Most useful Skaven units/lords?

[robert.s_a]

Howdy.

Ive been trying to learn how to use Skaven in both multiplayer and higher mortal empire difficulties. Trouble is, i dont really know which units are the best to use for them. It always seems that there's stuff that looks good on paper but turns out to be useless, and vice versa. Any tips on what would be best to use?

Plus, anyone know who their best lord might be? Tried them all and they all seem a little underwhelming. xD

[Iriath Zhul]

For Singleplayer, I think Queek is the best because he murders almost any other lord in a duel and he has some neat spells for ensuring he gets in and out of trouble when he needs to.

I'm a big fan of using a wall of shielded Clanrats since they're dirt cheap and boosted amply by red line skills, and use them to protect all the delicious Clan Skryre damage dealers like Globadiers, WPCs, etc. Particularly effective underground or in ambushes.

[Wyvern]

best lord is kinda dependent on what you want them for, but generally skrolk is considered the most competitive. Skrolk is also the easiest in campaign. His liber bubonicus and rod of corruption provide massive AOE damage+single target damage, and he has the lore of plague to go with it.

As for units, in campaign I would say its driven by your lord of choice, with skrolk youll want to churn out plague monks and catapults, with queek it's gonna be stormvermin and catapults/rat ogres. All your units are viable, but most are pretty specialized, and most have some sort of glaring weakness. You need to use spells and combined arms to win. Tretch is the only lord who isnt exactly specialized, but in his army youre better off with stormvermin. The key to skaven is to use food to quickly tech a capital up to tier 3-4, get access to good units and win from there.

In MP theres a few different strats, but everything relies on combined arms. Plague monks are generally a safer pick than stormvermin for a frontline(not vs all factions, but vs most) and you'll want to make use of your artillery, magic and skirmishers to whittle away at enemies while using your infantry more as fodder than anything else.

[robert.s_a]

Okay, thats interesting to know. I always thought Stormvermin weren't nearly worth their price in either Empires or MP. though. Which variant is better?

Is Queek able to hold his own against any other melee lords? (Tyrion, Karl, Grimgor, etc)

[Washcloth Repairman]

Originally posted by robert.s_a:

Okay, thats interesting to know. I always thought Stormvermin weren't nearly worth their price in either Empires or MP. though. Which variant is better?

Is Queek able to hold his own against any other melee lords? (Tyrion, Karl, Grimgor, etc)

Pretty sure Kholek will wreck any LL in melee all other things being equal. Never seen a Kholek with Sword of Khaine, but that would be something.

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by robert.s_a:

Okay, thats interesting to know. I always thought Stormvermin weren't nearly worth their price in either Empires or MP. though. Which variant is better?

Is Queek able to go up against any other melee lords? (Tyrion, Karl, Grimgor)

Stormvermin are cheaper for some lords/have good buffs in SP, plus they have armor, shields and AI is really bad at using shock tactics/psychology to break your units. This makes them an adequate staying tool while your arty does damage. Stat wise, stormvermin are basically just chaos warriors but more expensive, so they do ok vs cheap infantry too. If you're using them in an SP army, you'll want a frontline of normal stormvermin and just keep a handful of halberds on the periphery to defend against cav/monsters(the halberds have lower defense, but theyre available sooner, so early on id field all halberds and replace them with sword+board as time/opportunity permits)

In SP the sword and board variant is good vs factions like wood elves, who dont really have many tools to crack them efficiently, but otherwise theyre almost never useful. They break too easily and plague monks will usually serve you better.

Halberds however are rarely a bad choice. They give you a mob of AP anti-large that you can park on your arty/backline to defend vs enemy flankers. Theyre only wasted vs a handful of factions with heavy shooting+light cav like greenskins or wood elves.

As for queek, I heard somewhere he can beat most melee foot lords in a 1 v 1, though I havent tested it myself. In campaign he certainly can with buffs, but he struggles vs monsters/mounted lords. He's all around decent in campaign, with a cool playstyle+stormvermin focus. In MP he's pretty low on the lord roster for quality, probably about tied with tretch just above the warlord and well below the casters/skrolk.

[DarkFenix]

All three Skaven lords are very good. Queek is very good as a unit, he's good for going in and wrecking enemy heroes/lords in battle. Skrolk is very good from a tactical standpoint, he has powerful spells and is conducive to using a lot of summons in battle. Tretch is very good from a strategic standpoint, almost all your offensive battles become ambushes, effectively ending each one before it even begins, he's pretty decent in combat too.

[Aenarion]

Originally posted by robert.s_a:

Okay, thats interesting to know. I always thought Stormvermin weren't nearly worth their price in either Empires or MP. though. Which variant is better?

Is Queek able to hold his own against any other melee lords? (Tyrion, Karl, Grimgor, etc)

I did some testing at the link below, but Queek didn't get through the qualifier against Kroq-Gar:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/594570/discussions/0/1480982338954948174/

[robert.s_a]

Oh, that's...a shame. Lol.

What about their ranged stuff? I've heard doomwheels are absurd, but i'm not sure about the other weird bits of tech they use.

[Bad_Lieutenant]

Originally posted by Washcloth Repairman:

Originally posted by robert.s_a:

Okay, thats interesting to know. I always thought Stormvermin weren't nearly worth their price in either Empires or MP. though. Which variant is better?

Is Queek able to hold his own against any other melee lords? (Tyrion, Karl, Grimgor, etc)

Pretty sure Kholek will wreck any LL in melee all other things being equal. Never seen a Kholek with Sword of Khaine, but that would be something.

Kholek + Sword of Khaine = stuff of nightmares.

[Fey Dragonette]

Skaven Slaves. Hands down

[robert.s_a]

Originally posted by Bad_Lieutenant:

Originally posted by Washcloth Repairman:

Pretty sure Kholek will wreck any LL in melee all other things being equal. Never seen a Kholek with Sword of Khaine, but that would be something.

Kholek + Sword of Khaine = stuff of nightmares.

Well. I know what im trying after i figure out Skaven. xD

[Lunos]

What I personally love using are Grey Seers and Plague Monks + Lore of Plague for the clanrat summon spells and the great cone AOE damage spells. I just form lines of clan rats and mass summon clanrats behind the enemy to charge into their rear/archers/artillery.

I use plague catapaults for artillery and Poison/Death Wind Globadiers for anti everything with a few monster units like Rat Ogres and Hell Pits as needed. Seriously Globadiers are completely insane. 4-5 units of them will wipe out almost anything in the game in a few seconds. Skaven infantry isn't the greatest so I would just recommend using lots of clanrats which are easily replaceable and just go for lots of artillery, monsters and ranged units.