Many thanks to Games Workshop for providing us with an advanced preview copy of the new Skaven Battletome for us 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.
Skaven have been one of the ever-lasting factions for Games Workshops fantasy-based IPs over the years and as a consequence have had many miniatures for them during that time. Some of these earlier ones have stayed “current” in the range for a longer time than anyone expected…but here we are in 2024, Age of Sigmar’s fourth edition, with new but very familiar rats.
This is the first Battletome of an edition that was entirely overhauled via Faction Packs and gives a glimpse into what we can expect future tomes to have, always an interesting time in a new edition. The layout of the Battletome itself has had a tweak, with pictures of the models now sprinkled throughout the book rather than separated out into their own section and there’s clearer divides between the different rules modules. There’s a rules reference at the back that is very helpful, but I was disappointed in how thin the hobby advice content was; just a couple of pages of basic painting.
One major addition to the Battletome is the Rules of Renown, covering two new Armies of Renown (alternate takes on Skaven and ways to play the army with restricted unit pools) and Regiments of Renown (the new way of doing allies). It’s a big chunk of content so there’s a separate review for the Armies and Regiments of Renown which you can find here.
Faction Rules
New Units
The headline act is Vizzik Skour, a new daemon-rat unleashed by the energies released upon the freeing of Kragnos, and a prophet of the Horned Rat. Beyond being an astoundingly good model, Vizzik is a Priest (2) with 15 wounds, a 5+ save and a 5+ ward (making him marginally less tough than a Plague Furnace). Unlike the Verminlords, his melee profile is nothing to write home about so we’re all-in on abilities for his utility. You get a once-per-game re-roll on chanting rolls until the start of your next turn which is nice, as Vizzik’s warscroll prayer chants on an 8 – it can target enemy units for -1 Attack in melee or a friendly unit to get two Fight abilities, with the second granting Strike-last. Then there’s two combat phase abilities – Gaze of the Gnaw picks an enemy unit in combat and on a 2+ forces them to target Vizzik and subtract 1 from hit and wound rolls when they do so. -1 to hit and wound on top of the ward does actually go a fair way to increasing Vizzik’s survivability. Finally, Fissures in Reality gives you more of a reason to want to be in combat and tags each enemy unit in combat with d3 mortals on a 2+. Overall, he’s decent. The only Priest (2) in faction gives Vizzik a suite of strong buffs and debuffs. The poor save and mediocre damage output make me hesitant, as does strong Priest competition from the Plague Furnace. If he’s not too expensive, Vizzik can see play as a supporting toolbox.
Then we get some brand new Skryre units. The Warpspark Weapons Battery kit now builds as one of three different weapons team units: Ratling Guns, Warpfire Throwers and Warpvolt Scourgers. The kit comes with three models so these are units proper now and not single models to be spammed out. Bad for target priority fuckery; good for everything else. All teams share some basics: 3 wounds, 6+ save, move 6″ and a hidden weapon team rule that makes them invisible to enemy units more than 13″ away so long as the weapons team is within combat range of some Clanrats. The major difference is in the gun each team is toting: Ratling Guns have the most shots with 3d6 and crit (2hits) but have the worst hit roll and rend. Warpfire Throwers hit on 2s, shoot in combat and have rend 2 but only have a 10″ range. Warpvolt Scourgers are a sort of mix of the two: 15″ range, 2d6 attacks with a 2+/4+/1/1 profile and crit (2 hit) and an unusual and meta-handy anti-cavalry (+1 rend). There will be a most efficient option here, and it will come down to cost. The new Scourgers are probably the easiest to use as they have the combination of highest range and hit roll to make use of covering fire.
Warpvolt Scourgers also get their own hero in the form of the Warlock Galvaneer. You get a decent gun on par with the Engineer, and two abilities. More-more Warpvolt Doom picks and enemy unit you’ve damaged with the Galvaneer’s shooting and splashes d3 mortal damage onto any enemies in the target’s combat range. Not huge, but potential chip mortals can and do add up over a game. The buff for Scourgers is a good one though: on a 2+ you change their attacks characteristic from 2d6 to a flat 10. 30 shots with crit 2 hits that hit on 2s is a low of warpvolts to be throwing down-range. If you can reinforce the unit, then this obviously gets even better.
More Skryre comes in the form of the Warp-Grinder, making it’s triumphant return with a much bigger model on a large cavalry base. This has a deployment phase ability to put itself and one non-monster unit into reserves, using the same ‘in the tunnels’ below language as the battle trait. The main ability here is warp-ambush, which is slightly confusingly worded. You pick an enemy unit more than 6″ from all other enemy units to be the target, then on a 4+ you can set the Warp-Grinder and friend up within 3″ of the target and more than 6″ from any other enemy model. This is fiddly. Being able to arrive from reserves already in combat with the unit you want to be in combat with is obviously incredible for a melee alpha-strike delivery mechanism and Rat Ogors are the obvious unit that will adore this. Having both the limitations on which units can be selected as a target and the 4+ roll to actually work make this a more difficult sell. It’s really easy to just fail a bunch of 4+ rolls! One trick is that the ability wording means you can take one of these with some melee Stormfiends and if you fail the 4+ roll then you can use the Stormfiends’ own grinderfists to guarantee arrival. If these are cheap, maybe even cheap enough to take two, then I think the trick is good enough to invest in. Otherwise, it’s a harder sell.
