The Origins of the Scaven Scholars and academics argue
endlessly over the origins of the Children of Chaos, known as
the Scaven. Some maintain they are simply a
variant form of Beast Man. Others insist they are an
entirely separate race, mutated not from humans as Beast Men
are, but from true rats. Others still refuse to
acknowledge their existence at all.
Determining anything about Skeven is notoriously difficult.
They are primarily a subterranean race and usually
only come to the surface during their violent and inexplicable
wars. Perhaps the best clue to their
creation lies in the ancient Tailean folk tale known as the
Doom of Kavzar. The following is a broadly
translated text of its 13 stanzas, and readers may draw
their own conclusions. Once Upon a time, long ago, men
and dwarves lived together beneath the roofs of 1 great
city. Some said it was the oldest and
greatest city in the world and had existed before the time of
the Long Beards and Manlings built by older and wiser hands.
In the dawn of the world, the city lay both above and below
the earth. In keeping with the nature of
the populace that dwelled there. The dwarves ruled in their great
halls of stone below ground and wrestled the flutes of the rock
free with their day long toil while the manlings reaped the
fields of swaying corn that surrounded the city with a
patchwork blanket of gold. The sun smiled, men laughed, and
everyone was happy. Then one day, the men of the
city decided that they should give praise to their gods for
their good fortune. They planned a temple such as
the world had never seen before. In the central square, a
colossal hall would be built and topped with a single cloud
piercing tower. A tower so tall it would touch
the very heart of heaven. After much planning, and with
the help of the Longbeards, they set about their monumental task.
Weeks became months, months became years, and still the
manlings built. Men grew old and grey working on
the Great Temple, their Suns continuing their work through
summer sun and winter rain. At last, after many generations,
work began on the Great Spire. Years passed, and the tower
reached such a height that the manlings found it ever more
difficult to take the stone to the top.
Eventually the work slowed to a crawl, and finishing the tower
seemed impossible. Then one came among the men of
the city, who offered his help to this great scheme.
He asked a single boon of them in return and claimed that if
they would grant if he would complete the tower in a single
night. The manlings said to themselves,
what have we got to lose? An offer to make a bargain with
a grey clad stranger. All he wished was to add his own
dedication to the gods onto the temple structure.
The manlings agreed and the bargain was struck.
At dusk, the stranger entered the unfinished temple and bade
the manlings to return. At midnight, clouds swept across
the moons, cloaking the temple in darkness as the manlings
left. All over the city, men watched
and waited as the hours slipped past, until near midnight, by
ones and twos, they gathered again in the temple square.
The wind blew when the clouds parted, and they gazed up at the
temple. It rose like an unbroken Lance
against the sky, pure and white. At its very peak.
A great horned bell hung gleaming coldly in the
moonlight. The stranger's dedication to the
gods was there, but of the stranger there was no sign.
The manlings rejoiced in their father's father's work, and it
was done. They surged forward to enter the
temple. Then, at the stroke of midnight,
the great bell began to toll. Once, twice, thrice.
Slow, heavy waves of sound rolled across the city. 456
times the bell rang like the torpid pulse of a bronze giant.
7-8 9 The tolling of the bell grew louder with each ring, and
the manlings staggered back from the temple steps clutching their
ears. 10/11/12 13 At the 13th stroke, lightning split the
skies and Thunder echoed the sound.
High above, the dark circle of Moor's Leb was lit by a bright
flash and fell ominently silent. The manlings fled to their bed,
frightened and puzzled by the portents they had seen.
Next morning they arose to find darkness had come to their city.
Brooding storm clouds reared above rooftops, and such rain
fell as never had been seen before.
Black like ash, the rain fell and puddled in the streets,
sticking the cobbles with darkly iridescent colours.
At first, some of the manlings did not worry.
They waited for the rains to stop so that they might resume
their work. But the rains did not stop.
The winds blew stronger and lightning shook the high tower.
Days stretched into weeks and still the rain did not stop.
Each night the bell tolled 13 times and each morning the
darkness lay across the city. The manglings became fearful and
prayed to their gods. Still the rains did not stop,
and the black clouds hung like a shroud over the fields of
flattened corn. The manlings went to the dwarves
and beseeched their help. The Longbeards were unconcerned.
What matter? A little rain on the surface, in
the bosom of the earth. All was warm and all was dry.
Now. The manlings huddled in their
dwellings, fear gnawing at their hearts.
They sent some of their number to faraway places to seek help,
but none of them returned. Some went to the temple to pray
and sacrifice their dwindling food to the gods, but found its
great doors were sealed shut. The rains grew heavier.
