How to play the Skaven in Total War: Warhammer 2 | Roster & Battle Strategy

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[@ColonelDamneders]

What's your favourite Skaven unit?

[@januszdrozd9458]

Warplock Jezzails especially becouse of they long range and armor piercing. Moreover i love they design

[@thegamergriffin2910]

Ratling Gunners are just the best thing ever. Watching a wall of green dots melting everything is pretty much my go to game plan for skaven.

[@hunterplozza2480]

ratling gunners are living walls of green death

[@bing-bop]

WAR WHEEL

[@zombiekillaps3396]

@ColonelDamneders Globadiers definitely. Btw are there any for an updated unit roster video? :)

[@AzureRoxe]

"You have a strong chance of hitting your own units!" You're playing Skaven, hitting your own units is a way of life.

[@anothertarnishedone5960]

Is part of the strategy

[@spiderrider4338]

"Without sacrifice their can be no victory"

[@davevd9944]

It's their entire thing bring an army of slaves to soak up damages while your main force of a shitload of dakka blasts everything into oblivion

[@tobiashagstrom4168]

@@spiderrider4338 "Some of you may die-die, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make."

[@DHWOW]

yes-yes!

[@salgarcia8021]

One thing everyone who plays skaven must do...is say "yes yes" randomly during play through

[@NWA-TjalfeTooStonedToAim]

and "kill kill"

[@steveoo6715]

Council agrees with this yes-yes!!

[@imperialfist2304]

This is true-faithful! I have done-done it!

[@CrimsonXenoProduct]

Was wondering why I wasn't doing so well in my skaven campaigns, I don't role play enough

[@sbraypaynt]

*kill-kill, yes-yes* *SCREAM-SLAY*

[@Jackstalkerfear]

"If you have any suggestions on how otherwise to play the skaven leave it in the comments below" *SPAM 10 STACKS OF SKAVEN SLAVES*

[@bortoo6634]

And dont mind the friendly fire, they are all plotting on killing you

[@joaogomes9405]

Ah the good ol VERMINTIDE

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

"Tell me, scribe-minion, what turn is it?"

[@NottABucket]

Vladimir Putin mr putin i see you get around on these warhammer videos

[@matthiaslener2763]

@Vladimir Putin if you dont have more casualties than the enemy you didnt play the skaven right

[@Pliskkenn]

Ratling Guns have made ambushes a pure joy to play. Everything is suppressed. Everything gets gunned down. It's like the end of Last Samurai all day!

[@matthiaslener2763]

Warp flamethrowers are even more fun in ambushes, like oh nice unit of greatswords you have there, wouldnt it be a shame if someone turned them into charcoal

[@Rossbuckle1]

Lmfao "Last Samurai all day" You're spot on with that ahhaha!

[@epilepticbro]

@@matthiaslener2763 don't you mean a nice pile of goo?

[@matthiaslener2763]

@@epilepticbro Oh yeah you are right utvusually looks more gooey when I use them

[@MayDenless5739]

Can we also appreciate the unintended pun (or maybe it was) in the name ‘RATling guns’

[@pharoahman475]

Friendly Fire is a Skaven tradition!

[@RHINO_Mk_II]

I still remember the first time I ran into enemy Skaven, they summoned clanrats so I clicked a couple units to deal with them, only to watch in horror as the skaven commander dropped warp lightning on all 3 units.

[@aneishinobinomono]

i did a pvp battle with a buddy. my ratling gunners mowed through one of my skavenslave frontline units to obliterate his saurus warriors. it was the only unit i lost and it was all to friendly fire. i had a good laugh at that.

[@lancerd4934]

The best use of poison wind mortars is sieges. Their indirect fire and range means they can sweep walls and the area behind them completely clear of the enemy (even more efficiently than plague claws) and generate hundreds of kills per unit. Just use your artillery of choice to destroy the enemy towers and let these guys go to work. Since the late campaign is almost entirely siege battles, this makes them probably the best unit in the entire roster. They are useful in field battles too, however. They synergise perfectly with ratling guns. The ratlings cause suppression, which gives the damage over time of the poison wind mortars the chance to absolutely wreck units. Think ww1 tactics: pin the enemy down with machine guns then gas em all. So satisfying to introduce your iron age enemies to the realities of industrial warfare.

[@ZuLKiNG]

Yeah, 3 mortars on a hilltop is a great sight to see...and all the more so if some gunners pin/suppress the infantry blocks and tear through them and the morale.

[@vc6094]

Yeah I agree I get 500-600 kills per unit and that doesn't count the poison dmg they do!!!! Having 2 is a must in all of my armies!!!

[@asonofhoruslegionary]

Morters were the reason I steamrolled threw the late game.

[@drowningin]

What's the best strat to take these mortars out?

[@TrueChaoSclx]

@@drowningin Artillery, ideally. Poison Wind Mortars function like artillery, but have by far the lowest range in their class if you class them that way. Snipe them out before they can cause trouble. If that fails, a fast flying unit should also do the trick

[@justcreastive5513]

Lmao the Rats song intro from Jerma good one !

