A Prime Example of Power Creep in the 40K Universe: The Vindicare Assassin

I am writing today to voice my opinion regarding the Vindicare Assassin, a prime example of the slow but steady power creep that is slowly poisoning 40K. The focus of this article is the Vindicare Assassin. This unit costs 85 points and for that, you get a mixture of the Asuranyi named characters Maugan Ra and Illic Nightspear all mixed into one, only he is far more deadly.

How do I qualify the above statement? Maugan Ra costs 140 points. His special abilities include the ability to shoot twice, hit on 2s, and re-roll 1s without suffering any modifiers. He has a 2+ save, no invulnerable save and no ‘feel no pain’. He cannot benefit from any of the Craftworld attributes, cannot have a Warlord Trait and cannot be included in a Ynnari detachment.

Illic Nightspear costs 80 points and his main ability is that he can snipe characters with his special rifle that wounds all non-vehicle units on a 2+. He has five wounds, a 5+ armour save, no invulnerable save, and cannot gain a ‘feel no pain’.  Being a Ranger, he has a +2 to his cover save, and -2 to hit outside of 12”. He is able to ‘deep strike’, this obviously reduces this ‘elite’ sniper’s ability to shoot and thus he hits on 3s when using this ability, which shouldn’t be an issue, however when you’ve only got one shot it’s surprisingly easy to miss.

The Vindicare Assassin will cost you 85 points. For this expense, your Imperial Army

will receive a unit with a 72” range strength 5, -3AP Exitus sniper rifle causing D3 damage. That sounds pretty good, but the icing on the cake is that this rifle ignores Invulnerable saves. He hits on 2s, and if he remained stationary in his previous Movement Phase (which means he can still charge in that previous turn!) then he hits on 2s regardless of modifiers. Sounds a bit like Maugan Ra to me…… only better.

But wait there is more. If he rolls a six to wound, he does D6 damage instead of D3. That’s amazing! But wait, there’s more! If he fails to kill your character from his range of 72’ with his strength 5 rifle, he gets to roll a D6 and on a 3+ he inflicts a mortal wound. If that doesn’t kill your character, he gets to roll a D6 again, on a 4+ he inflicts another mortal wound! And if he doesn’t kill your character, he gets to roll a D6 and on a 5+ and guess what? Another mortal wound.

Just to rub salt in the wound he also ignores cover. So, in a sniper duel of the best Aeldari Sniper in the galaxy (Illic Nightspear if you hadn’t clicked) vs one of numerous Vindicare assassins, Illic doesn’t stand a chance. Anyone else seeing an issue here?

If Illic was to get a shot in he would be -1 to hit, yet the Vindicare would ignore the -2 to hit Illic. The Vindicare would also have a save seeing as he has an Invulnerable save (an ability called 'Lightning Reflexes', that sounds like an Aeldari Stratagem does it not?) so the -3 on the Voidbringer (Illic’s supposedly Lethal Sniper rifle) could easily be rendered null. Illic has no such save and would, therefore, be dead as his cover save would be ignored by the standard issue Exitus Sniper rifle used by the numerous Vindicare Assassins. All of that for a five-point differential in points cost.  

And just in case you are shouting 'lock him up in melee', he has a pistol that also ignores Invulnerable saves, so that’s not going to work either! He also has FIVE attacks (more than the never killed Original Aspect Warrior Phoenix Lord of the Dark Reapers, or the Elite Sniper who has advanced knowledge of the webway. Yeah, that technology that the Imperium doesn’t know how to use….

‘His (Illic Nightspear) worth to the craftworlds' cause does not end with his arrival on the field of war; his accuracy with a long rifle is unmatched in all the galaxy, and Ork Warlords, Necron Overlords,Imperial Guard generals and Chaos Champions have all met their end under his watchful gaze.’(Games Workshop, Codex Craftworlds page 43)

Yeah ok. Next!

Maugan Ra has supposedly lived for ten Thousand years without dying, (according to the lore written by Games Workshop) in the game this is represented with a 2+ armour save but I'm sure we can all agree that 4+invulnerable available to almost every Imperial  Assassin and Space Marine character model is better. So what can Games Workshop do to balance this situation? 

Firstly increase the cost of the assassins to at least 110 points and make them unique like the Solitaire is in the Harlequin army. That's still good value for a model that kill any normal character model with relative ease. Secondly give every named Asuranyi named character a 4+ invulnerable save, and have Illic Nightspear always hit on 2s and ignore modifiers. This would restore Illic to his rightful place as the best sniper in the galaxy and put the Phoenix Lords on a par with other faction's character models.

This is a clear indication of power creep. It shows how a new ruleset is clearly superior to an older set and starts down the path of using rules to sell models, rather than just the rule of cool. Why is this important?

Well, it creates the gulf between the 'haves'' and 'have nots'. Those with the financial means to buy every model released will have an advantage when it comes to playing games. It also devalues the importance of named characters when 'run of the mill' units are cheaper in points and more points efficient. Indeed the whole point of named characters is that they are more deadly and powerful and therefore limited to one per army. Yet an Imperial player can have multiple Vindicare Assassins, where is the logic in that?