Skaven Army Composition Question

[Jimmy]

Hey guys am i supposed to be fielding alot of ranged infantry as the skaven? Im normally carrying 2 artilery pieces and 5 ranged slingers

But im struggling a bit to break the enemy lines in time and they pepper me with alot of skinks or gunners from their back line. I have been reluctant to use more range bcause of their weak melee stats.

Anybody got some tips?
(Im in my mid game so i recently started buffing up my armies with Stormvermin as main line)

[Paulinchen]

I dont bother with slingers, they never seem to do any decent damage so just rush death globe bombadiers or poison globadiers (death for infantry and poison for large units), they literally destroy anything they throw their bombs at in no time, maybe flank with them to kill their range

[Red Dragon]

Never used slingers myself; poison wind globadiers are very decent and the death winds can melt enemy infantry in seconds, but they also deal huge amounts of friendly fire if you shoot at infantry that is engaged in melee with your own frontline, so keep that in mind. Also, only two pieces of artillery is too few, since they do the most damage ... I usually use a mix of 4-5 catapults and warp canons in total

[Ferreus the Umbral Arrow]

Ok, multiplayer vs campaign. Lets talk lol.

In multiplayer, you want to build against whatever you are up against. For example, if against High Elves go cheap and wide. If against Tomb Kings, can go a bit more elite. Regardless, skaven are not wood elves. They aren't meant to have many ranged units. You need a good sized frontline.

In campaign, I'd recommend a core of 6 melee infantry units. Ideally, Storm vermin with sword an shield. With two storm vermin with halberds on the wings. Then I typically go either plague monks or death runners to layer in with my storm vermin. I maybe have two gutter runners with poison to scout and harrass. I just use artiller as my ranged. The skaven have really weak ranged units. So, don't have a ton. You'll struggle all the time. If you want to play a ranged centric faction in general, Wood Elves. If you want one you can play in vortex, vampire coast. IF you want one and don't own ANY dlc, go for High elves. Have a sturdy frontline and go nuts with sisters of avelorn.
Skaven are great artillery. That's the ranged you want with them. Not slingers lol

[Jimmy]

Okay ive advanced in technology since i posted this and had alot of new battles with new units so now i kinda understand you guys better.
I think ill switch out the slingers for bloges and more artilery.
I started watching the numbers more and the claw catapults really perform amazing.

Although in some multi stack battles they do get attacked. Lizardmen are hard to hold.
Right now im trying to secure the southtern teritories of the west continent (lustria?) and those armies filled with bastilodons just walk right thru my frontline and harass whatever they want which is hard to control.
Ive started using more spear clanrats and stormvermin but still what do you do against 14 dinosaurs? :O

But thanks for advice i see where my mistake is.

[Jimmy]

Can you explain whats so good about plague monks and how you use em in campaign?
Their low stats and virtually no armor dont make em seem useful to me even though a significant part of the tech tree is dedicated to them.

[Ferreus the Umbral Arrow]

Originally posted by Azmael:

Can you explain whats so good about plague monks and how you use em in campaign?
Their low stats and virtually no armor dont make em seem useful to me even though a significant part of the tech tree is dedicated to them.

Plague monks are anti infantry. They mulch through a lot of infantry units. They have bonus to it. An I believe they have poison attacks, which drag down the stats of whatever they're fighting.

You seem really new. If you want, you can add me an we can talk more about campaign. I've gotten almost 1200hrs of gameplay and it JUST being campaign. So I can help ya out.

[Jimmy]

Ah not that new.
Ive progressed with Shogun > Shogun 2 > Warhammer I and now WH 2.
I have the macro skills and i also have upped difficulty to Very hard.
I play battles on normal i dnot feel confident to try hard yet.

I have recently started playing many battles myself back i nthe day i used to auto resolve my way to victory.
Its just that Skaven seem more tricky faction and im still trying to figure them out.
I have had alot of tough battles where i had no idea if ill win until the very end.

Dwarves were very tanky and turtly and rich i can just even with doing battles outnumber the AI.
Empire and Bretonia i kinda bombed my campaign attempts with them so im not sure how i like em.
Vampire Counts were super fun because they fight to the death and once i got Terrorgheist it was just awesome to fly around and pick range and artilery of the enemy. Actually i was the VC campaign that got my into learning more about units and compositions because Chaos were destroying my armies and it was a chore just holding em off in the north.
Lizards were fun but at higher tier tech and lord levels they became absolute gods on the battlefield. Super tanky and just chew enemy armies.

