Or Rats of Renown, if you will. Many thanks to Games Workshop for providing us with an advanced preview copy of the new Skaven Battletome to review.
Please note: The Battletome doesn’t come with printed points and this obviously limits our ability to assess everything in detail. Rest assured that once the pitched battle profiles are released, we will have an in-depth Faction Focus ready for the perfidious ratmen.
This review is only looking at the Armies and Regiments of Renown in the new Skaven Battletome; for our review on the rest of the Battletome it’s here.
There are two Armies of Renown and two Regiments of Renown on offer here, each being quite a different proposition. Both Armies do operate around the theme of risk and reward, but diverge quite widely in their approach to that theme and the unit options available.
Armies of Renown
The Great-Grand Gnawhorde
The Gnawhorde limits you to Vizzik and non-unique Masterclan, Verminus, Skryre and Moulder units. Given that Eshin is a grand total of three warscrolls and Vizzik himself gives you basically everything you otherwise need out of Pestilens, this isn’t a particularly onerous limitation – though you do lose out on Gnawholes. This is a really interesting take on the Army of Renown concept, rather than being a laser focus on one part of the army this is instead a broader rework – an alternative way to run Skaven as a wider faction.
If you take Vizzik then Disciples of Vizzik gives him a 4+ ward if he’s near any friendly units. Vizzik is kinda squishy so that’s good, but he has a 5+ ward by default and this ability also means all successful wards get passed off as damage to friendly units, so that’s bad.
Otherwise you get three “Warpshatter Throes” abilities that are mutually exclusive – if you use one in a turn then you cannot use any others that turn. In true Skaven fashion each ability has an upside and a downside. Frenzied Momentum activates in the movement phase and lets you give 3 units +2″ to run and charge at the expense of -1 Control score. That’s not too bad a punishment for a very good ability and it will help your army cross the board, though note that by taking this Army of Renown you’re losing out on the ways to teleport units for that +2″ to charge to have truly shone. Unstoppable Warp-Volley is an extremely tame shooting phase ability that picks 3 units and gives them +3” range to their guns at the expense of not being able to use commands. Given that it’s only for the turn, you are at least not locking yourself out of Covering Fire, but otherwise this is of limited value – you need to be just far enough away for the +3” to get your weapons in range otherwise it’s pretty much a nerf. Finally there’s Reckless Abandon, a combat phase ability that gives three units +1 attack but gives attacks that target them +1 to hit. Skaven are not the toughest army in the game, so use this to push a unit over the edge into killing or crippling whatever it hits.
For your single Heroic Trait there’s Harbinger of the Great Ascendancy, a once per battle ability that lets you use two Warpshatter Throes that turn if the hero isn’t in combat. There’s plenty of Skaven heroes that do not want to be in combat, so that part shouldn’t be too onerous. Frenzied Momentum into Reckless Abandon is a pretty obvious combo for the turn you decide to commit. Your artefact is the Icon of Great-Total Supremacy which is also once per battle and lets you put d3 models back into each infantry unit with a Health characteristic of 3 or less. It’s a shame to be hard locked into only having once per battle upgrades, but in fairness being able to pop d3 models back into your weapons teams units is nice, as is the total lack of any range to this ability.
For Lores you get one spell and one prayer and a pathetic Manifestation Lore of just Summon Vermintide, so I would suggest you Summon Something-else. Deafening Frenzy is your sole spell and casts on an obscene 8, so it really is just Grey Seers having any kind of reasonable attempt. It’s a 13” range buff that hands out Strike-first but forbids the target from using commands into the bargain. It’s unlimited, if you’d like multiple wizards to fail to cast this. The Prayer Lore features the marginally less silly Reverberating Ritual, which chants on a 7 with a 13” range for +3” to pile-in moves for the target. The extra special chanting roll here is a very funny 8+ and for that you get a pitiful +1 to control score. If GW are wedded to Armies of Renown getting locked into a very limited number of spells and prayers, I’d suggest not making them rubbish? Especially if you’re trying to show off your new Priest (2) special character.
