death-cult assassins

[Mosk]

In a witch hunter army (witch hunter with some sisters of battle)

 

When would you use death cult assassins over the other assassins?

 

Are these assassians useful?

 

If you were to take death cult assassins how many should one take? Should you take three? Should you take more?

 

What are the strengths of this assassin?

 

How do you use death cult assassins?

[high marshall jordan]

this should help you with your questions about assassins though it was made during 4th ed. so some of the advice may be obsolete but an other wise great help for you

[Toogeloo]

In a witch hunter army (witch hunter with some sisters of battle)

 

When would you use death cult assassins over the other assassins?

 

Are these assassians useful?

 

If you were to take death cult assassins how many should one take? Should you take three? Should you take more?

 

What are the strengths of this assassin?

 

How do you use death cult assassins?

 

 

In order:

 

You don't.

No, they aren't anymore.

IF you had a gun to your head, take 9.

The fact that each operates independently means squads of three are better than a single model since you effectively have 9 Elite slots.

They make good targets for the first turn of the game saving the rest of your army from attention.

Get them as close as possible to enemy lines that are weak to assault, cross your fingers you have any that make it there.

[Inquisitor Fox]

I still use DCA's over other assassins, due to the fact that they're 40 points each..which means you get three assassins for the price of one single temple assassin. That's 6 wounds on 3 models, which means they'll last longer. Yes yes, people can argue kill points all they want, I don't worry about that. It's the way I play :)

 

I run them as a single "squad" and laugh when opponents try to shoot them, then get discouraged when I ask them which singular assassin they are targetting. As independant characters they get a benefit with terrain, and with 4 power weapon attacks on the charge each, at S4, WS and I 5, they can be very brutal against the right units.

 

What are the right units? Combat squad sized MAQ, heavy weapons teams, artillery teams, exposed IC's, broadsides, etc.

 

I use their ability to infiltrate to deny various "avenues of movement" to my opponent, by effectively giving me a close combat squad of high effectiveness on the charge (12 attacks with power weapons on the charge is very effective!). The trick is playing with your opponents mind. Making them leery about moving down one part of the table is forcing them to react as you want them to, which means the rest of your army knows where they're coming and can pick them apart. It's great to be able to whittle those important troop units down with expendible forces. Hit those isolated combat squads holding objectives in the enemy deployment zone, or hunt down units as they move around the table towards you. Advance with cover to help give better saves and deny enemy LoS, moving as a lone character for each assassin (keep them 3 inches apart.. close enough to work together but count as different units).

 

A lot of people disparage assassins, particularly the DCA's. They are an underdog which has always performed well for me, and thus continues to be used. Keep in mind often an opponent will underestimate them too..up until their precious heavy weapons team goes up in smoke and now they have things mauling their backside.

 

I usually always take a team of 2 or 3 DCA's as one of my elites choices, once I get a few more models I'll try games with 6 of them. Most games I play seem to end up objectives, which means the kill point argument is moot. In terms of sheer utility, I love these guys :P

[Tauren]

The major problem with them is the enemy targeting them. From what I have read, infiltrate them or run them behind a vehicle. Watch them jump out from behind the vehicle and carve stuff up. If your opponent is melee oriented they can also make for a powerful counter charge. I would love to field them eventually but at this moment I don't have the models and need to think up a conversion idea for them...

[Eltnot]

The link that High Marshall Jordan gave should give you a good start.

 

Under 5th Ed, be aware that each of your assassins will be worth a kill point.

If you're not playing kill points (some tournaments don't use them) then bring them out.

[Auedawen]

It's a real shame that GW removed Victory Points (i have NO idea why this was replaced by a ridiculous and unbalanced Kill Point system). Kill points pretty much killed DCA's, as by using them in games you're essentially taking an auto-loss 1/3 of the time (they're simply too easy to kill and still give up a KP).

 

DCA's also got hit hard in the new "pile-in" moves of all assault. Before DCA's were very capable of striking a heavy, elite squad and clearing a small kill zone, removing the enemies ability to retaliate. Combined with an Eversore they were devastating. Now, however, it's VERY difficult for them to see more than one turn in an assault (a limitation which also SEVERELY limits the Eversore's potential).

 

However, they can still be used and are nasty when set upon heavy units. While not as good as they used to, they may make games for you occasionally. And as always, being individual units each, it's hard convincing an enemy to spend an entire squads fire killing a single model (unless of course you're plaing with KP's).