Canoness Adrastia

[Drain]

I've had this itch to write my own Canoness for some time now but I never had a clear idea on what she'd be like.

 

Until now...

 

Canoness Adrastia

Canoness Adrastia643345493+

Canoness Adrastia {HQ}..........235

• Infantry
  

• 1 Canoness Adrastia
  

• Power Armor
  
• Mantle of Athanasia
  
• Blade of St. Bathildis
  
• Tongue of Flames
  
• Melta Bombs
  
• Frag and Krag Grenades
  

• Adeptus Sororitas
  
• Unique
  
• Feel No Pain
  
• Eye of the Firestorm
  

• May be accompanied by a unit of Celestians, which does not count toward the force organization chart.
  
• May take a Rhino, Immolator or Land Raider Redeemer for the price listed in Codex: Witch Hunters and Codex: Space Marines*.
  

 

Mantle of Athanasia: This wargear confers the Eternal Warrior special rule to Adrastia.

Blade of St. Bathildis: Adrastia is treated as having a power weapon that wounds on a 4+ in close combat.

Tongue of Flames: The Tongue of Flames is treated as a hand-flamer during the Shooting Phase. While in close combat, Adrastia may forego her normal attacks in close combat to make one attack at Strength 4 against all models (enemy AND friendly) under a Blast template centered on Adrastia, and models wounded take saves normally. When Adrastia is at 2 or fewer wounds this attack becomes Strength 6 and increases to a Large Blast template. Adrastia is not targeted by either version of this attack. When Adrastia is reduced to 0 wounds, but before she is removed, immediately center a Large Blast template on her model; all models (enemy AND friendly) suffer a Strength 6 attack, with saves rolled normally.

Eye of the Firestorm: Those who serve by Adrastia have felt her wrathful touch along with her enemies, and those who survive her trials by fire only feel further enlivened by her scorching ministrations. While attached to a friendly Adeptus Sororitas unit, any wounds caused to the unit by Adrastia during the close combat phase are instead treated as wounds caused to any enemy models or units they are engaged in close combat with. If engaged with in multiple combats, these wounds are applied against each close combat equally during that assault phase.

[Chengar Qordath]

235 points seems like a lot to pay for a Toughness 3 character with no invulnerable save, even with Eternal Warrior to keep her safe from instant-death. Right now, she doesn't seem worth her price-tag to me.

 

Tongue of Flames looks like a nice and flavorful ability; I like the idea of a Canoness that just decides to set everything around her on fire in close combat, instead bothering to use her sword. I also like the potential for it to backfire and end up doing more damage to your own models than it does to the enemy.

 

The wording on Eye of the Firestorm is a bit clunky, but that's nothing major; I understood what it meant. Another nice and flavorful rule, since it fits with the martyrdom theme the Sisters tend to have, and takes some of the bite out of having an HQ that can do a lot of damage to her own side.

 

Was the non-inclusion of the Faithful rule intentional, or an oversight? A Canoness who doesn't generate Faith points for the army and can't use Acts of Faith would be weird from a background perspective, and not that great from a gameplay one.

 

Also, her special rule should be Adepta Sororitas; Adeptus Sororitas would make for a gender-confused Sister of Battle.

[Omega Striker]

The character seems fluffy and cool in theory, but I can tell you exactly what would happen to her on the tabletop against most armies: DEAD

 

I will explain using my Tau for a point of reference.

 

She WOULD ABSOLUTELY be shot to death first turn without a retinue. No questions asked. You would ask me if you could use her, I would say yes, you would plunk her down on the table, move here closer your first turn, and then BOOM! Railgun to the head, or something else that I am sure will kill her. I am not going to let her live, because she is incredibly dangerous in melee. The explosion thing on wounds is almost too good, and definitely too much for any Tau to handle in melee.

 

If she did have a retinue and rhino or something to protect her, then all the more points go into keeping her alive, which means you have less elsewhere to shoot at, which means you will probably have at least one crisis suit squad raining down on them with Str 8 AP 3 missiles from 36" away, maybe 2 squads. She still dies fast.

 

To any army, she is a huge threat in melee, but not at range, so range is where all the good players will keep her, and then pummel her with krak missiles, plasma, lascannon, dark lance, psyker powers, doom+dark reapers, bio-plasma, shokk attack gun, and any other ferocious ranged weapon I could think of, because that is a lot of dynamite in a small, vulnerable package.

 

A good rule of thumb is this:

 

It should cost more points to kill something than the thing actually costs. You should have to take 100 points of stuff to kill 80.

 

Your canoness costs 235 points, but I could kill her with an outflanking pathfinder squad with three rail rifles and 3 markerlights, about 125ish points. That's ~100 points I can use to kill other things in your army.

 

 

So in summary, your fiery chick of death is really cool sounding, and eternal warrior helps a lot, but she is not a practical use of points on the battlefield. I don't play witch hunters, and I don't know that codex very well, but there has to be a better use of 235 points in there somewhere.