How to play Skaven [discontinued]

All things must rot, figuratively or literally, and the Horned Rat and his offspring are the worldly reality of this simple truth.

I see you want to worship the great Horned rat, yes-yes? Then allow me-me to enlighten you with this guide on how to play with the Skaven and kill all the 'things'. This guide-guide will cover the basic things of the Under Empire and some tips to help you-you understand and get started with Skaven. Now go and KILL-KILL!

Intro

You want to infect the world? New to Skaven? Interested in what this faction has to offer? In this guide i will briefly explain some of the Skaven features and share some tips about this faction to help you along your way.

Skaven are a hard race to play since the lizard-things... will surely pose a great threat early on and during multiplayer battles (basically everything thats bigger than a rat). The Skaven armies consist of cheap cannon fodder and low quality units for increased quantity. Their armies can use tunnels in the campaign and have a higher chance to ambush enemy armies on the campaign map. Skaven might not win a 20/20 battle unless you keep your eyes glued to the screen and use everything you have available to you. Otherwise just go 2 vs 1 in the campaign.

So how can we win with the Skaven? This guide will show you some things about the Skaven that might not have been apperant at first!

Update list:

• 1.0 Completed basic information about Skaven
  
• 1.1 Added an update list and planned features
  
• 1.2 Added artillery and warmachines
  
• 1.2.1 Updated artillery and warmachines section
  
• 1.3 Created a section: Lord info
  
• 1.4 Created a section: Opening Moves
  
• 1.5 Created a section: Hero info
  
• 1.5.1 Updated Hero info section
  
• 1.6 Added a video to the intro
  
• 1.6.1 Updated Queek's unique ability tree description
  
• 1.7 Added lord Skrolk information section
  
• 1.8 Added Skaven Battle Strategy 101 section

Planned for this guide:

• Nothing

With all this out of the way let's dive into the guide. If you like it please rate it and maybe favorite it.

Campaign Basics

The Skaven are short and live underground like dwarves. This is shown in some aspects of the game mechanics such as using ruins as settlements and tunneling under the ground just to resurface somewhere else later.

The Skaven settlements are camouflaged to all other races on the campaign map and other factions might confuse them with ruins. You can obviously take advantage of this mechanic by having a camouflaged settlement and leaving it undefended or having a strong Skaven army ready inside to strike at any non-skaven army that passes by, thus having the benefit of a supporting garrison as reïnforcement. Skaven can also colonize a ruin starting at tier 3 at the cost of a lot of food.

For Skaven, having the surprise and sheer amount of troops is key to victory! However, having too many armies and settlements can pose a problem with food (less leadership/growth/happiness). Another trait that the Skaven have is spreading their corruption, but more on that below in this section.


Food:

Eat eat eat. Food is a precious resource for Skaven since they have a high metabolism. You will run into problems if you don't counter this issue right away. The hud on the campaign map gives information on how much food your growing empire has. If this falls below the 41% threshold you will get negative penalties that will affect your armies as well as your settlements.



Food is hard to aquire by building food related buildings, you need a resource for that in order to build that specific building and they're rare and far from your starting position. The main way of collecting food while playing as the Skaven is aquired mainly through battling the other races, even rival Skaven clans, or raiding regions.

You are meant to loot settlements and eat your victims, devouring the world is the will of the Great Horned Rat after all. This makes the Skaven a very expansionist and hard to play faction since you will need to continually battle the other races for food if you have more settlements and army's. However having too many settlements and armies might give you a hard time to collect enough food if there are no enemies in the vicinity to feast on. However this can be countered by finding valuable settlements that allow you to build food related buildings (pastures).

Each army consumes 1 food per turn and so does each settlement. So as a wise rat you need to think how you want to expand, what settlements you want to conquer and how many armies you want to field. Think about what the benefits are of holding a region(s) compared to the food loss you will get.

The exploitative planning commandment only holds +2 food per region while most regions have 3 settlements or more which whill have a total of -1 food per region if you use the commandment. The commandment will be used a lot during the campaign to prevent your faction from starving in the mid to late game.



