Skaven in Frostgrave & Most "martial" school of magic?

[Philhelm]

I was thinking of creating a Skaven warband for Frostgrave.  The following Soldier translations could work:

Thief:  Unarmored Clanrat with hand weapon (I don't think that the kit has a proper dagger);
Thug:  Unarmored Clanrat with spear (in order to better differentiate from the Thief);
Man-at-Arms:  Armored Clanrat with handweapon/spear and shield;
Archer:  None;
Crossbowman:  Perhaps a Jezzail team, or any weapon team;
Tracker:  None;
Templar:  Stormvermin with halberd;
Knight:  Stormvermin with handweapon and shield;
Wardog:  Dog-sized rat, obviously;
Javelineer:  Poisoned-wind globes;
Treasure Hunter:  Assassin or Gutter Runner;
Ranger:  None, or perhaps an Assassin or Gutter Runner with a very long-ranged throwing weapon;
Bard:  Clanrat drummer

Regarding the Wizards:

Clan Skryre Warlock Engineer:  Elementalist, or perhaps an Enchanter for better gear and contructs;
Clan Moulder:  Probably an Enchanter for the Constructs (Rat Ogre), or a Witch for the animals;
Clan Pestilens:  Probably a Witch for poison, fog, etc.
Grey Seer:  Summoner?  A Verminlord would be perfect for a Greater Demon.

But my favorite clan is Mors, which is a martial, Warlord Clan.  What would be the best school of magic for Clan Mors, perhaps to represent combat abilities rather than magic?  Or perhaps the "Wizard" could possess a magical helmet conferring magical abilities like the Orc special character, Azhag?

[Smith]

As Wizards tap into other schools, not just their own, I'd say that Mors could be represented pretty well by cherry picking spells a bit... The trick will be finding the school with the most appropriate core spell package. For my money, it's got to be the Enchanter:

Enchanters have easy access to low-casting roll buff spells (Enchant Weapon/Armour, Strength) which really suit a combat-focused gang. They also have Embed Enchantment, which is a good way to improve kit between games. IIRC, Mors is a wealthy clan, and has loads of ransacked Dwarf gear, so that's nicely thematic as well.

Enchanters also choose one spell from each of the Witch, Sigilist and Elementalist schools, then one spell from two of the five neutral schools (so, any of the others except Chronomancer).

The Witch offers you Animal Companion (giant rat?) and Brew Potion (I remember Skalm and Skavenbrew being quite common). Elementalists bring loads of direct-damage to the table, as well as Elemental Hammer, which I like as an equivalent for some of the more common nasty magic swords Skaven have (Fellblade, Weeping Blade etc.)... not sure I'd take it AND Enchant Weapon, though. Sigilists are less obviously suited to Clan Mors, but they do have Push which, at base casting cost 10 for an Elementalist, is a great spell!

As for the neutral schools, with a +4 to the base casting number, you're probably looking at the less powerful spells to start with... but that still has some great Mors-themed options! Bone Dart (Necromancer) is a good ranged attack (Warplock Pistol?), Awareness (Soothsayer) boosts initiative, Leap (Summoner) is good for fast movement and fits nicely with Skaven, while Heal (Thaumaturge) is always useful. All of those spells are base casting number 12 for an Enchanter, so very do-able right from the outset.

[Philhelm]

We definitely think alike on this subject, almost scarily so.

I was pondering Enchanter as well, for the better weapons and armor (as you say, they collect dwarven equipment during their raids, and their warriors are supposed to be a bit more battle-hardened), as well as the Strength spell to make them more fighty-stabby (Black Hunger?  Sharply worded commands?).

Definitely Brew Potion for Skalm and Skavenbrew, and Animal Companion and Familiar would be appropriate (with the added bonus of Familiar making the Wizard a bit tougher in combat).  I also agree with Elemental Hammer to represent a Weeping Blade.

Leap and Awareness are great ideas as well.

I don't have the spells in front of me, but I'm thinking:

Enchanter:
1. Enchant Weapon
2. Embed Enchantment
3. Strength

Witch:
4. Brew Potion (although Familiar would be considered to make the Wizard/Apprentice tougher)

Elementalist:
5. Elemental Hammer

Sigilist:
6: Perhaps Absorb Knowledge in lieu of martial training/experience?

Summoner:
7. Leap is definitely best for the "requisite" movement spell.

Soothsayer:
8. Awareness (or maybe Combat Awareness, if it's a Soothsayer spell, instead of Strength, in which case I would take a different Enchantment spell such as Enchant Armor).

