Using Plague Monks

[tiberiansun371alexw]

Ok, for Skaven, frontline like Skavenslaves, Clan Rats, and Stormvermin hold the enemy line so that the various weapons teams can dish out damage. Menace below to get clanrats is great for killing artillery or exposed missile units. Rat Ogres can kinda fill the role of taking out missile units that have no melee troops guarding them. Artillery and weapons teams are the main damage dealers. Gutter Runners can fire while moving so they are the anti-air.

So where does that leave Plague Monks? Their physical resistance isn't as good as the Clan Rats' shields for protection. So they pretty much die anytime something shoots at them. They're too slow to catch missile units.

Where does that leave them? Step 1, use terrain to avoid missile fire. Step 2, see some winded Long Beards run by. Step 3, go into melee with fresh Plague Monks that didn't take any missile damage and... lose?

[Imposter]

Put your shielded line in front with Plague monks to support from behind, or flank. I never used them much but they aren’t a force great on their own. They can be good to help tie down high value infantry.

[Andrewbh2003]

they serve the same role as others in there class

they buzzsaw through light armour and chaff while also having very high leadership by skaven standards making them a decent holding unit as well thanks to leadership

there very cost effective and will perform very well if you can screen for them

[Mr Robert House]

plague monks are never recruited into my army lol

i sometimes summon a couple though with a priest if i have some top tier enemy units closing on my flanks.

[tiberiansun371alexw]

Originally posted by Mr Robert House:

plague monks are never recruited into my army

Even if you're swimming in cash? Well to be honest, it's easy to see why. I don't know these things are supposed to be used either!

Even other underwhealming units seem to have roles. Dryads for Wood Elves which I think are horrible anti-infantry units at least is able to use vanguard deployment to kill artillery. Mounted Yeowmen, easily outclassed by all the Knights, can fulfill the role of missile unit killer before they get flying units. Slayers seem to be glass cannons and die to missile damage (oddly, their shields don't guy them much time) but at least if you can get them in melee without being shot, they'll do loads of damage even to infantry. And when an enemy gets their cavalry close to your artillery, they can kill that easily.

If Skaven fought to the death, I'd think they'd actually do worse than Clanrats (shields) against enemy infantry even if the enemy had no missile units. Of course, Plague Monks are not quite as cowardly as most Skaven, but if you use them as frontline then they will have more "damage taken in 60 seconds" penalties because they don't have shields.

[Booba]

Originally posted by tiberiansun371alexw:

So where does that leave Plague Monks

It leaves them at useless in single player. They might have a niche in multiplayer given their cost and stats, but I can’t really comment on that.

Not every unit in this game is competitive or implemented with a particular, practical function in mind. Most are purely thematic stop-gaps on the way to greater things. The Plague Monks in particular have always been more thematic than stop-gap.

[tiberiansun371alexw]

Originally posted by Scuba Steve:

It leaves them at useless in single player.

Well that's just bad design. I don't think every unit should be useful for every battle but even less useful units should have a "this battle was made for me" happen at least once every 30 battles. Good units are always useful, but lesser units should at least have a niche.

[Andrewbh2003]

Originally posted by tiberiansun371alexw:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve:

It leaves them at useless in single player.

Well that's just bad design. I don't think every unit should be useful for every battle but even less useful units should have a "this battle was made for me" happen at least once every 30 battles. Good units are always useful, but lesser units should at least have a niche.

i mean...they do

if we are talking campaign specifically they buzzsaw through early high elf and dark elf armies as skrolk provided you screen for them properly

similar applies to a tretch campaign where elves are gonna be your enemy for the vast majority of time and neither spearmen or dreadspears have the MA needed to harm plague monks that just allows them to wrack up dozens of kills very fast

if allowed to sit on there ideal target they will be able to make there cost back several times over you just have to support them properly

[Sn3z]

Plague Monks in SP on really any difficulty can be screened by skaven slaves(charge them in first pin down the melee then bring in the plague monks and watch them go to work), also it a good idea to recruit plague at ranks. You can also mix plague monks with clan rats, which later they would be both replaced by SV and censors

CA really should put the monks in Landmark building for pestilens to make them slightly more accessible, TBH all skaven clans unique units should be slightly more accessible depending on who you playing but there we go.

Just bring a whole slave MELEE stack to accompany your main stack..

[yojimbo1111]

i use them for Skrolk early game (turn 5-20) since plague priests and build slots are limited and he gets a discount. i like the thematic stop-gap

[tiberiansun371alexw]

Originally posted by Andrewbh2003:

similar applies to a tretch campaign where elves are gonna be your enemy for the vast majority of time and neither spearmen or dreadspears have the MA needed to harm plague monks that just allows them to wrack up dozens of kills very fast

Oh, so the problem I had was trying to stuff 3 units of them into an army mainly fighting Dwarfs, then 3 into one fighting mainly Empire, and then 3 into one mainly fighting Vampire Coast. Well no wonder they didn't perform.

So as Skrolk, not Warlords, Queek or Deathmaster Snikch should be using them.

[Kaaz]

they are my main frontline unit as Skrolk, screen with cheap summons and watch them shred away the enemy. (bonus points since they are so cheap and get to high rank easy with skrolk skills, so get another chunk of physical resist)

[tiberiansun371alexw]

Originally posted by Kaaz:

they are my main frontline unit as Skrolk, screen with cheap summons and watch them shred away the enemy. (bonus points since they are so cheap and get to high rank easy with skrolk skills, so get another chunk of physical resist)

I consider the summon more of the lord's ability rather than the Plague Monks, but point taken.

[yuzhonglu]

They're cheap in Skolk's army, so you may as well get them.

[tiberiansun371alexw]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

They're cheap in Skolk's army, so you may as well get them.

Fair rnough

[Xaphnir]

You do the same thing with them as with other melee damage dealing infantry: use the ones you start the campaign with for the early game, and otherwise never recruit them.