Here you can see me having 11 settlements and 4 armies, each draining 1 food. Because i have 1 other buildings that produce food and i'm not doing anything like raiding or battling, this will lower my overal food supply by -5 each turn. I have a rite activated and the commandments i'm using on the regions make sure it wont drain more. If i go out and win battles it will replenish my food supply. You will be doing this a lot.

(Top Tip:The amount stored is dependant on the amount of settlements you have.)


Skaven corruption:

Adding to the existing corruptions, we have the Skaven corruption added to the mix. This corruption is unique in the sense that it has a drawback for the Skaven on the campaign map but a boon in battles where corruption is very high!




Here are some pros and cons for having a high Skaven corruption in a region belonging to you or the enemy.

Pros:

• More uses for the Menace Below ability during battle.
  
• Lowering public order of rival factions if it spreads there.

Cons:

• Lowering your own public order where corruption is high.

Skaven Rites

In this section i will explain some basics of the skaven rites they can perform on the campaign map. It focusses on aiding the destruction of enemy settlements and helping your own faction getting the upper hand in the struggle for supremacy.

Since Skaven love spreading disease and despair they certainly have some interesting rites for use:



The Scheme of DOOOOM! :

You can use this scheme whenever you researched a few technologies. Once the rite has been 'purchased' with currency you can use this special Skaven engineer to cause an earthquake at an enemy settlement, damaging their buildings and collapsing walls so your army doesn't need to wait anymore to build siegetowers and battering rams!

The engineer appears like a regular hero at your capital and when you use it on an enemy settlement it will die and never come back again till you perform the rite again when the cooldown is over.


The Pestilent Scheme:

The pestilence scheme works like the scheme of DOOOOOOM. BUT this one spawns a priest that can spread the pleague to a settlement and any nearby armies that are in the vicinity. This makes sieging an enemy settlement a cakewalk once enough enemy units have died within the walls! Ofcourse the priest dies when you use it like the Scheme of DOOOOM!

Becarefull that you keep your units away while the pleague is in effect or else they will be infected too!


The Thirteenth Scheme:

Using this scheme grants a diplomacy boost towards fellow Skaven and a loyalty boost for lords. This scheme is best used when you're about to attack or are defending against enemies since the mors clanstone ability grants +40% armour piercing when you use it during battle and will boost your hero succes chance and provide a negative enemy hero success chance.


The Dominating Scheme:

This will be one of the first schemes you will use since it is pretty handy for rapid expansion of your faction. It will provide benefits to food, growth, public order and recruitment cost.

Skaven Loyalty

This section will focus on the loyalty system that the Skaven have.

You will start with your lord on the campaign map. This one will be unaffected by the loyalty system since this rat is your faction leader. The recruited lords from the campaign map all have an indicator of how high their loyalty will be when you recruit them. The max loyalty a lord can have is 10 and the minimum is 1. Having the lord loyalty drop to 0 will result in a rebellion which will ruin your campaign if you gave him really powerfull units like rat ogres or hell pit abominations.

When your lord has low loyalty consider doing the following things:

• Win battles
  
• Recruit more units
  
• Complete missions

This will raise your lords loyalty and will prevent a rebellion from happening. Having a high loyalty ensures that your lords won't rebel any time soon when you lose a battle or two.

Skaven Battle Strategy 101

In this section i will talk shortly about the general strategy you should use when playing Skaven.

The Skaven work with numbers, but that might not be so true in the game since you have a 20 unit cap, but you do have the ability to summon more in battle if you have high skaven corruption in the area.

The most you will get from the skaven are not the infantry but their warmachines and artillery. The Skaven have knack for engineering warmachines and it shows in the game. Their artillery can be seen as one of the best in this game and can be used effectively to win battles. Every Skaven player should focus on having atleast some artillery in their arsenal to play with. The Skaven units are no match for the stronger units of other factions when fighting an even battle with the 20 unit cap.

What you should focus on having in your army should be clan rats or stormvermin (even better) to pin down the enemy units so your artillery or warmachines can hit them hard. The Skaven are an artillery focussed faction in this game rather than relying on massive numbers since its capped.

Its do-able to win with only infantry, but it's way easier to do it with some artillery. Hope this helped breaking mindset of playing with Skaven (being an endless horde) like how they are in the lore. The game just won't allow it and it's balanced that way .

