Sisters Vs. Tyranids...

[Momento Mori]

I will be facing off against a Tyranid horde this weekend with my battle sisters. I'm a little worried as I played against them a couple of weeks ago with my Black Templars and very nearly had my ass handed to me. It was very much a war of attrition and I only won the game literally by the skin of my teeth. Now, with my beloved Sisters being somewhat less resilient than their Astartes counterparts, I was wondering if anyone had any pointers as to keeping the girls alive?

 

Now there was a whole bunch of deep striking, burrowing and spawning going on, so I realize that this is really going to test my mettle. I'm debating whether to run with an Inquisitor (which could be a pain if he fields his Deathleaper) or a Canoness.

 

The list will probably contain a couple of Hive Tyrants, lots of Termagants, some Tervigons, Mawlocs and some Zoanthropes. (and possible the deathleaper).

 

I would appreciate your council!

[Glaeken Templaris]

you might be best fielding a quisitor with a pych hood and a null rod to help with the bugs new pyker powers

[Momento Mori]

you might be best fielding a quisitor with a pych hood and a null rod to help with the bugs new pyker powers

 

 

Good call, I was actually beginning to sway in favor of the Inquisitor for this one. Some of the new bug powers are pretty nasty.

[Inquisitor Fox]

The key to your victory here will be in lots of flamers, and perhaps some heavy bolter retributors, then the customary Sister's tricks: Exorcists, Divine Guidance. Acts of faith rendering heavy bolter shots into AP 1 will help slice down large critters, flamers and heavy flamers will make short work of most bugs (albeit at point blank range), and the Sisters as a whole already have a decent amount of anti-psychic protection. Books of St Lucius will help against some of the psychological warfare.

 

Many of the Witch Hunter anti-psyker powers will be of limited effectiveness against the Nids, as lots of their psykers are not independant characters. The psychic hood is probably one of the best buys in the game still, IMO.

 

The key will be in correct target priority of your shooting, and pasting something until it's dead with the appropriate units at the appropriate time. I feel we have a lot of the tools we need to make a very good showing against the Tyranids, just try not to get into combat with them :)

[Momento Mori]

Excellent, thank you for your input. I will probably be running an Exorcist and 2 Immolators, so hopefully I can draw the interest away from my main forces and zip the Immolators up the flanks.

 

What are people's experience with Repressors? are they worth it??

[Inquisitor Fox]

One potential trick is that if your Retributors number 6 sisters or less (so VSS, 4 hvy bolters, imagifier) they can take an Immolator as a transport. Since the FAQ undedicated WH transports, this gives you both an Immolator and Retributors for the same Heavy Support choice! Excellent for cramming in the HS units.

 

I haven't played with one yet, but a Repressor is a Rhino with a heavy flamer that lets 7 Sisters shoot from it while it zooms around the battlefield burninating the countryside. IMO, why use a Rhino when you can use a Repressor?

[Spacefrisian]

A tip vs Mawloc and or tervigons. Get in close combat with them asap. They tend to die real quick for some reason. (repentias and penitant engines)

[the jeske]

repentia and engines 0_o whats next lance strikes ?

 

use the normal stuff sob use. exorcists 2-3 mulit shots kill the big ones , non of the nid creatures [aside for one unit of stealers] cant charge after deep striking/borrowing etc .

nids have a lower sv then before [T too] so bolters actually hurt them now. no old synaps means everything with t4 gets instant killed by exorcists or melta . death leaper against sob sucks , because even if we do give -3ld to an HQ you are still doing ld test on unmodified LD because of book.

5 man serafins with flamers and an vss with a combi flamer/flamer mace etc does a lot of hurt to any small nid unit. Nids have no frags , this means sob in cover strike before them , even when you do the +2str power you still strike before them . If he plays mawlocks [and he shouldnt ] , then remember that the template only hits the first floor.

auspex if you want to tailor an army is an ok choice.

[boreas]

I know I loved to use 2 things: Eviscerators and meltaguns. A VSS with eviscerator and BoSL can whittle down a TMC in a few turns while her squad gives her attrition wounds.

 

I loved dominions for that. A squad of 5 with 4 meltaguns, VSS with BoSL and eviscerator. Move and flame around. You can also disembark an shoot at a TCM easily wounding 3 times. If it charges you, a bit of faith (spirit of the martyr) and the Eviscerator will finish it in a few turns. If worst comes to worst, a FNoD (Flying Nun of Doom ) can come to the rescue:

 

Canoness, BoSL, Cloak, Jump Pack, Mantle, Eviscerator. Quite capable of shaving 1-2 wounds per turn on a MC.

