So I figured I would start a thread on this to see what people use and don't use, and to possibly get a list going of different tactical uses for our normal slow-poke melee skellies.


I was thinking earlier about possibly putting several small 10-15 man "speed bump" skelly units in my list as redirects or "guards" for my warmachines. What do you guys think about using them that way?


Typically I have had sucess using skellies in a big 50 man horde along with a prince, but they do suffer quite a lot from multi-attack units.

Well, if you do actually want to go for a mere speedbump with 10-15 skeleton warriors, I would suggest you take the minimum of 10. Why spend 20 points more on a unit whose role is only to be an obstacle to be overrun by the opponent? Besides, spending 40 points on 2 or 3 units of 10 skeletons could actually help on deployment phase.

I don't much care for them in the speed bump role as they are too slow to properly maneuver to where they need to be. I have been taking a unit of 40 or so with light armor and a king with the blade of antarhak, glittering scales, and dragonbane gem. It won't slaughter the world, but its resilient enough to throw a unit of chariots or a war kitty in the flank without worrying too much about losing it from massive negative combat res.

I've been doing something similar to this. Put a survivable/defensive character in there and use the unit in conjunction with other more killy stuff to break enemy units, or just use it to tarpit stronger units, or chew through other infantry solo. I usually don't go with Light Armor though, and always keep them in HW/Sh. Paying for spears is just a total waste, IMO.

I usually start the 40 or more unit in a horde and swift reform to a bus on turn 1 to gain a few inches of movement. I almost always want to hit combat in bus formation to negate steadfast, and minimize attacks back.

Another way to help with the slow-pokeness is to use terrain to your advantage. Swift reform and garrison a building that would otherwise be too far away, and then cast winds and have them leave the building in the same turn. Congrats, you just took your M4/No March unit half way accross the board in one turn!

You can really fool your opponents wit this trick and get that unit into a place where your opponent did not forsee. You can also do this to either side or to the back (you gotta love swift reform), you can also exit the building on any side, or swift+enter a building on one turn, then exit on the next turn and THEN swift reform and get yourself into a favorable position. This tactic gives you more options to put a wrench into your opponent's plans.

I always try to deploy buildings in areas that I think may benefit me on the board or that will maximize my options, in case I decide to use this trick during battle.

Like the thinking, Lev, but keep in mind that you cannot garrison and abandon in the same turn. The spell doesn't change this.

Good point by Sleboda.

Method 1 does not work. Method 2 still valid. I did it against a Dwarf opponent recently and it was gold. Bypassed his lines and took out his Anvil Lord on Turn 3.

EDIT: I just re-read the rules due to Sleboda's comment. You may not be able to use Winds on the turn that a unit abandons a building, either....

Abandoning a Building pg 127
Unit exits building..."The unit may not move any further in a turn that it exits a buliding - it's too busy reordering its battle formation."

Unfortunately for my little trick the rule says TURN.

Yeah, sometimes those pesky things...what are they called....words... get in the way.

:)

The same thing tripped me up when I wanted to escort a Ushabti unit with a horse unit containing a BSB with Undying Legion. I thought I'd move from the horses to the Ushabti, do the banner thing, and then magic move back into the horses. Nope.

Heh....yep, I suppose the wording is as such to deny the specific tactic that I was trying to 'exploit'.

Touche GW. (and apologies to my recent Dwarf opponent, he will be quite pleased)

Disregard my previous ramblings and let me throw out the general tactic that Swift Reforming from horde to ranks and moving, plus a possible Desert Wind, is one way to increase the speed of our shambling Skeletons for a turn. Doing that and garrisoning a building that would otherwise be too far away is a nice trick that may give you the option of exiting the building (to any side) in ranks up to 8" long on your NEXT turn, which you can use to park the Skeletons (any infantry, really) in front of an enemy unit that may force your opponent to change his tactics in an unfavorable manner. (phew)

Good points guys, thank you.

Has anyone actually tried 10 man "bumps" of melee skellies?

I've not played a game with my new TK army yet, so this may be stupid but... Have you considered using archers?

Obviously it depends what you want to do. It's extra points if the unit's purely sacrificial but if, say, they're just to guard your warmachines or to affect deployment then the archers can also serve some extra purpose. And they might be a sufficient nuisance that your opponents is more likely to deal with them than ignore them.

Yeah, I regularly use archers, but I created this thread in order to seek some "outside the box" approaches to a unit I don't use often. They would mostly be used as just sacrificial units to keep warmachines safe for another turn or two, but to also help in the deployment phase of things.

I do appreciate the comment though :D

I am feeling more and more for the 49+ skellies with a prince. The thing with such a block is: it draws attention. no matter how terrible skellies are against anything than can remotely generate combat res, they have the largest footprint on the table and on a subconsious level, any opponent will react to that. per example: I once screwed up a skaven magic phase who went out of its way to harm my 60 skellies; first trying to draw dispell dice, which I actually dispelled with 2; to beat my 3 left over DD, he then had to spend his other 5 PD to try and cast plague; I was helpless ofcourse, except for the obsidian lodestone carried by the prince! Big magic phase killed 10 skellies; I won.

(edit: nvm the tactic i mentioned here, can't reform models out of combat)

I think theres a lot of merit to what Mark Wildman did with his skittles. 29 horded with ramhotep to output 40 attacks (if unscathed) is pretty brutal. Thats how the highelves do it. It becomes a really viable option when you put a Lv 4 of light in the equation.

Now you slebs out there are going "well magic doesnt always work when you want it" yes that correct, but i believe its quite easy to achieve when you have another unit that they absolutly donot want buffed (for mark it was 9 snakes, for me its 12 ubi) and i'd feel better paying about the same amount of points to buff my entire army (potentially) with a priest than one unit with a King.

I use a unit of 39 with a Prince. They are great for soaking up a charge and holding units in place for flank charges - depends on what kind of list you play to be honest though.

Keep them cheap and cheerful at 4pts a skittle and you wont go far wrong

Ok, so skellies indeed CAN take a charge, for one round, and have a guy or 10 left standing after crumbling. Enemy succesfully immobilized, You'd say, right? The think we always run into then, is that we can countercharge with sphinxes/knights, because the skellies will give up too much combat res. So I kept thinking: How can we take the skellies out of the equation, and I came up with a VERY wacky plan. It's goig to work, though!

so: big nasty block charges your 45 skellies (5 wide), and when all's said and done, you'll have 5-10 skellies left standing.

then it's your turn, you countercharge with some stuff, get him in the flanks. and then:
You blast a purple sun with your level 4 death-mage that was camping behind your skellie unit in some bunker, right through your remaining skellies, and into the enemy.
1: there won't be any skellies left to give up combat res, yet your sphinx/knights is still in your enemies flank.
2: some enemy dudes die
3: you get a ######load of extra powerdice for killing a ton of guys, from the death-lore-ability, as it also triggers on killing your own skellies!

win-win-win situation
:D

An interesting tactic...I may well have to try this some game :P