This article is based on a discussion between the above mentioned persons on the Direwolf mailing list on what a Skaven Castle should look like and how the Skaven would Defend it.

A Skaven Castle features Warpfire throwers in the towers, Jezzails lining the walls, warpfire liquid run through gutters as in Hunchback of Notre Dame, poison wind globes dropped through murder holes and tossed over walls. Rat Ogres bursting from secret tunnels to wreak havoc and assassins sneaking forth in the dead of night.

The rules in this section only apply to the high or full Skaven castle. The low Skaven castle is treated like a normal WFB battle and the Siege rules do not apply. You could however place a central tower and treat it as a castle and spend points on a trench and a tunnelsystem. In that case both players will be given the same amount of points in the Final Assault.

Crumbling construction

A Skaven castle is always in a neglected state and parts of it may already have collapsed. Some areas may have been given a makeshift repair but they still buckling. This is represented by special rules for walls, towers and gates. The Skaven castle also features a large tunnel system with ambush holes and often a trenchsystem. To compensate the Skaven player for the damaged fortifications he has +15% more points to spend on defending troops. He can also spend up to 40% on Warmachines and Siege equipment to allow him to create a tunnel system and to have more missile weapons such as Jezzails.

Army selection:
Characters:	0-50%
Regiments:	25%+
Warmachines:	0-40%
Monsters:	0-25%
Allies:	0-25%
Siege equipment:	0-40%

Broken ground
The ground 2-3" from a wall or tower consist of collapsed pieces of the wall or tower and a multitude of scrap and debris. This area is treated as difficult ground and may hinder the attacker just by being there. EG a Siege tower may not be able to move close enough to the wall to lower the ramp. The inside of a castle do not feature broken ground but may, depending on the actual modelled castle, not have an open courtyard. A Siege Tower or other warmachine that moves over the broken ground or a defended obstacle in the trenchsystem suffer D6 S7 hits. The Skaven need to be able to move in and out of the castle freely, especially with carts or large goods. Therefore the ground before the gates are free of broken ground and a trenchsystem may not be constructed there.

To allow the attacker time to reach the walls within the turnlimit and to breach and move into the castle the "Final Assault" scenario lasts 9 turns instead of 7. This may be increased even further if the terrain is particular difficult and may be decreased to 8 or 7 turns if the terrain is lighter or as a normal castle. The players should play the "Testing the Defenses" scenario before they try the "Final Assault" to get an indication on how tough the castle is. The broken ground has been taken into consideration for the Skaven defense and you should try to represent it as terrain features.

If you decide not to use broken ground the attacker do not get extra turns and the Skaven player may spend +30% more points on troops (this includes the initial +15% bonus). If you do not use broken ground you should not use trenches either as they are built in the broken ground.

Models in the ambush holes, tunnelsections or in the broken ground do not test on an unmodified Leadership value as do Skaven inside the castle nor do they receive the Leadership bonus. However Skaven in a tunnelsection get a +1 Leadership bonus to account for being on homeground. If Skaven flee they flee toward the nearest ambush hole and bolt through to the safety inside the castle. In the Skaven players next turn place the models in the courtyard of the castle and they have automatically rallied. If the castle is a low Skaven castle then the models fall back to the next line of defense and rallies there. Units that break or flee in the broken cause panic tests as normal to other units in the broken ground but not to models on the rampart or inside the castle itself. A unit that flee near or into an ambush hole will cause panic tests on the units in that tunnelsection.

Walls
The walls are often lined with balconies that function as battlements and tall watchtowers or in rare cases a still standing stone tower. Skaven models may be placed on the balconies and if the balconies are placed lower than the ramparts this will allow more Skaven to fight. An attacker must attack the ramparts; he is unable to attack the balconies in hand-to-hand combat. The attacker places models as usual but the Skaven player may fight back with models on the ramparts and on the balconies. Characters may not be placed on the balconies.

You may place models from the same unit on the balconies and on the ramparts or you may place separate units. If the unit on the ramparts and the balcony is the same unit then casualties on the balcony may be removed from the rampart unit as Skaven move down to the balcony to replace the casualties. In the movement phase Skaven on the balconies may move up to the ramparts. If the unit on the balcony is not the same unit as the one on the rampart above, then it may not consist of more models than will actually fit on the balcony. Note that it may be difficult to keep the models from falling off and in that case just declare that the models are there. As the balcony may be too small to fit a whole a unit, you can field units with less than 5 models. A unit may also be deployed on several balconies that are no more than 2" apart.

All walls start the game being damaged, add +2 to further rolls on the wall damage chart.

Towers
The original stone towers have often collapsed and wooden watchtowers have been erected in their place. These are sometimes fortified as wooden towers. In some cases not all of the stone towers have collapsed, often because the castle haven't been occupied for very long. Stone towers start the game being damaged, add +2 to further rolls on the tower damage chart. Some towers have collapsed halfways and they count as being a wall rather than a tower. See rules for attacking wooden towers on page 30 in the Siege book, a wooden watchtower adds an additional +1 to rolls on the damage charts.

Gates
The Skaven castle features several gates or rather openings, tunnel entrances and large passageways. These may be barricaded and can sometimes actually have some form of gate. A gate starts the battle as being crunched, add +2 to further rolls on the gate damage chart, but may be reinforced to make it only +1 to further rolls.

A wall section with a gate can be volountarily collapsed at the start of the Skaven player's own turn. A unit under or near the gate will take damage as from a collapsing tower. All models under or in basecontact with the gate takes a S5 hit and each model within 4" takes a S3 hit. The gate now counts as difficult terrain and a defended obstacle. If the gate was volountarily collapsed it doesn't count as the castle being breached.

Some gates contain a ramp that will allow a Doomwheel to gain speed as it sallies forth. These gates halve movement for an attacker moving upwards and Skaven defenders at the top count as being on higher ground.

Connecting walkways
Connecting the walls and towers of the Skaven castle are ladders, poles, ratwalks, tunnels, and pipes for the Skaven to move around with. Skaven models may move to any part of the castle that they can reach with their movement, even moving up or down a level. The attacker may not use these ladders and pipes, as they are either to small or are collapsed or thrown down if the attackers come to close. These ladders, pipes and ratwalks should preferably be modelled on the castle itself and you should at least place lots of ladders and poles around the castle.

Breached Castle
The Skaven are very confident that their preperations will keep the attackers at bay. However should the attackers breach the castle then more than one rat will make a dash for the tunnels to try to get into the safety below ground. While the castle is intact all Skaven inside the castle or on the ramparts and towers receive a bonus of +3 to their Leadership value. Models in the broken ground, ambush holes or trenches do not get this bonus.

However if the castle is breached every unit and independant model must take an immediate panic test or flee off the table. Once the castle has been breached the Skaven loose the Leadership bonus for the rest of the battle. The castle is breached when a wall or tower is collapsed or if a gate is destroyed. If the castle is breached when the battle starts, from a testing the defence scenario, then the Skaven do not need to take a panic test but the Leadership bonus is lost. If the undermine scenario was won and the undermining causes a wall to collapse then take a panic test for each unit to see how many are left to fight. Only units that passed the panic test may be deployed for the final assault.