Hey everyone, Reecius here to share my experiences using the Culexus Assassin. Be sure to check out the Tactics Corner for tactics articles!
First of all let me just say it: the dude’s a beast! He absolutely lives up to the hype.
In my first test game with him, I was using him vs. a quad Ritpide Tau army with no psykers and he was still a boss. His psychic shooting attack does work even with just the 1-3 shots you get from your own warp charge. If you get get him next to a few units that generate warp charge to beef up his gun, it can be devastating. As is, with just my own latent warp charge pumping into his weapon, he shot a Riptide to death! With Infiltrate and MtC, he typically will be in range to shoot on the first turn. And as he shoots in the psychic phase, it means he is able to run in the shooting phase, which gives him the ability to get closer or to hide after shooting. Much like Eldar Battle Focus, it is extremely useful.
His Etherium defense is extremely good. Being hit on WS and BS1 makes him a tough cookie. Even in the face of Nova-charged HBC Riptides with Marker Lights, he still survived a round of shooting. He can jam around outside of a vehicle and is still very quick and tough to hurt. Don’t tempt fate with him of course, but, he is able to operate solo and will cause an immense amount of disruption.
In combat, he is almost always hit on 5’s, which makes him much more durable and with his Life Drain attacks, he is pretty deadly. He ignores armor and inflicts ID on a 6 (all attacks are ID against Psykers). He pimp-slapped another Riptide to death in assault! 2 Riptides by himself, not bad! The Culexus definitely keep the pimp hand strong.
Basically, the Culexus is a bad ass. He/she can function solo but, don’t slap the assassin into a SAFH and toss him out there solo and expect great results. My list was 60 Scouts and all of the Assassins, so, I had a LOT of threats to overwhelm my opponent’s target priority choices. In that context, the Culexus can really thrive. Running around unsupported, I think the results would have been a lot less impressive.
However, when used well, this model is absolutely a game changer. You are fast, deadly in shooting and assault, and if put into position to shut down a psychic unit, can be game winning. But as this example illustrates, even in a game where you don’t have any psychic targets to buff him up, the Culexus is still extremely good. I plan on using mine further and really enjoyed the Assassin formation in general terms. It worked really well with my Scout army. The Vindicaire was also a bad ass, just putting that key wound where needed or putting a hurt on a vehicle as needed.