The Count was very pleased with himself. Everything worked as planned. His trade connections were established now and no one could resist him anymore. The Guild Master, Markuss, still could… at least in principle. But a visit late at night, after the ball, would make sure no opposition would be raised. A soft scraping made the count aware his was no longer alone on the high balcony. He dropped his goblet and at the same time he ran his rapier through the throat of his assailant. The blood from the goblet slowly mixed with that of the rat like assassin. “Skaven scum”, the count muttered. “You do not know what you got yourselves into!”

A grin showed off the count’s fangs and in one lightning fast move he cut down another black clad Skaven. Then his eyes started to sting and slowly a mist formed around him. As his skin blistered and he cried in pain, several other dark figures attacked. The count managed to kill another attacker but they were just too many and to swift. Two stakes hit his heart at the same time, one from the back and one from the front.

Earslicer recalled his assassins. They disappeared in the night. Before he left, Earslicer thanked the Horned One, the spray with holy water worked marvelously. But there still was the second contract; the night was not over yet. He turned around and looked over the city; trying to discern the next target. There it was the house of the Guild Master…

These elite groups gain access to specialized weapons without restriction and are often used in dire situations. These groups are feared even within the Eshin ranks as they mean instant death if hey appear.

It is said that even chaos flinches when they arrive...

Choice of Warriors:

• Shadowblade: Your warband must include one Shadowblade! No more, no less!
• Silent Hunter: Your warband may include a single Silent Hunter.
• Black Knives: Your warband may include up to two Black Knives.
• Young snout: Your warband may include a single Young snout.
• Snipers: Your warband may include up to three Snipers
• Knives: Your warband may include any number of Knives
  

Special Rules:

• Look Behind You!: Assassin warband members (but not hired swords) are adept at ambushes and evasion. Subtract 1 from the initiative, down to a minimum of 1, of a model attempting to spot a hidden Assassin warband member.
• The Boss: The leader of the assassin squad is often the meanest and worse from the lot. He rules with an iron fist, causing fear and promising a share of the loot. The warband leader always must cause Fear (if possible). This means that if the leader dies and a successor is needed, you first choose between the heroes that are horribly scarred, or are fearsome. If that is not possible you choose like normal, but the new “leader” must get the fearsome skill as soon as he gets a skill-advance. This automatically disqualifies all heroes with no strength skills.
  

Starting Experience:

• A Shadowblade starts with 20 experience.
• A Silent Hunter starts with 12 experience.
• A Black Knife starts with 8 experience.
• A Young Snout starts with 0 experience.
• All henchmen start with 0 experience.
  

Assassin Skill Tables

• Shadowblade may choose from the Combat, Shooting, Strength, Academic, Speed or Special Skills.
• Silent Hunter may choose from the Combat, Shooting, Strength, Speed or Special Skills.
• Black Knives may choose from the Combat, Strength, Speed or Special Skills.
• Young Snouts may choose from the Combat, Shooting, Speed or Special Skills.
  

Assassin Equipment List

Heroes

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
6	4	4	4	3	1	5	1	7

Weapons/Armor: A Shadowblade may be equipped from the Assassin equipment list.

Special Rules:

• Leader: Any warrior within 6” of the Shadowblade may use his Leadership value when taking Leadership tests.
• Fear: the warband leader causes fear.
• Perfect Killer: His skill with weapons allows the assassin to find even the tiniest wholes in an opponent’s armor. This allows an extra -1 on armor saves, even with missile weapons.
• Vanish Into the Shadows: The Shadowblades seem to have the uncanny skill to just disappear into the shadows, especially when their life is in danger. A Shadowblade may decide at the start of his combat round, if he is going to leave the battle at the end of that combat round. This means he makes a tactical retreat from the battle (so he is factually out of the game), with all consequences that come with it. This does not count as being Out Of Action, it does not matter if the character is Knocked Down.
  

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
6	4	3	4	3	1	5	2	6

Weapons/Armor: A Silent Hunter may be equipped from the Assassin equipment list.

Special Rules:

• Shadow Infiltration: As the infiltration skill, but he only has to stay out of hiding detection range. His believe in his skills makes him also immune to the al alone tests.
  

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
6	4	3	4	3	1	5	1	6

Weapons/Armor: A Black knife may be equipped from the Assassin equipment list.

0-1 Young Snout, 20 gold crowns to hire.
The hard life of an aspiring Assassin gives a fairly low life expectancy, and injuries respect neither youth nor innocence. It is common for Assassin leaders to groom promising youngsters, usually as scouts and trackers while they learn to handle themselves in combat.

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
6	2	3	3	3	1	4	1	5

Weapons/Armor: A Young Snout may be equipped from the Sniper equipment list.

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
5	2	4	3	3	1	4	1	5

Weapons/Armor: A Sniper may be equipped from the sniper equipment list.

