From Meta Rats to Mutant Menagerie: Rebuilding a Skaven List for Monday
We love those hobby moments when an army list suddenly stops being a spreadsheet exercise and starts feeling like a proper warband of lunatics. This week, that happened with Michał’s Skaven in Age of Sigmar.
What started with a practical question about models quickly turned into a full-on list pivot. At first we were trying to identify whether some models could fit the plan at all — Skaven rats? Rat Ogors? something else entirely? Pretty soon it became clear what the real issue was: Michał had 3 Rat Ogors, and if the new idea was going to happen, he needed 6 more by Monday.
So naturally, the discussion escalated in the only correct Skaven way: chaos, compromise, and a complete disregard for immersion if necessary.
The original plan? Meta.
Michał summed up the previous version of the army pretty simply: it was a typical meta list built around 12 Ratlings and support pieces.
That kind of list makes sense. It’s proven, it shoots, it pressures from range, and it does the efficient thing. But sometimes that’s not what we want from a league game. Sometimes we want to push weird monsters across the table and see what happens.
And that’s exactly where this went.
The new plan: mutants, aggression, and impact
Instead of sticking to the established build, Michał decided to go for something completely different:
- much less shooting
- a lot more melee
- a more aggressive playstyle
- and, in his own words, something with proper punch
Honestly, we get it. There’s something deeply satisfying about dropping the careful ranged package and replacing it with a wall of mutated horrors that just want to get into combat as fast as possible.
Against Sylvaneth on Monday, this should at least make for a memorable game — even if, as Michał pointed out, testing against some other faction earlier in the week doesn’t automatically tell you how that matchup will go.
The list: Thanquol’s Mutated Menagerie
Here’s the version Michał shared with us:
Menażeria Mutantów / Mutated Menagerie — 1940 points
Skaven – Thanquol’s Mutated Menagerie
General’s Handbook 2024-25
General’s Regiment
- Thanquol on Boneripper (General)
- Rat Ogors
- Stormfiends
- Hell Pit Abomination
Regiment 1
- Master Moulder
- Rat Ogors (reinforced)
- Brood Terror
- Hell Pit Abomination
That is a wonderfully unhinged roster. Big bodies, mutant energy, and more than enough threat saturation to make the table feel very small very quickly.
Hobby reality check: the list exists… if the printer cooperates
Of course, this is Warhammer, so no army-building story is complete without a bit of hobby logistics.
At the time of writing:
- Master Moulder wasn’t even primed yet
- whether Michał would actually have 9 Rat Ogors and a Brood Terror depended on firing up the printer the next day
That’s the kind of sentence that perfectly captures modern hobby life. The theorycrafting is done, the vibe is immaculate, and now everything depends on whether the machine spirit of the printer is in a good mood.
Work in progress on the beasts
The best part is that this wasn’t just list talk. There was already visible progress on the table, with Michał showing off some freshly drybrushed beasts for the next league match.
There’s something very honest and very satisfying about this stage of an army project. Not everything is finished, not everything is polished, but the force is starting to look like a force.
And then came the proper family photo:
As Michał explained: Thanquol is on the left, Hell Pit Abomination on the right. Which is exactly the kind of sentence that makes us immediately want to put the whole lot on the table and start rolling dice.
Meanwhile, the side quest energy was strong
As always, no army discussion stays fully serious for long. Somewhere along the way we also got:
- a wonderfully cursed flying contraption,
- a “they fly now?” reaction,
- and the perfect summary: “Kharadron from Wish.”
Because if you can’t derail a Skaven army-building conversation with a ridiculous side image and a bad joke, are you even doing hobby chat properly?
There was also an earlier reference image in the discussion while we were figuring out what exactly the models were supposed to be:
Why we like this kind of army-building
What we enjoy most here is that this wasn’t a conversation about optimizing one more percentage point out of a known list. It was about changing the whole feel of the army.
That’s often the more exciting kind of hobby decision.
Switching from a ranged-heavy, established build to a mutant melee rush means:
- painting different models,
- solving collection gaps,
- rethinking how the army wants to play,
- and probably learning a few things the hard way on the tabletop.
Which, frankly, sounds great.
Will the mutant list turn out stronger than the meta version? Maybe, maybe not. But it definitely sounds more personal, more memorable, and very Skaven.
And really, when the final verdict from the group is simply “that’s a nice bunch”, you know the project is going in the right direction.
We’re very curious how the Monday game into Sylvaneth goes — and whether the full mutant package makes it from list idea to actual deployed army in time.
Either way, this is exactly the kind of army-building energy we love: ambitious, slightly chaotic, and full of giant rat monsters.