One of the most popular armies in the world that was, and now the Mortal Realms, are the various factions of Skaven. Let’s talk about what makes them tick.
It seems everyone either owns a couple of Skaven, owns an army of them, or wishes they owned a bunch of them. So, it only makes sense to look at the various clans and how you might make an army out of them.
AoS 2.0 Taking Skaven Clan Pestilens to 2000 Points
Starting with the faction that has the most models is the Skaven Pestilens, who worship the horned rat but through their zeal for plague, worship Nurgle too. This is the most complete faction right now with an outdated battle tome that was released around two years ago. Unless you’re interested in the fluff you should pass on it.
The faction in a Nutshell:
A bunch of the AoS novels and backstories use the Skaven Pestilens as either the main bad guy or as a supporting villain to the forces of Chaos. They are primarily found in the realm of Life during the Realmgate Wars fighting alongside Nurgle to take over the realm, though they are also present in all the realms as well using their magic to spread plague and open realm gates. They have access to prayers with their plague priests, wizards with their sorcerers, so solid battleline troops with their plague monks, couple war machines, and finally the Verminlord Corruptor. They also offer some interesting allied options, being able to ally with all the other clans and Nurgle as well.
*As always, I will only cover new units that were not covered in a part one of an article. *
A 1000 Point Army From A Year Ago
- Plague Furnace
- Plagueclaw
- 20 Plague Monks
- 20 Plague Monks
- Congregation of Filth
- Verminlord Corruptor
This army is now a little different, from our article a year ago, with changes to point costs and how massive regiments work. If you kept this army the same, it comes in at 1010 points today, but we are going to modify it to bring it into the current rules a little bit. First, drop the Congregation of Filth as it costs a massive 170 points and just isn’t worth that anymore. Then you will want to combine the two units of Plague Monks into one massive unit to get the point reduction at 240 for 40 of them. This brings your point total down to 800 but does leave you needing 2 more battle line troops as well instead of just one.
Taking This Army to 2000:
This is an easier and cheaper army to take to 2000 points, especially if you already have all the models from the first 1000-point article. All you need to do is buy two more start collecting Skaven Pestilens sets and build one of the two as a Plague Furnace and the other as the Screaming Bell. Then buy a unit of 5 Plague Censer Bearers to get the third battleline troop finished at 30 bucks new.
- 40 Plague Monks: 240 points (Battleline 2 of 3)
- 1 Plague Furnace: 180 points (Leader 3 of 6, Behemoth 3 of 4)
- 1 Screaming Bell: Allied 200 points (Leader 4 of 6, Behemoth 4 of 4)
- 5 Plague Censer Bearers: 60 points (Battleline 3 of 3)
- Plague Claw: 160 points (Artillery 2 of 4)
- Plague Claw: 160 points (Artillery 3 of 4)
Screaming Bell:
12 Wounds, Move damage table (4” down to 1”) (add 1” for every 3 skaven within 1”), 4+ Save, and 10 Bravery. It has three different melee weapons, the first being a Staff: Range 2”, 3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 4+, with -1 Rend, for 1 damage. The second is a Claw attack: Range 1”, 4 Attacks, hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 2 damage. The third attack is Wheels and Spikes: Range 1”, D6 Attacks (2D6 if there are 10 or move skaven within 1”), Hitting is damage table (2+ up to 5+), Wounding on a 3+, for 1 damage.
All non-chaos wizards within 6” must subtract 1 from their casting rolls. In your hero phase, you roll 2D6 and consult a chart where a variety of effects can happen. The best is a 12 and you summon a Verminlord (Once per game), while the worst is a 2 and the bell suffers a mortal wound. It is a wizard and can cast / unbind one spell a turn with its unique spell being Cracks Call: Casting value 6, range 18”, target enemy unit, you roll 2D6 and for every point that it beats their move characteristic the unit suffers a mortal wound. (does not work against units that fly). Finally, is has a command ability that lets you add 1 to Move and Bravery for all Skaven that can see the Bell.
Plague Censer Bearers:
Move 6”, No Save, Bravery 5, 1 Wound. They have 1 melee attack the Plague Censer: Range 2”, 2 Attacks (3 when they charge), Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 1 damage. In your hero phase each non-Nurgle unit within 3” of them roll a D6 and on a 4+ they suffer a mortal wound. Finally, if they are within 13” of a Plague Monk they can re-roll failed hit and battleshock rolls.
This brings your point total up to 1800, with two open leader spots. Which because you built your start collecting boxes you should have a couple of single models on foot sitting around. If you built two plague furnaces and 1 screaming bell, you will have two grey seers on foot and a plague priest on foot that you can plug into this army at will. Personally, I would add the two Grey Seer to give you 4 magic casting units for spells and unbinding.
- Grey Seer: Allied 100 points (Leader 5 of 6)
- Grey Seer: Allied 100 points (Leader 6 of 6)
Grey Seer:
Move 6”, Save 5+, Bravery 6, Wounds 5. He has one staff melee attack: Range 2”, 1 Attack, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for D3 damage. He can consume a warpstone token when casting magic where you roll a D6, on a 2+ you can re roll a failed casting attempt or on a 1 he suffers a mortal wound. They can cast / unbind 1 spell with the unique spell being Vermintide: Casting Value 6, Range 26”, Target is enemy unit, you roll a D6 for each model in the unit and on a 6, it suffers a mortal wound. Finally, they have a command ability where whenever a Skaven model flees within 26” of the grey seer you roll a D6 and on a 4+ they do not.
Tactics:
Your hardest part will be keeping the Plague Furnaces and the Screaming Bell moving, so you need to make sure you keep those chunks of Skaven around all three. If your opponent focuses fires on your larger blocks of Skaven they could slow them down, but it is still a ton of wounds to chew threw. Also, your Plague Claws can target larger blocks of shooting troops or individual warmachines and with a D6 damage, they could potentially end the threat before your opponent gets to use them.
There you have it. 2000 points of Clan Pestilens is a manageable army to collect. You can break it down into buying start collecting boxes one at a time. After 3 of those, you’ve covered 90% of your army. After that, you’ll need to buy an additional 20 plague monks, 5 plague censor bearers, and finally your centerpiece a Verminlord Corruptor. Hope you enjoyed this breakdown of making Skaven a successful army!
