Age of Sigmar Faction Focus: Skaven (Updated November 3rd, 2025)

Changelog

• Update (Latest): 2025-11-03 Updated with new lists and new text in all sections to account for changes made in the 2025-2026 General’s Handbook, Scourge of Ghyran, and the September 2025 Battlescroll.
• Published: 2024-09-18

Why Should You Play Skaven?

Skaven provides a plethora of options to appease almost any playstyle a player could want. Do you want to hide in your deployment, playing with your Gnawhole in the corner like a little freak while trying to shoot your opponent across the board? There are plenty of rats with ‘gats to get ya going. Want to move 200 models around the table, overwhelming your opponent with swarms of recursive chaff, making you feel like you sat on a jar in 2008? The Great Horned Rat has you covered. How about being naked and not so afraid, having your opponent catch these hopped-up-on-warpstone hands to the dome? There are elite builds as well, fully rounding out what can be done from within the Skaven Battletome. 

Being the title army for the Skaventide release box for Age of Sigmar 4th edition, it’s no surprise that Skaven is one of the most popular armies. That being said, with mostly paper-thin saves across the army, playing Skaven can oftentimes feel unforgiving, where a poorly positioned screen leading to an unfortunate priority roll can be devastating. This is juxtaposed by the book having various movement shenanigans and recursion baked into the army, allowing for survival through tricks and treachery rather than brute force. Having so many options and ways to play the army allows for a lot of skill expression, making Skaven versatile and rewarding. 

Four Things You Need to Know

• You are not tough. Most of your army has a good chance to simply evaporate at first contact with the enemy, so you’ll need to be very careful about where you commit to combat and how you move.
• Gnawholes are a key part of your gameplan. Many of your Battle Traits revolve around taking advantage of your Gnawholes, so make sure you get your hands on some.
• You’re a very technical army. With multiple ways to teleport and move out of sequence, you’ll often have more options available to you to help you accomplish your goals.
• You have a ton of list building options. You have a myriad of playstyles to pick from, including hyper elite Stormfiend lists, warpstone fueled gunlines, or just flooding the board with tons of little rat bodies. No matter what, you will be able to find something that caters to your playstyle.

Battle Traits

The Skaven Battle Traits are generally either Gnawhole related and non-Gnawhole related. On the Gnawhole side, each round you can set up a new one anywhere on the board 9” away from your opponent’s stuff. These will allow you to teleport units around the board, either by starting underground during deployment, going into another Gnawhole elsewhere on the table during the movement phase, or by respawning units that have died at the end of your turn. 

On the non-Gnawhole side, your Infantry and Cavalry can retreat without taking mortals. This can be really strong for achieving tactics such as Intercept and Recover, where it requires you to to retreat two units for the second step of the tactic. The ability that really takes the cheese however is Always Three Clawsteps Ahead, which allows you to pick any unit that is not a monster and move it in your opponent’s hero phase. This is an immensely powerful ability, especially when compounded with many other abilities (such as the Scourge of Ghyran Screaming Bell’s The Bell Tolls ability). This happens before their Movement Phase, which means you can try and block off any potential plans your opponent may have before they get a chance to go where they want. Free movement is always good!

Formations

Warpcog Convocation

Your cream of the crop for a shooting-focused, Skryre list. Being able to pick three Skryre units from anywhere on the table during your shooting phase and give their ranged weapons +1 to wound on a 2+ can certainly be a powerful tool. Plus, if you roll a 6 when you give this buff, that unit also gets +1 to their rend characteristic. 

Fleshmeld Menagerie

When looking to send amalgamated meat missiles of rat men at your opponent, Fleshmeld Menagerie is going to be what you are looking for. Every turn in your hero phase, you can choose three non-Hero Moulder units, and attempt to give them an additional attack on a 3+. If the roll is a 5+, that unit also gets a 5+ ward until your next turn. Rat Ogors and Brood Terrors are going to be your jam. Hippity Hoppity, thick rats on yo’ property!