[@dragonflame4990]

Every army should have a warp lock engineer hero, the bonuses they give to your range units is invaluable. They are also my howling gale caster

[@randomaccessfemale]

Ikit Claw has become my favorite skaven lord, because he can also boost those warp weapons even further.

[@ImperatorZor]

Poison Wind Mortars are great for clearing off enemy walls during sieges.

[@WarmasterMoloch]

I liked the video, but here's a tip from someone who plays Skaven 9/10 times (and is actually wearing a Skaven t-shirt right now, funnily enough): Past about Turn 25 every army slot that you devote to infantry is wasted. First thing you want to do as Skaven is start building the weapons team building chain, which will give you Warpfire Throwers to get started. As soon as you're able, upgrade that to T3 and get Rattling Guns, while also building the artillery chain to also recruit Plagueclaw Catapults. For your lords you should always put your points into Ancient Cunning first, so as to take full advantage of the Skaven's ridiculously good stalking ambushes. From there you are honestly at least 80% of the way to an endless stream of victories. No exaggeration. In my present VH/VH campaign with Clan Pestilens I have completely thwarted the Ordertide and I cannot remember the last time I fielded an infantry unit. This is my standard stack: 1x Lord (usually a Warlord, as they can boost your income with Ravenous Expansion once you hit Level 12). 1x Plague Priest (these can summon up to EIGHT infantry units per battle, as well as having other good spells). 1x Warlock Engineer (these provide ammo, range and damage buffs to all ranged units). 5x Plagueclaw Catapults. 1x Warp Lightning Cannons. 2x Poison Wind Mortars. 2x Warplock Jezzails. 7x Rattling Guns. I put the artillery and mortars at the back, with the gunners in front (skirmish mode OFF) and the lord and Plague Priest up front to 'tank' the advancing enemy. The Engineer is in among the guns and artillery, to provide them with area of effect buffs. That gunline is basically unbreakable for anything other than a doomstack of monsters or three full stacks at once. Even those will normally take so much damage that if you lose they won't try to hit you with a follow-up attack (or will lose if they do). You can slow advancing armies down with Menace Below and Plague Priest summons. If you're likely to be flanked and don't want to (or can't) corner camp you can use the mortars and Rattling Guns to turn fire to the sides and deal with that threat. Really though you should always be on the attack as Skaven, so that you only face armies on your own best terms. Use ambushes constantly and pick armies off one at a time. Sieges are a cakewalk with this stack and I almost never have to enter the walls, as the army loss penalty hits before I do. That's it, really. Let the enemy come and then, as soon as they enter range, delete them with dakka.

[@sobgray]

thank you.

[@alpharius7755]

Don’t use the infantry The perfect doomstack is 1 master engineer 2 warlock engineers 2 plague priest 1 doomwheel or hellpit 4 ratlings 4 jezzails 4 plague claw catapult and 2 poison wind mortars

[@R3GARnator]

The Rambo Build.

[@gabrielnguyen5580]

What if you dont have the dlc

[@johnjackson9994]

@@gabrielnguyen5580 suffer poor-poor

[@jazzydino7623]

Honestly pretty shocked that you dont have more subs your content is really good.

[@ColonelDamneders]

Tell all your friends/family/pets/anyone :)

[@jazzydino7623]

@@ColonelDamneders ill tell my mate sure.

[@OllieJabbz]

@@ColonelDamneders hello i am jazzy's dog, nice video man

[@sigmundrumney2781]

Because frankly, his advice is pretty dreadful.

[@dr2addict]

@@sigmundrumney2781 not necessary here man.

[@mcbrite]

Those Deathrunners look amazing! You just see some black-hooded thing galloping toward you and suddenly two blades flash! Love the art on that!

[@banriswirl6414]

One thing to note, especially since you focus on ranged damage as opposed to melee damage, clanrat spears have notably better melee defense than clanrat swords which makes them much better for holding a line against even infantry.

[@kabukijo3148]

When you said that the artillery is your favorite category i instantly subscribed. Arty is love arty is life!

[@countmarkula1993]

I watch a lot of Total War vids but this was fairly in depth and helpful. Nice job describing the units and showing strategy. 10/10

[@Lickicker]

i feel like the skavens strength is just pure versatility, also rather devastating range potential, i remember first getting death globe bombadiers and watching in astonishment as they singlehandedly won me battle after battle, i like to have a mixture of alittle of everything, some stormvermin of both types, some bombadiers again both types, atleast 1 of each artillery unit, gotta have some ratling gunners, and atleast 1 doomwheel and hell pit abomination, i like to play the skaven as if their actually a powerful faction because ya alot of their units are really squishy theres nothing squishy about breathing in poison as you get riddled with warpstone while being squished by both a giant wheel and a giant monster that is so horrible it doesnt even die properly, and just in case all that doesnt kill you, the tactical nuke just might. oh yes and how could i forget the devastating aoe spells at their disposal, on top of literally just spawning a new unit of clan rats or stormvermin just to hold you in place to cast a spell on top of you, if that doesnt convince you of how much of a force to be reckoned with the skaven are i dont wanna know what scares you

