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I've run assassins a few times now, getting used to them, and even tried the assassination force. Here are my thoughts...

Underperformers:

I have run the vindicare assassin several times and I'm really starting to sour on him. Originally he seemed like a potent anti-tank weapon, but even with S10 Ap2, he's struggling to penetrate heavy vehicles. He's pretty useful against Dark Eldar, since every shot is a penetrating hit and ignores jink saves, he's also very useful against Eldar, but anything else and he seems like wasted points. ICs still get a 4+ look out sir, and even if he hits, he's only doing d3 wounds after a 4+, which is meh.

The callidus, I can never seem to get her into the right situations. She's easy to kill and doesn't do quite enough damage even when she gets a good hit. Her neural shredder only wounds on a 4+ which is mediocre against infantry, and doesn't put enough hits on multi-wound models. The one exception was when I landed 7 hits on a squad of wraithguard and killed 4 of them. Of course their D-cannons insta-killed her the next turn. She doesn't even have krak grenades to target backfield vehicles, so I'm having trouble figuring out how to use her. Her big problem is that she's not particularly good against anything, the eversor and culexus are superior against both infantry and monstrous creatures. Her peripheral benefits just don't seem good enough to justify her cost. It seems like her objective is to hit and run in and out of combat, but she lacks the speed of the eversor and the durability of the culexus, so it's hard to get her into close combat without the enemy having some say.

MVPs:

The culexus, is amazing. The best assassin and yet is the 2nd cheapest. He's impossible to kill since enemies are striking at BS/WS 1. His shooting isn't spectacular, but it's better than the callidus with her short range. Life drain is everything. Insta-kills on 6s and makes even monstrous creatures real nervous when he gets close. Of course he slaughters psykers, unfortunately I ran him against Tau and some Daemons who refused to get close to him. But he did insta-kill a demon prince.

Eversor, classic and reliable. Hard to kill with his feel no pain, can soften up infantry or monsters with his four pistol shots, and 3d6 charge makes him impossible to avoid. He's perfect for taking out elites and assault units, his 2++ close combat gauntlet makes him good against monsters. He's the cheapest assassin and the 2nd best.

Huh. So totally opposite from the last time I used them. Intriguing. Guess mine will stay on the shelf.

Doesn't the Callidus get a turn of pseudo Invisibility the turn she appears?

I have to agree on the vindi and the culexus. Vindi needs a few turns and a little dice luck to earn his points back. Culexus can rock people out quick.

I find callidus to be almost as awesome as the culexus. She needs a couple thing like overwatch immunity to be on the same level as him though.

I've never seen eversor do anything worthwhile ever. The vindi is usually somewhere safe, while calli and culex have some amount of "you can't hit me" protection, but the eversor just kinda sticks out like a sore thumb. 3 t4 fnp wounds with only a 4+ invuln isn't hard to bring down at all.

While the culexus is useful accompanied by almost anything, the other assassins really depend on what army you bring. For my deepstriking GK, the vindicare is my #1 choice cause he can man the comm relay and put the hurt on wave serpents or hornets.

I have had success with all the assassins. The vindicare being the most simple point and click. He has some really good games and some mediocre games. With the eversor, I usually play him in a counter attack role. With his small model, he can usually hide out of LOS in a ruin by an objective. And if someone comes within 18 inches of him he jumps out.

I think I had to come to terms with the fact that they will not carry a game. They are more of a nuisance unit that needs practiced application.

 Bonachinonin wrote:
I have had success with all the assassins. The vindicare being the most simple point and click. He has some really good games and some mediocre games. With the eversor, I usually play him in a counter attack role. With his small model, he can usually hide out of LOS in a ruin by an objective. And if someone comes within 18 inches of him he jumps out.

I think I had to come to terms with the fact that they will not carry a game. They are more of a nuisance unit that needs practiced application.

That's what I like about the eversor, it's very easy to hide him behind a building. Then with his move+charge he's got a 16" average threat range. It's easy to keep him from enemy shooting long enough to get him into combat. The key is to target units with weak overwatch and then enjoy the show.

I'm glad you started this thread, because I just started playing with these nasty homies. Here's what I've found so far:

Vindicare: He is situationally fantastic, but even when he's not sniping characters and 'sploding vehicles, he can be a good distraction. With stealth, the ability to hide in a corner and shoot the whole board, and 3 wounds, he needs some decent dedicated fire to take out, which takes pressure off other things.