Virulent Procession

Uh oh, stinky! The Virulent Procession is the Clan Pestilence Battle Formation. This allows you to pick three smelly rat units at the end of each turn, in combat, to make a pile-in move, doing d3 mortals on a 2+. If you are familiar with playing this version of the Battle Formation from the index, you’ll notice that you are now only able to select and pile in units that are in combat already, which means that many of the ye-olde murder-lust-esq dirty tricks Skaven players were able to do before the book are now not possible. This does not mean that this Battle Formation is dead ~ if hordes of plague monks and using priests (including the new Vizzik Skour) for buffs is something you find interesting, there is absolutely viable play in Pestilence.

Claw-horde

Choo-choo, Verminus comin through! In the combat phase, you can pick up to three Verminus units that charged this turn, and add 1 to the Rend of their melee weapons for the rest of the turn. Clanrats, Stormvermin, the Verminlord Warbringer, and Lord Skreech are all viable options for this Battle Formation. If your list is a mixed bag of all the clans, with your main blocks of chaff being Stormvermin and Clanrats, it might not be a bad idea to use the Claw-Horde and a Clawlord to give those units some actual juice to really chip away at your opponent. Add in some priests and give that 40 blocks of clanrats crit mortals, you’re picking up Gargants left and right! 

Envoys of the Deepgnaw

My Dad can beat up your Dad! When a Skaven Daemon (Verminlord) is in the combat range of a non-Hero Skaven Infantry unit, the Skaven Daemon has a 4+ ward that shrugs the warded damage off onto the infantry unit. There are definitely some funky builds that can be finagled with this one. I think the strongest way to go about this is to use Vizzik and Skreech as your two large adult Dads, while featuring a SoG Screaming Bell, as is tradition. Combining all of the debuffs between Vizzik, the Screaming Bell, and the Bell of Doom spell, along with a recursive ball of meat to give the Dad’s the ward, your army will be hard to move. Your spine might fall out due to moving so many models around, including putting handfuls of clanrats back and forth from your dead pile back to the table, but a win is a win.

Gathering of the Clans

Since the release of the Scourge of Ghyran supplement, this Battle Formation has given a pretty solid showing. Gathering of the Clans gives you access to what has been coined “The Threedeploy” – meaning that when declaring a redeploy for a unit, you may pick two other units (containing any of the clan keywords, so pretty much everything other than Masterclan units) wholly within 13” of that unit to also redeploy without using an additional command point. This is extremely strong already, but when used in conjunction with Always Three Clawsteps Ahead, you are given a lot of chances to be able to move parts of your army during your opponent’s turn. Another way of looking at it, is a potential +1 dice additional distance needed to achieve multiple charges for your opponent. 

Rats of the Night

Eshin is so sneaky they were able to hide from getting their own Battle Formation. This doesn’t mean that your force of Master Splinter cosplayers don’t have play! Night Runners, Death Masters, and the Verminlord Deceiver absolutely have their own unique collection of tricks to cause problems for your opponents. Crit mortals by default on all the ninja’s melee profiles, Night Runners have a pre-game move, Death Masters can only be hit on a 5+, and the Deceiver can do Shadow Clone Jitsu to totally change the momentum of a game. Hopefully we’ll see an Eshin flavored Battle Formation at some point, but don’t count these guys out when spicing up your lists.

Heroic Traits

Scurry Away

This classic hasn’t gone anywhere. If at the beginning of the combat phase, the hero with this trait is in combat, on a 3+ you are able to use the ‘Retreat’ ability. This is very strong, not just to get out of scary situations with your important heroes but can also be used as additional movement around the battlefield — even to steal an objective perhaps? Bonus points to putting this on your Verminlord Deceiver, giving you the opportunity to teleport at the beginning of combat using its warscroll ability, then possibly dip out of the new combat at his movement of 10 inches. Your opponent will be shocked to see this huge daemon move over 23 inches across the board during the combat phase — even maybe losing their wallet in the process. Dirty rats!

