Tag Archives: Skaven

Unit Filler

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Although I’m still working towards the goal of getting the list I’m currently running 100% painted before I start screwing around with it and doing more units… I’m already kind of looking ahead.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to drop the Plague Furnace: it’s great, but it’s basically 150 points for Unbreakable, which is pricy.  For that much, I could easily get another horde of Slaves… and more.

Except… I still have 20 Skavenslaves to paint.  The last thing I want to do is make that 70 Skavenslaves to paint!  (It’s not like I don’t have the models… I just lack the willpower to paint that many.)

So… unit filler.  If only as a bridge until I come back and paint more Skavenslaves.  I got stuck on a conference call a couple of days ago and, while twiddling my thumbs threw these guys together.:

The one on the left’s a Steam Tank boiler I found on eBay inexpensively, with some Manor bits.  The middle, obviously, is the brazier from the Screaming Bell.  The left is some really awesome Pegasus Chemical Plant with some of the other Steam Tank bits.

I figure I can use three in a horde without too much issue:

On reflection, I probably could have cobbled together some 40×60 bases instead of the 40×40.  Maybe I’ll make a pair of them to run down the middle in each unit or something.

Even if I don’t, three per horde takes the place of 12 slaves, which saves me from having to paint almost as many slaves as I’ve already got painted (30).

Warlord on a War-Litter

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This.. took a little bit, and it’s really not perfect.  But I’m very glad it’s done.  I’ve had this sucker built for well over a year (incidentally, that page is the one that still gets all the hits).

I had to paint it in sub-assemblies: the Stormvermin carrying the litter, the litter itself, and the Warlord.

The Stormvermin, particularly, were a pain to do: I had to glue them all to the base before priming: it was hard enough lining everything up without having to worry about paint jobs.

Fun fact: this will be the only Skaven character I haven’t stacked on top of some cork or slate.  I’d have loved to, but it’s already deliberately Very Tall and pinning all of these suckers through it would have been a nightmare.

I’m pleased with the Warlord.  He’s not as sharp looking as the other one I did, but he’s definitely good enough.  He’s basically the same model: Stormvermin body with the Fangleader head.  He’s got a regular shield (which is a shame, yesterday I found another one of the same shield I used on the other one… though if I’m realistic it probably wouldn’t have fit).  I gave him Warlord Spinetail‘s sword because he’ll always have some sort of magic weapon on him, and the model should reflect that somehow.

Because that didn’t feel like enough, I also gave him a whip.

I’m so-so on the banner.  The dags on the front look fine.  The ones on the back, not quite as much.  The circle looks sharp, and the rune looks good.  Overall, though, I feel like there needs to be more on there, though.  Banners are a weak spot for me… I’ve got several that I’m still putting off doing.

Since building this sucker, I’ve gone back and forth on actually using it.  I like to keep my characters cheapish, and I’ve debated whether or not I think I get my points’ worth for it.  I’ve finally decided that I do.

For the cost of 5 Stormvermin, it:

  • Functions like 4 Stormvermin… that, if it comes up, participate in his challenge.  This also means that everything else comes at the cost of a single Stormvermin.
  • Gives him +1 Sv.  I like him being harder to kill.
  • Makes him take up four spaces.  This is nice, because I like to put him in my block of Stormvermin, which I keep deliberately small for Watchtower scenarios.  It also does very interesting things in terms of character placement in his unit.  If I drop a caster in the Stormvermin unit with him, the caster cannot go in the front rank.  That’s neat.

So, ultimately, I’ve settled on it because (big picture), it doesn’t cost much for what it does while, at the same time, working very well with the unit I like to stick him in.

Painting Progress – 20110209

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It’s been dead silent around here, I know.  We went on vacation last week and the trip, the lead in to it and the catching up from it has been brutal on my free time.

The Snotorious B.I.G. that smacked the tar out of my half of America on 1/26 pushed our flight back a day, though, so I managed to spend the day working a Warp Lightning Cannon.

