Skaven Rumours

Lots to digest here, but its a solid read..

Quote :

Bram Gaunts Skaven summary.

I had a nice long look into the Army book, and as a passionate Warhammer player I absorbed as much info as I could.

I might be wrong at some details, still, I think I got all that's necessary to give a good overview. Remember that I hail from germany, and therefore I translated most of it as good as possible.



1st: Armywide special rules and differences from "normal" armies, changes from old book.

Magic Items: You have the usual Magic items with the usual restrictions (100 points for Commanders, 50 for heroes), seperated in weapons, trinkets, armour etc.
And than there are the "special" lists of items. Some characters as the Assassins for Example are only allowed some of the special lists. Moulder Clan equip, Skryre wargear, etc.

Shooting into close combat - gone. Yes, it's gone. Really.

placing characters within the last rank - gone. Still, if a character decides to withdraw from a chalange and is placed in the last rank, he still benefits the unit with magical items, leadership, battlestandard etc.

Other army wide rules: Live to fight another day: +1 distance to flee.

you get +1 morale (up to a maximum of 10) in the higth of your rank bonus.

looted wargear (not sure about the name)
thats a short list of equip including several weapons and funny objects. You may have as many of them as you whish, still only once the same per character.

Warpstone pistol - 8 points. 10 " range pistol with warpstone attacks (means magic attacs). counts as a pistol in all means.
Warstone rifle - S 5 Warpstone musket. Move or shoot. 10 points.
Guardian rat - 1 WS 3 S 3 aditional attack with bearers initiative. 5 points.
Tail weapon - 1 aditional attack with S 3, does not benefit with other wargear, may still be used with magic weapons.
Poisoned attacks - 15 points.


2nd - Units.


I start with the boring stuff here, everyone who's interested into the hell pit abomination should scroll down...

If I do not mention otherwise, every unit has +1 to flee and +MW for ranks.

Core

Clanrats -
the same. 4 points each with 1/2 (yes, one half) point for shields and spears.

Stormvermin:
Strength 3. Come with halberds and mail armour for 7 points, 1 point for shields. One unit may have a magic banner for 50 points. Champion may pic from the "wargear loot" equip for 15 points.

Both Clanrats and Stormvermin may add one (1) weapon team of the following:
Flamethrower (70 points) , Thing-shredder (55 points), Globe mortar (65 points), Rattling gun (55 points)

Flame throwers now have flaming attacks.
rattling guns are the same, but do not hit automatically. the do not suffer a penalty for multiple shots or longe distance shooting.

Slaves -
two points each. 1/2 point for shields, spears or slings. No weapon teams, no champion, Musician standard costs halved.
Slaves have two special rules, one is "cornered" which I do not remember... the other is "worthless" - as long as an enemy is only engaged with slaves, you may shoot into the close combat.
Slaves do not provoke panic tests from any other unit than slaves.

Shadowrunners
May make a free movement at the beginning of the game. No skirmishers. May have a Warpunnler. 7 points per model,
come with two hand weapons and shuriken.
Champion has a 6+ ward save.

Giant Rats: little cheaper, do not count for minimum of core units

Vermin swarm: 25 points, same as giant rats. do not block linoe of sight.



Special

Gutter runners
May have a warp tunneler. skirmish, outflank from any edge.
Champion has a 5+ ward save. Come with same es shadow runners.
May be given the following: Nets (a net counts as a shield and gives a malus to the enemy, I think it was -1 to hit, nut sure though.) poisened attacks for 5 ppM.

Rat ogres.

Same price here, same profile, come with... frenzy...? don't know the english term. You are granted +1 attack but you have to charge if possible.
you may add as many ogres to the unit as you want (4 ppM), for each 2 ogres you may add one more handler.
May have a mastermoulder (counts as champion, may have 30 points wargear, a Thing-cather which grants him killing blow for 20 points or a great weapon for 4 points.
Mastermoulder profile is 6 5 3 4 4 2 5 2 6

Plague monks: 7 points per model, come with two handweapons, one unit may have a standard for 50 points.
Still have frenzy (was it frenzy? se rat ogres for what I mean...)

Jezzails: 20 points per model. 4+ armour save, NO skirmishers. May have a champion with BS 4 for 10 points. Unit size 3+

Censer bearers: the same almost, forgot about them.

Globardiers: 10 ppm. 5 - 15
Special rules: Life is worthless... may fire into close combat.
shoot from behind: when engaged into close combat, all globardiers which do not have contact with enemy models may shoot at the unit(s) they are engaged with.


Lords
I did not look up neither the abilities of special characters, nor their options. I just list you the points.

