So in the new Skaven book you can take a plain Warlock Engineer for extremely cheap. He has no caster level and only a hand weapon to his name. However, as a clan Skyre model he has access to all of the interesting toys of his industrious and crafty clan such as the doom rocket, brass orb, and death orb. All of those items are less than their 50 point magic item allotment for heroes as well. So what the suicide squad does is take three cheap Warlock Engineers and give them each one of the previously stated items. Then, in some lucky magic phase I cast skitterleap and shoot one of the squad across the board to within 1" of an enemy unit and they use their item in the shooting phase. So essentially I get three free powerful attacks against my opponent when he usually isn't expecting anything. All of this for the grand total of 150 points.
Now, don't expect to escape the wrath of your opponents. Each suicide squad member knows that he will ultimately give his life to the Great Horned Rat. Opponents are usually all to eager to annihilate the offending character despite after unleashing their payload they pose very little threat. So the suicide squad serves two purposes - mayhem and distraction.
As an example I give you a scaled down scenario. The first time I used this tactic I played against High Elves. My opponent had turtled a bunch of Sea Guard and Phoenix guard in a convenient battle line in his deployment zone. So I cast Skitterleap and jumped my doomrocket over to one flank where he had a nice view straight down the line. I rolled two dice and landed right between the phoenix guard and a unit of sea guard. The rocket killed two phoenix guard and six sea guard (who almost failed a panic check). In the ensuing phase another unit charged my warlock and I elected to flee. I ran away an astounding 13" so the charge failed and then he proceeded to fire not 1 but rather 2 units of sea guard into the warlock before the little hero fell to the ground doing a very good pin cushion imitation.
So in my example my meager 45 point unit managed to kill far more than his points value and tied up the shooting of two units for a turn. In addition the failed charge caused my opponent's line to become a little disorganized and in later turns a mobile unit like a doomwheel, giant rats, or gutter runners could easily exploit the disheveled line.
Now, this tactic has a number of flaws. A full suicide squad you use up most of the precious character slots for throw-away suicide units. In a 2000 point game a list will use up three of the avialable four slots. Not exactly optimal. However, used in moderation single suicide units can still prove devastating. In addition, canny opponents will not fall for this tactic and magic defense lists will easily bat aside the casting attempt.
Now in 8th edition if rumors hold true I think this tactic will become more prevalent. Percentages open up a lot of possibilities for cheap throw-away characters. 150 points is a small pittance when you have another 350 points to spend in a 2000 point list. In addition I've heard several rumors that say the 25% max for characters is misinformed and that players will have a max of 25% for Lords in addition to a max of 25% for Heroes.
So I hope this has given any Skaven generals something to think about and consider while showing non-skaven players what to watch out for when playing more experienced Skaven players.
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