Skaven have always been a favorite faction in Age of Sigmar and even in fantasy before it. For the first time though they are the main antagonists of this edition’s story with a massive launch to show for it. With its book now out and its points available, we’ve decided to put together a quick faction guide to help players get up to speed with the faction.
Four Things to Know-Know
You Are Not Tough. Most of your army will evaporate at first contact with the enemy, so you’ll need to be very careful about where you commit to combat and how you move.
Gnawholes Are a Key Part of Your Gameplan. Many of your Battle Traits revolve around taking advantage of your Gnawholes, so make sure you get your hands on some.
You’re a Very Technical Army. With multiple ways to teleport and move out of sequence, you’ll often have more options available to you to help you accomplish your goals.
You Have a Ton of List Building Options. You have a myriad of playstyles to pick from, including hyper elite Stormfiend lists, warpstone fueled gunlines, or just flooding the board with tons of little rat bodies, you will be able to find something that caters to your playstyle.
Battle Traits
The Skaven Battle Traits can be divided into two categories: Gnawhole related and non-Gnawhole related. On the Gnawhole side, each round you can set up a new one anywhere on the board 9” away from your opponent’s stuff. These will allow you to teleport units around the board, either by starting underground during deployment, going into another Gnawhole elsewhere on the table, or by respawning units that have died (this last one is technically on the Gnawhole warscroll but its relevant so it’s here, sue me).
On the non-Gnawhole side, your Infantry and Cavalry can retreat without taking mortals, nice to have for an army that will be winning games by tying things up in combat. The ability that really takes the cheese however is Three Clawsteps Ahead, which allows you to pick any unit that is not a monster and move it in your opponent’s hero phase. This is an immensely powerful ability for a number of reasons. For one, it’ll be used after your opponent declares their Battle Tactic, allowing you to react and commit resources to counter their plans. For another, it happens before their Movement Phase, which means you can block off movement before they get a chance to go where they want. On top of all that it goes without saying, free movement is always good.
Formations
Warpcog Convocation
Your bread and butter for a shooting-focused, Skryre list. Being able to pick three Skryre units from anywhere on the table during your shooting phase and give their ranged weapons +1 to wound on a 2+ can certainly be a powerful tool. Plus, if you roll a 6 when you give this buff, that unit also gets +1 to their rend characteristic.
Fleshmeld Menagerie
When looking to send amalgamated meat missiles of rat man at your opponent, Fleshmeld Menagerie is going to be what you are looking for. Every turn in your hero phase, you can choose three non-Hero Moulder units, and attempt to give them an additional attack on a 3+. If the roll is a 5+, that unit also gets a 5+ ward until your next turn. Rat Ogors and Hell-Pit Abominations are going to be your jam. One cute trick you can do with Rat Ogors, is juice them up with + attacks in the beginning of the turn, then port them through a gnawhole and have a Master Moulder give them +2 to charge (one from a Heroic Trait, and one from the warscroll). Hippity Hoppity, thick rats on yo’ property!
Virulent Procession
Credit: Pendulin
Uh oh, stinky! The Virulent Procession is the Clan Pestilence Battle Formation. This allows you to pick three smelly rat units at the end of each turn, in combat, to make a pile-in move, doing d3 mortals on a 2+. If you are familiar with playing this version of the Battle Formation from the index, you’ll notice that you are now only able to select and pile in units that are in combat already, which means that many of the murder-lust-esq dirty tricks Skaven players were able to do before the book are now not possible. This does not mean that this Battle Formation is dead ~ if hordes of plague monks and using priests (including the return of the Plague Priest on Foot, Skabbik and is Plague-homies, and the new Vizzik Skour) for buffs is something you find interesting, there is absolutely viable play in Pestilence.
Claw-horde
Choo-choo, Verminus comin through. In the combat phase, you can pick up to three Verminus units that charged this turn, and add 1 to the Rend of their melee weapons for the rest of the turn. Clanrats, Stormvermin, and Verminlords Warbringer and possibly Lord Skreech are all viable options for this Battle Formation. If your list is a mixed bag of all the clans, with your main blocks of chaff being Stormvermin and Clanrats, it might not be a bad idea to use the Claw-Horde and a Clawlord to give those units some actual juice to really chip away at your opponent.
