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Looking at making an assassin army consisiting of the 4 assassins (multiples of the same assassin) along with a land raider redeemer filled with death cult assassins and an Inquisitor.

Would this army list work? an assassin army?

They aren't unique. Go for it. You just take two Officio Assassinorum Detachments with one Vindicare each.

Inquisitor- psyker level 1- force sword- needle pistol- 70 pts

3 inquisitoral psykers 30pts

land raider redeemer - multi melta and psyflame ammo and psyammo - 270pts

vindicare assassin 150pts
vindicare assassin 150pts

culexus assassin 140 pts
culexus assassin 140pts

callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts

eversor assassin 135 pts


1500 points

champagne_socialist wrote:

Inquisitor- psyker level 1- force sword- needle pistol- 70 pts

3 inquisitoral psykers 30pts

land raider redeemer - multi melta and psyflame ammo and psyammo - 270pts

vindicare assassin 150pts
vindicare assassin 150pts

culexus assassin 140 pts
culexus assassin 140pts

callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts

eversor assassin 135 pts


1500 points

That's a legal list, but I don't think it'll be very good. The various Assassin are NOT Independent Characters and none could start the game in reserves. The Callidus Assassins can use Polymorphine to deploy close to an enemy unit, but can't charge same turn. They'll get eaten alive. The Culexus Assassin are pretty useless against anything that isn't a Psyker.

Might be a fun list... depending on your opponent. I play Tau. I'm pretty sure my Tau would eat this alive without thinking. Weight of fire will take down Assassins like they're made of paper.

 Kriswall wrote:

champagne_socialist wrote:

Inquisitor- psyker level 1- force sword- needle pistol- 70 pts

3 inquisitoral psykers 30pts

land raider redeemer - multi melta and psyflame ammo and psyammo - 270pts

vindicare assassin 150pts
vindicare assassin 150pts

culexus assassin 140 pts
culexus assassin 140pts

callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts

eversor assassin 135 pts


1500 points

That's a legal list, but I don't think it'll be very good. The various Assassin are NOT Independent Characters and none could start the game in reserves. The Callidus Assassins can use Polymorphine to deploy close to an enemy unit, but can't charge same turn. They'll get eaten alive. The Culexus Assassin are pretty useless against anything that isn't a Psyker.

Might be a fun list... depending on your opponent. I play Tau. I'm pretty sure my Tau would eat this alive without thinking. Weight of fire will take down Assassins like they're made of paper.

I think it depends who gets first turn. 3 callidus assassins deploying 1 inch away from your squads and 3 ap2 flamers will wipe out a lot and the vindicare assassin can pop any vehicles you may have. my land raider would move 18 inches towards you and tau struggle with AV14 (well most tau lists) and any hammerheads or high str vehicles will be picked off by my vindicare assassins.

The culexus assassin is amazing against psykers but even against tau you go down to bs1 and ws1 when shooting at him and he ignores saves and causes instant death on a roll of a 6 to wound so he is still really tough in combat.

Obviously against any army i would be the underdog but I think with some key target priority i could ut up a good fight. Every assassin has infiltrate so I also get to see where the other player deploys and then deploy my models to trget the squads they are best at taking out.

What are you going to do about flyers?

 quickfuze wrote:
What are you going to do about flyers?

I think a lot of armies struggle with flyers. The assassin army would not be too affected by the majority of flyers people bring. if you look at the army by turn 2 my eversor, 2 culexus and 3 callidus assassins will either be dead or if the plan has gone right they should be in combat so any flyers arriving in turn 2 would only really have 2 vindicare assassins to shoot at. Most flyers carry 2 high str weapons and my vindicares will be in cover and they have stealth so they would have a 3+ cover save. In addition the callidus assassin gives -3 to the first reserve roll for opponents so if they only have 1 flyer then that will not arrive until a minimum of turn 3 and maybe turn 4.

basically my army can't really deal with flyers as in take them down but i don't think flyers will be that effective against my army due to a 3+ cover save for my units that dont want to get into combat and the units that dont have a cover save should be in combat when the fyers arrive and if they are not then the game has probably already been lost. Also the callidus assassin gives some defence by giving -3 to opponents first reserve roll.

champagne_socialist wrote:

Inquisitor- psyker level 1- force sword- needle pistol- 70 pts

3 inquisitoral psykers 30pts

land raider redeemer - multi melta and psyflame ammo and psyammo - 270pts

vindicare assassin 150pts
vindicare assassin 150pts

culexus assassin 140 pts
culexus assassin 140pts

callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts
callidus assassin 145 pts

eversor assassin 135 pts


1500 points

Fun idea, but you'll get eaten alive, even by 'fluffy' lists. My orks would have this for breakfast.

