Not one for resting idly on their verminous laurels, the skaven have snuck a lethal new Deathmaster into the Echoes of Doom battle box, which features a hirsute horde ready to nibble at the roots of a Sylvaneth war host led by the demigoddess Lady of Vines.
In the run-up to the release of Battletome: Skaven, we wanted to share some rat-folk to inspire you all to paint your very own Great Clans. Luckily, Hanna Leppanen’s masses of wonderful rats made our whiskers twitch so excitedly that we just had to show them to you.
Hanna: My love for skaven started in the late 1990s, with Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The sneaky ratmen with their endless, always hungry, chittering hordes were something that really caught my eye. I loved their rich lore and weird machines – the clan system was also interesting, and offered a lot of different characterful approaches to building a skaven army, yes-yes!
I restarted the hobby with Warhammer Age of Sigmar in 2019. My first thought was to convert my old army into one to conquer the Mortal Realms – some of the Clanrats in my army are still from that bygone era.
I eventually decided to paint a new army of beloved rats, and I've been steadily increasing the number of models in the army over the years. I fell in love with the Mortal Realms setting, and it's now my favourite miniature game system.
My two favourite skaven clans are the Clans Verminus and Skryre. My Verminus colour scheme is bright red, which helps them to stand out from other clans. I really like my army to have a backbone made up of a chittering mass of Clanrats, supported by more elite Stormvermin – a horde of rats swarming the enemy is very skaven.
The Clans Skryre have the weirdest machines, which they field with notoriously unpredictable results. They bring out the wacky mad scientist vibes. Massed rats and ramshackle doomsday machines blowing up – with cackling rats operating them – are at the core of the identity of a skaven army for me. I've chosen my Skryre units to have purple robes – since everything is better with purple.
With the new Echoes of Doom box, I've added a Deathmaster to the army. I've also got some more Skryre devices on my painting table, and a Verminlord. I can’t wait for the new Battletome: Skaven so I can play even more games with my beloved ratties!
Many thanks, Hanna! The Echoes of Doom-Doom collection makes a perfect place to start your very own Skaven army in time for the release of the new battletome. Just make sure you’ve got plenty of warpstone handy – these ratfolk can get mighty peckish.
