Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Clade Callidus Assassin

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️
2.5/5 stars. Rounded down. I want to like it more. 

Background.
The narrative is that this individual can be the cause of chaos and confusion on the battlefield thanks to the polymorphine potion. If you've ever played Dungeons and Dragons, then you'll know that this substance is the future equivalent of a polymorph self spell. The assassin then poses as enemy commanders (or similar) to sow said chaos. 

Strengths.
The polymorphine substance itself means that the assassin cannot be targeted by shooting, charges, or similar until he/she/it/they have shot. This is, of course, awesome! However, balance this up against the ranged template weapon and players will immediately want to use it. The syanptic disruptor removes all saves on a natural 6, which although unlikely, has a reasonable chance with a template. 

Similarly the phase sword also removes saves and damage mitigation. But it is only at S=3 - but notably has AP=1. 

What really stands out is the reign of confusion special rule that forces the enemy to re-roll a successful seize the initiative roll. This can be great, but let's be honest: the odds of this happening in the first place are not fantastic. 

Weaknesses.
Run around the board and use your phase sword until you are tempted to shoot at things? Sure. That'll work a little bit. But it isn't great since you want to be using your neural shredder template. 

What I do find interesting is the whole seize the initiative thing. Imagine a loyalist Alpha Legion recon rite of war combined with this. It could - potentially - be glorious, at the expense of making no friends. 

Builds.
There are no builds available to discuss here. I really like the Callidus, and wanted to give more stars out of five, but unfortunately not able on this occasion. Maybe on a good day I would give 3/5 stars?



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