Maybe combine it with some inquisition and valkyries.

I want someone to try this with fill in models even. I'm interested to see if eaten alive by gun lines

I think it depends who gets first turn. 3 callidus assassins deploying 1 inch away from your squads and 3 ap2 flamers will wipe out a lot and the vindicare assassin can pop any vehicles you may have. my land raider would move 18 inches towards you and tau struggle with AV14 (well most tau lists) and any hammerheads or high str vehicles will be picked off by my vindicare assassins.

The culexus assassin is amazing against psykers but even against tau you go down to bs1 and ws1 when shooting at him and he ignores saves and causes instant death on a roll of a 6 to wound so he is still really tough in combat.

Obviously against any army i would be the underdog but I think with some key target priority i could ut up a good fight. Every assassin has infiltrate so I also get to see where the other player deploys and then deploy my models to trget the squads they are best at taking out.

I think the underlined is optimistic to say the least. The Vindicate is pretty poor against vehicles, 1 Ap2 shot does not scare vehicles.

My concern with the list is you have 4 horrid matchups, Hordes obviously cause you an issue. Flyer spam relies on you winning the ground battle and hoping the aireal combat doesn't have much of an impact. Gun lines will shoot you off the board. AV14 causes the Tau gun line an issue but a tank hunting AAtide backed up by some fusion suits or some lucky Nova charged Ion fire can take it out and you only have 1 Land raider, if you had 2 I'd agree that is a bad match up for Tau but 1 is much less of a concern. Then any much heavy list as the Landraider is the only reliable AT in the list but short ranged and you have the expensive easy to kill Vindicares who'll strip a hull point or 2 between them a turn. Say Serpent spam you take a hull point or 2 off turn 1, then everything dies to Serpent shields except the Land raider who gets a Wraithknight or two to the face.

You'll smash a demi company of marines (who doesn't) but I struggle to see a competitive list you cause genuine problems too particularly if you go 2nd.

 FlingitNow wrote:

I think it depends who gets first turn. 3 callidus assassins deploying 1 inch away from your squads and 3 ap2 flamers will wipe out a lot and the vindicare assassin can pop any vehicles you may have. my land raider would move 18 inches towards you and tau struggle with AV14 (well most tau lists) and any hammerheads or high str vehicles will be picked off by my vindicare assassins.

The culexus assassin is amazing against psykers but even against tau you go down to bs1 and ws1 when shooting at him and he ignores saves and causes instant death on a roll of a 6 to wound so he is still really tough in combat.

Obviously against any army i would be the underdog but I think with some key target priority i could ut up a good fight. Every assassin has infiltrate so I also get to see where the other player deploys and then deploy my models to trget the squads they are best at taking out.

I think the underlined is optimistic to say the least. The Vindicate is pretty poor against vehicles, 1 Ap2 shot does not scare vehicles.

My concern with the list is you have 4 horrid matchups, Hordes obviously cause you an issue. Flyer spam relies on you winning the ground battle and hoping the aireal combat doesn't have much of an impact. Gun lines will shoot you off the board. AV14 causes the Tau gun line an issue but a tank hunting AAtide backed up by some fusion suits or some lucky Nova charged Ion fire can take it out and you only have 1 Land raider, if you had 2 I'd agree that is a bad match up for Tau but 1 is much less of a concern. Then any much heavy list as the Landraider is the only reliable AT in the list but short ranged and you have the expensive easy to kill Vindicares who'll strip a hull point or 2 between them a turn. Say Serpent spam you take a hull point or 2 off turn 1, then everything dies to Serpent shields except the Land raider who gets a Wraithknight or two to the face.

You'll smash a demi company of marines (who doesn't) but I struggle to see a competitive list you cause genuine problems too particularly if you go 2nd.

An assassin army of mainly callidus assassins would cause a lot of damage to a gun line army such as tau especially if i get first turn as i can deloy right next to them and ap2 flamer them.

Nothing stops you fielding an army of nothing but Officio Assassinorium Assassins - you don't need the Inquisitorial detachment.
In fact, I'm currently doing exactly that in a builder league....


The assassins are limited but very powerful in their various specialities. One thing you MUST master is concentration of force; your entire army can infiltrate (at least!) and consists of single models that are easy to hide from enemy shooting. That said, Kriswall is quite correct - they aren't that tough. An assassin presented with one turn of a tactical squad's rapid fire is probably dead....

At the same time, they can be effective.

Eversor Assassins can handle hordes with a bit of luck if used correctly. Two eversors tag-teaming an ork mob can survive for several turns in the right terrain because whilst a mob of orks may have thirty bajillion attacks, it can't get that many models in a position to attack - especially in the opening round of combat, where you are dumping a shedload of fleshbane wounds into the nearest guys.

Vindiceres can't butcher tanks. S10 isn't THAT good. It is, however, very satisfying to shoot a holofielded waveserpent through the pilot's canopy whilst muttering "jink this..." or drop the stealth-and-shrouded heavy weapons gunner. They aren't bad antitank for their cost, though, and the Eversor does also carry meltabombs - the eversor is the least effective assassin as a 'plug-in' to an army but being very flexible is actually one of the most important for building a pure execution force army around...

The Culexus is just a boss. The Etherium makes him one of the few guys who can casually saunter up without bothering too much about cover, and he's also one of two assassins who can deal with stuff in a 2+ save. He's also good at monster-killing; WS1 enemies who have to go past a 4++ save will take some time to kill you, and that potential instant death touch means people will keep their distance. More importantly, Dreadknights, Greater Daemons and Hive Tyrants are all also psykers, making them extra, extra scared.

The callidus falls somewhere between crowd control and character hunting. Polymorphine and the Neural Shredder give you a lethal localised alpha strike.


Also - if taking one of each assassin, take them in an Execution Force formation - it costs you nothing and you get Preferred Enemy (Warlord) out of the deal as a command benefit as well as Operation: Assassinate.

A few months ago, when the new Dataslate came out, I did an Assassins-Only list.
3 Formations, with an extra Vindicare and an extra Callidus, making a total of 4 Callidus, 3 Culexus, 3 Eversor, and 4 Vindicare, at 2000pts.

I played against a standard Tau list. Three units of FW, a unit of Missilesides, Farsight, Crisis Suits, Devilfish, a bomber, Pirhanas.
See this post for my batrep.

I think this type of list is worth another go.

Had a game recently at 1,000 points - two of each other than a single culexus (who makes a nice warlord due to the Etherium). Again, I can agree that the army works a lot better than people expect!

I didn't use the Execution force more because I didn't want to have to track which ones did and didn't have Preferred Enemy (Warlord).

Played against an infantry-heavy chaos marine army:

2 five-man havoc units with autocannons
1 ten-man noise marine unit with a blastmaster
2 ten-man khorne chaos marine units with icons, flamers, and chainswords.
Chaos lord of Khorne with Sigil of Corruption, Burning Brand of Skalathrax and Axe of Blind Fury

It worked well. The key is throwing your force at one point in the enemy army - two callidus' neural shredders on a single unit is horrific, and you can afford to be quite cavalier with deployment - the one autocannon squad which could see them fired on turn one and did nothing.

Several lone characters are also tricky to stop - the noise marines rapid-fired one eversor to death in a single volley of rapid fire, for example, but couldn't do anything to the culexus and second eversor nearby because they're seperate units.

The vindiceres need to be deployed with care. You aren't looking for a position with good arcs of fire; quite the reverse - you want good lines of fire to the area of the board where your other assassins are going in but LOS blocked from elsewhere. If you let the enemy's entire heavy support fire at them, they're going to die very fast!

With a restricted field of fire, they can concentrate on slotting flamers, icon bearers, hidden powerfists, etc. Remember, if facing guard, tau, etc, that they can still do all this whilst firing from their exitus pistol - they don't have to play sniper if you don't want them to, and they can still pull their weight in a melee - they are still quite capable of beating a guard or tau infantry squad solo in a fight if they can get past overwatch...

The game was very good fun and appropriately cinematic - the enemy warlord (already wounded by an eversor) went down to a callidus. She'd been wounded by the burning brand and was on fire due to soul blaze, but managed to dart in and land one hit, with a six to wound shearing straight through the lord's force field, before succumbing to the flames....