The Board Is Set: How to Play Assassination

Good morning gamers,

This is our second post in our review of scenarios from Pool 6 (and our penultimate post in this series - at least for singles Matched Play scenarios). Last time, we looked at a really cool scenario where both players are bluffing and trying to mask their plans from their opponent (usually). Today, we're looking at a scenario that could be seen as having more or less bluffing going on, depending on who you are and what you're running: Assassination.

As we've done with all the posts in this series, we'll start off with a brief overview of the pool (but if you read this before in a different article, you can click here to skip it).

Pool 6: Killing Enemy Heroes

We've seen four scenario pools that ultimately come down to being able to get somewhere (whether that's with maelstrom deployments in Pool 1, holding multiple objective markers in Pool 2, getting to different objects in Pool 3, or starting from a corner/walking onto a board in Pool 5). We've also seen one pool that's all about killing more of the enemy than you lose in Pool 4 (which could be limited to kills by your army leader or just mass killing with your army).

Pool 6 is more like Pool 4 in that it's about killing things - but how many enemy models total you kill is usually not weighted as strongly as being able to kill enemy heroes (either one specific hero or all enemy heroes). Since heroes are generally speaking better than warriors, killing enemy heroes in Pool 6 requires some planning in the list building stage in order to avoid a "no win" scenario.

Two of the three scenarios in Pool 6 involve secretly picking an enemy hero that you want to kill - and unless your opponent has exactly one hero in their force, you'll need to pick a hero who isn't the army leader. In the third scenario, you get VPs for having at least one hero alive but additional VPs if you have at least one hero alive and you killed more enemy heroes than your opponent killed (or all enemy heroes). Lists that are good at killing enemy heroes have an advantage in these scenarios.

This leads to my first conclusion about these scenarios: as fun as they are, these scenarios are not good at low points levels. If you're playing below 700pts, chances are good you might very well have 1-2 heroes in your army - and if you only have 1-2 heroes, then the hero your opponent is trying to kill is not going to be a surprise. If you're playing at 500pts and below, you could have a really, REALLY expensive Hero of Legend who is your only hero . . . and if that's the case, your opponent has to try to wound/kill this hero in order to score VPs . . . and this too is not going to be a surprise. If your objective as a Tournament Organizer is to avoid unfun match-ups, I'd highly recommend that this pool be avoided at points levels below 700, where most factions can get 3+ heroes (but more on this later in the strategy section).

The other thing to know about these scenarios is that most of the other points available to both players are tied to breaking the enemy without being broken. In the scenarios in this pool, anywhere from 6-12 VPs (or half-to-all) are tied to wounding/killing a specific hero, wounding/killing the enemy army leader, or breaking the enemy without being broken - so in some respects, killing enemy models is even more important in this scenario than in the Pool 4 scenarios. While there can be other factors in play, you need to be able to kill both heroes and warriors in order to do well in these scenarios.

Finally, Pool 6 involves a lot of cunning - players have to secretly select heroes to kill (and in one of those, a hero to keep alive) and this is done after deployment but before the first turn. The secrecy of these objectives not only makes the game fun (since you don't know if a hero that you wounded was the hero your opponent was trying to keep safe - and your opponent doesn't know if the hero you just wounded was the hero you were trying to kill). The scenarios are great - and this pool is often one of the most loved scenario pools in the game. While there are certainly places for strategy once you're at the table, there are also a LOT of strategic choices that can be made in the list building stage of the game (which we'll talk about in the strategies section).

Last time, we looked at Fog of War (which is an intense game of bluffing) and today we're going to look at a similar style of game with some very key changes: Assassination.

Assassination

In Fog of War, both players pick a friendly hero to keep alive and an enemy hero to kill. In Assassination, we'll be picking two heroes as well - a friendly hero will be our "assassin" and an enemy hero will be our "target." Unless you only have one hero, your assassin cannot be your army leader - and similarly, unless your opponent only has one hero, your target cannot be your opponent's army leader.

Up to 7 VPs are up for grabs based on who your target and your assassin is: if you wound the target (but don't kill the target) with a model that isn't your assassin, you get 1 VP. If your assassin wounds (but doesn't kill) the target, you instead get 3 VPs. If you kill the target with anyone who isn't your assassin, you instead get 5 VPs. Finally, if your assassin is able to kill the target (dealing the final blow, not ALL the wounds), you get 7 VPs.

