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Hi all!

Was recently reading through a copy of codex daemonhunters and noticed the entries of the death cult and officio assassinorum assassins. I'm curious, does anybody field either? Are they any good at al?

I was thinking of adding them into my IG army for some counter-CC punch just for the fun of it, plus I dig the death cult assassin model. Also figured their IC status should keep them rather safe from shooting until they get into CC.

So what is the general consensus regarding assassins? Are they good, satisfactory, or just plain lousy for their points?

And would going full throttle with 6 death cult assassins and 1 officio assassinorum assassin be just plain silly? Seems so, but it sounds fun to be fielding so many of them at the same time!

What do you guys think?

Neither of them are independent characters (just "independent") so they get no targeting protection. That is what makes Assassins/Death Cult Assassins very vulnerable to enemy shooting in 4th edition (since you can't really screen models much anymore either).

The Callidus can still be rather useful, but all other Assassins/Death Cult Assassins are pretty suspect tactically.

Oops... my bad... thought they were independent characters...

Well, that kind of kills the entire idea... shucks.... Though I suppose infiltrate will allow them to get into CC fast, IF I get to go first that is...

I'm going to disagree with Yak.

Culexus assassin: Junk, unless you're playing the Last Chancers with lots of psykers.
Vindicare Assassin: Junk.

Eversor Assassin: With the 12 inch charge, is reasonably able to hide behind stuff until he gets to charge. Not bad. Acceptable.
Callidus: Still silly-good, even without IC protection, because here rules mean she'll still be able to guarantee one charge. And she screws with your opponent to boot.

Death Cult Assassins: By themselves - they suck.

However, operating as a pseudo-squad, I've gotten good results from 3 DCA's. They hit hard in HTH (12 S4 I5 power weapon attacks on the charge) and take a surprising amount of enemy firepower to put down. I've theorized that 6 or 9 would be even more amusing, as your number of power weapon attacks gets silly, and the number of separate units your opponent has to target is absolutely hillarious.

Consider: For 360 points, you can get a 9-man pseudo-squad. This squad requires 9 separate units to target and shoot it to kill it off entirely in shooting. If this unit gets the charge, it gets 36 I5 S4 WS5 power weapon attacks. It has 18 wounds (albeit T3) with 5+ I saves.

Culexus assassin: Junk, unless you're playing the Last Chancers with lots of psykers.

Seer Council of Doom? Sure, he's absolutely toast afterwards, but +1 attack for each Psyker within 12"? Sure, they have a 4++ rerollable, but all those attacks hit on 2s and wound on 2s. Not to mention the LD test, even if re-rollable is on a 7.

Just for fun. Maybe?

Honestly I find the Eversor to be the best buy. He is the cheapest of the assassains, can infilitrate and make use of his 12" charge, effectively putting you in HtH first turn. He can wound anything on a 4+ ignoring armor and get a potential 9 attacks on the charge. Then in the event he dies he blows up, how cool is that? The calidus is nice but I would rather have the assassain that can take down sqauds single handedly, I have even considered charging an Eversor into a C'Tan since I think he could do fairly well at taking it down, or at least taking off a couple of wounds.

last week I played against a Vindicare in a Witchhunter army. he killed an Auto-Cannon Termi in his first turn and almost killed Typhus if he would't have missed him with the turbo-penetrator ammo. ans since he can ifiltrate you can put him on high buildings if there are any.

never played against the other ones, but at least the Calidus sound painfull. she ignores invulnarebility saves and could kill a not-overdemon hero in two turnes.

Culexus can be deadly when you play against the right army. Tyranid Warriors are all Psykers for example

I'm thinking of using an Eversor when I get my Raven Guard going. Partly because Eversors are just cool, but mostly because I think it would be neat to have Shrike's Wing and an Eversor charge on the first turn. Expensive as hell, but neat.

I find that in Ordos Armies, an Assassin can be very useful; specifically the Eversor. In my Sister's of Battle army, it gives me a HtH unit that a sorely need that can kill powerful models like deamon princes. The melta bombs are quite useful if you ae willing to sacrifice her to take out a Basse, Raider, or Russ on a first turn charge. The Eversor is a deal and complements my army quite well.

Death Cult Assassins I have been testing and I am liking the results. The only problem is that they take points that could be for scoring units and are fragile. But as counter-charge, they can be helpful.

Sisters can be very resilient in HtH, but they cannot do any damage. Assassins can help this deficency.

Most of the advice above is sound. Assassins are good for doing what they do - and not much else. They are not scoring units, cannot claim objectives, and are fragile as hell even with their saves.

That said, in the right situation/army they can be great.

Callidus - Easilly the most universally useful assassin. Ignoring all saves, guaranteed charge where you want and the ability to screw with your opponent's deployment is golden.

Eversor - Good as noted above, but will be targetted for shooting. And I am curious how you get a charge 1st turn with one unless you REALLY luck out and can hie behind terrain 12" or so from the enemy. If I am not mistaken infiltrating lets you set up MORE than 18" from the enemy - meaning the eversor in most situations cannot get a charge until turn two - like all infiltrators except Kroot Mercs or infiltrators with the scout move. That said, he is a beast in hth.

Vindicare - Not great, but good for killing Demonvessels, icon bearers, Powerfist sgts, etc.

Culexus - underrated. Against marines with librarians, 1k Sons, Nids, other Inquisitors, Grey Knights, etc can be downright nasty. Against the Seer Council - just sick. Lets see there are 40 warlocks and farseers within 12"... so that's more than that many shots, plus on their turn they have to test, using the modified leadership... or RUN! He is great at killing Zoanthropes, can handle Tyrants, Warriors, Sorcerors, etc... A nasty trick is to run him next to your three demonhosts... letting him get more shots than an assault cannon that can vaporize termies, etc.

Death Cult are BEST used either in a big mob of 6 or 9 running like a unit (as above) or hiding behind terrain and waiting as counter-assault elements among your firing base.


The standard Inquisitorial kit is to take the callidus for her tricks and 3 Deathcult as counter assault. Throw in an Emperor's Tarot to screw with the enemy and you have a fun list. ((Note true nastiness exists when you take a Space Wolves army with their Ven Dread (reroll first turn), plus an Inq Lord with Tarot (plus to roll for first turn) and a Callidus to mess with the enemy's deployment. Fluffy? No... but nasty))

oh yeah, I forgot. Grey Knights are all Psykers too. now THAT is painfull

Not really, only GK heroes, Justicars (power armoured squads), and Brother captains (terminator squads) count as pyskers. The rest are psykers in the fluff, but not in game rules.

Wow, thanks for all the replies!

I love the idea of assassins actually, very tempted to use lightsaber-wielding sith models from SWM as power-weapons wielding assassins in my IG droid army... haha...

But I'm rather concerned with their survivability. Even with infiltrate, they are likely to be exposed to 1-2 turns of shooting, and any army would be able to wipe them off the board if they really put a mind to it. I suppose the assassins would have improved survivability if there are other CC units charging down your opponent's throat early on (so it's either shoot the assassins or the other CC nasties), but I'm finding both daemonhunters and witch hunters to be a little lacking in such units without resorting to space marine fast attack slots like bikes or assault marines.

Is there any way to make them work reliably? I'm hoping to take a core of HQ inquisitor lord, 2 units of 3 death cult assassins, 1 eversor assassin, and the mandatory 2 units of inquisitorial stormtroopers, then filling it out with other witch hunters/IG/daemonhunters units. Would this work without using any MEQ units (I have an aversion to them...)?