[@droideka1890]

My favorite tactic on ME: Clan Skyre, yes-yes > Ikit Claw, BEST inventor! > Warlock Engineer with a ranged support build > 8 units of -worthless- valuable Skaven Slaves > whatever composition is needed with the rest of units Tactic: - With ranged units in the frontlines, fire the first volley as the enemy approaches, then make them back up - Release the slaves! (And bombardiers/globadiers, if there are any) - Make every other unit do their jobs - Slaves are about to break and the enemy frontlines look almost untouched? Drop a nuke on top of the blob of soon-to-be-mush of corpses, FOR SCIENCE - Laugh maniacally as 80% of your slaves die-die. Do not care. There are always more, yes-yes - Finish whatever is left of the no-hairs - Profit?

[@alchemispark7751]

This-this is wrong, I am best inventor of Clan Skryre yes-yes

[@Olav_Hansen]

I only managed to read this in a short of breath way, in a semi whisper maniacal voice. Am I a rat now?

[@alchemispark7751]

@@Olav_Hansen yes- and I cannot Stress this enough, Yes

[@droideka1890]

@@Olav_Hansen You are fellow-backstabbing Skaven now

[@vindik8or]

Slaves are good at what they do until you can replace them with Plague Priests, but 8 units is way too many. I wouldn't ever go more than four units of them, however.

[@HamiltonWard]

perfect video. i've wanted to get into this game for so long but felt overwhelmed by all the units. thank you!

[@pakornwattanavrangkul2550]

Eshin triads seem to be designed to engage cav from the rear once they get into melee given they have stalk. As for poison globe motars, you use them to clear out infantry in sieges since the AI is terrible when defending. Clum you units all to one side, have normal arty take out the towers and have your globes aim for the largest cump of enemies. The best thing about the globes are that they have a high firing arc so they can hit units sitting on top of gates.

[@tobiashagstrom4168]

That kind of makes sense for a faction based around meat shields, get the cave to charge your meat shields, then you give them the ol' backstabbing.

[@aitorlegorburu8598]

3 doomwheel(general doomwheel in) are the frontlane, an engineer hero, 4 ratling guns, 4 jezzails, 4 mortars, 2 warpfire cannons, 2 mortars, 2 hellpit abominations (anti cavalry). I have fought around 3 full stacks in legendary and won with this

[@micgil4193]

The mortars are really good in sieges and have a damage over time effect which means that enemies in melee with your front line take damage and die over time.

[@Beef_Master_Flex]

They are also good to be put with the artillery

[@budrothefox3666]

The first scene of this video is terrifying. Imagine being on the front lines of an army looking at that...holy shit.

[@corumsorensen7822]

"And finally, i have my warlock master with all his spells for maximum impact, though all you need really is warp lighting" Correct.

[@Azr4el]

No wind mortars in your army? I guess you enjoy making your siege battles as difficult as possible.

[@kristinawilliams8450]

I would at least take the regiment of renown version of them

[@r1cosito]

This is true

[@pakornwattanavrangkul2550]

I had 4 units of poison wind mortars, routed 2 dwarf stacks and their garrison in a walled settlement by themselves after the towers were dealt with. They are disgustingly good in sieges.

[@Satrapo]

Watched some of your old videos and now this one. Great improvement in the pace of your voice and in its clarity! Great job!

[@cn.st.182]

one advantage to the monsters and doomflayers is that they interact very well with the strong ranged units, as they can often continue firing into melee. youd do way more friendly fire damage when you tie stuff up with infantry as opposed to when you tie them up with a few model unit.

[@Mckudenomg]

Found ur channel a couple of hours ago... fantastic. Im just getting into tww2, and as a artillery lover myself, can decide if main dwarf or skaven yet. Amazing video!

[@earlgrey9319]

I'd rather play Skaven as Dwarfs feel too generic to me

[@isyaboi3524]

I think you've wildly underestimated the power of the poison mortars here, they're basically better catapults with lots of area damage. If you stack a couple of them up they shred through the enemy lines before they even have a chance to get in range to attack you. Keep some ratling guns around to shred anything that gets through but the mortars will generally leave the enemies broken before they get to your ratling guns. Poison wind mortars are also amazing at sieges whereas ratling guns and to a lesser extent jezzails suck during sieges the mortars get tonnes of kills.

[@DanMcLeodNeptuneUK]

Thanks for this vid, I find myself too stuck for choice with too many options once I get to mid-game! The only thing I disagree with through experience is using sword stormvermin because they hold the line better than plague monks due to shields and upgraded armor (unless im using pestilens) As the ranged units can do the damage.

