spy who can lead 40 troops a pretty good commander for leading raiding parties and also occasionally good for assassinating enemy commanders.Their only weakness being that while you are recruiting these you are not recruiting plague priests or mages.
9.Skyre Warlock (110g 8r) (100%EF 80%EFD): A fairly good mage with the potential to get a cheap F2 or E2 out of them making them cheap site searchers. Also they have the potential to be able to access some good low level evocation spells making them fairly decent battle mages for the price. Also they can lead 40 troops and can be recruited in forts without a lab making them fairly useful units.
10.Skrye Warlock-Engineer (230g 24r) (F1E1D1 85%EF 30%EDF): An upgraded version of the warlocks these will likely prove to be your premier battlemage with their good paths for battlefield magic and their recruitable anywhere status. Also they make fairly good forgers given that they possess a slight forging discount(10%)and allow you to forge some fairly interesting items (lightless lanterns,Flaming skulls,skull mentors)all in all a mage you will be recruiting a lot of.
11.Grey Seer (330g 1r) (H3 D2S2 110%DS) (capital only): not only does this commander give you your only H3 leader but also gives you excellent access to both astral and death two paths that are valuable throughout the game and can lead 80 normal units. To add to its power it also negates one in five of all bad events and can act as a spy as well! By the mid game you will want to be recruiting one of these a turn.
Enter the Rat Race A Skaven Strategy Guide
Linear Mode