Short-tempered

Oh lord they comin. This trait adds +1 to run and charge rolls for friendly Skaven units wholly within 13 of the hero. This supplements well with the Master Moulder, who can give another +1 to charge within their combat range during the charge phase. Having abilities to administer buffs to your army without having to roll dice to give them is never a bad thing. This combo is especially excellent for if you are trying to perform the aforementioned meat missile Rat Ogor bomb. 

Skilled Manipulator

While this hero is within combat range of a friendly non-Hero Skaven infantry unit, when they take damage, on a 4+ that damage is instead inflicted onto the infantry unit. This could be particularly abusive on a beatstick Verminlord, giving them a 4+ ward when around your bozo brigade of Clanrats and Stormvermin. This forces your opponent to either deal with the 20 (or probably more) wounds of dinguses around your Verminlord while getting rat-attacked repeatedly, or try and burn your big 13 wound, 4+ save, 4+ ward monster, who is still going to assault their toys with sharp objects and freaky rat magic. 

Devious Underling

During deployment you pick another Skaven hero with an equal or greater Health characteristic as your target. If the target hasn’t been slain, the bearer gives Skaven units within 13” a 6+ ward; if they have been, the bearer gives out +2 to charge instead. The ward here is particularly valuable, making Clan Rats that much more annoying to remove, but it can also be helpful with something like Rat Ogres that need just a bit more durability to really get there.

Fleshmeddler

Below you will see Fleshmeddler mentioned again, as a part of the typical suite you’ll see when looking at most competitive GT Skaven lists at the moment. Once per turn, you get to pick one of your Moulder units to get an additional rend. Rend -2 Rat Ogors is a menace, and particularly terrifying to your opponents.

Pit Tinkerer

This lets you reroll the random move characteristic for your Doom Flayers and Doomwheels, while also adding +1 additional mortals if they are able to inflict any. Adding some consistency to the rat bikes is always a treat, and there is definitely a world where The Bell’s Angles roll through the battlefield, painting the ground like marinara underneath their wheels.  

Artifacts of Power

Foulhide

The hero gets to heal D3 at the end of every turn. Free heals you don’t have to roll to activate are always good!

Skavenbrew

Additional juice for your little goobers. Once per battle in the combat phase, pick a friendly non-Hero Skaven Infantry unit wholly within 13” of this unit, give them an ouchie of D3 damage and increase the attacks characteristic of their melee weapons by 1 for the rest of the turn. Using Skavenbrew on one of your big blobs of chaff, including Clanrats, Stormvermin, or Plaguemonks, or even on a big unit of Rat Ogors in conjunction with some of the other buffs the army offers can make any of these units especially scary. 

Warpstone Charm

In the combat phase, pick an enemy unit in combat with this unit to be the target. On a 3+, they get -1 to their save for the rest of the turn. This gives you another chance to either ensure whatever you are attacking with a big hero is going to have a really hard time saving their attacks, or maybe you can put this on a cheeky clawlord who is near a block of 20 Stormvermin? If your opponent wants to charge them, they could be getting hit with 50 attacks at -3 rend. Ouch! 

Spell Lore

Skitterleap

Another all-time classic that remains in the new Skaven Battletome. On a cast of 7, pick a Skaven hero wholly within 13” and teleport them anywhere on the battlefield, 9 away from enemies. Having another way to move your heroes around the board is always helpful, whether you need the extra distance to ensure you can get a buff off for a different unit, your Verminlord took more damage than you would have liked and need it out of trouble, or you can take a sneaky objective your opponent didn’t screen out in their territory, Skitterleap is always an option. Its important to note this is now your unlimited spell with the new book, giving you extra chances to get your Grey Seer out of dodge.

Note: The target unit can be one that is in combat and can be a monster. 

Warpgale

On a cast of 7, pick an enemy unit within 18 of the wizard casting the spell, and give them Strike-last for the rest of the turn. Being able to hit your opponents in multiple combats before they can slap back is a fantastic play, especially when much of your army dies to a swift breeze.

