Help with my skaven?

[Firespin]

Okay, so I\'m on a laptop and just somehow deleted my my first message and am quite angry... Anywho, I just dug out my skaven from some old boxes and started to play a few games, namely against tomb kings and ogred. My lovely little skaven just run a good 75% of the time from the tomb kings and then the ogres just eat them in close combat. I don\'t have my army list on hand, but heres a fairly good approximation.

1 warlock engineer with the works
1 assassin

20 clanrats with spears and shields
warpfire thrower
20 clanrats with spears and shields
warpfire thrower
20 clanrat slaves

11 stormvermin (hoping to beef this unit up)
ratling gun

7 jezzail teams

9 or 10 globadiers

7 or 8 gutter runners (try consistantly to tunnel in and take out the liche priest, but run away and die on a fairly steady basis.)

and my personal favorite 1 Doomwheel


So, I have had some pretty bad luck (a lot of misfires happening) but that shouldn\'t explain why my army does so bad on a consistant basis. Suggestions? Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[hakoMike]

At first blush, I see too many high points items and not enough models. Minimum sized units of Skaven aren\'t going to hold up against the enemy... you need enough models to enter combat with +5 combat res (3 ranks, standard, outnumber) for clanrats or +4 for slaves. At your current numbers, one casualty from shooting will cost you 1 combat res. Plus, I\'m sure autobreak has caused you any number of headaches from tk\'s... don\'t be outnumbered and you won\'t autobreak!

Slaves! You need more slaves! At 2 points a model you should have as many units of slaves as you do units of clanrats. They soak up the shooting, absorb the charge, whatever you need. I typically only field 20 slaves at a time, with a musician (since tie combat res seemed terribly common for a while... I hated losing for lack of a 4 point musician.) Keep the general nearby and they have as much leadership as just about anything!

Stormvermin.... hmmm. The problem with a small unit of any elite infantry is that they have to get kills to be effective, and most Skaven infantry just aren\'t good at getting kills. Unless you are using them as the hammer in a hammer and anvil maneuver they probably aren\'t going to accomplish much.

Plague monks! If you are facing undead, plague monks are your asset of choice! If you field them 5 across they\'ll get as many as 16 attacks with hatred (with magic standard) and won\'t be subject to fear until they lose combat.

Rat swarms: while expensive, a unit of rat swarms or plague rat swarms make an excellent mage hunter. They are fast (6\"), fearless, and can have poisoned attacks.

Assassin: not worth the points in small games normally. It\'s a shame, because he looks so cool.

Warlock engineer: yes. Warp lightning brings the kill-kill. Just make sure to stick him in a unit or he\'ll get picked off in 7th edition rules.

I recommend you head over to a Skaven forum, The UnderEmpire for a ton of strategy and tactics. They have some serious, tournament winning Skaven players there and they are more than willing to help out.