I have returned once again to the faction that really boosted my love for the hobby, those lovable ratmen, the Skaven.
I've always been cautious when it comes to Skaven representation as these editions come out, so when the previews for the new range came out I was both excited and concerned. Thankfully (for the most part), I can honestly say that I love what has come out so far for them. If you are reading this expecting a complex deep dive or an in-depth look at rules and units, it's best to look elsewhere for that. It's not that I don't want to look at this Battletome more in-depth, I just don't have the time, though I may come back later on for that. Instead, this is just a few personal opinions on the book. So with that, lets get started.
The Lore
Lore wise, congratulations to The Great Horned Rat for his ascendance to officially becoming the 5th Chaos God. While he has always been a Chaos God, he never had the level of status of one of the main four and with Slaanesh still not back, he has played the game well enough to be able to sit at the big table now. The fact that he now has an official emotion that defines his power, the mortal emotion of Desperation, really cements his power as a 5th Chaos God. It's just nice to see him get some more development in this area. The idea that the main four Gods think they are still in control while the Horned Rat pretends to be their pawn for his own benefits shows how far his manipulative skill has grown since the Old World.
I'm still disappointed that Thanquol got little Lore wise compared to the two new named characters, both whom I have mixed feelings on. Still, there is still a lot on the Clans and units to help people who are new to Skaven to get an overall understanding of their race and how insane and evil they are.
The Bad
So let's get the things I don't like out of the way and the one major issue I have with: Gnawholes. Yes, Gnawholes. While yes, with the various holes in reality bursting open and Skaven poring out of them is fluffy given the narrative they are weaving, I truly hate the idea that your main rules mean you need to use faction terrain just to have any competitive chance. I now know how depressing a Sylvaneth player must feel when they want to build an army (though I feel with that faction it could simply be resolved by just having terrain already in their deployment zone count as an Awakened Wildwood, with them using abilities and spells to make other terrain pieces count as Wildwoods). Some will be fine with it, but it's something I take issue with and makes things like Stormfiend Grinderfists and Warp-Grinders feel like a waste.
If you were also a fan of Eshin or Pestilens, then it's a complete bag of disappointments for you as both factions lost units and got little to replace them. Pestilens lost their Plague Priest on foot and their Plague Censer Bearers, but did get their Underworlds Warband to now count as a Plaugepack, which is more like a Plague Priest on foot with entourage. Eshin on the other hand lost their Gutter Runners and their Underworlds Warband got sent to Legends. As if insult to injury for them, they got skipped over for a Battle Formation. No doubt they'll have something to say at the next Council meeting.
Yes, Moulder lost Giant Rats and Rat Swarms, but they did get a Brood Terror. It will be up to their player base to decide if it was a good trade off.
The Mixed
Now mixed bag. I don't know about Krittok Foulblade, though that may be more down to him just not being interesting enough to me. Sure he had a Verminlord trapped in a sword, but I need something that makes him stand out from other Skaven characters. Speaking of Verminlords, we also got another type of Verminlord, though not one that represents Clans Skryre or Moulder (though both Clans do have a lot more going for them, so it seems reasonable that such Verminlords aren't a thing yet). Vizzik Skour represents the more single minded devotion of faith to The Great Horned Rat and one who may inadvertently be responsible down the road for another civil war amongst the Skaven. Verminlords were never a thing for my Skaven, but he seems like his rules look decent enough and he does have his own Army of Renown.
The Good
Now what do I like? Returning to the Armies of Renown, both look very thematic, with Thanquol's own Menagerie of monsters being rather 'Thanquol' in nature. I actually like the idea of having armies themed around special characters as it adds both a new unique playstyle to a faction, but also adds to the Lore of those characters. Obviously it will be some time before enough Battletomes are release to see how well this idea is handled.