Wither

Lastly, this spell inflicts D3 mortals on a unit 13” away from the caster. When trying to do some additional damage to a screening unit in your way, or just need to chip a few more wounds off of an enemy hero nearby, just give them a little ZAP!

Prayer Lore

Every one of the Noxious Prayers that Skaven can chant have plenty of situations where they will be useful, both at their minimum and maximum chant value variations.

Bile-torrent

Your horde clearing prayer. On a 4+, pick an enemy unit within 13”, and roll a die for each model in the unit. For every 5+, deal a mortal wound to that unit. If the chant was on an 8+, do a mortal wound for each 4+ instead. This is a very solid wish.com, Walmart Good Value, stinky rat version of the Gravetide ability and has many good applications.

Filth-crust

Choose a friendly non-Hero Skaven infantry unit wholly within 13” of the priest chanting this prayer, then, on a 4+, give them +1 to wound rolls for melee attacks until your next turn. If the chant is an 8+, they also get Crit Mortals for their melee attacks. With the myriad of ways to give your rats additional attacks on top of their already generous number of swings, this prayer can make any infantry unit in your army a real threat to your opponents.

Rabid-tough

Similar to Filth-crust, pick your non-Hero homies that are close by, and on a 5+ to chant, that unit is -1 to be wounded by enemy units that target that friendly unit. If it’s on an 8+, that unit also gets +1 to save rolls until the start of your next turn. Some surprise resiliency in your army can keep more rats around than your opponent would certainly like. With debuffs being strong in this GHB, this prayer should always be a consideration to chant for.

Armies of Renown

Skaven gets two Armies of Renown to play with, each designed to change the way you play with the army. It’s important to note that you do NOT get any faction terrain and have fairly constrained lores in exchange for these rules, so you’ll have to approach these with a fresh perspective.

The Great-Grand Gnawhorde

The Gnawhorde (no, I will not type it out everytime) gives you access to Vizzik Skour, and non-unique units from Skryre, Masterclan, Moulder, and Verminus. This means no named heroes, no Nightrunners, and no Pestilense units. The army itself focuses around using one of three powerful abilities, referred to as Warpshatter Throws, each turn to juice up your units. Frenzied Momentum gives three units +2 to run and charge but -1 to their control scores, Unstoppable Warp-Volley disables commands but adds 3” to the range of ranged weapons for three units, and Reckless Abandon gives three units +1 attacks but also +1 to be hit. The push and pull here is interesting but the standouts seem to be Reckless Abandon and Frenzied Momentum. Reckless Abandon can get Rat Ogors to a staggering 6 attacks each in conjunction with their ability and Frenzied Momentum will make sure you get there in your big ‘go turn’.

You also get a passive ability that gives Vizzik a 4+ ward while he’s near a friendly unit but whenever he makes a successful ward roll he passes that damage to the nearby unit. Vizzik is a bit too pricey to run outside this AoR, but with a 4+ ward you can probably get his combat tricks off without him dying in exchange.

You get access to a single Heroic Trait Harbinger of the Great Ascendancy is an autotake, giving you two choices for those once per turn abilities instead of just one. The Artefact, Icon of Great-Total Supremacy, is… well it’s also an auto-take because it’s your only option, but it’s not great, giving you the ability to return d3 models to all infantry units on the board below 3 wounds. This would be massive if it could affect Rat Ogors but alas. Enjoy regenerating clanrats, I guess.

You get access to a single spell, prayer and manifestation. For the spell you have the incredibly powerful Deafening Frenzy which turns off a unit’s ability to use commands, but gives them Strikes-First. This is how you set up those go turns with Reckless Abandon. The prayer is also strong, giving you an extra 3” on the pile in and extra control if you chant it on an 8. Unfortunately this goes off on a base 7 and your only priest is Vizzik so he’ll be spending his whole turn chanting this. For manifestations, you get access to the Vermintide. This is perhaps the worst possible pick so RIP bozo I guess.

