Today I'll be discussing the use of skirmishers, redirect units, placement drop units, and other Skaven units that don't easily fall into one of the other unit categories I've already covered or plan to cover in the last few articles. Skaven have a variety of units that fall into these categories and they have very good choices for both skirmishers and placement drops in particular. In fact, I don't know of many armies that can beat rat darts for placement drops or gutter runners for skirmishers. I digress, read on to see what units work, what units don't, and what units take some tricky list-building to make work best on the tabletop.
Just like my Tactica on ranked units I had originally planned out a far more elaborate post that involved some Warhammer 101. Instead I plan on writing a Warhammer 101 article in the future that addresses such common tactics as redirection, tarpitting, roadblocks, and placement drops.
Skirmishers
Skirmishers perform a variety of roles from harassment war machine hunters, and solo character killers. Skaven skirmishers can work in any of those roles but usually are far less flexible than the skirmishers of other armies.
Gutter Runners
Strengths: Ward Save, Good Stats, Deployment Options, Poison Weapons
Weaknesses: Expensive, Options Quickly Add Up
Loadout: The best loadout for Gutter Runners is to take a unit of 5-10 with slings and poisoned weapons. Deathrunners are completely optional and a matter of personal taste. If a Deathrunner is taken I'd avoid the upgrades as they are a pricey upgrade for a 1 wound model. Avoid the snare net option as it will reduce the offensive impact of the unit for only a small increase in survivability.
Tactics: Deathrunners are extremely flexible for a skirmishing unit. When given the optimal loadout mentioned above they can easily harass small units, go after monsters, completely crush war machines, or assassinate solo characters. When determining how to best deploy gutter runners look at the best possible scouting deployments. If they will suffer too much fire from war machines or other ranged enemy units, consider using the sneaky infiltrators rule to bring them on the opponent's back board edge. Keep in mind that their poison weapons affect their slings too! This allows them to strip wounds off of monsters before they hit your battle lines and/or attack war machines at range. They can also be used to tie up enemy units that ignore armor since they possess a 6+ ward save instead of armor. Just realize that they are not built for durability but rather as a mobile offensive unit.
Plague Censer Bearers
Strengths: Good Stats (S, T, A), Hatred & Frenzy, Plague Censer, Borrow Leadership
Weaknesses: Satellite Unit, Plague Censer Also Affects Them, Frenzy
Loadout: They really don't have options per-say but the best size unit is from 5-10 bearers. Any more risks overexposure to their own nasty plague censers.
Tactics: On paper, Plague Censer Bearers look amazing. They possess good stats with a S5 in the first round of combat, three attacks, and a T4 and they have Frenzy so they are immune to psychology and they have hatred and gain the re-rolls. Add in the bonus toughness test for enemies that ignores armor saves and they look like a unit that can do a great deal of damage.
In reality their many flaws limit their battlefield applications. I list them as a satellite unit due to their ability to borrow the rank bonus of nearby plague monks. While this is good, it means they are horribly unpredictable when outside of that 6" range. Outside of that they can easily be driven off by even the smallest of losses. To make them even more unreliable they will constantly be forced to make leadership checks to restrain Frenzy and at Ld5 (without the rank bonus) they will almost always fail.
If a Skaven army has a lot of plague monks, then plague censer bearers can make a good showing as they bounce around the battlefield. Use them to charge flanks or deal with high Toughness and/or good armor save opponents and they can really earn their points back. If the army lacks plague monks or contains only a single unit of monks, then think really hard as to whether the army would be best served with censer bearers or perhaps consider gutter runners (or even Globadiers) as an alternative.
Poisoned Wind Globadiers
Strengths: Ignore Armor, Range Attacks into Combat, Heavy Armor, Weapon Teams
Weaknesses: Extremely Short Range, Can Fumble and Hit Self
Loadout: Ideal loadout is dependent upon the purpose of the unit. A minimal unit size can be taken simply to grab a Poison Wind Mortar for relatively cheap. Alternatively, a larger unit of 10+ can be taken to maximize the damage done by the unit. All models can throw since the unit skirmishes and this will also let the unit have a back rank to "throw" into their own combat.
Tactics: Globadiers are best used as a defensive unit. Their minimal range means they shouldn't try and move close to enemies as part of a battle line, but rather hang back, let other Skaven units charge or be charged, and then move up and let loose with their orbs. If the opponent has multiple mobile threats, then keep the Globadiers away from them as they really don't hold up well in close combat, even with throwing their poisoned payload.