Dark hailstones fell from the sky and crushed the sodden
crops. The great bell tolled a death
knell over the terrified city. Soon great stones cleft the
heavens, rushing down like dark meteors to smash the homes of
the manlings. Many sickened and died from no
apparent cause, and the newborn babes and the manlings were
hideously twisted. Skulking vermin devoured what
little stored corn was left, and the manlings began to starve.
The manling elders went to see the dwarfs again, and this time
demanded their help. They wanted to bring their folk
below ground to safety. They wanted food.
The Longbeards grew angry and told the manlings that the lower
workings were flooded and their food had also been devoured by
rats. There remained barely enough
food and shelter for them and their kingsmen.
They cast the manlings out of their halls and they closed the
doors tight. In the ruins of the city above,
each day became more deadly than the last.
The manlings despaired and called and called for succour.
From the dark gods whispered the names of forgotten demon
Princess in the hope of salvation, but none came.
Instead, the vermin returned, bigger and bolder than ever.
Their slinking, furred shapes infested the broken city,
feasting on the fallen, pulling down the weak.
Each midnight the bell tolled 13 times on high, screaming now,
brazen and triumphant, the manlings lived as haunted
creatures in their own city, as great rat packs roamed the
streets in search of prey. At last the desperate manlings
took up such weapons as they had beat from the dwarfs doors,
threatening that if they did not emerge they would drag them out
by their beards. But no reply came from within.
The manlings took up beams and battered down the doors to
reveal the tunnels below, dark and empty.
Steeling themselves, the pitiful remnants of the city's once
proud populace descended. In the ancient Hall of kingship.
They found the dwarves, now nought but gnawed bones and
scraps of cloth. And there they saw by the dying
light of their torches, the myriad eyes about them,
glittering like liquid midnight as the rats closed in for the
kill. The manlings took back-to-back
and fought for their lives, but against the implacable ferocity
and countless numbers of the verminous horde, their weapons
were useless. The tide of monstrous rats
flowed over them one by one, dragging them down to be torn
apart, the yellow chiseled teeth sinking into their soft flesh,
the dark furred mass drowning their pitiful screams with their
hideous chittering. The Doom of Kavza, also called
the Curse of 13 and what a start that is.
My friends, my name is Owen Owen Staton and I am going to be
taking you through the 4th edition Warhammer Army's Scaven
book. Scaven.
If anything was Warhammer, that would be Scaven wouldn't it?
A creature created from the minds of the Warhammer men.
A creature that walks the Warhammer world, but maybe not
the other fantasy realms that we know.
And this book, published in 1996 and written by Andy Chambers, is
probably one of the most characterful books of all.
But what do I say about the Scaven?
I have never had the Scaven army.
Oh no, I have never enjoyed playing against the Scaven army
because I feel that no matter how atmospheric the books, no
matter how they've done the army, no matter how people try
to do it, the Scaven never appear on the battlefield as
they do in the books. They are probably something best
left in the role-playing domain, I feel.
But maybe that's because I've never done them.
Maybe that maybe that's because whenever I face them, there have
never been hordes of Scaven, just blocks of elite troops, and
I feel that that somehow is a little bit wrong.
Before we go any further, can I just thank you for all the
lovely feedback I've had regarding the other books that
I've looked through? I really enjoy this, and no
matter. I might be critical about the
Scraven and about the way they are fielded, but about them I
will not be critical because they are a stroke of genius.
One of my most prized possessions, which now lies in
the hands of a friend. But thankfully so, for he, as
someone who appreciates it, is a Scraven standard bearer painted
by none other than John Blanche, which appeared in the Warhammer
Army's book of the 3rd Edition. Somehow it came into my
possession. Would you believe it?
It's the one with the Black Flag and the white scraven inverted
triangular bones on it. It's a great figure, so
atmospheric. But the Skeeven in this book are
bright sunny creatures wearing bright red on goblin green
bases. But that's fine.
And the Skeeven armies by Andy Chambers, cover art by Dave
Gallagher, black and white art by John Blanche, Wayne England
and Mark Gibbons, and of course story by Bill King.
Hence I had to read. That was such a good piece,
wasn't it? And that's what starts the book.
The book similar size to the others, although I'm going from
an electronic edition because again, sadly I don't have my own
one. It's a great picture on the on
Page 3. Used to great pictures on Page
3, but this one in particular is a a mass of skeevin or banded
together with some great robotic looking creature.
