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Hi guys,

So I'm thinking about buying a Culexus Assassin (the anti-psyker one) for my Mechanicus army to upgrade it to 1500 points but I played two games today with a proxy to try it out.

First game was against an Iron Hands player, a very armour and artillery heavy list (1 Predator, 1 Whirlwind, the triple Vindicators and the cannon that shoots 4 little pies) didn't have any psyker, so in the end I just could do a turn 2 charge (as I had infiltrated him) and he just killed one bike or something before dying. So in short he was really useless. To my defense my opponent has taken the habit of testing his tourney lists against my poor guys so it was not a fun game at all anyway.

The next game was against Eldars, there were a squad of 5 or 6 Psyker bikes, and one or two Harlequins psykers I don't remember. I had placed him in a ruin to protect one of the objectives but in fact he was near useless too because the psykers were just too fast to catch up, and I was scared to make him wonder in the open against his firepower (the Culexus is still flimsy against 2 dozens shots). So he just like shot once with his psy-skull thing and was still vital for me as he captured an objective for me, assuring me victory. The thing is, except to make him deny a zone to my opponent's psykers where I could protect some units from psychic powers I didn't find him really good, just because he's still really slow. Yeah I could sprint but I want to charge, my opponent is just going to shoot him or flee, so what's the deal ?

How do I use him well ? For 140 points I could have a full Ranger squad that would still capture the objective and they can fire at 30" too, that would have left me 20 points for options. I don't really see it as menacing for psykers anymore. I will try it out more but he doesn't seem suited for my playstyle. After all I could just shoot his psykers with the same points value.

The Culexus's strength isn't necessarily in his anti-psyker aura but more so in the fact any blessing ends immediately when he gets into range for it. Fortune, Invisibility and the like disintegrate when he gets into range, and the moment your 140pt model is dictating the movement of his probably 600+ plus invisible deathstar he is worth something.

The fact he himself is invisible is cute, as is the skull helm and the AP 2, and the assassin stat-line is very good, but the point of the Culexus is to prematurely end psy-powers. Use as such.

When against non-psyker armies you're a little out of luck. Just use him as a DistractionCarnifex ^(Tm), T4 invisible 4++ means they have to dedicate some serious fire power his way.

He's amazing vs deathstars and flying daemons - sucks vs everything else.

Culexus in a drop pod was amazing.

Culexus Infiltrating, a bit more situational.

Sisters of Silence in a Rhino are cheaper, and now compete.

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
Culexus in a drop pod was amazing.

Culexus Infiltrating, a bit more situational.

Sisters of Silence in a Rhino are cheaper, and now compete.

All sounds lovely, now if only Tau had a way to transport them. I'm still stuck with a running culexus.

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
Culexus in a drop pod was amazing.

Culexus Infiltrating, a bit more situational.

Sisters of Silence in a Rhino are cheaper, and now compete.

Indeed. They are cheaper, pack more wounds, and come with a metal bawkes. The Assassins really need a Transport, the ability to deep strike, or a special rule that let's them infiltrate within six inches of something. As it stands, they just don't get close enough turn 1 to be effective (other than the Vindicare because sniping).

All in all I think I'm going to drop the idea of having anti-psyker shenanigans. For the cost of the Culexus I can have a full unit that can just try to shoot the enemy psykers. Sisters of Silence look rather good, but I'm not too keen on their models, and if I could not buy a Rhino that would be great.

As for their rules, they're in the Codex: Imperial Agents or in the new datasheets coming with the Talons of the Emperor boxes ?

EDIT: Found their rules in the Burning of Prospero datasheets.

 Aaranis wrote:
All in all I think I'm going to drop the idea of having anti-psyker shenanigans. For the cost of the Culexus I can have a full unit that can just try to shoot the enemy psykers. Sisters of Silence look rather good, but I'm not too keen on their models, and if I could not buy a Rhino that would be great.

As for their rules, they're in the Codex: Imperial Agents or in the new datasheets coming with the Talons of the Emperor boxes ?

EDIT: Found their rules in the Burning of Prospero datasheets.

Those are outdated now. They got new (and arguably better) rules in the Talons of the Emperor boxes.

https://spikeybits.com/2017/03/sisters-of-silence-new-codex-rules-revealed.html

I guess it's those rules ? They look even better yeah, I thought about the possibility of adding them all day. I'm thinking 5 or 10 Sisters in the same squad, with a Techpriest Dominus, all equipped with the Executor Blades. The Techpriest can tank whatever the Sisters can't, and deal a fair amount of damage too in CC, while a good amount of shots as well. What do you think ? 5 are too few ? The new rules makes the CC Sisters 10 points cheaper at 65 points for 5. I think it's a great deal !

 Aaranis wrote:
https://spikeybits.com/2017/03/sisters-of-silence-new-codex-rules-revealed.html

I guess it's those rules ? They look even better yeah, I thought about the possibility of adding them all day. I'm thinking 5 or 10 Sisters in the same squad, with a Techpriest Dominus, all equipped with the Executor Blades. The Techpriest can tank whatever the Sisters can't, and deal a fair amount of damage too in CC, while a good amount of shots as well. What do you think ? 5 are too few ? The new rules makes the CC Sisters 10 points cheaper at 65 points for 5. I think it's a great deal !

I like the new rules quite a bit and think it's a good deal for the Executioner Blade Sisters!

I know most people will say get the Rhino rather than foot slog, but you could replace that Techpriest with Belisarius Cawl if you have the points I believe (I think he's Bulky or Very Bulky). He's a true tanking monster that will more than be able to absorb wounds for the Sisters. You wouldn't even have to worry about Force negating his FNP since he'll be firmly ensconced in their bubble!

The more Sisters you put in a unit too the more you can spread them out and increase the diameter of your nullification bubble. There's a lot of power to be had here.

Hmm I don't intend on buying Cawl ever, but I agree he would be a nice addition, being immune to Psykers is the cherry on the top for him haha. The regular Techpriest Dominus can tank big deal you know, 2+/5++ with FnP, and I can buy him a Stasis Field for 15 points that gives him a 2++ while he's on ground, although as long as he's on ground he's WS/BS 0, that means I can shrug off whatever is thrown at me most of the time. I'll just give him the relic that gives 1D6 additional attacks, move my Infiltrators with their debuffing aura nearby and there, I have a nice makeshift CC force.

Yeah I remember Force, it destroyed my Kastelans, I'll never forgive the Grey Knights for this. They can act as anti-psy bodyguards for my Kastelan Robots too that's true.