Heroes: When starting a new Skaven warband, take the maximum number of heroes (that's 5 heroes +1 leader). This is important because you need heroes to search for loot at the end of every Campaign game. Arm your Assassin Adept with warplock pistols, and other heroes with and fighting claws. These weapons are rare, and it is worth the investment of purchasing them without the need of finding them. You may sacrifice 2 or 3 Vermikins, but on the long run it pays off! Initially, do not give your heroes any armor. It costs a Skaven player 20 points for light armor. Light armor only gives you a 1 in 6 chance of blocking it, and 1/2 the time they have a strength of 4 or higher anyway! For 20 points you can buy another Verminkin. Always give your hero two weapons if possible. You may want to give a flail to a Black Skaven but in most case give every one two one handed weapons. Daggers are free for the first one and they don't have to be represented on the model. Night Runners should never get in to hand to hand (H-to-H) combat unless necessary. They can sit outside range and gain experience for surviving. Later on as your Campaign progresses, their stats will improve quickly enough to be of any use. Better yet, give them a sling (rapid fire.)
	Henchmen: Give your henchman swords and try parrying. Use your henchmen as fodder. Always put your henchmen in the front and make sure that they get in to battle first followed by you heroes. You want as many of you heroes not "Out Of Action" so you can search for loot. Arm every warrior you can with a sling. A large warband of 21 Skaven (with Cookbook) can fire 21 shoots in one round and 42 the next. Few enemies can withstand up to 42 slingshots! Also you may arm half of them with spears, sacrificing parrying for initiative (strike first.) Rat Ogres: Do not buy a Rat Ogre when you are first starting you warband. Not only they are too expensive and you want numbers, but they are big targets. All missile fire will be directed towards them, and once dead your warband will be extremely small. Hire a Rat Ogre after you have more than 15 in your warband preferably after you have 19. Only then they are effective. Giant Rats: If you must have giant rats, only hire a few. Giant rats should be used them as the fodder, specially against powerful missile weapons such as pistols, because they are cheap and easy to replace. Sure they will die fast and if you have too many you will find yourself taking a route test, but since warriors must shoot at the closest enemy model, the furry-shields may take one for one of your heroes!
	Fighting Style: Always fight with pack mentality. Never send one of your guys to fight one on one against your opponent if you can help it. Always swarm his guys with two or three or more on one. When fighting against a warband with missile weapons use cover to the fullest. You are in a city, so you should be able to sneak through and around buildings to avoid his missile fire. Also, go straight for his missile fire guys and try to take them out. Usually they are weak and if your opponent is smart he'll move in with fighters to block you. Once in H-to-H combat, your opponent will not be able to shot at any more. When fighting Possessed or Undead go straight for and swarm his big guys. Remember don't go one on one. Unfortunately these are the two warbands that give Skaven the most trouble because Skaven's low leadership will mean fear test will be failed often. But, we should have numbers on our side and we should have lots of attacks and initiative.
	Campaign Tactics: The MOST important things a Skaven warband possesses are their large numbers and speed. Hire new hero to replace any dead ones. Hopefully you won't have to do that too often because you are using you henchman to block. Hire lots of henchman. Your maximum is 20 so use it. With large numbers, you can pack your rat-men up into two or three different squads of 3 to 4 a piece. Be sure to put a hero with those henchmen to be the heavy hitter. The henchmen in a fight are usually just good for those extra attack dice. Then move into H-to-H combat. Especially hunt those archers! Their faster movement usually can get you around those arrows, and if you lose a henchman or two you still have enough to finish him off in an outnumbered fight. Buy lucky charms! They will save you the first hit in the game so if you're charged the charm will save you and then next turn you'll probably have the initiative and you can dispatch the enemy first.
	Skills: Get the Sprint, Infiltrate and Tail Fighting skills first. This will help you to take advantage of your speed, take away the enemy advantage of position on the table and gain additional attack. Black Skaven can choose from all lists except the academic one.  As fighting claws are a favorite weapon for black Skaven, many other skills will be useless, in particular all shooting skills as they cannot use other (ranged) weapons. Art of Silent Death and tail fighting from the special list, maximizing their attacks while wielding fighting claws. Strike to Injure would suit their killer nature very well. Unstoppable Charge could prove very effective as their speed allows them to charge easily Lightning Reflexes puts the high initiative to good use. Sprint turns them into the fastest creatures in the game! The Assassin Adept can choose from all skill lists, making him one of the most talented heroes in the game. You can choose to stay true to his assassin nature, following the suggestions given above for Black Skaven and turning him into a close combat killing machine, preferably with fighting claws. Or you can exploit his adept experience, keeping him safe and relying more on his academic and shooting skills. In the latter case, you will want to arm him with a brace of warplock pistols. Shooting skills such as: Eagle Eye, Hunter and Pistolier will increase its efficiency considerably. Academic skills may not impress you at first, but in a campaign they can prove to be a good investment on the long run: Battle Tongue is especially useful if your warband is large and warriors easily stray from your leader's position. Wyrdstone Hunter aids your exploration. Streetwise can help you get those warplock pistols and other rare items you want so badly. Tail Fighting from the special list, maximizing their attacks while wielding fighting claws. Night runners can only take combat and shooting skills, apart from the special Skaven skill-list. This allows them to take: Weapons Training and Weapons Expert skills, giving them access to the equipment which is otherwise only available for the other heroes. The sorcerer can take speed and academic skills, perfect for supporting his spell-casting abilities and aiding the warband in-between missions.