Toxic fumes rent the air, and at the front there's a hooded
scaven with a cursed crooked schimeter, just eyes looking out
from under a hood. Love that image.
I read for you the origin of the Scaven, which takes up the first
few pages of this tome. It moves on to talk more about
the background, as these books often did, and they did it so
well. The first thing there is of a
Scraven blight, the city underneath, and there's a lovely
John Blanche picture again of a lone Scraven sentry standing
with his Pike in the air, crows on old roots, and in the
background a lightning forked sky and a moon silhouetting a
dark castle. What a fantastic piece of art.
I'd love to have that on my wall.
It's a sketch piece in black and white, just taking up 1/4 of the
page, but surely it deserves more than that.
But is that how high the standard in this book is?
We go on to the City of Pillars on page 7 and then Crookback
Mountain. Let's have a little read of
that. Crookback Mountain is the
largest scraven stronghold in the Dark Lands.
The mountain lies at the eastern end of Mad Dog Pass, a great
Spire of Black Rock thrusting up out of the dusty plain.
Crookback Mountain is currently held by Lord of Decay Kratch
Doomblaw, leader of one of the most powerful Warlord Clans,
Clan A Richtus. Clan Rictus breed a remarkably
large number of giant black furred warriors, so Lord Cratch
has numerous regiments of elite Storm Worming under his control,
making him much feared by the other Warlord clans.
The main functions of this particular hold are to supply
goblin slaves to the Under Empire and to mine a rich stream
of iron and copper beneath the mountains for the forges of Clan
Rictus. The mountains were first settled
by night gobblings fleeing the desolation of the great
necromancer Nagash over 3000 years ago.
Several tribes lived in its caves and tunnels for hundreds
of years, constantly fighting each other and tunneling ever
deeper into the roots of the mountain.
Around 300 years before the birth of Sigma Skeven, tunneling
east from the World's Edge Mountain broke through into the
lower workings. At first, the Scaven were driven
back by swarms of angry goblins and cave swigs, so they soon
withdrew and blocked the tunnels after them.
The Council of 13 assigned the task of clearing the mountains
to Clan Rictus and promised them ownership of it if they
succeeded. The clan almost bankrupted
itself, hiring Clan Skier, Poison Wind, Globed Ears and
Clan Moulder Packmasters to assist them in tunnel fighting.
The warriors of Clan Richter's tunnel back under Crookback
Mountain a year after the first incision and fought the gobbling
tribes already locked in bitter war with each other.
Several months, months even, of bloody fighting wiped out or
enslaved. The remaining goblins left Clan
Rictus in possession of the Crookback Mountain.
The Scaven made frequent raids from Crookback Mountain to the
nearby goblin layers of Mount Grey Hag and Mount Grimfang to
capture more slaves. Hundreds of goblin slaves are
sent back to the Under Empire every year.
Orcs are seldom used of slaves. Although they're strong, they're
also truculent and pretty impervious to pain.
Others are put to work in the mines or simply eaten.
The warriors of Clanrichtus are highly adapt at capturing
goblins, frequently sealing them into a cave or tunnel until they
are half suffocated before clubbing them unconscious.
Their favorite tactic, however, is to wait until the goblins
have had a great feast and drink too much fungus wine.
Then with the last goblin has collapsed in a drunken stupor,
Escaven creep in and quietly drag away as many goblins as
they want or need. Clanrichtus also undertakes
patrols through the Dark Lands to search for falls of Warp
warpstone meteors. This is very perilous.
They have to move on the surface and fight off orcs and goblins,
wolf riders and sometimes even Chaos Dwarves from the North
East looking for slaves. But many warpstone meteors fall
from Moor's Leb east of the World's Edge Mountain, and their
value to the Scaven is incalculable.
What a place that is. Gosh, there's nowhere nice in
the Skeven land. As there as the next one, which
I'm not going to read is entitled Hell Pit.
Where do you live, my friend? Just down the road in Hell Pit.
You know the one Horrible sewer on the ground.
Sun never shines, rain always falls.
Neighbours are terrible. What's it called again?
Hell Pit. Yeah, I know it.
It's next to Port Talbot Scraven Society is there a has to be
featured next on page 11 and goes on for a couple of pages
explaining the different clans. And then it starts to tell us
about Warpstone. Warpstone of course, a fantastic
invention of the Warhammer writers, bringing this chaotic
magic into the world that seems to rule the Scraven from their
very core. The Warp fire thrower.
Hey, I'm going to read this because this was one of my
favorite things of the Scaven. I remember the first first
figures that came out with the one with the barrels on his back
and the one with the guns, you know them.