But now skaven....i win a battle but the enemy still has like all of its army just very weakened. They dont seem very good and finishing off a battle generally weaker units and im still trying to figure them out thats why ive asked for help because their roster is not very intuitive.

[Ferreus the Umbral Arrow]

Originally posted by Azmael:

Ah not that new.
Ive progressed with Shogun > Shogun 2 > Warhammer I and now WH 2.
I have the macro skills and i also have upped difficulty to Very hard.
I play battles on normal i dnot feel confident to try hard yet.

I have recently started playing many battles myself back i nthe day i used to auto resolve my way to victory.
Its just that Skaven seem more tricky faction and im still trying to figure them out.
I have had alot of tough battles where i had no idea if ill win until the very end.

Dwarves were very tanky and turtly and rich i can just even with doing battles outnumber the AI.
Empire and Bretonia i kinda bombed my campaign attempts with them so im not sure how i like em.
Vampire Counts were super fun because they fight to the death and once i got Terrorgheist it was just awesome to fly around and pick range and artilery of the enemy. Actually i was the VC campaign that got my into learning more about units and compositions because Chaos were destroying my armies and it was a chore just holding em off in the north.
Lizards were fun but at higher tier tech and lord levels they became absolute gods on the battlefield. Super tanky and just chew enemy armies.

But now skaven....i win a battle but the enemy still has like all of its army just very weakened. They dont seem very good and finishing off a battle generally weaker units and im still trying to figure them out thats why ive asked for help because their roster is not very intuitive.

In my opinion, the best way to play the skaven is to play them like a low leadership, less armored dwarf faction.
I tend to have multiple artillery in campaign and just turtle. When the fighting starts, I tend to do some fancy stuff with flanks and what not, as the skaven have an amazing unit called deathrunners. They melt things. I love them. And they have stalk.
If you are having trouble finishing things off, get some plaguemonks for the poison and some rat ogres to chase things down. I just don't recommend relying on missile play. They best units they have for missile play are the globadiers. Deathglobe variant massacre any kind of infantry. While the poisonwind variant can do serious work against large targets. |
Skaven start off weak as hell, but by late game, can be very strong. They are in need of buffs though. And are schedule for some. Community is all waiting lol.

[Jimmy]

Originally posted by Alith Anar (The Shadow King):

Skaven start off weak as hell, but by late game, can be very strong. They are in need of buffs though. And are schedule for some. Community is all waiting lol.

Ah so its not just me being ♥♥♥♥ at then :D
Their unit stats just are so underwhelming at first glance.
And i have to say lack of training heroes or even any Reasearch or Buildings that increase recruit ranks makes losing units in battle very painful. Turn 154 and i dont think i have more than a dozen rank 7`s across multiple armies.

top of my head i think in my lizardmen campaign i could field rank 6 fresh recruits and have a proper full stack army in a few turns to defend against a pesky invader trying to sneak a hit on my backyard.

[TrueRoyalty]

5 Stormvermine (2 spears on the sides), 3 catapults, 1 doom wheel, 1 assassin, 1 warlock engineer, 4 pleague monks, 2 night runners, 1 death runner, 1 death globe bombardiers. Let the catapults reel em in and conduct spec ops with the runners to sneak attack paired with The Menace Below. Try to flank with Runners, Doom Wheel and Bombardiers. Always send your pimped out assassin to the enemy lord for the kill.

[kekkuli]

In campaign just go for lots of artillery, like 3-5 pieces. I like to have at least 2 cannons and 2 catapults usually. I don't think skaven ranged inf is that good in vanilla, in SFO it's more worth it however. There are plenty of better options like doomwheels, stormvermin, abominations...even death globes/globadiers if you remember to micro them a lot. Death runners can be fun but i don't think they're necessary in end game armies. Up to you really.

Skaven without artillery is like dawi without beards! I can't talk of mp battles though, speaking from campaign play persepective.

Waiting for skaven Ror's....

[Jimmy]

Originally posted by kekkuli:

Skaven without artillery is like dawi without beards! I can't talk of mp battles though, speaking from campaign play persepective.

LOL
Yes i have found better results with the extra artilery.