I've been playing with two wood elf teams almost exclusively for a while now and I love the way they play. However, for a change today I decided to play with my skaven team - who have a similar play style (ie AG4 movers who can get downfield, a big guy in the middle for a bit of muscle) just to remind myself what a different team was like.

I won the match, and the skaven are now 9/3/0, so I must either be doing something right - or playing weak opponents :)

But I really struggled with them and have come to the decision that wood elves are a much better team... for me, at least.

The real advantage skaven have is their cost. AV7 players are going to miss a lot of games along the way so having them cost 50K instead of 70K is a big advantage. Also, having two players who are a bit tougher helps as well.

But not having AG4 means I am less tempted to dodge players out of tackle zones at after I've done all the important stuff and so they're much more likely to get blocked anyway, so more likely to suffer an injury.

Also, cost is really only a major factor during the team-building phase. Once the team is reasonably strong and you have a bit of cash in the bank, replacing players seems to be easy enough for wood elves until the team has a seriously high TR and never wins any cash (this doesn't often happen for me so it's not really a problem).

The other big plus for skaven is, of course, the ability to get mutations. This can lead to some fairly specialised players - for example, a storm vermin with claw, a gutter runner with big hand, etc and these can really make a big difference.

But, the basic skaven is fairly unskilled, so there are a few essentials to get anyway. I like my players to have block [1 skill] and either dodge or tackle depending on their function [1 skill]. and my catchers get either side step and tackle or sure feet and sprint [2 skills] all before I really think about real specialisation [diving tackle, strip ball, nerves of steel, leap] and this is all without any ST, AG or MA enhancements.

So while mutations are good, they aren't really integral to my game plan.

Also, skaven throwers are a bit of a waste as gutter runners can do it better until the thrower is skilled up a bit (and all my skaven throwers seem to get killed early on in their careers).

Another reason I like wood elves is this...
All my really skilled players seem to become foul magnets. This is understandable, and I have to accept that I may be playing with a bunch of linemen and nothing else. In this case, wood elves are much better than skaven as any of them can pass and catch fairly easily so game is still on, even without the ones who like to show off.

And finally...
wood elves are just prettier :)