Lord Skrolk: 470

Thanquol: 450

Ikit Claw: 395

Skrotz the mutant: 225

newHeadhunter-thing-char: 215
After a brief overlook he seemed pretty strong with WS 7 and 6 attacks...

Verminlord: 500 points.
profile: 8 8 4 6 5 5 10 5 8
Special rules: Flee + 1, Immune to psychology, Terror, great target, 5+ ward save, Sorcerer lvl 4. He counts as a demon.
The vermin lord may not be the general of your army.

Warlord: 90 points.

Grey seer: +1 Morale. Comes with Lvl 4 and D3 warpstone tokens. 240 points.
The Screaming bell is his mount, 200 points. The model itself is HUGE, almost twice es big as the current one. Kit is also used for the "Plague menetekel" (now this word is totally strange to me, and there seems to be no translation to english... wiki led me to this:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_writing_on_the_wall
There's a Rat ogre ringing the bell and a grey seer (with horns) riding the bell. Function of the screaming bell later.


Heroes.
Snikch: has a mantle which obscures him, he's only visible to units on 4+. 270 points.
He has got a murdering profile, Initiative 10 and always strikes first.

Tretch: 145 points.

Assassin. Sad part first: assassins do take a heroe's choice. They work pretty much like DE assassins, with lower profile (stil I 9 ASF)

Warlock: 15 points. At this stage he's a technician only, no wizard.
he may be upgraded to level 1 for 50 points or level 2 for 85 points.
Only one to have 2 warpstone pistols...
May chose lore of doom only. (more to magic later)

Plaguepriest: 100 points, lvl 1 wizard. may chose lore of plague. May have a Plague Menetekel giant swingy-thingy... oO for 150 points.

Now, lets start the interesting point:

Screaming bell.

Bell comes with Magic resistance (2), 4+ ward save, causes fear, is a Large target.. It MUST join a unit of storm vermin or Clan rats. The joindes unit becomes stubborn.
Bell has T6, LP 6, S 5, causes impact hits. The Rat ogre ringing the bell may strike with S5.

Enemy units in contact may chose to attack the Bell (WS of the ogre is applied here (WS 3)) or the prophet.

Moving the bell: It requires at least 10 models to move the bell at full capacity (5 Inches). For each model below 10, it loses 1 Inch of movement, if the unit dropps to 5 it may not move at all.

Ringing the bell (thats what you wanted...)
at the begining of each turn or magic phase (not sure) the player may ring the bell. At turn one he may only use 1 dice, at each of the following up to three.
The bell is automatically rung if wounded by a S5 or higher missile attack.
Results:

1 - nothing happens. Spank-spank the Rat ogre for failing-failing...
2 - 4 unit with the bell attached moves D6 inches forward (and may attack if possible)
5 - 8 all friendly units may reroll morale checks within 24 inches of the bell
9 - 10 Bell (not the seer) casts the Spell "Scorch" from lore of doom (see later with magic) at power level 5
11 - 12 All enemys with T7 or higher suffer D3 wounds
13 Say Ding-Dong alound and smile to your enemy. All Enemy units within 24 inches suffer D3 S4 hits. If the Bell is engaged in close combat ALL Skaven within the unit it is attached to may attack in close combat this round.
14 - 16 All units within 12 " gain +1 attack for this turn.
17: All gain +1 attack and get to reroll tohit and to wound
18: with a loud BANG the Bell is destroyed. All units within 4D6 inches suffer D6 S4 hits without armour saves.

if you roll two equals, the result is applied, but the unit pushing the bell suffers D6 S4 hits.
If you roll three equals, both bell and prophet suffer a S5 hit.

Plague menetekel:
It's not a furnace, it's like the bell itself, but with a big censer instead of the bell.
Moves just like the screaming bell, but may only be joined by Plague monks.
I do not remember a lot of this thing. It has two effects, the one's a mighty blow which causes a numer of hits declared with the artillery dice of S5 o the enemy unit in contact., the other makes all models in contact (friend and foe) take a Toughness test or lose one lifepoint.


Which leaves us with
Rare choices

Hell Pit abomination: 235 points.

It may NOT tunnel. It is a crawling, moving mass of dozens of Bodies moulded together, has severel arms, giant claws, etc. The drawing shows it to be at least 10 times as high as a man. It is NOT a giant rat, more like 100 sakven mutated together with parts of giant creatures. the pic was only small but it scared the crap out of me...

Causes impact hits, Terror, Large Target, Regeneration, Stubborn.

