SKAVEN TACTICS
Gareth Hamilton is a long-time Skaven general. His enthusiasm for the ratmen is quite frightening, but even more horrifying is his ability to wield them on the field of battle. Gareth tells us how to effectively field a Skaven army on the tabletop.
Following the release of the 6th edition of Warhammer, the Skaven hordes terrorizing the gaming tables around the country saw a dramatic decline. To go to a tournament, campaign weekend or even just a weekly club night and see a Skaven army unleashing its foul machinations upon another race became a rare sight indeed. Such was the dramatic disappearance of the Skaven hordes that many gamers even started to believe that these so called ratmen never existed at all and were just stories created to scare the young and foolish. But this is the way of the Skaven, to lie hidden and unnoticed yet all the while plotting and scheming for the ultimate downfall of men and the triumph of the Skaven! After over two years of silence, the Skaven have once again returned to the Warhammer world.
Along with Warhammer Armies: Skaven came a new model army (bad pun, sorry) with new, deadly, if not always reliable, machines of destruction. The old ways of fighting with Skaven no longer apply and new cunning tactics must be used if you are to achieve success with the true master race! What follows are some thoughts and ideas I have developed as I adapted my army and tactics to the new Skaven list. I hope at least some of the observations and tactics I have mentioned will be of use to both budding and experienced Skaven generals alike.
One
of the most important things to realise about a Skaven army is that it
has no elite troops to speak of. Even Stormvermin will not match up
to your basic Dwarf Clansman. You cannot create a hard, powerful 'blitzkrieg'
type unit to punch through enemy units and generally steamroller all over
them.
(This was a standard 5th edition tactic of mine. Big unit, Fear Banner,
Assassins, Warlord, Skavenbrew, etc. Everything but the kitchen sink went
into it. I am pretty sure that if Skaven had kitchens or sinks then that
would have found a place too!). In fact you will find that holding your
own against even standard troops is not as easy as it sounds, and to break
the charge of enemy heavy cavalry (which more often than not have
a character leading them) will take luck of the highest
order. What you do have in your favour is numbers and,
most importantly, expendable troops. With expendable
units used wisely, you can turn aside an enemy charge, pick
off weaker units and overwhelm the stronger ones.
