Bloody Goths!!!

The latest rulebook FAQ from GW is really bad for Skaven players. The re-definition of “unmodified” to take it to base Leadership – not that I disagree – is going to result in a lot of very nervous rats.

Now Inspiring Presence, Standard of Discipline and Strength in Numbers are all ineffective when faced with tests that use “unmodified” Leadership.

The most obvious danger is the Lore of Death. Most Skaven characters are starting with a Leadership disadvantage of 1-2 points versus the common Death Mages. With the default spell in the lore being Spirit Leech, even secondary mages are now a real threat. With an attribute that generates new dice for each wound caused and a spell range that has three potential snipe spells……well, it’s not a good time to be a rat!.

The lowly engineer has Leadership of 5 so his deficit is likely to be 3-4 points on each test. Let’s hope the breeders in the Skyre pits are working overtime as I can see Warlock Engineers typically lasting one to two turns (perhaps we’ll have less whining about them now especially given the number of armies with access to Death Magic).

So how are we Skaven going to combat this? Well your key characters – Warlord, Seer and/or BSB – will need a good ward save. The Talisman of Preservation and the Armour of Destiny will be rolling out of Skavenblight factories. This means that your BSB won’t be able to tote a magic banner…..however any banner is of very little use to you when you are dead! An engineer with the Obsidian Amulet for 45 points is also a good buy. The MR2 that comes with this increases your 4+ Ward characters to a 2+ Wd Save which is going to be the best you get. However expect him to be targeted pretty early on….Ld 5 and a 5+ Wd is very little protection.

One other item that might be worth investigating is the Feedback Scroll. The Cold War was fought (or not fought) on the basis of Mutually Assured Destruction and Skaven generals may have to engage in a piece of Missile Crisis détente!

I suspect a lot of ETC teams will be revisiting their army selection in light of this FAQ ruling. It goes without saying that you can bet your bottom warpstone token that if you are playing Skaven at the event you’ll only ever be matched against Death Magic.

The sky(re) is indeed falling!!!!!