Rats of the Night
Eshin is so sneaky they were able to hide from getting their own Battle Formation. Hopefully we get something in the future!
Norman Note: With the nerf to Virulent Procession, Warpcog seems to become the defacto pick unless you’re leaning into Rat Ogors or want to do some kind of messed up mass Verminus list. Almost every Skaven list will benefit from at least some shooting, and Warpcog stays a powerful pick.
Heroic Traits
Scurry Away
This classic hasn’t gone anywhere. If at the beginning of the combat phase, the hero with this trait is in combat, on a 3+ you are able to use the ‘Retreat’ ability. This is very strong, not just to get out of scary situations with your important heroes but can also be used as additional movement around the battlefield ~ even to steal an objective perhaps? Bonus points to putting this on your Verminlord Deceiver, giving you the opportunity to teleport at the beginning of combat using its warscroll ability, then possibly dip out of the new combat at his movement of 10 inches. Your opponent will be shocked to see this huge daemon move over 23 inches across the board during the combat phase ~ even maybe losing their wallet in the process. Dirty rats!
Short-tempered
Oh lord they comin. This trait adds +1 to run and charge rolls for friendly Skaven units wholly within 13 of the hero. This supplements well with the Master Moulder, who can give another +1 to charge within their combat range during the charge phase. Having abilities to administer buffs to your army without having to roll dice to give them is never a bad thing. This combo is especially excellent for if you are trying to perform the aforementioned meat missile Rat Ogor bomb.
Skilled Manipulator
While this hero is within combat range of a friendly non-Hero Skaven infantry unit, when they take damage, on a 4+ that damage is instead inflicted onto the infantry unit. This could be particularly abusive on a beatstick Verminlord, giving them a 4+ ward when around your bozo brigade of Clanrats and Stormvermin. This forces your opponent to either deal with the 20 (or probably more) wounds of dinguses around your Verminlord while getting rat-attacked repeatedly, or try and burn your big 13 wound, 4+ save, 4+ ward monster, who is still going to assault their toys with sharp objects and freaky rat magic.
Artifacts of Power
Foulhide
The hero gets to heal D3 at the end of every turn. Free heals you don’t have to roll to activate are always good!
Skavenbrew
Additional juice for your little goobers. Once per battle in the combat phase, pick a friendly non-Hero Skaven Infantry unit wholly within 13” of this unit, give them an ouchie of D3 damage and increase the attacks characteristic of their melee weapons by 1 for the rest of the turn. Using Skaven brew on one of your big blobs of chaff, including Clanrats, Stormvermin, or Plaguemonks, or even on a big unit of Rat Ogors in conjunction with some of the other buffs the army offers can make any of these units especially scary.
Warpstone Charm
In the combat phase, pick an enemy unit in combat with this unit to be the target. On a 3+, they get -1 to their save for the rest of the turn. This gives you another chance to either ensure whatever you are attacking with a big hero is going to have a really hard time saving their attacks, or maybe you can put this on a cheeky clawlord who is near a block of 20 Stormvermin? If your opponent wants to charge them, they could be getting hit with 50 attacks at -3 rend. Ouch!
Spell Lore
Skitterleap
Another all-time classic that remains in the new Skaven Battletome. On a cast of 7, pick a Skaven hero wholly within 13” and teleport them anywhere on the battlefield, 9 away from enemies. Having another way to move your heroes around the board is always helpful, whether you need the extra distance to ensure you can get a buff off for a different unit, your Verminlord took more damage than you would have liked and need it out of trouble, or you can take a sneaky objective your opponent didn’t screen out in their territory, Skitterleap is always an option. Its important to note this is now your unlimited spell with the new book, giving you extra chances to get your Grey Seer out of dodge.
Note: The target unit can be one that is in combat and can be a monster.
