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I am unfamiliar with the assassins as far as seeing any but the ranged one fielded. What is the break down on usage for each? Rank them in order from best to worst. Are there any that you would totally want to avoid at all costs? Basically what I want to compile is a practical user guid to assasins in 6th edition for someone (myself) who has never used any of them (at least since 2nd Ed).

What I do not want is the epic story of the one time said assasin kicked serious ass. I just want the facts and what they are practically capeable of.

Vindicare: By far the best. Can snipe individual heavy weapons/sergeants out of a unit, can murder any vehicle ever made (4d6+3+Rending translates to 85% to glance AV14 if I did my math right), doesn't have to get up close to shred foes with 36" range. He's got a bit of a reputation, though, so enemies will focus attempts to destroy him early; either protect him by parking a big nasty unit between him and the enemy or take advantage of that to split their forces (concentrate on the Purifier charge about to hit your lines, or go after the Infiltrated Vindicare sniping your vehicles' rear armor?).

Callidus: A pretty good character-killer in these days of challenges, but tends to be overpriced and performs better against lower-Ld armies with weaker HQ units so the neural shredder does better and so she can deal with foes quickly, since she can't really survive a counterattack. Doesn't have much touranment presence due to the prevalence of people like Draigo and Mephiston; casual enemies fielding Farseers, Librarians, Imperial Guard officers, or the like on foot are better opponents. Works casually, doesn't competitively.

Culexis: An effective counter to MSU Grey Knight armies or Eldar Seer Councils; other than that nobody will ever have enough psykers on the table for him to be useful. Generally overpriced and too specialized.

Eversor: Again, a pretty specialized unit that might see some play if you need to root out enemy heavy weapon infantry or artillery with an infiltrating meltabomb platform, but he's pretty expensive, not very durable, doesn't set off an S5 template on dying like he used to, and isn't as effective as any number of other things in the Codex at his job.

 TheLionOfTheForest wrote:
What I do not want is the epic story of the one time said assasin kicked serious ass. I just want the facts and what they are practically capeable of.

Basically take none or a Vindicare.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Callidus: A pretty good character-killer in these days of challenges, but tends to be overpriced and performs better against lower-Ld armies with weaker HQ units so the neural shredder does better and so she can deal with foes quickly, since she can't really survive a counterattack. Doesn't have much touranment presence due to the prevalence of people like Draigo and Mephiston; casual enemies fielding Farseers, Librarians, Imperial Guard officers, or the like on foot are better opponents. Works casually, doesn't competitively.

The fatal problem is that the Callidus assassin can't charge on the turn it arrives. Like Marbo, it arrives and does some damage with the super-flamer, and then dies to a round of bolter fire. Sure, in theory both of them can assault something and do even more damage, but they rarely get a chance to. Of course the key difference is that the Callidus costs over twice as much and does less damage.

Another issue with the Eversor would be delivery system also right? Needing a vehical with assault ramp to get him into combat without getting destroyed?

Is it worth fielding 3 Vindicares? I was thinking bout being a real a-hole one time and fielding 3 of them and allied IG with Marbo.

 TheLionOfTheForest wrote:
Is it worth fielding 3 Vindicares? I was thinking bout being a real a-hole one time and fielding 3 of them and allied IG with Marbo.

It might be worth it, but it's not legal. Assassins are unique, so you can only have one of each type.

The best assassin is the Vindicare, simply because of his serious anti-vehicle firepower. With 4d6+3 str and rending, plus being AP 1, he can wreck tanks with ease (66% chance to pen AV14 WITHOUT extra rending dice I think). Or, he can simply knock out a heavy weapon (wounds on 2+). I take him to give my grey knights some much needed ranged anti-tank and stick him in a ruin for some cover save action.

The Eversor is best used exactly as his fluff describes: charge him headlong into some important unit and maul them. 4+D6 attacks at WS 8 and Str 5 with a lightning claw, he'd be good to take out some weapons teams or use his melta bombs on a big tank. He was better when he had infiltrate though.

I personally have never used the Callidus or Culexus assassins, simply because the Vindicare and the Eversor are usually much better options for me.

How do you deliver the Eversor, since he is going to die if you just charge him up the field?

I am a space wolf player and would love to field the vindicare assassin as allies. What is the best/most cost effective way of including him in my 1500pts list?

If you're looking for more general tips on assasins and GK thingies check out the main thread here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/460371.page

Check under the elite's section, it's not all inclusive by all accounts but I'll work on adding stuff when I get around to it.

Something to remember with any assassin is that no battlefield is "sterile", there is always terrain and there are (almost) always objectives. So if you're using a melee unit like the Eversor, you might be able to avoid LOS to the shooty units that will try to kill you. Likewise, 36" range on the Vindicare's .50 Barrett of the 41st millennium might not be so great depending on the setup of the table.

Michi, there is no really good way to field "just the vindicare" in an army that small simply because most of your compulsory units (1 HQ+1 troops) are fairly expensive. However, the cheapest way is a non-upgraded inquisitor and minimum sized grey knight strike squad, that gives you the vindicare and a 5 power-weapon armed space marines for 270 pts. But realize that you can have a pimped out Land Raider which will destroy tanks just as well (or better) for that cost. The other thing you could do is make your grey knights an assaulty strike force and use their terminators. Or there's always mini Draigo wing...but that will be a lot more expensive and a lot less fluffy.

 Michi wrote:
I am a space wolf player and would love to field the vindicare assassin as allies. What is the best/most cost effective way of including him in my 1500pts list?

Allied Detachment:

HQ

Inquisitor Coteaz

Troops

1 Acolyte Henchman

Elite

1 Vindicare Temple Assasssin

I believe 3 henchmen is the minimum size for a squad.