[@thecursed01]

hellpit abomination is one of the very few units that not only cause terror in enemy units but also the palyer looking at them

[@MrMoustaffa]

Getting a thumbs up just for the jerma reference, immediate sign of good taste

[@AnimatedStoriesWorldwide]

"I take 2-6 of these guys with me at least" recommendation on most units. 150 unit stack :p But seriously thank you for this. I can tell the skaven are stupidly fun to platy but without your vid i'd have no idea which unit to use as what.

[@djinnglebells241]

Is there a spreadsheet with a summary so I don't have to find the exact timestamp every time I want to refer back to this?

[@danny_strange2105]

Very well done. Nice guide!

[@HeavensRipper-he4sz]

Wow you really have improved from way back when damn

[@Galdenberry_Lamphuck]

Remember never to buy clanrats. Their lower tier counterparts are 6 times the cost and they lack any purpose other than holding the line. Friendly fire is standard with the skaven. Hold the line until you get war machines which hold out better while your unmatched ranged firepower wipes out the enemy.

[@kerp6449]

Alackofcaring u only buy clan rats clan Mors then you give your stack of clan rats with silver to gold rank to a new General and go stormvermin just 12 stormvermin couple rattling guns and maybe 1-2 arty gg ez any campaign any difficulty

[@Galdenberry_Lamphuck]

@@kerp6449 Mors does get buffs which make them more worth it

[@Enzar17]

Depends on way too many factors. This advice is pretty much only true in battle mode or really high difficulty campaign, not in a normal game. In campaign, especially if you're a newer player, skavenslaves are so shit that they will often lose your battles within 2 minutes if you try and have them hold a line at anywhere past like turn 20. Especially if you're clan Mors with Queek's buffs, the shielded clanrats are a must until you can afford Stormvermin as a frontline. I don't subscribe to the gospels of people like LegendofTotalWar, as his advice is always geared towards legendary difficulty.

[@alexdsp9468]

@@Enzar17 Doesn't matter if they run, they're so cheap that you can just throw reinforcements to take their place which gives time to your artillery to shoot the enemy to death. Get more generals early game and give them stacks of slaves with which they're going to support your main force. Once they level up enough, begin giving them actual troops and hire a new general with slaves to repeat the process.

[@peterowsky02]

I know I'm super late to the party, and someone else might've already pointed it out, but I actually really like Eshin Triads (just got the DLC for Eshin). The way I use them is to support my sneaky, flanking gutter/night runners, because those units are going to get smashed by cavalry otherwise, so Eshin Triads are the back-up needed.

[@jare3459]

Sorry for spam But mortars for aim at melee unites at start of a fight and when 2 melee battle lines meet switch morters to enemy rang unites in backline (ya melee can do same but it would free any spare melee to focus more on flanking your enemy Frontline)

[@05-REDACTED]

Ay this guide is super helpful cause I'm getting the game tomorrow even tho I've played this before but on a friends comp. Thanks for the guide tho!

[@grandmagunsales2125]

I feel like Oxylotl would have been generous to the skaven, he knows the pain of being near extinction all too well, and since he only comes home to recuperate after a hunt/wedgie, the skaven could defend his base while hes away and be undisturbed in the undercity because he's too busy looking at other corners of the map to care about the ROUS allies possibly sipping income from the capital

[@valfalos997]

When I play Skaven my frontline usually consists of Clanrats with Spears the moment I can recruit them until the end of the game. Unlike Censer Bearers and Stormvermin with Halberds they have shields so they can withstand missile fire if they have to and tend to hold out just as long or longer in my experience. You could use Stormvermin with Shields instead but they are alot more costly, need two turns to recruit or longer globally and are not expendable unlike Clanrats (with Tech). Sure they won't win any battle on their own but their Job for me is just a meatshield anyway. They are a lot more cost efficient, can be recruited globably in one turn and can get the expendable trait through research so they are the best choice in my opinion over Stormvermin or Plague Monk units (unless you play Queek Headtaker for Stormvermin or Lord Skrolk for Plague Monk units)

[@FriedrichBarb]

This video convinced me to try Total War Warhammer, looks so cool

[@gabe752]

Lol for the longest time I thought he actually had someone else do the battles at the end, just heard the “live miles” “thanks miles” lines and it clicked

[@valfalos997]

I rate the final army composition: No Warlock Engineer out of 10.

[@136iti]

Here is a Skaven doomstack for you guys: Warlock as the lord (on a Doomwheel) Plague monk (disciplined) Warlock engineer 4 Plagueclaw's 2 Warp lightning cannon's 2 poison wind mortor's 2 Jazzails 4 ratling guns 3 doomwheels Use plague monk to summon clan/plague monks to slow enemy line and they will die long before they make it to your line.

[@randomaccessfemale]

Skavenslaves can be very good in high numbers. With Craventail you can get them so cheap that one full army of them have a lower upkeep than a single stormvermin squad.

[@thecabbage84]

That is awesome.