Warpgale
On a cast of 7, pick an enemy unit within 18 of the wizard casting the spell, and give them Strike-last for the rest of the turn. Being able to hit your opponents in multiple combats before they can slap back is a fantastic play, especially when much of your army dies to a swift breeze.
Wither
Lastly, this spell inflicts D3 mortals on a unit 13” away from the caster. When trying to do some additional damage to a screening unit in your way, or just need to chip a few more wounds off of an enemy hero nearby, just give them a little ZAP!
Prayer Lore
Every one of the Noxious Prayers that Skaven can chant have a plethora of use cases, both at their minimum and maximum chant value variations.
Bile-torrent
Your horde clearing prayer. On a 4+, pick an enemy unit within 13”, and roll a die for each model in the unit. For every 5+, deal a mortal wound to that unit. If the chant was on an 8+, do a mortal wound for each 4+ instead. This is a very solid wish.com, Walmart Good Value, stinky rat version of the Gravetide ability and has many good applications.
Filth-crust
Choose a friendly non-Hero Skaven infantry unit wholly within 13” of the priest chanting this prayer, then, on a 4+, give them +1 to wound rolls for melee attacks until your next turn. If the chant is an 8+, they also get Crit Mortals for their melee attacks. With the myriad of ways to give your rats additional attacks on top of their already generous number of swings, this prayer can make any infantry unit in your army a real threat to your opponents.
Rabid-tough
Similar to Filth-crust, pick your non-Hero homies that are close by, and on a 5+ to chant, that unit is -1 to be wounded by enemy units that target that friendly unit. If it’s on an 8+, that unit also gets +1 to save rolls until the start of your next turn. Some surprise resiliency in your army can keep more rats around than your opponent would certainly like. With debuffs being strong in this GHB, this prayer should always be a consideration to chant for.
What Are the Must Have Warscrolls
The Skaven book has a massive number of warscrolls, but frankly a lot of them are somewhat redundant. Sure you can take a Verminlord Warbringer, but the Deceiver is right there and better for its points. Because of this, we’ll be focusing on the highlights with representation from all the clans to get a good idea of the strengths of each.
Heroes
The heroes you take will largely be dictated by what kind of units you want to run. If you’re looking to get a regiment of Skryre stuff you’ll need a Skryre hero to get the most freedom out of it. That said there are a few stand outs worth focusing on.
Grey Seer: The humble Grey Seer is a unit easy to fit into any list. It’s a wizard one with a 3d6, take the two highest, cast to make sure you get your stuff off early and often. He’s also Masterclan which means his regiment is free to take anything you’d like in it. He’s cheap, consistent, and flexible making him very easy to slam into any list type.
Verminlord Deceiver: This is probably the best Verminlord available of the bunch. He’s the most expensive of the generic Verminlords, but provides a potent shooting attack, a melee profile that needs to be respected, and most of all some very nasty movement tricks. At the beginning of combat, on a 3+, he can move 13”, ignoring enemy models, so long as he ends that move in combat. It’s hard to overstate how devastating this can be in the right situation. Got charged by some varanguard? Teleport behind them and take out the sorcerer buffing them instead. Wanna get on an objective far away? Charge then teleport to the bozo unit holding it. As mentioned above, this is extra potent with Scurry Away which gives you an additional way to get out of combats you don’t want to be in.
Plague Priest on Plague Furnace: while its no longer your cheapest Priest option in the book thanks to the addition of the Plaguepack, the Plague Furnace is still a powerful piece to slam on the table. As a Priest, you get access to the incredibly powerful Skaven prayer lore but on top of that, you get a decent offensive profile, a defensive profile that gives Nurgle Maggoth Lords a run for their money, and the ability to shut down wards by imposing a -1 to the roll. It also gives Plague Monks a 6+ ward, but with the nerf to their Virulent Procession you probably aren’t looking to take a bunch of those. Either way though, you won’t be disappointed by this big smelly furnace.