Unit composition
You will see that most players will have a few plagueclaw catapults and warp lightning cannons. It feels cheap, but thats how it goes. Paired with stormvermin, globadiers and a doomwheel you should be able to fend off most armies. It doesnt have to be a fancy mix. Using my army vs the emo elves i managed to get multiple close victories from it by just holding my line without any campaign abilities (the Depths Below) since this was a custom battle setup.

Skaven Units: Infantry

This section will provide a general understanding of skaven units. Most Skaven units have 2 passive abilities! These are important as you will use it often in battle.

1. When leadership is low they will have a 12% speed buff for retreating safely.
   
2. When their hitpoints are above 50% it will result in a defense buff +8 and a leadership buff of +6 and a speed penalty of -12%

Infantry:

Skaven slave units:
These units are basically the tier below tier 1. The worst of the worst you can field and only usefull as cannon fodder and swarming the enemy. Not much good can be told about these slaves since they are only good at dying and holding the enemy in place. They have the trait expendable. This means no one other than these units will suffer a leadership penalty when one unit routs.

Clanrats:
These rats are the main units you will use during the campaign, they are cheap compared to the other factions units in the same tier. These are your beginning units you will use to expand further into the campaign. The units are pretty good at what they are meant to do (also being meatshields). My suggestion would be to get the shielded versions since they can block some missile attacks.

Plague Monks:
This is your anti infantry unit. They are pretty good at flanking the enemy and causing casualties. Beware though, they have less armour and melee defense.

Death Runners
A great flanking unit using concealment bombs to get in close and finish the job your main units cant. they have armour piercing damage and cause -50% armour against the unit they attack. Great for dealing with heavily armed enemy units, but also vulnerable.

Stormvermin
Your higher tier infantry. Stormvermin are good for holding the line and dealing with higher tier enemy units. The halbert version excels at taking down enemy cavalry and big units. Usually placed at the flanks or at the back (in reserve).

Plague Monk Censer Bearers
The plague monk censer bearers are great at lowering the enemy morale. This unit causes a -10 leadership debuff and emphasises on dealing damage from the flanks or rear to make the enemy rout.

Skaven Units: Missile

Skavenslave Slingers
A good starting unit for peppering the enemy with stones while your melee infantry holds the enemy down. This is the unit you will use most in the early game.

Night Runners
A decent melee combatant and skirmish unit, mainly used to harass the enemy and quickly retreat. This unit can be used as melee infantry, but has less armour than clanrats. Oh and they also fire on the move!

Poison Wind Globadiers
These missle units excel at standing behind the main combat line and hurling poison towards enemies. Their effectiveness increases when throwing them at larger enemies, dealing more damage to them than regular enemy infantry. These are your solution to those pesky lizard-things.

Warpfire Thrower
The warpfire thrower, throws..fire. It bbq's enemies with ease and causes a morale debuff of -8 for 10 seconds when enemies are burnt. This unit is great for flanking and killing off infantry while your clanrats or slaves are holding the enemy units down.

Gutter Runners
These are better than the night runners since they have snare nets to slow down faster units constantly and have the stalk ability which conceals them in any terrain (the enemy won't know what hit them!). They also fire on the move and are used as skirmishers/harassers in battle. The gutter runners are mostly used to pick off more precious units since they can flank easily without being seen from afar. They are not so good at hitting heavily armoured infantry with their missles however.

Death Globe Bombardiers
This is the bigger brother of the poison wind. The death globes are more lethal and are usefull against high concentrations of enemy units. Large groups will lose hitpoints quickly when pinned down and hit with these babies. They also have armour piercing which means they can be used against heavy infantry as well, but are less potent against big units since they have lost the bonus vs large ability that do poison wind globadiers do have.

Skaven Units: Monsters

Rat Ogres
These big rats will decimate anyone before them. They have armour piercing damage and have a high initial damage considering they have the frenzy trait when the leadership is high within the unit. These units are very versatile and can be used to smash through the middle, sides or rear of the enemy army. Make sure you get these as soon as you can. Becareful of missle and spears though!

Hell Pit Abomination
Vulnerable against fire, but regenerates! When it dies it has a chance to spawn skavenslave spears or regain some hitpoints. This one is best used against large units like cavalry and other monsters since it has a bonus against large. It causes fear and terror, making it a very powerfull monster.

Skaven Units: Artillery and Warmachines

Plagueclaw Catapult
The catapult gives the skaven an edge over anti infantry at longe range. The catapult gives the plagueclaw contagion to anyone hit by the plague infested boulder, giving them a leadership penalty of -10. After some testing they tend to hit accurately and rack up kills against enemy infantry after you hold down the enemy with your Skaven units. Just make sure the enemy clumps up.

Warp Lightning Cannon
This big boy is a beast in its own right. The warp lightning cannon is a cannon designed to take down the big monsters that come right at you. Boasting a very large range of 430, it outclasses all the artillery pieces of the other races in terms of range. This is my favorite piece of equiment to field so far since skaven really need to fend of the bigger beasts fast, because most troops will have a hard time dealing with them.

Doomwheel
This wheel brings doom right to your enemy...on wheels! This piece is classified as a chariot and should be used as such. Going for only the infantry, dealing heavy damage with its automatic bolt throwers in front and sides. Since it's armoured, the enemy will have a hard time taking care of this chariot when you smash it into their lines, bring it back and smash it in again. Giving them a run for their money.

Skaven Hero's

In this section i will briefly point out what different hero's do in the campaign.

Assassin
What cannot be solved by potions and subterfuge by afar will be solved by deadly twin blades up close. These are your loyal rat ninja. They are dedicated hero killers in battle.

Embed Hero
Will replenish troops in the host army.

Constant Local Effect
Will reduce enemy regions happiness or increase it for your own region.

Target

• Settlement: Will assault the garisson.
  
• Hero: Will attempt to assasinate an enemy hero.
  
• Army: Will assault a unit in the enemy army.

Warlock Engineer
The Skaven engineer is the artificerof Skaven society, blending arcane sorceries with technology in an insane and mind boggling mix. They wield the power of ruin in battle. They function as a mage.

Embed Hero
Embedding this hero will give your army a campaign movement bonus.

Constant Local Effect
The constant local effect of having this agent in your region is that it will boost the income by a certain amount.

Target

• Settlement: Will steal technology, resulting in a 25% boost to research rate.
  
• Hero: Will wound an enemy hero for a set amount of turns.
  
• Army: Will hamper the movement of an enemy army.

Pestilent priest

Embed Hero
Increases the chance to find a magic item by 15% after winning a battle.

Constant Local Effect
Will increase the spread of corruption in a local region.

Target

• Settlement: Will damage the enemy walls of the target settlement.
  
• Hero: Will attempt to wound an enemy hero.
  
• Army: Will hinder the replenishment of the enemy army.

Legendary lord: Queek Headtaker

"Warlord Queek Headtaker, is the legendary and much-feared Lord of the City of Pillars, Great Warlord of Clan Mors and the personal right-claw of Warlord Gnawdwell, the one and true Grand Ruler of Clan Mors. Queek has been groomed by Gnawdwell from the moment of his birth to be the ultimate warrior, provided with the best armour and weapons, protecting him from the other Lords of Decay, and also staging assassination attempts to keep him on his toes. Queek is an uncommonly bloodthirsty and egotistical warrior whose need to conquer even the most impossible challenges has since earned him an infamy amongst the annals of Skaven history as the legendary Headtaker, the Dwarf-Smiter, the greatest Warlord to have ever graced the tunnels of Skavendom."

This section will give some information on Queek Headtaker. I assume everyone new will start out with Queek, so let's get started with that. You should focus on making queek a really offensive character, forgoing leadership abilities early on so he can be a killer on the battlefield. He can dispatch enemy heros or lords very fast when upgraded.


Faction effects
Queek steals a percentage of xp earned by other lords. This is a very good skill for a faction leader to have since Queek will be strong in the early and mid game when you have 1 or 2 additional lords fighting for your faction. Make sure to be winning battles frequently with other lords as well so Queek can reap the rewards and level up faster than other legendary lords.

There will be a -2 loyalty debuff for your factions grey seers so try to avoid recruiting any of those lords in the early game if you seem to be losing battles and are new to the Skaven.


