The first rule of warfare, as most of us know, is to know our enemy and to know ourselves. We can then take steps to create an army list that seeks to exploit our advantages while blunting our opponent's advantages and minimizing our weakness. For a Wood Elf army fighting Skaven, the battle is won or lost in the movement phase. If the Skaven general dictates the flow of the game and the charges, you might as well just hand over all of your warpstone and sacrifice your models to the Horned Rat right now. ;-) Sieze the initiative! To help you in this endeavor, I've analyzed the major advantages of each race in a head-to-head fight . . .
The Skaven Advantages:
1) Plague Censer Bearers: PCBs are, IMHO, the best value for points in the entire game of Warhammer. Skirmished, frenzied, hatred-filled flail-wielders with an armor-ignoring (not such a big deal for us) fog of death which gives a -1 "to hit" modifier to enemy archery and disproportionately affects low toughness troops (a much bigger deal for us). 15 (!!) points. Wow.
2) Magic Deck: The incredibly offensive (in more ways than one) Skaven magic deck can wreak havoc on the high points cost, low toughness Wood Elven troops. "Scorch" is particularly troublesome because it can set your forests afire and take away one of the major Wood Elf advantages: unhindered staging through the woods.
3) Harpies: I know this is like a broken record if you've read my other race-specific tactics, but Harpies are a big pain in the neck for Wood Elf armies. At only 15 points apiece, the Skaven general can get two Harpies for every one of your Warhawk Riders . . . before you equip them. Harpies have S4 T4 and two wounds in addition to their possible rank bonus. The thought of "glancing blows" against Warhawks by a big Harpy unit flying high makes me cringe. The saving grace: Harpies have terrible leadership and no armor save. The Wood Elves can exploit this on the battlefield, but can't expect to challenge the Skaven up high without a disproportionate investment of points.
4) Numerical Advantage: The average Skaven is 4.5 points. The average Wood Elf is eight. The Skaven gets equipment for half price. The statistical differences between the Wood Elf and the Skaven, however, do not really justify the fact that the Wood Elf is almost twice as expensive. Wood Elves get an extra point of WS and BS, and have better initiative and leadership. However, the leadership advantage is in large part negated by the silly Skaven "horde" rule which gives them +1 Ld for every full rank. Any Skaven general worth his salt is going to field his rats in huge blocks, which will give the Ld 10 with the general and Ld 9 with a hero. And why not? Skaven can be plentiful because of their low points cost.
5) Cheap Characters: This is really a continuation of the last point. The Skaven WS inferiority is more than offset by the fact that they can have 59 point heroes and 27 point champions. Most Skaven units have at least three characters in their front rank, making your Wood Elf's chances of fighting a non-character less than 50%. A Skaven general is only 90 points, a full 70 (!!!) points less than an Elven general for -1WS, -1BS, -2I, and -3Ld (which is largely irrelevant due to the horde rule). This leaves a lot of room in the character allowance for magic items, warlocks, and other assorted nastiness.
The Wood Elf Advantages:
1) Maneuverability: Wood Elves, as an army, are far more maneuverable than Skaven. This is an extra advantage because the Skaven have M5 and are therefore rarely outmaneuvered by other armies. Even cavalry are normally ranked up in unwieldy blocks or strung out lines, which makes it difficult for those units to truly outflank the Skaven hordes. Fortunately for us, many of our main assault troops can skirmish or have the movement benefits of skirmishing (Wardancers). Glade Riders are one of the few skirmishing troops with lances, allowing them to filter through to the most desirable point on the battlefield and hit hard. Most Skaven generals are unused to dealing with such maneuverability and this unfamiliarity may cause them to make mistakes which you can exploit.
2) Missile Fire: While Wood Elves have the edge on every army in missile fire, the advantage is much more pronounced against the Skaven. The sole Skaven "missile troop" is the jezzail, a Ld 5 war machine whose 30 point cost normally prohibits the Skaven from fielding a large unit of them. The only Wood Elf troop which really fears the jezzail are the Dryads; the other units are too hard to hit or, in the case of the Treeman, too tough to care. On the other hand, your archers can scythe through the lightly armored, T3 Skaven with ease, especially when you consider the -1 armor save modifier. The key, as always, is concentration of fire. Decide what the biggest close-combat threat is to your army and shoot at it, turn after turn. The first turn of fire probably won't break the unit, but the third turn might.
3) Treemen: Skaven have little, aside from a Verminlord, to match up with the Treeman. Even PCBs struggle to wound the Treeman, although if your Treeman is caught up in a gaggle of 15 point PCBs you are probably not using it to maximum effectiveness. Treemen are also great for providing the base of the "Venus Flytrap" tactic (discussed below). If you are really feeling cheesy, field two Treemen as a team and watch them rampage through the Skaven battleline. It's a beautiful sight to behold. ;-)
4) Wardancers: Ahh, Wardancers are in their element against Skaven. T3 troops, scant armor, and little missile fire equals prime Wardancer time. "Whirling Death" into the flank of a Clanrat unit will cause enormous casualties. Unfortunately, Wardancers tend to get minced when attacking the front of a big Skaven unit because of the aforementioned tendency of such units to have three magic-weapon wielding characters in them. Use two units of Wardancers in a team and try to move them into a position where no matter what the Skaven does he will expose a flank to one or the other unit of Wardancers.
5) Infiltrators: Wood Elf Infiltrators (Scouts/Waywatchers) are indispensible against Skaven. Their forward deployment allows them to begin limiting Skaven march moves almost immediately. Limiting march moves should be an integral part of any Wood Elf battleplan against Skaven. It greatly enhances the Wood Elf maneuverability advantage and will save the vulnerable archer units from a turn three Skaven charge. In addition, Infiltrators are very useful for leading frenzied Skaven units (read PCB's) off on a merry wild goose chase so that you don't have to deal with them. This is the -very best- way of dealing with PCBs; it just takes too much commitment of time and resources to destroy them.
