Pooling your Knowledge of DH part 6

[Gibious]

As it has been a quiet week on the forums we also have a quiet Unit to discuss from the DH Codex.

 

These are the Death Cult Assassins. Needing an Inquisitor to field and giving each an individual KP these units start with a dodgy reputation. But with Power weapons and an impressive Initiative they could still work in Assault.

 

Let us know about your experiences?

 

-Gib-

[Grand Master Caloth]

personally i like them, esp if you work two full units in with an Eversor. Equals a very bad day in close quarters for a lot of units. lol. Also, the fact thatyou dont have to keep them together can mean they make an excellent (if slightly exp) scapegoat to give you another phase to move your men into position if the enemy decides to really press you

[Vash]

Kill points... how often do you really play a game with kill points?

 

Death cults are great and a good way to abuse target priority. Having 6-9 Death cults (I have tried 9 ) will give the opponent 6-9 targets to shoot at. This is really annoying for the opponent.

This "tactic" lead to that my remaining army could go forward with little resistance. If they ignore the Death cults... well then they do rock in close combat.

 

I faced a friend two times with the same list. In the first game he focused on my army. This lead to that the Death Cults rushed into close combat in round 2. I didnt kill all of his units, of course not, but I gave the reminder of my army time to advance.

 

Second time he focused on Death cults, here the problem was that he didnt have enough units or time to deal with all of them. My army was pretty much intact when I arrived (round 3), and I still had a few death cults to play around with.

 

People tend to look over the Death cults, but they are indeed dreadful.

[Eddie Orlock]

Kill points... how often do you really play a game with kill points?

Regrettably, I roll a lot of fives and sixes.

 

That, and from what I read, most tournament scenarios have a kill point component.

 

Has anyone played them in reserve to use their out flank for effect? Bogeyman you opponent from the table edges with their implicit threat. It's been one of those cases where I've hoped to fail reserve rolls just to keep them lurking off board for another turn and messing with my opponents headspace.

[Inquisitor Fox]

I haven't outflanked, but I have infiltrated them en masse to the same piece of terrain to deny advancement corridors to my opponents. That's worked out fairly well for me, as it helps dictate where my opponent will go forward and better sets up firelanes for me. It also forces choices in say a choice between walking down a firelane for my heavy support choices, or going right next to the melee attackers of death. Either way is a win for me by denying terrain to my opponent and channeling his forces where I want them.

 

In short, I love these folks! I've always been a big supporter of DCA's, and once you get past the Kill Point knee-jerk reaction, they're invaluable.

[number6]

I used them all the time in my 4th edition lists. But not once in 5th edition. This has nothing to do with Kill Points and everything to do with how much easier they are to kill -- both at range and in close combat -- and how close combat changed from 4th to 5th edition. All of the assassins took a huge hit from the nerf bat. On the defensive end:

 

* Terrain no longer blocks LoS unless it REALLY blocks LoS. So assassins are much easier to target now.

* Intervening infantry don't typically block LoS anymore either, so you can target assassins that you might otherwise be trying to screen.

* No target priority checks means that the enemy is free to target whatever they like without risk. Which can be your assassins.

 

And once in close combat:

 

* Being fearless all but assures that you take additional wounds from losing combat.

* You can't consolidate out of one combat and directly into another, leaving you stranded for at least one turn.

 

Unless you roll really really well AND get really really lucky in return, you should expect your assassins -- all of them, but especially DCAs -- to just die after they initially hit combat. They're too fragile and simply don't do enough damage to warrant their expense, IMHO. Drop their price down to 10 pts, and maybe you've got something worth considering.

 

And on top of all that, my opponents are all mechanizing like crazy, and DCAs are useless against vehicles. If you have to wait to dismount somebody before your assassins can even be useful, infiltrating them just gets them closer to enemy anti-infantry guns. Weaponry that, in the early stages of most games, simply has no use, so why not kill some assassins right away? Outflanking is no better as they aren't fast enough nor deadly enough to actually pain your enemy in any significant fashion. I certainly don't like the 1/3 chance of them showing up on the wrong side of the table.

 

If assassins were more like Kroot -- cheap and plentiful -- then I could see some real utility. But as it stands ... bleh.

[Inquisitor Fox]

And on top of all that, my opponents are all mechanizing like crazy, and DCAs are useless against vehicles. If you have to wait to dismount somebody before your assassins can even be useful, infiltrating them just gets them closer to enemy anti-infantry guns. Weaponry that, in the early stages of most games, simply has no use, so why not kill some assassins right away? Outflanking is no better as they aren't fast enough nor deadly enough to actually pain your enemy in any significant fashion. I certainly don't like the 1/3 chance of them showing up on the wrong side of the table.

I should add and clarify with my own experiences that most of the terrain from the local stores I play at is more of a cityfight style terrain with the building kits. This means there is a lot more LoS blocking terrain for me, different 'streets' and positioning effects, and in general less mechanization upon those particular tables. This means that the Inquisition as a whole is in it's preferred element (a cityfight) and the assassins last a lot longer and are much more effective. I imagine I would have a different experience in an open field type table with my army.