The remaining VPs are split between breaking the enemy without being broken (1-3 VPs) and wounding/killing the enemy army leader (1-2 VPs). This means that this scenario is about killing lots of models, but especially 1-2 of the enemy heroes. Let's see how this changes things from Fog of War.

First off, up to 3 VPs in Fog of War are tied to getting somewhere or keep someone safe - or put differently, there's an incentive in Fog of War to split up your army (at least a small part of your army). In Assassination . . . there isn't an incentive. In fact, splitting up your army is really only a good idea if you're trying to keep a model that you know (or are pretty sure) is the target of the enemy away from danger. In all other circumstance, you want to circle up, fight together, and hold out against the enemy.

The second key difference is that in Fog of War, it didn't matter how you killed the targeted enemy hero - you got 1-3 VPs regardless of who does the damage. In a way, Assassination is like this but better - you can get 1 or 5 VPs for wounding/killing the enemy hero with anyone except one model (your assassin). Where the two scenarios depart is that if your assassin model deals a wound or the finishing blow - then you get 3 or 7 VPs instead. In Assassination, who deals wounds when matters a lot.

The third key difference is that your army leader can cough up VPs in Assassination. If you can't get to your target hero, you can focus on wounding/killing the enemy army leader and scoring some VPs there. Also, if your opponent did that sneaky thing where they only took one hero, getting a wound on the enemy army leader will score you 2 VPs or 4 VPs, while killing the army leader will score you 8 VPs or 10 VPs . . . pretty slick.

Fourth, you can deploy on the centerline in this scenario. While there was a 24" gap between the enemy deployment zones in Fog of War (which necessitates a walking trip for everyone), Assassination allows both armies to start right up in each other's grills if they want to - and that could also mean that an assassin starts right across from the intended target . . . things could get interesting (or boring, depending on your perspective) really fast . . .

Fifth, while Fog of War ends randomly after one side breaks (which is to say "it could end right away" or "it could never, ever, ever end"), Assassination ends after one side is quartered - which means if you don't control how quickly you kill the enemy army (or how quickly they run), the game could end before you can get the VPs you want. So . . . be careful . . .

Finally, while breaking the enemy does give you VPs, breaking the enemy is not worth nearly as much in Assassination as it is in Fog of War. With everything in Fog of War giving you 1-3 VPs, breaking the enemy was an essential part of the scenario - but you can make up for being broken without breaking the enemy just by doing something with your assassin (or getting to the enemy army leader). While it's nice to have 1-3 extra VPs, you don't have to get these VPs in the same way as you probably do in Fog of War.

Okay, so let's talk strategies - and our first one is going to look like deja vu a little . . .

Strategy #1: One Big Hero

Do you remember how one-sided a game of Fog of War could be when you only had one big hero? Well, the same is true of Assassination - because that big beatstick of an army leader will be your assassin AND your opponent's target. Yes, coughing up 1-3 VPs is definitely possible (and that's really 2-4 VPs because the hero is your army leader as well), but your chance of getting 3-7 VPs is REALLY high if you've got a hero like Sauron who can reach out and touch an enemy model with Chill Soul from 18" away - or if you can fly with Smaug and light people up with fire.

It can also really complicate your opponent's plans - if the plan was, "Use Legolas to get in a cheeky wound quickly" and the target of that plan is Sauron . . . I mean, that's a tough ask, right? I say this knowing full well that I won a game of Assassination against my son's Sauron with Legolas - but I only won 4-0 because I kept Sauron from casting Chill Soul on Pippin (who gets 3 free dice to resist magical powers in the Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion - and can borrow Boromir's Might to make them work), scoring 3 wounds on him with Legolas and quartering the Barad-Dur army. I was pretty pleased with it - but a 4-0 win doesn't feel as good as a 10-1 win (which is what Sauron can usually get).

A second approach to this scenario is easier to get for most armies (but still a little restrictive) . . .

