Facing 3K Skaven Next Week...

Discuss your tactics for the 8th Ed army book here.

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Archmage_Mariona
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Facing 3K Skaven Next Week...

#1 Post by Archmage_Mariona »

I have no trouble with my opponent normally but he recently got a doomwheel and a screaming bell. I have no idea what they even do so I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what they are like and how best to deal with them?
Rip.dk
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Re: Facing 3K Skaven Next Week...

#2 Post by Rip.dk »

shoot the doomwheel whit a boltthrower and charge the screaming bell whit 5-6 silver helms too kill the rat on top of it
wisetiger7
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Re: Facing 3K Skaven Next Week...

#3 Post by wisetiger7 »

L4 with book (probably want talipres on him too) with lore of life or high magic. Dwellers is the bane of skaven. Fiery Convo is hilarious if you put it on a block of skaven slaves, and they break, possibly doing damage to friendly units. Tempest is actually not too bad vs skaven, especially someone who brings a cannon or two. S3 large template that can stall cannons can be nice.

Redirectors are very important vs skaven, especially if they have hellpits. Eagles are best for redirecting them. Reavers are decent for redirecting doomwheels. A small group of archers/seaguard or a bolt thrower can get rid of rat darts, and on lucky rolls, can take out weapon teams.

Large blocks are pretty easy to chew through, especially with shield of saphery or life buffs on. Beware of plague banner with a horde of plague monks if your friend has those. Especially if they get poison or super frenzy cast on them. Ugh.

Grey seer on the bell should be moderately easy to kill in close combat. It just gives him a wider generals presence, and unbreakable to the unit, as well as ringing the bell. Any heavy cav should be able to take him out pretty easily. Dragon Princes are best because of the extra attacks, but silver helm darts (3x3) can be good too. Most grey seers I have seen have talipres for the 4++ ward, maybe some warpstones, and quite often Skalm, which can heal all wounds once a game, so unless you concentrate enough attacks on him, there is the possibility he will take two to three rounds of combat to kill.

Infantry-wise, try not to go smaller than 15 models in the unit, when against skaven. I, personally, never go below 20. Getting 13th'd and having it turn into rats, with the possibility of taking out a character can hurt tons, especially when they cast it on your mage bunker, which just happens to contain your L4 general. Average cast kills 14, so I like having a little buffer. Life can help regrow models, but high, in this instance is useless for protection as no armor or ward saves allowed.

A mage bunker of 20-25 seaguard is my favorite. Decent shooting to take out redirectors/weapon teams, and having enough combat efficiency to take out the pesky occasional gutter runners that pop up behind you.

I, personally, love fire chickens, more than frosties. Yes, I know on paper frosties are better. But vs, skaven where you don't have to worry about high Str attacks as much, flaming chickens are better. Crapping lava at D6 + D3/rank on a flyby is awesome. I have taken out 13, then 12 in one turn before. Flying over in movement, then Walk Between Worlds to fly over again in magic phase, reducing a 50 man unit to 25. It was awesome. Couple that with a big spell and you can effectively take out a large block in one turn.

Tl;dr: L4 with life or high. Eagles and reavers are your friends. Charge bell unit asap to take out grey seer/threat of 13th. In case that doesn't work, make sure every infantry unit has 20+ models.
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pk-ng
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Re: Facing 3K Skaven Next Week...

#4 Post by pk-ng »

I wouldn't go life because all you want is dewellers and if you don't roll that you're screwed.
I prefer High as there are more offensive spells.
Also I would bring Swordmasters with BotWD.
PG also do really well against Skaven because of the 4++ and ASF.
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Re: Facing 3K Skaven Next Week...

#5 Post by Prince of Spires »

Never challenge a unit with the screeming bell in it. This allows the grey seer on top top hide behind the bell without any downside. He can't be hit, but can still cast as normal etc. Just charge the bell and direct as many attacks at him as possible.

The bell has high magic resistance, as does the unit it is in, so casting spells at them that allow ward saves have little effect.

Doomwheels are very efficient vs multiwound models. So keep those away from them. The 3 Zapppppp attacks it has can deal high S, multiwound hits to the nearest model. Note, it's model, not enemy model. So if a skaven model is closest he will zap his own troops unless he passed a LD test (I think it's LD at least). Infantry aren't too worried by it. It's basically just a tough chariot with rats in it. Other then that, it has random movement, so read up on those rules if you're not familiar with them. Basically it works like: Point doomwheel in the right direction, roll the dice to see how far it goes (not the other way round), move doomwheel. I think it also has some funny rules that make it blow up on doubles / triples.

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