How to Lord Skrolk

[SkeletalArm]

I'm a noob on VH/easy looking to get the achievement Verminlord, Got TK and Empire already with Bretonnia soon behind but thinking of doing Skaven next. Already Completed Skaven on Easy with Ikkit, and was looking at Skrolk to see if I could plague my way to victory and Verminlord achievement.

Anyone got any advice for me-me?

[yuzhonglu]

Get level 3 settlement with food.
Save some money. Then mass plague monks (catapult building too expensive), benefit from -50% upkeep in Skolk's army, and are pretty OP in the early game. You can get an army of plague monks by T20 or so.
Throw in another army of skavenslave slinger chaff.
Rush your neighbors down early on.
Win.

[Fryskar]

I'd pick some catas.
Skrolk got a bit a harder start due to all the lizards.
In general it often can help to merciless exploit using 1 army (even if its only 1 lord) as bait and another army infront of in ambush.

[RCMidas]

And definitely prioritise getting a plague going under Itza with the Undercity mechanic. That will help you ENORMOUSLY, especially if it spreads to your own forces.

[Mardagg]

you need catapults vs lizards.
I usually get 10+ plague monks and at least 4 catapults asap for skrolk`s army.
Its doable to get level 4 settlements with skrolk very soon.

My advise is to only spend food to grow a settlement after conquering it when its a main settlement and to leave minor settlements at level 1 unless it got an important special landmark you want.

I usally send my first doom engineer str8 for Lothern to start an under empire there (I insta sell the building that it generates there )

First plague should be on Itza like RCMidas said.

[Wh♂♂par]

Originally posted by Mardagg:

you need catapults vs lizards.
I usually get 10+ plague monks and at least 4 catapults asap for skrolk`s army.
Its doable to get level 4 settlements with skrolk very soon.

My advise is to only spend food to grow a settlement after conquering it when its a main settlement and to leave minor settlements at level 1 unless it got an important special landmark you want.

I usally send my first doom engineer str8 for Lothern to start an under empire there (I insta sell the building that it generates there )

First plague should be on Itza like RCMidas said.

Honestly. Catapults help greatly, BUT an overcast Wither is devastating, too. Even Skavenslave-Slingers deal out so much more when you turn their armour to rustic crumbs.

[Black Hammer]

Plagueclaw catapults are your top-tier unit for Skaven early. Rush those things and get 2-3 in your army.

[Kaaz]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

And definitely prioritise getting a plague going under Itza with the Undercity mechanic. That will help you ENORMOUSLY, especially if it spreads to your own forces.

^

Tier 3 your first settlement taken and build a workshop thing to get the hero, use hero to plague cauldron under itza. It spreads like wildfire atm

[Mardagg]

Originally posted by Wh♂♂par:

Originally posted by Mardagg:

you need catapults vs lizards.
I usually get 10+ plague monks and at least 4 catapults asap for skrolk`s army.
Its doable to get level 4 settlements with skrolk very soon.

My advise is to only spend food to grow a settlement after conquering it when its a main settlement and to leave minor settlements at level 1 unless it got an important special landmark you want.

I usally send my first doom engineer str8 for Lothern to start an under empire there (I insta sell the building that it generates there )

First plague should be on Itza like RCMidas said.

Honestly. Catapults help greatly, BUT an overcast Wither is devastating, too. Even Skavenslave-Slingers deal out so much more when you turn their armour to rustic crumbs.

Catapults are way better for sieges, like way,way,way better.
But also in open field battles, as soon as you got a critical number of catapults(imo at least 4) in the early game , you can fight stronger armies with only minor losses or no losses at all.

Its worth noting that Skrolk`s start just got harder with the beta because the Lizards can field more armies now. If you dont rush for catapults asap, you actually risk losing the campaign...at least on the higher difficulties .

Wither is a nice spell...i use it in addition to catapults.

[yuzhonglu]

Catapults are too expensive early on. You get them later. Besides, you start with one cata anyways. There's little reason to build cata building for 3 more catapults.

OTOH upgrading your 15 clanrats (worst unit in game) into 15 plague monks (decent units especially with Skolk) is a huge improvement.

[RCMidas]

Don't you get 50% upkeep on them as Skrolk? Because that makes them more worthwhile than "just getting them cos". An extra couple of artillery pieces can do wonders, after all, especially since you'll be upgrading your infantry into plague monks anyway.

[Kaaz]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

Don't you get 50% upkeep on them as Skrolk? Because that makes them more worthwhile than "just getting them cos". An extra couple of artillery pieces can do wonders, after all, especially since you'll be upgrading your infantry into plague monks anyway.

yup you do

[Big Moustache]

Get rid of Teclis early, he will be your biggest enemy if you leave him to grow strong. Help the vampires with the lizards. Use your special agents to spread plague in lizard capitals. Try and keep the dwarfes in the mountains neutral untill you can stomp them.

[Mardagg]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Catapults are too expensive early on. You get them later. Besides, you start with one cata anyways. There's little reason to build cata building for 3 more catapults.

OTOH upgrading your 15 clanrats (worst unit in game) into 15 plague monks (decent units especially with Skolk) is a huge improvement.

The main point of playing Skrolk is the huge upkeep reducement he gets for both, plague monks and catapults. I usually have 10+ monks and 4+ catapults in my main army by turn 20.

If I run into money problems, I would rather have a mix of skavenslaves and clanrats +4 catapults than 15 plague monks and just 1 catapult .

Usually it goes like this for me:
-build paux cauldron in capital as soon as it is level 3 for plague monks
- as soon as I conquer another main settlement, I raise it to level 3 or 4 with food and insta-build the catapult building. After I got a few catapults, I sell it right away because I usually dont need any more catapults for quite a while.

[yuzhonglu]

Right. But you need to spend an extra 4000 gold for that catapult building. Also, it takes up a building slot. Both are in scarcity early on.

You really can't afford both if you want to rush down someone.

[Kaaz]

catapult building helps with the engineer hero to start off undercities too. dropping on in a minor settlement for the first 40 turns works wonders (since you likely wont be going higher into it until later anyway)