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Not tactics for using an assassin in your army - although those are welcome if anyone has any particular pearls of wisdom - but tactics for an actual officio assassinorium 'army'.
I've had a couple of games, and I know a couple of other people were looking at this. It makes for a hell of a different challenge to most armies!

Note that so far, I've only had two smallish games, one at 800 points and one at 1000, so I'm far from experienced - hence the requests for input & discussion.

The following are my thoughts. Feel free to point out stupid concepts and suggest alternative points of view.
Major points:

a) You will be a few points down. Assassins come in 150-135 point ranges, so you can only do 'close enough' to any given points value. Don't obsess over ekeing out every last point by changing assassin types - having the right mix of operatives is far more important than being exactly on point limits.

b) You will need everyone. Each assassin has critical skills, and if you put them in the wrong situation they'll fail badly. You can't go far wrong with as close to an even split between the temples as you can get, then tweak to taste. If you're going to be short on one temple, I'd say cut Culexus - narratively the rarest assassin, very specialised in his job, and (unless there's a psyker around) you reach rapidly diminishing returns on firepower for multiple animus speculum.

c) Your warlord is nothing but a liability. Independant operative means you don't get a warlord trait - just a big bulls-eye painted on one of your operatives' heads. Assassins aren't hard to kill, so that's an easy victory point for your opponent to get. I would recommend probably putting it on a Culexus - the Etherium is about the best protection you've got going - in most circumstances. A Vindicere is possible if you know you can keep the enemy away from him (it's a footslogging melee army or something), or a Callidus if you're not using her too aggressively. I would never use an Eversor as they're designed to be thrown into suicidal fights, and you tend to find them doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

d) Board setup. The more terrain, the better. And if you have a choice, pack your opponent's board edge with it. Assassins all have infiltrate, and the more you can block lines of sight and concentrate on taking his army apart a piece at a time, the better. Also note that terrain is only for blocking line of sight. Cover saves per se are largely irrelevant - you can't go to ground (you're fearless) and a 4+ cover save is no better than the 4+ invulnerable save you already have. Also, your two most scary-ass ranged weapons - the Exitus Rifle/Pistol and the Neural Shredder - will also both ignore cover saves, so they're not a big deal for your opponent either.

e) Objectives. Sitting on an objective doesn't work, with the possible exception of a Vindicere sniper. Put as many objectives on the opponent's half of the board as possible, because that's where you're going to be.

f) Deployment. Remember that if you can deploy out of line of sight of the enemy (and unlike a lot of 'infiltrators' that's fairly easy with one man units!), you can be 12" away, and the Callidus can be at any range regardless. Before you deploy, have a good think about where you're going to attack. Your army is such a glass dagger that you really, really need a plan of attack. The Vindicere is the one most worth making a point about here; yes he's a superb sniper. But he's also got three wounds with a 3+ cover save (probably) making him no harder to shift than >50 points worth of space marines. Do not look for a spot with good lines of sight across the board because he'll be shot to death by heavy weapons on turn one. Look for a spot with a reasonable line of sight to the area that the rest of your force is going in (you have ignores cover - partial lines of sight are fine!) and is hidden from as much of the rest of the board as possible. Also remember that you don't have to use him as a sniper. That thing in his left hand is an Exitus Pistol. It still has ignore cover from the spy mask, and still gets to fire the full range of special ammunition - a Vindicere can be just as dangerous as a pistoleer, and the extra pair of hands can be usefull in a melee (he still has two close combat weapons and an assassin's statline, even if he only has a knife and pistol). Using him up close is especially relevant if looking at enemy tanks - a turbo-penetrator from the pistol is much more likely to get a shot on side/rear armour, where ignores cover on AV10/11 will do you far more than trying to punch through an AV13/14 glacis plate.

g) Do you want to go first? You have the callidus' steal the initiative reroll, so it's worth considering. There are two points; if your opponent goes first you may get shot. But that shouldn't (hopefully!) be too bad as you can hide models easily, and he can only snap fire at callidus, even if they're in the open. More importantly, if you go second, you can charge on turn one - the prohibition on infiltrate/charge is the first player turn, not the first game turn. The risk is having his own heavy melee units march out and pick off one or more assassins, or having mechanised units scarper. That said, if vindicere's can pop transports, and or callidus get neural shredder attacks in before the enemy can move, you can really wrongfoot him.

h) You have the edge on most normal opponents. A Callidus or Culexus Assassin is a scary thing to face in a melee. Eversors are devastating but limited by AP3 - on the other hand, fleshbane gives them the edge against monstrous creatures. The one class of unit your close-quarter assassins will really have trouble with are walkers - if your target has a dreadnought bodyguard you have a serious issue. Have snipers in position to put it down (or at least immobilize it) as fast as possible!

i) Your biggest threat is numbers. A lascannon has virtually no chance to drop a Culexus assassin, even in the open. A plasma gun rapid-firing will do less than half a wound to an Eversor. By comparison, a single turn of rapid fire from a basic tactical squad will drop an Eversor dead every time. Wall of Death attacks from a unit with multiple flamers are disconcertinly likely to kill a charging assassin if you just let them happen. You cannot afford to fight hordes of orks or guardsmen.

