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In my quest to 1 up GW (yet again) I give you Dataslate Assassins.

It conforms to 7th edition formatting, but is hasn't been polished up much. Expect future releases to look a lot better. Fluff and art will come eventually, submissions are greatly appreciated.

The rules as always are a work in progress, feedback is welcome.

Drop Box: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxvocx977t41oqg/Dataslate%20Assassins.pdf

Surely it would be more in keeping with the 7th edition rules to have each assassin be a formation?

The Stealth Suit says it 'counts as a camo cloak'. Wouldn't it be easier to just list the relevant rules under it's wargear entry instead of referring to a piece of wargear which isn't even available in this dataslate? Ditto for the Auspex in the Spy Mask.

The Callidus Assassin's Jump Back seems like it could just be replaced with Hit and Run.

Independent Character seems pointless on a model with Lone Agent. Not sure why the Callidus has Lone Agent anyway... blending in with a friendly unit seems like exactly the kind of thing they would be good at.

AP 6 on the Phase Sword is confusing. Better to make it AP 2 so it's clear at a glance it ignores armour.

It seems like the Callidus Assassin can assault the turn it arrives from reserves. If this is the case, best to spell that out explicitly.

Why don't assassins have the Precision Shots and Precision Strikes rules?

The Animus Speculum needs to clarify how many shots it gets if a unit with the Brotherhood of Psykers rule is within 12".

The Culexus seems like it should have the Fear rule, which might actually be somewhat useful when combined with it's Soulless rule.

The Vindicare's Marksman rule seems to refer to rules which don't exist. A better phrasing might be 'all hits from the Vindicare's shooting attacks count as successful Precision Shots'.

Life Drain says it works 'at the start of close combat'. 'At the start of the Fight-Sub-phase' would be more consistent with 7th edition terminology.

EDIT: I think that the profiles you give for assassins are considerably more reasonable than the existing ones.

 Perfect Organism wrote:
Surely it would be more in keeping with the 7th edition rules to have each assassin be a formation?

The Stealth Suit says it 'counts as a camo cloak'. Wouldn't it be easier to just list the relevant rules under it's wargear entry instead of referring to a piece of wargear which isn't even available in this dataslate? Ditto for the Auspex in the Spy Mask.

The Callidus Assassin's Jump Back seems like it could just be replaced with Hit and Run.

Independent Character seems pointless on a model with Lone Agent. Not sure why the Callidus has Lone Agent anyway... blending in with a friendly unit seems like exactly the kind of thing they would be good at.

AP 6 on the Phase Sword is confusing. Better to make it AP 2 so it's clear at a glance it ignores armour.

It seems like the Callidus Assassin can assault the turn it arrives from reserves. If this is the case, best to spell that out explicitly.

Why don't assassins have the Precision Shots and Precision Strikes rules?

The Animus Speculum needs to clarify how many shots it gets if a unit with the Brotherhood of Psykers rule is within 12".

The Culexus seems like it should have the Fear rule, which might actually be somewhat useful when combined with it's Soulless rule.

The Vindicare's Marksman rule seems to refer to rules which don't exist. A better phrasing might be 'all hits from the Vindicare's shooting attacks count as successful Precision Shots'.

Life Drain says it works 'at the start of close combat'. 'At the start of the Fight-Sub-phase' would be more consistent with 7th edition terminology.

EDIT: I think that the profiles you give for assassins are considerably more reasonable than the existing ones.

Both the Camo Cloak and Auspex are available in the Armoury and reference sections.

I've made changes per your suggestions.

The Callidus and Eversor Assassin now have Precision Strikes.

The Callidus Assassin's Jump Back is a whole lot better than Hit and Run actually since it works before combat begins.

removed Lone Agent and Independent Character, I was nullifying a rule with another rule when I could just remove it.

Clarified how the Animus Speculum works, A Brotherhood of Psykers is only 1 Psyker.

The C'tan Phase Sword now has AP:X

Clarified the Callidus Assassin's Polymorphine, she can in fact charge the turn she arrives.

The Culexus Assassin now has the Fear special rule.

Clarified how Marksman Works, as it did in 3rd edition, but with much clearer language.

Simplified how Life Drain Works, 1 Psyker must pass a Leadership test at Leadership 5 or lose a wound, no saves allowed.

Added some major buffs to the Eversor Assassin.

Neuro Gauntlet now has a new profile to help him take on 2+ save units.

He's also Toughness 5 and averages 11 attacks on the charge.

That Eversor is OP, like...ridiculously so. With a max of 14 attacks on the charge he is hitting on 3's wounding on 4's with re-rolls at AP 2, all on a model which is T 5 with a 4+ invulnerable save! That takes 8 Marines rapid firing into this single, admittedly angry guy, to put him down somewhat reliably, not counting his 6+ FNP. Even for 120pts, that is not OK. On the charge he can quite easily take apart an entire MEQ unit on his own!

