E/ STRATEGIES:
One of the things that enthralled me in this mod, apart from being an old warhammer fan, is the number of strategies you can lay for this nation. I’ll try to describe one that I particularly liked but you might come up with as many as you wish, really.
STRATEGY 1: “Bend to the will of the Horned Rat, manthing!”
At first sight, those ratmen might not have impressed you much with their martial prowess. Well, let's say they might not at second sight either
Truth be told, they’ve got a lot to go for them in the middle and late game, what with powerful versatile mages, nice summons/constructs and a forge industry unequalled except maybe by MA Ulm.
Nonetheless.
Though they’ve got such nasty racials as stealth and siege which helps a lot in middle game and darkvision supported by high death magic (->darkness) which kicks asses in late game, their national troops are really subpar to many nations and most indies. There are not many ways, if any, to come out of a fight without casualties if you play this race. So accept it and go further.
All of this implies that you’ll have to focus hard on early expansion in your strategy if you want to reach that mighty late game.
Taking an awake SC pretender is an obvious choice and one that synergizes really well with other aspects of this nation.
Consider an awake Prince of Death with D5N4 or A4D5, dom 10 with Turmoil 3, Sloth 3, Cold 3, Growth 2, Luck 3 and Magic 1.
N4 would give you access to nature,a regeneration bless for your sacred & personal regeneration while A4 gives you nice self buffs, storms & staff of storms, arrow fend, fog warriors etc…I prefer air but it’s really up to you.
Your PoD is an indie-killer right out of the box as dom10 will give you awe +2 which added with fear +15 (!) makes you immune to nearly anything at close range. Give him a shield and you can laugh in the face of hundreds of knights supported by crossbowmen. The only thing that can be a problem is huge armies of undead for obvious reasons.
But that’s not the most important thing about Dom10. In fact, if you listen too long to the whispers of the Horned Rat’s minions scurrying in your dark alleys, you may very well end up taking a bath in the sewers as if it were your mom’s womb
Indeed, if you want to try a domkill, this nation is for you above any other. They’ve got easy access to the 2 main weapons of the would-be domkiller: blood sacrifice with H3 priests, the same priests being stealthy to go and sap any resistance under your own enemy’s feet.
You wouldn’t believe how fast the use of these two Massive Conversion Weapons with Dom10 powder can turn the heads of your enemies. Equip a Grey Seer with a jade knife (empower any indie mage for it) and he’ll sacrifice 5 blood slaves a month for the equivalent of 11 (!) temple checks.
With little more than 9 plague chantors or moulder mutators equipped with dowsing rods, you should be able to sustain 9 grey seers bloodsacrificing like hell before the end of year 2. That’s the equivalent of a HUNDRED temple checks with dom 10 per turn when middle game has barely begun!!!
If bloodhunting is not easygoing for you, you should read Baalz guide here for more explanations:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=33753
You can also prepare the land before the tidal domwave by sending 1-3 grey seers preaching under your opponent’s capital or his most valuable plains (be sure to give them 2 astral pearls and script them to cast returning in case of patrols). To add pain to injury, they’ll be able to switch to instill uprising when needed, helped by your eshin assassins.
Finally, you’ll hear the cries of your enemies when they start to realize how the scales you took impact their economy: while turmoil 3 synergizes well with your luck 3 (welcome those uber national heroes and loads of magic gems to fuel your forge industry), you must realize that it becomes turmoil 3 misfortune 3 for your enemy.
As someone put it before me, your good luck is your opponent’s bad luck!
Your scales really are Turmoil 3 Sloth 3 Cold 3 Misfortune 3 for your enemy…watch him suffocate while he soaks it up and laugh ;-)
By the way, depending on your opponents you could take Heat 3 instead of Cold 3 (which is nice for your banelords chill and against coldblooded nations but otherwise…)
As an old RPGer, I rejoice in imagining hundreds of sneaky assassins and preachers scurrying at night in my opponents’ towns, using magic or talent to delude the unwary into believing in a god they can’t fathom.
