Part the First - The Collection
It was only a short time before I started this blog that I became seriously invested in the Oldhammer community. Before that 8th bedition Warhammer Fantasy Battles brought me back from a long sabbatical from the hobby. Unfortunately the Under-Empire forums were a ghost of their former self already, so my interaction with other Skaven players was limited. 8th had a thriving tournament scene (despite next to no support from GW), and their presence on early Youtube was my only interaction with other 8th edition Skaven players. But Skaven were popular in Oldhammer, and I came across several kindred spirits, many of whom would influence the collection I'm about to describe in detail.
So concurrent with me becoming interested in Oldhammer was the desire to have that old Skaven army of my daydreams that I could never afford as a kid (nor had the artistic skill to pull off to my satisfaction). I had an 8th edition Skaven army, that included numerous conversions and a lot of experimentation with different painting styles as the internet opened up a whole new realm of miniature painting approaches beyond anything that I encountered back in the age before the Wired. And 8th edition Skaven armies were very very big. Even taking to unit fillers immediately to fill out the blocks of rats needed, I still painted upwards of 250 slaves/clanrats that first year back to the hobby. Luckily this was facillitated by being able in those days to purchase the clanrats sprues from Island of Blood for $20 a piece at Hoard O Bitz or other bitz sellers online.
I spent hours on Hoard O'Bitz in it's glory days, went through every miniature line looking for cool basing and conversion elements. This nicely coincided with the Canadian dollar overtaking the USD, so ordering from Canada was very affordable.
Anyways, point is, having gotten my 8th edition army to a 99% completed playable state, I turned my thoughts towards the Skaven army I'd envisioned in my youth. I thought about the Andy Chambers Skaven army that I've lauded often on this blog in the past, and got a copy for a few bucks on ebay. And I started looking at those old models, and finding they were pretty cheap.
Back in those days, which weren't long ago but longer than it seems, old metal Skaven models weren't generally perceived as having much value beyond novelty. For 8th edition players, they had an almost complete army in a modernized aesthetic, and Skaven were looking better overall than they had in years, But...there was something about those Skaven models from the 80s I had growing up that stuck in my mind. The aesthetic, the character in the sculpts, the less-cartoony and more rat-like appearance.
What solidified and kickstarted my collection of Jes Goodwin Skaven though was encountering a Skaven "collector's guide" online, (sorta like mine, which you can find in pdf on this blog), in the form of a series of pages that had pictures of the figures, in chronological order, with dates of release and identification details. This was "goatfarmer03's" Skaven Metal Model Collector's Database (which I luckily found before the Photobucketocalypse - you can view the pages on one of my earlier posts).
I don't think I'd be where I am now, as a Skaven collector, if not for that Database. It set me on the path to...first, get one of every Jes Goodwin model...then, one of every Skaven model ever...and then, finally, get enough multiples to do an entire Jes Goodwin army.
Likewise, it was the errors and omissions that I noticed in goatfarmer03's database
that led to Skaven Collector's Guide, after quite a bit of time meticulously pouring through the pages of The Stuff of Legends and Lost Minis Wiki.
In the end, my timing was pretty brilliant. I caught the tail-end of the golden age of Oldhammer collecting, before the collector's market took hold. Back then, you could regularly find lots of old Skaven on ebay for cheaper than buying a new box of clanrats. Most I got for around $2. A few, like Canker Darkspire, Dead-Dead, and the Commander with Warplock Musket, I paid between $10-20 for.
I used acetol to strip, which works a treat. After a light scrub with a toothbrush and some warm soapy water afterwards and time to dry on a towel, most looked better than new. And then me and a file and some sandpaper got to know each model really well as I worked on cleanup.
As I worked on completing my collection, I watched the prices steadily rise, and as of now, the selection on ebay is diminished and the prices five to ten times what they were. I feel bad for any Skaven fans who stumbled into Oldhammer late. There's still some cool folks in the community, that will help out a fellow collector and ask reasonable to generous prices, but it's rarer and the newbie has to stumble their way to right places online, and more stuff is getting hoarded.
