Lord Skrolk

"Such a paradise! Unblemished. Pure. It must be gifted the touch-touch of Pestilens !"

Lord Skrolk is a Skaven Legendary Lord introduced in Total War: Warhammer II. The Great Horned Rat breathes pestilence through Skrolk, infecting the very world beneath his fetid feet.

In the campaign, he leads the Clan Pestilens faction.

Description
That Lord Skrolk walks the world is an affront to nature and a sign of the power of the Great Horned Rat. Plants wither and die where Skrolk treads and the very air about him seems to congeal and darken, as if stained by his baleful presence. Skrolk is ancient, having existed many spans of even the most long-lived of his foul kind. Rather than weakening with age, he is possessed of a diabolic vitality that belies the years and the heaped diseases he carries. Indeed, he is bent and gnarled under the weight of countless corruptions. The flesh that is not hidden by his tattered shroud is leathery and covered in a layer of dripping buboes. Even worse, the mysterious hunching growths framed by the robes promise something still more virulent. Each new pox only toughens the aged Plague Monk, who has himself become a walking disease.

Effects
Faction Effects:


 * Chance of a plague spreading: +100%
 * Plagues bolster your forces and nurture your settlements
 * Construction cost: -50% for Pox Cauldron, Pestilent Nave, and Plague Abbey buildings

Lord Effects


 * Plague Lord: +3 Skaven corruption in local province as a lord effect
 * -50% upkeep for Plague Monks, Plague Monk Censer Bearers, Plagueclaw Catapult, and Plague Priest units

Additonal Starting Units
Mortal Empires


 * Plague Monks
 * Rat Ogres
 * Plagueclaw Catapult

Eye of the Vortex


 * Plague Monks
 * Plague Monk Censer Bearers
 * Plagueclaw Catapult

Abilities

 * Stand Your Ground!
 * Aura of Pestilence
 * Frenzy

Unique Items

 * The Liber Bubonicus: +3 Skaven corruption in local province
 * Using the Copper Desert example, with only Skrolk present and buildings: +28 corruption per turn in the province, +3 more per plague priest in the army.
 * Rod of Corruption

Multiplayer
Lord Skrolk is a competent Caster-lord, with good items and deceptively good melee stats. his summons, Clanrats: are great for reinforcing frontlines, and Plague Monks: are amazing at cutting through low-armour tier 1/2 infantry. namely units like Orc Boys, Empire state troops, skinks, bleakswords or whatever. because damage value from summons don't contribute to overall value, his damage value almost always seems lower than it should be. his other 2 good spells are "Wither" which (when paired with plague monks summons) is amazing for bringing down high armour infantry units like saurus, Orc Big 'uns and silverin guard. the last good spell is "bless with filth", which gives your units poison damage. A useful buff.His 2 other spells, Pestilent breath and Plague are alright, but if you are going to bring 3-4 of the first spells i mentioned, and 1 or 2 of his items, he gets *very* expensive, so I don't bother with these 2.

Skrolk's items are direct damage spells, 1 targets a particular unit, and is best against SEU (Single entity units) like lords, heroes, or big monsters. his other one deals good damage to all enemy units within 30m.

A good tactic is to push him 40 or so meters in front of your front line. people assume its a micro/placement mistake and target him with their centre units, like chaff, or more commonly, elite cav they brought from the flanks. people never actually check to see his melee stats, so assume he can't do much. His decent Melee defence means he's surprisingly tanky. Spawn a clanrat on top of him to tarpit the enemy units, and use his radius damage spell and watch as 3-4 enemy units lose massive amounts of health.Skrolk can also duel effectively against even high AP enemy SEU, but don't leave him alone for too long.

Lord Skills/Effect

 * Plague Lord: +3 corruption in local province as a lord effect
 * Corruptive: +3 corruption in local enemy province
 * Herald of Decay: -5 public order in local enemy province, +5 corruption in local province

Building a cauldron in level 3 minor settlements will generate additional corruption in adjacent provinces. This bumps the possible corruption to +5-7 per turn from buildings alone. If an enemy province is bordered by multiple Skaven provinces the corruption can be very high. For instance the Copper Desert southwest of Skrolk's starting position in the Vortex campaign is bordered by a 4 settlement province, and a 2 settlement province potentially spreading +12 corruption per turn from buildings alone.
 * Hero Skills
 * Spread Corruption: The plague priest can further enhance the corruptive influence of Skrolk's army, and with no summon cap overwhelm the enemy with free units.
 * Ideal Province Buildings
 * Pox Cauldron: +1 corruption in adjacent provinces, +2 in local province
 * Pestilent Nave: +2 corruption in adjacent provinces, +4 in local province
 * Plague Abbey: +4 corruption in adjacent provinces, +6 in local province
 * Technologies
 * Virulent Plans: Spread Rot and Decay,  +1 corruption in adjacent provinces
 * Using the Copper Desert example; +14 corruption per turn from buildings and this technology together.

Negative Lord Traits


 * Skaven Denial: +1 Public order in local province, -15 Leadership when fighting Skaven. Trait is gained when non-Skaven lord spends multiple turns in an area with high Skaven corruption.
 * Fears Skaven" -10 Leadership when fighting Skaven for the lord's army. Is agined when an enemy lord loses multiple times to the same Skaven faction.