Callidus: She's a great anti-infantry tool. Yes, sometimes the Neural Shredder whiffs, but an AP2 template cannot be discounted. Where she is super awesome is in her ability to screw with the opponents reserves and to have an AP2 sword at I7. Then hit and run out, flame, and charge again. She's sweet when used properly, and with needing snap shots the first turn she arrives, she will probably live to mulch a unit.

Eversor: I thought this guy was the stinker when I started to toy with the assassins. Then I started making 12" charges on average, at S5 with 8 attacks, and being extra survivable thanks to FNP. He is another anti-infantry beast, but can also wreck tanks thanks to the S5 or Meltabombs.

Culexus: Easily the best of the Assassins when played properly. I completely accidentally ran this guy while around my GK and some Inquisitorial Psykers, as well as my opponent's Tigurius, and he got about 12 shots from his evil psyker-killer laser beam. And that's before he can get close and chuck a Psyk-out grenade, and then charge in and ignore all armor saves. All while having to be fired upon/slapped at BS/WS1. Bananas.

These peeps are nasty and fun, just my two cents.

I'm thinking of adding my culexus to my marine army once drop pods are fast attack. Sure, I use Grav centurions with draigo and friends, but draigo and friends don't need to be near the culexus.

Mostly there to drop in and obliterate a seer council. Hits on 2s, wounds on 2s with preferred enemy... And any seer council is,going to have 8 - 15 warp charges to leech.

Drop culuxes is probably best culexus.

The Vindicere Assassin has two natural prey-types;

a) light vehicles like raiders, speeders, and so on, up to about wave serpent level, where ignores cover is king and unmodified S10 is enough to punch through glacis plates easily.

b) support models in squads. Not an independent character, because (as noted) you'll take forever to kill them. A marine captain has a 4+ look out sir, and a 4+ iron halo save, and multiple wounds. A better choice is non-independent characters and non-characters with important wargear. Slot an apothecary or an icon bearer in the head to take away a squad's feel no pain and you've done a hit worth far more than the thirty odd points the model is theoretically worth. A five-man combat squad in cover with a heavy weapon (a nice, effective backfield unit) is one hellfire round away from being four space marines with bolters sat out of range on the wrong side of the board. Finally, taking out a sergeant will remove the squads' melta bombs/power fist - which is a nasty thing to do to a unit right before a dreadnought charges it....

Taking multiple assassins in an execution force as an example, a very good use for the Vindicere is to slot the cheap character in the command squad so he can't challenge the callidus assassin and keep her away from his boss.

A Vindicere will never eat units. He'll rarely make his points directly - but he'll cripple units so someone else can.

Callidus:
She's good, but.... yeah. Her damage output isn't terrifying. Polymorphine makes her really hard to kill on turn one, though - you can garuantee a couple of turns of use out of her, then expect to lose her after that pretty quickly. The best trick tends to be tag-teaming people - two or three callidus can slaughter a squad with multiple neural shredder attacks, even if it's theoretically safe and inaccessible. She's also probably the best actual assassin - the phase sword is really good at taking down human/marine characters in a melee, and poison blades means she's not out of ideas if the enemy general is a monstrous creature.

She doesn't cause instant death but ignoring invulnerables can be just as good, and she has an extra attack compared to a culexus, and AP2 compared to AP3 of the eversor.

The Culexus is brilliant. I agree. His two big weaknesses are that multiple culexus suffer from diminishing returns since you'll only have so much power to feed the animus unless you're facing enemy psykers, and that WS1/BS1 is nice but (unlike snap shots only) doesn't protect you from flamers and blast weapons.

The eversor is a squad-butcher, and that extra charge range is a godsend. Be warned, though, that feel no pain or not, one tactical squad's rapid fire will kill you stone dead - no assassin is particularly durable against small arms.

Agreed on all of the above. I ran the Culexus all summer last year for a narrative campaign. My main opponent was a Daemon player who liked a Nurrgle DP heavy list. I stuck the Culexus in a Land Raider and turned it into a nice bulldozer for the rest of the army, the added footprint was awesome and it was tough for him to pop the vehicle. And then you still gotta kill the Culexus.

Removing things like Invisibility and other potent buffs (Cursed Earth, Iron Arm, etc...) is where the Culexus shines the most (IMO)

I've done decent with the Vindicare. The ignores-cover shot are sweet and can put some critical hits on key units. Very nice on Necron skimmers to get rid of Living Metal or whatever the AV13 is called).

Only played the Callidus once to mess with my opponent's reserve, and haven't played the Eversor much at all, but overall they're the trickier ones to use. Definitely more anti-infantry oriented.