Another returning unit is the Plaguepack, an ex-Underworlds unit which has now been divested of its unique branding and is just a generic unit. What’s cool here is it’s -1 to be hit with shooting, is a priest (1) with a cheeky once per game chanting re-roll and is crucially not a hero. With Skaven hero slots at an absolute premium, this will be popular as a way to get prayers in without using a hero slot. Also: I hope this is a sign of things to come for old Underworlds warbands, becoming a generic unit that does something unique is the best thing that could have happened to these models.
Krittok Foulblade is the new unique Verminus hero. Stat-wise he’s somewhat similar to a Clawlord, just better in every way: 1 more wound, a decent gun and Doomfang, a magic sword with rend 2 and crit (mortal). Krittok has also been blessed with real abilities, which is a nice change for a foot melee hero. You can opt to give him Strike-first at the expense of being able to use commands in that phase, which is a deal you will take 100% of the time. In the enemy hero phase he has a 1CP command to pick two units to use ‘always three clawsteps ahead’ so long as one of the chosen units is Verminus (ie Clanrats, Stormvermin). 3 Clawsteps is one of the best tricks Skaven have, costing a CP is a real downside but the effect is so good it’s worth it. Finally, Krittok passively gives Stormvermin wholly within 13″ a +1 to wound. This brings Stormvermin up from wounding on a 4 to a 3. I like Krittok a decent amount, Stormvermin aren’t great as Skaven infantry go but at least he’s providing a meaningful buff, and everything else on offer here is just very good. He’s also a warmaster into the bargain which isn’t great right now but will presumably become more valuable in future GHBs.
Finally we have the Brood Terror, a new Moulder monstrosity with an absolutely disgusting (positive connotation) miniature. The Brood Terror is an interesting one and ultimately I just really hope they haven’t been too conservative with the points. You get an okay gun with 2d6 anti-infantry shots and d3 damage and some okay melee attacks. The chain-flail has crit (mortal) and damage 3 but all of the attacks suffer from the same problem every solo monster has this edition: hitting on a 4+. Ability wise you get two: heal (d6) at the end of every turn and a rampage to subtract 1 from hit rolls for enemy units within 6″ on a 2+ in the combat phase. With a 6″ move, 12 wounds, a 5+ save and no ward I am worried this is going to be priced into oblivion as it is so slow and squishy. I’m most disappointed with this warscroll of all the new stuff on offer here; it feels like the design team holding back.
Changes from Faction Pack
There are changes from the faction pack, representing an attempt to re-balance things that were off or not quite working. This isn’t a huge overhaul, but some of the changes are quite impactful.
A change to the Lore of Ruin is that Skitterleap is now the unlimited spell, rather than Wither. This isn’t a massive change but Skaven can run a few spellcasters so this removes the ability to spam mid-range mortal damage and replaces it with teleporting. I like this change quite a lot; it’s small and it’s subtle but it just opens up the possibility space for the army a little bit. Mobility good.
The Virulent Procession battle formation has caught a nerf to now only triggering on Pestilens units that are in combat, which ends up being a big reduction in utility to the point where this isn’t worth pursuing.
Jezzails have lost 6” of range, but can get it back by not moving. This replaces their previous ‘not moving’ buff of +1 to hit. Jezzails were a popular and extremely efficient shooting unit and without a price drop this will significantly affect competitive Skaven armies. It’s all cost dependent, but expect to see a shift away from these and towards the new weapons teams, which is a bit of a shame for anyone who bought Skaventide!
There are other tweaks to warscrolls as well, particularly for anything with a new sculpt. The Arch Warlock‘s weapons profile has been changed up to be less shooty but better in melee, which isn’t ideal but hardly major. Its ability changing from removing the negative to hit when using covering fire to being CP-free covering fire is a more impactful change. It’s largely for the better, as CP is precious and it means you can just always use covering fire, but a lot of Skaven shooting hits on a 4+ so that -1 will hurt. The Master Moulder has picked up a gun but reduced his charge bonus from +2 to +1. None of this changes whether you take a Master Moulder, and it’s probably a reaction to the bonuses available in one of the Armies of Renown. Doom-Flayers now almost certainly come in units of two, which might open up the possibility of reinforcing them. If they’re cheap enough, a unit of these could be a scary threat to make use of the Skaven penchant for teleporting. You might want to be teleporting them too, as their movement has gone from d6+8″ to 2d6+3″ – a much lower floor for a very slightly higher ceiling and less consistent overall.
There’s no change to the warscrolls of Acolyte Globadiers or Stormvermin despite the new kits – this is pretty good for Globadiers and a bit of a shame for Stormvermin.
Spearhead
Nothing new here, and in fact less than was in Fire & Jade. There are rules (and hobby advice) present for the Gnawfeast Clawpack but nothing for the Warpspark Clawpack. Warhammer Community have confirmed that the latter is still the Spearhead box and that there will be a rules pdf for them online, so why not in the book? Free online rules for Spearhead is great, but this half-and-half implementation is odd.
Rat-up
I’m excited that the design team are feeling confident enough to make the first significant change to Battletome design since first edition, and I want to see where they can take it as they gain experience over the life of the edition. I wish we weren’t still being tied to buying physical product to get digital rules at this point in history; the model felt like a backwards step in third edition and it’s just as bad now.
All that aside, this launch has been exactly the shot in the army that Skaven need and I hope it gives them the popularity they deserve. Games Workshop have proved time and again that they’re brilliant at taking these older, legacy armies and beautifully updating them for the Age of Sigmar. Competitively, I worry that this is yet again just a gunline & screen army for the rats, but there should be enough juice in some of the melee units for people to make a go of it and have fun. The approach of expanding out an army via the Rules of Renown has brought some fun tools to the Skaven, and I’m excited to see how it evolves.
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