Warhammer 40K: The Best Codex Assassins
Today, we’re diving into a deadly classic – 1999’s 40K 3rd Edition Codex Assassins, that came enclosed in a White Dwarf.
Ahh, the golden age of White Dwarf. Back in the 90s’ it seemed like every month the venerable magazine brought something new to the worlds of Warhammer 40,000 and Fantasy. Sometimes new units, minis, and always exciting stories. In August of 1999 White Dwarf 235 arrived with this exciting cover:
Hello “FREE CODEX ASSASSINS!”
Let’s pull ours out of the BoLS library and take a peek.
Into the Original Codex Assassins
Diving into the classic mini-codex, you get all the basics on what Assassins are. This greatly expanded their background from the basics provided in the Rogue Trader book of the late 1980s. Tearing right into text gave us the stats and shared rules for the “basic Assassin” that the 4 original Assassin Temples were based on. All the foundations were there – Fearless, the Invulnerable Dodge save, the Infiltration, and Character status.
Meet the Assassin Temples
Then we got right into the four Temples:
The Vindicare and Culexus were first up. Back then, the Vindicare only got one each of his three special rounds, so you had to choose wisely. The Culexus was more of an oddball back in 3rd without the psykers on every street corner we have now in 9th edition. This guy has only gotten better with age.
Next up, the Callidus & Eversor. The Callidus basic wargear is defined here, way before we had any idea what a “C’Tan” phase sword meant. Her Jump Back was an early precursor to Hit & Run and, of course, who can remember the endless fun of moving an enemy unit up to 6″ after deployment with A Word In Your Ear? I still have fond memories of “I move your Devastators 6″ straight back behind the building they wanted to shoot out of.”
The Eversor was and remains a one-man murder machine. He arrives… he slays… he explodes.
Codex Assassins Lore, Missions & More
The end of the codex gave us some really teensy Force Org charts for assassins, a mission, and most importantly – tons of amazing stories. This little teensy book is where we first heard of The Slaughter of Clan Mackensie – whose entire criminal family was wiped out by an Eversor who ran out of ammo and had to resort to “a soup spoon and butter knife”. Or Mother Gullet, a Callidus who killed a dirty governor, and disquised as a nanny, snuck his infant to safely in her belly after swallowing him whole thanks to polymorphine. We hear of an imminent WAAAGH stopped in it’s tracks by a single round by a Vindicare, who blew a Gargant construction site sky high, and an Eldar Farseer on the edge of insanity as he senses the inexorable approach of the void that is a Culexus. Just great stuff!
The Minis
Last but not least, we got the original 4 Imperial Assassins. These metal classics have been replaced by the new plastic ones, but the old ones honestly hold up even today.
~ Who remembers this 1999 Codex Assassins, or has great memories of using Assassins back in the day? We want your stories in the comments!
