Plague Monks... what are they good for?

[Stoinker666]

Every time I build them, I just wish I would have gotten Stormvermin instead.

They do a lot of damage, but against any half decent unit they die way to fast du be worth while. Why build Plague Monks, that I constantly have to replenish/re-recruit when I can just get Stormvermin instead. As damage dealers? Pfft, got Rat Ogres for that, they are faster, tougher and a lot more agile and versitile. Or just tons of artillery.

Even Skavenslaves are a hundred times more usefull than Monks. A sh*t load of throw away infantly to tire the enemy before the real units come in the mix.

It's the same like with the Vampire counts spectral units. To expensive and die to fast, a lot of better alternatives.

[Kaaz]

Plaguemonks shred stuff. Get the red line bonuses on them and they shred stuff while surviving (especially the rank 7+ bonus one)

[Sn3z]

They ain't nothing but a heart-breaker.

[Zane87]

Not a fan, either.

On a infantry- heavy build they might be perfect flankers/damage dealers but I prefer the more wicked ranged units of the Skaven and therefore need a durable frontline... Sooo Stormvermin

[AVGAMER]

They are a good frontline for fighting fear causing units as even stormvermin drop their balls pretty fast. They also do well against enemy basic troops killing them efficently and reducing thier effectivness. I fail to see how you find them worse than clan rats.

[Iriath Zhul]

Originally posted by AVGAMER:

They are a good frontline for fighting fear causing units as even stormvermin drop their balls pretty fast. They also do well against enemy basic troops killing them efficently and reducing thier effectivness. I fail to see how you find them worse than clan rats.

They cost a lot more and can't be reliably replenished from a common tier 2 building after a conquest. They also cause morale penalties when dying.

[Wyvern]

plague monks are great for glass cannon strats in campaign, throw a wither down and they mulch basically anything. Support them with death runners and they'll mulch literally everything. They also don't require a unique structure, and of course, the main lord to use them with is skrolk, who has upkeep bonuses.

All that aside, they are a bit better in QM than in campaign, because in campaign, AI doesnt know how to use psychology, flanking etc properly. Stormvermin have a tendency to crumple when faced with fear+terror, whereas plaguemonks, although more squishy, have frenzy to keep them from routing immediately.

[Sin]

Do be honest .. I phased out anything but plague monks cencserbearers and deathrunners from my melee infantry roster.
Stormvermin with halberds are still crap, normal stormvermin are okayish, but skaven are about killing stuff before their leadership breaks.

Plague monks have high leadership (for skaven) and shredd enemy infantry -> Hello line unit.
Censerbearer do AP to go with it. Hello supporting line unit (well, I made them my main line for the end game stacks)
Deathrunner - fragile high damage armor sundering flanking unit.

Stormvermin: "We stand here till our leadership breaks and do not much of anything"

The question is not "what are plague monks good for", the question should be: "What are stormvermin good for".

Apart from that: Skaven are a specialist army. Your line doesn't win battles, magic and specialist units (globadiers, rat ogers, artillery, deathsrunner, doomwheels ... ) win your battle.

[Aenarion]

Unfortunately offensive melee units suffer greatly in autoresolve.

[Cacomistle]

Originally posted by Sin:

Do be honest .. I phased out anything but plague monks cencserbearers and deathrunners from my melee infantry roster.
Stormvermin with halberds are still crap, normal stormvermin are okayish, but skaven are about killing stuff before their leadership breaks.

Plague monks have high leadership (for skaven) and shredd enemy infantry -> Hello line unit.
Censerbearer do AP to go with it. Hello supporting line unit (well, I made them my main line for the end game stacks)
Deathrunner - fragile high damage armor sundering flanking unit.

Stormvermin: "We stand here till our leadership breaks and do not much of anything"

The question is not "what are plague monks good for", the question should be: "What are stormvermin good for".

Apart from that: Skaven are a specialist army. Your line doesn't win battles, magic and specialist units (globadiers, rat ogers, artillery, deathsrunner, doomwheels ... ) win your battle.

That last sentence is why I prefer storvermin and clanrats except for skrolk. I generally feel I just need an infantry to hold the line while I murder them with artillery and globadiers or flank with doomwheels and death runners.

Thats not to say there is a problem with plague monks, in my non artillery based armies I prefer them. Cause they do a lot more than stormvermin. But when my artillery gets 200 kills and I have 6 pieces of artillery, and I have 2 bombadiers getting 200 kills, and maybe a couple deathrunners or doomwheels getting 150 kills, I dont need infantry capable of getting hundreds of kills. I need infantry that won't die. And stormvermin are that infantry vs most enemies, or just clanrats cause they're cheap and actually not bad at line holding but the game doesn't really support the whole low tier units thing.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

It's classic "OP melee unit that gets shredded by archers."

See also Witch Elves and Slayers.

[victorlopezdelosmozogomez]

They're so good against regular units.

[狐神｜Kitsugami]

plague monks are not intended to be used alone or as front liners, you should send them in behind your meat shealds and have then engage as the enemy forcuses on the fodder, that is also kinda the whole premus of skaven slaves to sponge up damage well doing none.
Plague monks main funtions are to deal massive damage to unarrmorred infintry well also damaging the leadership of enemies.
in terms of why you would use them instead of rat ogres: for the most part the same reason you would use skaven slaves over clan rats or stormvermin, they are cheeper and more numerious. in addition if you are fighting large numbers of anti large rat orges will actuly die reather quickly and when facing larges groups of light infintry rat oges will takes a lot longer to kill them, and if all of them are anti large that works with the previous point so that your rat ogres will die quickly well also killing less people in that time. frankly however if you have access to plague monk censor barers you should always use them instead as they do more damage and alot more leadership damage, on that note they are better at destroying leader ship in large forces even if they are not attacking a squad simply the sight of them killing other squads will lower loyalty.
though my most used method personaly is to have some artiliery and then a ton of meat shealds to keep everyone occupied, as it is cheep and often sucessful even in disavantagus situations.
however it is obviously more effective to use actuly good units not just artilery

[AVGAMER]

As skrolk there is no reason to use clan rats (other than spears). As queek you are best using stormvermin as you say.

[Stoinker666]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

It's classic "OP melee unit that gets shredded by archers."

See also Witch Elves and Slayers.

No. Archers are not a problem. Menece below nullifies any enemy archers from the AI. And Witch Elves are by far my most favorite DE unit.

Originally posted by Sin:

Stormvermin: "We stand here till our leadership breaks and do not much of anything"

The question is not "what are plague monks good for", the question should be: "What are stormvermin good for".

Apart from that: Skaven are a specialist army. Your line doesn't win battles, magic and specialist units (globadiers, rat ogers, artillery, deathsrunner, doomwheels ... ) win your battle.

You just answered your own question. That's what SV are there for. Hold the line for specialist units to do the damage.

Monks are just to squishy for their price and upkeep. They suck as line unit because they take to much damage and can't be reliably replenished. And for flanking there are a ton of better options (the specialist units mentioned above).

As a "throw-at-the-enemy-unit": Again, to expensive, that's what Skavenslaves are for.

Edit: SFO makes Monks unbreakable wich makes them even worse imo. They are guarenteed to die unless you pull them manually away. I usually rely on my units breaking for them to survive and have spare units held back, ready to take their place in the battle. Works great with clanrats and SV.

[Kaaz]

Wait, your running SFO?