CULEXUS ASSASSINS

CULEXUS ASSASSIN……….240 points

SPECIAL RULES

Imperial Assassin. The Culexus Assassin is trained in the ancient arts of death as taught to all Assassins regardless of their temple. The special rules for Psychology, Leadership, Gas Weapons, Dodge, Vision and Infiltration apply.

Soulless. Even normal troops find the Culexus Assassin abhorrent, such that their minds refuse to believe that he could possibly exist, causing their subconscious to block out the Assassin's awful presence.

If an enemy character, squad, vehicle, vehicle squadron or support weapon battery wishes to shoot or charge at the Culexus Assassin then you must roll a D6. On a roll of a 2 or more the Culexus Assassin has distracted the unit and they may not fire. Instead the unit must choose another target to shoot at. If the unit fails to charge it may charge another enemy model or it may continue with its move as if a charge had never been declared. On a roll of 1, the Assassin is successfully spotted and any weapons in the unit that are able to do so may shoot at the Culexus Assassin, rolling to hit and damage as normal; chargers may charge and fight in hand-to-hand combat as normal.

If there is a psyker within charge range of the Culexus Assassin then the Assassin may choose to charge the psyker in favour of other models. The Assassin can simply slip by enemy squads and bodyguards.

However, if the Assassin is wounded, then his weakened state will cause him to lose ability for the rest of the game and he may be shot and charged as normal.

Anti-Psyker. The Culexus Assassin is not a psyker and nmay not use any of the warp cards dealt to the Imperial player in the psychic phase. The Culexus Assassin gains force power from his Force Matrix, the rules for which are described below.

Psychic Abomination. All psykers consider such a being as a Culexus Assassin to be an absolute abomination. Even monstrosities such as a Tyranid Hive Tyrant can baulk at the prospect of being permanently severed from their psychic abilities and the Hive Mind. The Culexus Assassin causes terror in all psykers. Even psykers that are immune to psychology, cause terror themselves or assumed to automatically pass any Leadership based test must pass a Terror test. There are absolutely no exceptions to this, a model with psychic powers must take a Terror test if it starts its turn within 8" of a Culexus Assassin, is charged by, or wishes to charge a Culexus Assassin.

Warp Disturbance. The Culexus Assassin causes the warp to act in a very strange way. His negative psychic abilities cause it swirl around him in a vortex, in effect he creates a small, localised warp storm, making it very dangerous for psykers to use their powers. Any psyker, including friendly psykers, within 24" of the Culexus Assassin that attempts to use a power must roll a D6. If the roll is less than or equal to the number of force cards he played with the psychic power, then the power is immediately nullified and the psyker suffers a wound with no armour saves allowed. If a power is played using the Ultimate Force warp card, the power counts as being powered by three force cards and cannot be nullified. However, the psyker must still roll a dice, if he roll 3 or less then he takes a wound.

Life Drain. Many psykers not only use their powers to cast bolts of fire and lightning or throw a psychic shield around themselves, they also augment their physical capabilities. This is why many psykers are far more potent combatants than their non-psychic counterparts. Merely by moving into close proximity, a Culexus Assassin can sap a psyker of his life-force. In order to do this to its fullest effect the Culexus Assassin must physically touch the psyker. This power may only be used against psykers that are in hand-to-hand combat with the Culexus Assassin. Before fighting each round of hand-to-hand combat the psyker should roll 2D6 and add his Leadership characteristic to the score. The Culexus Assassin should roll 3D6, choose the two highest dice and add his Leadership characteristic to the score. If the scores are drawn or the Culexus Assassin loses, the hand-to-hand combat continues as normal.

For each point that the Culexus Assassin beats the psyker's score by, he can drain 1 point from any one of the victim's WS, BS, S, T or Ld characteristics. If any psyker's characteristics are reduced to 0, then the psyker is killed and removed as a casualty. Drained characteristics are lost for the rest of the battle. If the Culexus Assassin is in hand-to-hand combat with more than one psyker, then test for each psyker separately.

A SHORT NOTE ON DAEMONS

A Culexus Assassin's special attacks do affect daemons that are psykers. This includes units of daemons such as Plaguebearers of Nurgle, Daemonettes or Horrors of Tzeentch. Bloodletters, like all daemons of Khorne, are not affected as they do not have psychic powers. Blasts from the Animus Speculum, the effects of the Life Drain ability and any blows struck by the Culexus Assassin in hand-to-hand combat, count as psychic attacks and daemons receive no saving throw on behalf of their daemonic aura.

For example, if the Culexus Assassin wounds a Plaguebearer with a blast from the Animus Speculum, then he may attempt to destroy one of the unit's psychic powers. If the Culexus Assassin is in hand-to-hand combat then he may use his Life Drain ability on the Plaguebearer. If the Culexus Assassin is in hand-to-hand combat with more than one Plaguebearer then test for each one separately.