It’s like during the Vietnam War when the USA were losing their war at home while the troops were fighting far away. No, it’s a hundred times worse. In fact, it’s as if the American people had asked to *become* Vietnamese while the troops were fighting!!!
GUERRILLA
Now, as you surely have noticed, all of this becomes possible IF you can fend off those troops from your own lands long enough. Like the Vietnamese, you haven’t got the means to fight on the same terms, at least in early-mid game. Like them, you will have to resort to some kind of guerilla if you want to survive while your dominion makes the kill.
Luckily for you, the skavens have got a whole arsenal to go for it.
First, you have among your commanders those sneaky bastards called eshin assassins. With or without equipment they can wreak havoc in the commanding line of your opponent’s army or instill uprising to prevent cheap reinforcements. They rightfully deserve a fort of their own to recruit one per month. Against battlemages try equipping one with a lifelong protection and a black bow of botulf.
Secondly, your skavens are all stealthy little murderers remember? You will soon be able to make at least a squad per turn which will be able to sneak behind your opponent’s lines and attack his PD, causing unrest and never stopping to wait for retaliation. Or, you could very well wait for that retaliation with a nasty surprise of your own, like teleporting some grey seers with skellispam or shadowblasts to support your troops or even gating a grey seer with a full army in darkness in late game.
This also solves the mind hunt problem as once your opponent will have got some of his most valuable astral mages feebleminded he might not be so liberal with this tool afterwards.
An added bonus of teleporting/gating a grey seer is that you may build a temple the very turn you gate him in and start blood-sacrificing in the middle of your opponent’s dominion for further mischief.
One good thing about a huge domwave is that your enemies will sooner or later have to build costly temples instead of troops to try to fend it off and priests instead of mages which further disrupt their strategy/economy and lessen the threat to your own territory. Another interesting thing is the “Eyes of god” effect of having your dominion so widespread since you learn a lot from those provinces you converted: information is key as always.
Additionally, the use of a flying SC pretender is not only perfect for early expansion, it also gives you a prime guerilla tool, especially after you’ll have him equipped. The fear effect is also perfect to disrupt your opponent’s plans as his fleeing armies scatter on the landscape, where stealthy troops await to slit their throats.
Finally, your versatile site searchers and lucky scales should have filled your treasury by midgame with loads of gems your skryre blacksmiths should take advantage of. Bane lords in middle game then Verminlords in late game should provide you with ample means to protect your lands and retaliate.
In late game anyway, dompush becomes but one of your weapons as SCs and strong magic win the day...and you've got plenty of it. Access to good SC chassis (Verminlord & Elemental Royalties ), a forge industry and now strong Astral, Death, Earth, Fire & Blood...what else would you need?
EARLY EXPANSION
Turn 1: Make a prophet of your leader, send your scout and set you pretender on research Conjuration. Recruit a Moulder mutator and 6 plague censer bearers.
Turn 2: Alchemize 2 astral pearls to make a BS tower shield for your pretender with the mutator. If you picked air as secondary path you could go with air shield but your pretender will really be tougher with the tower shield. Join your troops in one block to help for morale issues, your plague bearers on the flanks and go take that easy adjacent province which gives you the most resources. Don’t forget to ctrl-click as your armies are stealthy, I can’t help but forget that once in a while and curse myself the turn after. Recruit a plague chantor and plague censer bearers/monks.
Turn 3: Equip your pretender with the shield and send him to take the toughest adjacent province, anything but undeads. Send your prophet on the easiest one or undeads. If possible, recruit a leader on your first province taken to bring reinforcements to your prophet on the next turns.
Afterwards: Research conjuration 2 then switch to thaumaturgy 2 for the site searchers then rank up the construction ladder. As soon as you get conjuration 2 set your D1 plague chantors on casting dark knowledge. If you get some death gems events and/or find quickly some death sites, start asap to summon some shades to help your expansion armies. Ethereal, stealthy and poison resistant they go quite well with your censer bearers.
