Master Assassin

A unit with this special rule may be held in reserve rather than be deployed at the start of the game. From the beginning of round two onwards, roll a D6 during each of your Start of Turn sub-phases for each unit of Ambushers in your army that is held in reserve.

On a roll of 1-3, the unit is delayed until your next turn at least.  On a roll of 4+, the unit arrives, entering the battle as reinforcements during the Compulsory Moves sub-phase. The unit may be placed on any edge of the battlefield, chosen by its controlling player, but cannot be placed within 8" of an enemy model. If any Ambushers are still held in reserve by the start of round five, they arrive automatically.

When a friendly unit of Night Runners or Gutter Runners with the Ambushers special rule arrives from reserve, it can be placed on the battlefield anywhere completely within 12" of a revealed Master Assassin, but not within 6" of any enemy models (rather than entering the battle as reinforcements). The unit cannot charge during this turn and counts as having moved for the purposes of shooting, but can otherwise act as normal. Note that this character cannot use this special rule whilst it remains hidden.

Once per turn, when a unit in which the majority of models have this special rule is declared the target during the enemy Shooting phase, it may choose to Fall Back in Good Order, fleeing directly away from the enemy unit shooting at it. Once this unit has completed its move, the enemy unit may continue with its shooting as declared.

If this unit chooses to Flee (or Fire & Flee) as a charge reaction, it automatically rallies at the end of its move.

If the majority of the models in a unit armed armed with missile weapons have this special rule, the unit may declare that it will ‘Fire & Flee’ as a charge reaction:

Fire & Flee: The unit launches a volley of weapons fire before turning to flee from the enemy. If a unit with this special rule is armed with missile weapons and can draw a line of sight to the charging unit, it may declare that it will Fire & Flee. The unit will Stand & Shoot before turning tail and fleeing from the charge. However, due to the time spent shooting at the charging foe, when making its Flee roll the unit rolls two D6 and discards the lowest result. If both dice roll the same result, discard either.

Note that, if the distance between this unit and the charging unit is less than the Movement characteristic of the charging unit, this unit must either Hold or Flee.

Master Assassins are not placed on the battlefield at the start of the game. Instead, they are ‘hidden’ within a friendly Skaven unit whose troop type is ‘infantry’ and that has a Unit Strength of ten or more. Make a note of which unit each Master Assassin is hiding within. A hidden Master Assassin may be revealed during any Start of Turn sub-phase or at the start of any Combat phase. Position the revealed Master Assassin as you would a character that has joined the unit.  If a unit in which a Master Assassin is hiding is destroyed or flees the battlefield before the Master Assassin is revealed, the Master Assassin is removed as a casualty. A Master Assassin cannot be your army General.

Models with this special rule do not suffer any modifiers to their Movement characteristic for moving through difficult or dangerous terrain. In addition, a model with this special rule may re-roll any rolls of 1 when making Dangerous Terrain tests.

If a model with Poisoned Attacks rolls a natural 6 when making a roll To Hit, it may apply a +2 modifier to that hit’s roll To Wound. Unless otherwise stated, a model with this special rule may use it when making both shooting and combat attacks. Any spells cast by the model are unaffected, as are any attacks made with magic weapons. Note that if an attack needs a To Hit roll of 7+, or hits automatically, this special rule cannot be used.

Models with this special rule have a +1 modifier to the result of any Flee roll they make.

A model with this special rule may voluntarily ‘retire’ (“Too Many Characters,” Rulebook, p.209) during the Combat Phase. In order to do so the model must: • Be joined to a unit that has a Unit Strength of 10 or more.  • Not be part of a Challenge.  • Not be subject to “Nowhere to Run” (Rulebook, p.211).  • Be able to be placed inside the unit outside of all fighting ranks. • Do so before any attacks are allocated and resolved for the current initiative step of a combat that they are in.  Should a model ‘retire’ in this way the unit may still use this character's Leadership. All other restrictions for retiring apply.

In subsequent turns, if this model’s unit remains engaged in combat with the same enemy unit, a model with this rule may move through the ranks and join any fighting rank before challenges are issued during step 1.1 of the “Choose Combat & Fight Phase” (“Characters in Combat,” Rulebook p.209.) 

If at any time there is nowhere to place a ‘retired’ model outside of a fighting rank they must immediately move through the ranks and take a position in the front row of a fighting rank. They may not make any attacks in this round of combat but they may have attacks directed against them.

A hand weapon carried by a model with this special rule has the Magical Attacks special rule and an Armour Piercing characteristic of -1.

Note that this special rule only applies to a single, ordinary hand weapon. If the model is using two hand weapons or any other sort of weapon, this special rule ceases to apply.

During the Combat phase, a model with this special rule that is engaged in combat improves its Initiative characteristic to 10 (before any other modifiers are applied). If a model has both this rule and Strike Last, the two rules cancel one another out.

This model has a 5+ Ward Save.