skaven weapon teams tactics

[wrought82]

i usually avoid units that cant fire in an arc because the power of their weapons simply doesnt justify the repositioning required to make them work, but i recently started a clan skryre campaign using unit caps so im kinda forced to this time...for the moment the unit cap severely limits my alternatives/support units as well, so most armies are mostly or exclusively weapon teams
so question; is there some strategy/formation i should use to make them better? best ive come up with so far is a chequered formation with fairly far between the units and skirmish mode usually turned off, but occasionally turned on when there's no unit firing at the attacking unit.
Is that the best way to do it? im not getting as good result as i do with archers in other factions.
for support to the extent i can get them i suppose gutter runners for net and maybe abominations or heroes/ords topin enemy is the way to go?

[viryu9]

Skaven units are always happy to sacrifice themselves for greater good.

Translation: you don't need front line melee units, only 2-3 plague priests that keep summoning chaff clanrats. Your 5-6 ratling gunners as frontline and 5-6 mortars in the back do the rest while the enemies focus on summoned fodder and lord.

[Goma]

I myself prefer the mortar weapon team, and jezzails and ratling guns, or any sort of direct LoS units is not worth the micro in my opinion.
They are too situational, although they are good against monsters and flyers.

The revered chequered formation too, it's not worth the trouble and micro it involves.
Enemy heroes just pass through the gap and go straight to your ranged units, and cavalry with high model counts just penetrate through the unit, some of them reaching the back line disrupting missile units.

Direct LoS units play a different role than say regular archers and crossbowmen.
They are not upgraded versions of such units.
I deploy Jezzails for flyers, and ratling guns on flanks to deal with fast flankers with melee support.

[Namhaid]

The easiest way for me is to just ignore infantry, I use a mounted Plague Priest and Doomwheels or Hell Pit Abominations to hold the enemy and have them blob, as your weapon teams (preferably ratling guns) can fire directly at the troops surrounding them without problem and very effectively.

I use the plague priest summon and menace from below as an emergency to hold any unit that gets through.

Against cavalry heavy armies like bretonnia I sometimes take 2 strom vermin alabardiers to protect the flanks, but many times I don't even bother.

Originally posted by Goma:

The revered chequered formation too, it's not worth the trouble and micro it involves.
Enemy heroes just pass through the gap and go straight to your ranged units, and cavalry with high model counts just penetrate through the unit, some of them reaching the back line disrupting missile units.

Against cavalry or monster heavy armies you shouldn't use a "close" checkerboard, just spreading your lines a bit avoids them from getting to your second line, still I agree in that I find checkerboard formation more useful with not direct line of fire units like archers.

[Kaaz]

for gunline options i refer you to this glorious mega-image -

https://imgur.com/a/NnQdt#uRh1OA0

[Fryskar]

As skryre, what is that frontline blocking the los you're speaking of?
Unless its vh (even there to a degree) you can remove it completely and go full ranged.

Ratlings for slow and regular dps, jezzails for big things and last arty for well arty.
Mortars are good vs blobs, but poor once the lines meet. Flamers are pretty much inferior to ratlings and globs seem too.
Most ai stacks just die before reaching melee and if it gets back ikit is very powerfull on his doomwheel. If you need more backup get a plague priest. An engi is a must have.

Since you say unit cap, i assume you put a mod in for caps.

[Hieronymous]

The above image is the best explanation there is.

I would add that its worthwhile using the weapons team as part of a flanking maneuver. It feels like it takes too much time to get them in place but once they are there, it only takes a few salvoes to cut down the foe.

If the enemy has few dedicated Flanders, then you can even just let a few weapons team flank on their own.

Also ranged infantry are a hard counter to ranged cavalry so that's nice.

[funkmonster7]

Don't bother with Gutter Runners if you're not Clan Eshin.

If you're using Ratling Gunners, either use them as flank protectors or mass up on them and line them up in the front, spread as wide as you can, with meat shield units in-between each Ratling Gunner unit. Jezzails at the back to snipe, Mortars even further back, with artillery at the rear (if you're running Mortars, best to just get Cannons for artillery to kill monsters).

Note that a formation like this will get totally wrecked by AoE spells so if you spot an enemy mage or something, snipe it down with all your Jezzails and Warp Lightning Cannons.

Oh and, get 2-3 Warlock Engineers and stack their army buffs, and also get 3-4 Plague Priests to summon Clanrats if you need to body block something. Also consider getting a Doomwheel or better, Doom-Flayers (just 1 unit) to micro, you can bait enemies in circles while your army shoot them to pieces.

[wrought82]

Originally posted by Fryskar:

As skryre, what is that frontline blocking the los you're speaking of?
Unless its vh (even there to a degree) you can remove it completely and go full ranged.

Ratlings for slow and regular dps, jezzails for big things and last arty for well arty.
Mortars are good vs blobs, but poor once the lines meet. Flamers are pretty much inferior to ratlings and globs seem too.
Most ai stacks just die before reaching melee and if it gets back ikit is very powerfull on his doomwheel. If you need more backup get a plague priest. An engi is a must have.

Since you say unit cap, i assume you put a mod in for caps.

yeah VH/VH and mod for caps, 10% reduced missile damage, also greater garrisons and no walls so taking major settlements is a challenge, basically no free wins, almost every battle the strength bar is 50/50 or against me and im using supply lines rework so even if the unit cap allowed me to build doomstacks it'd be too expensive. Upside im top 10 but constantly falling/rising from top 2 to top 9, even the its well into midgame :)