Completely New Player needs Advice

[RampageRabbit]

Ok, so I'm completely new to WHFB but I'm looking to start when the new starter set gets released since Skaven have been an army I've always wanted to play. I went ahead and picked up the 8th Edition Rulebook(I love this thing) and the Skaven Armybook.

I've decided that I either want to play a Clan Skryre themed list or a Clan Pestilens list. I've come up with a Skryre list after attempting to read through every Forum Topic about Skaven on here, Dakka and BoLS and distill the wisdom within the aforementioned topics.

Here's the link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0As...uthkey=CJ3awtcG

I'm completely open to advice, especially since I have 0 idea what I'm doing with list building.

[The other guy]

I don't play skaven, and don't own the book. I also cannot access your army list (I suggest posting it in a similar way to others on the site). This in mind, i will give new army advice to you. I would give this same advice to anyone starting a fantasy army right now.

1 - Set yourself achievable targets. Aim to have 1000pts bought, made and painted, instead of writing a 4000pt wish-list and buying yourself £300 worth of rare units and a battalion box. Reward yourself with the next 1000pts, only when the first is done.

2 - Write yourself an army list for your own usage. Don't spend 100 hours online trying to get other users to tweek you the most uber army ever. If you enjoy war machines, take lots of war machines. If you enjoy archers, take archers. If you love the model, take it. This is going to be your army, not ILUVFANTASY@YARHOO's army. The users on this and many other sites will be here to advise you, but we are not the ones who will paint and play your army.

3 - Dont give up on your army if you lose your first few games. My Tyranid list took approx. 20 games of losing and learning and minor tweeking before it came close to winning a game. I now win 75% of my games with basically the same list.

4 - Never eat yellow snow

5 - When painting, use your metal and hero models as reward for finishing units of rank+file. Especially if you are playing armies (like skaven) who have lots of boring standard models to get through.

I hope this helps you in some way.

[Jwolf]

Spreadsheet url is invalid. Just copy/paste or retype into a post.

[RampageRabbit]

I've been editing and tweaking my list lately and it seems autosaving has screwed up my link. My apologies.

Thanks for the advice theotherguy, I'm actually planning this 2000 point list to be a modified or expanded version of a 1000 point list that I'm going to initially aim for. I will definitely follow your advice on painting. This many Rank and File troops seems like a nightmare.

List is as follows:
Warlord:Warlock Augmented Weapon, Foul Pendant, Portent of Verminous Doom 185 points/9.25%

Warlock Engineer:Level 2 upgrade, Warp Energy Condenser, Dispel Scroll 145 points/7.25%
Warlock Enginner:Level 2 upgrade, Doomrocket, Warpstone Token 145 points/7.25%
Chieftain: Standard Bearer, Additional Hand Weapon, Pipes of Piebald, World's Edge Armor 122/6.10%

30 Clanrats: Spears, Shields, Full command, Ratling Team 225/11.25%
30 Clanrats: Spears, Shields, Full command, Ratling team 225/11.25%
30 Clanrats: Spears, Shields, Full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar Team 235/11.75%
25 Clanrats: Shields, Full Command, Poisoned Wind Mortar Team 197.5/9.88%
25 Slaves: 50/2.50%
20 Slaves: 40/2.00%

3 Jezzails: 60/3.00%
3 Jezzails: Sharpshooter upgrade 70/3.50%

Doomwheel: 150/7.50%
Doomwheel: 150/7.50%

Lords Total: 185 points/ 9.25%
Heroes Total: 412 points/ 20.60%
Core Total: 882.5 points/ 44.13%
Special Total: 130 points/ 6.50%
Rare Total: 300 points/ 15.00%
Grand Total: 1999.5 points

I tried to take as many Clanrat units as possible so I could fit as many weapons teams in since they're Clan Skyrer. The Slaves are there to be expendable and, perhaps this is wishful thinking, but they're there to tie up units so the other units can hit them whether at ranged or in combat.

Jezzails are there for sniping and I split them up into two groups so I could have them target separate units if need be.

Doomwheels are there to (hopefully) mow things down in combat and (hopefully) not blast my units with lightning.

Warlord and Chieftain get stuck in units of Clanrats to hopefully help them out with Combat either by making it harder for the other side to pass break tests(PoVD) or fail charges(PoP). Hopefully this means more shooting.

Engineers are there to Warplightning things, Fire the Doomrocket and help out with magic defense. This may be a bit weak but it's thematic so.

In conclusion, Sorry for the wall of text, but here's the list I made and my thoughts behind each part of it and why I put it in there. I'm not going for a super competitive list, rather I want something themed but that can also hold it's own. Any advice welcome!