I played against the skaven recently (in fact the win recorded in my signature was against them
)
I will start by saying that the game I played was 2k – so the numbers may change a bit between what I fielded and you take…
However, against
almost any skaven army I think you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll be facing massed troops. Even skaven armies that don’t claim to be
horde armies per se still seem to have FAR to many troops in them
. To that end you want to be able to deal with numbers so as you don’t get swamped; something I think the VC’s can do quite well.
This relies on the following abilities: firstly, the ability to raise new troops, so you’re going to have to have offensive magic potential. Secondly, the ability to deliver the terms on which you fight – feeding the big bad units (such as plague rats) ‘tar pit units’ (zombies excel at this) until you are ready to fight them. And finally to find an edge in combat, either through martial prowess or combat res.
It seems that you have the magical ability already to be able to raise effectively, (although I
may think about dropping one vamp. and taking two necros with dispel scrolls and powerstones, able to cast IoN.) Infact looking at your list again I would certainly include dispel scrolls, as the rats have perfected some nasty spells that given the opportunity may hurt.
I would possibly reconsider the blood knights. I have to prefix this by saying that they are not one of my favourite units for a host of reasons, my chief concern here though is their cost. Although they are the very picture of martial prowess I mentioned earlier, I feel that they
may suffer from a certain amount of ‘overkill’ in this engagement. I would suggest dispersing the points among more menial troops, troops that, while not being as seemingly impressive as the blood crazed knights, hold the edge over the ratmen none the less.
I feel that skeletons are the perfect choice (in my game I took 60
). They will usually be able to hold their own against the oversized rats, they cause fear and (played right) can usually gain the upper hand in combat res.
If this all goes wrong – raise some more
I feel that a 20 strong unit of graveguard would be very welcome guests here. Probably housing the general and the BS – perhaps carrying
the flag of blood keep to fend of those pesky gun totting vermin that will inevitably be infesting some part of the battlefield – if not all of it!
This unit both denies VP and presents a real challenge, especially when equipped with hand weapons and shields (3+ save in combat really good – skeletons should, imo, be equipped the same).
Try if you can to go for big units of troops, 25 or 30 should do it. This is for two reasons. Firstly in REALLY helps out in combat res. Secondly your troops cause fear and winning a combat will ensure that your enemies break before you – something the rat things can often find difficult to recover from. As far as combat res. is concerned, always take full command and maintain three ranks in the unit (at least in your skeleton/graveguard units).
I would strongly recommend exploiting the skaven’s low LD. So remember: psychology is your friend here, break them by utilising fear and terror. Think about fielding some sort of terror causing unit. The obvious and practical choices are either vargulf and/or coach. However I also would consider wacking
supernatural horror on one (or more) of your vampires.
The only other thing I would say is perhaps consider taking fell bats instead of wolves. The reason being two fold. Firstly, the wolves excel at outflanking, something they may find hard to do against a
horde army. Secondly the bats can fly over your enemies and, not only march block, but also catch and kill those ratmen that break before your awesome fear/terror causing undead host!
Hope this helps…