Strategy #2: Punchy Hero + Caster

There are tons of budget punchy heroes in this game - basically any Isengard, Rohan, Mordor, or Dwarf named hero qualifies as a "punchy hero" and they can certainly get the damage output that you need to score at least one (if not several) wounds. If you have any of these punchy heroes (as the assassin) go up against another punchy hero (as the target), you should be prepared for a rough fight that trades blows back and forth.

But you can change the outcome dramatically if there's a spellcaster present - especially one that can keep the target from calling Heroic Actions/making Strikes (Immobilize et. al., Paralyze, and to a lesser degree, any spell that knocks someone Prone) or dealing a quick pip of damage to soften up the hero before your assassin arrives (and score you a quick 1-3 VPs in the process).

Casters have always been a great asymmetric tool to deal with enemy heroes, especially those budget heroes who are likely not the army leader and have 0-1 Will points. Immobilize or Transfix are staples of most caster models and the spell is usually cast on a 2+ or a 3+, which means you can reliably cast it successfully on 1-2 dice. Forcing your opponent to spend resources (Will usually, sometimes Might as well) on stopping this spell makes them more vulnerable to your budget assassin AND makes your opponent more cautious if the hero is your opponent's assassin. All in all, it's just a good thing to have.

But you also need that punchy hero of your own - and that hero doesn't have to be a budget hero necessarily. If you're running a Minas Tirith list and you took Denethor as your army leader, you probably brought Boromir or maybe an allied Imrahil in your list who can be your assassin - and while that might be telegraphed right away to your opponent, you can also use that big hero to focus on breaking the enemy at first and settling for 1 or 5 VPs by using another hero to supplement (like Hurin - or maybe you use Forlong to be your beat stick alongside someone like Gandalf, who is also a caster).

Whatever the strategy is, your plan is to neutralize the enemy hero (maybe even draw them closer to your assassin with Compel) and set up the play easily for whoever your assassin is. It helps if the assassin is big, but if magic is involved, having a hero who is "big enough" is usually pretty easy.

Our final strategy is, perhaps, the most generic of our options - and it's also the most risky . . .

Strategy #3: Hide Potential Targets And Settle for Five VPs

Assassination awards 7 VPs if you can get your assassin to kill your target . . . and if you're trying to do this with archery, magic, or even a big hero, your opponent can usually tell. If they have any say over where the target hero goes, they could just opt to get clear and escape the field - and if your big beatstick hero is off chasing someone around the board, you might be losing in other scoring categories (like army leader wounds or being broken). To avoid telegraphing your intentions to your opponent . . . you could just protect your non-army-leader heroes from any enemy heroes and settle for 5 VPs.

To do this, you'll need some help from your non-target units - your base warriors, warrior monsters, and your army leader. Perhaps the best examples of this kind of strategy are those one-hero lists that we looked at before - Sauron, the Balrog, etc., but also lists with mega-Boromir, most Aragorn lists, and Azog - lists where you know your big beater hero isn't going to be your assassin . . . but they're also the most likely unit to kill an enemy hero (and probably quickly). If you're throwing resources with someone who isn't your assassin at an enemy hero (who isn't their army leader), your opponent might think, "Oh, this must not be his target." And then . . . you get 5 VPs - which is almost like getting 7 VPs, but just barely not as good.

If pursuing your target with not-your-assassin, killing the army leader, and breaking the enemy can be accomplished in this particular scenario, you're on track to get 8-10 VPs, which will require your opponent to kill his target with his assassin (or nix your army leader). If the hero/heroes who could be your opponent's target are all safely tucked away, playing support roles instead of up-in-your-face rolls, you can force your opponent into telling you his plans - or better yet, never having an opportunity to score the 7 VPs that can be claimed by the assassin. Oh, and since there's always a chance that your target is your opponent's assassin (and sometimes this will just be a known thing), killing off that hero as quickly as possible - using whatever means you have - could ensure an easy win.

Conclusion

Assassination is more of a bluffing/gambling game than Fog of War in some respects and is a really fun mental exercise. If you have thoughts for approaching this scenario, let us know in the comments below! Next time, we're looking at the odd-man-out in this Pool, where no bluffing is going on, but killing heroes is still very much the priority. Find out what there is to know about the notorious Clash by Moonlight scenario next time - and until then, happy hobbying!