Unit Profile: Kayazy Assassins

Widely regarded as the ugliest Warmahordes models available (although the Nyss hunters are pretty close), this unit is capable of more than compensating for this when they hit the table top. This tricky unit is capable of taking on most threats in the game and dealing some serious damage in a single activation.

Taking a look at their stats, the SPD is average for warrior models, a MAT equal to that of Doom Reavers, and a good DEF to boot, however it's worth keeping in mind that their CMD is relatively low, meaning that if the Kayazy have to make a CMD check they aren't as likely to stick around and they are limited as to how far they can spread out, making that CMD check a big threat if your opponent hits you. For this reason I'd recommend taking the Kayazy Underboss UA as he brings a great deal that makes this great unit, brilliant.


Each Kayazy comes with an Assassin blade, average P + S for a melee weapon, but then the Kayazy's abilities kick in. Firstly they come with Stealth, giving them a greater chance of getting across the board, but be mindful of blasts and sprays, they have a nasty tendency of killing off your squad relatively quickly if your opponent gets some lucky scatter, or just ignores Stealth. Next we have Backstab, a very straight forward assassin like ability giving an extra damage dice when the Kayazy starts it activation in the back arc of the model it's attacking, essentially making Back Strikes into free strikes and making Free Strikes utterly hideous if your opponent is forced to move a model away from these guys in it's back arc. The theres gang, esssentially alternative form of CMA, when two or more Assassins are attacking the same target attacking Assassins gain +2 to hit and damage rolls, combining this with Backstab and you're suddenly looking at +4 to hit on Free Strikes or Back Strikes, when two or more Assassins are in melee range and a potential 3 - 8 extra damage, in a word, nice. The cherry on top of the cake comes in the form of Parry, your opponent throws a tarpit unit at your assassins and then come your turn the Kayazy walk out of combat without free strikes.

With all these abilites you are looking at a unit that wants to be in melee and fast, as when your opponent can shoot them without having to worry about hitting their own models they will be flinging everything they can at them unless they have a way to get around their DEF (i.e. pKreoss or eKreoss' feats or other high MAT infantry). These guys are fragile as twigs so even a deviated AoE can kill, meaning it's essential to spread them out. Also it's worth keeping in mind that whilst this unit is great in melee it's not a front line unit, it's designed to pick a fight and then move on to the next, to put it simply this is a unit of skirmishers, they work best when your opponent has some other unit(s) jamming their units that can deal with this unit while the assassins wreak havoc on the rest of their army, with the potential to threaten the opponent's caster realtively quickly.

In terms of synergy, Kayazy work brilliantly with either Irusk (pIrusk, brings Battlle Lust, eIrusk, has his Martial Discipline), either Butcher also works (pButcher, with his Iron Flesh, Fury combo, eButcher with his feat allowing a second activation), I could keep on with the list, but I'll just leave it at this, the Kayazy have the capacity to work well with alot of our casters, only thing is they need support and certain casters don't have the anyway of making the best of those supporting units, such as Iron Fangs (or even better the Black Dragons). One idea I'm currently working on is an army with two Doom Reaver squads sandwiching a max Kayazy squad + UA as it provides three 'Bricks' (tough hard hitting units) that your opponent has to deal with and even if they do the rest of the army then gets to the front lines as you have to pay attention to that front line of mad weapon masters and slippery stealthed assassins. The list needs some play testing which I'll try to put up in battle reports on here (once my Iron Fangs I ordered arrive), but thats just one exaple of they can work in an army. One final word on the Kayazy, when you have a choice of fielding the unit with or with out the UA, always, always take the UA he brings too much to the unit not to field him.