CULEXUS ASSASSIN WARGEAR

A Culexus Assassin is armed with an Etherium Force Matrix, Animus Speculum and Psyk-out Grenades. This wargear must be taken and may not swapped for other wargear. The special rules are as follows:

ETHERIUM: The Etherium is a highly advanced form of Aegis Suit, built into the Culexus Assassin's synskin. This, combined with the Culexus Assassin's innate abilities, means that psychic attacks pass right through him as if he were invisible. This makes it very difficult for weapons that are connected to the warp to harm him. If he is attacked by warp weapons such as force swords, Witch Blades, Vortex grenades, D-cannons or psychic powers then roll a dice. On a D6 roll of 2 or more the attack has no effect on the Culexus Assassin, although the attack is not nullified. Force weapons may still wound the Assassin. However, the psyker may not add his mastery level to the strength or use extra force cards to enhance the attack. If the attack has a blast marker, then other models within the blast may still be affected. A bolt that hits the first model in its path may pass right through a Culexus Assassin and continue until it hits another model or runs out of range. This is a unique way of avoiding psychic attacks and even provides protection against powers played with the Ultimate Force warp card.

FORCE MATRIX: The Force Matrix consists of a series of psychic conduits that run within the Assassin's Etherium, and is made from a material similar to that used in force weapons. When a psyker taps into the warp, he is not always totally efficient at using all the energy: a lot of excess energy is simply left to dissipate. The Force Matrix acts as a conductor, absorbing this excess warp energy providing the Culexus Assassin, who is unable to tap directly into warp, with a source of warp energy. The closer the Culexus Assassin gets to psykers, the more energy the Force Matrix will absorb.

At the beginning of each psychic phase roll a D3 to determine the number of force points that the Force Matrix absorbs. In addition, for each psyker within 12" you may add +1 to the score. So, if two psykers are within 12" of the Culexus Assassin, the Force Matrix will absorb D3+2 force points. Force points can be used to fire blasts from the Animus Speculum. Any force points left at the end of the psychic phase are lost as the Force Matrix is unable to store warp energy for a prolonged period of time. If the Energy Drain card is played then any force points are lost and the psychic phase ends as normal.

ANIMUS SPECULUM: As well as acting as a restaining device, the Animus Speculum is a weapon capable of firing lethal blasts of negative psychic energy. By focussing the Assassin's aura through the single eye on the front it becomes a thin beam of energy, burning the target's brain and sucking out its soul. These blasts can be deadly to all, but psykers who rely upon the warp for energy are particulary vulnerable, and can find themselves robbed of their powers.

In the psychic phase the Culexus Assassin may use the Animus Speculum to unleash blasts of negative psychic energy. The Assassin may fire one blast for each force point used to power the Animus Speculum (using force points gained from the Force Matrix). Regardless of the number of force points the Culexus Assassin has, no more than three blasts may be fired in any one psychic phase. Roll to hit for each blast separately, using the Culexus Assassin's BS, just like a normal shooting attack. The Culexus Assassin may fire blasts while in hand-to-hand combat, but these must be fired against foes in base-to-base contact. Each blast may be fired at a different target as long as it is in the Assassin's arc of fire.

If a blast wounds a psyker then there is a chance that the blast willd estroy one of his powers. Both players should secretly roll a D6, and add as many force cards as they want to, the Culexus Assassin using points from his Force Matrix. Both players then reveal their score. If the psyker gets the higher score, or the result is a tie, then he has defended gimself against the Culexus Assassin. If the Culexus Assassin gets the higher score then he wins the psychic combat and the psyker must discard one of his powers, chosen at random.

The warp cards Reflection, Daemonic Attack and Destroy Power may not be used to stop the blasts and have no effect; a psyker may only attempt to nullify a blast fired directly at him. Each blast must be nullfied individually and counts as having the same mastery level as the psyker. This means that it will always be nullified on a D6 roll of 4 or more.

The effects of each blast are summarised below. 0-6 6-12 +2 -1 5 1 -3 D6+5

Weapon	Short Range	Long Range	To Hit Short	To Hit Long	Str.	Dam.	Sav.Mod	Armour Pene.	Special
Blast	0-12	12-24	+1	-	5	1	-5	2D6+5	Destroy's Psyker's Powers

PSYK-OUT GRENADES: Psyk-out Grenades are used exclusively by the Culexus temple and the Daemon Hunters of the Ordo Malleus. Each grenade is similar in design to a frag grenade, however it is laced with a highly dangerous substance that is only produced by the Golden Throne on Terra. The dust-like substance is heavily impregnated with negative psychic energy and is very rare. When some has been collected, the Imperium's finest armourers use the substance to make Psyk-out grenades and Psycannon rounds.

The grenade has a 2" blast marker; roll to hit and scatter as normal. The grenade detonates with the same effect as a frag grenade, resolve hits and wounds as normal. In addition, any psykers either wholly or partially under the blast marker will be affected by the negative psychic energy. The psyker may not use any of his powers for the rest of the turn. Any psychic powers that the psyker has in play at that moment are automatically nullified and any force cards stored in a force weapon or similar item must be discarded.

Str.	Dam.	Sav.Mod	Armour Pene.	Special
3	1	-1	N/A	Grenade, Psychic null-zone, 2" Blast Marker

Every time the Assassin uses a Psyke-out Grenade roll a D6. On a roll of 1 or 2 the grenades have run out and may not be used for the rest of the battle.