Redirect/Placement Drop Units
These units excel at being exceptionally cheap and used as placement drops to delay the placing of more important units or as units that, again, are exceptionally cheap and expendable enough that they can range ahead of an army and act as either bait to move enemy units out of alignment, or as roadblocks that force an opponent to maneuver around them or through them.
Giant Rats
Strengths: Dirt Cheap
Weaknesses: No Armor, Easy to Panic
Loadout: Take five rats with a packmaster and that is all that is needed. No options are the best options for redirect and placement drop units. These units are often referred to as a "rat dart".
Tactics: Rat darts serve two primary purposes. The first purpose happens before either player even holds a turn, the placement drop. These units should be the first units placed on the field, usually towards the flanks but not on the extreme flanks. For redirection, they should move forward and close to the enemy, wheel a little so that if an enemy charges them they will expose their flanks to the rest of your army and if they ignore the rats then they can get a flank charge off with something else charging the front arc.
Rat Swarms
Strengths: Small Footprint, Unbreakable, Don't Block Line of Sight
Weaknesses: Expensive, Don't Count Towards Core Points.
Loadout: Rat swarms have no options other than the size of the rat swarm. Usually a unit of 2-3 bases is all that is necessary for redirect and placement drop purposes.
Tactics: This is actually the most expensive option for a Skaven army in terms of redirectors and placement drops, however, it can be one of the more reliable since they are Ld10, 5 wounds per base, and Unbreakable. These should ideally be operated exactly like rat darts and other redirect units but are best used against units a low number of attacks but high strength of armor negating attacks.
Skaven Slaves
Strengths: Cheap, Damage when destroyed, no panic in other skaven units, Expendable
Weaknesses: Large Footprint
Loadout: Slaves used as placement drops and/or redirect units should be taken in minimal unit sizes of 20 models. The only option even worth considering is the musician.
Tactics: Remember how the last article said Skaven slaves should only be purchased in large 40+ blocks? I lied. Small units of 20 can be taken as redirect units and placement drops and offer some pretty good incentives to do so. They cost more than rat darts, but less than a minimal unit of rat swarms and often take much more punishment to chase off. At five models wide and four ranks deep, this unit will often have steadfast over more adept units. Even if the Skaven slaves are chased off and scatter to the winds, they will still cause some havoc by the Cornered Rats rule. Finally, since this unit is truly expendable, they do not cause panic in other Skaven units when they die. The primary drawback is that this unit takes up considerable space in an already cramped Skaven deployment zone.
Miscellaneous
These units defy classification. They are neither skirmishers and don't/can't work s ranked infantry. They are also not monsters or war machines or characters. So this category will cover some of the more uniquely Skaven models/units.
Warplock Jezzails
Strengths: Long Range, Good Armor Save, High Strength & Save Modifier
Weaknesses: Expensive, Low Leadership with no "Strength in Numbers", Unstable Ammunition
Loadout: Jezzails can only purchase a single option and that one is only useful if going with a range-heavy army theme. Avoid if not building a ranged list. Otherwise several units of 5 Jezzails can supply adequate firepower and flexible targeting.
Tactics: Jezzails took a hit from the previous army book. This was expected and necessary to make sure that Skaven, a horde army, returned to their roots and diversfied their army lists. In the previous army book, almost everyone took a couple units of Jezzails. They were fantastic, so why not?
Unfortunately Jezzails are extremely pricey for a 1 wound model with only a T3 and 4+ armor save protecting them. To make matters worse, Jezzails are a ranked unit that doesn't benefit from Strength in Numbers making them one of the easiest units in the Skaven book to panic off the table. Not great for a unit that could literally purchase the Skaven general 50 slaves instead of 5 giant muskets. Nor is it beneficial that the Jezzails can force themselves to panic if they roll poorly in the shooting phase with their unstable ammunition.
If a Skaven army chooses to use Jezzails then they should be scattered in the backfield and used to pick off solo characters, take wounds off of monsters before they hit the battle lines, or even to go after heavily armored cavalry/infantry where a -4 modifier can cause a great world of pain. Ideally they should be used in concert with other ranged units such as weapon teams, warp-lightning cannons, or even Nightrunners.