But enough with the lamenting, as I said I was lucky, and what I managed I think is not just an admirably complete collection, but the bones of a potentially very special army.
The project evolved a bit as it grew. Originally the intention was an entirely Jes Goodwin army. While that will still form the foundation, in the course of completing my collection I found several models from the periods in-between the Goodwin era and the 7th to 8th revamp that I fell in love with. Though the Marauder era and Monkeyrat era were overall generally not to my taste, there were exceptions, ones that didn't quite fit in with the modern aesthetic and weren't quite the same as Goodwin's, but brought a compatible character. This was to later include some third party ratmen miniatures.
Thus the concept for the army is "Oldhammer", but not strictly "Goodwin". Biggest influences, besides Andy Chambers, are Nico, Skaven Haven, Sebastion Suski, Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor, and Kristian Simonsen's Oldhammer Skaven armies (each of which got or soon-will-get a Tour of the Underhives post devoted to them).
My intention is to create an army that is primarily going to be used for TOW moreso than other editions, mostly as the increased base size I think really benefits some of the older Skaven scuplts (and I like doing scenic bases). In some cases I will be creating units that don't have official rules, but that is because I want the army to be complete across all conceptions of Skaven from 2nd to 8th.
So concurrent with me becoming interested in Oldhammer was the desire to have that old Skaven army of my daydreams that I could never afford as a kid (nor had the artistic skill to pull off to my satisfaction). I had an 8th edition Skaven army, that included numerous conversions and a lot of experimentation with different painting styles as the internet opened up a whole new realm of miniature painting approaches beyond anything that I encountered back in the age before the Wired. And 8th edition Skaven armies were very very big. Even taking to unit fillers immediately to fill out the blocks of rats needed, I still painted upwards of 250 slaves/clanrats that first year back to the hobby. Luckily this was facillitated by being able in those days to purchase the clanrats sprues from Island of Blood for $20 a piece at Hoard O Bitz or other bitz sellers online.
I spent hours on Hoard O'Bitz in it's glory days, went through every miniature line looking for cool basing and conversion elements. This nicely coincided with the Canadian dollar overtaking the USD, so ordering from Canada was very affordable.
Anyways, point is, having gotten my 8th edition army to a 99% completed playable state, I turned my thoughts towards the Skaven army I'd envisioned in my youth. I thought about the Andy Chambers Skaven army that I've lauded often on this blog in the past, and got a copy for a few bucks on ebay. And I started looking at those old models, and finding they were pretty cheap.
Back in those days, which weren't long ago but longer than it seems, old metal Skaven models weren't generally perceived as having much value beyond novelty. For 8th edition players, they had an almost complete army in a modernized aesthetic, and Skaven were looking better overall than they had in years, But...there was something about those Skaven models from the 80s I had growing up that stuck in my mind. The aesthetic, the character in the sculpts, the less-cartoony and more rat-like appearance.
What solidified and kickstarted my collection of Jes Goodwin Skaven though was encountering a Skaven "collector's guide" online, (sorta like mine, which you can find in pdf on this blog), in the form of a series of pages that had pictures of the figures, in chronological order, with dates of release and identification details. This was "goatfarmer03's" Skaven Metal Model Collector's Database (which I luckily found before the Photobucketocalypse - you can view the pages on one of my earlier posts).
I don't think I'd be where I am now, as a Skaven collector, if not for that Database. It set me on the path to...first, get one of every Jes Goodwin model...then, one of every Skaven model ever...and then, finally, get enough multiples to do an entire Jes Goodwin army.
Likewise, it was the errors and omissions that I noticed in goatfarmer03's database
that led to Skaven Collector's Guide, after quite a bit of time meticulously pouring through the pages of The Stuff of Legends and Lost Minis Wiki.
In the end, my timing was pretty brilliant. I caught the tail-end of the golden age of Oldhammer collecting, before the collector's market took hold. Back then, you could regularly find lots of old Skaven on ebay for cheaper than buying a new box of clanrats. Most I got for around $2. A few, like Canker Darkspire, Dead-Dead, and the Commander with Warplock Musket, I paid between $10-20 for.
