I always think, as a unit, you know you’ve made it when my opponent puts some effort into trying to take them off the table. My swarm crier has been the subject of several such attempts, and thus I feel his value has been measured. I’m generally excited about Ratkin at the moment, but there is one model that I’d love to get back to the table, my Master Scurrier, the assassin of the Ratkin world. However, it’s not just the Master Scurrier I’d like to bring back, but I’d also love to see the assassin class characters around more often, but in order to do that I think they need a bit of an overhaul, similar to that of the standard bearers.
Firstly though, why don’t we see them on the field that often? The last time I took my Master Scurrier to a tournament was in 2021, the Clash of Kings to be exact, and I thought he did pretty well. However, if memory serves, he did not in any game use duellist. I’ve also used him in a number of casual games in addition to CoK, and I genuinely can’t remember him fighting that many individuals. Not that there haven’t been individuals for him to go after, it’s just that they’ve either been too well protected because of their importance to my opponent (I’m thinking surge casters) or there’s precious little he would do to them even if he could get hold of them (I’m thinking Thonaar). Essentially, I feel as though many assassin characters in the game are perfectly tailored to taking out individuals that are not that important, or that great in combat, if only Basilean Paladin Chaplains made it to the table more often.
That doesn’t mean I think the assassin class has no place in Kings of War, I believe they just need a little shove in the right direction, the right direction being one that makes them more manoeuvrable or a bit more killy. So, having no real deep knowledge of assassins outside of what Terry Pratchett novels have taught me I thought I would throw a few unsolicited opinions at anyone who finds their way to this page as is my internet given right.
It’s probably worth clarifying a couple of things. Firstly, I would define assassins as being the more middle of the road individuals with duellist, such as the Master Scurrier, halfling Feast Master and kingdoms of men Assassin, the likes of vampire lords really don’t need any more buffs. In addition to this, I think the currently stat lines for these mid-level characters are perfectly reasonable, I think what’s missing is a bit of special ability sparkle. That being said the addition of thunderous charge 1 to their stat lines wouldn’t go amiss to represent an element of surprise in their initial attack (I can’t imagine assassins turning into bellowing brawlers just because they’re on a battlefield, I want to believe they would still look to make use of their surprise stabby skills).
I’m going to start by suggesting three existing(ish) rules that I think would be great for the assassin class and three rules I’ve slung together, inspired by existing KoW rules that I just think would be cool.
Herja’s Legacy – this would need renaming but allowing an assassin to fly and get speed 10 for one turn in the game would give them a much better chance of engaging with those well defended characters, and really putting some targeted pressure on the opponent.
Unleashed – this is the twilight kin Corsair Wrangler special rule that allows a successful wound from a shooting attack to disorder a unit. Whilst this is less character killicentric it does play to the idea of an assassin as a saboteur and dispenser of rare neurotoxins.
Thonaar’s nonsense with duellist – technically this is a combo of several rules, but they all do currently exist. The idea is to improve the amount of damage an assassin can deal, maybe resulting from an especially well-executed attack. This would still see the assassin doubling attacks against individuals, but also receiving blast 2 for each attack where a 5 or 6 was rolled to hit.
Those are my first three suggestions. Now we get to the slightly more interesting, maybe even controversial, stuff:
See things for a different angle – assassins are masters of movement, with lightening fast reflexes and an array of interesting items stowed about their shadowy robes to help them locate and destroy their pray. Assassins can locate an individual even when they are shielded by their own units, regardless of the relative heights of the assassin, the target individual, and the intervening units (both friendly and not). Through a combination of dodging, weaving, sliding under legs and vaulting over heads the assassin can charge an individual within charge range, passing through any intervening units, who is not in their line of sight. Terrain rules would apply here, and the assassin would have to obey all other charge rules.
The bigger they are – the lives of assassins are so much more interesting in fantastic worlds. Who knows what you’re going to be asked to kill, a mage, an orc krudger, Hrimm? The bigger they are builds on duellist by allowing double attacks against heroes, rather than just individuals, and treble attacks against unique heroes.
Hidden deployment – possibly a bit less interesting than the first two, but none the less I feel it’s still very useful and pretty thematic. The assassin is placed anywhere on the table once both players have completed deployment. The only restriction is that the assassin must be at least 12 inches away from the nearest enemy unit.
So that’s it. A few thoughts that might, or might not, be of interest.
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