Let’s talk through the Veiled Blade Elimination Force and some of its problems in game…
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0:00 Intro
0:50 Assassins in 10th
2:10 Current Datasheet Rules
3:17 Veiled Blade Elimination Force
4:19 Detachment Rule
6:05 Assassin Enhancements
9:01 Weyland Yutani Terrain – Video Sponsor
10:07 Assassin Enhancements Continued
14:08 Stratagems
19:46 Initial Impressions
22:17 Outro
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Cullexus should get free grenades strat
The Eversor not having Fight First feels weird.
I mean this is bullshit compared to what nacrons got.
But Assassins don't have the game designer playing their faction like nacron have.
expecting a bad one for knights, can see it being allies related since the codex is around the corner, they arent going to give us a juicy one for free
I feel that they'd have done better with just making the detachment into a combat patrol – just an execution force sent up against a small, high value enemy force would have been a fun little idea.
I mean, is anyone even slightly surprised? From the way the codex is written, it's pretty obvious GW didn't actually want Agents to be a real army but rather wanted to clear out their warehouse instead. I highly doubt that army will be back in 11th, so no wonder they get another crappy detachment now. Not worth the effort it seems.
It feels like someone in the GW design team is utterly convinced Agents are actually very strong and therefore insists on pushing their points into the stratosphere. I'd definitely call this one a near-miss. The Eversor strat should be 1CP, that's so obvious that it feels like a misprint, and his Enhancement should grant Fights First instead of the Counter-Attack, making him genuinely dangerous to charge near. Most of the others just need a bit of a points discount, especially the Culexus one. The Callidus Enhancement is potentially monstrous, bearing in mind you can do it at any point during your Movement phase, so you could move some Subductors up into charge range and then use it to set up the Callidus as well, for example. There's also the cheeky play of using it on a Rogue Trader entourage and potentially resurrecting the 'dead' model with their medic. Probably the funniest thing about this Detachment though is how it makes some big scary models like Magnus who have the misfortune to be Characters, Monsters and Psykers deeply nervous, because a well-timed combo of Vindicare and Culexus could potentially one-shot them.
I stil really want to see Inquistors get a lot more dangerous, though, to give Agents some teeth. Some scary Xenotech weapons, forbidden psychic powers, apocalyptically potent Faith relics, etc. Get the gloves off them and make them the terrifying individuals they're supposed to be.
As written, the Callidus one is potentially very good. 40 points to let you instantly kill any infantry model on the board. Autarch, Farseer, Custodes captain, named character, whatever. Not so good if you are fighting a horde army perhaps, but even those usually have leaders. Useless against Knights, but that's Assassins anyway.
40 points means she already succeeded in whatever mission she had before the battle started. The damage she does to the enemy after that is a bonus.
It's a take on one of the older editions version s of polymorphine which let you replace a regular infantry model (not heavy weapon, not character) – this version doesn't have that restriction.
Would it really have been so broken if they just made this wargear free in this detachment?
i think this one should have just been a alternate ally option, so instead of includeing the normal imperial agent allys table you can substitute for a execution force of all 4 assassins with a couple of special options just for them added (i know allies dont normally get their codex's strats and enhacnements but jsut something special for the assassins, drop the extermus ability bits and just 4 strats focused on each of them)
4 Assassins in a trench coat does not a detachment make.
You need to stop looking at everything from a competitive point of view. A lot of these detachments look like fun for narrative play.
I dont get why the agents are like this. The models are so cool, and the rules are just bad. I still think that Order Xenos could of been so cool if it worked like the deathwatch index. I want my deathwatch led by Inquisitors.
For the decoy targets, could you use it after using another unit's 3" deep dtrike ability? Like the inceptors?
I feel that a lot of these internal balance issues could be solved with some sort of, I don't know, inventory system that had independent points per item. Like, say, making individual guns in a unit cost different prices. Or maybe giving special characters access to some sort of armoury that lets them be fine tuned for both gameplay and points balancing.
But what do I know? I'm not a FTSE 100 company trying to please shareholders.
The vindicare presence on the board is almost enough for 155pts. Lol i really believe people forget hes designed to take out valuable targets with 1-2 shots across the map. Taking out 1-3 characters is worth it, especially against necrons and other character heavy armies… Also can you just take only the vindicare assassin for a 195pts and gain the buffs and strats as a ally? Or do you have to take all 4 assassins for the buffs?
Edit: before I'm crucified lol I'm talking about casual game play not competitive.
The could fix this next edition by changing the keywords and letting the deathwatch index be a detachment in this codex. Have the flavor detachments and allow the ally rule but the main army is deathwatch.