Weapon Teams
Doomflayer
Strengths: Good Armor, Automatic Hits, Impact Hits, Cheap
Weaknesses: Mishap Chart, Weapon Team Statline, Low Initiative
Tactics: Doomflayers really don't require much in the way of tactical finesse. They run forward until they hit enemy units. If done right, they should always be supporting an existing combat and should, almost always, hit the flanks of enemy units. Despite their stature they add a big punch to most combats, providing they can survive the initial swings at them in combat. While not really intended for such a task, this unit can be used to redirect charges if necessary since it is relatively cheap and can cause decent damage in combat before dying.
Their low initiative results in fewer Doomflayers being used on the tabletop. Making all close combat strikes go in initiative order really hurt this unit quite a bit as weapon teams have absolutely horrendous statistics. Interestingly enough, Doomflayers possess the least punishing mishap table as even the worst result will hurt the enemy unit as much as the Skaven army.
Poison Wind Mortar
Strengths: Ignores Armor, Always Wounds on 4+/5+, Long Range, Move and Fire, No LoS Required.
Weaknesses: Mishap Chart, Weapon Team Statline, Always Wounds on a 4+/5+
Tactics: Many Skaven general prefer the sneaky Poison Wind Mortar since the weapon team itself rarely finds itself in the path of danger. It can safely hang out behind the parent unit and lob its deadly payload at enemies using the LoS of aforementioned parent unit. With a range of 24" this means it should be able to hit most units by no later than turn 2, which brings up the other benefit, the Poisoned Wind Mortar is the only weapon team that can move and fire.
This weapon team really excels at bringing heavy armor units to their knees. Chaos Knights? No problem. Place the blast marker, roll scatter, and laugh as the unit loses at least a single knight per turn. Alternatively it can be used against war machines with their high toughness versus ranged attacks since the Mortar always wounds on a 4+ or 5+. The only downside this weapon team experiences is the rather harsh mishap table that causes it to blow up in various horrendous ways, including letting the opponent place the blast marker.
Ratling Gun
Strengths: No Penalties for Range or Multi-Shot, Stand & Shoot, High Volume of Fire
Weaknesses: Mishap Chart, Weapon Team Statline, Short(er) Range, Move Or Fire
Tactics: Ratling Guns are the red-headed step-children of the weapon team world. They have a short range, but not the shortest, lower strength, and mediocrearmor modifier. Throw in a crap BS and that is a recipe for a unit that really won't impact the field. However, Ratling Guns still have a place.
Ratling Guns are superb at gunning down fast cavalry, skirmishers, and small units simply due to weight of fire. Roll three dice and end up with around 10-11 shots, then ignore some shooting modifiers and they can reliably pull out 3-4 wounds per turn reliably. They do tend to run afoul of mishaps more often then other weapon teams, but this is only common because Skaven are greedy generals and push their foul mechanisms further than they should.
Warpfire Thrower
Strengths: High Strength, Multiple Wounds, Template Weapon, Stand & Shoot, Flaming Attacks, Panic!
Weaknesses: Mishap Chart, Weapon Team Statline, Short Range, Move or Fire, Expensive
Tactics: The Warpfire Thrower easily rests as the most popular, as well as the most expensive, weapon team in the Skaven arsenal. With the move or fire limitation and the short range of a flame cannon (essentially) the Warpfire Thrower will likely only fire one or two times during the game, however, these couple shots are usually devastating and can easily reduce even monsters to smoldering ashes given the multiple wounds rule and the template swath which can cut horrible paths into ranked infantry.
Skaven generals should run these weapon teams alongside their battle-line units and keep them in view of slave units since they can fire their templates into the slaves combat causing untold devastation. Also remember that these are flaming attacks that cause panic if any model takes a wound!
Warp-Grinder
Strengths: Tunnel Deployment, Automatic Hits
Weaknesses: Expensive, Limited Deployment, Permanently Attached, Mishap Table, Weapon Team Stats
Tactics: This unit is only ever taken for the tunnel deployment option. This option is best used with Nightrunners but can also be used with Gutter Runners. Gutter Runners don't really need this to be effective however since they can enter the battlefield from any board edge. Having a ranked unit appear in the backfield can cause many opponents to overreact and push them on the defensive, so by that reason alone this weapon team barely clings to usability.
When placing the marker for the Warp-Grinder make sure to keep it 10" or more away from the board edge. Try and anticipate where the enemy will put war machines and put the marker there. This will force them to either deploy near the marker and be charged when the unit arrives, or deploy far away from the marker, often outside of ideal terrain. Alternatively if objectives are in-play, consider placing the marker near the objective/building for easy access later.