[@harrylewis6948]

Not a bad roster, great breakdown of units. My End Game Army comp (especially for Ikit Claw): 6x Ratling Gun WT 2x Warplock Jezzails 4x PlagueClaw Catapults 2x Warp Lightning Cannons 4x Doomwheel (or Hell Pit Abom) 1x Lord (Any LL, Warlord, or Warlock M) 1x Warlock Engineer (for unit buffs) This army shreds from a distance. Use the Doomwheels/Lord to keep the enemy from your Weapons Team/Artillery until enemy is destroyed. Plague Claw can decimate clumped up infantry, Jezzs and WL Cannons take out Lord/Monster/Large. If going against a Cavalry heavy Faction, Bretonnia or (sometimes) Empire, have a second Army of Skaven Slaves trash to tie down the Cav. I would use this comp for any Skaven Faction, but this works wonders with Ikit Claw's Workshop upgrades.

[@damnyiffers]

Ahhhh yess the rat puns! "Unless you want them to CHEESE it!" I fricken love rats

[@alpacaofthemountain8760]

Amazing-great guide yes-yes!

[@deskslam4232]

I like to make my armies thematic to the clans. Eshin gets Eshin units, Skryre gets infinite ratling guns, Queek gets melee-focused units with artillery support, Skrolk gets plague-based units, and Tretch gets all Skaven slaves...

[@alchemispark7751]

This will be helpful to finally be recognized-seen as the best tinkerer-inventor of Clan Skryre yes-yes

[@Jonathan-bu7iv]

Eshin. Sneaky units. Anti-large. Can be used two ways. Randomly on flanks to chase around cav or in your lines to suddenly supprise the enemy with a suprisingly strong anti-large unit.

[@Wyvern201]

I found that the poisoned wind mortars are useful for whittling down enormous clumps of infantry from a corner so your ratlings and jezzails can focus on cavalry, lords, heroes, monsters or other ranged units.

[@omegatuna2056]

FYI this is a campaign army, not so much a custom battle army. My general army for skaven varies sometimes because of lords or faction, but since I usually play Clan Skryre, I find myself using A variety of lords, legendary lords like Ikit Claw and Lord Skrolk (from confederation) are really good because of their spells and Ikits insane melee and ranged attack, if just a normal lord I use either warlock Masters or Grey Seers of Ruin/plague. adding in heroes I generally take about 4 plague priests and 1 warlock engineer, it may seem like a lot but there is a method to the madness, the engineer is used for buffing ranged and missile damage of weapons teams while being able to hold his own rather well. I'll get to the plague priests later Now for the army, 6 Ratling gunners for that pure dps, mind you that you can replace two of them for Jezails for their perks but ratling gunners tend to prove well anyway, 4 Plagueclaw catapults and 1 Warplightning cannon for the artillery, plagueclaw does contaminated affect and is really good damage, while warplightning is good for dealing a lot of damage to about anything, single entity or just infantry units, finally at this point adding it all together will equate to about 17/20 max units for the army, at this point I think of something I might add, rat ogres are very good units to use for stopping incomming attacks to your weapons team if something breaks through, so I include 2, 1 slot remaing is dedicated to a regiment of renown, could be anything that you think will benefit the army well, doomwhell, doomflayer, censer bearers, all of those have a regiment of renown version that do well in an army. Now you will have noticed there is no infantry in the army aside from a possible regiment of renown and if you consider rat ogres, but that is where your 4 plague priests come in, and if you have lord skrolk or a grey seer its basically 5, for only 4 winds of magic you can summon a clan rat unit, which means with 4-5 of these guys you can simply summon yourself 4-5 clanrats to rush in and bog down the army, no casualties to take since they're only summons, you can even summon plaguemonks to deal some damage if you need kill some pesky archers your gunners cant touch, get those plague priests on plague furnace and they'll dominate while in combat, while summoning a horde of rats, all of them having arcane conduit you can generate winds of magic infinitely fast without stop. Your plague priests are the infantry, they summon and fuck shit up while your weapon teams dish out sweet damage. With 6 ratling gunners remember that you can replace some of them, 4 is perfectly fine so maybe you can replace 2 for some mortars to get longer range to deal more damage before the enemy even touches you, there is a lot of things you can do to this army to change it, and in many cases (if you practice it well and figure out your own strategy with it) can win about any battle, plague priests are ridiculously strong and have cheap but affective spells. Thank you for coming to my ted-talk, I wish you ratlings good battles.

[@demonlaharldraws6685]

Big tips for deathmaster snitch is that gutter runners and night runners are fantastic for early and mid to early late game with snitch as he gets so many buffs to them its stupid. plus there cheap as chips.

[@totallylegit4092]

Plague priests in campaign I find amazing. The minus armour they bring turns even skaven slaves into gods 😁

[@sciencewithsirmon1985]

The debuff combo of ratling guns and gutter runners with poison is pretty sick. Suppressed (-36% speed) and Poisoned (-24% speed) is enough to make cav slower than your own units. @_@

[@pakornwattanavrangkul2550]

The only use I ever found for warp grinders is for them to be the only early game siege units for skaven for busting towers or gates. After you gain access to plague claw catapults, they become irrelavent.

