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Khainite Assassins Teams

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Neophytes

Assassins

Shadow Blade

Executioner


Famous Teams
Albion Assassins and Khains Killers first mentioned in 2nd edition. Kelethrai Executioners, first mentioned in 2016 edition Spike Magazine 2.

Background
Assassins grew increasingly unhappy with their standing in Bloodbowl. At one time hiring assassins to kill opposing teams' best players was common place, but after the collapse of the NAF this practice died out. Similarly - their services were rarely called upon in Dark Elf teams and they were increasingly gaining a reputation as luxury players that most teams could not afford. Matters were made even worse when Witch Elf teams started playing gaining Khaines favour as the most brutal, bloody Dark Elf teams to play the sport. Disgruntled, Khainite Assassins started to create their own teams, with Assassins playing a key role front and centre. They also recruited the greatest Khainite Assassins - the Shadowblades from Hag Graef, but this still wasn't enough to truly appease Khaines thirst for blood. Assassin teams wanted to be the most violent of all Dark Elf teams and the greatest tribute to their god. So they recruited the assistance of heavily armoured Dark Elf warriors who have become known as Executioners. Their name bestowed upon them from their tenancy to saw off opposing players heads with unnerving accuracy.

Rationale
Assassins teams were created for a few reasons. First of all there is a famous Dark Elf team known as Albion Assassins, but also because there are Assassin positionals in the Dark Elf teams that rarely get any use despite being pretty central to Dark Elf thematics. Even in 2nd edition blood bowl in which you could hire assassins to kill opposing players.

The basic premise of the design was to make a team based around assassins background material. So first of all using the existing positional made sense. We decided to keep this as a 0-4 player rather than 0-6 as Shadowblades are the most elite assassins in Dark Elf lore so we added them as a 0-2 making them slightly quicker and more skilled (Dodge). The linemen we made assassins in training. Their collective name is never given in Dark Elf fluff, but I felt Neophytes was a suitable dark sounding and fitting name. Neophyte meaning - a person who is new to a subject or activity, or - a new convert to a religion. This player type is based on Dark Elf lore in which it is said - on Death Night Children are stolen, most of the boys are thrown in the boiling Cauldron of Blood, any survivors are trained by the witch elves to become assassins. These trainees are blindfolded throughout their training until their skills have reached a sufficient level, so they can operate in complete darkness. We have given them shadowing to show they are assassins in training, but they have no yet been given knives, which they would only be given once their training is complete.

The eagle eyed may have noticed that Assassins in this team are 10k cheaper than normal, this was done after play testing for balance reasons. At their existing price it was just better to leave the player off the roster which should not be the case for an assassin centric themed team.

Season 2 Changes
New team to Season2.

Season 3 Changes
196 games played this year with Khanite Assassins, with a win percentage of 59.6% which is a little higher than I would like, as it puts them right at the top of tier zero, with the likes of Wood Elves. There were two big issues that stood out when using this team. The main one was that they were too big a hard counter for agile teams, mass Shadowing though useless against some teams made games against agile teams something of a walk over. Especially games against Kurnous. So Shadowing was removed from the linemen, which still leaves the team with potentially 6 Shadowing players on the pitch. The players cost was reduced by 10k as a result. The other issues was Shadowblades felt a little too easy to hurt, so they have received an Av increase to 8 and a price increase. These changes just give the roster greater balance within its self and its environment.

Team design by Autoaxpert, Calthor and Garion
Background and rationale by Garion
Icons by Whatball and Autoaxpert
Player artwork by Knut Rockie and Internetkraken and coloured by Internetkraken and Garion