AoS Dealing with the Verminous horde

[Prowalker10]

Hi Folks! First post! So I have been playing for just a short while, but have been collecting for a while and find my army rapidly expanding. I have a friend who runs a skaven verminous army. He crushed me last week and we are having a rematch this Saturday and we decided to run a 2000 point game. I am assuming he will run something along the lines of this with a couple of unknowns:

Leaders:
Skaven warlord- general
Grey Seer

Battleline:
Clanrats x 40
Clanrats x 40
Clanrats x 40
stormvermin x 40

Other:
Warp-fire throwers x 2
Rattling gun x 1
warplock jezzails x 3

The rest is unknown...

I have pawned over lists trying to think of the best way to take him out and I need to take out his warpfire throwers and his skaven warlord before he buffs everything up. Then its just a bunch of bodies to carve through. This is the list I was thinking of running with what I have (sadly no ripperdactyls or Krox):

Leaders:
Lord Kroak- general
Eternity Warden
Skink Priest

Battleline:
Saurus Warriors x 40
-Spears
Saurus Guard x 5
Saurus Guard x 5

Other:
Chameleon skinks x 5
Chameleon skinks x 5
Terradon riders x 3
-master of the skies
Stegadon
Starhost:
Shadowstrike starhost

My plan is to hopefully get some commets on his warpfire teams and jezzails while directing all of my shadowstrike attacks into his warlord to prevent all of the extra attacks. I will most likely lose my alpha strike team but I'm hoping that my warriors, guard, and stegadon will mop up the rest. Thoughts and comments?

 

[Freddy25]

Hi, @Prowalker10 !
So, I see you have some units that can perform well against your friend, while some others don't very much, in my opinion.

What you need is having a part of your army able to assassinate as soon as possible your opponent's heroes to eliminate enemy buffs, then another part which will have the mission to simply kill, kill and kill lots of rats! ... And maybe some mobile units if you play with objectives.

So,
- Lord Kroak should be a nice choice: he is hard to eliminate, puts out a good amount of mortal wounds and can summon (more of this later). This might help you dealing with the war-lord and the warp-fire throwers. The Con is he costs a lot.
- Chameleons are capable assassins, good against enemy characters, but I wouldn't use them to target the clan rats: keep them focused on killing heroes and long range threats.
- I like your Stegadon and Saurus Warriors too, since they are able to inflict lots of damage to the big Skaven units. To me, Stegadon should be equipped with flame-throwers and Saurus with spears, probably.

Now, I don't know which models you possess apart from the ones you listed, but these are other units I would find useful for your needs:
- Salamanders (and handlers).
You could summon them via Kroak, shoot to the enemy hordes and deal a lot of wounds, causing some nasty damage/battleshock
- Saurus Knights.
I know they are fragile, but they are also fast and put out a lot of attacks. If you could smash them (meaning "charge") against an enemy horde, maybe while supported by some heroes like Skink Starpriests, Scar-vets on Cold One/Carnosaur or Sunbloods I'm sure they could be really helpful.
- Bastiladons, Carnosaurs (and Troglodons maybe).
The first one could provide lots of mortal wounds (Ark of Sotek) or shooting (Solar Engine) while absorbing a ton of damage;
The second could run here and there killing hordes of rats or making them flee, and also buff your Saurus if mounted by a Scar Veteran;
Troglodons are far less frightening, but might be suitable since your enemy doesn't have many armoured units, it costs less than the other Dino's and can channel Kroak's spells.

I just have two questions:
- if I'm not wrong, your total points are less than 2000 (but I don't have the book with me right now). How are you planning to use the remaining points?
- can you tell us which units could you field (if you can, of course) apart from the ones you listed? This way we could provide more specific advices and lists!

 

[Prowalker10]

Thanks a lot for the response! I think it should be exactly 2000 pts. unless there is a new point system out there. oh I know what was happening. I forgot to put the Terradon Riders in there. I pretty much have everything except:

Star seer
razordons
kroxigor
EotG
Ripperdactyl
Troglodon
Starpriest
astrolith bearer

Other than that I have access to everything else.

So last time I ran the scar-vet on carnosaur and the bastiladon. The Carno took out a whole squad of 40 clan rats with the help of some saurus warriors but then we decimated the next turn by his storm vermin. The Bastilidon might have been just unlucky but he took it out quickly with a horde of clan rats and I kept rolling terribly for # of shots. I made a couple of blunders because I am still learning my army and the game but there were just too many bodies to cut through. He usually makes a wall of clanrats and then when I cut through them he rushes in the stormvermin that he keeps right behind him.