Special Rules:

• Camouflage: A sniper can shoot from hiding, he can be detected if the intended victim is hit and then a 3+ is rolled on a D6.
  

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
5	4	3	3	3	1	4	1	5

Weapons/Armor: A Knife assassin may be equipped from the Assassin equipment list.

Special Rules:

• Dagger Specialist: Due to the training and availability of daggers, they are considered the weapon of choice. Any attack made by a dagger on a charge that misses may be re-rolled, second result stands.

Assassins' Special Equipment

Wyrd Blade; 15 gc; Availability: Common, Assassin Hero only.
This blade is made from a Wyrdstone and steel alloy, which slowly bleeds out a very corrosive liquid. Due to the slow bleeding most of the corrosive is gone after the initial blow. It allows the wielder to strike with +1S for the first round of combat. The blade still counts as a sword, so it confers a parry to the wielder.

Kill Knife; 15 gc; Availability: Common
These slender blades are used by skillful individuals to slip through armor and hit the opponent on a weak spot. This knife is +1 to injury rolls and ignores armor saves. Though to its small size it is treated like being at the users strength with a maximum of S4.

Body Amour; 15 gc; Availability: Common
This specialized armor covers all of the Skaven's (so not usable by other races) weak spots. It is especially developed from cloth to minimize noise. It offers a 6+ armor save with a re-roll once on failed saves.

Short Spear; 15 gc; Availability: Common
This is a much specialized Eshin weapon; it looks like a sword with a very log hilt. It can be wielded as a spear, or used as a sword. If used as a two handed weapon it confers first strike and parry. If used one handed it only confers the parry. It counts as a hand weapon in combination with a shield.

Assassin Bullets; 25 gc; Availability: Common
These are specially design sling bullets that wound better then normal stones. +1 to the injury roll.

Black Darts; 15 gc; Availability: Common
These small poisonous darts are coated in dark venom. They are small and have not that great an impact. But it makes them easy to throw, so often people do not see where it came from. S3 (S2 + dark venom, some creatures are immune to poison) Range 8”. Small projectile: as the dart is so small it can be thrown from hiding, the user will be detected if the victim is hit and rolls a 4+ on a D6. They can be combined with Knife Fighter. No extra poison may be used.

Assassins' Special Skills

• Silent Strike: As masters of camouflage the character is allowed to charge out of hiding and strike silently at his opponent and then he disappears into the shadows again. Roll a D6 on a 5+ the character is allowed to charge and attack. The opponent(s) may strike back. If uninjured, the character disappears to his original hiding place again. The distance from hiding place and back into hiding, may not exceed the characters maximum movement (2xM, or 3xM with sprint, thus if more them half of the movement is spent to charge, no hiding is possible anymore). If he fails the die roll he charges out and it is treated like a normal charge.
• Ultimate Kill: The assassin goes for the kill-spot, which is almost an assured one way trip to the grave yard. The character in hand to hand combat forgoes all extra HtH-attacks and concentrates on one very well placed attack. The attack will be +1 to hit, +1 to wound, +1 on the injury roll. This skill can only be used if the character has 2 or more attacks on his profile. Does not work together with Ultimate specialist or strike to injure. Does not work with black powder weapons.
• Master of Poisons: The assassin is a master in brewing up different poisons. If the hero does not search for rare items, he has the time to brew up 3D-1 portions of dark venom or black lotus. He can come up empty, but those are the hazards of trying these intricate things on the move. The portions are large enough for one weapon and need to be used for the next battle as they are less stable then normally purchased poisons.
• Shadow Defense: As it is considered bad form to get injured on an assignment there are special defensive moves that make an assassin even better in surviving. The character is allowed to parry, with re-roll, with any weapon he uses. If the weapon already has the ability to parry, it is allowed to parry with an equal or higher dice roll, which can also be re-rolled.
• Ultimate Specialist: These characters are so highly trained that they can use hand-to-hand weapons in a very efficient way. They gain +1WS and +1 on the injury roll. Does not work together with Ultimate Kill or Strike to Injure.
• Play Dead: Sometimes strange things happen when people have the misfortune of running into Skaven assassins. A clearly dead corpse is not there anymore after the fight is over, or dropped weapons or treasures have disappeared. As well as being taught to roll with the blows, these characters are taught to feign death. When avoiding the full effects of a potentially lethal blow they play dead so they can escape undetected later. The character may re-roll a result on the serious injury table. If the Shadowblade has this skill he is even allowed to use his Vanish Into the Shadows skill when he is Stunned. Or get back to his hiding place when using Silent Strike if he is Knocked Down.
• Infiltration: A Skaven with this skill is always placed on the battlefield after the opposing warband and can be placed anywhere on the table as long as it is out of sight of the opposing warband and more than 12" away from any enemy model. If both players have models which infiltrate, roll a D6 for each, and the lowest roll sets up first.

Warband Development Progression

Designer Notes