The Warp Fire thrower is a device which projects a flaming
corrosive mixture. This volatile material is made
by using warp stone in conjunction with other chemicals
and magic. It is much feared weapon, a much
feared weapon and extremely deadly to both its foes and the
crew. The Warp fire thrower is crewed
by two scape the first one fires the weapon while the second
carries the barrels of flammable flammable mixture.
Using this devastating weapon brings his own dangers.
Fire throwers often explode, killing the crew and other
creatures unlucky enough to be caught in the vicinity.
They were practically useless, probably still are.
Whoa wow, they were fun when you look at this.
I mean, this is almost 30 years old, this book, and yet the
plague sensors, the warp stone charms, the poison wind globed
ears, the scraven brew, the weeping blades, all of that has
arrived fully formed in this book.
What a creative work this is. I mean the Skaven have just been
re released in the age of Sigma but they really are standing on
the shoulders of giants when you look back to see this created.
Another brilliant pencil sketch of like a Manor house again rent
by lightning rats pulling up out of some swamp in front of them.
Black and white, just a quarter of a page.
We're looking at the history of the Skaven now, the time of the
Greylords, the War of Cripple Peak, the death of Nagash.
See how the Warhammer world is forming.
The stories are growing and reaching together, creating a
mythos and a background that is as rich as anything.
The death of Nagash. The book was on to the rise of
Clan Pestilence, the Black Plague.
Again, a lovely another sketch drawing there.
The Horned Rat Incarnate. All these things in the history
of the Scaven. Before we reach the Scaven
timeline, starting with the Imperial year -2000 the ancient
city that later becomes known as Scaven Blight is first occupied
by men. It grows rapidly to become the
most populated human city in the Old World.
Almost some sort of Atlantis type feel to this.
Isn't it a great city that's been lost?
Let's go forward a bit to -1500 Common Era.
About this time, the Hayevs withdraw from the Old World back
to Uthwan, where the disastrous War of the Beard against the
Dwarves, the Dwarf Empire and the World Edge Mountains is
devastated by a series of volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes triggered by Scraven sorcery.
The population of Scaven Blight is devastated and the 12 Grey
Lords arise, forming the First Council of 13 and the Order of
the Grey Seers. Dwarf records indicate the first
incursions of Skaven into Karakvan, where they eventually
capture most of the flooded lower levels.
Gosh, this doesn't make you want to build and paint to scave an
army. I don't think I don't know
anything that does. Even me.
Never been tempted by these. Suddenly find myself reaching
for the Rat. 100 Common Era Clan Pestilence, long believed lost,
emerges from the rotting jungles of Lustria and starts the first
Scavin Civil war. The year 11111 Clan Pestilence
unleashes the Black Plague in the Empire.
Almost 9/10 of the Empire's population is wiped out in the
next 4 years. Has quite a lot isn't it?
9/10 Massive scaming incursions erupt across the land, looting
and raising towns and villages. 1115 The scraving start to
systematically enslave the surviving human settlements in
the Empire. Gosh, it says dark stuff.
Go forward a bit to the year 2393.
A huge consignment of grain travelling by ship from Arabi to
Thaila fails to arrive. Scraven piracy is suspected but
never proven. Why did they have to prove it?
Was it like a big investigation or something?
Anyway, we move on to war machines and here we have the
rules for the Warp Fire Thrower, which of course is brilliant.
They're the tear shaped template and the way it can be placed on
a unit. The warp fire misfire chart AD
6, roll one to two, kaboom. The Warp fire crew disappear in
a lurid mushroom cloud of flame, and any air model within D3 plus
one are hit by warp flame work out damage as if they'd been
struck by the warp fire thrower. Three to four, the fuel barrels
catch fire. On five to six, the warp fire
throwers nozzle blocks and squirts burning fuel over its
crew. Oh gosh, wouldn't want to do
this. I'm going to seize.
Yeah. Warp fire thrower for you.
Warp stone. We move on for the.
Oh, look at that drawing with the guy with a barrel on his
back. That's great, isn't it?
Little story here, and as it's written by Bill King, I think
I'll have to share it with you. The dwarves fought with all the
stubborn tenacity of their kind, but was slowly forced back by
the relentless scraven advance. Dwarf axe chopped at black
scraven fur. Scraven sword crunched into
dwarf male. Splatters of blood flew
overhead. The fitful glow of the torches
on the tunnel wall illuminated a scene of relentless savagery.
No quarter would be asked, nor no surrender given.
