Skirmish Units.(and looking for some advice), Some thoughts I have about them

Hey guys (first post and first topic here)

I'm beginning a Skaven army,taking advantage of them being upgraded very soon and as something that's distant to my HE.

My plan for my army is a Plague Monk heavy army with a basic army composition such as this (haven't received my new army book so I can't tell you the points cost of this army)

Lord Skrolk (Making Plague Monks core) a Plague Priest atop a Plague Furnace,both of these to hero choices will fight out of large 20-25 man Plague Monk units.

A Chieftain BSB.

One large unit of Clanrats will be there for numerical support and generally to catch bullets.
A 20-man unit of Stormvermin with Halberds and shields,this will give me a unit that should be able to hold it's own against most rank and file regiments.

Special choices I'm thinking 3-4 Rat Ogres as a unit of heavy hitters

A couple units of Plague Censors about 5 per.

A unit of 10 Globadiers

And a Plagueclaw Catapult.


Now my thought was for each of the assault units (the two Plague Monk units and the Storm Vermin unit) will be accompanied by a Skirmish unit to cover there blindside and to offer a flank (or rear) charge.

As my army is going to be fairly overbalanced in the combat department,and fairly good in the magic phase,would you suggest anything else,add or drop anything?

Thanks for reading this,I realize its a bit long.

Welcome to life underground!

Unfortunately, the mainstay skirmishing unit (Night runners) no longer skirmish, so skirmishing unit options are very limited. PCB do skirmish of course, and make very good tag-teams with PM units, but because of their Frenzy, are not likely to be able to go around for a flank charge, and are prone to being led around by fast cavalry etc. Also, they are arguably the most precious troops so you will want something to screen THEM from shooting/magic missiles.

Other options are gutter runners (they skirmish) but are again too costly for such a role.

I think the best options are units of Giant Rats either flank or screening PM/PCB. They are cheap and fast (with M6 they are faster than the average skaven). Even cheaper are slaves, and they can certainly do this job, as long as they are not panicked away...

Strategically also, skirmishers, although more maneuvrable and therefore able to get a flank charge, are less effective as flankers because they don't give the flank bonus nor negate ranks. They would be advantages only if they MURDER the enemy and thus help with the body count: thus PCB are excellent at this, but tricky to pull off as Frenzy will force them to charge the enemy on sight (usually that means the front).

shirmishers do get the flank bonus, they just dont negate ranks

Alright I planned on getting some Giant Rats anyway (actually I planned on getting some Rat Ogres )

Hate to be a total newb,but as I have very little experience playing as or vs Skaven what units do skirmish?

Gutter Runners
Plague Censor Bearers
and who else?

Poison Wind Globadiers skirmish as well.

i didnt think that the PWG's skirmished anymore

They do!
(besides they won't be used as two-rat-units in future since being special.)

Rat Swarms skirmish if I recall correctly. 2 are fairly cheap and block your units from frenzying poorly.

they dropped skirmish from rat swarms unfortunately