40K: Callidus Assassin Tactica
At first glance the Callidus really looks and acts like an assassin. She arrives like a deepstrike with no scatter, has a potentially nasty template weapons, and can then assault with a weapon that ignores both armor and invulnerable saves. Problem is, using her in this way, something that just comes in and “kills” never really works. The game has just changed so much since the initial release of the Daemonhunter codex. Assassins are no longer the power house hitters that they used to be- but with a little planning then can potentially be that and so much more.
The key to using Daemonhunters, and Grey Knights in particular is to siphon off your opponent’s units regardless of the mission. What I mean by this is that your entire army needs to be working as a block moving forward- all of your models and resources need to be applied to your opponent. No units can be just sitting back camping on an objective, etc. Now as an =I= player you are going to be outnumbered, outgunned, and out-everythinged. You can’t take on the full force of your opponent’s army- you need to break off bits of theirs at a time and apply the entire force of your army against these bite sized bits. The assassin is one of three tools to do this.
From the very first turn you need to be setting the situation/table up for the Callidus to arrive. The first thing I do is identify the unit I want to eventually hit when she arrives. This unit is never a dedicated assault unit as they will eat her alive. What I’m looking for is a unit off to the sides and near the middle or rear of the table/spearhead coming towards my army.
The next question is how much does this unit have to be softened up before the assassin hits? Does it have to be de-meched? Do my knights have to hit it with a few psycannon shots? Prime the target for the assassin to hit. Unlike regular 40K best practices where you want to shoot a unit and keep shooting it till it’s dead, I only want to bring the targeted unit down a bit in strength and size- enough so at best the Callidus can take the unit, at worst she get’s locked in the assault.
I’m also trying to manipulate the table, sometime successfully, sometimes not, to get my opponent to bunch up, setting things up for the neural shredder- again to help thin the numbers before I assault. In the example above where I am firing at an imaginary razorback filled with the minimum of guys my dreadnought(s) and Grey Knight squads will work together. The Knights will try to position themselves so that when the dreads pop the transport and the guys inside get out they will want to get behind that LOS blocking wreck or terrain piece so they don’t eat a hail or storm bolter and psycannon shots.
When the assassin strikes, and wipes out the unit, of I may be so bold, the next step is to consolidate and hide- the perceived threat of what she can do now on the table, is magnitudes better then what she can actually do. Forget about charging her forward towards your opponent, run, hide the highland way. This is where siphoning off units comes into play. With the assassin on the sides of the advance my opponent will have to make a choice, break off a unit or two, or shoot with a unit or two if the assassin is in sight, or keep going to engage the bulk of my knights advancing. At this point for me, keeping her alive is the most important thing- so going to ground for the 3+ cover save takes over from the 4+ invulnerable save…
In this age of mighty Space Marine heroes and Mephestons on every table the role of the assassin changes and evolves… How are you guys using the old Callidus on the tabletop these days?
