What's the best way to equip, and use, an Assassin?

[Barenziah]

Hey there! Had a dark elf army for some time, but never really played with it. One of the main things I like about the Dark Elves is their Assassins, since they've got such ludicrous stats and I've always been a fan of surprising my opponents. However, I'm at a bit of a loss as how to actually add them to my army. I should mention that I play almost exclusively swecomp, and thus 'sub-par' unit choices are viable.

I've basically got 3 ideas for Assassins, but I'm not sure if they're like... too expensive? Should an Assassin only be given the KB poison and nothing else, to make him as throwaway as possible? Or should I make sure he can kill his target, to make sure I get the points?

First build:

KB Poison, Other Tricksters Shard

Cheapest and hoping for that KB. Seems a bit risky though, I don't like gambling on rolling a 6 much. If he does get a 6 however, the target is likely to die.

Second build:

KB Poison, Potion of Strength. Needs timing, and doesn't work quite as well on the defensive when taking a charge, but still... now he might be able to kill the character outright, KB or no. On the other hand, ward saves might get in the way.

Third build:

KB Poison, Sword of anti-heroes, Other Tricksters Shard. While I realize Assassins have AHW for +1A already, I figure this is a way to easier tackle deathstars and the like. If a unit has 1 character in it the effect if the same (but with more strength)... but if there's 2+, you get quite a lot out of it. More chances for KB, and higher strength.


I think I like the third build the most, but it makes the Assassins rather expensive too!



And as a smaller follow-up... what unit should he be placed in? 10 Repeater Crossbows as bait for some character? Or should he be placed safely in a fighting block?

[Amboadine]

Hi, first off welcome to the forum.

There are a couple of threads you might be interested in if you are looking to run an Assassin with various load outs available.

Try this one Being Tricksy with Assassins

and this one Hashishin loadouts

[Calisson]

Unless you take a magic weapon, the AHW is mandatory: 2 pts for +1 attack is a steal!
I like the potion, as the 'sass is normally a single use and throw away.

Defensively, one use fo the sass is its throw weapons: that determines the range for stand & shoot. Useful if the sass is hiding within RXBmen.

And...
welcome to the forum indeed.

[Barenziah]

Thanks for the replies! The loadout thread was a year old however, and I was loathe to resurrect it!

I was also surprised the lack of sword of anti-hero builds! It seems to me the sole role of the Assassin is to take out characters, and often they come 2-3 in a unit. Having so many extra attacks and strength while eliminating the poisoned attacks "advantage" seems like such a good deal to me!

The thread also didn't address actual delivery systems (although the first one was a bit... gimmicky, and had a few rules wrong ). It's the biggest questionmark for me- should the unit the Assassin is in also be expendable, like... 10 Witch Elves tossed into the maw of a unit? Or just 10 Spearmen, acting as bait/cheap divert? Or ought he be part of a big unit to really make the opponent commit, only to get cut down?

[Searinox Nagharha]

I use a Anti-Hero build.
KB poison, SoA-H an ToTS. Works quite well and the Magic Weapon removes the Poison so no 6s to hit will rob you of you chance to KB something

The most important thing when using a Assassin tho is Mind-Play.
If you only have 1 unit if infantry its not hard to guess where the Sin is.
Make sure you have atleast 3+ units. if points allow it i run with a block of Corsairs, 2 shade units and a SoS unit.
Enough places to hide him in.
Next is making your opponent think hes in a different unit. which... is alot more tricky

[toots]

I use a Anti-Hero build.
KB poison, SoA-H an ToTS. Works quite well and the Magic Weapon removes the Poison so no 6s to hit will rob you of you chance to KB something

The most important thing when using a Assassin tho is Mind-Play.
If you only have 1 unit if infantry its not hard to guess where the Sin is.
Make sure you have atleast 3+ units. if points allow it i run with a block of Corsairs, 2 shade units and a SoS unit.
Enough places to hide him in.
Next is making your opponent think hes in a different unit. which... is alot more tricky

yeah that's a good build and i did kill a vampire lord with it a few months back, but frankly i don't really like the idea that we are gaining the killing blow ability by adding a poison to a weapon whilst the standard Poison attacks are removed because we're using a magic weapon. if the killing blow was just an upgrade not related to poison then yeah fine, but i just think it's a bit wonky/dodgy/etc to be exploiting the fact that this kind of poison doesn't have a capital P and as such still works in conjunction with magic weapons. not a criticism of you at all, more a criticism of the rules.

[Barenziah]

Cheers for the replies!

I don't really see a problem with the rules regarding poisons and the assassin poisons, though. The rulebook is fairly clear in that it only refers to the special rule Poisoned Attacks!

[Ajattaro]

Cheers for the replies!

I don't really see a problem with the rules regarding poisons and the assassin poisons, though. The rulebook is fairly clear in that it only refers to the special rule Poisoned Attacks!

Yeah and its only justified to have at least one effectove combination to justify the use of assassin. With flying disclords and all other cavalry character heavy builds actually make assassin useful for certain match ups