This AoR is interesting. On one hand you can set up some brutal combos using the Warpshatter Throws, and the ability to get Vizzik where he needs to be to make him work. However the trade off of not having Gnawholes, Three Clawsteps Ahead, or the normal lores makes it a hard sell. If you want to make it work, I’d suggest trying a gunline of Ratling guns, supported by some Rat Ogors and some clan rats to screen. 

Thanquol’s Mutated Menagerie

This one’s kind of a doozy. For restrictions you can only take Thanquol and Moulder units. This means no guns, no Gnawholes, no clanrats, no scoring pieces. In exchange you get some pretty powerful rules. First you get a similar rule to what Vizzik gets in his AoR, giving Thanquol a 4+ ward while he’s near another unit but every time he successfully makes a ward roll you pass off the damage to the nearby unit.

As for the rest of the army, you get access to More-More Mutation, which lets you pick one non-hero unit from your army in each of your Hero Phases and give them: +2” to move, +2 to health +1 to Attacks, a 5+ Ward but at the end of each turn you have to allocate D3+2 damage to the unit. This is a really interesting effect, however it’s been brought to my attention that since allocation comes afterwards you can’t negate this with the ward. This obviously heavily favors units with multiple models, so Rat Ogors and Stormfiends are your bread and butter here. 

So what do you do when things are finally running out of steam? Well you get access to two rampages you can use in any Combat Phase which then preclude you from using any other ones (so use your warscroll rampage abilities first) which both automatically kill the unit at the end of the turn. The first, Spiteful Swarm gives the unit strike first, and when it dies you roll a dice for each unit within 6” and on a 3+ subtract 1 from their attacks characteristic for the rest of the game. The other one, Rampaging Demise, also gives strikes first, but instead you do D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ to everything within 6”.  These are also really interesting mechanically, especially when you consider that the Hellpit can get back up after it dies, allowing you to double dip.

For your Heroic Trait you get Pack Tactics which lets two nearby non-hero units use All-Out Attack and All-Out Defence even if they’ve already been used this phase once per battle. Considering taking full advantage of this costs three CP this is probably more situational than not. The Artefact on the other hand, Warpstone Innards, lets you pick a unit once per game to get an extra attack, but they take an extra D3 damage at the end of the turn. If you intend to fully trade a unit of Rat Ogors, juicing them with this, More-More Mutation, and their warscroll ability gets them to a staggering 7 attacks each.

Staying on theme, the spell is also very interesting. Untapped Mutation goes off on a 5 and gives up to three nearby units +1 control for every point of damage they suffer from More-More Mutation. This can help you bully objectives in an otherwise low control army, but it requires you to be hurting your own units. Lastly for your manifestation, you get access to the Warp Lightning Vortex which is a pretty nifty option to have in your back pocket.

Now Here’s the Boom!

My favorite interaction – personally dubbed ‘The Meat Bomb,’ is how the Hell Pit Abomination’s Too Horrible To Die ability interacts with both of the rampages from the AoR. Too Horrible To Die triggers the first time the model would be destroyed, (which would be along with the conditions of the AoR rampages), roll a d6. On a 2-4, deal D3 mortals to every enemy in combat range, on a 5-6 the Hell Pit does not die and heals d6, and on a 1 the Hell Pit was actually not horrible enough, and perishes in shame.

So the order of operations could be ~ the Hell Pit uses Rampaging Demise, triggering Strike-First. The rampage then states that at the end of the turn, the Hell Pit is destroyed. The next condition of the rampage is when this model would be destroyed, roll for d3 mortals for every enemy within 6. This happens, then the roll for Too Horrible To Die occurs, possibly keeping the Hell Pit alive! Since the condition of the rampage has been satisfied, the Hell Pit would not ‘be destroyed’ again at the end of the turn. This means that the Hell Pit could fight first, explode, then stay alive, healing D6 from Too Horrible To Die and then healing another D6 from the Hell Pit’s warscroll ability. Bonus points if you have a Master Moulder watching this emotional and very fleshy rollercoaster happening, healing another 3 to your big, bulbous, bing bong. 

