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Killing those pesky Elves; Anti Elf: Tactica
Topic Started: 5th November 2014 - 10:37 PM (462 Views)
King Rat
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Grey Seer
With the Meta shift towards Elves (Dark, High and Wood Elves) becoming more popular I thought I would take another look at the Skaven arsenal and see what we might bring to the table to defeat these ASF armies. Whilst at the same time maintaining our armies ability to fight WoC, Demons, Empire, Lizardmen, etc....

Defeating those disgusting Elves (squeak squeak).
The following discussion will talk about Skaven tools we can take to Tournaments (all comers army lists) rather than tailoring the list to fight a specific opponents army type.

Elf Army builds
Although the Elvish builds are race dependent they tend to follow generic types:

1. Wood Elf, Dark Elf shooty avoidance or High Elf Shooty, Magic heavy with a few infantry blocks (defensive)
2. Dark Elf, High Elf, Cavalry bus lists.
3. Monster mash lists usually with flyers e.g: Dragons , Frosties, Manticores (probably not Wood Elves)
4. Combined arms balanced lists with Infantry, Cavalry, Shooting and Magic
5. Infantry heavy Dark Elves Cauldron, Witch Elves etc...

Skaven Magic Items

Essential Items
Fellblade Warlord (shield optional). This guy is essential in close combat for taking down the big monsters Phoenix's, Dragons, Manticores, etc. Keep him cheap as he will likely not survive long vs. ASF Elves.

Doom Rocket Cheap item useful vs. most armies. You can use the Warlock Engineer as a re-director after firing it. Avoid shooting it at Banner of World Dragon.

Other Tricksters Shard Whether on a Warlord or Assassin this like the Fellblade forces re-rolls on Ward Saves. great vs. Phoenix Guard, Doomfire Warlocks, Phoenix's etc.. a great back up for the Fellblade. Also great vs. Demon's, Bretonnian's (see Warpstone Armor Warlord).

Warpstone Armour Combine this with a Shield, and Warlitter and the Dawnstone for a 2+ re-rollable armor save. Reflecting strength 4 hits back on the models that strike the Warlord. You can also add the Other tricksters Shard forcing ward save re-rolls and/or a Magic Weapon. Also the warlitters base size ensures more enemy models have to attack the warlord.

Dispel Scroll Save for those big spells like Dwellers Below, Final trans, Dreaded 13th, Fiery Convocation, etc. as long as the opponent hasn't rolled double 6. Save for your expensive Stormvermin unit.

Other useful Items.
Warp-Energy Condenser Extra channeling and damage with Warp-lightning spell.

Warpstone Tokens Extra Magic dice great if you have spare points to spend on your Grey Seer.

Scrying Stone For cheap Grey Seer protection.

Charmed Shield Basically an extra wound on a character.

Obsidian Amulet MR2 on your expensive unit (Stormvermin)

Obsidian Loadstone MR3 on your expensive unit (Stormvermin)

Dragonbane Gem Cheap anti fire protection.

Tricksters Helm Maybe on a Warlord.

Ruby Ring Extra long range missile damage, good for panicking Fast Cavalry.

There are probably a number of other items I may have missed which are also good.

Magic Banners
We are limited to taking a maximum of 3 banners our bsb, Stormvermin, and Plague Monks

Storm Banner This would be the number one choice of banners as it helps shut down shooting and flyers which helps negate 3 of the elvish list types (see above). Note: It doesn't effect the Wood Elf true flight arrows and it can affect our own shooting so activate it at the appropriate time. Not so useful if you have built a shooty Skaven list.

Razor Standard This banner is great vs. all armies if used on Stormvermin, and helps cut through the elvish heavy cavalries armor as well as totally negating most infantry elves armor saves, probably best taken on the Stormvermin standard bearer rather than the bsb. If you build a Skaven shooty and Magic heavy list this may not be a banner you want to take as it affects your own shooting.

Depending on the Meta (most popular armies) in your area the following Banners are also useful though not specifically vs. Elves.

Banner of Eternal Flame Great for chopping through Regen: Hellpits, Trolls, Ogres (bufffed), Lore of Life Regen, etc..... Probably not an essential Banner but cheap and good vs. a wide range of armies.

Banner of Discipline Cheap and boosts the Skaven leadership helps vs. Death Magic and leadership modifiers.

Banner of Swiftness Could be useful to help catch avoidance elf armies.

Plague Banner Only useful if taking a large unit of Plague Monks.

Banner of Under Empire Useful if using a Screaming Bell.

Anti Elf Magic

Lore of Ruin
Due to the elf avoidance lists this seems preferable at present over Plague which generally has shorter range spells.

By running at least 1 Warlock Engineer Lvl 1 roll first for the engineer and default the spell to Warplightning. Then take 3 Ruin spells with your Grey Seer and 1 Plague.

vs. Elves you may want the following spells:-

Howling Warpgale Preventing flyers and reducing shooting.
Death Frenzy for extra attacks from particularly on Stormvermin.
Scorch For dropping on cavalry to panic test them or hitting big blocks.
Dreaded 13th is another good option to get past High Elf infantry ward saves.
Warplightning Quite good vs. smaller units and if you spam this spell can be quite effective. The Warp Energy Condenser makes this spell put out more damage.

If using 3 Ruin 1 Plague then the Plague spell you want is:-

Lore of Plague
Plague Toughness test therefore bypasses ward saves (this is the spell you want if you roll it).

The following spells are situational depending on Elf army style you are facing.
Pestilent Breath Ok vs heavy armor elf heavy cavalry.
Bless with Filth Poison good vs. monster lists or for boosting Gutter Runners.
Wither reducing toughness of enemy units.
Cloud of Corruption is good if facing MSU (multiple small unit) elves.

If the Plague spell rolled isn't what you want you can default to the Dreaded 13th.

If you have the points spare in your army list think about taking the Ruby Ring for an extra Magic Missile useful for panicking fast cavalry.

Skaven Army List

Lords
Grey Seer Army General on foot tooled to your personal taste.
Warlord 1 Fellblade, shield optional.
Warlord 2 Warpstone Armor build (see above).

Heroes
Chieftain Bsb Storm Banner
Warlock Engineer, Doomrocket

Core
At least 3 blocks 40 slaves with shields or blocks 50 without shields.
1 block Stormvermin 40+ Full Command Razor Banner
2-3 Rat Darts

and either one or 2 of the following
2nd block Stormvermin
Rat Swarms
Giant Rats
or Clan Rats, Full command, Shields

Special
2 units of 5-7 Gutter Runners poison, slings
and
either a block of Plague Monks
or 2-3 units Poison Wind Globadiers death globe upgrade also possible points permitting.

Rare
2 Doomwheels
2 WLC's

or Hellpit as another possible option
Edited by King Rat, 6th November 2014 - 08:59 PM.
8th Ed Win /Draw/ Loss
Skaven 24/ 10/ 13

Runner up Club Championships 2014, 2012
2nd Place Blood on the Reich 2011, 3rd Place Devilcon 2011
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