Skaven Tactica: "Daring and difficult?"

 I.  Characters:

II.   Starting Tips:

1. If possible buy as much heroes as possible, but at least go for 5. They are the guys that actually bring in the money, after a battle. The money… I cannot stress that enough! In one-time-only games that fact does not matter, so then there is more room for experimenting.

2. Slings: They are cheap and effective. Especially if one of the NightRunners gets Eagle Eyes. Or that henchmen group gets that BS4 advance. Better give out as much as possible.

3. Daggers: Do not worry if little money is left for weapons, let alone exotic ones (weeping blades etc.). Most Skaven fight effectively with 2 daggers. Especially if they have S4 (negates the armor bonus opponents get). For henchmen it can look good to buy a club instead of a second dagger, it costs only 1 GC more. But be sure you do not loose out on the right number of Skaven, i.e. highest possible route test number. Though the rules committee at the moment is eying the possibility to make fighting with 2 weapons more difficult, i.e. -1 to hit, this still will have its issues.

4. Giant Rats. Do not underestimate the effectiveness of a "walking attack" They maybe do not look as powerful as a Wardog, but they have M6 and I4 and only cost 15 GC. They are easy to replace. Just try a couple, they'll multiply by themselves.J

5. Due to the new first strike rule, spears became factually les effective. But as Skaven have an above average initiative they still are useful, remember that.

III. Warband Types:

1. The "fluff" warband

	1 Adept with WB's and sling.
	2 Black Skaven with sword and sling.
	1 Sorcerer with sling and spear (this might vary, because of which spell he gets, but a club could work too. Advice on sorcerers and spells will follow).
	2 NightRunners with sling and club (S&C).
	3 groups of henchmen with S&C (total of 7 figures, spread out how you like).

This gives you 13 figures, thus routing starts only after loosing 4 characters. As the Weeping Blades are 50 GC, Fighting claws, Warplocks, or a set of flails could replace this. This can be filled in, as you like. Especially the sorcerer could be in need of tuning, due to the spell he gets.

2. The "maxed out" warband

	Full heroes with slings. (max income!)
	12 henchmen of whom 11 have a sling and one not (499 pts).
	This gives you 18 characters a route test after loosing five... You could loose one Skaven Verminkin and buy a sword, 2 clubs and a couple of extra daggers, then you still route at 5. Or go for the option to replace 3 Verminkin by Giant Rats (5) and loose a couple of slings. Then you could start with 20.
	If the sorcerer then gets his extra rats spell, you might even route only after loosing 6...

There are a possibility to start with 20 members and all with slings, but then you only start with 4 heroes: AA, BS, 2 NR, 16 Verminkin, all with slings. (Tanx rinku.)

3. The "risky" warband

Advantages:  Just look at that monster: S5, T5 and 3 attacks, what do you want more? Oh... 3 wounds to boot of course. I saw this guy rip through 3 Dark Elves like they were not there... In a starting campaign he rocks. Almost nothing can hurt him really, at least not able of taking it out in a single round. Often it just forces the route test on the opponent faster. If you keep it near a hero, it does not even need to roll for passing its stupidity.

Disadvantages: It costs 210 GC and if it is taken Out Of Action, there is a one-third chance you loose it. You have to keep it near a hero, which makes it a bit less effective. You noticed it was also an advantage, but because it links 2 characters together it slightly hampers their movement. If you buy it later in a campaign, the effectiveness is far less, because more heroes are actually capable of crippling your RatOgre, because they get those nice advances.