The Scaven pushed the dwarves back by sheer weight of numbers.
For every ratman that fell, another two fought to take its
place. Rats swarmed round the feet of
the combatants, feeding on the dead and pulling down the
injured on both sides. A wave of rats swarmed up
Snorri's long male coat and attacked his face.
Desperately trying to protect his eyes.
He stumbled and fell. The Scaven rushed over his body
and there was nothing the dwarves could do except to close
their ranks and add Snorri's name to the list of a Fallen.
If they survived, his bravery would be remembered.
The dwarves were fighting on the defensive.
They ordered to protect the Gate of Jewels, one of the access
points that led into the Great E Stair of Carrick.
Eight Peaks. At first the 20 strong proud
regiment had managed to repulse the Sceven and even drive them
back, but now, with over 2/3 of their number gone, he'd been
pushed back to the gate itself. Backs pressed against the solid
oak door, the dwarves could repeat no further, and they
would give their lives to protect the East stair.
Like a vital artery, it LED straight to the heart of
Carrick. Eight Peaks.
If the Scraven broke through, the whole stronghold could fall
and another cornerstone of the Dwarf heritage would be lost.
Painting blood from their many wounds dripping down their
armour, the Dwarfs silently committed their souls to Grungy.
The Scravens stopped before the gates, snarling and squeaking,
and parted ranks to let two of their kind through.
The two newcomers were bigger and better armed than the other
Scraven. One carried a strange gun like
weapon in his paws, which was connected to a flexible pipe to
a barrel carried by the other. Oh, excited to Walt Firethrower
die die Dwarf men squeaked the scaven carrying the strange
weapon, aiming the nozzle at the dwarves and pulling the trigger
with a fearsome wine. The stream of green black fire
shot forward and engulfed the dwarves.
The Wharf fire thrower clung to their bodies, burned their hair,
dissolved the flesh from their faces through their armour.
Within seconds the proud dwarf warriors were reduced to a
smouldering mound of melted bone and metal scraps.
With a snarl of triumph, the Sceven aimed his weapon at the
centre of the gate. Fingers of glowing wharfire
clawed through the thick Timbers and the doom of Carrick Eight
Peaks was assured. The Scaven screaming bell is
next. Always seemed awkward that did
putting it in the middle of a unit would just like sort of
Thunder along with a bell ringing.
But the great the rules are here.
The shooting, the hand to hand combat, all those things.
The model was always evocative. But yeah, just a little bit big
and strange plastered amongst units of Scaven.
I mean, how we'd would you take that through a tunnel?
I don't think you would, would you?
But there's a screaming bell table for it's dice effects.
And then the Doom Wheel, which was just a, you know, a mouse
wheel. Like a pet mouse in a cage,
really, wasn't it? Again, strange.
But yeah, good stuff. Evocative.
Again, the model was odd, probably didn't work as well as
it should have on the table, but it was there.
There are rules for fighting the Doom Wheel, the flea and
pursuit. Then the war blocked Gizelle.
Now many Scraven armies that I used to fight always seem to
have hundreds of these firing Gizelles across the table.
Range 36 strength, 5 damage, three save -3 they were deadly
things, which again, were very very very effective.
We move on to every metal pages of Scraven Lords.
These were really elaborate. Icked Claw Chief warlock of
Clansky, Warlord Queek, head taker of clan Moors, Lord
scorlock of clan pestilence and death master sneak of clan
Eschen, beautiful models. Even Icked claw who's carrying a
big back banner huge thing looks really impressive.
I think Warlord Queek, head taker is my favorite there with
his blade and his back banner again of skulls, really really
atmospheric, even though they are painted really brightly.
We're now moving on to one of my favorite parts of these books,
the maps. But this one is strange because
the map looks less detailed, but it's actually a colour map,
focusing on the undervolts of the Scaven and wherever the
humans, the empire, the the the Brutonians, the dwarves, the
elves live. The scavener there underneath,
always not believed in for a lot of the time, but always there,
always plotting, always skulking underneath everyone else.
Even in Kislev we've got pages of this year.
Then we go into some more figure pages.
High Elves struggle to hold back the Scraven tide.
The Scraven hordes clash with the goblins.
The World Edge Mountains, Grom the paunch there.
And a red skull crusher. A painting.
An heavy metal page of the Scraven Doom Wheel.
The rats in the wheel, the Clan Moulder rat ogres.
These ones look like they're doing some sort of dance.
You remember the ones really hard to put together because
they get knocking into each other with their arms.
Some more pictures of Scraven models.
