Mordheim: City of the Damned

Mordheim: City of the Damned

73 ratings
Iron Rats
By Tai Samar and 1 collaborators
Hello all you looters, heroes, villains, zelots, heratics, craven rats and everything inbetween. Today I would like to give a suggestion of an alternate build for the skaven. I call this build the Iron Rats.

The build is an suprisingly easy one. It relies on your leader, nightrunners, and later verminkin as your runners(looters) focusing on loot and distant wyrd stone, your wyrdguard and your black skaven are you hammer and anveil their role is to hold the enemy down and overwhelm them by numbers. This build does not use a ratoger, Ya I know they are really strong but its stupidity to much is a issue.

So lets get to how you should build the warband progressively shall we. First hire 1 night runner(keep the fighting claws) and fill your henchman slots with Wyrdguard. at your earliest convenience equip the adept(your leader) with fighting claws (yes it is weaker then the weeping blades but the added climbing skills helps the role of runner better) and equip your Wyrdguard with heavy armor a one-handed weapon(preferably a sword) and a shield. as you gain new slots fill your secent hero slot with another runner, your third with ether a Black Skaven or a lads got talent wyrdguard, the same goes for the forth slot. The advantage of the lads got talent Wyrdguard is that at level 9 they can attack four times with a one handed weapon with a point to spare for a counter attack (for a tank build) or three attacks with a halberd (for a heavy hitter build). It also opens up Henchman slots for Verminkin which can be used for both runners and fighters depending on your need. Vermin kin should have a dagger and sheild and stromvermin should have a one-handed weapon and shield.

when it comes to Atributes Your wyrdguard should focus strength, toughness, (skip agility), If they are staying henchman leadership until 6-9 then alertness from then on, if your turning them into a hero focus intellagence Until 9 then alertness(leadership is also acceptable), and finaly weaponskill over accuracy(skip Billistic skill). The apt and runners should focus Strength and toughness until 6 then agility from then on, adpt leadership maxed, intellagence as needed for both classes and Alertness as from then on, Weapon skill over accuracy, accuracy over Balistics skill. As for you Verminkin and your black skaven spread points between strength, toughness, and agility equally until 6 then as you see fit from then on. (i focuse strenth and toughness because i like tanks) . leadership should be focused until around 5 then alertness from then on. Finally like the adpt and runners weapon skill over accuracy, accuracy over balistics skill.

Skills are were this gets fun. I love passive skills, they make my warriors better and i can be lazy(ish) because i dont have to bother with when to activate skills. this love will translate in my advice. First the adpt I chose in this order Knowledge Tactics, Quick Incision, Commander, Swarm, Guidance, level 2 Knowledge Tactics, level 2 Commander, level 2 Quick Incision, At this point i didnt know what else to invest in so I chose Courage, numbing poison, warp poison, and finaly Precise Strike. The Night Runners choices were Quick Incision, Avoid, Art Of Silent Death, Swarm and then the level two of the skills in the same order. Black skaven Sheild specialist, Swarm, Flash Parry, Web of steel, and the the level two of the skills. Wyrdguard Henchman, Sheild spcialist, Heavy Armor Proficient, Quick Incision, Swarm, Web of Steel, mighty charge and finally Hold Ground. Wyrdguard Hero, Lads Got Talent, Lads Got Talent level 2, Heavy armor Proficient, Flash Parry, Swarm, Heavy Armor Proficient Level 2, Flash parry level 2, Swarm Level 2, Mighty Charge and Precise Strike. Finally the Verminkin, Shield Specialist, Swarm, Quick Incision, Art Of Silent Death the remaining points use as you see fit.

Well I hope this helps and I look forward to facing down some Iron rats in the near future. May you find fortune in the ruins.
   
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15 Comments
RAT 19 Mar @ 4:47pm 
It has a ring to it, "Iron Rats". Clan Mors is most pleased of your tactics-plans, yes-yes.
Hund 6 Mar, 2023 @ 7:55am 
my first successful skaven warband has a guy called bazrin squealer (or something to that effect). he's the last remaining one of my original rats, and got me the achievement for getting a fighter to level 10 without taking an injury.

which wasn't for lack of enemies, mind. he's always been a frontline combatant of mine. but he always seemed to get lucky, and i built him to be more and more of a tank. now, even with a maimed hand he has like an 86% parry chance i believe? and has soloed enemy leaders, and once one a 3v1. legend.
Impos! 18 Mar, 2022 @ 9:59pm 
Is "Lad's got talent" a trait?
Bababooey 6 Feb, 2022 @ 6:18pm 
i liked this guide a lot :) I turned entire band into tanks parry or dodge and it works pretty well. I did switch it up and go for heavy melee resist on all shield users. My black rats rock like 75% melee resist plus full WOS at over 100%. Yes i know over 100% parry/dodge can be seen as a waste but the guy i pvp with bypasses a bunch of my parry.
Styx the Broken 9 Sep, 2021 @ 5:31pm 
Tanky rats is fun
Steel Lynx 17 Jul, 2020 @ 6:00pm 
This Guide was written before the globadier was released as a merc unit. That being said its important to let people know there's a way around the guides limitations. All in all I think this is solid, but I think it works better for single player.
beauxner 13 Mar, 2020 @ 12:31pm 
No offense, but I think your guide could benefit greatly from some better formatting!
Bundar 5 Mar, 2020 @ 2:40am 
Thanks for the interesting guide. I am of the same school as Flapjaw and rely on globadiers. I also use a Grey as a Lord to control the stupidity on the Rat Ogre. Some interesting ideas in yours though,
Vaartok 26 Aug, 2017 @ 9:09pm 
Skipping out on the poison wind globadiers is a really bad idea. I build my entire warband with either parrying or dodging in mind, creating a lot of tanky but fast warpguard by using armor proficient and tying up enemy specialists in melee while shooting them or their friends down with the globadiers. The globadiers are also decent in melee, bypass a lot of poison resistance, and can heal my other Skaven.
Tai Samar  [author] 27 Oct, 2016 @ 11:51am 
Its always good to Hear people can see things from another perspective.