I used acetol to strip, which works a treat. After a light scrub with a toothbrush and some warm soapy water afterwards and time to dry on a towel, most looked better than new. And then me and a file and some sandpaper got to know each model really well as I worked on cleanup.
As I worked on completing my collection, I watched the prices steadily rise, and as of now, the selection on ebay is diminished and the prices five to ten times what they were. I feel bad for any Skaven fans who stumbled into Oldhammer late. There's still some cool folks in the community, that will help out a fellow collector and ask reasonable to generous prices, but it's rarer and the newbie has to stumble their way to right places online, and more stuff is getting hoarded.
But enough with the lamenting, as I said I was lucky, and what I managed I think is not just an admirably complete collection, but the bones of a potentially very special army.
The project evolved a bit as it grew. Originally the intention was an entirely Jes Goodwin army. While that will still form the foundation, in the course of completing my collection I found several models from the periods in-between the Goodwin era and the 7th to 8th revamp that I fell in love with. Though the Marauder era and Monkeyrat era were overall generally not to my taste, there were exceptions, ones that didn't quite fit in with the modern aesthetic and weren't quite the same as Goodwin's, but brought a compatible character. This was to later include some third party ratmen miniatures.
Thus the concept for the army is "Oldhammer", but not strictly "Goodwin". Biggest influences, besides Andy Chambers, are Nico, Skaven Haven, Sebastion Suski, Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor, and Kristian Simonsen's Oldhammer Skaven armies (each of which got or soon-will-get a Tour of the Underhives post devoted to them).
My intention is to create an army that is primarily going to be used for TOW moreso than other editions, mostly as the increased base size I think really benefits some of the older Skaven scuplts (and I like doing scenic bases). In some cases I will be creating units that don't have official rules, but that is because I want the army to be complete across all conceptions of Skaven from 2nd to 8th.
Tristramania
Like many Oldhammerers, I view Stillmania as a sort of Platonic Ideal of Warhammer army construction.
However, I know my approach to my Skaven is going to deviate substantially from this philosophy, to the point I felt the need to coin a new phrase for my approach. I'm taking elements from Stillmania, while also appeasing the fan and completist in me.
The greatest initial divergence is that I am not starting with a point cost or specific army list in mind. But I have spent enough time with the TOW list, and list-building for other editions, that I know what magic item loadouts that I want represented by a model.
So the bullet points of Tristramania are as follows:
Tristramania doesn't adhere to the self-imposed limitations of a single, 2000 point, unchanging army list, although consistent 2K lists could be drawn from the collection and fielded in the manner Stillmania prescribes. However, that is not as important to me, this project is about my Skaven dream army more than an attempt to improve my generalship.
OK, all that pre-amble out of the way, let's look at what I've got to work with, the fruits of my time collecting:
The greatest initial divergence is that I am not starting with a point cost or specific army list in mind. But I have spent enough time with the TOW list, and list-building for other editions, that I know what magic item loadouts that I want represented by a model.
So the bullet points of Tristramania are as follows:
- Write down a roster, including every unit and character variation that you want represented.
- Give Each character, unit leader and unit a name.
- Create a modified unit profile just for them and their specific loadout.
- Make sure each character's magic items are modelled exactly to their profile.
- "What you see is what you get" - take this literally.
- Paint and base every miniature in the army in a consistent and cohesive style.
Tristramania doesn't adhere to the self-imposed limitations of a single, 2000 point, unchanging army list, although consistent 2K lists could be drawn from the collection and fielded in the manner Stillmania prescribes. However, that is not as important to me, this project is about my Skaven dream army more than an attempt to improve my generalship.
OK, all that pre-amble out of the way, let's look at what I've got to work with, the fruits of my time collecting:
Clanrats
Starting with the backbone of any Skaven army, here is my collection of Clanrats, all Goodwin sculpts.
Though some are presented as slaves and others often used as Stormvermin, here I only distinguished between rat troops with hand weapons and those with spears or polearms, for reasons that will become clear later.