j) You command an execution force. A dagger. Power to a point. Just because every model in your army is a seperate unit, don't disperse them. Two or three callidus standing next to each other are much more dangerous than three scattered across the line. Pick one chunk of the enemy army and kill it stone dead before he figures out what's going on. Remember the Operation: Assassinate command benefit - that extra victory point can make all the difference. Given your army, you should probably aim to grab Slay the Warlord, Operation: Assassinate, First Blood, and Linebreaker - that's 4 victory points, which is a good start but probably not enough to win.

k) Enjoy! Assassins are a very, very different army to use as a primary force, and there's something very unique about taking on (for example) fifteen hundred points with just ten picked killers.

Thoughts? Comments? Conflicting Opinions? Gratuituous Insults?

This was a pretty cool writing. Never played with assassins, so can't add more here, but it was a good read.

Great post man!
I'm so glad to have found this post as I'm also working on an assassin style 1850 pts army.

With the recent arrival from harlequins I had this idea in mind: a WHOLE converted army in the harlequin theme using a bunch of single model unit to fit an assassin theme.
Here's the list:

FORMATION: Assassinorum Execution Force

FORMATION: The Heroes' Path (Harlequin codex)
- Stealth, shroud, infiltrate and single models really fit in my theme

Combined Arm Detachment: Eldar

HQ

Illic Nightspear
- Another shrouded character that infiltrates anywhere on the board
- Always precision shot à la Vindicare
- Unlocks Pathfinders

Autarch
- Jetbike + Mantle of the Laughing God

TROOP

5X Pathfinders
5X Pathfinders
- Always precision shots, infiltrate, Shrouded

FAST

Crimson Hunter
- Basicly a Flyer assassin lol

HEAVY

WraithKnight
- Monstrous Creature assassins


So with this army I get a multitude of single units that excel in a specific role. I really enjoy the concept so far.

Vermine wrote:
Great post man!
I'm so glad to have found this post as I'm also working on an assassin style 1850 pts army.

With the recent arrival from harlequins I had this idea in mind: a WHOLE converted army in the harlequin theme using a bunch of single model unit to fit an assassin theme.
Here's the list:

FORMATION: Assassinorum Execution Force

FORMATION: The Heroes' Path (Harlequin codex)
- Stealth, shroud, infiltrate and single models really fit in my theme

Combined Arm Detachment: Eldar

HQ

Illic Nightspear
- Another shrouded character that infiltrates anywhere on the board
- Always precision shot à la Vindicare
- Unlocks Pathfinders

Autarch
- Jetbike + Mantle of the Laughing God

TROOP

5X Pathfinders
5X Pathfinders
- Always precision shots, infiltrate, Shrouded

FAST

Crimson Hunter
- Basicly a Flyer assassin lol

HEAVY

WraithKnight
- Monstrous Creature assassins


So with this army I get a multitude of single units that excel in a specific role. I really enjoy the concept so far.

Looks an interesting list!

The Hero's path is an odd formation but very effective for similar reasons. The fact that you can net a 2+ cover save combined with infiltrate makes them a bugger to shift at range - the Death Jester doesn't have all that much firepower but is certainly tough enough, and the Shadowseer can hide and hand out blessings..

I think - not sure- that you don't have any ally issues - yes, you won't be able to use blessings on the assassins but you won't have to deal with One Eye Open. Plus a Hero's Path adds two very useful things to an assassin army - a psyker with lots of access to tricksy powers (the curse which is basically reverse Invisibility is a godsend!) and someone who can actually take out a walker in melee (see comments above) - the auto-glance rules for a harlequin's caress make them actually pretty good antitank.

The Autarch is good. A Jetbike and Matle of the Laughing God gives him a rerollable 2+ jink. If you've not done, definitely give him a laser lance, though - he desperately needs it for punch!

Illic is useful, although he really wants to accompany a pathfinder unit - they have stealth and shrouded, he only has shrouded.

Pathfinders themselves are nice. Not only are they excellent snipers, but they also make very efficient pistoleers. People don't tend to expect it, but it can work very well - use illic's rules to deep strike them into terrain (move through cover so who cares), then shoot someone with pistols - S4 rending (effectively) shots hurt! - then batle focus to break up the deep strike circle and drop back out of charge range.... your opponent is left with the awkward choice of ignoring them or charging into terrain to dig them out, because shifting squads with a 2+ cover save is a bugger.

The wraithknight's a wraithknight. I'll warn you he may not do all that well - with everything else in your army hidden model-by-model, or pulling 2+ cover saves, he's the only thing you're going to have to deploy in front of god and everybody, with every enemy heavy weapon pointed at him because there's naff all else for them to aim at. Wraithknights are tough but not that tough. In fact - you might want to consider using him as bait for this reason.....

locarno24 wrote:
but tactics for an actual officio assassinorium 'army'.

