Has anyone had any experience using characters as lone assassins?

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HughB
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Has anyone had any experience using characters as lone assassins?

Postby HughB » Tue May 01, 2018 11:23 pm

So a host doesn't necessarily rely on its chain of command but if you take away an armies generals and commanders then the remaining host starts to become a lot less effective. To this end, I was wondering whether anyone has had any success with actively hunting the chain of command and how they go about doing it. Diving and soaring flyers are one option. Small units of things like helwr or shadow drunes could do a job from a distance or emerging from terrain and ambushing a lone character or shooting them up from distance. Lone characters on horses may also work. A battle drune with battle sickle and horse for example costs 72 gold for a 50mm base with a base move of 9" that has a 1D10 weapon and deathstrike on 30mm models.

Any thoughts or experiences?
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Jonathon Chester
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Re: Has anyone had any experience using characters as lone assassins?

Postby Jonathon Chester » Wed May 02, 2018 9:06 am

It entirely depends on the hosts make up if the option is available to me.

Out of my two regular opponents one with formoraic often has a unit of tarvax with tain and pigs at a minimum sometimes including the tarvox which forces me to prioritise these as they prevent me having time early game. The other has Khthones which he uses 'slower' in comparison so I have more time to pick off characters.

The main methods i've used so far are Rhyfelwr volley shooting with an abad prayer to boost the skill particularly on a wizard bunker, a lone Prifdyndraig to sweep around or a monster to fly about with board control to hunt down lone or small units around characters. I intend to give Helwr a go but they are more terrain dependent. I have seen a player take the stoskoular and stoskoulon to burrow and come up behind units to devour units/characters this could also be used to an extent by the Skorpion minor (possibly major but can't remember off hand if he can burrow) but not completely as effective.The War/Battle Drune option you mentioned would be really good against 'human' kindreds where they are likely to have many commanders that are on 30mm but becomes almost useless by default against khthones unless they have savrar or if you run into infernii the horse would be best used for running off!

My final thought would be wizards with spells that can single models out like the Spear of Ice spell for the formoraic.
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HughB
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Re: Has anyone had any experience using characters as lone assassins?

Postby HughB » Wed May 02, 2018 9:42 pm

Yeah fair point about the play style of what you face. A similar thing could be said of some ysian builds. If a lot of the stuff you're facing is big smash mouth frenzied units then attacking the chain of command wont have a huge effect - it would mean you've got more chance of going first though each turn (presuming you're not facing a tarvax tain as the general of course - battle drunes may be beefed up but not nearly enough to take on tarvax characters in single combat).

You're right about the battle drune not being as effective when not facing 30mm characters. Most kindreds would tend to use a human as a general however, particularly at reasonably large points totals so in a meta of several kindreds, you've got less chance of the assassin being useless. I think thats an important point about whatever unit you're using on assassin duty though. If it's something that is relatively cheap, losing it or having it not be particularly effective is less of a problem. It also means that if your assassin platform is cheap, there's scope for having a few of them. So a unit or two of ambushing bowmen and a character on a horse say. I hadn't thought of the lone wizard with a snipey spell. Not a bad shout but not particularly cheap and so probably a reasonable target themselves for character assassination.

Hmm. Food for thought. Thanks Jon.
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Re: Has anyone had any experience using characters as lone assassins?

Postby Rob Lane » Wed May 02, 2018 10:55 pm

I've had some success with burrowers / flankers and flying units; going after sorcerers, mostly. It does generally lead to the death of whatever is harrying the noble, but it's always worth it...

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Jonathon Chester
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Re: Has anyone had any experience using characters as lone assassins?

Postby Jonathon Chester » Thu May 03, 2018 5:41 am

HughB wrote:Yeah fair point about the play style of what you face. A similar thing could be said of some ysian builds. If a lot of the stuff you're facing is big smash mouth frenzied units then attacking the chain of command wont have a huge effect - it would mean you've got more chance of going first though each turn (presuming you're not facing a tarvax tain as the general of course - battle drunes may be beefed up but not nearly enough to take on tarvax characters in single combat).

You're right about the battle drune not being as effective when not facing 30mm characters. Most kindreds would tend to use a human as a general however, particularly at reasonably large points totals so in a meta of several kindreds, you've got less chance of the assassin being useless. I think thats an important point about whatever unit you're using on assassin duty though. If it's something that is relatively cheap, losing it or having it not be particularly effective is less of a problem. It also means that if your assassin platform is cheap, there's scope for having a few of them. So a unit or two of ambushing bowmen and a character on a horse say. I hadn't thought of the lone wizard with a snipey spell. Not a bad shout but not particularly cheap and so probably a reasonable target themselves for character assassination.

Hmm. Food for thought. Thanks Jon.


No worries, the sniper wizard usually sits in an archer bunker in my experience and spear of ice as an example is a very long range spell. I'm not as clued up on all the pick a model spells whether they are sight and have decent range but its always an option to consider.

I think one of the two best options are ambushing waelwulfs with the claw upgrades or a unit of Guthwulfs coming out of a wood, howl then pick a target. Buckets of attack dice, massive threat range and if you get the ambush off the target can't react. It is terrain dependent though but as an Anglecynn player one wood at minimum should be on the board.

Very true regarding human generals, in my local meta I'm that guy where as with my two opponents one almost always uses a Gorgon with other 60mm characters and the other almost always uses a tarvax tain with a 30mm characters the general being more fluid. I suppose in a event or player rich environment the odds of having your death strike Ysian noble standing there going 'well my trick is void' is reduced. though I have been tempted to run more theme lists recently, all draigs as an example, so its a tricky one to balance.

I'd also suspect running into Infernii makes the whole how to assassinate a bit harder too.
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HughB
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Re: Has anyone had any experience using characters as lone assassins?

Postby HughB » Fri May 04, 2018 5:00 pm

Agree with pretty much everything in both of the above posts. That wizard in the archer bunker best find himself some trees to hide in though otherwise flyers are going to dive and slash his face off. Then laugh while they soar off and the archers are still playing cards and 'who does the best William Tell impression'.

Regarding a command structure that isn't your standard 30mm dudes - completely fair points and I think thats why you need to have assassins that are either cheap or multi purpose. If you're spending 200pts and all you're envisioning for that investment is to take out 30mm characters then you're doing something wrong. If you're spending 70-80 points then at worse, you're down the equivalent of a good monstrous infantry model if your assassin turns out to be completely useless. Taking the ysian on a horse as an example though. Its a noble so if you put them on attack orders, they're essentially on both move and attack orders so you can march 27" to get behind stuff then turn around to look at charging things in the blind arc. Nobody wants a skill 60 dude with a 1D10 weapon in their blind arc whethey the death striking weapon he's carrying is relevant or not. Its a case of either its bad news or very bad news.
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