New use for assassins

[Angelofdarkness]

This came up in a game i played last night against O&G. I used an assasin for a change because i hadn't used one really before and i realised a new use. Living suicide missles by utilising a rune of khaine and manbade followed by a steed of shaddows i managed to fire my assasin at a goblin great shaman butcher him and luckily survive long enough to panick the unit next turn. The point is how many other people have used an assasin like this simply to take out one enemy character as this guy made his points back easily in that one round of combat also is there anything to stop me from doing this to an unrevealed assasin?

[Havock]

Even though overpriced, assassins can definately work in some armies, especially if you give your opponent too much to worry about.
most people think/know that assassins are not that good, what they often forgt is that he can still curbstomp most wizards/warmachine crews.

[Tacklbry]

For a long time that was probably the most popular way to use an assassin. That is an effective method of taking out heroes that can be targeted, or more especially war machine crews. If the enemy has war machines stacked close together, as Empire and Dwarfs frequently do, it even allows you to leapfrog from unit to unit if you set it up right. Leaving your expensive assassin fighting inferior troops, and safe from large quantities of shooting.

[Asikari]

After reading the spells in 7th ed, the light went on. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but did have the idea. I'm glad to see it worked for you.

[Ecthelion]

I for one would be extremely weary if my opponent had a steed of shadows because the only use is to hurl a character, thus I would carefully anticipate the spell.

I see it as a one-time use per opponent, if even that, because once they see what happens they will be prepared for it and I think you would be hard pressed to cast that spell against a veteran player.

[Noldo]

You should never rely only on Steed of Shadows. But with DE having +1 to cast you can almost count on casting the spell with one dice, two if you are feeling really generous.

Even with two spells you have 6 dice left for your High Sorceress. (7 if Darkstar Cloak)

On the other hand, if your opponent is really concerned about dispelling Steed of Shadows, he would need to use two dice to that task (quite likely three if you used two dice). That is 2-3 three dispell dice that can be used to block other spells.

As I suppose that typical army have 5-6 Dispel Dice, that would leave your opponent 2 dice against your 7, then make best out of those dices.

However, the basic question should be, is the Rune of Kaine + Manbane Assassin that much more effective on killing those targets that Noble on foot (which would still be cheaper)?

[Zeb]

The benefit is usually M6 for the follow up charges. But I agree the noble fullfills most of the criteria better including AS against shooting...

[Angelofdarkness]

I found the assasin to be a big help in this game although he is only really good for killing unarmoured opponents for any combat characters he would need killing blow and thats too unreliable. As for the steed of shadows i didn't have any real problems getting it off as my opponent seemed to assume that it would be used on one of my foot sorceresses not realising that it was my assasin that was be sent. This said if he hadn't used his dispell dice on magic missiles then yes i would have had a problem.

[Asikari]

Assassins are finesse characters. As such, getting steed of shadows to work on them will require a lot of finesse. This includes casting other spells in order to draw down his dispel dice and make him use dispel scrolls/runes. It may not be a first turn cast. Feint with it and have your sorceress with steed of shadows flit between units initially. Distract him from its true nefarious purpose.

Again, haven't tried it, so I can't vouch for the effectiveness of this strategy.

[Angelofdarkness]

Got it in one by fienting with the movement of sorceresses it draws attention away from the real purpose of the spell a few mm's to draw out the dispell dice and away we go

[Die go]

This is a common tactic used by Skaven players, as their spellcasters have access to Dark Magic as ours do, and their assasnins are cheaper and, IMHO, better for the character-killer role.

I prefer to use Assasins together with a unit of Shades and infiltrate them. Usually Shades are underestimated by our opponents, and to get them into Head-to-head combat (combined with the combat skills of the Assasin) is something that your enemy will not expect.