First off AP 2 is not ok, not every mode NEEDS to be able to take on 2+ saves, otherwise why do armies even pay such a premium to get them? All the gauntlet is meant to be is a juiced up Lightning Claw, to make it AP 2 makes no sense. And to be fair, neither does T5. Why does this guy get to slough off a Dark Lance shot when it would instantly evaporate a much tougher Space Marine? I get it, you want to make him survivable against small arms fire, but this isn't the way to do it. How about you add a rule into Frenzon that on any turn you may choose to activate the assassin gains a 3+ FNP but if he *doesn't* get into assault by next turn he takes a wound with no saves allowed? This could represent the homicidal maniac shrugging off wounds on the charge, while still being vulnerable to someone evaporating him with a Melta!

Other then that, this guy has no use for the Rage rule, which grants +2 attacks on the charge. Frenzon replaces the extra attacks, so i don't believe they would stack.

I think you went too far with the Eversor. T 4 was already pushing the limits of what I find plausible for an enhanced human and no single infantry figure short of a Primarch or Phoenix Lord should be throwing out that many attacks.

Rending seems redundant on the Neuro Gauntlet, seeing as it already has AP 2 and always wounds on a 5+.

Rage and Frenzon both replace the same bonus attack, so as written I don't think they would stack.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
That Eversor is OP, like...ridiculously so. With a max of 14 attacks on the charge he is hitting on 3's wounding on 4's with re-rolls at AP 2, all on a model which is T 5 with a 4+ invulnerable save! That takes 8 Marines rapid firing into this single, admittedly angry guy, to put him down somewhat reliably, not counting his 6+ FNP. Even for 120pts, that is not OK. On the charge he can quite easily take apart an entire MEQ unit on his own!

First off AP 2 is not ok, not every mode NEEDS to be able to take on 2+ saves, otherwise why do armies even pay such a premium to get them? All the gauntlet is meant to be is a juiced up Lightning Claw, to make it AP 2 makes no sense. And to be fair, neither does T5. Why does this guy get to slough off a Dark Lance shot when it would instantly evaporate a much tougher Space Marine? I get it, you want to make him survivable against small arms fire, but this isn't the way to do it. How about you add a rule into Frenzon that on any turn you may choose to activate the assassin gains a 3+ FNP but if he *doesn't* get into assault by next turn he takes a wound with no saves allowed? This could represent the homicidal maniac shrugging off wounds on the charge, while still being vulnerable to someone evaporating him with a Melta!

Other then that, this guy has no use for the Rage rule, which grants +2 attacks on the charge. Frenzon replaces the extra attacks, so i don't believe they would stack.

The Eversor is a single model unit which can't join another unit and costs 120 points. Also the only way to get it into combat in a reasonable amount of turns is to Deep Strike it, unless you want to buy a Land Raider to Transport 1 model. So it has to survive a round of shooting and Overwatch before it gets to wreck shop. If he can't take on a Space Marine Command Squad then how is he going to make his points back. Also as per fluff Eversor Assassins are tougher than Space Marines because of Drugs, but are kept in Cryoanimation, because they expire quite quickly like Thunder Warriors.

The Neuro Gauntlet has it's current profile so that it can reliably take out HQ's with a 2+ armour save without having to take a Power Axe.

The Eversor Assassin can only do 1 thing take out 1 unit in Assault before he becomes a massive fire magnet, with only 2 wounds and a 4++ with FNP(6+) which equivalent to a 3++.

 Perfect Organism wrote:
I think you went too far with the Eversor. T 4 was already pushing the limits of what I find plausible for an enhanced human and no single infantry figure short of a Primarch or Phoenix Lord should be throwing out that many attacks.

Rending seems redundant on the Neuro Gauntlet, seeing as it already has AP 2 and always wounds on a 5+.

Rage and Frenzon both replace the same bonus attack, so as written I don't think they would stack.

Rending is actually mostly for vehicles, in 3rd edition the Neuro Gauntlet Auto glanced vehicles on a roll of a 6. Noted on how rage works I'll remove that.

He doesnt need to be that tough to get into combat. As a single model unit it is extremely easy to keep him out of LOS as long as you have the proper amount of terrain or other units to walk him up with. T4 is all he gets.

He should not be able to take out a command squad by himself either.

There was honestly no reason to really change the stats on any of the assasins from what they were in the grey knights codex. Just update the rules to but them in line with 7th and mabey give them a cost decrease.

Eihnlazer wrote:
He doesnt need to be that tough to get into combat. As a single model unit it is extremely easy to keep him out of LOS as long as you have the proper amount of terrain or other units to walk him up with. T4 is all he gets.

He should not be able to take out a command squad by himself either.

There was honestly no reason to really change the stats on any of the assasins from what they were in the grey knights codex. Just update the rules to but them in line with 7th and mabey give them a cost decrease.

If you just wanted Grey Knight Assassins for 7th Edition just get the GW Dataslate when it comes out. This is my way of updating the Assassins to reflect their much more interesting 3rd edition selves with some modern streamlining and slight influences from their 5th edition incarnations.

The fact is that assault is no where near as good as it used to be, so a unit that can only effectively assault needs a good deal of durability and deadliness to be useful.

Just give him something, call it a "phase shifter", that makes him immune to overwatch and drop him back to T 4.

Alright The Eversor Assassin is back down to t4, but now he has Feel No Pain (5+).

I also added in their Apocalypse Formation, which now bumps the Eversor up to Feel No Pain (4+).