A total of 177 is decent. A little under what I'd want for any game larger than 2K, and as I expect this army to crawl into higher point totals overall (and I want it to be functional as a whole, even if I never field the whole thing at once), I'll need to fill in those ranks a bit more. But we'll get to that later.
Though some are presented as slaves and others often used as Stormvermin, here I only distinguished between rat troops with hand weapons and those with spears or polearms, for reasons that will become clear later.
A total of 177 is decent. A little under what I'd want for any game larger than 2K, and as I expect this army to crawl into higher point totals overall (and I want it to be functional as a whole, even if I never field the whole thing at once), I'll need to fill in those ranks a bit more. But we'll get to that later.
Command
My (not-Greater-Clan) character and unit command models. Not a lot of standard bearers, but generally I prefer converting a model to hold a (often ridiculously over-sized and elaborate) banner. 6 musicians, on the other hand, seems like a pretty good amount.
STORMVERMIN & SLAVES
So of the post-Goodwin metal Skaven that were produced, two lines that I really liked were the 1999 Skavenslaves and the 3003 Stormvermin. They were still before the modern "animated style" (which I count the first release of being the Gamesday Exclusive Warlord in 2006), though they don't quite match the Goodwin Skaven, but in this case I'm OK with that because they are old school enough to not look out of place (as Skaven Haven provided wonder proof of - more on that in the next Tour of the Underhives post), and I like the visual distinction for these units in particular.
For the Stormvermin, their Lore always describes them as a larger and more aggressive strain with black fur (a clever nod to the Norway rats native to Europe vs their larger black-furred cousins from Asia who were blamed for The Black Plague. The troops being largely monopose conveys the greater discipline and better quality equipment for elite troops.
And I like the Slaves looking smaller and emaciated in comparison to Goodwin clanrats. Those sculpts are distinctly shorter and thinner than the Goodwin Clanrats, and it makes the Goodwins look healthy in comparison.
So...I've got a fair enough amount of each, basically enough for one large unit or two smaller units. For Skavenslaves that wouldn't cut it for most editions (especially, underlined, 8th edition), but since Skavenslaves were dropped from the army list for The Old World (or as I look at, only exist "aesthetically"), that isn't necessarily a problem.
In the future I want to bulk up the Skavenslaves though, not just by trying to acquire more of the '99 minis, but also interspersing them with slaves from other Warhammer armies.
Stormvermin...I'm not sure if I'll need more. I tend not to run them in very large numbers in my games, using them as bodyguard units for characters mostly. But I feel like 48 might be a bit light, we'll see later. Unfortunately these models have felt the collector's bubble inflation the same as Goodwins, and I haven't seen an affordable lot for a while, so if it comes to that, I'll probably have to try and network in the Middlehammer community to acquire them.
The Skaven Casualties are mostly going to go on some wound counter bases I have. These will be useful for multi-based units and monsters/warmachines.
And I like the Slaves looking smaller and emaciated in comparison to Goodwin clanrats. Those sculpts are distinctly shorter and thinner than the Goodwin Clanrats, and it makes the Goodwins look healthy in comparison.
So...I've got a fair enough amount of each, basically enough for one large unit or two smaller units. For Skavenslaves that wouldn't cut it for most editions (especially, underlined, 8th edition), but since Skavenslaves were dropped from the army list for The Old World (or as I look at, only exist "aesthetically"), that isn't necessarily a problem.
In the future I want to bulk up the Skavenslaves though, not just by trying to acquire more of the '99 minis, but also interspersing them with slaves from other Warhammer armies.
Stormvermin...I'm not sure if I'll need more. I tend not to run them in very large numbers in my games, using them as bodyguard units for characters mostly. But I feel like 48 might be a bit light, we'll see later. Unfortunately these models have felt the collector's bubble inflation the same as Goodwins, and I haven't seen an affordable lot for a while, so if it comes to that, I'll probably have to try and network in the Middlehammer community to acquire them.
The Skaven Casualties are mostly going to go on some wound counter bases I have. These will be useful for multi-based units and monsters/warmachines.