[@Gorbag100]

to be honest, they are pretty much the best frontline unit for ikket though. their aoe effects combined with unbreaking, 50% ward save and regeneration + really small size so they do not block your ranged units is just amazing. for every other skaven faction though ... pretty useless.

[@ianduarte1992]

I find that they have some utility in thr backlies, for slowing down units attemping to flank so your ranged units can take care of them

[@Mornomgir]

Last playthrough i did with these i just teamed 2 armies. One filled with slaves or clanrats and one with like 80% ranged and just something like plague censer bearers incase. Line them up and just watch all that firepower completely annihilate anything and then along comes like 20 units of clanrats just storming over the hills. fun as hell.

[@TheYannir]

The only aspect I need to critique here is not using heroes, the rest is pretty solid. Though I do think Stormvermin with shields would have held that frontline longer. On the other hand they do less damage so they even out, I guess. You can totally skip Assassins or Eshin Sorcerers but a Plague Priest and a Warlock Engineer are a must-have in every campaign army. The Warlock Engineer gives great buffs to your missiles and artillery as well as increasing the movement range of the army. The Plague Priest is a small army in his own right, summoning clanrats and plague monks left and right so you conserve your actual frontline units much better. They also allow your artillery and mortars to shoot at pinned down enemy units without fear of damaging your frontline because they are engaged with your fake frontline. Also, a single good cast of Plague can rack up 500 kills.

[@thezoroarkgamer9994]

Just got suggested this before the new dlc, perfect timing.

[@JoshSweetvale]

-Skaven?! Skaven aren't real!

[@EmeraldNep]

Just a note, when playing as Eshin your night runners and gutter runners get armor piercing. And they can also hold their own in melee i think even better than clanrats, or damn close. In a multiplayer ME campaign my friend ran a deathstack of Sniktch with 19 gutter runners and just won everything early to mid game. Imrik? Malus? Dwarves? Absolute cakewalk.

[@ethanhunstiger4868]

If your playing as clan skyre, a front line of warp grinders can do some ugly things. The forbidden work shop gives them in order, +30 melee attack, 50% damage resistance and unbreakable, and finally regeneration.

[@jifman2021]

You said you had no use for the warp grinder units. I've found they are good as a holding line for a pure range army. My standard force consists of 4/5 warp grinders, jezzals, rattling guns and poison wind mortars with a warlock master and warlock engineer for boosting them and reducing the upkeep. The warp grinders can hold an enemy force long enough for all that range to demolish the enemy, and any that do manage to slip through are easily dealt with by the rattling guns. Give it a try, it's especially good with the Clan Skrye workshop bonuses.

[@kelleren4840]

"Welcome to the Lahmian bowels section of my Skaven guide" Not gonna lie. This is what I first heard. And I was *very* confused. lol

[@ElCalvazo]

22:35 Aaah yes, the plageuclaw catapult is my favorite unit

[@sebu6831]

Started today with Total War Warhammer 2 ... and I have no idea what he is talking about :D but great game so far

[@poyloos4834]

I think eshin triads are meant to be used as a trap for cav. Put them just behind a weapons team and wait for cav to try and get a sneaky charge in. Then move the team behind the triads and the cav runs themselves into a wall of guandos

[@Zigian222]

What I’m hearing is that there is a possibility of Friendly fire from a lot of the ranged units but that’s just how you play skaven

[@AlexK07779]

I love the Skaven! Just started playing Warhammer 2 and picked up the DLC with Ikit! I love how cheap the slaves are, I have Ikit with all my best arty units and some good infantry. I then have a secondary army full of slaves, I love to sit back with Ikit + nuke, arty bombard and then my slaves all swam the enemy army and give me time to pound them some more with Ikit. Such a great faction in this game! IF a few salves (or alot) get wiped out, so be it! yes yes.

[@paintballmonkey666]

I had a battle in my current campaign with Ikit claw and got those doom bringer warpfire throwers. had an army of only a few units of clanrats and skaven slaves plus the 1 unit of warpfire and 1 unit of jezails, was planning on dumping them in another army I couldn't afford to send back to base. massive full stack of tobb king army comes at me, with 90% balance of power for them, won the battle and the *warpfire unit had 798 kills* .....