I hadn’t planned to work on it at all: I’ve got one of the old ones painted up, and I’ve only been fielding the one.  But, I cracked the kit open to see how things fit together.  This was a mistake.  If you’re going to start clipping this model off the sprue: be prepared to assemble it.  Be warned.
Furthermore: you cannot assemble this sucker.  Not without painting it first.  You can put together sub assemblies, but if you ever plan to paint it, that’s as far as it’s going to go.
So, I kinda got stuck painting it.
It’s a great looking model, though.  I’d originally not been a big fan of how high up the cannon is, but I’ve really come around on that.  The model really feels like something that might get fielded in a battery.  It’s less of a cannon and more of an artillery piece, if that makes any sense.
Anyway, I’m really happy with it.  I just wish I hadn’t been trapped into painting it…

In the few moments I’ve found since finishing this, I’ve started on two more small projects.  
I’ve decided to paint the Warlord on the War Litter:
This thing’s going to be a pain to paint.  At least the bearers will be.  I can tell already.
I’ve also started construction on a third Belial model.  I had an order from MaxMini come in: Shoulder Pads.  They’d also thrown in a Steam Knight helmet for the heck of it… which was serendipitous.
The base is half of the Slate Wasteland’s Hero’s set from Dragon Forge.  The pauldrons and head, are from MaxMini, of course.  There’s a brass etched icon on one of the legs, and a resin Dark Angels symbol (with the sword broken) from… something from Forgeworld.  The sword is a Thunder Hammer Arm, two of the sergeant backpack icons from the DA veteran sprue trimmed and fused and worked together for the guard and a cleaned up Hellblade for the blade.
The shield will be an Assault Terminator Sergeant’s Shield: Casey is hooking me up.  I need to decide if I’m going to just use it as-is, or if I’m going to shave the iconography off and try to sculpt something.  I’d like to sculpt, but I imagine the outcome won’t be very good.
On the upside, however: I’m done making Belial models.  This guy will be Number 3.  So, I finally went ahead and magnetized the arms.
Although #1 has Lightning Claws and #2 has the Sword of Silence and Storm Bolter… I can always come back and build those for this guy.  Or if I decide I dislike the Thunder Sword or something.

Painting Progress – 20110120

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This is my DOOM stick!

I wasn’t nearly as productive over the weekend as I expected to be, but that’s okay.  I chalk it up to needing to remember how to paint Clanrats again.  Last time I worked on these guys, I did 5 fairly slowly, then churned through 45 more in quick time before getting burned out.  Let’s hope that’s how it plays out this time: I only need another 5 Clanrats and 20 Skavenslaves before I can move on.

I did paint up the Warlock Engineer I threw together back in September.  After putting him on some cork and adding a bit of chain: I’m not afraid to say that he looks bad ass.

He’s painted the same way I paint all of my Skaven (recipes can be found here).

Anyway, I painted 5 Clanrats, including a champion and a musician.  We’ve all seen what these guys look like, so I won’t dwell on them.

Maybe I’ll take more thorough pictures of them when I’ve got the unit finished.

Thinking about Lists

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It’s been a while since I posted any lists here.  I don’t think that’s any great loss: lists, in my opinion, make for poor content… at least without accompanying text describing how they actually performed on the table.

But, I’ve been dicking around with some different lists, and they’re on my mind.  (Also, I’ve got a pile of naked mole rat images burning a hole in my Downloads folder.)

So, the big news of last week was that they updated the Dark Angels FAQ.  This makes me extremely happy.  I’ve got about 7,000 points of painted Dark Angels and have, thus far, resisted the urge to run them as “Green Marines.”  (Running them as “Green Blood Angels,” is a bridge too far and “Green Space Wolves” is heresy that cannot be countenanced.)  That temptation’s gone.

Casey threw some ideas at me that sounded pretty solid, so I’ve spun them into a list.

HQ
Belial – TH/SS
Interrogator Chaplain – Terminator Armor

Troops
Deathwing Command Squad – Apothecary, Standard Bearer, TH/SS x5, CML
Deathwing Terminator Squad – TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Terminator Squad – TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Terminator Squad – TH/SS x2, CML

Fast Attack
Land Speeder – Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder – Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder – Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer

Heavy Support
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

In many ways, I don’t like taking lists like this: a single unit, a billion times… but it’s inarguably more reliable, thanks to redundancy, and it’s a lot easier for me to get my head around just sitting down and spitting things together.

Delightfully, I have to do very little to put this on the table.  Paint a few more terminators (the ones with the TH/SS, of course), do another two Speeders (I have three: a dakka speeder, a Sammael speeder, and one of the above), and dig up a few Whirlwind turrets (Heavy Support’s a bit light with my first legion troops).

Anyway, if you’re a Dark Angels player like me: I’m sure you’re delighted with this development.  If you’re a Space Wolf player: keep those power blue terminators Loganwing.  I don’t think I’ll be able to restrain myself from mercilessly judging you and your troops for their fickle defection from the Wolf to the Lion.