 

IV.  Magic of the Horned Rat:

Now only a last section is required for completing a starting warband. Those are the spells for the Eshin Sorcerer. He can start with one (Uf Kurz, Neek!), which you then can abuse to your harts desire. The equipment for the Eshin Sorcerer may vary very much as to which spell he gets. Let’s see. Basic... a sling. :-) Other additions are noted according to spells:

1. Warpfire. This is the main damage spell of the Skaven. At least a lot of people think so (my favorite is another spell :-). Your sorcerer does not need any extra equipment bar some missile weapon and maybe some melee weapon. The devious thing about this spell is the range of 8". This means you are in charge range of all your opponents except dwarfs. Think about that and protect your sorcerer. Remember this spells does not guarantee to knock out half the opponent's warband. Equipment: Hand weapon, sling.
   
   Example: 3 enemies close enough to utilise the spell well. The main target gets generally 2 S4 hits, going at T3 this means about 40% chance he goes Out Of Action. And about 25% to take out one of the “onlookers”. This is hardly half a warband… next turn your sorcerer probably will get charged, or shot at.
   

2. Children of the Horned rat. This one is a nice one; it about guarantees you extra cannon fodder and may be used to boost rout test numbers. You get at least a boost of one. You sorcerer is spell less after the battle starts, if he only has this one, so extra combat power is not unwise. Maybe now a spear or a warplock would be nice, if affordable. Equipment: sling, spear.
   

3. Gnawdoom. About the same comment as Warpfire. Although I give this spell a better chance of wounding, but that is only based on personal experience... I like to throw a lot of dice... :-) Advantage to warpfire is that it needs not be the first model in the path, but you can choose the target. And normally I score 2-3 wounds…Equipment: Hand weapon, sling.
   
   Example: Nominal you hit 7 times and you need sixes to hit, up to T4 that is. On a T3/4 character this is 1 or 2 wounds normally. Which gives you about 40% chance to take him Out Of Action.
   

4. Black Fury (If there ever was a close combat spell it would be this one). The others are nifty, but not as powerful (this is my favourite spell, for those who did not get it yet... :-). The 2 extra attacks and extra +1S are really nice, but this needs weapons that work well with the advantages. Several S4 hits are nothing to sneeze at (nor is the 22" charge range), but sometimes this dude needs to defend himself. And armor is not that effective (duh), as it does not go well with the spell casting. So there needs to be something that replaces an armor save, like a parry, maybe even with reroll. Very effective (At least in my experience). Sprint, a +1S and Dodge are also very handy, but that is not yet in order. My beginning sorcerer sliced up a rat ogre with his 4 attacks, although I give you he already had lost one of his three wounds... Next follow the weapon choices that are interesting for an Eshin Sorcerer with Black Fury. Equipment:

	Flail together with the spell this makes for 3 S6 attacks, very hurtful. Which means hitting on 4+ wounding on 2+ and often no parry from the opponent
	Weeping blades (the most expensive form) gives 4 S4 attacks, with auto wounds on 6 for to hit. Here you have a nice bonus of auto wound on 6, but also a protective parry from the blades.
	My favourite is Fighting Claws, not only for the 4 S4 attacks, but also because of the parry with re-roll. This gives your sorcerer that small survivor ability he needs. Apart from the parry with re-roll, (ain’t it a bummer if you just fail to roll that 4+ you need, remember you sorcerer is WS3. So many heroes tend to hit him already on a 3+) it has a possible future bonus of the skill the Art of Silent Death, which only works with bare hands and Fighting Claws.

Example: basic sorcerer with FCs: in general hits twice with S4 so 50-60% chance of wounding and 40% chance of taking an opponent Out Of Action, even 2 wound characters.

1.  Eye o'the warp. This actually is a nice spell. Even more so if you are hitting the fleeing opponents. But to make this effective you need some nice Close combat weapons, but club and dagger could work. Equipment: club/sword/spear.
   
   Example: fighting two opponents in HtH before you cast which means 50% chance one is already hampered, or maybe even Out Of Action. This makes this spell as a free combat master skill with a dual bonus. They may flee and the hits are resolved before HtH.
   

2. Sorcerer's curse. This one has a 12" range, which gives your sorcerer a lot of charge protection, so no extra need for special equipment, a sling will do. This will aid your Skaven greatly in battle. It is more devastating as it looks, as its working are not immediately visible. Because it can effectively hamper a single character in combat and make it easy prey for your Skaven brothers. If armor saves are high re-rolling is very bad, and re-rolling hits can devastate an attacker.
   