Lord effects
Melee attack +10 and weapon strength +10% against dwarves and greenskins. This gives you an indicator which factions to attack more, but you will see them rarely in the campaign early on.

Upkeep -50% for stormvermin and clanrat units. This is a really nice addition to this lord. This means you can recruit more stronger units to make up the bulk of his army.

+2 uses for the "Menace Below" ability. This makes Queek again, a very offensive character.

Starting units
Queek starts with a warpfire thrower, rat ogres and stormvermin (halbert).


Queek has several unique abilities you can upgrade during the campaign:

Extremely distrustfull:

• +15% chance of wounding agressors
  
• Leadership: +8 (Lord's army)

Rend & Slaughter:

• Leadership: +8 (self)
  
• Passive ability: Frenzy

Make Examples!:

• Loyalty: warlord recruits +2 and -2 for greyseers
  
• Leadership aura size: +20%
  
• Aura leadership effect: +5
  
• Attribute: Causes Fear

Life is very cheap (fully upgraded):

• Casualty replenishment +20% (Lord's army)
  
• Upkeep: -10% for Clanrat units (all forces)
  
• Armour: +10 for Skavenslaves and Clanrats (Lord's army)
  
• Unit experience: +4 for Skavenslaves and Clanrat unit recruits (Lord's army)

Crimson Guard (fully upgraded):

• Unit experience: +4 for Stormvermin unit recruits (Lord's army)
  
• Recruitment duration: -1 turn for Stormvermin units (all provinces)

Violent rise to power (fully upgraded):

• Public order +2 (all provinces)
  
• Enemy hero succes chance: -20%
  
• Hero action success chance: +12%
  
• Ambush success chance: +25%
  
• Wound recovery time: -1

Unique items:
Warp-Shard Armour:

• Armour +10
  
• Melee defense +5
  
• Ward save +10%
  
• Skaven corruption +3 (local province)
  
• Passive ability "Warp-Shard Armour": -18 Armour for enemy units around self within 40m

Dwarf Gouger:

• Bonus vs infantry +10
  
• Weapon strength when fighting against Dwarfs +20%
  
• Recruitment cost: -10% (Lord's Army)
  
• Ability "Dwarf Gouger": +40% Armour Piercing damage

Legendary lord : Lord Skrolk

"Lord Skrolk, is one of the most legendary disciples of decay within Clan Pestilen and one of the 9 legendary Plaguelords. That Lord Skrolk walks the world is an affront to nature and a sign of the power of the Great Horned Rat. Plants wither and die where Skrolk treads and the very air seems to congeal and darken, as if stained by his baleful presence. Skrolk is ancient, having existed many spans of even the most long-lived of his foul kind. Rather than weakening with age, Lord Skrolk is possessed with a diabolic vitality that belies the years and the heaped diseases he carries."

This section will give some information on Skrolk. You should focus on making him a great leader character and caster. Going for his spell tree first to get the most out of him followed by increasing his aura and leadership effects.


Faction effects
The construction cost for the Pox Couldron, Pestilent Nave and Plague Baily buildings are reduced by 50%

The rite cost for the Pestilent Scheme is reduced by 75%

Lord effects
Upkeep -50% for Plague Monks, Plague Monk Censer Bearers, Plagueclaw Catapult and Plague Priest units (lord's army).

Skaven corruption +3 (local province)

Starting units
Skrolk starts with a Plagueclaw catapult, Plague Monks and Plague Monk Censer Bearers unit.


Skrolk has somewhat abilities you can get during the campaign:

Loathsome Appearance:

• Attribute: Causes terror

Plaguelord:

• Unlock Plague priest hero (all provinces)
  
• Hero capacity: +1 for plague priests
  
• Hero recruit rank: +1 for plague priests
  
• Unit experience: +2 for plague monks and plague claw catapult unit recruits (Lord's army)

Herald of Decay:

• Public order -5 (local enemy province)
  
• Skaven corruption: +5 (local province)

Voice of the Horned Rat:

• Leadership auro size: +20%
  
• Character's auro leadership effect: +10

Envoy of the Council:

• Give a +10 relationship bonus with Skaven

Aura of Pestilence:

• Passive ability: "Aura of pestilence" which grants -5 melee attack to enemy units withing 40m of the lord.

