Skaven Tactics
Skaven attacks are very deliberated. A lot of Furless ones think a Skaven attack is a mad rush forward. Nothing could be less wrong. Your army should consist of 1-3 main units, depending on its size. These should be from 30-50 models strong, made up of Clanrats (Or possibly Plague Monks), with a liberal sprinkling of characters. My 1000 point army main unit is 38 Clanrats with spears, a General, Battle Standard Bearer, Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer, 2 Assassins, and 2 poison wind globadiers (Phew). All of these with considerable ladles of magic items. A word on Generals: Always look on keeping him alive as your first strategy. Mine is armed with Armour of Fortune, Amber amulet and Sword of Swift Slaying. It is never a bad idea to give your battle standard a magic standard, as clanrats cant normally have one. On the other hand, this means he can't have good armour, and if he dies, thats minimum 2 victory points to your opposition. A good standard is the dread banner, as if you win your enemy will automatically flee (You outnumber him).
Your next choices should be flanking units. These can very from about 1-4 per flank. I reccomend Giant rats, Skavenslaves with spears, bat swarms, clanrats, plague monks. These should be able to at least survive a turn, giving you a chance to bring in reinforcements N.B. These are defensive do NOT bring them far away from your main unit, or it will be flanked and consquently die horribly.
Unfortunately, you cannot aford for your main unit(s) to lose a combat. To absolutely ensure that they have a grossly unfair advantage, buy response teams. These are relatively small units, that just pack an offensive punch, and can flank the enmy to strip him of his rank bonus. These could be: Stormvermin, Gutter runners, Rat Ogres, bat swarms, monsters.
Tactics
Advance very Quickly. If you hand around, you die! On the other hand, make sure youre army keeps it's formation. If it gets spread out, it can easily be isolated and killed. Once your main unit gets into combat, aim to wipe out its opposition in one turn. Reveal all nasty tricks now. Be careful however, because you must not choose an enemy unit that could beat you, unless you have lots of response teams. Choose beatable opponents, and beat them! When it comes to challenges, use awful, expendable characters, or refuse them. Your general and chieftain will cause far more casualties against RnF than against super characters. You may now be wondering 'But how on earth do I kill all those missile troops' Don't. Buy units of harpies or gutter runners, and just stay with the missile troops unitl your main unit is in combat, where it can't be shot at.
