Stormvermin (Halberd)

Stormvermin (Halberd) is a Skaven melee infantry unit in Total War: Warhammer II. Recognisably dark-furred, the Skaven military elite fight with a proud zeal unique to their class.

Description
Stormvermin are the fighting elite of the Skaven Warlord clans. They are distinguished from their scrawnier litter-matters - often standing a full head taller, with thick muscular necks and a powerful build. Most Stormvermin are marked at birth, as their size and darker fur colour is recognisable. As the largest and most aggressive, young Stormvermin-to-be typically outfight the rest of their litter for precious food. If the young warriors are particularly strong, the weakest of their litter actually become the food. Should they survive the traumatic politics and back-stabbing as their litter-pack jockeys for position, the strongest Skaven will be assigned to regiments of Stormvermin and outfitted with the best war gear. Their duties may include forming a retinue or bodyguard for anyone from a minor Chieftain to the mighty ruling Clan Warlord himself, which puts the Stormvermin at the vanguard of the army where they can ensure continued preferential treatment by fighting with ferocity and zeal for their leaders.

Strategy
Stormvermin perform much better in a fight than Clanrats, but are quite costly in comparison. Often times, better value is gained from multiple units of Clanrats than a single Stormvermin unit. However, their armor-piercing damage can make them good line infantry against Chaos, Dwarves, and especially Lizardmen, with their large number of heavily armored monster units. In the campaign, they are effective "endgame" infantry when cost becomes irrelevant, but Clanrats should form the bulk of your armies. If possible, keep only a few units of Stormvermin to guard important units such as the Lord or Heroes, or keep them on the flanks. Their melee stats are sub-par compared to other race's elite infantry, but they maintain the 160 model unit size that Clanrats have while other elite infantry will generally only have between 80 and 120 models. They are generally preferable to their sword and shield wielding counter parts as they do a decent job holding back infantry, have good AP damage, and the bigger threat to your lines is generally large units smashing through them.