Email in: Sisters of Battle at 1500

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Email in: Sisters of Battle at 1500

Posted by Unknown

"Hi Kirby,

I’m a long time reader of your blog and would really like your take on my sisters of battle list. I’m bringing it to a comped tourney in just over a month and therefore have to balance my build between competitive choices, and those that will work within the comp system. The tourney is allowing imperial armor choices for sisters which balances the points somewhat more in my favor (yay for not paying 50 points for a rhino before upgrades!) Hence the repressors making an appearance.. while they’re not immolators, I can take them with my basic troops, which allows more heavy flamers to cook some heretics!

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, especially any ideas on how to effectively use this type of list to the fullest – thanks!

Jack

Total Roster Cost: 1498

HQ: Canoness (220 pts)
1 Canoness + Book of St. Lucius + Cloak of St. Aspira
4 Celestian Retinue, + Meltagun x2
1 Sister Superior,
1 Immolator (IA),

Elite: Celestian Squad (165 pts)
4 Celestian Squad + Meltagun x2
1 Immolator (IA)
1 Veteran Sister Superior + Book of St. Lucius

Troops: Battle Sisters Squad (191 pts)
9 Battle Sisters Squad, + Flamer x2
1 Repressor (IA),
1 Veteran Sister Superior + Book of St. Lucius

Troops: Battle Sisters Squad (191 pts)
9 Battle Sisters Squad, + Flamer x2
1 Repressor (IA),
1 Veteran Sister Superior + Book of St. Lucius

Troops: Battle Sisters Squad (191 pts)
9 Battle Sisters Squad, + Flamer x2
1 Repressor (IA),
1 Veteran Sister Superior + Book of St. Lucius

Troops: Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (120 pts)
5 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers + Meltagun x2
1 Repressor (IA)

Fast Attack: Dominion Squad (150 pts)
4 Dominion Squad, ) + Meltagun x2
1 Sister Superior,
1 Immolator (IA),

Heavy Support: Exorcist (IA)

Heavy Support: Exorcist (IA)"

Not sure if this is going to score highly on comp I'm afraid! Overall it looks solid though instead of flamers on the Battle Sisters I'd take meltaguns and put flamers on the Dominion squad instead. You've got a bunch of flame weapons already with the Repressors and Immolators so you don't need that many on your actual infantry but rather meltaguns to blow up tanks. The Dominions take flamers because they pay 15 points for meltaguns which is quite high.

I don't recall if the IA versions have smoke launchers but if you're new to the list I'd buy some of them to help your advance up. I'd then read this post about advancing mech and this post about advanced blocking as they are two very important skills for this type of list. Basically you want to move your mech forward as fast as possible whilst generating cover for each vehicle (3+ cover is preferred obviously). Watch you near the enemy you start to focus fire units down with a bunch of templates which are generally disembarked from their transports by your meltaguns.

The Exorcists aren't a personal favorite but they do provide ranged firepower whilst you are crossing the field. Use them to blow up or suppress backfield tanks or midfield blockers before they set up blocks on your tanks moving through midfield.

Again, not sure how you'll do on comp as it's not exactly comp friendly (though you may get marks for using a SoB list) but it is pretty good. Get out there and practice with it :).

Comments (11)

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robdark1 1p · 727 weeks ago

sister of battle wow that a rare army on the table now days. reminds when i play the heck out of them in 4th and seeing them still played in 5th. the answer is yes and no. you never have enought troops your sob army it mech, which means it going to be small and you playing against other armys in 5th that are mech to. so no matter what play it a going to have a storage of scoring no matter how you look at it. i hear of a list like this at colonial gt in new jerey. said it was a pain in the ass because he just burn the crap out of him and really beat the crap out of him.__i like the list it fun and fresh to see sister of battle on the table. keep playing and have fun with it.

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HurricaneGirl · 727 weeks ago

Yay Sisters!!!

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farmpunk1 26p · 727 weeks ago

Does he want pure sisters?
I've got some nice Sister/inducted IG lists that work well for me. I can link if you'd like.

I can pull out a pure list too. I think the last time I did pure, I was still using the 117pt Jumpy cannoness HQ (2+/2++ ftw!)

in all honesty, the FW allowance doesn't make a lot of difference to me. I use E.Armor. since they're transports, and being stunlocked makes this army sad.

