Assassin’s Strike

By Luthor Harkon, in Dark Heresy Rules Questions

This talent describes that the character can move after engaging an opponent. Does it mean he can only move after charging/moving into combat (i.e. in the very same round) or is the character able to move in/after an ongoing melee as well?
Thanks in advance.

Hmm... I never really paid attention to that "when you engage an opponent" bit. I had read it that you could make that move whenever you made a successful melee attack against someone. This even meant that with multiple attacks you could, do this several times (of course this is limited to when you start in combat as otherwise you cannot make multiple attacks). However, after reading it more carefully when you drew that to my attention I am less sure.

Check the errata - you can only use it once per round.

The way we play it is essentially whenever you make a melee attack. (Engage in melee for us means "to be in melee range.")

Errata doesn't say anything about only using it once per round. You can only use it once per round in Deathwatch (and maybe Rogue Trader), but there is no comment made about assassin's strike in Dark Heresy's errata.

Personally I see no problem with multiple Assassin's Strike moves in a turn. You need to start off engaged with the enemy, and all the enemies you want to move on from need to be within 3-6 metres of each other. They also need to pass multiple Acrobatics tests. It is meant to be a "dervish of death" kind of talent with the assassin wheeling and leaping between enemies.

Personally I would limit Space Marines (and only Space Marines) to one Assassins Strike a turn, as they aren't quite as nimble as that.

borithan said:

Personally I see no problem with multiple Assassin's Strike moves in a turn.

If multiple uses of Assassin´s Strike are allowed a TWF-fighter can move faster while full attacking, than as if he´d only concentrate on making a Full Move.

Luthor Harkon said:

This talent describes that the character can move after engaging an opponent. Does it mean he can only move after charging/moving into combat (i.e. in the very same round) or is the character able to move in/after an ongoing melee as well?

Initially I interpreted "when you engage an enemy" as getting into melee range first too. Then I found several references using the same phrase like in "Ganging Up" (Outnumbering rules). And I decided that it would be pretty stupid to only outnumber if you and your allies had moved before.

Noctus said:

borithan said:

Personally I see no problem with multiple Assassin's Strike moves in a turn.

If multiple uses of Assassin´s Strike are allowed a TWF-fighter can move faster while full attacking, than as if he´d only concentrate on making a Full Move.

My mistake - I thought it was in the errata but I was mistaken and it's just something which changed with RT.

While I wouldn't want to just assume that RT, DW and BC are "errata" for DH, it is certainly useful to compare the different books. I have to assume that the change implemented in RT(and DW) was intended as a clarification/rebalancing. Regarding the fact that multiple AS "moves" can make you move faster than a full move, in some cases: I took that as a pretty good indication that it was a once/round Talent.

You can do what you want, of course, but I'm pretty sure the design intention was once per round. Either way, that's how we play it.

As I said, moving faster than a full move doesn't mean much. A full move is not running about, and is only rarely intended to be used as is for movement. It represents carefully moving about during combat, or a brisk walk in a non-combat situation. If you just want to get somewhere fast then you are meant to choose "Run". If you want to get somewhere nearby then use "Half Move" and do something else at the same time. Full Move is only going to be used 1) if something is too near for running, too far away for a half move and you need to get there this turn, which is a rare combination, aside from charging enemies, and we have "Charge" for that. 2) In combination with special abilities and actions that allow a "Full Move", like Tactical Advance, Hipshooter and the like. These similarly don't represent a headlong dash, but something more controlled.

Multiple Assassin's Strike, on the other hand, represents the assassin dashing between targets, slicing at them as they run past, or using cinematic acrobatic tricks to attack them on the move, such as leaping over them while hacking at them (or whatever). This is a "dance" of death, hewing people down without them slowing you down, like you get in some action films. I don't see any problem with this, particularly with Dark Heresy Assassins (I don't think multiple moves should be possible for Space Marines, as they simply are not that agile), especially as you need to start in melee combat with an enemy (I will accept it does get a little screwy with Death Cult Assassins in Ascension, but then Ascension is broken anyway) and you have to make 4 successive acrobatics checks to do so (and have 3 other talents to make use of it to this extent). A lot of the time an assassin won't want to take full advantage of it either (unless they are damaged already few targets will go down to one attack, so they might just want to stay with their current target for more than one attack to finish them off).