Echoes of Doom — Look! More Plastic

The vengeful Sylvaneth are clearing out a minor rat infestation in this new box. Led by Grey Seer Skrittrat, the ratty boys have gone and heisted themselves something and are looking to get out of the heart of Ghyran with their soulpod score intact.

It wouldn’t be a Skaven plan- or a heist at all- without an inevitable double cross- Deathmaster Virrtik, hired by party yet unknown- has been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for the Sylvaneth to follow them back to take revenge on the rat thieves and save their soul(pod)s.

The box contents have been leaked, and the Sylvaneth look pretty good- hopefully we shall see some more Sylvaneth at torunaments to come. I’m more interested in the Skaven side however, and with that in mind lets have a gander at the ratty warscrolls. There are 20 Clanrats and 10 Stormvermin- lets assume they aren’t repacking the Stormvermin into packs of 10 (though with their sprues that is a possibility).

The new deathmaster model looks fantastic- a nice sculpt on a ruin base which should be relatively versatile for base decoration- rubble, grass, desert- you can find ruins all over the Mortal Realms I’m sure. No new sculpts for anyone else is fine- the clanrats and stormvermin kits look good and the Bell is a big pain in the arse to assemble and paint but looks very ramshackle and Skaven-y. I was personally hoping for more clan Eshin stuff, like say a new kit for Gutter Runners or Night runners- we can’t have it all I suppose.

*Don’t speak-talk to me or my deformed monkey son ever again!*

As for the rules, well overall I’d say its a mixed bag.

Clanrats

Same points, same attack profile, champion is the same
Standard bearers/bell effects same (retreat and charge, run +2) but they for some reason are now 1 in 10 rather than 1 in 20- time to paint more flags
New ability to return D3 slain models in battleshock phase (yours and opponents unless FAQ’d differently). This is a very good change that really encourages taking more Clanrat reinforcements. I’d expect the battletome to iron out the awful Skaven battleline rules (all SKAVENTIDE keywprds are gone) so I’d expect even more clanrats used than I already did.
The shield rule has been rolled into the save, so we go from base 6+ to 5+- a decent buff, allows them to all out defence their way to a 4+

All in all the Clanrats are same-same, but different. All the slight changes were buffs though imo, making them even more auto-include. I suspect the battletome may fix some of the old battleline rules so I expect all skave players to start painting clanrats if they don’t already have at minimum 60!

Stormvermin

As with Clanrats, their old shield rule got rolled into their save(now 4+ from 5+), this also comes with an increase in bravery from 5 to 6
Halberds have been bizarrely reduced in range to 1”, ast recompense they now wound on 3’s instead of 4’s- I guess the rat-smiths of Verminus are saving wood and shorter halberds are easier to handle?
Champion and standard bearers remain the same
A new ability is born- Elite Bodyguards: If a friendly Skaven Hero is within 3’ of this unit, before you allocate a wound or mortal wound to that Hero, or instead of making a ward roll for that Hero, you can roll a dice. Add 2 to the roll if the Hero has the Clans Verminus keyword. On a 4+, that wound is allocated to this unit and cannot be negated. - You may recognise this as being a version of the current command trait “Verminous Valour”, though with a bonus for Verminus heroes. As with the command trait though, I don’t particularly like this ability- Call it a sunk cost fallacy but I don’t like losing models that are arguably more expensive than they should be
Still in their unit size of 10 but now cost 135 (from 110). I personally thought they are already slightly overcosted- does the new ability and attack profile justify a further price increase?

The Stormvermin appear to be the ‘elite’ battleline option, and I certainly will be likely to take them again despite their points increase. The changes overall feel neutral at best- better wound chance and bravery are great, don’t get me wrong, but the “eh…” ability and the loss of 1” range offset that. In conclusion though I’d still recommend using them- I always liked the flavour of an elite bodyguard looking unit next to the general. Lore wise the ability rocks though, exactly what any Skaven leader wants from an expensive bodyguard unit, the willingness to die (and die they will) for the cause.

Deathmaster

What a nice sculpt!

Same stats, a pity as he was always easy to kill- but now +70 points cost for a whopping 170!
Attack profiles much changed- no more Fighting Claws, now has 5 shu-rat-kens to throw (from 4) and 5 Weeping blade slices (from 3). The throwing stars used to wound on an awful 5+ for 1 damage, now they are 4+ to wound for D3. The ratling guns shoot 4/4 too though and we know how often they miss….
Unmodified 6’s to hit will now apply the wounds directly to face, mortal style. This is pretty good on paper but remember this probably equates to about 1.81 mortal wounds applied per attack- get your shots and blades in and you’ll down around 2 stormcast battleline with mortal wounds alone
And lord knows you’ll need the mortal wounds as arguably the most effective assassins in the realms have a staggering “-” rend on their weapons.
Hidden killer has been changed somewhat- now you load up in list building like a weapon team and only in CLANRATS or STORMVERMIN. Though he’ll no longer die to having the unit get got (now can come out for the low low cost of 1 MW from the wrecked unit) this is waaay less versatile than it used to be. Still comes out in combat phase but not able to hide in monkey Gutter runners any more, and not able to opt into deploying on the table for first phase.
Still got his scoot and shoot, so perhaps the best way to use him is lobbing stars over the battleline units

I’ll reiterate again the model looks great, I just hope the battletome has some good stuff because this guy frankly sucks for 170 points. The mortals are instead of wound rather than additional so that doesnt feel as impactful, but you’ll need those 6’s to hit anyting without having any rend. If they include a rend artifact or some improved poison (hit on say a 5 will proc the toxin) it might help, but then that means you are using your artefact to help the deathmaster go from ‘useless’ to ‘meh’.

This is all my opinion of course, but given how much I’ve used deathmasters and how little they’ve done (my poor guy had about 6 games worth before he even got to attack, much less kill-kill) I’m not overly optimistic. 100 points was a “maybe I’ll throw him in”, 170 is too steep for that. The hidden killer change also has killed pure Eshin lists (though I understand hiding the new hotness in a sea of monkey-rats would be dificult).

Screaming Bell

Oh boy this guy has seen some changes.

now only 1/1 caster, from 2/2
Cracks call has lost 5 inches range
15 wounds now (even more impossible to skitterleap?) but same save etc- move brackets differently
Less brackets but now rusty spikes are 3/3 with a bracketed amount of attacks (from d6 to 6,5,4,3)- overall better spikes. Also warpstone staff goes from 1 to D3 damage
Lost the battleshock immunity bubble
Still has a 5+ ward but for some reason can choose to be a priest in the hero phase?
Bell tolls have been vastly reduced, now roll D6 instead of 2D6 for 6 different effects (from 7)

Peal of Doom: Roll a D6 at the start of Hero Phase

1: Magical Backlash- Bell suffers D3 mortals that can't be negated

2: Unholy Clamour- Add 6" to move

3: Wall of Unholy Sound- -1 to enemy hit rolls in a 13" bubble from bell until next hero phase 4: Deafening Peals- Until next hero phase, any enemy within 13" bell bubble have to let you roll a dice of they are picked to issue a command. On a 5+ that command cannot be issued.

5: Screaming Crescendo- Until next hero phase, after a bell charge, pick one enemy within 1" and roll a dice. On a 2+, the unit suffers D6 mortals.

6: Apocalyptic Doom- At the end of this hero phase, roll a dice for each enemy within 13" of any friendly bells that rolled this, on a 4+ the unit suffers D3 mortals

Lost the battleshock immunity
Old +1 to casting bell roll is now a bracketed ability bonus to cast/chant (2/1, 1/1, 1/0, 0/0)
Old 2.8% chance to summon Verminlord with the bell is now a more likely ability- Once per battle at the start of the Hero Phase, if you have 7 or more wounds, the Grey Seer will Shatter the bell. On a 1, the unit is destroyed. On any other roll, add the wounds allocated to the roll. 12 or less means bell is just shattered (no more peal of doom and no more Cracks Call) On a 13 or more, bell is still shattered but you can summon a Verminlord within 13" of the bell and 9" away from enemy. If the bell is within 3" of an enemy unit the Verminlord can be set up within 3" of that enemy unit too.
We lost the battleshock immunity bubble
No longer a bracketed peal of doom range, now reduced to 13’ from the jump

What big changes for the bell. In summary I’d say its less a “park at the back caster” and now for sure a “hit the frontlines” war machine. My issue is I still think it is not good in melee- the screaming crescendo might be nice to roll in with but I wouldnt rely on it. Personally I’d go in with a mad suicidal charge and hope to drop a verminlord on their ass. Speaking of which, to summon one first you need to take 7 wounds which you can probably do to yourself with some usual Skaven luck. Once the bell is shattered you lose the peal of doom so you better get that verminlord.

Roll a 1- you die. A 1/6 chance (16.7%) of dying- very skaven themed- at all points, otherwise heres the chance of a verminlord on wounds remaining

8 - needs a roll of a 6 - 16.67%

7 - needs a roll of 5+ - 33.33%

6 - Need a 4+ - 50% chance

5 - 3+ required - 66.67%

4 - 2+ - 83.33% chance

3 - Still need a 2+ otherwise you die - 83.33% chance is the best you can do

2 - 13 wounds taken! you still need to roll a 2+

1 - You really need that verminlord ASAP- better not roll a 1

The priest for a phase thing is odd too- The bell really does need more info from the battletome, not even sure what prayers he can even have!

Also have I mentioned the battleshock immunity being lost? Makes the “pushed into battle” bell even more prone to having their legs shot away and being stranded.

Summary

The box set is up for preorder next week (or so- GW time is different to ours). As to price, well I’ve only seen USD estimates and I live in AUD territory.

For the trees, they have 2 new units and some old so guesswork is required

Sylvaneth Prices

Lady of vines maybe $60 US $90 AUD (Warsong revenant price)

5x Gossamid Archers $50 US perhaps $71 AUD (tree revenant price)

3x Kurnoth Hunters $60 US $100 AUD

1x Treelord (Spirit of Durthu) $70 US $103AUD

Total: $240 USD $364 AUD

Skaven Prices

Only one new unit/model, so I’ll base him off our latest sculpt

1x Deathmaster $32 USD $49 AUD (pricing based on Warlock Bombardier)

10x Stormvermin- $60 US for a box of 20 so lets say $30 - $83/2 AUD makes $41.50

20x Clanrats $42 USD $61 AUD

1x Grey Seer on Screaming Bell $70 USD $96 AUD

Estimated Individual MSRP for Skaven: $174 USD $247.50 AUD

This makes for totals of $414 USD and $611 AUD

As for the breakdown of cost per faction, we are looking about 60/40 split with Sylvaneth of course being the 60. So would I reccomend the box for a skaven player? For an existing player I can safely say that they are likely uninterested- if you are like me you have bells, clanrats and stormvermin aplenty. Depending on the box price though I’d still be tempted if I was able to get the books too, but I hope no rats are duped into a 50/50 split. If the box is a rumoured $195 USD it does seem like good value, not sure what that makes it in Oz but I’ll hazard a guess at the $300 mark. ** 6/6 EDIT- GW retails box at $320 AUD

For a new player this will be a great value box and a taste of two underrepresented factions. If going in with someone looking to try out a battle keep in mind this is a very lobsided matchup, matched play rules would have the Sylvaneth come out on top surely. I imagine the book comes with some scenarios to mitigate the absolute caning the rats would receive otherwise.