Assassin effectiveness

[KroolDeath]

Hey guys,

Are Assassins effective right out of the gate or do they need magic items to be effective? In this case it was a Marignon Assassin against an Indy commander and when I went and viewed battle he just ran off the side of the screen without doing anything as if his Morale broke (and he is subsequently gone.

Note that I did not set any combat orders because I didn't realize it went into "combat mode".