The Grace. Yeah.
What a model that is. That sums up the the Scraven in
all its essence, holding a ball or some sort of crystal ball
under his hand. Big back banner there as well.
The old warped fire throw a team, old even in this book.
The plastic clan, Clan rat warrior storm vermin warlord
throat, The unclean plague monks, skeeven clan rats hurl
themselves against the restless dead is the next page.
Some mummies coming out of like a cavern in the side of the
hill, stumbling through. Plague monks lead the attack
against an army of Chaos dwarves.
This is really peak 4th edition now, isn't it?
Chaos Dwarves are emerging here as well.
The skaving, screaming bell. There it is, all six wheels,
twin axle of it. It's like a caravan, isn't it?
With a massive gold bell on the back.
Skiing army regiments, Clan Pestilence, Clan Moulder.
Ratoga Pack Clan rat Warlord warrior regiment looks nice.
Clan rat warrior regiment. Metal figures here, all with
halbards and Spears. Then the cards featuring the
Sceven magic items. Let's have a look at one of
them, the Fellblade. Fellblade costs us 135 points.
The Fellblade was created by the Sceven Lords of Decay to destroy
the evil necromance and a gash. It is made from ore, smelted
from warp stone and mixed with stolen gromrel.
It's blade is carved with baneful rooms of doom and
destruction, so deadly that the Fell Blade even has that even
it's wielder must eventually succumb to its effects.
The bearer strikes for the strength of 10/10 I said, and
each wound inflicted causes not one but D6 wounds upon its
target. A model carrying the Fell Blade
must roll AD 6 at the end of his turn.
On the roll of a six, he suffers 1 wound for the baneful effect
of the sword, with no armour saving throw allowed.
Deadly things, deadly, deadly weapons carried by the Scaven.
But that's good isn't it? It?
It sounds good that there's we've got this book has a lot of
colour pictures in it, probably more so than others, but maybe
at this point a colour printing was becoming cheaper.
The models, they become more selling points from the models.
There's less story and background of what there is is a
very high quality. But yeah, we get in lots of
heavy metal pictures here. Gracie, a tranquil prepares to
lead his horde in the battle. The skeeving swarm quickly
overpowers the invading Chaos Dwarf force.
It does too. A mighty skeeving horde swarms
forward to sweep away an empire and dwarf alliance who?
These were good. These pictures though, the
scenery and the buildings are just fantastic.
They still hold up. Today we have some black and
white pictures of Scraven banners which we can use next
and paint in before moving on to the beastry and the bestry.
And here we have the the Scraven start line.
Movement 5. Weapon skill 3.
Bow skill 3. Strength 3.
Toughness 3. Lot of threes there.
Wounds 1. Initiative 4.
Attacks one. Leadership 5 low leadership, but
otherwise an average stat line. And of course the regiments.
They encourage the big regiments by every rank behind the first,
giving you plus one to leadership, which made a big
difference. So you were encouraged to have
those big units, but nobody seemed to take them.
Skeevin assassins. They're nice.
The clan esching gutter runners, the clan skier.
Poison, wind, globidiers, The plague monks.
Lots of people had these and they were absolutely deadly.
Never used to see many giant rats.
Movement 6 where it was called 2.
That's probably why. Plague sense of errors.
Yeah. Big units of those all in front
of the armies. You know, they, they, they have
probably have about 10 or 12 of them sort of covering the whole
front of of an army because they were absolutely deadly.
The Empire Knight was an impressive sight as he galloped
his grey charger over the Ridge. The early morning mist still
clung to the ground, and the advancing Scaven army looked as
if it was swimming through white foam. 5 scavens scuttle head of
the rest, whirling spiked flails around their heads.
Streams of green yellow gas poured out of the spiked balls,
spreading a pall of poisonous mist about them.
The knight charges horse at the lead Scaven, bending down to
swing his hammer at it. At the last minute the horse
panicked and shield. The knight was thrown to the
ground with a thud of steel coffin as the thick air
blistered his throat. He tried to struggle to his feet
but was knocked down again by a well placed blow from the
scaven. The spiked ball crunched into
the Knights unprotected head, leaving half his face a red ruin
as he toppled over. The Scaven leaped on top of him
and tore open his throat. Mad with fear, the horse ran
straight towards the ranks of the Scaben army, but within
seconds it too succumbed to the lethal gas and sank beneath the
swirling mists of the last despairing whinny of terror.