Okay, so that's the basic army out of the way, let's look at the Greater Clans
ESHIN
At first glance Eshin seems rather light. 19 Runners and some characters. This is for several reasons:
- I did not like the majority of Eshin models released from Marauder onwards. Only one 1998 Gutter Runner really met my approval. While, in game terms, 6th edition/Mordheim was a golden age for Eshin, this was also smack dab in the middle of the monkeyrat era.
- As I mentioned in the last post, I tend to only run one small unit or two of Gutter Runners in my usual Skaven armies. So I've got enough Gutter Runners, Assassins, and Master Assassins to cover two ten-rat skirmish groups.
- Eshin are getting their own army, with a different Aesthetic (more on that later)
You'll notice that I appropriated an early Skryre Sorcerer model as Eshin Sorcerer. I'm going to combine him with elements of the Mordheim Eshin Sorcerer. I'll probably only convert one to an Eshin Sorcerer, a character that doesn't even exist in TOW, the other will make a good Standard Bearer.
Likewise the rather mediocre Mordheim Veskit the Executioner model I basically have for parts for a conversion.
The Mordheim Assassins, on the other hand, are easily my favourite Eshin models ever made besides Deathmaster Snikch.
Likewise the rather mediocre Mordheim Veskit the Executioner model I basically have for parts for a conversion.
The Mordheim Assassins, on the other hand, are easily my favourite Eshin models ever made besides Deathmaster Snikch.
MOULDER
A Pretty solid selection of Moulder models, including 8 of the two original Rat Ogre sculpts. The Mordheim Rat Eshin Rat Ogre I think will made a good unit champion, with a bit of converting.
The Mordheim Skryre Rat Ogres (my favourite Mordheim era sculpt) and the second Boneripper will form the basis for my take on Stormfiends, while the 2002 Rat Ogres will represent Augmented Rat Ogres from the Hell Pit List. Since neither of those exist in TOW, they will just be extra units if I want to run heavy Rat Ogres.
Speaking of not existing in TOW, I have one set of the Forge World Wolf Rats. Because they are meant to be a different creature to the Skaven, they don't detract from the Oldhammer aesthetic that I'm going for, and I prefer them to the choice of Rat Ogre Heads to attach to old school wolf model bodies. Five would seem to be enough for a unit I can't use in TOW, but I'm going to give them some house rules, and I've got a way to boost their numbers and add a bit of variety/mutation.
That just leaves Rat Swarms and Giant Rats (and Throtlings and Plague Rats), and I do not have a visual checklist for these. Cataloguing them would take three times the research of the Skaven Collector's guide, not to mention weeks photo-editing, because I bought every to scale, big and small, mutated or mundane, rat miniature that I could lay my hands on, from 1978 to the present. I bought them in bag fulls. I probably, at a conservative estimate, have ten rat models for every ratman model in this army.
So..it's covered, lol. Many of them will end up on bases and unit fillers/movement trays, so they seem very integrated into the army.
The second Throt will be my Master Mutator (Moulder-themed Warlord in TOW), which leaves 7 Packmasters/Master Moulders. Might need a few more for TOW, but it's a solid base.
The Mordheim Skryre Rat Ogres (my favourite Mordheim era sculpt) and the second Boneripper will form the basis for my take on Stormfiends, while the 2002 Rat Ogres will represent Augmented Rat Ogres from the Hell Pit List. Since neither of those exist in TOW, they will just be extra units if I want to run heavy Rat Ogres.
Speaking of not existing in TOW, I have one set of the Forge World Wolf Rats. Because they are meant to be a different creature to the Skaven, they don't detract from the Oldhammer aesthetic that I'm going for, and I prefer them to the choice of Rat Ogre Heads to attach to old school wolf model bodies. Five would seem to be enough for a unit I can't use in TOW, but I'm going to give them some house rules, and I've got a way to boost their numbers and add a bit of variety/mutation.