The Rest
Weapons Teams: technically theres a bunch of these units but I think its worth talking about all of them holistically. Because these largely all do the same job (providing ranged support to shoot over your screen) you’ll likely be looking for the most flexible and efficient option. For this look no further than the Ratling Gun. At 150 points for three you get 9D6 shots at 4’s, 4’s, rend 1 damage 1 with exploding 6’s. For those following along at home that’s an expected value of 7 wounds into a 4+ save. The only weapons team that beats out that value is the new Warpvolt Scourgers with the buff from the Galvaneer, but thats only once per game and with a package that costs 200 more points than the standalone ratling guns, and the extra damage isn’t all that much.
All the teams have great support to bump them up. With Warpcog, you’ll almost always have them at +1 to wound and an Arch Warlock will have them firing away in your opponent’s turn every turn. I’ll personally be starting every Skaven list with 2×6 of these guys.
Clanrats: If you’re playing Skaven, odds are you have a ton of these lying around. Good news, they’re good! There’s not a ton to talk about here, but 20 wounds on a 5+ save with the ability to regen d3 every turn makes for a very solid screen. On top of that for just one cp, you can bring ten of them back.
Rat Ogors: Returning with a glow up to their models, Rat Ogors form the backbone, and probably every other kind of bone if I’m being honest, to Moulder lists. With an incidental gun that’s actually not bad and a brutal melee profile these roided rats can smash, bash, and crash through a lot of enemy threats. Just be careful not to do too much damage to them by juicing their attacks as they will, on average, kill a Rat Ogor every two times you activate this. That said if you’re taking Rat Ogors, you’ll likely want to throw a Master Moulder into the list to give you free heals and +1 to charge which can be comboed with Skavenbrew to make reliable charges out of Gnawholes.
Night Runners: Eshin may not have a formation or new fancy models, but they nevertheless have a spot in Skaven lists. With a pregame move, shooting protection, and some pretty annoying shooting, all at 130 points, you get a very solid objective focused bozo unit to do battle tactics and screen out threats. A little sneaky trick you can do is deploy them on the line, have your opponent go first, move them up 7”, move them another 7” with Three Clawsteps Ahead, and just stand in front of your opponent’s army before they get a chance to move.
Stormfiends: Stormfiends provide your only real infantry anvil in the army. With a 4+ save and 6 wounds per model they provide a very beefy threat compared to your other options in the book. You also get access to Grinderfists if you want some extra utility, letting you teleport in during your opponent’s turn as well as your own, ensuring they get where they wanna be. That said these guys are expensive at 260 for 3 (you’ll often see them in units of 6 though).
Armies of Renown
Skaven get two Armies of Renown to play with, each designed to change the way you play with the army. It’s important to note that you do NOT get any faction terrain and have fairly constrained lores in exchange for these rules, so you’ll have to approach these with a fresh perspective.
The Great-Grand Gnawhorde
The Gnawhorde (no, I will not type it out everytime) gives you access to Vizzik Skour, and non-unique units from Skryre, Masterclan, Moulder, and Verminus. This means no named heroes, no Nightrunners, and no Pestilense units. The army itself focuses around using one of three powerful abilities, referred to as Warpshatter Throws, each turn to juice up your units. Frenzied Momentum gives three units +2 to run and charge but -1 to their control scores, Unstoppable Warp-Volley disables commands but adds 3” to the range of ranged weapons for three units, and Reckless Abandon gives three units +1 attacks but also +1 to be hit. The push and pull here is interesting but the standouts seem to be Reckless Abandon and Frenzied Momentum. Reckless Abandon can get Rat Ogors to a staggering 6 attacks each in conjunction with their ability and Frenzied Momentum will make sure you get there in your go turn.
You also get a passive ability that gives Vizzik a 4+ ward while he’s near a friendly unit but whenever he makes a successful ward roll he passes that damage to the nearby unit. Vizzik is a bit too pricey to run outside this AoR, but with a 4+ ward you can probably get his combat tricks off without him dying in exchange.
