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I have just read the Officio Assassinorum dataslate, and I really like the fluff for Vindicares. But I have questions:

How do they recieve orders?
How much autonomy do they possess?
Are they likely to use alternate kill methods should the opportunity arise (such as re-apropriate an ICBM)?
How do Vindicares restock their ammo?
Do they have restock points, or do they know how to remake some of their equipment?
Are there any good stories involving them?

Not so much a expert. But ammo wise they are utterly elite.
One shot. One kill. No miss. Think special forces sniper dialed up to 11. They will calculate drift, wind, drop and elevation in seconds, work out exactly where the target will be when Tha bullet hits. Night, day, fog, or smog at ranged seeming impossible. The longest shot to date is about 1.5 miles with multi second flight time from.leaving barrel to target...

I'm no fluff expert but inquisition allies, they have people everywhere. They could have thousands of couriers, allies or those who work for them without knowing in a single city.
Resupply could be easily achieved.

The weapons are custom made, to a insane degree. Utterly tailored, art level build. I doubt they could remake equipment of that calibre, or even make a single bullet. If weapon lost, they probbly are trained to make use of local gear they could get.

Others not so sure. But if your a sniper in a hostile city and planet, any communication could be hacked. They would likely operate alone unless utterly required and decide there own position, timing and methods. If it took a ied to lure them to make the shot. Sure they would arrange it.

They live for one job. To kill one target. Utterly dedicated, once ordered they will achieve it or die.

Assassins are told assassinate a target. They have carte blanvhe to do so, they are just expertise in a particular field, such as sniping, and so have carte blanche to pick the perfect moment and shot to kill. Unless that target needs killed by 9am Monday morning before the week's first Waaagh!, it could take weeks or years, depending on the necessary moment.

This HH novel Nemesis has pretty good fluff for vindicare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ056D5dh_M

There are others, but not audio version.

As far as anyone knows, all Imperial Assassins are recalled post each mission. Given that each deployment is ordered directly by the High Lords themselves, they'd probably want to keep a good handle on them.

So you get a report of some bad guy who will probably be big trouble soon. That gets priority tasking via an Inquisitor. The Inquisitorial Representative brings the task up at the next meeting of the High Lords. The High Lords discuss it and agree. The order is passed to the Officio Assasinorum with the target details. The OA determines the target type and deploys the appropriate Assassin. The Assassin, a Vindicare in this case, deploys, sets up, waits for the opportune moment (frequently for days or weeks), and takes his shot. In the ensuing confusion, nooone notices his stealth drop-pod lifting off again as he rejoins his mothership, which immediately returns to the deployment base for debrief and resupply.

At least that's how it's supposed to go.

I'm p.sure that the whole "four assassins to kill one dude" and "assassins on the battlefield supporting regular troops" thing is new fluff.
As such, my headcanon is that the Assassins you're actually allowed to deploy in 40k are the trainees and the actual Master Assassins that are deployed alone to a world with effectively no other Imperial presence yet still manage to turn the tide of a war that hasn't started yet, are much rarer, more highly skilled, and better equipped.


As for a Vindicare's rifle, it is fully customised to the individual. From the curve of the stock against the shoulder to the distance between the back of the grip and the trigger, through the trigger weight and trip travel, to the height of the sight axis above the cheek piece, all the way down to the individual shooter's preferred HUD layout in the scope and Mask. Probably the only three things any particular two Vindicare Rifles have in common would be the firing mechanism, ammunition, and magazine capacity.

Regarding using alternative methods, that would sorta defeat the purpose of the Assassin: their job is not just to kill the enemy commander, their job is to do so in such a way that is both clearly not some sort of tragic accident but also appears to be wholly impossible, leaving no trace of the attacker, just the attack. The point is to make a statement about Imperial power and reach, not just to kill some dude.

Eversors are generally the exception to the rule (due to their biology and withdrawl symptoms making them unable to even survive independently of their Temple's handlers) but otherwise all assassins are suppose to be able to be fully autonomous after given their missions; While even Space Marines and the Grey Knights are expected to have servants and crew to ferry them from planet to planet and restock their ammo, an Assassin is suppose to be able to get from one star system to another completely on his own, which includes foraging for food on unknown planets and finding ways off of it (usually by hijacking the ship of the closest poor schlub).

As for ammunition, a Vindicare probably carries just a few rounds on him, just enough to finish the mission. This ofc isn't translated into the game or otherwise the Vindicare would be completely useless. Fluff-wise, Vindicares are known to take a position for weeks, maybe even months, to get that perfect shot (which again isn't translated into the game cuz it would otherwise take real-life months for a Vindicare to shoot once).

As for repairs, given how autonomous Assassins are expected to be, it wouldn't be surprising if a Vindicare can field strip his exitus rifle and repair it with locally bought parts, or know how to machine replacement parts in any part of the Imperium. Completely replacing a rifle would probably result in the temple killing the Vindicare instead; if he lost his rifle this time it means he's going to lose it again. And no matter how well trained an assassin is, I'm sure his rifle is worth more than he is.

EDIT: Ignore the last bit about the rifle being more important than the Assassin.

You're on pt till the last sentence, an assassin is much more important than his rifle, this isn't some IG trooper, nor an tac marine.

There was a fluff scene where the vindicare use his rifle to block a blade attack in close combat which left his rifle broken in pieces, he got a suitable replacement the next mission.

The stuff I read implied the rifle was more important than the assassin, but I digress.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The stuff I read implied the rifle was more important than the assassin, but I digress.

Well if as you say, the Assassin is trained to replace or machine spare parts from scratch, its not that valuable. Its certainly worth more than a battalion of IG, but consider this. An assassin has a custom made rifle perfectly made for him, anyone else would get no where near the same precision. It can likely be made in a few years at most.

Compared to the hundreds of thousands of potential assassins that wash-out to get 1 to training level, then time to train and condition them tobe physically on par with Astartes, faster than 90% of Eldar, as skilled with blades as a Hive Tyrant and as good a shot as a Primarch, with reflexes to literallly dodge bullets (Matrix style) and change the course of history.

The Assassin is barely replacable, the rifle is a tool for him to carry out his hit.

It wouldn't be the first time a piece of equipment is paradoxically more important than the dude using it. The Imperium has the capability of making more baneblades and repairing them, but still sends battalions of tanks (often including other baneblades) in to retrieve a hulk instead of the more logical solution of just building a new one. But again I digress. You don't need to keep kicking me for the same point after I admitted my error.