The Venom Sword and other Assassin builds?

[Dangerous Beans]

I was re-reading my WD from when the 'new' dark elves came out and flitted over a page with different assassin builds that were suggested - one of which was a Venom Sword wielding Assassin...

So.... anyone used this ex-redundent magical sword of assassiny-only-ness?

Can't say I see all that much use for it really - I was merely pondering about the use of assassins VS large monsters and/or characters. I personally reckon it should be a 70pt magic weapon which can obviously be combo-ed with the Potion of Strength: though that may be a little too obvious for GWs liking (I know they like to make sure 'one-type-character-builds' ie. commoness does'nt occur)

I'd also be interested in the best combos people have come up with - my favs tend to revolve around a mix of one or more of the following:
- rune of khaine
- touch of death
- cloak of twighlight
- manbane
- rending stars

This gives:

#1: The Man-Character Killer
Rune, Touch, extra hand weapon and Black Lotus if you fancy optimum efficiency or the cloak for the ability to quickly target pain relief (much like headache tablets...)

#2: The Ninja!
Rending Stars, Manbane, Extra Hand Weapon add the cloak if you like you character's to drink red bovine liquids (eeeeeew!)

#3: The lotsa-attacks and high strength vs high toughness Assassin
Rune of Khaine, Manbane, extra hand weapon...

Those are my most used - I tend to only stick the cloak on if I have an equivalent of 6 magic levels or more in my army - otherwise I save the points...

So whats yours? Any strange weird alternative setup assassins? Like the uber-defensive (on an assassin?!): Hand of Khaine, Cry of War, Dance of Doom combo...

- Beanz

[Sidorio]

Well i have faced the Venom Sword Assassin when i was in a DE vs DE game. The assassin used it on my master, and i rolled a 3 on 2 dice before killing the assassin in return.

[Mictian]

The Ninja!
Rending Stars, Manbane, Extra Hand Weapon add the cloak if you like you character's to drink red bovine liquids (eeeeeew!)

The lotsa-attacks and high strength vs high toughness Assassin
Rune of Khaine, Manbane, extra hand weapon...

I only use those 2, both with Cloak of Twilights.. I rarely run an assassin if I cant use Cloak of Twilights really.

The first is obvious, flying around shooting characters and big things such as giants.
The second just goes with a unit, for only 20 pts extra you can make him fly out of the unit and tear appart a group of archers.

The archers will most likely be 10x1, so no rank bonus. They rarely have a banner, or anything else to get SCR. So all you need to do is kill 2/3(with 4+d3 attacks that most of the time hit and wound on 3+), and you will win the combat. Next turn they cant shoot, and you will again win the combat if they havent ran yet.
It can also be used to support any fight where he is needed, with a 20" charge range, I can quickly get him to the other side of the field where for example a giant might be fighting my lesser troops.

[Dangerous Beans]

I detect a slight hint of disdain that you have for the large long-legged gangly fellows Mictian...

@Sidorio: yeah it did seem to be a bit've a one hit wonder and if it failed then you die - sadly and simply!

- Beanz

[Paksos]

Hey, out of interest, if the assassin's standard poison coats his mundane weapons - and the gifts of khaine poisons replace the standard poison... then if you give your assassin manbane and a repeater crossbow does it work out that you can fire 2x shots per turn with a range of 24" that has 1 str more than the target's toughness up to a max of str6 while still having the slots for rune of khaine and cloak of twilight?

Am I way way way off the mark here (in which case please shout me down) or does that combo sound awesome?!?

[Dangerous Beans]

That combo does sound awesome(kind've a mini bolt thrower!), except that an Assassin is armed with Repeater Handbows now Crossbows... Sorry!

- Beanz

[Mictian]

I detect a slight hint of disdain that you have for the large long-legged gangly fellows Mictian...

- Beanz

Well, there are few dark elf units with high strength, so giants or other high T + many wound things can be hard to handle.. an assassin with manbane is a great help against those!

[Dalamar]

And repeater handbows have their own strength value so they are not affected by Manbane (which was explained in a number of older threads already)

[Sulla]

And repeater handbows have their own strength value so they are not affected by Manbane (which was explained in a number of older threads already)

Not sure I follow the logic there? Assassins have their own strength too. Could you expand a bit... I get the feeling what I'm reading is not what you meant.

Back on topic, the only reliable use I have found for the venom sword is 'poisoning' etheral creatures. I put him in a unit of corsairs with the sea serpent std for the extra attack but the cauldron could work too. I suppose he would be ok for flinging at super mages with a shadow sorceress too. Other than that, too risky.

[Mictian]

Read Manbane's description, it increases your own strength.
The rending stars use the assassins strength value +1, so they are affected..
Handbows however have nothing to do with the assassins strength, so will not be affected by manbane.
So: even if your strength will increase, your handbows strength wont.

[Master of arneim]

The venom sword on an assassin with 5 attacks (+1 from the hydra banner and +1 from the cauldron) makes 0,37 wounds on a dragon, that then has to fail his T test with 2d6 (15/36 chances to pass it). Rubbish. It could work well vs:
- ogres (nobody uses them)
- chariots (nobody uses them, excluding the archpriest on chariot with the 4+ ward and T6(?))
- heroes with T4-5 with low armoour saves and maybe no ward (I think nobody).

[Colonel]

Best use for a venom sword is T5 multi wound stuff, or units of T4 multiwound like minotaurs, dragon ogres, razordons..

I prefer the manbane stars, as it is less risk to the assassin if he fails to wound, and he can wound big stuff you cant killingblow.

VS a chaos army my lone assassin stepped in front of chaos knights and shot 2 down, stand and shoot took 2 more and ASF killed the last.

[Dangerous Beans]

good points there on the Venom Sword, I can only think itd be good against a Giant or Orcs/trolls/manticores/griffons/ogres?

- Beanz

[Mirz do ordas 2]

the venom sword is not worth it with onlu 3 attacks,

nrmalluy is give my assassins on an added hw and the rune,
since that is nice an cheap

the stars are nice with manbane, but mean also ye have to reveal the assassin before combat (no SnS for a hidden assassin) and well KB he gets from the cauldron with his unit.

the only time i give them KB is when the i need to deploy in execs since giving KB to those is a waste.

Do keep in mind with this, i rarely take out my army without 2 CoBs thou

[Ebonyphoenix]

I was evil one day against a night goblin player. He used Skarsnik and Gobbla (I probably misspelled that horribly ) so I flew harpies at him to pull fanatics and then threw a venom sword assassin at Skarsnik from a Lv2 casting Steed of Shadows. I hit 3 times, wound twice since he is T4, and ignore his light armour. He then rolled 6 and 7 thereby dying outright turn 1.

That was a sad goblin player, and probably the only really good use I'll ever get out of that assassin. Otherwise the things you really want to kill cause either fear or terror, or have too high an armour save/toughness to want to aim the sword at them.