You get access to a single Heroic Trait Harbringer of the Great Ascendancy is an autotake, giving you two choices for those once per turn abilities instead of just one. The Artefact, Icon of Great-Total Supremacy, is… well it’s also an auto-take because it’s your only option, but it’s not great, giving you the ability to return d3 models to all infantry units on the board below 3 wounds. This would be massive if it could effect Rat Ogors but alas. Enjoy regenerating clanrats, I guess.
You get access to a single spell, prayer and manifestation. For the spell you have the incredibly powerful Deafening Frenzy which turns off a unit’s ability to use commands, but gives them Strikes-First. This is how you set up those go turns with Reckless Abandon. The prayer is also strong, giving you an extra 3” on the pile in and extra control if you chant it on an 8. Unfortunately this goes off on a base 7 and your only priest is Vizzik so he’ll be spending his whole turn chanting this. For manifestations, you get access to the Vermintide. This is perhaps the worst possible pick so RIP bozo I guess.
This AoR is interesting. On one hand you can set up some brutal combos using the Warpshatter Throws, and the ability to get Vizzik where he needs to be to make him work. However the trade off of not having Gnawholes, Three Clawsteps Ahead, or the normal lores makes it a hard sell. If you want to make it work, I’d suggest trying a gunline of Ratling guns, supported by some Rat Ogors and some clan rats to screen.
Thanquol’s Mutated Menagerie
This one’s kind of a doozy. For restrictions you can only take Thanquol and Moulder units. This means no guns, no Gnawholes, no clanrats, no scoring pieces. In exchange you get some pretty powerful rules. First you get a similar rule to what Vizzik gets in his AoR, giving Thanquol a 4+ ward while he’s near another unit but every time he successfully makes a ward roll you pass off the damage to the nearby unit.
As for the rest of the army, you get access to More-More Mutation, which lets you pick one non-hero unit from your army in each of your Hero Phases and give them: +2” to move, +2 to health +1 to Attacks, a 5+ Ward but at the end of each turn you have to allocate D3+2 damage to the unit. This is a really interesting effect, however its been brought to my attention that since allocate comes after wards you can’t negate this with the ward. This obviously heavily favors units with multiple models, so Rat Ogors and Stormfiends are your bread and butter here.
So what do you do when things are finally running out of steam? Well you get access to two rampages you can use in any Combat Phase which then preclude you from using any other ones (so use your warscroll rampage abilities first) which both automatically kill the unit at the end of the turn. The first, Spiteful Swarm gives the unit strike first, and when it dies you roll a dice for each unit within 6” and on a 3+ subtract 1 from their attacks characteristic for the rest of the game. The other one, Rampaging Demise, also gives strikes first, but instead you do D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ to everything within 6”. These are also really interesting mechanically, especially when you consider that the Hellpit can get back up after it dies, allowing you to double dip.
For your Heroic Trait you get Pack Tactics which lets two nearby non-hero units use All-Out Attack and All-Out Defence even if they’ve already been used this phase once per battle. Considering taking full advantage of this costs three CP this is probably more situational than not. The Artefact on the other hand, Warpstone Innards, lets you pick a unit once per game to get an extra attack, but they take an extra D3 damage at the end of the turn. If you intend to fully trade a unit of Rat Ogors, juicing them with this, More-More Mutation, and their warscroll ability gets them to a staggering 7 attacks each.
Staying on theme, the spell is also very interesting. Untapped Mutation goes off on a 5 and gives up to three nearby units +1 control for every point of damage they suffer from More-More Mutation. This can help you bully objectives in an otherwise low control army, but it requires you to be hurting your own units. Lastly for your manifestation, you get access to the Warp Lightning Vortex which is a pretty nifty option to have in your back pocket.
This AoR probably has some legs, but it’s going to be fully focused around winning games by tabling your opponent. You don’t have any scoring pieces, you don’t have any combat tricks, and you really don’t have any staying power. The ruleset here gives you one tool, and its a really really big hammer. I recommend a list focusing on Rat Ogors and Stormfiends to get the most out of your mutations and maybe a Hellpit for fun.