This all feels a bit weak and incoherent. I’m not feeling the vibe of Skaven driven to a religious frenzy; this pushes your non-monster melee units a bit more than the standard Skaven army list but you’re giving up a lot for it. What you’re really looking at here is footslogging a load of Rat Ogors over the board and using Great Ascendancy for a big alpha turn. That’s fine and all but look, if I’m going to be running Rat Ogors across the table, there’s another option to consider…
Thanquol’s Mutated Menagerie
This is a much more limited and specific army, and your options are just: Thanquol, Master Moulders, Rat Ogors, Hell Pits, Brood Terrors and Stormfiends. This army is about big, beefy rats and doing silly things with them. Whilst it’s probably too random to be super competitive, it’s a lot of fun and I suspect it might be a popular one, as it’s also a take on Skaven that doesn’t require painting one million rats and people like Big Model. It’s also worth noting that besides the Hell-pit everything in this army has a gun of some type, and you end up with a surprising amount of ranged output.
For Battle Traits we have a passive in Monstrous Entourage that gives Thanquol a 4+ ward if he’s near another Mutated Menagerie unit, but passing the ward punts that damage onto that friendly unit. Given that Thanquol has a 5+ ward by default, this might actually increase the damage your army is taking. Nice to have if you need it but not ideal. Then we get two really unusual rampages, both are for non-hero Monsters (so Thanquol can’t use them) and both of them hand out Strike-first and also, uh, automatically kill the monster at the end of the turn. Spiteful Swarms also provides a potentially very powerful effect when the monster dies, in that every enemy unit within 6” permanently loses an attack for the rest of the game on a 3+. Rampaging Demise is less interesting, and instead on a 2+ does d3 mortal damage equal to the roll to every enemy unit within 6” when destroyed. Of these, Spiteful Swarms is a game-changer and provides a reason to take something like a Hell-pit (which can then get back up again). Otherwise, I’m not hot enough on the non-hero monsters to try to chain spam this.
Finally, the meat and potatoes of the battle traits is More-More Mutation! A once per turn ability in your own hero phase, you pick a non-hero Mutated Menagerie unit and they permanently gain:
- +2 Health
- +2” Move
- +1 Attack to all melee weapons
- 5+ ward
- And a ticking timebomb of d3+2 damage being allocated to them at the end of each turn
I suppose the idea here is that you pop this on a Hell-pit, run it into the enemy and watch it pop off with strikes first before exploding and reducing attacks, and that’s certainly a thing you can do but the real juice here is this fully works on Stormfiends and Rat Ogors. Both units obviously scale much better with the flat +Health, +Attack and Ward than the weedy 12 wound monsters do. Rat Ogors can quite easily be handed +3 attacks in this army for an amusing 8 each, and you’re not going to worry too much about the ticking damage with a reinforced unit of Stormfiends having 42 health, a 5+ ward and quite a lot of ablative health before you’re removing the really good weapons. Throw in Master Moulder healing and the downside stings a lot less. If you want to roid up a unit or two of Stormfiends, this is the army for you.
For Heroic Traits you’ve got Pack Tactics, a once per battle combat phase ability that lets two units use all-out attack or defence even if it’s already been used that phase. If this also removed the CP cost it would be very strong but as-is it’s a big CP investment for negating one of the major weaknesses of the army in its 4+ hit rolls. Warpstone Innards is your artefact and is yet another once per battle ability that gives a unit +1 attack in return for it taking d3 damage at the end of each turn. This and More-More Mutation can make units throw down a truly frightening number of attacks (48 attacks out of 6 Rat Ogors!) but the punishment of taking 2d3+2 damage a turn is real. Given that the only unit that can take these upgrades is the Master Moulder, being single use abilities isn’t the end of the world.
The Manifestation Lore is just Summon Warp Lightning Vortex so take a generic one. The Spell Lore just has one spell, which is a bit of a shame as Thanquol is a double caster with a weak warscroll spell. Still, Untapped Mutation is an interesting and unlimited spell that casts on a 5+ and turns each damage point suffered from More-More Mutation (but not Warpstone Innards) into bonus Control until the start of your next turn. Control’s a bit of an issue for the unit selection here, and having this on a unit that’s been ticking down all game could lead to big lategame Control scores.
All in all, this is a fun army. It asks you to run big cool models and then turns the big Skaven risk/reward dial all the way up. You miss out on a huge amount of the mobility and board control that vanilla Skaven offer and in return gain the scariest unit of Stormfiends possible.
Regiments of Renown
With the Regiments of Renown system replacing the concept of ‘allies’ as your way to jam units from one army into another, it’s exciting to see where GW are looking to take these now that they are producing Regiments not tied to pre-existing product.
