One element of picking an army, although a minor factor, is the types of armies you'll have to face at your LGS. One I'd face is a night goblins horde with fanatics, squigs, and a pair of giants. Starting out, I wouldn't be playing 2000 point armies and he wouldn't have the pair of giants. I would have to deal with a lot of fanatics right off the bat, though.

Reading through their rules, it seems that Skaven have the atomic weapon against fanatics. If someone suddenly appears right in front of the goblins, the fanatics have to scatter randomly and immediately. The O&G general doesn't even get to pick their initial direction, and this is certain to cause havoc in his army. This only happens if you teleport in, say by using Skitterleap to drop a chieftain in front of them. In fact, if I had that combo available, I probably wouldn't even bother to play the match.

Is the specialized Clan Eshin alternative list the only way to get Skitterleap without having a Grey Seer (i.e. not available until 2000 pts)? How would you deal with fanatics if you had the standard Warlord-type army list?

*gets to the end of your post* ahh now i know what you mean ^_^

okay, from my knowledge i do not believe you can have skitterleap under 2000pts in a warlord army, you can only get it on a grey seer, and i believe even then you cannot leap into combat (thats a bonus the eshin list has) tbh i would probally leave the fanatics as in all honesty skaven have the option to them to just wait it out shooting away with ratling guns and warpfire throwers.

if i really wanted to i would charge my slaves into the night goblin unit with the general within 12 inches of the unit, then if the slaves die, as always, who cares.

so yeah slaves are used to deal with fanatics. but i just realised warplock pistols could be effective against fanatics :o aha i might just give that a go.

Fanatics are a pain. full stop. you can't go on a vendetta against the night goblin unit because the unit costs so little and they fail to panic any orcs around them, but you can't ignore it, because fanatics cause horrific damage.

What I would do is either get a minimal team of scouting gutter runners and make them pop out, or (I have just had the idea :o ) have a tunneling team set up nearby them; I would assume that would count as popping up near them, a bit of a long shot and it probably cost a lot more points than it is worth but that may be the solution. :D

Doesn't really work ;) , warlocks don't have a great BS, on top off individual model moving and any other penalties you're hitting on 6's if anything. Also, the pesky thing about fanatics is that each one counts as an individual unit so you can't just say 'I'll shoot at those three fanatics' you have to target them separately. :( It's annoying, I normally waste a magic phase sorting those buggers out (storm daemon, two warp lightnings for a maximum of three fanatics <_< ). Oh well, when it comes to pesky units, we can't really complain :lol: .

Not many good choices there, is it? Gutter runners are expensive for Skaven, and cost more than I'd like to pay for a sacrificial unit. Special choice, too, and I'd need a couple units to get near each block of night goblins troops. Any idea how they'd approach the middle of his lines by the 2nd or 3rd turn? The goal is to get the fanatics launched while the majority of his own units are closer to them than you are. Let them kill his own units or themselves before they reach you.

Given the chances of a misfire, would I ever use a warpfire thrower shot on a single fanatic? Might use a single die on the ratling gun, though, since a single hit ought to suffice. I was hoping to keep the things more than 15" away, if possible.

I'd be tempted to try the tunneling team even if it were a million to one shot. 'Pop goes the weasel' would be too fabulous if it ever worked out. Just isn't likely to happen at all before the fanatics reach launching range. If you managed to march block the goblins, then you got close enough to launch them already. If not, they're going to be pretty far across the board by the time tunnelers appear. Cool idea, though.

well too be honest i wouldnt be too bothered about it myself as ok they pop out with a fanatic, you just stay still and shoot at their unit with your ratling gun, all the while staying still with your clanrats, remember you have less need to charge off, you can just stand their and wait for them (not in all situations just this one ^_^ )

Omid: well the pistols count as thrown weapons dont they (ignoring long range and movement penalties) so they should hit on 5's but i havent used them before so am uncertain.

still i would say to just sit their and wait for them to roll a double or hit a piece of terrain, they normally do anyway after a turn or two

I know that they are costly, but that was the only alternative I could think of. All you would need is 4 gutter runners with the tunneling ability and place them just in half of the board, taking into account his movement, and opposite his night goblin unit, sorted, probably. :unsure:

long range, you can do, but you can't march with them and shoot (you can't do that with anything apart from fast cavalry -_- ) so It is an awkward situation.

Towards the last comment, you could sit there and wait but you forget the fact that fanatics have to be triggered, meaning they have to be within 8" of one of your units, if that means your main lines, so be it, If he is playing an orcs army as well, He'll have a good ld so his unit won't panic beforehand, if not, there still won't be too much trouble for the opponent if you kill his night goblin unit, it doesn't cost that much.

Why are you worrying about fanatics? Unless they have 27 of the buggers just igonre them, most of your units will be greater than 30 so you really have nothing to worry about. Throw a unit of night-runners ahead if you are that worried, once they are released you should not get more than one or two per unit and with skaven that is not really a problem. A tunneling team is an option but only if they have no rock-lobba's or savage orcs to deal with.

Owaria

yeah i suppose thats sort of a last resort, they would need to kill 6 rats in order to panic them, even then it would be leadership 9 using the chieftains leadership ^_^

but yeah warplock pistol should work a treat, also you could move close to them as soon as you get within 8 they come out then hopefully they will roll under and just stop before you, thats when you hope they go back on themselves :lol: i've seen that done many a time, Boblin armies verses skaven are the funniest games to play in (and watch) as everything blows up, disapeers in puffs of smoke and turns into squigs ^_^