A naked mole rat and then a Dark Angels list?  What the heck is wrong with me!?!  Some Skaven lists will, hopefully, make things right.

This is the list that I ran last week, and will likely continue to run with a few changes.

Lords
Warlord (General) – War-Litter, Sword of Swift Slaying, Enchanted Shield, Poisoned Attacks
Grey Seer – Warp-Energy Condenser, Talisman of Preservation

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) – Shield, Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest – Lvl 2, Plague Furnace, Flail, Dispel Scroll
Warlock Engineer – Doomrocket

Core
Clanrats x30 – Full Command, Shield
– Poisoned Wind Mortar
Skavenslaves x 48 – Champion, Musician, Shield
Stormvermin x20 – Full Command, Stormbanner
– Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Plague Monks x34 – Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x5 – Poisoned Attacks, Slings
Gutter Runners x5 – Poisoned Attacks, Slings

Rare
Doomwheel
Hellpit Abomination
Warp-Lightning Cannon

I’ve really started to love the Plague Furnace. It dies horribly to Skinks, sure, but everything’s going to go down to something. People don’t pack in Chaos Knights because Jezzails make them sad, you know?  It’s done really well for me: it helps me bulk out to a horde of Plague Monks easily and draws a great deal of attention.  In terms of killing the life out of things… it’s surprisingly quiet.  The Monks make enough of a ruckus that the accomplishments of the Furnace are easy to miss.  (That means I should probably try running without the Furnace to see what happens.)  A horde of Monks pukes up five attacks per file… and the Plague Banner really makes that sting.

The Warlord’s relatively cheap, has a great armor save (2+/6+) and spits out a lot of attacks: 4 Poison with likely rerolls (not many things have I7) and 4 Poison maybe with rerolls (I5).

The Seer’s about what he always looks like.  If I could find the points, I’d like to give him a Power Scroll: it can be a real drag getting Dreaded 13th off, sometimes.

The BSB gets magic armor: keeping him alive is more important than fitting in the Stormbanner.  Fortunately, the Stormvermin can take it, so I’m not losing out.

I like the horde of Slaves, but I find I play too conservatively with them.  Part of me would like to double-down on it… but I’m still working on getting the one horde fully painted.

For those following at home: this is the list I’m trying to get to 100% this year.  If I go past this, great, but this is the baseline goal.

Here’s the other list I’ve got:

Lords
Warlord (General) – Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield
Grey Seer – Power Scroll, Talisman of Preservation

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) – Shield, Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest – Lvl 2, Flail, Plague Furnace, Dispel Scroll
Warlock Engineer – Doomrocket
Warlock Engineer – Brass Orb

Core
Stormvermin x10 – Banner, Musician, Stormbanner
– Ratling Gun
Stormvermin x10 – Musician
– Ratling Gun
Stormvermin x10 – Musician
– Ratling Gun
Stormvermin x10 – Musician
– Poisoned Wind Mortar
Stormvermin x10 – Musician
– Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Gutter Runners x5 – Poisoned Attacks, Slings
Plague Monks x32 – Full Command, Plague Banner

Rare
Hellpit Abomination
Warp-Lightning Cannon
Warp-Lightning Cannon

Just in typing it up, I can’t help but feel like the Furnace, if not the Monks themselves, are a mistake.  Also, it’s important to note that I don’t actually see this being all that great of a list.  It’s just different.  That could be why I want to run it: I’ve heard so much about this vaunted SAD thing, I’d like to see it for myself.

I’ve also never run the Brass Orb: it seems terrible.  As likely to scatter back onto your head as it is to land where you want it.  But, hey, it’s just an Engineer, right?

The idea here, roughly, is to shoot at you until you engage.  And, when you do that, you’ve got to deal with the Plague Monks.

I expect this will do badly, but it’s just so different from what a Skaven army should be, I’m very, very curious.

Uniforms & Heraldry of the Skaven – Followup

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So, on Thursday, I flipped through the new Skaven fluff book, and found it wanting.  Now that I’ve had the chance to read the whole thing, I’m considerably more positive about it.

My biggest complaint was the number of “filler” clans: clans that were, basically, one of the four great clans, but weren’t.  It’s not quite as bad as I initially thought:  Pestilens has 3, yes, as does Skyre… but Moulder’s only got 2 and Eshin’s only got 1.  There are 2 clans that are aligned with Grey Seers as well.

