Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Useful, if a bit points cost expensive.
Background.
These are the marksmen (and women) supreme. They position themselves with a good vantage point and then pick out their chosen target to be taken out at range. And that range is incredibly large.
Strengths.
BS=7 is incredibly strong here given that it offers a 2+ to hit at range, and a 5+ critical hit chance. And it is better than some Primarchs too.
The main weapon is the Exitus Rifle. This has a superlative range of 100 with S=7, ordnance on AP (which means AP=2 if you stay still, which you should be doing anyway) and 2 damage. It comes with precision at 2+ for your sniping needs too. My only complaint here is that it is only 1 shot which is a bit sad. But. It does interact with the Deadshot special rule nicely. As well as never making snap shots, the controlling player also ignores shrouded if they stay still, and gains access to a further rule of their choice: murderous (5+ and ignore Eternal Warrior), Shred at 5+, or Shock to provide pinning, suppressed. You're already getting pinning natively on the rifle, so I'd imagine shred and murderous are where you at at here.
The pistol side arm is 3 shots at S=6 with precision and a very tiny range. But this also interacts with Deadshot as well. So stay still and let them come to you. If needed, the assassin's blade is your melee weapon for breaching on a 6+. Let's hope it is not needed. I think the goal here has to be to set up on as tall of a terrain piece as you possibly can without wobbly model syndrome to command a view all around. Or hog a particular firing lane if all else fails.
The Vindicare can take out key elements of the opposition's armour if needed, ranging from sergeants, to other members of a squad who may hold valuable equipment. Hopefully this is a one-shot and done proposition. Of course, the temptation is to go for bigger game. But with 2 damage being caused, you need to think hard about your targets. Praetors can survive this. You might gamble on Deadshot's shred on 5+ to up the damage to 3, in which case you get critical hits as well. Hence you have the potential to cause 4 wounds if you're feeling good about rolling a 5+ per turn. That is certainly enough for most models short of Primarchs or lacking Eternal Warrior. But hey, no doubt the target has an invulnerable save to worry about too.
Weaknesses.
Their shots don't do anything about Invulnerable Saves. Hence you will probably eliminate targets on only every other turn more or less when combined with the 2+ to hit roll. The question then becomes if you can set up properly (with Infiltrate of 9) and make back your points cost during the game. I think you can, but you have to play aggressively and go for the big game short of Primarchs, or get rid of valuable asset or equipment holders. Three of them during the game, and you might make your points cost back.
Hence my overall view is that the points cost of the model versus abilities is good, but still a gamble - as are most things involving dice! But it is a powerful assassin and the ability to inflict pinning from superlative range can be game changing if used well. You just have to avoid getting charged or being in close combat. So set up in the highest place possible, or screened in the middle of a friendly and possibly mostly static bunch of squads to ablate anything incoming. All of this is an art form.
Regardless, the Vindicare, along with the Callidus, and the Adamus are my strong assassing recommendations for third edition. Largely thanks to the native AP=2.
Builds.
There are no builds to discuss.
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