   Example: These can effectively half the chance that a character hits his opponent, or make his armor save… very nice against those strong heroes (stat wise or skill wise).

V. Advancing:

1. Of course the first one will be the Art of Silent Death (tAoSD)
   This special skill of the Skaven can reform a pretty good warrior into a real slaughter machine. You gain 1 extra attack, remember a normal starting hero will have 3 attacks with this skill and Fighting claws, not 4 as a lot of people seem to think. So what is so important here, it gives an extra attack, but no other stat advance (OK, there is +1 initiative for climbing, but that is only important for sorcerers and weapons trained NightRunners). The trick here is that you can choose to get an extra attack and an attack (I cannot stress this enough) is the most potent thing in Mordheim. Not only does it gives you an extra attack, but you are allowed to cause critical wounds on a 5+ (if he needs a 5 to wound it only causes a critical on a 6, see FAQ) this is important because it works for Fighting Claws FC’s) too. And believe me a Black Skaven with tAoSD and FC's, maybe even an attack advance, is very scary.

   1. FC's and tAoSD and the Assassin Adept. Almost never use it on the assassin, he is the only skaven with BS4, so you can make better use of that, even if it is only with a sling.

   2. FC's and tAoSD and a Black Skaven. This is a nice combo, they start with WS4 and S4, so they get 3 attacks. After that a lot of advances only will make them better, Skills like Strike to Injure (remember this gives you a 50% chance on the Out Of Action result) and Mighty Blow only takes them further. Remember that Web of Steel does the same for the severest Crit result.

   3. FC's and tAoSD and the Eshin sorcerer. A sorcerer you say... yes, when he gets a spell, which is nifty in close, combat (Black Fury, or Eye O' the warp). This will make him go crazy. Just think a sorcerer with Black fury alone will already give the dude 4 S4 attacks and 22" charge range. The spell needs to succeed though.
      

2. Tailfighting:
   This is the one where you just buy an extra attack. Very useful as you are the only race that can. For example you got a very experienced character, but he still did not get that +1A you want. Then this gives you what you want for a mere skill advance. Remember what I told you about attacks in Mordheim.
   

3. Black Hunger:
   Although this has a grievous downside to it, it still bestows on you the extra attack. This might just make the difference between winning and loosing a battle. The extra move is not bad either, but remember to say when you want to use the skill, you do not want it “on” all the time. Once I had a Skaven called Oldclaw, he had 3 wounds and a lot of skills, but no attack advance. Almost 75 xp and still only 1A, so he got tailfighting and Black Hunger.
   

4. Infiltration:
   This makes that marksman that develops in the campaign even more dangerous. Or, if a lot of heroes do get it, for a nasty surprise on your opponent. But remember a lone infiltrator almost always dies…. I speak from experience.
   

5. Wallrunner:
   This is purely for the deprived of speed skills, i.e. Scale Sheer Surfaces skill.
   

6. Mighty blow, strike to injure and tAoSD:
   Although the last one might not be needed, only the first 2 give a Black Skaven, S5 attacks with a 4+ on taking something Out Of Action (after he looses his last wound). With tAoSD this will go for even more attacks and 5+ critical... Which in total is very scary, because it is only after 3 advances, that a Skaven can be ready for it… (8 xp for a NightRunner, 9 xp for a Black Skaven, if they roll skills that is…)
   

7. Weapons Expert and Eagle Eyes:
   In my warbands the NightRunners have a tendency to develop into marksmen. And apart from that nice advance to BS4, Eagle Eyes might surprise your opponent. Especially if you start showing up with a crossbow that fires 36". Just ask any Dwarven player how nice that is...
   

8. Throwing stars and Knife Fighter/Eagle Eyes:
   This is the Skaven machine gun. Not only is a character able to throw them at their own strength (S4 for AA/BS), but there are no moving or range modifiers either. Then Eagle Eyes extends the poor range of 6" and gives you 12", further more Knife Fighter can give you up to 3 ranged attacks. Believe me that those soften up any target.
   

9. Strike to Injure and Web of Steel:
   Although a more seldom combination, Web of steel might be interesting in combination with FC's and tAoSD. You have that 33% chance on a critical, which give you 50% chance on that nice critical result (the one with max damage). The strike to injure raises the chance to take someone Out Of Action from 33% to 50%, which is an important raise. The nice benefit to abolish Knocked Down results with clubs and such does not work here, as heroes cannot use them...

VI. Surviving by not failing route tests:

VII. Skaven Examples: