They may not be all that strong, they certainly aren’t tough, but boy oh boy are Skaven fast! Many an opponent has been left in the starting blocks as fast-moving Skaven players scamper through a gap in the line and run in for a lightning fast touchdown.
Overview:
Skaven are the fastest team in the game and are also have quite cheap players. The Gutter Runners are by far their best players and can be a right handful for the opposing team to deal with. Skaven teams can also have mutations, though not as easily as chaos teams and these can be really useful. With the right skill combinations and a movement increase the Skaven have the ability to score in one turn with a player capable of moving half the length of the pitch. Their cheap players give means you can have a fairly deep bench to account for the inevitable injuries, or you can use disposable player to foul the other team.
Skaven however are rather fragile and apart from the Gutter Runners, they have quite average agility. So while most of the team is as fast as the Wood Elves, they don’t have the agilty to move like them. You will also find the Gutter Runners are frequently targeted for fouling by the opposition. Thankfully they are easy to skill up so don’t be too worried about losing them.
Skaven aren’t a bad team for beginners, the cheapness of the players means you can have some substitutes and scoring comes easy to Gutter Runners. You may not develop outstanding tactical understanding with them though and some games the team may get destroyed if the other team can get lots of blocks in.
Strengths:
- Very Fast
- Cheap
- Mutation Access
Weaknesses:
- Fragile
- Can develop really one sided
July 20th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Not really a fan of Skaven… To easy to score with, I prefer a challenge! question is Rat Ogre – Yes or No in starting line up?
August 29th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I’m confused they look like a great beginner team. I’m a little concerned that they it says they have one tactic. I don’t want to get stale and bored over the course or a season.
I’d also like to hear what people think is a good starting line up…
August 29th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
You can see suggested starting line ups if you go to the Starting Rosters category. Skaven don’t just have one strategy, though they aren’t going to be the best team at the bashing side of the game. I wouldn’t say they are any more boring than any other race is, though as different people find they enjoy difference races more, the only real way to find out what you prefer is to give different ones a try. Good luck with whatever you decide to go with. If you want more advice on which team to select try asking on the forum listing which ones you had in mind.
November 15th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Skaven – boring???
Of course, it depends, what style of play you like most in order to find the right team. But I think of Skaven being the most fun to play with.
There is not only one tactic with them – all the opposit: Playing Skaven means that there is always still a possibility to turn around a game, where other teams would have no chance anymore. With Skaven you will find yourself again and again in a situation, where you look at the board, and after some thinking, you might find one (sometimes almost impossible) solution, how you could still steal the ball and make a TD. Skaven in offense are pretty straight forward – yes. But since you will score (or fail scoring) fast, your Team will be in defense almost all the time. And this is, where the fun starts: Playing Skaven means not to follow a simple strategy-pattern over and over again – but to react on every move of your opponent – trying the high risk move at the right moment on your opponents offense that results in a TD for you. You have to play “rat-stile” though – not fearing to loose any of your players and waiting for the moment going for some high-risk moves that could turn around the game.
Once you figured out this one realy crazy move to still score and it works out, even though things looked pretty awful for you, than you will either fall in love for the rat-side of blood-bowl … or you just know, that you are a cage-loving control-freak who just likes to follow a straight forward tactic where you either suceed or fail!
November 29th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Nothing is ever one tactic in Blood Bowl.
Skaven simply generally play the passing/sideline running game with their ultra fast Gutter Runners, putting up screens with their lineman. Their high movement rate means you can often get a nice full screen of players between the opposition and your gutter runner, forcing them to burn their blitz to get in base contact, which you can usually easily dodge away from.
As coach said, they’ll usually play like wood elves, but with lower agility on the lineman, they can’t make as many dodges. Trade off, mutation access. Foul Appearance, Big Hand, and a few other nice skills down the line will add some skills elves dream of having.
Gutter Runners having base movement 9, means with sprint and sure feet, you can often outrun harms way, causing major issues for the opposition if you ever get the ball. Also great on a Blitz! roll on the kickoff as you can blitz a hole a usually move a couple of these around the ball, making it hard to pick up.
March 8th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Coach, what do you mean by the “Can develop really one sided” weakness? As far as development goes they have players with access to every skill group in the game. However, I realize that their plays style is one of definite “high risk, high reward” mentality, is that what you’re referring to?
March 8th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Some coaches will just try and build one turn touchdown specialists with their Gutter Runners and won’t consider other offensive plays, or even worse how to play on defence.
Doing that will make the team one dimensional and not very effective against any semi competent coach.
June 25th, 2011 at 11:03 am
In a league, the number of players that develop really well means that you can coustomize your team pretty easily with all those SPPs flying around. While they will never be great at grinding down a pitch like dwarfs, a skilled biltzer mauls opponents as well as any Chaos player. MB, Claw, and piling on is a combo made in heaven for causing casualties, while a wrestle/strip ball/dauntless GR can poke the ball out of anyone’s hands, opening up for the magic turnaround that Skaven thrives on. Also what Jakonius said is 100% true.