 

[Prowalker10]

I was thinking of whether or not to take the first turn. If I got the first turn I could possibly kill his warlord with chameleon and terradons but they would most likely die to his artillery and warplock jezzails. Would it be a good idea to go second? I Could possible get a double turn and teleport my terradons out of there and move my chameleons towards more isolated targets but he would still have his unit buffs up. Ah now that I type it out I feel like it isnt worth the risk.

 

[Koriialstraz]

I know the feeling. My friend play skaven too and they have too much mortal wounds.
I'm particularly afraid of the Warp-fire throwers.
With your list, I think you can try to take the first turn and focus on his Warp-fire throwers, his warlord and the grey seer. Once these are out, there is no much big threats.

Clan rat are many, but they aren't a big threat, but it depend of the scenario. If you play with objectives or not.

 

[Aginor]

I agree. You have to hit him hard and early, killing his heroes.

 

[Ecozh]

I would suggest proxy the terradons as Rippers. They do a ton of damage when combined with the toad and even without they can munch away small characters.

 

[Prowalker10]

I know the feeling. My friend play skaven too and they have too much mortal wounds.
I'm particularly afraid of the Warp-fire throwers.
With your list, I think you can try to take the first turn and focus on his Warp-fire throwers, his warlord and the grey seer. Once these are out, there is no much big threats.

Clan rat are many, but they aren't a big threat, but it depend of the scenario. If you play with objectives or not.

Yeah those warp-fire throwers are scary. The first time I played against him i managed to kill them off before they could do anything with my stegadons bow, the second time I got wiped off the board by about the end of the second turn. haha.

@Ecozh yeah we play a pretty easy going game so I will ask him if he is O.K. with doing that. (I still wanna win though

@Aginor I will most likely try and take the first turn since he most likely wont expect that. Thanks for all of the responses guys

 

[Canas]

Yeah those warp-fire throwers are scary. The first time I played against him i managed to kill them off before they could do anything with my stegadons bow, the second time I got wiped off the board by about the end of the second turn. haha.

@Ecozh yeah we play a pretty easy going game so I will ask him if he is O.K. with doing that. (I still wanna win though

@Aginor I will most likely try and take the first turn since he most likely wont expect that. Thanks for all of the responses guys

they have absolutly horrific range and are increadibly fragile though, pretty much any real ranged attacks aimed at em should take em out.. They seem more usefull for target saturation than anything else...

Also, you could consider swapping the block of 40 warriors for another unit of guard and an eternal starhost. Clanrats aren't going to get through that even when buffed up by the verminlord removing the need to blow him up immeadiatly so you only have to focus his stuff that does mortal wounds. That might help.

 

[Prowalker10]

@Canas Unfortunately I only have the 10 saurus guard. I agree though, last time he faced my guard he killed maybe 3 of them while my guard killed about 80 of his clan rats. As long as I can take out his mortal wound artillery they wont die with the 3+ rerollable (I will most likely put my mystic shield on my warriors to help keep them alive).

 

[Canas]

@Canas Unfortunately I only have the 10 saurus guard. I agree though, last time he faced my guard he killed maybe 3 of them while my guard killed about 80 of his clan rats. As long as I can take out his mortal wound artillery they wont die with the 3+ rerollable (I will most likely put my mystic shield on my warriors to help keep them alive).

ask if you can proxy the warriors as guards I guess. A 2+ re-rollable save is hilariously effective, not to mention their added attacks will annihilate his clanrats in moments.

Other than that, not much to add. Basic tactic is solid and not enough info about the rest of his lists or objectives to say much else.

 

[Freddy25]

I forgot to put the Terradon Riders in there.

(I friggin' love Terradons.
They might not be the most dangerous unit in the game but they first of all are BEAUTIFUL models, and furthermore it is always nice to make them land near a dangerous fragile unit such as warpfires, move over it, drop the bass... I mean drop the rocks, shoot some other unit and then maybe charge an enemy character nearby.)

 

[Nefertem]

Beware of tunneling rat ogors with fire throwers
. Could ruin your whole tactic....

 

[Prowalker10]

(I friggin' love Terradons.
They might not be the most dangerous unit in the game but they first of all are BEAUTIFUL models, and further is always nice to make them land near a dangerous fragile unit such as warpfires, move over it, drop the bass... I mean drop the rocks, shoot some other unit and then maybe charge an enemy character nearby.)

That's a great idea! I never thought of that!