New Skaven Wheel and rats

Ovich wrote:I went over the book and went on line to see what others thought and in general, as far as playability, I think there is a good amount of disappointment. Not in terms of power, you can still make a pretty damn cheezy army, but in terms of some of the things that made the rats super fun and cool to play with.

Here's what people have been disappointed with.


Storm Vermin, are still not really worth taking over regular clan rats.. they are basically 2x the points and have +1 weapons skill, heavy armour vs light armour, and +1 strength due to halberds. But if you use the halberds, you negate the benefit of the heavy armour.
I agree with this, the models look nice as hell, but there is no need to take this guys, they were supposed to drop in cost so peopel would take them, but at 2x the cost of a clanrat, not worth it.

Skaven magic took a big hit. no more +9 warp lighting option, and in general it's been nerfed. Plague magic is nice and probably the more powerful of the 2. The dreaded 13th spell is fluffy, but getting it off on a +25 is ridiculously dangerous and not worth the outcome, plus it can be dispelled by a scroll.
Warpligthing was too strong and was bound to get nerfed, the 13th spell will never see the light of day in a game.

People are really pissed about the lead from the back rule. It used to be you could choose to put a skaven leader in the back ranks. No more. Now, the rule is that if they are challenged, they can go to the back with no penalties and you can still use banners and stuff. But, a nice unit of chaos knights can walk up to your SB and just hit him with 6 attacks, since it's not a challenge, there's nothing he can do.
THIS right here pisses me off, Lead from the Back was a great and fluffy rule for Skaven, now our very frail characters are opened to be destroyed by anything that hits the unit.

The weapon team add ons to units are cool , but generally expensive. They are also questionable in terms of effectiveness. Ratling guns are completely nerfed, having to roll to hit now. But at least their range was increased to 18 inches. The mortar is cool, because it's move AND fire, but having to wound people on a 5+ , when EVERY OTHER poison wind weapon is on a 4+ makes no sense. The CC attachment is cool and provides a little punch to units.
The Ratling Gun nerf sucks, that thing only worked half the time anyways, the WarpFire thrower is gonna be king now, with the rule that a anyone touched by a template counts as hit, no partials, they are gonna wreck units.

The warp lightning cannon is better at sniping now, having longer range, but is less destructive. It shoots like a cannon now, with everything in the path of the bounce getting hit.. At the end of the bounce, it explodes using the small blast template. No more going through 5 or 6 units. If the roll for the bounce is a misfire.. nothing happens.. no blast.
No more shoot through cover the blast option is very nice with the no partials rule.

As mentioned above.. you can only fire into skaven slaves.. no other units.. ALOT of people are pissed about this.
This just plain sucks, Life is cheap option was one of the best Skaven rules.

Plaugue Censor Bearers are awesome now because they are a special choice and do not have to hang around the parent unit anymore. You can expect to see a but load of these in any competitive skaven list. 6 of these guys will dish out 18 Strength 5 attacks plus the damage from the fumes causing toughness tests. They will wreck shit if they don't get shot up. 10 of them only cost 170 points. But talk about a glass jaw..
Clan pestilence is gonna be the army to play now, all their units got better and the Sencer bearers are unfucking insane right now.

Jezzails are still nasty but lost skirmish, so have limited arc of vis.
They will run at the first couple of wounds taken. worthless

Night runners are no longer skirmishers ? WTF? ranked up ninja assassins in training.. stupid. They can take an item that let's them tunnel, but they rank up..... dumb..da dumb dumb.
Not dumb at all, all of a sudden you have a fully ranked unit comign up behind your lines that can charge the turn they come in

Almost every Clan skyre contraption has a nasty misfire chart where basically a 6 is the only decent outcome.
No big surprise here, skaven machinery is unstable at best

Rat ogres are a little better.
This is very good, Giant rats got lot better also, now Rat Ogres wont just be free VPs anymore

No more plague rat swarms.... booo hooo... just regular swarms.
nvr usef rat swarms, they were to expensive.

Special Characters are generally overpriced for what they do.
Not sure if i agree with this, the Deathmaster is a wrecking machine.

I think what people are going to see is the Screaming Bell and Plauge Furnace... both make the units pushing them unbreakable, which is something a skaven army needs. I think we'll see more plague priests, since they are much more survivable then engineers and have access to a better overall lore. We're also going to see a few "Hell Pit Abominations" . they are expensive but nasty and will basically wreck most units they hit. plus when you kill them they have a chance to come back to life, or turn into a bunch of rat swarms... how cool is that ?

As usual, we'll have to see how people make combinations to get a feel for how nasty the army is really going to end up being.

I don't think it will be the same Caliber of Nastiness we're seeing with Demons, Dark Elves, VC's and Lizards.