Guest Editorial by the French Overlord: Accounts of Sisters of Battle … (With Grey Knight Allies)

Reecius

12 years ago

A guest editorial on Sisters in competitive play by the French Overlord.

This article below will cover why you should play Sisters of Battle, what you should expect and what are their strength and weakness. I guess I should introduce myself, people know me locally in the Pacific Northwest as Mikhail Lenin or the French Overlord and I have been playing Warhammer 40,000 for about 18 years ever since I was 9 years old but I have only begun my path to being a true competitive contender in the last 5-6 years. Over the half of the last decade I have played 7 different Competitive Armies to various Regional Tournaments (OFCC, TSHFT, Guardian Cup, etc…) but it wasn’t until 6th Edition landed that the stars were aligned for me to participate in one of the biggest Competitive Event in the USA for 40k, NOVA OPEN.

6th Edition was brand new and the field wasn’t quite settled on what was reliable and working. At the time I was still building up my Sister of Battles towards a 5th Edition set-up with mechanized DCA and Sister Units. Upon reading the changes to vehicles in 6th edition, I knew instantly that mechanized DCA that weren’t in an Assault Vehicle were just not as effective especially with the Power Weapon changes; the addition of First Blood meant that lines of Low AV tanks were too risky to give it up. The Army quickly morphed into a much more Infantry based army with 1 or 2 elements of mechanization, preferably only 1 which I had to deploy since it was much easier to hide 1 Rhino than several and the other sitting in reserve. The reason for at least 1 mech unit was for access to at least 1 searchlight that didn’t depend on my Exorcists firing in the dark first, to be able to reach out the relic first turn and to set up position on farther objectives and or gaining Line Breaker.

6th Edition list building became more of composing a symphony than a rap song that was 5th edition where you could “sample” (cut & paste) redundancy of units you knew were reliably effective such as a lot of cheap scoring mechanized units. I entered this phase with my Sisters unlike any of my previous armies where they would focus on a few aspect of the Meta and do them extremely well, this Sister’s list became about bringing a lot of precision tools and focusing on maximizing on the new winning conditions. The entrance of the Ally mechanic fit that philosophy perfectly as it allowed me to take even more tools that I might not have access to or even better altogether than the ones I have access to. This gave birth to the first iteration of my Sisters of Battle with Grey Knight Allies:

HQ:

Saint Celestine – Warlord

Coteaz

Troops:

Sisters of Battle Squad – 10x – Meltagun, Multimelta, Combi-Plasma

Sisters of Battle Squad – 10x – 2x Meltaguns, Combi-Melta

-Rhino – 1x – Searchlight

Henchmen Warband – 5x Acolytes w/ Bolters, 2x Jokaero

Fast Attack:

Seraphim Squad – 10x – 4 Hand Flamers, 1 Eviscerator

Dominion Squad – 10x – 4 Flamers

-Rhino – 1x – Searchlight

Heavy Support:

Retributors – 5x – 4 Heavy Bolters

Exorcist – Searchlight

Dreadknight – Nemesis Greatsword, Nemesis Doomfist, Heavy Incinerator, Personal Teleporter

Fortification:

Bastion – Icarus Lascannon

Total – 2,000 Pts

You will probably notice the list is nothing special and in fact my first reaction after pulling out the models for the first time that this list looks like a hodgepodge of a lot of units but each choice was picked for a specific reason and let delve into these decisions:

• Why Sisters of Battle? 6th Edition has made Foot Infantry a lot lucrative than just sticking them into a Vehicle platform and the benefit of Sisters of Battle units is that they are essentially Marines with WS3, T3, I3 and no ATSKNF but retain a 3+ save, gain a 6++ save, are cheaper than a Marine with essentially the same shooting wargear but are in fact better at shooting due to the multiplicative effect of their Acts of Faith. (Think of Acts of Faith like an Order that passes on a specific dice roll)
• Why Grey Knight Allies? Essentially for the Unit Access the GK codex allows that I will discuss below.
• Saint Celestine? 6th Edition has made this HQ even more ridiculous than 5th edition. For a whopping 115 Points, you gain a Fearless, 2+/4++, Jump Infantry Independent Character that has a monster Statline (WS7,I7,A5), a Power Sword that will wound at the worse on a 4+ and fires as a Heavy Flamer. But what you really pay for her is what the special rules she has called Miraculous Intervention where after she dies, on your next turn, she will stand back up from the spot she died on a roll of 4+ with D3 wounds and acts normally if the roll is failed you get to try again later turns or until the game ends. To receive First Blood or Slay the Warlord you would need her to be “Napping” at the end of the game from her. Going Second with Saint Celestine can be a major headache for your opponents as she can easily get back up on the last turn, zoom to get Line Breaker or contest an objective or worse score an objective with the Warlord Trait. She usually rides with the Seraphim as she grants them Fearless, +1 on the Faith Check Roll and they grant her Hit&Run (At her Iniative of 7).
• Coteaz? 6th edition introduced new Psychic Powers specifically Divination which Coteaz has access to with 2 rolls on the table and is Mastery Level 2. This makes the already cheap great HQ even better from the perspective of how I set him up. Essentially I am looking for 2 Powers, Prescience and Perfect Timing (Misfortune being a close third). Prescience giving me the ability to re-roll to hit with Shooting or Close Combat and Perfect Timing granting him and his unit Ignore Cover. He exponentially makes that Henchmen Warband unit a great shooting platform while having the best vantage point of the army, the top of the Bastion. Coteaz manning the Icarus Lascannon would make the total Lascannon shots come to 4, and in addition Perfect Timing that unit is essentially death to Vehicle and Flyers even. Coteaz also allows me to negate some of the effects of Seize the Iniative with his special rule “Spy Network” and also provides great defensive bubble from Drop Pod Armies or Daemons with his special rule “I’ve been expecting you.”
• The Sisters of Battle Squads? These units are the only option for troops available from the SoB mini-Dex and while not really price optimize they are still cheaper than Marines and have similar firepower until you take into account their Faith Power. Their Act of Faith, “Light of the Emperor”, can be used once in three different phase of your turn; the first being the Movement Phase which allows the unit to automatically rally ignoring any restrictions; the second and third in the Shooting Phase and Close Combat Phase allowing them to Re-Roll any rolls of 1 to hit. This essentially makes them a bit more effective than Marines in Shooting and now that they can shoot at 24” while moving makes them decent but by no account amazing. (You can also take unit size up to 20)
• The Henchmen Warband? This unit is set-up as a great firebase for the top of the Bastion and the extra additional benefit from rolling on the Jokaero Table is a nice addition such as Rending, or the 5+ invulnerable. They can also disembark from the Bastion from the top floor through the Bastion door in 1 turn and thus making them great if I need to claim an objective near by.
• The Seraphim Squad? This unit is actually one of my favorite for many reasons. They have 2 Bolt Pistols or 2 Hand Flamers (on 2 Models) and an Eviscerator. They are babysat by the Saint and thus gain Fearless but they also have Hit & Run which now runs off the highest Initiative of the unit. Their act of Faith is called “The Emperor’s Deliverance” and it allows them to re-roll to wound from shooting essentially making Celestine’s Heavy Flamer and all those Hand Flamers quite effective. They are one of the unit that is quite reliable at getting their act of Faith off as they benefit from this rule called “Angelic Visage” allowing them to re-roll the check to see if they pass their Act of Faith. (It also allows them to re-roll their 6++ save). They make a remarkably great unit to tag along with the Saint, especially with all those Walls of Death rolls when they get charges.
• The Dominion Squad? This unit has a lot of options for gameplay as it benefits from Scout (and thus Outflank) and I decided to gear mine for anti-infantry for their flamers benefit the most out of their Act of Faith called “Holy Fusillade” as it makes their weapons Twin-Linked and thus Re-Roll to wound for their Flamers. The best setup I have seen them used is a 5 Dominion strong unit with 2 Flamers and a Combi-Melta in an Immolator with a Twin-Linked Multi-Melta but my reasons against it was because of the Scouring which essentially makes that unit more of a liability than a good one as both the unit and the vehicle are worth a Victory Point each.
• The Retributor Squad? This unit is perfect for deploying inside the Bastion as the 4 Heavy Bolter Sisters can man the 4 fire points on the mid-section and the sergeant on one of the emplaced Heavy Bolter (which now has Precision Strike). Their Act of Faith is called “Divine Guidance” and grants them Rending for the shooting phase (even the emplaced Heavy Bolters being operated by Retributors.)
• The Exorcists? Aside from their amazing weapon (48” Str 8 AP 1 D6 Shots), they have a predator chassis (13/12/10) and benefit from a 6++ save making them quite a deal for 135 points.
• The Dreadknight? This is one expensive guy and thus far he has not disappointed and while I would never consider running him in any of Grey Knight list, he was perfect for my Sister army. He function as a great support unit for the Seraphims or is great at putting pressure on my opponent on turn 1 letting the rest of the army who is walking get into better position.
• The Bastion? It probably become self-apparent in the previous unit choice why I chose a Bastion but why a Bastion over an Aegis Defense Line. Really it comes down to the fact that the Bastion provide the units inside a much better vantage point for shooting to maximize on things like Focus Fire and it is much harder for my opponent to use the Bastion in his favor than the Aegis Defense Line.