The points are just way too high for the detatchment. And not being able to double down on an assassin flavor in a detatchment that kinda only really helps assassins is disappointing.
This is actually pretty lore-accurate. The Nemesis novel made abundantly clear that a group of highly trained assassins can't kill their intended target so… it somehow makes sense.
We all knew they were gonna get the worst just had hope lol😂😂
Love the theme, hate the execution
I kinda like it but it does have big weakneses. letting the calidus swap with any infantry unit during movement is cool, anti vehicle and mosnter on vindicare shores u it's weakness, free intervene and interupt on eversore helps it move around, culexus is the only iffy one. I feel that letting you bring double the assasins would be stronger and more useful.
Really disappointing with focus on only 4 models in the army, with forced enhancements of dubious utility and seemingly lame stratagems.
In the assassin army could assassins at least cost less not more?
Friendly reminder, there's a 5th Assassin available to run within the Rogue Trader Entourage.
IT WAS ME, DIO!!
Wait so this is ALL Agents get??
… having the detachment make its buffed units cost more is an interesting design decision, but when the buffs are fairly modest and could only affect four units from your army max, I'm not sure what the point is.
Surprised it's gone this long without Marines appearing in the calendar!
So my math makes this the: field half as many viable units as any other army detachment
the army rule needs to add 'whenever a unit shoots or fights re-roll a hit and wound roll of 1' it would greatly empower assassins without making them OP and allowthe rest of the army to have at least SOME support.
Super Strong? Probably Not, but it looks fun and that's all that matters. I don't think it was intended to be balanced for tournament level play
I genuinely do not understand the hate for Imperial Agents. I have played with and against the faction a few times. Each game was far and away more enjoyable than most mainline meta lists out there. The army isn't powerful, I would even agree it is not a full faction, but IA units and detachments have fun abilities that make for an enjoyable change up. I would argue GW did a better job embracing the flavor of the faction more than most others in 10th.
The callidus in the Video has an once per Game ability and the Aura is gone.
Is this an editing Error?
a detachment with a bigger downside than the Death Guard one? at least the Chaos Knights detach is fun.
Wake Up Auspex! I need the breakdown on knights pls.
It’s fine but a fail? Isn’t fun the point?
I want to play the IA so bad. I really do. As someone who's new to the tabletop game, I eagerly awaited the chance to play as an inquisitor barking orders to a requisitioned force of the emperor's finest warriors from across the imperium. The inquisition's authority knows no bounds, right? Wrong. GW: Here fans of the inquisition play with some very limited models from the imperium and some overly constrained rules. You have the authority of the emperor's will but uh yeah take these handful of allies and some kill teams and go nuts. Oh, and the inquisitors themselves? Yeah, those larger-than-life characters that have some really cool lore? Yeahhhh those characters are going to be super bland in game. The ones with cool abilities – ooo those are going to be very specific to target one enemy type. I just want to play as an Inquisitor raining hell down onto a battlefield, he saw fit to destroy. Heretics? Burn them! Xenos? Slaughter them! Deamons? Exterminatus! Instead, we got a bunch of pea shooters and very expensive assassins. Oh, and a rogue trader. We at least got that…
How is it possible that GW released an Inquisition army without Stormtroopers or Landraider, both are iconic Inquisition units. Seems like GW didn't even try with this one.
This was probably the worst case scenario for these Grotmas detachments. A weak, mid detachment that's only fun if you're really into the theme that only really benefits four very specific units, especially four very specific character units. It's way too niche for a codex that's already kind of niche. But it's free, it's not like it took development time from anything else, and there's no reason not to at least have it in your back pocket. It's like getting a gift you really don't care about from someone you love; I appreciate more that they thought about what I'd want and took a swing than actually having the gift itself.
I feel like it would have been better if this detachment removed the epic hero keyword from the assasins and had the upgrades as optional enhancements… helps the price issue and honestly could be a fun meme army with multiple of the same assassin.
At least they added flash bangs to 40k
My only theory is that some of the Agents in the balance patch will lose Epic Hero, to make this even a little bit viable.
i'd like to return this detachment, it's still sealed, yes a voucher for an army rule does fine
what do you mean you don't sell army rules?
Shoulda just made the enhancements free, and slightly better
I don’t think every army/ detachment should be good for comp. Armies like this are fun and interesting, I would much rather these weird rules to something basic and powerful
I kinda like it
Classic games workshop strategy of taking the army doing the worst and giving them the worst possible detatchment
The Culexus should have got the "can target him for 0CP, even if you've already used the stratagem this turn" treatment for the Grenades ability