Profile: 3W6, 3 1 6 5 6 4 * 8
Moves 3 D6.If you roll three times the same, something bad happens. roll a D6 to see the result: 1: does not move at all, 2 - 5 moves at a random direction, 6: gains + 1 strength. If you roll a second or more 6 it looses 1 wound.
Special attacks: Troll 1 D6 to determine how it strikes
1-2: Feast: 1 S6 hit at all models in contact, no armour save, causes D3 wounds.
2-4: leash: 3D6 attacks. A unit that suffers a casulty get a -1 penalty to hit rolls against the abomination.
5-6: Crush: all miniatures in contact have to take a I-test or will be killed, the crushed unit suffers 2D6 S6 hits.

If the nasty thing is dead, playe a marker at it's position. at the beginning of your next turn, roll 1 D6.
1 - 3: Killed. The dreaded creature is dead, dead, dead. Your enemy may open a keg.
4 - 5: Rats leave the sinking ship, er, mean to say creature. Place D3 Vermin swarms.
6: It's ALIVE!! The Abomination comes back to life with D6 Lifepoints.

Doom Wheel - 150 points

Causes Terror, Impact hits (D6 + 1), Large target.

Moves like a chariot (3D6). If moved through difficult terrain it only suffers D3 S4 hits and moved on. However, if it moves againts impassible terrain it suffers D6 S10 hits and stops...
when negaged in close combat it may crush the enemy, causing D3 S6 hits.

Warplightning Arc - has to shoot 3 times each round, causing as many hits as the artillery dice shows you to the NEAREST unit. Strength is 6. Warlock may surpress firing with a morale check. Morale is 7.
If you roll a malfunction: 1: suffers D6 S6 hits, - 1 D6 movements. Three times this result and it is destroyed.
2-5 moves at a random direction.
6: Whats that button-button fore? Moves an aditional D6 until end of game.

Warp Lightnin canon - 90 points.
No more ward save, does not have to pick "flee".
It works just like a cannon now, with the following difference: The first Artillery dice is used to determine the beginning of the effekt, the second one for how far the Spark "jumps" and for the strength.

Malfanction: 1- 2 : it exploed.
3 - 5: oooops... shoots 4D6 in a random direction, with S 10, and exploed with the 5 inces blast at the end of the line.
6 - may not shoot this turn.

Plague catapult: Magic catapult with S2 poisened attacks with large template. Funny thing: one of the malfunction results makes your opponent place the large template anywhere within 3D6 from originalt target. 100 points.

Magic:

As reported there are two lores: Lore of Doom and Lore of plagues.

But first....

the DREADED 13th Spell - cure of the horned rat. Cast on 25.

Only grey seers may have it.

It causes 4D6 casulties at one infantry unit. No Saves at all. If the unit is totally destroyed by this, you gain a unit of clan rats equal to the number of models destroyed, otherwise they are only casulties (the fellow warriors just "release therir former brothers from their suffering")


Lore of Doom:

1 - Sulfurjump: teleports one character within 12 inches to anywhere on the table. cast on 5+
2 - Warp lightning: magic missile with D6 S 5 hits. a roll of 1 hits the caster.
3 - Howling Warpstorm: Flyers may not fly, and all shooting suffers -1 to hit. Skaven shooting excluded. cast on 7+
4 - Deadly frenzy: one unit gains frenzy with +2 rather than +1 attack. does replace normal frenzy (so you don't get +3 attacks) lasts until unit looses combat.
5 - Scorch: places 3" template within 24 ", causing a flaming S5 attack to any model touched. Cast on 11+
6 - Jaws of the World Rat (seriously, it's named somewhat else, something with chasm or canyon or what ever, but the effect is the same...) Draw a line of 4D6 inches from the caster. Any model touched must take a Initiative test or is removed. War machines and chariots only on 5+.

Lore of plague.

1 - Plagebreath: cast on 5+, S2 breath weapon which ignores armour. In close combat engaged unit sufferd D6 S2 hits without armour.
2 - Poisened Gift: cast on 7+, unit gains poisened attacks. If it has it already, poisened attacks now work on 5+. Last til end of the game (!!)
3 - Wither: one Unit within 12 inches suffers -1 Toughness til end of the game. Cast on 8+
4 - Verminflood: cast on 8+: 5 " template moves 4d6 inches (not through impassible terrain, touched units suffer §d6 s2 hits.
5 - Foul clourd: cast on 11+ all units within 12 " suffer D6 S 5 hits without Armour: enemy on 2+, skaven on 4+, plague monks, censer bearers, globardiers and plague priests on 5+.
6 - the plague: same as before. cast on 12.

Weapon teams: almost forgot about them.

They come with heavy armour. As long as they stay within 3" of their attached unit they gain the morale bonus of their units ranks, and a 4 + ward save. They count as a single unit (and may be attacked and shot at as usual)

so, this is it. Enjoy =)

p.S. The battalion includes: 40 new clanrats, 20 plague monks and one giant rats/rat ogre kit. 85 euros.