Skaven Throwers

Skaven Thrower Overview:

Skaven Throwers have the potential to be one of the best passers in the game. While they lack the higher agility of the elves they have some other things going for them. First up being Skaven, they move fast, on par speed wise as Wood Elf Throwers, this can make the difference between making a pass or not. They start with the combo of Sure Hands and Pass, and can get more passing skills to compliment and improve their passing ability. The last option Skaven have that helps is mutation access, there are some handy mutations that can aid certain actions that the Thrower may need to perform.

There are different schools of thought regarding Skaven Throwers though, some coaches may not use any, preferring to do everything with the Gutter Runners. I think they serve a very useful purpose though, even at a basic level of giving you some extra skills on the pitch. My preference is to build an offensive and a defensive Thrower. I usually build the offensive one first as getting three skills (Accurate, Safe Throw and Strong Arm) takes longer than just getting Block would.

Having one for each side of the game allows you to have have someone who is more reliable at both passing and picking the ball up on the pitch all the time. You may not start with two early on in team development though and Gutter Runners with a team reroll are still usually better at picking the ball up and dodging away again if needed. With the passing skill access though, throwing long passes will be easier with a developed Thrower, especially as Gutter Runners are best used for other jobs.

Deep Offensive Thrower:

• Normal:  Accurate, Safe Throw, Block/Nerves of Steel
• Doubles: Strong Arm/Sure Feet, Extra Arms
• Stat Increase: +ST +MV +AG

This guy you want to get the ball and sit nice and deep to draw the other team down the pitch, then using his good movement and long passing ability to move the ball a long way. The more developed he is the better you can do this, until then you need to keep the passes ideally at quick range. The high movement means you can sit in the centre of your half and go collect the ball anywhere it lands. Accurate and Strong Arm both help with developing the long passing ability, while Safe Throw will help against interceptions. Sure Feet is an alternative on doubles, the extra two square of movement could shorten the pass like Strong Arm and also avoid an interception attempt. It also allows a bit more freedom of movement in the backfield when retrieving the ball. Extra Arms can be useful as well, makes the pick ups easier and if you pick the ball up with a team mate, they can pass it to him instead, gaining them an extra SPP.

Stat increases are worth having, he won’t make the best use of +ST, though if you get it early take it and build him the alternate way. +MV will help like I explained for Sure Feet and +AG is obviously useful for all ball handling rolls as well as helping to dodge away if you get marked.

Defensive Ball Retriever:

• Normal: Block, Accurate/Nerves of Steel, Fend
• Doubles: Extra Arms/Big Hand, Two Heads/Dodge
• Stat Increase: Any

This guy you setup for when you are kicking to the other team. He is more likely to get hit than the other one, so Block would make a good first skill. After that Accurate or Nerves of Steel will help with passing if you are marked. Doubles, Extra Arms or Big Hand will help with picking the ball up in tackle zones and Two Heads or Dodge will help with moving to the ball or getting away with it afterwards. This build will probably be doing more dodging in general so making that easier is useful, which also ties in with getting Fend as well.

Any stat increase is useful on this guy, +ST will help more with blocking and getting blocked, +AG and +MV help the same as for the other build. You can also consider +AV on this guy as he will probably take more hits than the other one who you want to keep away from the other team as much as you can.

Skaven Thrower Summary:

Depending on your skill rolls may dictate which you build first as well, +ST could make a difference, or a doubles roll on the first skill upgrade so you can get Strong Arm to get the easier build of a deep thrower. That is my own preference and it may not fit into your game plan so don’t take it as a must do thing. Leader is also a possibility, though there are so many useful skills to get a Skaven Thrower that personally I don’t bother. Skaven are also cheap so the TV saving isn’t that vital, though depending on how badly your team suffers injury wise, it could be useful as a money saver.