A Monster-Aggressive Assassin Question...

[Toastyshinobi]

Hello Everyone! First post, I feel accomplished.

There is a regular player around the hobby shop I go to who likes to field a dragon with his high elf army. I find this rather annoying at times. Keep into consideration I am a new member of the Warhammer Fantasy game all-together.

I played a few games, and my idea was to field one of my assassins as a monster slayer, bet you couldn't guess that! I looked eagerly at my Gifts of Kaine section and found to my dismay that the weapon I wanted to attach him with was worth 75 points. The Venom Sword.

I realized I could not take the cloak of twilight as well, so I wasn't too happy about that. I decided to take a sorceress into battle who knew the Steed of Shadows spell from the Lore of Shadows. My plan was simple, rush out my sorceress and assassin and then cast the spell (which says can be a charge) at the biggest thing they have.

My question, what can go wrong? I am not sure if it will work out as I planned, due to the fact things NEVER work out the way I plan them. How would I make sure this doesn't backfire?

Final question, would I be able to tag team two sorceresses under certain circumstances? Say for example, sorceress number 1 was to cast and make the assassin fly 20" within 12" of another with the same spell, could I make sorceress number 2 send him another 20"?

Thank you sincerely for reading under lengthy circumstances.

[Tethlis]

The Venom Sword can be very useful, but less so against dragons. First, their Toughness 6 and armor makes them very difficult to wound. Since your Assassin will likely die to return attacks, he'll probably only get one round of combat before he's annihilated.

A better bet might be an assassin with Manbane and Rending Stars. He's easily capable of burning a couple of wounds off of a dragon each turn, is almsot guaranteed to hit on a 2+, and even gets a stand and shoot and Always Strikes First attacks with Manbane in case the dragon gets a charge. Steed of Shadows is still useful for getting the Assassin into position and helping him to stay out of the dragon's line-of-sight, but that's a lot of points to spend on an expensive character whose only purpose is to shuffle the Assassin around.

[Maldor]

Another alternative is to use magic to cast Word of Pain on the Dragon and rider, reducing both to WS 1. Combined with a charge from a fully ranked unit, you can break him on combat resolution (when needing 5s to hit he'll have a hard time beating 3 ranks, outnumber, and standard) and run him down in pursuit with your Dark Riders.

[Rabidnid]

Another alternative is to use magic to cast Word of Pain on the Dragon and rider, reducing both to WS 1. Combined with a charge from a fully ranked unit, you can break him on combat resolution (when needing 5s to hit he'll have a hard time beating 3 ranks, outnumber, and standard) and run him down in pursuit with your Dark Riders.

Word of pain is very good for dealing with very hard opponents like the dragon. Put your sorc in a shade unit or give her the familiar, to ensure that she gets LoS to dragon to cast her spells

[Maldor]

Doesn't need LoS for WoP, just 24" range.

[Rabidnid]

Doesn't need LoS for WoP, just 24" range.

Do'h yes, and can be cast into combat.

[Drek]

Magic is fickle, however. You may not get WoP. Thus if you want to go this direction, be prepared for multiple options. Remember that you roll spells before deployment, which helps. Also, be smart about your magic phase. If that's the spell you want to get off, then be sure to give him nasty other things to dispel so you can be sure to get that off.

Also, Rending Stars/Manbane is very nasty against a dragon. Then again, if you get into combat with it, you can always use the Killing Blow ability to kill the rider. Solves half the problem, anyway.

[Kheel]

On your final question about multiple steed of shadow.

You can cast steed of shadow up to 5 times on a single assassin and move up to 100" in one turn - yes, as long as he is not in close combat, you can move him around with the spell as many times you can cast the spell on the assassin


First sorceress get off the spell Steed of Shadows and send him 20", second sorceress also make it happen and send him another 20", thirst does the same and the fourth (this is a stupid example since he has to be within 12" of each sorceress when the spell is cast, but any who) And the 5th time is from Cloak of Twilight that let him cast the spell himself as bound.

The most I've done is three times, first two sorceresses and then his bound - pretty silly, but still - first moved him like 10" or so to get within casting distance of the second sorceress that was closer to the battle line, then she sent him 20" forward and then the last time I used it I was behind enemy lines - and could start shooting my 3 St7 stars at his T5 or greater targets - pretty nasty, but hey - we are not called Dark Elves without a reason

[Timz]

Don't use the Venom Sword, it's complete rubbish for almost everything because of the insane cost and the S4 of the assassin.

As others have said, you could have a ninja assassin for only 151 points which can shoot 3 times per turn at S7. That can wound the rider on 2+ and the dragon on 3+ several times per turn w/ that impressive 9 ballistic skill. That's high enough to hit several times even when standing and shooting.
He'd probably go well with Shades because they're also very shooty and agile, plus scouting allows them to deploy near the enemy to shoot earlier.

A hydra blade one costs more and is far less useful.

If you want a combat assassin: additional hand weapon + rune of khaine + black lotus + touch of death gives the assassin 5-7 killing blow attacks with rerolls to hit and rerolling 1s to wound (even more chances for killing blow.)

This assassin would have a good chance of striking instantly even when charged and killing the enemy dragon-lord before he even attacks. The dragon would still be alive, but probably without half its power because the dead character.

I wouldn't rely on a build that requires a specific spell being cast to be decent. Both of the abovementioned non-venomsword assassins are useful in tons of situations.


If tooling to take out the dragon is extremely important, another consideration could be something like:
Dreadlord w/ Executioner's Axe (~S10) and D3 wounds + blood armor, shield, sea dragon cloak.
or
Dreadlord w/ Crimson Death + Armor of Darkness + Pendant of Khaeleth + Dark Steed.

The executioner one could badly maul or kill a dragon while your assassins can kill the rider. The Pendant one is going to ignore 5/6th of the dragon's attacks that hit and most of the rider's too.

Also great at killing dragons without relying on tricky spells: Bolt Throwers. Get 2-4 and you can force it to hide for most of the game.

[Jbtheslipperking]

Star dragon is so overpowerd I feel for you my friend. No wonder its comped as 2 extra hero choises in some tournaments. Timz has a vert good point though. Venom sword is craaaaap. Lord with ex axe is much better. Give him extra atack from couldron and he killes the dragon in 1 turn ( 5 atacks=4 woundxD3 = 8w. = dead dragon ). 2 sorc level 2 and asassin with cloak can make for 3 steed spells. If hes an experienced HE player he will not charge you with dragon but just jump to your side or rear and use hes flaming atack on you. Deployment and movement first 2 turns is very important. Agains star dragon I like to deploy far away, behind hills - stay out of los, protect your flanks. That dragon landing on the side flaming your main unit is almost always a loosing situation.