[@danielfraiz74]

How to play skaven 101: See those skavenslaves over there? Well keep sending them to battle until you no longer see them

[@Mancboy2000]

Rattling Gunners are objectively the best AP ranged unit for pitched battle in terms of damage output, but in sieges you will want to have Poison wind mortars instead due to their great range and high firing arcs. Warp Jeziles are generally good though, and regardless of what you're using the army for you should always aim to bring at least 2. Also I would argue that Sword and Shield Stormvermin do serve a purpose, specifically in siege battles or battles on choke-points. They are the Skaven's best attrition melee units (bar the council guard) with significantly higher melee stats than the halberd variant. A 50/50 mix of the Sword and Shield and the Halberds provides a much more sustainable front-line than Plague Monks which get chewed up too quickly in the mid-late game to justify their price imo (unless you're playing as Clan Pestilence or funds are too tight to justify the upgrade, in which case using Plague Monks is ok.) The same criticism does not apply to censor bearers, which do the damage necessary to justify paying for them on a consistent basis.

[@epilepticbro]

As ikit i found the most fun i had was when i had 2 warplock jazzies, 2 ratteling guns, 4 warpfire throwers, 2 death globes with 2 plague claw catapults, with 6 units of meat shields (halberd stormvermin) along with ikit himself with his apprentice skitters

[@epilepticbro]

Normally how i set up on a field with no major hills is plagueclaws and globes in the back, i normally try to overlap so that the minimum range for both is tickling my stormvermins feet, warpfire throwers are in front of the halberds with skirmish on, with the flanks being covered by miniguns and snipers

[@thecabbage84]

@@epilepticbro I disagree with his statement about plague monks being better infantry then Stormvermin.

[@epilepticbro]

@@thecabbage84 plague monks are good flankers, not a good mainline, to me they just don't last as long as a decent stormvermin line

[@epilepticbro]

@@thecabbage84 and to be fair, the rest of my campaign ended in me owning all the map with no one left to fight, other than traitors that betray me in front of my loyal swarms. Had fun with this campaign though

[@epistimonkapetanios]

If you have globadeers and the "flamethrower" unit, and a decent backline, can you basically go with no melee units at all and win?

[@cyprianpukowski9562]

I'd say that mortars are better than rattling gunners you just need to soften enemy frontlines and turn off the autofire command after the frontlines had commited to the attack try to focus everything that is away from the frontlines, most importantly high tier ranged units. And second thing to consider when taking them is something that can help your melee units (monsters, plague monks etc.), because for me ratling gunners requires diffrent playstyle, army comp and strategy wheras mortars are mostly used for SOFTENING frontlines and taking out ranged units rather than taking out entire enemy frontline so they also need diffrent approach from ratling gunners. But that just my opinion so I may be wrong considering my casual playstyle.

[@sokar_rostau]

Warp Grinders are amazeballs for sieges. Yes they can take down walls before your towers can get there but far more important than that is the fact that their special abilities actually work on enemies that are on, and behind, the walls. In other words, all of those archers sitting above the gates, that your artillery and Weapons Teams can't quite hit, are nothing but mince meat for Warp Grinders ready to be cooked by a few choice casts of unavoidable Warp Lightning. Ikit's Warp Grinders are just silly strong unbreakable AOE rats of doom against anything that thinks it's safe sitting on a wall and throwing things. Add some Mortars into the mix and the walls are effectively vacant by the time your artillery has destroyed the towers.

[@Lex-bb2tb]

To be honest I see some merit in warp-drills in sieges, you don’t have to rush them at enemy gates, most of the time, but on the right-most or left most wall an break it like there’s no tomorrow, then just go on a stroll drilling through enemy towers or breaking more walls, last one I find very fun way to force enemy squads to stay all in one place for your mortars to annihilate them.

[@griffincrump5077]

Maybe the triads are more for hunting & harassing monsters? I could see using them to jump a Cygor or bastilodon

[@R3GARnator]

Censor Bearers as a front line seems way too squishy to me. I think the point in them, is if you're going for a Melee focused army; where they would be doing the damage instead of the ranged. Of course, this is less and less viable the higher the difficulty.

[@thecabbage84]

Stormvermin are the way to go.

[@thaileinh9877]

Best use for poison wind mortars is to shoot concentrate of enemy infantry at long range, or enemy cav units since cav units have a fairly big formation that the mortar low accuracy won't be much of a disadvantage. When the melee is engaged, use them on enemy missile units as it could be very devastating. More often than not in the campaign, the enemy outnumbered you, so your 3 ratling guns with short-range may not be ideal. Also, I would *love* to have one plague priest or a Grey Seer with the lore of plague in the army. Why? because Bless with filth gives your Ratling, Jezzail, mortar, and artillery poison. The poison speed debuff *stacks* on the Ratling suppression, allowing you to last samurai anything in front of them, while poison from afar obviously gives your guns more time to shoot at things.

[@LukasJampen]

I usually have 2 bombadiers in my armies for sieges since they do fantastic damage to infantery on and behind walls and since ratling guns and jezzails have trouble hitting enemies on walls and can't hit behind walls at all.

[@TypeNameHere6]

I personally would never use plain Skaven slaves... Skaveslave slingers are better IMO they stay around just about as long and have a much better DPS output due to their ranged attack

[@brandonpeters9155]

the mortars are for city fights, arcing shots to slaughter enemies on and behind the walls that the gunners just plink at or do nothing to. Also while clan rats are better at living than slaves but here is the thing, the slaves will be the first ones to rise up later, so is it really friendly fire?

