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Basically this assassin is seen as the anti-psyker but I think it has a great role as basically a unit that can hold up enemy HQs or hard hitting units. If the enemy HQ has 3 attacks or less and each wound does 2 damage or less this guy in theory could hold him up for the whole game (and potentially kill him. Obviously the more attacks and more damage dealt reduces the number of turns the assassin will hold them up.

Enemy HQ must hit him on a 6+ so if he has 3 attacks its a 3/6 chance of getting 1 hit so 50% chance of landing 1 hit. Then it will be a 3+ to wound (assuming its not strength 8 or special rules) so that 1 hit then has a 4/6 chance of causing a wound or 66% chance of causing 1 wound. Then the assassin has a 4+ invun save so its a 50% chance or 1/2 that the wound will be saved.

I don't know the correct way to do the maths but i'm guessing it will be 3/6 -4/6 which = 1/6 which is a 16% chance of hitting and wounding 1 time. Then the assassin has a 50% chance of saving that wound so im gonna guess that the odds of the wound being successful will be 8% and then the damage will be dealt. The assassin has 5 wounds so if the damage is 1 it will be locked for the whole game no doubt and I think the same for 2 damage if its 3-4 damage than potentially the whole game as the character would need to do two successful wounds and theres only an 8% chance of 1 wound going through each turn. And if the HQ deals 5 damage per wound then each turn there is an 8% chance of killing the assassin so still the odds are in the assassins favour to lock him up for 4 turns etc.

I will also add that the assassin can be lethal in combat hitting on 2+ and strength 4 and no armour saves can be taken against his attacks so he has a big potential to actually kill whatever hes in combat with.

Yeah they are pretty good at tying up anything, really, not just HQs.

I don't think I'd take one just for that, but not all enemy armies will have any or many powers so might as well use it to tarpit things as well.

You do sort of have to build an army around taking one, though, since they need their own detachments.

jcd386 wrote:
Yeah they are pretty good at tying up anything, really, not just HQs.

I don't think I'd take one just for that, but not all enemy armies will have any or many powers so might as well use it to tarpit things as well.

You do sort of have to build an army around taking one, though, since they need their own detachments.

You could take 1 as an auxillery detachment for -1 CP or take 3-6 assassins in their own special detachment so you could take an eversors a callidus and a culexus 235 points and use them to do a turn 2 alpha strike either to kill off units hiding in the back on objectives or to hunt enemy hqs.

champagne_socialist wrote:

jcd386 wrote:
Yeah they are pretty good at tying up anything, really, not just HQs.

I don't think I'd take one just for that, but not all enemy armies will have any or many powers so might as well use it to tarpit things as well.

You do sort of have to build an army around taking one, though, since they need their own detachments.

You could take 1 as an auxillery detachment for -1 CP or take 3-6 assassins in their own special detachment so you could take an eversors a callidus and a culexus 235 points and use them to do a turn 2 alpha strike either to kill off units hiding in the back on objectives or to hunt enemy hqs.

Correct, but that's still one of three detachments devoted to assassins and granting -1 or 1 CP so you have to build around it.

jcd386 wrote:

champagne_socialist wrote:

jcd386 wrote:
Yeah they are pretty good at tying up anything, really, not just HQs.

I don't think I'd take one just for that, but not all enemy armies will have any or many powers so might as well use it to tarpit things as well.

You do sort of have to build an army around taking one, though, since they need their own detachments.

You could take 1 as an auxillery detachment for -1 CP or take 3-6 assassins in their own special detachment so you could take an eversors a callidus and a culexus 235 points and use them to do a turn 2 alpha strike either to kill off units hiding in the back on objectives or to hunt enemy hqs.

Correct, but that's still one of three detachments devoted to assassins and granting -1 or 1 CP so you have to build around it.

their special detachment doesn't grant any command points. I don't think you need to 'build a list around them'. in a 2000 point list I have never used more than 2 detachments anyway. 2 outrider detachments is enough for me as I play ravenwing and that gives me 12 fast attack slots 4 elites 4 hqs etc etc. if you take all 4 assassins that's 325 points so you have 1675 points left in a 2k game; what 1675 list are you using where you need 3 detachments?

what 1675 list are you using where you need 3 detachments?