It's quite dark, wasn't it? Scaven packmasters, We move on
to Scaven slaves. Vermin Lord, the Demon of the
Horned Rat movement 8. Weber skill 8, Post skill 8
Strength 8 Toughness 7 Wound 7. Initiative 10/8 Attacks and
leadership 10 spells. Vermin Lords well versed in the
realms of magic and have a magic level of four, the equivalent to
a grey seer. So there we are.
They caused terror. They carried with them a Doom
Glave. The glaves wielded by the Vermin
Lords are heavily ensorsled with death magic.
A hit. A hit from a doomed glave
inflicts not one but D3 wounds. Deadly things.
I always found with the vermin law, the figure was either too
small or too big. When they first came out, these
things were not much bigger than a rat.
Ogres didn't look that impressive, but now they're
absolutely massive and covered up.
Half the page, half the page, half the board.
Even Rat ogres, rat swarms. Lots of this going on here.
The Army list carries on the army list, sorry, the the best
tree carries on into the army list.
But there's another story here. So let's let's have that.
I hear that a lot of you listen to this, enjoy listening to it
when you're doing your painting. And that makes me happy.
It fills me with joy because I like painting and I like nothing
more than a bit of company when I'm painting.
And if I can be that company, then yeah, that makes me happy.
If you want to buy me a coffee, that would make me even happier
as well. coffee.a.com/owinstaton.
I messed that up. So say it again,
ko-fi.com/owinstaton. And you all know I've got a
podcast called Time Between Times, which is all about myths
and legends, especially from Wales, ghost stories and the
like. So if you fancy having to listen
to that, please, please do. I would really appreciate your
support there. Their armies were glorious,
invincible 10s of thousands of proud rat warriors marching over
the lands above, laying waste to everything in their path.
When Grey Seer Skitra had seen the moon bleeding tears of warp
stone, they had turned E back towards the misky peaks of the
World Edge Mountains. To cross the swollen waters of
the River Steer, the Grey Seer ordered the construction of a
mighty wooden bridge. Many slaves died felling the
great oak trees and toppling them into the river, and many
more died when the great seer, the Gracia, sacrificed their
souls in thanks for the safe army passage east of the river.
The land became Wilder and less populated, and the Skaven army
made good times with the woods and over the Moors.
They were possessed by a strange urgency, as if something was
pulling them irresistibly forward.
The eyes of the Gracia burned with the naked warp lust as he
urged his soldiers onwards. Bill King is such a good writer.
Creates magic, creates pictures in your mind, pictures that last
for a long time. And whatever he writes is always
in a slightly different style, as if to capture the style of
the book that he's he's writing. For the army list, the first few
pages are always the same as they they are for all the lists
really. And then you go into army
selection again, very similar to the other books that we've gone
through. Characters ones gave Wall or
general 90 points. Movement 5.
Weapons skills 6. Both skills 6.
Strength 4. Toughness 4.
Three wounds, initiative 7. Four attacks, leadership 7.
Not the mightiest of heroes, but a hero nonetheless.
You could have a vermin lodge for 600 points.
That's a lot isn't it? Your regiments nought to one
vermin of unit of storm vermin clan clan rat warriors.
Unlimited Nought to 1 units of clan eshing, gutter runners,
Clan eshing assassins, skeeving slaves, skeeving censor bearers,
clan pestilence, plague monks, poison wind globetiers,
packmasters, war machines. The warp fire thrower teams at
70 points each. Gizelle teams at 30 points each.
The Doom Wheel, 150 points each. Unlimited, you can have a load
of them. Screaming Bells Unlimited again
2000. No, it may include a screaming
bell. OK 200 points each though.
And then monsters. And as in all these 4th edition
books, the monsters you can have anything.
Hydras, manticores, wyverns, harpies, all these type of
things. Then you've got special
characters. Now these special characters
have gone through a lot of books and are very well lasting.
Gracia, tranquil with bone Ripper.
Always linked with Gottrick and Felix which is nice as well.
Good Bill. King Linklair as well.
Lord Skrulk, the plague Lord of class Pestilence.
He's got lots of rules as well. Ikid Claw, Clan Chief Warlock of
Clanskaya, Throat the Unclean, all the ones of which they had
the figures that we looked at earlier.
But again, the man catcher of Throat the unclean, that
horrible like claw thing. He had Death Master Snitch, the
cloak of shadows that he wore. Warlord quick head taker with
dwarf gouger. Yeah.