Well you are probably tired at this point of reading about the army and hear perhaps some tales about it performed at NOVA OPEN. First, I would like to point out that I made it all the way to the Semi-Finals and played Tony Kopach for my last game. The reason you never saw me under the streaming video was because at the time my army was not fully painted, it was in fact about 70% painted and the two reasons I took it to NOVA was because it felt like my most competitive army for 6th Edition (at least it was the more reliable ones in all the play testing) and there was nothing in the pamphlet that mentioned anything about being painted.

Mike Brandt told me the night before the Semi-Finals that he couldn’t let a non-fully painted army win NOVA and thus either I could let the person ranked under me advance or play the Semi-Final game knowing that no matter the result, my opponent would advance. Being a TO myself, I understood Mike’s decision very well and he apologized because he was fully aware that they didn’t set this criteria first hand. I told him that I flew across the country to play new and the best players NOVA could offer and I would prefer to play the game. I was just excited to know that I made it this far. It was a dream come true for me when I found out I was playing Tony Kopach that morning, a chance to test myself against him, the NOVA Laureate. I ended losing that game by a very small margin (Time mostly) and I think Tony learned a lot that day in regards to Sisters. Here is a breakdown of what I played at NOVA and some quick commentary:

1. Draigowing – Paladins do not like Exorcists or the amount of sheer range anti-infantry the army put out. This was a very 1 sided game in my favor. Unfortunately my opponent already surrendered to the hopeless after the third turn and I could feel continuing the game was annoying him but I tried my best to be a gentleman about it.
2. Mech Grey Knight with IG Allies – The Dreadknight shunted into a Ruin in my opponent table half and I had the Stealth for my entire Army Warlord Trait. It took his army 2 turns of consecutive firing into him to kill it while losing a lot of vehicles to the rest of the army. Vendettas were shot out of the Air by Coteaz. My opponent was a great sportman and we had a very enjoyable game.
3. Drop Pod Vanilla Marines with IG Allies – Coteaz’s “I’ve Been expecting you” prevented his Pods from landing in good positions in my table half and thus were now losing a Shooting war with my army. Also Celestine got back up 4 times and was able to flame out most of his De-Mech IG. Vendetta again shot out of the Air by Coteaz. We had a stellar time playing and he was a true gentleman in regards to how annoying Celestine can be.
4. Drop Pod Vanilla Marine with Drop Pod Blood Angels (40 Sternguard) – The initial Landing was not terrible as Coteaz’s shooting was not very effective when they landed but the Dreadknight + Seraphim + Celetine quickly cleaned the LZ leaving me most of the rest of the game hunting down his remaining troops. Very fun opponent and was a nailbiter.
5. Necron with Ork Allies – This was another example of the Dreadknight being unstoppable due to lack of AP2 or 1 weapons in shooting combined with a lot of range anti-infantry. Coteaz was not very successful at shooting flyers that game and it was a great close game.
6. Blood Angels with Space Wolf Allies – This game was actually extremely close mostly due to a mistake I made with my deployment and some bad luck on my part during turn 1 which me and my opponent trade after turn 3.
7. Space Wolf with IG Allies – Tony Kopach finally. I made 1 huge error in my first turn which echoed throughout the game and that was shunting my Dreadknight to snipe off his Platoon Command Squad to prevent them gaining “first and second rank fire”. Sacrificing him to the sheer amount of Plasmaguns near him. Other than that my first turn saw me take out roughly 30 Guardsmen out of his blob from the Dominion Scouting forward and flaming his Blob as well as the Retributors focus firing on the left over the unit out of cover. Had we enough time to start our turn 6, I believe I could have pulled a win over him but it would have been meaningless from the purpose of advancing. I had a lot of fun playing Tony and I was happy of how far I got.

I enjoyed all my games at NOVA and had a blast but like every event I attend I leave with notions of what I needed to change and some recommendation for the Organizer. I have since adjusted my List to reflect the changes I feel needed to be done after my experience at NOVA and next year I intend to be back and fully painted! And hopefully next year I will get to play Tony again and all my previous opponents. My personal highlights that weekend was having a few gentlemen tell me that I re-spark their interest in playing Sisters of Battle again and hearing my opponents coming to support me in later games.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I would like to thank the Pacific Northwest Gaming Groups: Ordo Fanaticus, Guardian 40k Players, Team BIO, TSHFT, Drunken Mamma’s Boyz and the Bellingham Warhamsters.

I leave you with my current list which recently took TSHFT Champion and what I am planning on take to BAO (Minus 250 points).

HQ:

Saint Celestine – Warlord

Coteaz

Elites:

Vindicare Assasin

Troops:

Sisters of Battle Squad – 10x – Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Combi-Plasma

Henchman Warband – 3x Servitors with 2 Heavy Bolters, 1 Plasma Cannon and 2x Jokaero

Grey Knight Strike Squad – 10x – 2 Psycannons, Nemesis Daemonhammer, Psybolt Ammo

– Rhino – Searchlight