[Gunbird]

Why not have a Archer or Crossbowman Skaven? Sure, you might not see them, but why would they not hacve acces and use them, expecially Eshin. My old Mordheim Skaven band had a crossbow skaven in it, a simple conversion of some suitable hands with a normal Militia crossbow and the right pose. The bow would not be any harder. That and you create unique looking Skaven

[Philhelm]

Why not have a Archer or Crossbowman Skaven? Sure, you might not see them, but why would they not hacve acces and use them, expecially Eshin. My old Mordheim Skaven band had a crossbow skaven in it, a simple conversion of some suitable hands with a normal Militia crossbow and the right pose. The bow would not be any harder. That and you create unique looking Skaven

That's true, there is no reason why they couldn't technically use such weapons, although I'd imagine that a crossbow would be much more likely than a bow, considering their subterranean existence and lack of training (I could see Eshin using bows though).  However, I think that the weapon teams would be more iconic, although a smaller Jezzail handgun would be appropriate and could count as a crossbow.

[Darkson71]

Just do "counts as". For example, the old Mordheim/Gutter Runner plastics had models armed with throwing stars (archers) and you could use poison globe bombardiers as crossbows.

I wonder where all my old Skaven went...

[GypsyBreath]

Hi guys

I've a skaven warband as love the ratmen!

I've rolled a Witch for my wizard, and have animal companion to get me a Bear Rat Ogre.
You can do some rather smart conversions if you want ((although limited by some of the generic stances of some models)).

Im using the skaven slinger upgrade as base archers. Link Here
I was lucky enough to have a mate (whom we played Mordheim with) who had the old Empire battle box, so lots of human bits to work with. already had a couple of crossbowmen made up and have made an archer for Frostgrave (still needs painted though).  We are proxying gunpowder weapons as Crossbows, due to the reload rule etc.
I know forgeworld does some "wolf Rat" models if i recall, for wolves/dogs if you wanted. (But likely Pricey...)
The old Fantasy box set that that had the skaven in had a packmaster model in it, holding a his skaven jabby stick.  I had one for Mordheim, where if you cut the staff up around the hands, it looks exactly like hilts, so you can stick a couple of swords/knives into it.
Also, you could turn it into an apprentice/wizard model it you want (and due to the locations of the crystals in the staff, looks very Skyre)
I've stuck some images in below that I uploaded to the BoW forums.


Apprentice: http://i.imgur.com/fFalmnd.jpg?2
Apprentice:

Crosbowmen:

2 Swords:  http://imgur.com/NhiGg8w

[Darkson71]

Slingers! Gah! How did I forget them? Even more arms with them on the old plastics!

[Philhelm]

Slingers! Gah! How did I forget them? Even more arms with them on the old plastics!

I forgot about those too, although I'd likely use them to count as javelins rather than bows.  My only complaint is that they are weak-weak.  The mighty Clan Mors doesn't fight with slung rocks!

[Philhelm]

You know, Karak Eight-Peaks would be an awesome setting for games of Frostgrave, with warbands of Skaven, Night Goblins, and Dwarves killing each other for treasure.

Perhaps the different races could have slight stat modifications to the core Soldiers.

Skaven:  +1 Move / -1 Will
Night Goblins: -1 Fight, -1 Will, -2 Health (Cheaper; Higher warband size)
Dwarves: +1 Fight / -1 Move

Perhaps even the Wizard/Apprentice could be replaced by the Captain and an Lieutenant (similar to an Apprentice).

[Smith]

A while ago, I had the idea of making an all-Pestilens army for Dragon Rampant, using Plague Monk bodies and Night Goblin arms for variety - spears, bows etc. Never got around to it, but given that the Plague Monk bodies aren't that plague-y, that might be a viable conversion option for Skaven Archers.

[Philhelm]

I'm not really fond of the idea of Skaven archers (bowmen).  Crossbows would make more sense to me, but even then, I think that a warplock musket (counts as crossbow) would be the route I'd go.  Some of the older Skaven models had handguns that weren't huge like the current Jezzails.  Besides, I would probably focus on Stormvermin (Knights/Templars) and Clanrats (Men-at-Arms), so would only want two, maybe three, ranged units.

[Deadestdai]

I gave my old (small) collection of Skaven to my 11 year old to paint up as his Frostgrave warband.

You guys are giving me some great ideas as to how to represent all the soldier types with the minis we have.

[Darkson71]

Who says that the skaven/verminkind/ratkin of the Frostgrave world live underground?

[Philhelm]

Who says that the skaven/verminkind/ratkin of the Frostgrave world live underground?

Because "Into the Breeding Pits" is going to be released in a few months?