Goatboy’s 40K: Welp We Got New Assassins
Goatboy here again and while I missed last Monday this week, I give you an extra piece of 40k goodness. The Assassin rules leaked the other day and wow are they pretty interesting.
Heck this little mini dex is a whole lot of cool, and I wish this thought had been put into the Renegade Knights, but it’s cuz I am a dirty Chaos player. Overall I think this whole sideboard options the new Assassins give you is just pretty dang cool.
Taking Assassins
First – the new big rules are that you can take a Vanguard detachment with one of each Assassin and it still generates you 1 CP. If you don’t take one of each one, then you don’t get the single CP. Overall that is fine as it keeps in the fluffy nature of 4 pack of Assassin Wine Coolers you want if you feel like bringing in the Action team of death and destruction. But wait – there is a way to take an Assassin without blowing a Detachment. For 1 CP and the cost of having 85 points, you could take any single Assassin as long as you have an Imperial Warlord (Sorry GSC guys – you can’t make a Warlord Brood Brother so no Assassin for you). That is the interesting thing as it lets you have a sideboard depending on the type of army you might play against. Just leave yourself a free 85 pts (the cost of all the assassins now) and burn that single CP. If you are not playing Matched play you have to burn 3CP which feels weird.
The Usual Suspects
Beyond the way you can take the Assassins now – each of the death dealers got a few rules updates. Plus a few Stratagems as well. Thankfully there appears there isn’t a Relic to take with your murder machines. But overall each of the dancers of death brings new things to the table top. Most of them match the rules they had before with slight tweaks like aura ranges and damage potential.
Vindicare
First one was probably the “weaker” one out of the 4. The Vindicare got a nice boost overall, and I feel I will see him show up a lot – especially versus Eldar and other psychic heavy armies. This guy is designed to put a bullet into the head of your enemy’s lynchpin. First, the Assassin gains two Strats. One lets him shoot again for 1CP on a different target, and the other is a Turbo Penetrator to hit vehicles and do some mortal wounds for 1CP. The double shooting will be essential to take out those pesky Warlocks and other small characters like Priests and other Aura nonsense. The new rule that was added is that when this Model shoots a Character and the model doesn’t die – roll a die, and on a 3+ that model takes a mortal wound. If it isn’t dead, then roll again, and on a 4+ they take another mortal wound. Then keep going, adding +1 to the die roll until the model is either dead or you get to a 7+. As this ability isn’t a Stratagem, I can see 2 Vindicares doing a ton of damage to your Aura characters as they shoot pop shots into your forces. It would mean throwing a Detachment to some Assassins, but it might not be a big deal in a Knight based army that isn’t burning thru nearly as many CPs as other Imperial combos.
Callidus
The Callidus appears to be the same as the Index – beyond some new Stratagems. The big one is the 2CP that turns on their confusion ability during any Battle Round. It can only be used once, and I don’t know if it is worth 2CP. Her other one is letting her advance and charge plus opponents are at a -1 to shoot at a model that turn. It is one CP and not a bad rule just not sure if will see the model that much beyond just needed it in an Execution force. Oh her sword went to 2 damage versus one so it isn’t too terrible.
Murder Machine – aka Eversor
Next up is my favorite Assassin – the Eversor. I don’t know why I like this model so much – it just feels the most Goatboy out of them. The fact it is so Assault based just makes me happy to try and play a few. It is one of the few things that always has me look towards Imperial Armies just to get a chance to bring this choppy monster to the table top. The significant change to this guy is his Sentinel Array removes the reroll overwatch ability and lets this guy shoot whenever someone leaves combat within an inch of this guy. Seems pretty fun and somewhat decent. I expect most players to let this guy Ginsu whatever he is fighting, and them remove him with counter fire. His other rule update is to let him gain an extra attack each time a model is slain when he assaults. This allows him to have a chance to kill 12 single wound models which aren’t too bad. Mix this with the ability to Consolidate up to 6,” and you got a mean murder machine. On top of this, he has two good Strats that let him get to work. The first one is a 2CP attack again strat that after fighting again he rolls a d6 and on a 1-3 he takes a single Mortal Wound. That is pretty dang awesome especially when mixed with the ability to consolidate 6″, assault 3d6 inches, and an attack again option. The next Strat is a single 1CP 4+ feel no pain like roll that doesn’t stop Mortal wounds. This isn’t too bad as this guy has a pretty decent 4+/4+ to survive small range fire as he comes in for the kill.
Culexus
The last Assassin to come to the table top is the updated Culexus assassin. This Assassins rules stayed the same as overall he was pretty much set up correctly. I couldn’t think of anything else to add to him other than just make him cooler in some way. Thankfully they dumped a few Strats onto this guy which makes him a nice “sideboard” to take versus some of the newer armies showing up. First is the 2CP Soul horror ability that makes all units within 3″ of this guy have to fight last this phase. This could be very deadly versus some assault based armies like Meat Mountain for the Dark Eldar and crazy close combat GSC that are coming up. They also have a 1CP ability that makes their Animus now do D3 damage versus the single damage they have now. This could be great for removing a psyker or maybe a pesky Daemon Prince hiding behind some Plague Bearers or Nurglings.
Odds & Ends
The last Strat that seems neat is the ability to gain 2-3CP for killing a Character for the cost of 1CP. I can see this being useful when having some Assassins on the lookout to murder some characters. 2 Vindicares crossing shooting lanes seem like a nice option during a game. Heck, a few Eversors will get the jump on anything hiding behind lines and help net you a few extra CPs. I expect this rule to be similar to how the Nid one is so it can gain more then 1CP during a player turn.
Overall this is a neat release and makes grabbing the White Dwarf this month something special. I love the idea of these new rules used to clean up the Index options and hopefully removing those books from Matched play in the coming future. I know I will be sad to see my Jump Pack Death Guard Chaos lord going away – but it is time to cut those things out of the game and let the overloaded Auratach stop having to carry all that stuff on a bike.
~What do you think of the new Assassin rules?