That just leaves Rat Swarms and Giant Rats (and Throtlings and Plague Rats), and I do not have a visual checklist for these. Cataloguing them would take three times the research of the Skaven Collector's guide, not to mention weeks photo-editing, because I bought every to scale, big and small, mutated or mundane, rat miniature that I could lay my hands on, from 1978 to the present. I bought them in bag fulls. I probably, at a conservative estimate, have ten rat models for every ratman model in this army.
So..it's covered, lol. Many of them will end up on bases and unit fillers/movement trays, so they seem very integrated into the army.
The second Throt will be my Master Mutator (Moulder-themed Warlord in TOW), which leaves 7 Packmasters/Master Moulders. Might need a few more for TOW, but it's a solid base.
PESTILENS
Pestilens is doing well, enough for a good-sized unit of Plague Monks, and more censor bearers than I'll probably need. Nurglitch will make the perfect Plague Priest on Pox rat, serving as a unit filler in TOW. The Lustia Warlord will be the focus of another unit filler in my take on the Cauldron of 1000 Poxes from the Lustria Pestilens list.
SKRYRE
Skryre was lovely in Goodwin's day. I think I have more than I need, though, and some of those Warpfire Throwers might get converted into other Weapons Teams. Not pictured here but will be a part of this contingent is the Poisoned Wind Mortar model from IOB, whose gas-masked rats fit. in well with the Oldhammer aesthetic.
I can essentially field a 7 man unit of Jezzails, with Skreth the Ironclad as leader, and 6 Weapon teams + 2 Poisoned Wind Mortars.
So 471 Citadel Skaven models, plus several hundred rats. It's a good start, but there's a few points it could use fleshing out...
I can essentially field a 7 man unit of Jezzails, with Skreth the Ironclad as leader, and 6 Weapon teams + 2 Poisoned Wind Mortars.
So 471 Citadel Skaven models, plus several hundred rats. It's a good start, but there's a few points it could use fleshing out...
REINFORCEMENTS
The first and obvious addition to our forces are the other Jes Goodwin Skaven, the 2nd edition Skavenblight Scramblers models.
Also joining us here is our first major third party addition, Tim Prow's Mischievous Ratman by Uscarl miniatures. From the moment I saw them I thought the complimented the Goodwin style well, and are very open to conversions.
Luckily for both of these I have a very substantial Bitz box full of lots of Skaven and Skavenizeable hand weapons, spears and shields.
And that gets us up to 194 Clanrats with a few more Greater Clan supplements.
From there we get a tour of various Ratmen/Wererat models that I generally fit the Oldhammer aesthetic I'm going for, with maybe some customizations.
Luckily for both of these I have a very substantial Bitz box full of lots of Skaven and Skavenizeable hand weapons, spears and shields.
And that gets us up to 194 Clanrats with a few more Greater Clan supplements.
From there we get a tour of various Ratmen/Wererat models that I generally fit the Oldhammer aesthetic I'm going for, with maybe some customizations.
Of these I really like Oakbound's Gnawloch's in particular. I think these are the best at capturing the feel of a Goodwin sculpt. I would like to do a Highland-themed Skaven army at some point (or at least a small contingent for McDeath), but that will need to wait. We're already up to 571 miniatures for this army, not including rats/giant rats, with 225 Clanrats. Which I think will be enough for now.
There are of course still a number of units unaccounted for, stuff that never got official models back in the day, many of which have no rules for TOW, but are again simply stuff I feel I need to make my version of the epitomal Grand Skaven Army.
There are of course still a number of units unaccounted for, stuff that never got official models back in the day, many of which have no rules for TOW, but are again simply stuff I feel I need to make my version of the epitomal Grand Skaven Army.
CONVERSIONS
MOULDER
PESTILENS
SKRYRE
You'll notice Eshin is missing. While they'll be getting an (INO) Eshin Sorcerer and new version of Veskit, they are, as I said, going to maintain a smaller presence in my main army because it's getting an individual themed army with a more modern aesthetic:
     |      |
But that's for a later time. I'm giving this Skaven project a year before anything else, prioritizing the elements needed for an escalation campaign as we are all learning the ropes with The Old World.
Next Time...
So that's what I'm working with laid out, time to organize everything into an army list, assign names, and go over the visual design framework.