You should bring reinforcements to your first expansion army then start to build the second one: clanrats with monks in the front middle, plague bearers and gutter runners on the flanks should take care of most indies. Take a plague priest to spam sermon of courage and the occasional banishment. For the toughest indies, use your pretender and fly to strategic points to secure your territory while your armies catch up.
Don’t ever hesitate to sign any NAP to help you live to the middle/late game. Would it surprise you if I told you that having a flying SC pretender goes a long way to convince your neighbors of signing NAPs in early game?
But look again, what’s really treacherous about the skavens and this domkill strategy is that you may very well kill your enemy without ever officially breaking that NAP!
Oh, deceitful children of the Horned Rat how much I love you
You should target a forest to build your first fort (800gp) around turn 6-8 depending on your luck with gold events. Turmoil/luck 3 is really most powerful in early game as the events you get are often better than having order 3. It’s much less the case in late game when you can only get so much events (4-5 max) while you can have so many provinces where order 3 kicks ***. That’s one of the reasons I took growth 2 to compensate somewhat if the game lasts.
Recruit at least 2 warlocks to site search and lots of plague chantors on your secondary forts. The B1 chantors should start bloodhunting when you begin researching construction. At the same time, start recruiting your grey seers and send some to stealth preach under your main opponent’s capital while you save the rest for bloodsacrifice.
By the way, you should think carefully to where and when to build those necessary temples you plan to paint in red. Blood red.
One trick is to build them on the very provinces you plan to bloodhunt as your grey seer will then have his monthly supply of slaves without need of a costly lab or too much micromanagement. Additionally, a grey seer is a great support to your PD in case of a raid which will occur sooner or later. If you can do that close to your border with that annoying opponent the better. If you've got a forest province with around 5000 pop bordering your enemy, don't think, build a fort and bloodsacrifice like hell behind the protection of your walls.
The construction path will open up all that you need to further your goals. Start forging dwarven hammers at const 2, then dowsing rods and skull mentors at 4. As soon as you get the dowsing rods you should be bloodhunting 2-3 provinces to sustain your blood sacrifices.
With warlocks&dwarven hammers, the skulls will only cost you 6 gems apiece which should speed up your research till construction 6 where you’ll get those 3 gems lightless lanterns! Now you’ve got an underground MIT lab of your own to rank up any path you wish at lightspeed.
Construction will also give you access to those nice national constructs. I have a particular liking for the doomwheel (this is wrathful skies made wheel!) but they all get their uses depending on your foes.
The paths you select afterwards really depend on your opponents but conjuration and alteration should be priorities imo.
Conjuration will give you bane lords and verminlords that you’ll equip with your unequalled forge industry.
Alteration will give you arouse hunger and blight for guerrilla, then darkness at lvl 6 which should be cast with your grey seers in every major fight. And I mean it. You’ve also got fog warriors at lvl7 castable by your pretender, then of course army of gold at lvl 9. A skaven army of gold supported by your warlocks&grey seers, lead by a fully equipped verminlord in darkness is all you need really.
Evocation can be nasty with all your fire, earth, death & astral mages. You've got several deadly national spells like warp lightning, particularly if you face heavy protected foes in the early game. Don't forget nether darts, especially if you grab some astral indies to communion. You also get Mind hunt at lvl6 if you also research
Thaumaturgy for soul slay.
Enchantment gives you skellispam then undead hordes and even thunderward, castable by your pretender which goes really well with your friendly firing doomwheels. You’ve also got arrow fend a bit further up the ladder.
Thaumaturgy gives you teleport and gateway to travel your grey seers around as well as a lot of nasty death spells and soul slay to mind hunt.
Blood doesn’t feel as useful in this strategy as you will have use of your blood slaves for blood sacrifice so I wouldn’t go for this path until you’ve ranked up all the others.
Enjoy!