We also can't go past all the neat stuff Skryre has gotten. It's no secret that my allegiance is to Skryre as I have long since been a fan of things like Techno-Sorcerey. So obviously when all the kit's were reveled, I was obviously was excited. So what did I think worked and what didn't. Well to get the negatives sorted first, I wasn't a fan of Weapon Teams being in units of three and Doom-Flayer's in unit's of twos, though I am slowly warming up to it. It just felt at the time that many of us didn't have the right number of same models to fill a unit and will still be some time until I have all the options available to me.
That's not to say they aren't good. They still get the benefits of Clanrat protection for the Weapon Teams and you could just have a full six Rattling Guns to just unload on your opponents. The new Warpvolt technology is good, though limiting it's bonus to Anti-Cavalry was a good idea, but you should run them with the new Warlock Galvaneer as he does give them a good once per battle buff. As for said Doom-Flayer's, they are still great Anti-Infantry killing machines, though I feel they would work well with a Warp-Grinder to have them burst out of the ground and go charging into an enemy. The Globadiers are also great looking, though a little unsure how effective they can be as they are competing with the Weapon Teams. The Ratling Warpblaster is good, but feel that it may have been pushed into a list full of War Engines, so time will tell how well they are incorporated into Skryre lists.
Also, just going to say it, that Brood Terror model looks great. There is an argument to be made over the Brood Terror vs Hellpit Abomination, but I'm the kind of person who would take both simply because both a great looking models and I prefer variety over competitive.
It's probably something I think most Skaven lovers will agree and that all these new models just look amazing. The design team have out done themselves on this and it should be acknowledged. Actually, the art in the book is also rather great. Good year for Skaven creativity overall I say.
Path to Glory
This brings me to the other thing I really wanted to talk about, Path to Glory. Or rather, the Anvil of Apotheosis to be more precise. For a while now I have felt that the creativity was missing from this hobby and I guess I feel it's because many YouTube channels seem to focus on playing like tournaments as opposed to just playing games for fun. Even modern White Dwarf issues lack the creative articles on things like kitbashing or designing a Nemesis for your army to fight against. Path to Glory has always been the fantasy version of army building while still telling a story and I feel that this hero creator with the Anvil of Apotheosis might be the thing that sparks my creativity back with all this.
To sum it up, you get to create a Hero based on destiny points and the points cost associated with it ( 10DP for 150pts, 30DP for 250pts and 50DP for 350pts). This Hero can be your Warlord and as such I do believe it overrides the 300pt limit on the Warlord roster, as there is nothing to suggest it doesn't (not that it should matter as your playing to have fun right?). Your Hero starts of with base stats and a base weapon, you spend your destiny points to improve that hero over several sections. For the Skaven, these sections are:
- Great Clan (the Clan your Hero is from)
- Origin (pick one to add it's benefits)
- Flaw (optional negative, but gives you more DP to spend)
- Mount (So a Skryre Contraption or various Moulder Beasts)
- Mount Upgrades (upgrades for mount - buffs or companion weapons)
- Character Upgrades (upgrades stats, main weapon, an extra range weapon, gaining the wizard/priest status etc)
From here your Hero is ready to go. Just pick a Path for them to follow and play some games. You can just use the normal models to represent them, but I can definitely see people kitbashing all sorts of characters in the future and as more Battletomes come out they will no doubt make things more interesting for the various factions. I've already started my own unique character, an insane Warlock Engineer in a large walking Skryre contraption, though am also going to make slightly modified Brood Terror to have as a Moulder Hero in his own Path to Glory, but still usable in normal games (where as my Warlock will not).
Overall
So what are my overall feelings with this Battletome? Well it's brought me back here to talk about Skaven, so I'd say that's a rather big positive for me. Am a little bummed about how badly Eshin was shafted compared to the other Clans, but overall it does feel like it still has the fun and charm of what I like about the Skaven that actually makes me want to play them in Age of Sigmar. I was even able to dust off an old model and bring him back, so who knows where this will all go, but hopefully I'll start getting some more Skaven stuff put up here over the next few months.
We shall see.
