Vindicare Assassin Added to my Grey Knight Henchman List

     Spent some time painting up my Vindicare Assassin.

     I wanted to get this guy done at the beginning of putting my list together as I foresee him getting quite a bit of table time.

     While we're at it lets take a look at his rules, basic tactics, and how he will fit in my eventual list.

Assassin Rule Set:

·         Stats: WS8 BS8 S4 T4 W2 I7 A4 Ld10 Sv4+ Invul

·         War gear: Frag Grenades (allows assaults into cover to occur at regular initiative)

·         Special Rules: Move Through Cover( roll +1 d6 when rolling for difficult terrain, Fearless, Fleet (able to move 6" run d6" and still assault, if no shooting), Synskin (Feel No Pain on a d6 roll of 6)

·         All assassins in the Grey Knight codex have all the above.

The Vindicare also has the following at 145pts:

·         Blind Grenades: Models assaulting units with defensive grenades get no assault bonuses.

·         Stealth: +1 to cover saves

·         Infiltrate: see BRB

·         Dead shot: Wounds caused by shooting attacks are always allocated by the Vindicare's controlling player

·         Exitus Pistol: Range 12" Strength X AP1 Pistol, Sniper

·         Exitus Rifle: Range 36" Strength X AP1 Heavy 1, Sniper

Now on top of this the Exitus weapons use 3 types of ammo you must choose before rolling to hit:

·         Hellfire: Always wounds on 2+

·         Shield Breaker: When a wound is allocated from this round the model loses any invulnerable saves granted by items of war gear immediately for rest of game;

·         Turbo-Penetrator: Inflicts 2 wounds on any non-vehicle model; and 4d6 for armor penetration on vehicles.

Recent BRB FAQ Changes:

·         For those unaware Sniper weapons always wound on a 4+ and are rending and pinning.

·         Sniper weapons count as S3 versus vehicles:

·         With rending when rolling to wound on a d6 roll of 6 ignores armor saves...however the Exitus is AP1 so will ignore saves upon wounding anyway. But when calculating armor penetration the rending adds a bit; each d6 roll of 6 will add d3 to the total armor penetration. So a Vindicare could roll anywhere between a 7 (3+1+1+1+1) to 39(3+6+6+6+6+3+3+3+3). Putting an average armor penetration at 23; which will of course pop any vehicle in the game. Combine an average pen roll of 23 with the +1 on the vehicle damage chart and you have argueably the best one shot vehicle killer in the game.

Other Points:

·         Remember that the "Sniper" rule applies to the pistol as well. In other words when the enemy is getting close you can pop off the pistol shot and allocate wound to say..the melta gunner or the power fist and hopefully neuter the squad.

·           With a BS8 you will hit on a 2+. Should you miss you get a reroll and will hit on a 4+. This combined with either the turbo penetrator round and AP1 is as close to money as you can get. The only thing you cannot overcome is a cover save.

Uses/Tactics:

·         Snipe Vehicles is an obvious conclusion. I would resist the urge, unless the enemy vehicle threat level far outweighs the chance, of shooting anything with a cover save. Instead choose your targets wisely and be patient. By using infiltrate you should be able have a better shot at what you are after.

·         Snipe Special and Independent Characters (SC's and IC's).  Pyschic hoods, Eldrad, Rune Priests, Sanguinary Priests, Kustom Force field mechs, to name a few. The key here is to know your enemy and pick out what can slow down or derail your opponents' plans, this requires knowledge of your opponents codex.

·         Again, when desperate, remember the pistol could be used in conjunction with turbo penetrator and snipe threats while repositioning.
·         Keep other threats in your opponents face to reduce focused fire on you assassin.

·         You can prolong his life by setting him up in an unused rhino with fortitude, incorporating a tech priest in your list to grant a 2+ cover save on 4+ ruins (Bolster + Steatlh), or be denying most line of sight by being patient and careful with deployment. While your assassin can whether single shots pretty well, he will fall to volume of fire if you let it happen.

·         Know when to run and redeploy. It is great to get off 6 highly important kills on the game...but 4 highly important kills and 2 turns of moving to keep him shooting could be as good or better.

·         Position and plan the use of your assassin to assist your other units versus expecting him to turn the tide of the game for you. For example, to pop the rhino in front of a convoy at a terrain bottleneck or pop the power fist toting sergeant prior to your assault, etc.

Merging with your list:

·         I plan to use the Vindicare as a scalpel versus a hammer. I will run a tech priest and have plenty of rhinos with fortitude to keep him alive and shooting.

·         When moving forward he will pop targets as I advance. When holding a line he will look to pop advancing vehicles, remove 3+ invul saves, take out IC's or SC's, or pop the fist in CC units.

·         I KP games he will do both the above and take out targets of opportunity.
·         My goal will be to keep multiple threats present to force tough choices.

By now you should have some information on this excellent elite choice in the Grey Knight Codex and some ideas on how to use him. Can't wait for my painted assassin to see the table top.

Thanks for the read,

BDS