Regiments of Renown
These are for all of you non-Skaven players out there. If you’ve ever looked at the tricks Skaven have access to and thought to yourself, “Damn, I wish I could do that,” this gives you a taste of the army.
Krittok’s Clawpack
This Regiment of Renown gives you access to Krittok Foulblade, a unit of Stormvermin, and a unit of Doom-Flayers. You get access to three abilities: Fickle Motives gives everything in the regiment +1 attack if you’re winning the game but -3 control if you’re losing. Don’t count on these rats to pull you out of a bind. You also get access to Always Three Clawsteps Ahead allowing a unit in this regiment to move in your opponent’s hero phase. This is immensely powerful in Skaven and is just as strong here. Lastly you get Skryre Payloads giving the Doom-Flayers a 5+ ward as long as they’re in combat range of the Stormvermin. This is cute but I think a lot of armies will want to use the Doom-Flayers as objective bozos considering their speed and cost so they may not be near the stormvermin that often.
Overall this is a neat little package to give you a taste of the generic Skaven fare. Krittok is a powerful addition in it of himself, while Stormvermin and the Doom-Flayers are fine. That said I don’t know who exactly this is for. Maybe armies without access to good movement tricks? But there aren’t a ton of those in Chaos outside Nurgle. That said, Nurgle might be busy with…
Volt-Klaw’s Enginecoven
Now this is what I’m talking about. This RoR focuses on providing an effective gunline to any Chaos army. You get access to a Warlock Galvaneer, a unit of Warpvolt Scourgers, and a Ratling Warpblaster. While these might be sub-optimal in Skaven, they have a ton of value to factions that can’t put out damage at range. You also get access to Behold My Genius which gives you +1 to hit and an extra 3” to the range of all the regiment’s weapons for a turn once per battle making for a fantastic opening salvo. In addition, to keep your bozos alive from ranged reprisal, you get Hide-Shelter which makes the infantry untargetable outside of 13” if they’re near the Warpblaster. This is a fantastic regiment for a lot of chaos armies, but most of all I’m stoked to slam this into my nurgle army to have something maybe die on the opponent’s side of the table.
Putting it All Together
The Skaven Battletome is full to the brim with tricks, schemes, and ways to melt the brains of your opponents. If you truly enjoy the aesthetic of the scriving horde, there is most likely a list archetype that you can find appealing somewhere in the large quantity of warscrolls and play styles that this army allows you to have. Whether it’s a gunline of Rat Harvey Oswalds and weapons teams showering the opposition in warp bolts, roided up meatballs warp-bent on getting where they need to go and punching everything in their way, or a mixed bag of it all, there is extreme diversity and viability in many builds for Skaven.
Norman: I’m a really big fan of this book overall. While a lot of the new additions don’t make a ton of waves this book is really flexible in how you can approach list building, especially with the addition of the Armies of Renown. That said, Skaven are still Skaven, they’re gonna be tricksy fragile bodies that rely on scoring rather than offensive strength to win games. I’m really looking forward to seeing what folks cook up with this release!
Bre4d: Although there are some changes, much of the Skaven index is the same. I currently think that a mixed bag of different units is still the way to go, as scoring tactics and having multiple, well rounded threats is remarkably strong. The Verminlord Deceiver with Scurry away is quite the mind bender for my opponents, and opens up a lot of opportunities for skill-expression and shenanigans. Hordes of cheap bodies will always be good at standing in circles and denying opponents tactics, especially since you can move one of your units during the end of your opponent’s hero phase before they get to go into their movement phase. Being unable to make the pile-in at the end of turn when out of combat using the Virulent Procession ability certainly hurts some previous builds, but the additional support of more priests to choose from doesn’t put Pestilence in the dirt. The prayers also affect any non-Hero infantry, not just the ones that smell, so there could be some more play with throwing buffed up Clanrats and Stormvermin around. Lastly, the shooting in Skaven remains strong ~ the inclusion of at least some sort of ranged threat to put your enemies on a clock to come deal with you is certainly beneficial.
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