hello and welcome back to the channel today we're continuing on with our assassin reviews this time
we're looking at the callidus assassin which of course isn't going to be in the space marine codex
you'll find this in the psychic awakening war of the spider supplements so let's get straight
into the actual data sheet for this assassin it's coming in at five power or 100 points just like
all the other assassin models it's got a movement of seven inches weapon skill two plus ballistic
skill two plus strength 4 toughness 4 wounds 5 attacks 5 leadership 9 and a 6 plus save don't
worry too much about that 6 for save you'll see in the ability section as to why as for the actual
war gear the colorless assassin is equipped with a neural shredder a face sword and poison blades
let's check out all three of those pieces of war gear starting with the neural shredder which is
a ranged attack at nine inch range assault one now there's no strength ap or damage due
to when you're resolving the actual attack for the weapon if a hit is scored you don't need to
make a win roll instead you roll 3d6 and if the result is equal to or greater than the target
unit's leadership they're going to suffer d3 mortal wounds so on average you will score
10 when you roll in 3d6 so you should be beating virtually everyone's leadership but it's quite
nice because they're mortal wounds as opposed to standard wounds so they're very likely not able to
block these like with an in-run safe next you've got a phase sword which is a melee weapon it's
strength user making it strength four minus three ap and the damage is two and no invulnerable saves
can be made against these attacks now with five attacks base and you're hitting on twos as well
you should likely be getting your four hits and then maybe causing two wounds on average there
and the three plus armor save is going to go down to a six plus armor save regardless of the invite
or not so you're likely going to be scoring some wounds there then finally they've got the poison
blade now it's only strength two minus one ap one damage however you make one additional attack with
this weapon so this is in addition to the actual phase sword and you will always win on three plus
unless the target is a vehicle model but only minus one ap one damage there then we get on
to the actual abilities for the assassin starting with the agents of the imperium so you can include
one single agent of the imperium unit and in each imperium detachment excluding the fallen
detachments whether it's a patrol battalion or brigade attachment they won't be taken of
a slot within your battlefield roles furthermore they're not going to actually affect any of your
detachment abilities whether it's your chapter tactics your combat doctrines for example it's
not going to affect any of that secondly they've got the execution force so if your warlord has the
imperium keyword which they very likely will then include this unit as part of a vanguard detachment
even if the detachment doesn't contain any hq models then it's got independent operative so it
can never be given a warlord trait however during deployment you can set the model up in concealment
instead of placing it on the battlefield then at the end of any of the movement phases the model
can reveal its position set it up anywhere in the battlefield more than nine inches away so
it's effectively deep strike now this ability will change due to another ability which we'll go over
in a second but before we go into that ability we've got the lightning reflexes as well which
basically gives the model a four plus invulnerable save so that ability we were talking about is
called the polymorphine so during deployment you can set the model up in disguise instead of
setting up on the battlefield and in any of your movement phases the modicum reverts to its true
form so you set up anyone the battlefield more than d6 plus three inches away from enemy models
for example if you roll a four then it can be set up anywhere more than seven inches away from any
models so even if you roll the maximum which is a six that will put it to a six plus three
inches which is basically nine inches which is the standard deep strike range but this has the actual
potential of only being four inches away when you come in from reserves then it'll obviously be very
easy to make a charge move in that same turn next one is hit and run so the model can shoot
and charge in a turn in which it fell back so it's gonna be really good for that neural shredder as
well as being able to fight first due to making that charge move again then finally the reign of
confusion ability so in the first battle route you roll 1d6 for each time your opponent spends
any command points to use a strategy on and on a 4 plus your opponent must spend one additional cp to
use that stratagem or else it will have no effect and on top of that any cp spent so far will be
lost so if they decide not to spend the additional cp they will lose the original cp that they used
to spend it on in the first place however this cannot affect stratagems that are used before the
battle it's only battle round one there now there is a way of manipulating that in the stratagem
section which we'll go over in a bit but let's just finish off the actual data sheet with the
keywords so it's got the imperium keyword it's an infantry and it's a character model which means
it's going to benefit from the lookout server ability whether it's a vehicle or a monster or a
unit of three models it means that your assassin is not going to be able to be targeted unless
they're both visible and the closest enemy model so on to those stratagems and there's four here
in total just like with the vindicator assassin two of them are generic for all of the assassins
and then two of them are specific assassins let's get on with the first one which is shadow