If the Hell Pit does not stay alive, then there is a pretty good chance that it’ll simply explode again, doing D3 mortals to everything in combat range. Possibly doing 2d3 mortals to everything within combat range, fighting first, and whatever other shenanigans you do with your Hell Pit in that turn can certainly be worth it for the points, as well as completely throw your opponent off guard (no gotchas!) with how much damage these hulking testicles with legs can do.

Regiments of Renown

These are for all of you non-Skaven players out there. If you’ve ever looked at the tricks Skaven has access to and thought to yourself, “Damn, I wish I could do that,” this gives you a taste of the army. 

Krittok’s Clawpack

This Regiment of Renown gives you access to Krittok Foulblade, a unit of Stormvermin, and a unit of Doom-Flayers. You get access to three abilities: Fickle Motives gives everything in the regiment +1 attack if you’re winning the game but -3 control if you’re losing. Don’t count on these rats to pull you out of a bind. You also get access to Always Three Clawsteps Ahead allowing a unit in this regiment to move in your opponent’s hero phase. This is immensely powerful in Skaven and is just as strong here. Lastly you get Skryre Payloads giving the Doom-Flayers a 5+ ward as long as they’re in combat range of the Stormvermin. This is cute but I think a lot of armies will want to use the Doom-Flayers as objective bozos considering their speed and cost so they may not be near the Stormvermin that often.

This RoR is a little goofy, but having access to Always Three Clawsteps Ahead could add a really cool innovation and movement trick to an army that might not have anything like it.

Volt-Klaw’s Enginecoven

This RoR focuses on providing an effective gunline to any Chaos army. You get access to a Warlock Galvaneer, a unit of Warpvolt Scourgers, and a Ratling Warpblaster. While this setup might not be the most optimal in Skaven, they have a ton of value to factions that can’t put out damage at range. You also get access to Behold My Genius which gives you +1 to hit and an extra 3” to the range of all the regiment’s weapons for a turn once per battle making for a fantastic opening salvo. In addition, to keep your bozos alive from ranged reprisal, you get Hide-Shelter which makes the infantry untargetable outside of 13” if they’re near the Warpblaster. 

The current sauce after the Scourge of Ghyran update is having two reinforced units of Rat Ogors and the Scourge of Ghyran Screaming Bell, equipped with Fleshmeddler to give one of your Rat Ogor units an additional point of rend per turn. The SoG Screaming Bell is most likely going to be in every list, giving a massive aura of +2 to move on odd numbered Battle Rounds, and -1 to hit on even numbered rounds. It also heals every friendly unit wholly within 13” at the end of each turn. 

The aforementioned Bell and Bonk Boy suite is only 810 points, allowing ‘seasoning to taste’ for the rest of your list, including the Battle Formation. For more of an all-in on punching your opponent to death, some SoG Brood Terrors to accompany the Rat Ogors in Fleshmeld Menagerie is a good way to put some additional firepower on the board, also being able to hand out more +1s to hit for whatever Moulder rats are trying to use your opponent’s units as a meat puppet. Another angle one could go about the list building is filling the rest of your squad with some warp bullet throwing type units to give some heavier ranged support and pressure while your Rat Ogors move up the board with your screens. The Screaming Bell and Rat Ogors can all function pretty well on their own, but truly mastering the intricacies and interactions of all the parts of Skaven will be how to truly succeed. Below you can see some example lists that explore some of these ideas.

Sample Lists

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Final Thoughts

Overall, the Skaven Battletome has an insane amount of depth woven deep within it, allowing for all of my favorite elements of list building and playing Warhammer: self expression, skill expression, and creativity. The vast multitude of possible builds that are actually cohesive and have play feels much more prevalent in the Skaven book than many other books. Although the Scourge of Ghyran Screaming Bell and Rat Ogor blocks are frequent and easy to get value out of, I don’t believe they are absolutely necessary in order to succeed with Skaven. Currently their win rate is generally right in the middle of the pack, which feels about right considering the popularity of the faction.