With a RoR you’re generally looking for a coherent collection of models with a consistent battlefield role and either some kind of unique gimmick, wild efficiency, or the provision of something that the host army cannot do itself. On top of that, you have to ask yourself whether what the Regiment is offering is worth a drop in the first place. With that in mind, there are two RoR on offer here, so let’s see how they stack up.
Volt-Klaw’s Enginecoven
You get a Warlock Galvaneer, a unit of three Warpvolt Scourgers and a Ratling Warpblaster. Right off the bat this nails our desire for a coherent collection of models looking to achieve a specific battlefield role: Everything here wants to shoot. Even better, the Galvaneer can buff both the Warpvolt Scourgers and the Warpblaster. This will give your Scourgers a nice flat 30 shots and the option crank up the Warpblaster to 6d6+3 shots (at significant risk to itself).
On top of this we get two bonus abilities for being in the RoR. Once per battle in your shooting phase every unit in the Regiment gets +1 to hit and +3” range. Warpvolt Scourgers hit on a 2+ by default, so your best use here is to pick a turn when you’re planning to turn the Warpblaster to maximum gun, but it can also be useful to push through damage against armies with a negative to hit. The second half of the regiment rules let your Galvaneer and Scourgers become invisible to enemy units more than 13” away if they’re in combat range of the Ratling Warpblaster. Actually not a bad rule – these are squishy units and pretty mid-range as far as shooting goes in the new edition. This will keep your more reliable shooting safe from counter-battery fire.
All in all, I’m pretty hot on this (points dependent), it’s just about finding the right home. Slaanesh and Tzeentch have too much quality native shooting to want for this, and the current Khorne gameplan doesn’t quite synergise with what this wants to do. Nurgle on the other hand, I can see getting quite a bit of value out of being able to insert and protect this shooty Regiment. Slaves to Darkness are probably too addicted to cavalry at the moment to synergise with the Enginecoven, but if we get a meta swing towards more of an infantry focus for them I can see this finding a place in some lists for the same reason as Nurgle – giving the army an ability to reach out and do damage from range that it otherwise lacks.
Krittok’s Clawpack
Well, one out of two ain’t bad.
The Clawpack gives you Krittok Foulblade, 10 Stormvermin and a unit of two Doom-Flayers. Notable here is that, as with the preview image of the new kit from WarCom, the Doom-Flayers are in a two. This is a change from the Faction Pack and if carried through to the pitched battle profile means they will be able to reinforce but won’t be spammable in the same way.
You get three abilities here, the best of which is just Always Three Clawsteps Ahead. Off-turn movement is strong, but with only one unit able to be selected and the units otherwise wanting to be in each other’s combat ranges, Krittok can remedy this with his warscroll command, but then we’re throwing CP at the problem. On top of this, the Doom-Flayers get a 5+ ward if they’re in combat range of the Stormvermin – 8 wounds in the unit with a 4+ save and 5+ ward will require your opponent to invest decently high damage to get rid of them, and will keep them safe from any ranged chip damage on the way in. Finally there’s Fickle Motives, an unusual win-more ability that gives everything +1 attack in melee if you’ve got more VP than your opponent but subtracts 3 from your unit’s control scores if you have fewer VP. With the underdog mechanic, this has potential to be a small punish to enemies who deliberately run lower VPs for the first turn or two.
Overall, this is much less exciting a proposition as a Regiment of Renown. Un-reinforced melee infantry isn’t exactly setting the world on fire here and Stormvermin are just not quite there. Krittok does buff them, but moving from 4+ to wound to 3+ is just moving the dial from mediocre to acceptable on their attacks. Beyond that, it’s all very fragile and just feels like you’re investing too much into an unreliable delivery mechanism for Doom-Flayers. Had this been something like a Warp Grinder with a bigger unit of Flayers, we could have been cooking on gas.
Conclusion
A real mixed bag here, Vizzik’s gnawhorde feels like a thematic miss whereas the mutated menagerie nails the assignment on flavour at the expense of almost everything else. I can see both Regiments getting play, though more of the Volt-Klaw. If it’s cheap enough, Krittok’s Clawpack could get use off of the strength of Three Clawsteps alone. Given this content is a lot of the meat of what is new over the faction pack, especially as we move into armies that aren’t getting a big model release, I’d want the hit rate to be a little better. All that being said, providing alternative approaches to an army that are an official part of the Battletome and don’t feel like they’re going to disappear in six months is a huge step forward.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