Unit Selection:
Unit: Recommendation (z x n). Analysis. Where n is the recommended number of troopers and z is the recommended number of units (if no z then one unit recommended)
Chariots: Yes (2-3). Chariots can be great against Skaven blocks and Skaven don't have much in the way of traditional chariot defense: archers to shoot up your steeds. Warpfire throwers, however, are the bane of Chariots and if the Skaven general manages to land that template over your Chariot it's pretty much gone. However, if you take two chariots at least one of them can normally avoid the warpfire and can do some good damage if combined with a flank charge to take away the rank and "horde" bonuses. If you're lucky or good, both chariots will make the charge and your chances of winning the battle will be looking very good.
Glade Riders: Yes (1-2 x 6-7): Glade Riders are imperative for flanking those big Skaven formations. Their speed will allow them to maneuver into position and if you employ the "Venus Flytrap" strategy (outlined below) you may be able to get rear charges or at least mess up the Skaven advance. I would recommend giving your Glade Rider units a champion to help with combat resolution.
Warhawk Riders: Maybe. They can never fly high because of the Harpies (see above) and will therefore get charged by a ranked unit of Harpies on turn two. They can win this battle but only if they have a hero or the general in the unit (a champion with the Shrieking Blade works sometimes, too). If you want to make your Warhawks your big hammer unit, then okay. Otherwise leave them at home. Remember that they're skirmished so they can't test off the hero's or general's leadership.
Wardancers: Yes (2 x 6): See "Wardancers" above.
Archers: Yes (18+). Is it a Wood Elf Army? It has at least two units of nine archers. End of discussion. ;-)
Waywatchers: Yes (6): See "Infiltrators" above
Scouts: Yes (1-2 x 6): See "Infiltrators" above.
Treeman: Yes (1-2): See "Treemen" above.
Dryads: Yes (5): Dryads can be very useful against Skaven but will not win a battle unless you have removed the Skaven rank bonus. When combined with a flank or rear charge, a Dryad charge can do a great deal of damage to regular Skaven units.
Magic: The Surgeon General has determined that Skaven magic can be hazardous to your army's health. Plan accordingly. Cheap anti-magic items such as Banner of Sorcery, Rod of Power, and the Skull Staff are very necessary. It may be worth it to invest in a level four mage lord who can use high magic and use power cards as dispels. Of course, if you go this route you won't have enough points for other characters or troops. If your opponent loves to bring lots of warpstone-munching warlocks and a Grey Seer, however, it's probably worth it. If he concentrates on troops, the standard level two mage with Skull Staff and Rod of Power near the Banner of Sorcery should suffice. An additional level one mage with a Destroy Magic Scroll might be nice as well.
General Tactics
You should think twice before charging a Skaven unit if you are unable to negate its rank bonus through a flank or rear charge. The +3 combat resolution and leadership bonuses will either win the combat for the Skaven or ensure your troops are tied up for turns on end, which as we know is not the best tactic for Wood Elves. We are not a "grind them down" sort of army. Since we have very few units with any rank bonus at all, maneuver and flank/rear charges becomes the primary tactical objective during any battle with Skaven. If you are unable to get such a charge, you should probably avoid combat.
The "Venus Flytrap" Tactic
The Venus Flytrap is a sort of double envelopment which works well against most Skaven armies. The idea is to set up two six or seven model strong skirmishing units of Glade Riders on the flanks of your army and attempt to maneuver them behind the main Skaven battleline. The Skaven, due to the nature of their army, will have to advance on your battleline, which should consist mostly of archers but will also contain a Treeman and a couple of Chariots. The idea is for the Skaven to advance down the middle while your archers whittle down their main units and your infiltrators prevent march moves. Once your Glade Riders are in position, you will rear charge the main Skaven unit with them in conjunction with a front charge by Chariots/Treemen. This will destroy the main unit and the rest of the battle is just mopping up.
Modified Oblique Line/Flank Roll Tactic:
Sometimes the Venus Flytrap tactic will not work because the Skaven will have invested heavily in secondary units which they have placed on flank/rear guard to stave off medium power troops such as your Glade Riders. In this case, you will have to react by powering up one flank with Chariots, Glade Riders, Treeman, Wardancers, etc. The idea is to destroy the secondary units on one flank with your primary units. Your primary units will then turn and "roll" the Skaven battleline with repeated flank attacks while your archers fire at any uncommited Skaven. This strategy is not new but is very effective because it concentrates the major part of your force against a weaker part of the Skaven force. Even if the Skaven units turn to face your flank attack, your infiltrators will hopefully prevent them from marching and they will be unable to effectively redeploy to face this threat. You will then destroy the Skaven army "piecemeal" and go home happy.
Kill and Avoid Tactic:
This is the tactic to take when your opponent has fielded that 50 strong unit of clanrats with Battle Banner, four characters (including a Grey Seer) with 400 points of magic items, two warpfire teams, and two assassins. You know the unit I'm talking about. Many times a Wood Elf army has just not brought the right stuff to the table to take out this uberunit. So don't worry about it. Use your maneuverability to stay away from this unit, prevent march moves, destroy all the secondary units, and grab table quarters. It won't be very fun, but maybe next time the guy will field more troops and not put all of his combat eggs in one basket.
Other than that, you can find other race-specific tactics and general directions on how to use your Wood Elf Army at the Battle Glade (https://www.angelfire.com/ma2/machiara). Write back and tell me (thacker@fuller.edu) how these suggestions worked or if you have questions this article didn't cover.