1 reply · active 727 weeks ago

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Kirby 118p · 727 weeks ago

You don't really need EA as you have a ton of tanks anyway. SoB + IG Troops (ISTs taking core slots) is probably the best list this army can put out as you can grab Immos + Chims and have a bunch of firepower from Infantry and HWTs.

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General Smooth · 727 weeks ago

Exorcists are great but 2 are enough. Armour 13 on the front so tought to take out from range useful for ramming and blocking once weapon is gone. They can move 6 inches and still fire a great weapon and so keep an armoured line. They are also a fire magnet and many opponents will go out of their way to target them. They are ideal deep striking/ drop pod bait.

I'm not that big a fan of the flamer on our tanks as acts of faith can make our heavy flamers rending (essentially) against troops. However twin linked multimeltas on tanks!!!! but anyway....

I agree with kirby about flamers in the squads, you have plenty in the vehicles. If you really feel you need some flamer action then take a heavy flamer, they are still assault weapons and that ap4 st5 can come in very handy (how many landspeeders have I downed?) As mentioned above I liked to put multimeltas on the tanks and heavy flamer/flamer inside.

You seem to not be using a rather good statline in the cannoness that is understandable in a sisters army. However I always found her invaluable for mopping up remnants or tarpitting units (especially with the cloak and spirit of the martyr)

Good luck! Purge the galaxy!

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greggles · 727 weeks ago

+1. I run the canoness with a jetpack, blessed weapon, inferno pistol, cloak and book.

She just flys around supporting the rest of the army, and tarpitting MC's. She's taken out trygon primes before. It's hilarious. Nid players call cheese, so I just point at doom and shrug :) .

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SmokWawelski · 727 weeks ago

Is not having any CC capability (no upgraded weapons - even a single Eviscerator in some squads would help) a big prolem here? When I was running my SOBs, I was usually using two squads with flamers and CC weapons on the Sister Superior...Rest was sporint Hflamers or Meltas... But I was also running Seraphims quite often, so perhaps my experience was different?

1 reply · active 727 weeks ago

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Kirby 118p · 727 weeks ago

Not really. You're relying on saturation of weapons (flamers and melta) and vehicles to do the job based on MSU. If combat units get close you sacrifice something and the rest of the army keeps on trucking.

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Steve · 727 weeks ago

HQ: Canoness (220 pts)
1 Canoness + Book of St. Lucius + Cloak of St. Aspira
4 Celestian Retinue, + Meltagun x2
1 Sister Superior,
1 Immolator (IA),

The sister superior is doing nothing here. The squad itself gives a faith point, no upgrade necessary, the only reason to pay the points is for wargear which your not taking. Spend those point on a blessed weapon or evisorator for the canoness.

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Eltnot 45p · 727 weeks ago

I'd like to point out that you are losing points on the Dominion squad. You can take the same unit as Celestians, have better stats and be cheaper.

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Jackshrapnel 11p · 727 weeks ago

The only issue with more Celestians is the comp system being used... you lose points off your comp score (which begins at 20) for each HQ, Elite, Fast and Heavy after the first (-1 for second elite, -2 for third!) and similarly lose points above three troops. So the dominions are there to save me a comp point. currently I'm sitting at a 18 out of 20 for comp with this list!

@steve - would love to not have to take the sister superior in the HQ squad but don't have a choice unfortunately... you either have to take a basic champ or have the option to upgrade to the VSS (as in the sisters' squads)

@farmpunk - yep just run pure sisters - although allied guard would certainly add some long range firepower for certain.

@greggles - the only issue I have with the jump cannoness is that she's still rather easy to take out on her own, her retinue gives me a comp-free unit of celestians as a bodyguard and unlocks another immolator... I'd rather not have to use my faith points keeping her alive on her own (especially if there's any missions with extra points for smoking the HQ)

@smok - I hear ya on the lack of CC... I've not had much luck with eviscerators (low number of attacks - prone to dice of fail) where I couldn't think that the points could be better spent elsewhere.... man those things are pricey! would like a close combat element, but I'm not sure if the list is really meant to do that (I've not enough experience with it though to really say for sure!) it's more of a saturation of close range firepower... using divine guidance, then if engaged in assault, either tarpit with faith, or sacrifice for the greater good so I can unload in my shooting phase... list seems to live or die in the shooting phase... which I'm not sure is a good thing or not!

thanks alot for all the advice!

I've been toying with the idea of replacing the dominions with Seraphim... but not sure losing the two melta and immolator is worth having the options they unlock?