That puts Thrall Clans at 11 and non-Thrall Clans at 7.  (I’m not counting the one-off clans that back of the book: they fit 10 kind of neat clans onto the last page, two of which are Thralls.)   Not quite as bad as my initial flip-through indicated.

The art’s solid.  It’s what you’d expect from this sort of book, but no two rats look alike.  Each spread, for example, has a Warlord: and all of them look different, in very cool ways.

The fluff for some of the clans is interesting, some rather dull.  For every Clan Scruten (a Clan kept secret by the Grey Seers to use in case of uprising), there’s a Clan Volkn (they, uh, like volcanoes?).

There’s a great deal of Giant Pox Rat art in the book: four pieces.  Two of them are in the style of the book, but there are cover-quality pieces at the beginning and the end that are amazing.  This book really makes me want 1) for Pox Rats to be worth taking and 2) for GW to make a Pox Rat model (besides Nurglitch’s).

I’d mentioned Clan Skurvy last time.  They’re what really made me turn around on the book.  Their fluff is neat enough, I guess, and they’ve got a color scheme that’d be striking on the table (think lots of Iyanden Darksun).  But their Warlord (“Sealord”) art is brilliant.

What’s that on his shoulder? Is that some sort of bizarre rat-parrot hybrid?  A Par-rat?

You’re damn right it is!


Little details like that are all over this book.  There’s a lot more variety in here than meets the eye.  And I would buy the heck out of a Skrapp Warlord model.

If you’re a Skaven nut like I am: this is probably worth it.  If you think verminous pirates should have equally verminous parrots, you’re set.  If you’re running Skaven because they’re supposed to be a strong army: you can probably take a pass.

Uniforms & Heraldry of the Skaven

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My ratty order from GW just showed up.  Didn’t order much: a Doom-Flayer ($20!?), the Magic Cards (very key) and the Skaven Uniforms & Heraldry book (which I’ve been unreasonably excited about).

Gave it a quick flip through and, I’ve got to say, I’m not entirely impressed.

The art’s about what you’d expect, which is fine.

The fluff is tragic, though.  Nearly all of the clans are: “Clan Morbidus, pledged to Clan Pestilens.  Clan Krizzor, pledged to Clan Moulder.  Clan Septik, pledged to Clan Pestilens.  Clan Ektrik, pledged to Clan Skyre.”  and so on.

There are unaligned clans in there, sure, but it feels like the bulk of them are along the lines, “So you want to run a Pestilens-themed army but also want to use other stuff.”  And that’s okay.  I just question the need for three (for Pestilens, at least) such clans.  The first is totally reasonable.  The second is pushing it.  The third really feels like filler.

There are some interesting clans in here: Clan Skurvy is totally cool, for example.  They feel outnumbered by the filler clans, though.

Interested parties should check out Children of the Horned Rat, for WHFRP 3E, which doesn’t have nearly as many new clans, but all of them are interesting (I thought, until checking, that Clan Skurvy was Clan Sleekit).  (There’s also a random Clan generator, I’m seriously considering wrapping a webapp around.)

NEW SKAVEN MODELS

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Via Thalaric:

 http://forofreakfactory.mforos.com/1035375/10066910-foto-de-las-nuevas-minis-skaven-somos-los-primeros-del-mundo-en-tenerlas/

Models for Hellpit Abomination, Warp-Lightning Cannon, Plague Catapult, Doom Flayer

Skaven Minis

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Man, that sucks.  They finally do a Games Day mini I can dang about… just in time to move the damn thing out of Baltimore and to Chicago.  What the hell?  Not fair!

Looks like I need to make an arrangement to have someone who will be there to pick one up for me.

In the interest of making this post a bit more than a quick gripe: has anyone else see Mantic’s limited edition Dwarf Engineer w/ Drill?

It’s a shame this thing’s 1) limited and 2) only comes with their £150.00 Grafe’s Iron Legion bundle… ’cause that thing would be the perfect base for a Doom Flayer conversion.  Amirite?

Painting Progress – 20101013

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Finally finished off those 10 Clanrats that have been totally jamming me up.

So, that’s an enormous relief.  That puts the unit of Clanrats at:
So, 11 plus the standard and it’s done.  I’m not doing it, though!  I’m refocusing on Daemons.
Next up on the painting table:  Heralds of Khorne in Chariots.