And then we've got an article written by Andy Chambers himself
about skaving tactics. He starts it with a little bit
of fiction. Gather your own children of the
Horned Rat while this ancient and wicked warlord tells you how
to bring doom and destruction upon the forces of the upper
world. The road to victory can be a
hard and Stony one, filled with pitfalls and traps for the
unwary along the way. I think what Andy is saying is
this army is meant to be unreliable, meant to be random,
meant to be not the sort of army that you can make too many plans
with. And that it was, I believe, of
course, the article goes on for pages.
He's got lots of ideas on how to use Gavin, which is good to see.
And it's nice that they had these in these books, didn't
they? So you could pick it up.
And these days you just go online and a lot of people get
lost in the met way too much, I feel.
But here they had all the, you know, the clan, the the ideas
for how you could use the army in a way that was could suit
you, but also the way that they felt how strong it was, you
know, in certain areas. And I'll just go right to the
end where he says overall tactics with escaping army.
You've only got one choice for an overall strategy and that's
charge. He goes on to say lacking
missile troops and cavalry means afford.
You can't afford to keep the enemy at arm's length any longer
than absolutely necessary. So just charge in.
It's taken him 6 pages to say that, but yeah, there it is.
Got some more fiction then coming up for quite a bit more
of Bill King's stuff, which is looking good, but we're running
out of time a bit now, so I'll move on as quick as I can.
Look at that. They've given looks like 5 pages
of the book, 6 pages of the book just to some fiction.
There's more or less a novel in here, which is which is great to
see isn't it? And then the book abruptly as it
does, starts to come to an end with our advert for the the 5th
edition set, which is coming out here of lizard men and
Britonians. And then the list of the
Warhammer army books, which are all out and published as this
wrote with a picture of a troll in the middle, some Citadel
fantasy range, an old advert for them.
And then that customary article about collecting the Sceven army
shows a couple of figures, then a massive unit of those plastic
sceven all looking the same. I didn't like those at the time,
but there's something very alluring about them now.
Then a Warhammer roster sheet with lots of different things on
him. What's he gone with from 1000
point army? Grace Heathranquil leads the
1000 point army. Like he'd get up off his chair
to come and do battle of this size with Bourne.
RIP. But of course, 39 clan rats.
It's very specific. A skating champion, 15 plague
monks, warp fire thrower team. Good on you.
And eight gutter runners. Yeah, nice to see.
Then again, we've got the stats of Gracie of Tranquil.
We've got blown Rupper, Ripper stance and clan Rabbit scores,
Clan rats. Yeah, he's given us all these, a
bit of background for that army as well and shows us how to use
it, which I think is is commendable, is commendable.
The Black Claw of Clan esching, the warp firescore, the warp
fire thrower team. And then he gives us some tips
on expanding the army before the book finishes when it gives us
an article on collecting a themed army and a Warhammer
rostra sheet. And then of course, it finishes
off with some lovely photographs.
Escaping army crashes in a combined force of Wood elves and
Brutonians and clan rats swarm forward, confident in the
supreme power of the screaming bell.
Then the back cover, bright red, The vile and benevolent scavene
gnaw through the roots of the old world like a malignant
cancer. Then, under Empire, spreads ever
outwards from its sprawling capital of ancient evil,
Scavenblight. Seething hordes of vicious rat
men lie waiting to bring the final apocalypse upon the
unsuspecting realms of men. Black clad assassins slink
through the sewers, rabid plague monks brute magical pestilences,
insane warlock engineers build their devastating weapons of
mass destruction, and foul packmasters mutate warped and
deadly war beasts to unleash upon their foes though the
ancient and evil Lords of Decay. The Horned Rat himself, the dark
God of the Scraven race, cynically guides his children to
their ultimate destiny of complete mastery of the entire
world. This indispensable supplement
for the Warhammer game of Fantasy Battle describes the
Scraven race and their unspeakable horror in complete
and exhaustive detail. And there we have it, my
friends, Warhammer Army's Scraven.
I have to leave it now because without saying too much, but my
wife is about to go in the shower and the noise here will
get very loud as it's right next to where I record.
But I should leave you with that.
Thank you again for listening. I enjoy doing these.
If you enjoy them, why not drop me an e-mail, go to my website,
welshstoryteller.com and have a look at the sort of things I do.
I have a listen to the podcast if you would, and let me know
that you've come here from the Crown of Command.
It's good to be with you where you paint in one of you.
Whatever you're doing with a hobby.
It's a good thing to do, my friends.
It's a good thing to invest your time in.
It's something that focuses the mind and something that makes
you feel good. Long may it continue for you.
I'll see you soon for another look at one of these Army books.
But in the meantime, no star friend.
Yeah.