Gotta get that 180 point Astra Militarum CP battery in there, amirite?! /s

I've used the Culexus many times for this. He's brilliant at disrupting Psychic armies, and even those who don't have any such as Necrons or Dark Eldar will struggle to get rid of him, but don't expect miracles. Don't send him into CC against anything tough, yes he ignores armour saves but he's only S4 with 4 attacks, don't throw him against enemy commanders.

People also need to remember that models have WS/BS 6+ when attacking the Culexus. This means that any weapon that has -1 to hit (TH, PF, Crushing Claws, Archite Glaive, etc.) can never hit the Culexus.

Big logic flaw.
If it's worth bogging down with something as expensive as the assassin, it is likely is far more lethal than 3 attacks at under S8 and 2 damage.

Cadian,
Cuts both ways. Effects that trigger on certain rolls - such as "Always hit on a 3+" ignores his shenanigans.

 BoomWolf wrote:
Big logic flaw.
If it's worth bogging down with something as expensive as the assassin, it is likely is far more lethal than 3 attacks at under S8 and 2 damage.

I just picked 3 attacks but basically 3 attacks under strength 8 will successfully wound the assassin on around about an 8% chance if they have something with more attacks or more strength then obviously the number is higher so im gonna guess if they had 6 attacks it would successfully wound 16% of the time which is still incredibly low, if they have 12 attacks it will successfully wound 32% of the time.

So basically a big HQ for space marines etc im guessing will average 5/6 attacks so you can see it wont find it easy killing the assassin


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Cadian16th wrote:
People also need to remember that models have WS/BS 6+ when attacking the Culexus. This means that any weapon that has -1 to hit (TH, PF, Crushing Claws, Archite Glaive, etc.) can never hit the Culexus.

That is actually awesome and I never thought of that. It also means heavy weapons if the unit moves can never hit the assassin.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bharring wrote:
Cadian,
Cuts both ways. Effects that trigger on certain rolls - such as "Always hit on a 3+" ignores his shenanigans.

Yes you are right but the ball should be in the assassins court. The assassin arrives in any of your movement phases anywhere on the battlefield so clearly you wont put him next to a unit that has a rule that it always hits on a 2+.

champagne_socialist wrote:

 BoomWolf wrote:
Big logic flaw.
If it's worth bogging down with something as expensive as the assassin, it is likely is far more lethal than 3 attacks at under S8 and 2 damage.

I just picked 3 attacks but basically 3 attacks under strength 8 will successfully wound the assassin on around about an 8% chance if they have something with more attacks or more strength then obviously the number is higher so im gonna guess if they had 6 attacks it would successfully wound 16% of the time which is still incredibly low, if they have 12 attacks it will successfully wound 32% of the time.

So basically a big HQ for space marines etc im guessing will average 5/6 attacks so you can see it wont find it easy killing the assassin


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Cadian16th wrote:
People also need to remember that models have WS/BS 6+ when attacking the Culexus. This means that any weapon that has -1 to hit (TH, PF, Crushing Claws, Archite Glaive, etc.) can never hit the Culexus.

That is actually awesome and I never thought of that. It also means heavy weapons if the unit moves can never hit the assassin.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bharring wrote:
Cadian,
Cuts both ways. Effects that trigger on certain rolls - such as "Always hit on a 3+" ignores his shenanigans.

Yes you are right but the ball should be in the assassins court. The assassin arrives in any of your movement phases anywhere on the battlefield so clearly you wont put him next to a unit that has a rule that it always hits on a 2+.

You'd think. I have seen someone indepenent operative in next to a burna boyz mob, with predictable results...I'm still not sure why.

I do actually fancy trying a massed assassinorium force at some point. You can't - sadly - do a pure assassinorium force because even with the execution force rule, you can field a maximum of 3 of each assassin at 1001-2000 points. That's just shy of 1000 points - 975 to be exact - and uses two full vanguard detachments.....

Actually, I guess you could fill the rest of the points with a fortification network. A pair of vortex missile silos, for example...

Never mind