Unique Items
The Liber Bubonicus:

• Winds of magic reserve: +10
  
• Winds of magic cost: -2 for "Plague"
  
• Winds of magic cost: -2 for "Plague Upgraded"
  
• Hero recruit rank: +4 for Plague Priests (all provinces)
  
• Rite cost -25% for the Pestilent Scheme
  
• Skaven corruption +3 (Local province)
  
• Ability "The liber bubonicus": Causes damage to combatants which is strong versus a single combatant. Chances are that the opponent will resist damage.

Rod of Corruption:

• Melee attack +6
  
• Weapon strength +10%
  
• Enables magical attacks
  
• Winds of Magic cost: -2 for "Wither"
  
• Winds of Magic cost: -2 for "Wither upgraded"
  
• Hero capacity +1 for Plague Priests
  
• Ability "Rod of Corruption": Causes damage to multiple combatants, but there is a chance they will resist it

Opening moves

This will focus on the hard campaign of the Skaven, Clan Mors, since it has an intro as well. This short little guide will get you started with the clan so you can have a foothold in the campaign. I found Clan Pestilen to be pretty easy compared to this clan so let's get started.

If you were smart to untick the intro option then after choosing your starting lord of clan Mors, you will be viewing a little intro video. After that you will get a guided tour of your surroundings. Fear not! The elf-things are actually pretty weak compared to the lizard-things you will have to face to the east.

You will get a mission to take a settlement of the "Fortress of Dawn" elf faction. You know what to do don't you? Kill the elf-things (capture them for food after) and recruit some more units once you move more left along your border so you can strike the settlement on your next turn. Recruit Skavenslaves or clanrats, but i would go with clanrats since they are a cheap replaceable frontline unit (-50% upkeep). Put a point in route marcher. End your turn and wait.

Try to get a non aggression pact with Zlatlan. Now go and take the settlement starting at lvl 2 and repair the docks. You need to build up your gold income after all. After this your mission will be complete and you will have some money and warpstone. Keep an eye out for those missions if you want to gain an edge in the campaign. Build a ratling warrens for replenishment or the Taskmaster's platform (unlocks a technology tree later on when you upgrade it).

(Small Tip: (Keep capturing enemies at the post battle screen for lots of food so you can colonize ruins at higher levels)
(Medium Tip: You can auto merge units with ctrl+m or use the encamp stance to regain unit health quickly in the field)
(Big Tip: Clan Moulder will ally against you with the elves if you appear weak! Traitors.)[/b]

Colonize the ruin (or search it if you feel lucky, to complete the mission and gain extra cash) and defend your own territory for now and replenish your troops. By now you should have an army of 18 units strong, mostly filled with clanrat troops. After recruiting some more units you can recruit a lord of your choosing and build up a second army. Using the expansionist planning commandment you should have unlocked the first Rite "The Dominating Scheme". This rite will help you grow more quickly if you have money. Try to spend as much points as possible in queeks unique ability tree since it will give you powerfull bonusses (see his lord page for more information).

In the next few turns the Fortress of Dawn faction might want to have some beef with you, destroy their navy when it tries to conquer one of your settlements and bring the fight to them if you feel like it. Or continue on to the east since they are weak anyway and won't attack in some time, your second army can hold them off if its strong enough.

Your next conquest should be the "Jungle of the Gods" province since the Caverns of Sotek has a warpstone bonus. You need warpstone to win the vortex campaign. Continue to expand south-east, ignoring the other Clans non aggression pact, since they are your stepping stone to greatness anyway. They will probably lay siege to the elven settlement if they have reached it faster (and they will fail making it a perfect opportunity to kill their last army). If you go to war to defeat their army, you will be at war with another clan further to the east. Since they have a stupid defensive pact..and it won't save them yes-yes.

No matter! They will be overrun by the lizardmen in a few turns. Wait, build your army, maybe even a third one if both are full and prepare to take clan Moulders settlement and erase them from the southern lands. This will open up a quest battle! Take the quest whenever you can and earn the warp-shard armor that comes with it. You will need it in the battles to come. After this is done continue to expand east, taking all the settlements if you wish. Build a clan armoury when you can to open up the technology tree, or an assassins hideout to unlock an agent and completing a mission.

