Fredricksburg and Skaven

Skryre- best clan in all Skavendom.

Well, the ol' Tournament bug hath bitten again. Demitra sent me an email saying there was an upcoming tournament at the Game Vault in Fredricksburg. I intend (traffic and schedule permitting) to attend, and so I have been writing up army lists in preparation. This is one of those lists, so should you not be interested in this sort of thing feel free to skip this post.

My overall thinking with this list is the ability to attack any sort of enemy unit at range. Magic, shooting, and Skavenslaves will combine to keep threats away and (hopefully) eliminate them before anything truly scary makes it to my lines. I want to finish my opponents off at arm's length, not allowing them to make it anywhere near my vital Grey Seer and Battle Standard Bearer- the keys to my army's resiliance, and the heart of my strategy.

There is no room for a Warlord to act as my general, his point cost is better spent adding to my army's firepower rather than chopping stuff up in melee, which is exactly where a soft army like mine does not want to be. Sure I have the press of ranks, but I lack close combat specialists like Stormvermin or Plague Monks. These units, in my opinion, struggle to attain the moniker "close combat specialists" in the first place, with Stormvermin only really beginning to twinkle (not shine) in the Strength department. Plague Monks have their Toughness, Additional Hand Weapons, and Frenzy to fall back on, but without a Plague Furnace (as I am) they're just not a close combat nightmare, which is what a melee army is looking for.

I did try throwing together a more melee focused army, but all I could pull out for my sledgehammer units were Plague Monks (as mentioned above sans Plague Furnace) and my Rat Ogres. I didn't have the points to slip in double Hell Pit Abominations, and without that kind of punch (and with a spell caster general) I just didn't feel safe striking out across the battlefield.

But couldn't I just drop the Grey Seer, add in a Warlock Engineer, and go with a Warlord instead? No, not really. Magic is a very powerful force in this edition, and without the Grey Seer's +4 to dispell I just don't like my chances. This is a much more defensive army than I normally like playing, but I want to win in a tournament game and that leads to the need to adapt tactics. Throw the Skavenslaves forward, shoot and cast spells into the ensuing combat, and watch the enemy units just melt away. Anything that survives gets offed by my melee assets (of which I do have one very effective unit in my figure case).

Okay, here's what I'm thinking:

LORDS
Grey Seer w/ Talisman of Preservation, Ironcurse Icon- 290 pts.

HEROES
Cheiftain w/ battle standard, shield, Armor of Destiny- 122 pts.
Warlock Engineer w/ level 2 wizard, Warp-Energy Condenser- 120 pts.
Warlock Engineer w/ Doomrocket- 45 pts.

CORE
40 Clanrats w/ shields, full command; Poisoned Wind Mortar Weapon Team- 265 pts.
40 Clanrats w/ shields, full command; Warpfire Thrower Weapon Team- 270 pts.
40 Skavenslaves- 80 pts.
40 Skavenslaves- 80 pts.

SPECIAL
7 Gutter Runners w/ slings, Poisoned Attacks- 126 pts.
6 Rat Ogres & 4 Packmasters- 272 pts.

RARE
Doomwheel- 150 pts.
Warp Lightning Cannon- 90 pts.
Warp Lightning Cannon- 90 pts.

TOTAL
2,000 points

The army has lots of multi-wound inflicting stuff for offing things like monstrous units (infantry, cavalry) and lots of poison combines with this to eliminate big monsters. Plenty of templates for killing off massed units, and redirection units that can be shot into.

Oh, for those saying I don't have enough warm bodies in this army, that's 186 models there.

I'll keep thinking about this army, but this layout seems good enough to try to get some practice games in with (assuming the Springfield G.W. still exists) and I'll be giving it a shot here pretty soon (Friday?).

For now however, it's just a sweet, sweet dream...