Note that so far, I've only had two smallish games, one at 800 points and one at 1000, so I'm far from experienced - hence the requests for input & discussion.

a) You will be a few points down. Assassins come in 150-135 point ranges, so you can only do 'close enough' to any given points value. Don't obsess over ekeing out every last point by changing assassin types - having the right mix of operatives is far more important than being exactly on point limits.

b) You will need everyone. Each assassin has critical skills, and if you put them in the wrong situation they'll fail badly. You can't go far wrong with as close to an even split between the temples as you can get, then tweak to taste. If you're going to be short on one temple, I'd say cut Culexus - narratively the rarest assassin, very specialised in his job, and (unless there's a psyker around) you reach rapidly diminishing returns on firepower for multiple animus speculum.

c) Your warlord is nothing but a liability. Independant operative means you don't get a warlord trait - just a big bulls-eye painted on one of your operatives' heads. Assassins aren't hard to kill, so that's an easy victory point for your opponent to get. I would recommend probably putting it on a Culexus - the Etherium is about the best protection you've got going - in most circumstances. A Vindicere is possible if you know you can keep the enemy away from him (it's a footslogging melee army or something), or a Callidus if you're not using her too aggressively. I would never use an Eversor as they're designed to be thrown into suicidal fights, and you tend to find them doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

How are you doing all this? The Officio Assassinorum dataslate only has the options of a detachment of 1 single assassin, or the Execution Force which has exactly one of each temple.

Assassins are not unique.

There is nothing stopping you taking multiple Officio Assassinorium Detachments or Execution Forces, any more than you could take multiple Combined Arms Detachments, or any other Detachment.

Heck! For all we know, there's probably an 1500 pts army out there using 10 vindicare assassins XD !

Well, mine is going to be a 2000 point army using just assassins....

...Not just Vindiceres, though - see above, even if I end up a few points short of the total, it's better to have a mix of temples.

locarno24 wrote:
More importantly, if you go second, you can charge on turn one - the prohibition on infiltrate/charge is the first player turn, not the first game turn.

This is not true. Re-read the Infiltrate USR, paying special attention to whose turn the Infiltrator can't assault--his own.

Vermine wrote:
Great post man!
I'm so glad to have found this post as I'm also working on an assassin style 1850 pts army.

With the recent arrival from harlequins I had this idea in mind: a WHOLE converted army in the harlequin theme using a bunch of single model unit to fit an assassin theme.
Here's the list:

FORMATION: Assassinorum Execution Force

FORMATION: The Heroes' Path (Harlequin codex)
- Stealth, shroud, infiltrate and single models really fit in my theme

Combined Arm Detachment: Eldar

HQ

Illic Nightspear
- Another shrouded character that infiltrates anywhere on the board
- Always precision shot à la Vindicare
- Unlocks Pathfinders

Autarch
- Jetbike + Mantle of the Laughing God

TROOP

5X Pathfinders
5X Pathfinders
- Always precision shots, infiltrate, Shrouded

FAST

Crimson Hunter
- Basicly a Flyer assassin lol

HEAVY

WraithKnight
- Monstrous Creature assassins


So with this army I get a multitude of single units that excel in a specific role. I really enjoy the concept so far.

Sounds fun. The shard of anaris is also worth considering. He gains rending, fleshbane and instant death in challenges so he can be quote awesome at singling out MCs since they have to accept your challenge. He's got enough attacks to force multiple saves and it only takes one fail to outright kill anything without EW. I call the little bastard Shanktarch and he's made even my Daemon Princes have a very bad day

Love this idea, am going to give it a go just as soon as I find the alternative models to use for the assassins (the GW ones are just gak imo). I also read a list awhile back which mused over using an Inquisitorial Detachment + Assassinorum Execution Force formation to allow death cult assassins in, boosting the numbers a bit but keeping the list mostly 'assassin'. It would also shift the warlord onto someone more survivable and allow a trait to be taken. Any thoughts?

 Elric Greywolf wrote:

locarno24 wrote:
More importantly, if you go second, you can charge on turn one - the prohibition on infiltrate/charge is the first player turn, not the first game turn.

This is not true. Re-read the Infiltrate USR, paying special attention to whose turn the Infiltrator can't assault--his own.

Yeah, think Eric is right on this - did have to double check though, wouldn't surprise me if such a loophole existed

If you're wanting to add in other units, then an Inquisitor is an obvious one - in keeping with the story, a major Execution Force would probably have an Ordo Sicarius inquisitor looking over their shoulder(s).

As to how you'd kit them out.... that I'd leave to you. I'd seriously consider putting them in a Valkyrie, either an inquisitorial one or by taking a small Tempestus Scions bodyguard.

How about putting the Inquisitor in a unit of Death Cult Assassins and drive them around in a Land Raider?

Effective, but not especially subtle....

"Go on, lads, sneak up on the enemy, they'll never see us coming..."

[BEEEEEEP!!!!! BEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!]

"Seriously, inquisitor?"

More importantly, the tactical role of 'stabbing people with power swords' is one that the Officio Assassinorium has covered pretty damn well. It's crowd control and heavyweight antitank which is their main weakness - something that can handle hordes and Imperial Knights. Flamer/Meltagun wielding acolytes or scions are a good match for that.