AdamH’s decent into furry madness (i.e. this year I’m doing Skaven)…

Well well well, we find ourselves here again, or at least I do.

While I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s challenge, Bretonnians were never an army I felt particularly strongly about. To a certain extent I was mostly going through the motions as I painted them and after getting a few games in with them after the challenge ended I don’t find myself drawn to their play style either. So that is why when the challenge ended I started thinking about what I would like to tackle next year should I take part again.

My first thoughts were Chaos Dwarfs, I have a full army of the old big hat guys ready to paint, plus their background is interesting and the models are dripping with character. However honestly speaking their slow playstyle combine with ranged weapons isn’t really my cup of tea either. So while I would be excited to paint the models I would probably be less excited to get them on the table.

Which left me with the other army I have that needs painting, and also happens to be the army that got me into Warhammer in the first place; Skaven.

The trouble with this is while I love everything about the army, from the awesome models, variation of the units, unique background and the wacky playstyle their major downside (at least as far as the challenge is concerned) is the low point cost of the models. I am not a fast painter by any standards and the thought of doing between 10 and 20 models a month fills me with dread. That said I guess it wouldn’t be a ‘challenge’ if it wasn’t challenging so I am going to give it a try.

Onto the list, I'm going to be building this army for WFB 5th Edition with points taken from the Skaven Army book of the same edition. As per the challenge rules the army is planned to be at least 1000pts with magic items not included:

Warlord, Heavy Armour, Shield [94]

Plague Priest [73]

Stormvermin x21, Halberds, Shields (Inc. Standard, Musician) [287.5]

Clanrats x20 (Inc. Standard, Musician) [132]

Skaven Slaves x20 [50]

Gutter Runners x10, Throwing Stars [130]

Plague Monks x25, Additional Hand Weapons (Inc. Standard, Musician) [189]

Warpfire Thrower x3 [210]

Doomwheel [150]

I have built the army to contain most of the units I like from the book, although to be honest I like them all so these are just the units I want to paint first I guess. I have tried to make the army well rounded with a bit of everything although it makes me sad I don’t have any Clan Moulder in there so that might change as I go through the challenge. I am slightly over the points I need for the challenge, mainly because I aim to paint each month (i.e. no mulligan) plus if I can, paint a few more than the required 200 points each month.

I have almost all of the models I need although there are a couple I am still hunting for (another Warpfire Thrower, a Gutter Runner and maybe a different Plague Priest model). Anyway onto the detailed pictures!

Plague Priest and Warlord

Stormvermin

Skaven Slaves

Gutter Runners

Clanrats

Plague Monks

Doomwheel and Warpfire Throwers

As always, really happy to be a part of this challenge and I wish the best of luck to my fellow challengers. I hope the readers enjoy everyone’s contributions and please don’t be shy, share your thoughts on all of our armies!