assignment so effectively pre-game after you've seen your opponent's list you've seen the mission
and you even deployed you can use the stratagem for two command points and you can effectively
remove this assassin from the battle and exchange the assassin for one of the other assassins
there's four in total so there's three other ones that you could select from then not only that this
assassin will not be considered destroyed and it's not going to cost you any reinforcement points to
do this even in match play so maybe you see your opponent's list and there's loads of character
models within their list and you think maybe the vindica assassin with that sniper that avoids the
lookout sir rule may be a better option for you so you can just simply spend two command points and
switch them out next you've got priority threat neutralize it's a free stratagem when you kill
a character with this model you gain a command point and if it was a warlord you're gonna gain
two command points very simple there then on to the actual specialized stratagems that are gonna
go with the calydus assassin the first one is acrobatic in the movement phase you select your
assassin from the army that model can advance and charge this turn then in addition until the start
next battle round you subtract one from the hit rolls for attacks made against this assassin so
with a seven inch movement as well as the actual advance move then being able to charge as well
you do have the potential of a first turn charge but of course you're probably likely going to be
deep striking in any way to be fair this is more for a late game stratagem when you want to go for
a second unit after you've finished killing off the first one then the final one is for
two command points is supreme deception use the strategy at the start of any battle round after
the first one you select your calendars assassin even if they're not on the battlefield then that
model's reign of confusion ability is considered to be an effect and you can only use the strategy
once per battle so quickly put back on the screen what the reign of confusion was just to remind us
if you remember the first battle round every time your opponent uses a command point
to spend on a stratagem on a four plus they need to spend an additional cp to do so and that's only
for the first battle round whereas the stratagem allows you to do in any of the other battle rounds
not just the first one so if you can see that your opponent is about to use some stratagems you pull
this one off especially when they're very low on cp and you know they're not going to be able to
spend any more on that stratagem so as there's no real synergy with it actual codec says let's get
straight on to the summary again there's quite a few here for the good section in particular they
can go into any imperium faction and they're not going to mess up any of your faction bonuses again
whether it's chapter tactics for example normally you need the same keyword as your battleforge but
in this case you don't they no longer cause command points to field them which is quite
a nice little touch there and then of course they've got the very good strategy options one
in particular being able to gain command points for killing characters they've got a four plus in
vulnerable save which is really helpful because their actual standard armor save is pretty bad
with a six plus so they're definitely going to be needing that four plus in vulnerable save then
they've got the polymorphing ability for an easier charge coming in d6 plus three inches as opposed
to nine inches in from deep strike means you're likely going to be getting a pretty simple charge
there and then in terms of the melee weapon enemy units cannot be taken in vulnerable saves against
the assassin's attacks which is pretty cool and the neural shredder you can be using it to advance
and still fire as well as falling back firing and then recharging as well and then finally to
top it all off it's going to have a weapon skill value of a two plus so barely missing there as
for the bad you can only field one assassin so no spamming anymore like you used to be able to
they're only really usable at close range 12 inch range for the neural shredder and of course with
the melee attacks but nothing else more than 12 inches away it's gonna do anything and it's only
a damage to weapon in melee so against three wound models such as terminator for example could be a
real weakness and talking of some more powerful melee units it's not likely going to be lasting
against those units with only five wounds and a four plus invulnerable save and that's kind of
the whole point of this unit because you're going to be targeting powerful units that do have an
invent save so they're likely going to be very good in melee so before we get on to the actual
rating for this review let's get our shout out of the day done going to sean zari i'm not sure if i
butchered that name or not apologies if i have they'll mention in the comment for the tactical
squad review did recently talking about how you can give them the iron hands chat done which will
make them a really good objective holder with a six plus three no pain save so let's get on with
the rating today for the callidus assassin i'm gonna go with a planet 40k rating of three stars
i don't think it's as good as the vindicator assassin if i'm honest because at least that
one could be firing at characters from range so not likely to be getting hit back whereas the
calendars assassin will be getting struck back by some very powerful melee units so that's what
i think let me know what you think below and how do you use the colorless assassin also remember to
like and subscribe on your way out thank you all for watching and i'll see you next time
you