 

So basically my game plan was: take of a few wounds off TMCs with the exorcists, Charge in with the dominions/FNoD to kill them off. Send the immolators to burn some warriors/gribblies. Have a squad of Retributors with Heavy bolters to hit the "mediums" (lictors, ravenors, Zoantropes, Warriors). Burn the rest with regular squads armed with flamers/heavy flamers. Used to work like a charm, but let us know how it goes with 5th ed. nids!

 

Oh, a nasty trick is: Inquisitor with psy-tracker and combi/crossbow and 3 acolytes all with combi-crossbow. At around 100pts, it can shoot 8 "stakes" that hit on 4+ (one re-roll due to psy-tracker) and wound on 2+ with no armour save on all psykers. That should hurt badly all Psyker TMC (Hive Tyrant, Tervigon, Swarmlord...)

 

Phil

[Sister Rosette Soulknyt]

Ok i know this works for me...DONT forget your Celexus assassin

 

With his/her/it abilities to turn everything within 12" to LD 7 (no higher) and that everything within 6" has to make a LD test at the start of the turn or fall back.

And to finish it off he can always shoot ANY Psyker with any shooting attacks ignoring other models, independant characters or anything.

 

His weapon of choice: Animus Speculum R: 12" Str: 5 AP: 1 Assault 2 ( +1 for every Psyker withing 12")

 

And if you lock him in combat with a Psyker then dont forge Life Drain: make a contested LD test (dont forget his wont be higher than 7) on 2d6 plus your LD. For every point over his you win by, he takes a wound no saves, not even Invulnerable.

 

Against multi Synapse nasties this guy will be you special friend. (though he's just a scary guy with no soul)

[Grabsnikk]

Life Drain can only take one wound from a psyker per turn. Its not every point you win by, they lose a wound. Its if you win then they lose one wound full stop.

[ArmouredWing]

I've yet to face the new nids as our regular hive mind is currently playing with his new SW's but I've faced down the old nids and there are some tactics that should still be effective.

 

Unusually perhaps but I'm with jeske when it comes down to exorcists. If you're going to field them you NEED at least a pair to even out any bad rolling that will occur at some point in the game, also it gives your opponent the problem of which one he's going to go for and will force him to make decisions that he wouldn't want to make.

 

Key to success as always is target priority. For me the Tervigons are public enemy #1 and you should aim to focus your exorcist fire on those early on in the game. True, it may be what your opponent wants but they are just too vital a target and if you don't kill them early on your 1500pt (if thats what you're playing) will be pitted against 1500pts+ and each turn you'll be facing more.

 

I'd also endorse the use of the psy-tracker, even if you take an inquisitor with just one of them it's worth the outlay for the re-rolls on the psy-beasts in the list. However if you field an inquisitor I'd have to say that the best way of running him would be the old metal storm loadout with either 3 Hvy Bolters or 2 Hvy bolters & a plasma cannon. Effectively you're getting an additional Hvy support slot with some nice add ons as well (auspex, psychic hood).

 

My last suggestion would be what I've always termed as my Big Bug Hunter loadout for the sister squads, i.e. each vet runs with a combi crossbow. The tyrants were always the big issue when I first started playing against nids and it would often be the case that when I'd killed pretty much everything lese the tyrants would stomp around the table finishing off my units. The first game I used the xbows though the tables turned to the degree that every game afterwards my opponent held his tyrants back for fear of the easy wounds that the stakers could dish out. For 10pts the xbows have got to be a worthy piece of wargear purely for the fact that it disrupts the nid players game plan in terms of tyrants usually being so hard to kill.

 

Just as a little addition as well but if you run with that vet loadout it still gives you a slot where you can put a plasma pistol in. Not usually the best weapon but it does give you an additional high S weapon to hit the tough bugs with.

[WarriorFish]

Exos, flamers and meltas served up in transports. Not only is it the Sister way but also how you're going to beat the nids. Target priorities are also going to be important (and easier now they can be ID'd). Like ArmouredWing said, combi-stakes might come in handy, though unfortunately not as good as they were.

[Spacefrisian]

Exos, flamers and meltas served up in transports. Not only is it the Sister way but also how you're going to beat the nids. Target priorities are also going to be important (and easier now they can be ID'd). Like ArmouredWing said, combi-stakes might come in handy, though unfortunately not as good as they were.

 

Dont put to much fate in instant kill. Most of their Toughness is 5 and their arent many Strength 10 weapons in a pure Sister list (Otherwise my idea would be an option as well.)

[mycnh]

And if you lock him in combat with a Psyker then dont forge Life Drain: make a contested LD test (dont forget his wont be higher than 7) on 2d6 plus your LD. For every point over his you win by, he takes a wound no saves, not even Invulnerable.

 

Actually its the Psych-out grenades that cause that many SAVABLE wounds - still a worthwhile option for the really tough baddies w/ Psychic powers. I may just have to dust him off to try him out!