[@hagalathekido]

gutter runner slingers are also acceptable at skirmishing as they are still speedy also i like taking poison wind mortars over plague claws.

[@vicentesilvah.9880]

18:45 Only one *Doomwheel?* That's not enough *Doomwheels* *N E V E R E N O U G H D O O M W H E E L S !!!*

[@epilepticbro]

The only correct answer to someone asking how many doomwheels they need is yes

[@polymphus]

I like using Triads as line infantry to fuck with enemy tactics: put them on the blanks and make the enemy thing they're undefended, then BOOM, polearm line outta nowhere. Halberd Stormvermin in the middle, Triads on the flanks. Also, Globe Mortars are NUTS in sieges. I had a special siege army whose whole job was cracking cities, and it was 4x Warp Lightning Cannon, 6x Mortar, bunch of shield stormvermin. Cannons take out towers, stormvermin protect cannons, mortars ruin the defenders' lives. Mortars outrange everything except towers, they fire in an arc, and their huge AoE is absolutely devastating against units on walls. The endgame of any skaven siege post-mortar-update has been like, 5 kills per unit, 200+ kills for each mortar. The great thing about them is that the more defenders there are, the more effective they become. The mortar ROR is interesting not just for the increased damage, but because it has these sorta ... shotgun mortars? It fires a cluster of bombs that have some degree of random spread. I don't know whether every single one deals that max damage but based on performance it wouldn't surprise me.

[@icecreamdemon8726]

Lmao that rat kicked its partner at 20:47 wtf

[@Rakshase]

You would too if you were trying to aim and he was bouncing around

[@vincent78433]

If you let the enemy close into melee range you've failed that's why i go with 2 poisened wind mortars 2 warplightning cannons 4 ratling guns 4 warplock jezzails 4 warpfire throwers 1 warlock master on doomwheel 1 warlock engineer No amount of infantry will get past the mortars and the ratling guns Run the warlock master in front of ur army to bait the enemy tank everything and cast some spells use the warplightning cannons + jezzails to snipe monsters/lords/heroes/artillery (with the right buffs warplock jezzails can almost match the range of arillery) use the warpfire throwers to protect flanks from cavalry/chariots in combination with the warlock engineer and menace from below

[@Wogix26]

I know this was a year ago but they got the brood horror to counter the Calvary/speed negative so that's nice

[@chadyoung9934]

A fantastic use for the mortars is to have them in an army that specializes in siege battles, if used right you can win a siege without losing more than a dozen entities. Especially with the regiment of renown they can deal DISGUSTING amounts of damage to the enemy army when they bunch up around the gate or on the wall.

[@trazyntheinfinite9895]

warp grinders are basically formikkit, since he can workshop them. they are GREAT for him since they can control enemy movement.

[@JacobBite]

The poisoned wind mortars are broken in sieges. You only need one or two.

[@Darthpfeil87]

Great content, makes me wanne bite through the rather atrocious early game again and try another skaven campaign. I only have one suggestion, being that you replace the Plage priest censorbearers with Stormvermin, that do less damage but hold longer, and for the skaven as for the dwarves, its not the melee line you expect to do anything but buy time for your ranged line to clean up. I would also recommend using a checkerboard formation, allowing your ranged gunners to stay protected behind the front"line" and shoot the flanks of the units engaged in combat. For that purpose I would replace the Hellpit Abomination with either a hero on a mount or another doomwheel, as small single entity units can stop big amounts of enemy infantry while not risking too receive as much friendly fire as a huge monster with big animations would.

[@thecabbage84]

I know this is a year old but I completely agree with you, I felt that the Stormvermin are far superior do to their ability to hold while the weapon teams do the damage. When it comes to melee, survivability is always preferable to damage.

[@wojciechk5844]

In my opionion, You are very underestimating Poisoned Wind Mortar troops. They should be the Core of the army but you need just to use them wisely. They just crashing concentrated enemy troops on the battlefield and usually they have most kills in my battle raports. Moreover, they are best troops during sieges cause they can easly shoot on concentrated troops hided behind the walls. Usually, couple artillery troops to destroy the towers and 3-4 troops of Poisoned Wind Mortar troops and you can easly win every sieges with virtually no loss.

[@xjullrich]

You can put drills mixed between slaves to get some high damage mixed in

[@evrithegreek2991]

With Skaven in my opinion plague monks are not good because plague prists spwaning clan rats are a lot better and leave more space in your armies for mortars and other weapon teams

[@skein8494]

good video but l dont rly recommend that army comp, because its kind of hard to micromanage and unless you play with pausing in the middle of the battle its hard to play, l recommend simple army with few unit varieties and at least 4 plagmaw catapults (my opinion tho dont rage me because of that but l have played more than 900 hours of singleplayer and still find it hard to micromanage huge variety of troops)