The Avenue of Gold will have a gold mine to increase your income. The Last Defenders will have the food resource you need to build a food related building. I won't spoil too much as to where to find it but now you know what faction has the first food related building plot. They can prove a real challenge. You were advancing to the east anyway so good luck with that. I suggest doing the battles yourself instead of auto resolving them.

Further east, between the mountain lies the warpstone resource site on the starting landmass held by the wood elve-things/lizard-things (depending on your playthrough, wood-elves are a bítch). Holding these two resource sites will slowly inch you towards victory till you are brave enough to venture beyond the southern lands. The final ritual resource site lies north where the vampires are. They shouldn't pose a big threat.

(Hint: There is a second resource site north west from your starting position)

This should conclude your opening moves to get you started. After this you will probably leave the landmass with 1 or 2 armies to search for more ritual resource sites in the west while listening to this and kicking some äss over the whole New World with your buddies:

I wish to part with you all with some pieces of advice:

• Try to build siege engines when you can for additional firepower.
  
• Protect your ritual sites when you conduct your ritual.
  
• Never start the rituals when you're out of movement points.
  
• Try to protect your capital when you are doing a ritual. The enemy mostly converges there.

Hint on where to find a ritual resource site on the other landmass


Now feel free to leave your own unique story on the campaign. Good luck and have fun-fun!

[Renabu]

"Its do-able to win with only infantry, but it's way easier to do it with some artillery. Hope this helped breaking mindset of playing with Skaven (being an endless horde) like how they are in the lore. The game just won't allow it and it's balanced that way."

I bought this game with the intent of enjoying the mindset of commanding a Skaven horde but because of how the game is balanced I constantly get my teeth kicked in, and it pissed me off so much and nobody would address that with anything other than "git gud." You hit the nail directly on the head. My first game was Vermintide 2 and I got that perception then, and assumed playing as the skaven in this game would be similar to that. So frustrating.

[bvnelson]

the depths belo? what is this, vampire coast?

[Crassie Wassie]

Imagine starting with "skaven are a hard race to play"

[Lampros]

Why discontinued? :(

[Oemoemoepoep]

@Aaron
you dont. In the lore and the actual tabletop the Skaven outnumber basically every other army at least 4:1, potentially 10:1 or more against elite armies like bretonian knights or chaos warriors ...
The "Creative Assembly" (what a joke) didn't give a fuck though and just released a Shogun 2 painted in Warhammer colors. So since elite armies can field exactly the same amount of units as the traditional hordes like Skaven/Orcs/Goblins you automatically struggle.

[fenlander]

I just got obliterated by the chaos spawns from the vortex ritual on level 5. They just tore through all my armies and ripped down my cities.

The damage my skaven do (even the Stormvermin) is minimal before they break and run. How do I go up against that much armour and damage?

I usually play the dwarves faction and thought that going up against them was going to be tough, but compared to the chaos they are a walk in the park.

[[*UNITY*]_ james]

Could you cover their multiplayer side?

[Wizard Skeleton]

With the skaven I easily get 40v40 unit battles against other Skaven factions. I cannot for the life of my figure how to keep track of that many enemy units while managing the same amount for myself, it's just incredibly frustrating to be swamped in micro-management on one front only to figure out five minutes later that my backline has been destroyed.

Also when fighting against elves or something you will lose about 5 units to one of theirs, seeing how you can only take a maximum of forty at a time, how will you ever win against a big elven army?

Not to mention the food, corruption and loyalty issues they have. Getting any sort of stability is impossible. It's thematic I suppose, but it isn't compensated in any way. The armies are weak, the infrastructure is weak and it's really annoying to micromanage scores of useless units. On all sides the Skaven just feel dysfunctional as hell.

I love the Skaven thematically, but this game broke them. Vampire Counts are Skaven but good.

[Ashleyfish]

just a small comment, the mors clanstone you mention in the 13th scheme section of rites is only for Queek, while Skrolk gets pestilens clanstone for imbuing poison and Tretch's clanstone anti large bonus

[Pojito]

Don't have time. I won't do it in the future probably.