My Sisters (Order of the Vermilion Veil)

[Dominoris]

 

the Arcos would be rather easily killed off with only 4 models,

 

 

I have had wonderful luck with a small squad of Arcos. They are universally seen as low threat targets until you break out the dice when they attack. With the current state of the game being all about objectives, if a unit is not actively holding an objective, it becomes a secondary target at best. Four models on 25mm bases, no characters, no vehicles; no reason to shoot at them.

[tvih]

That might fly in a more casual battle - but competitive players likely know how much damage they can deal compared to how easy they are to kill (even with how "rare" they are), and/or if the opponent takes secondaries regarding killing units, all it takes is a few weapons pointed their way. Plus... if I use them in practice games, all the locals I play against would wisen up anyway, heh. So it's a gamble, while the Hospitaller would likely be a more "reliable" resource. But if I get the other things painted up in a timely fashion, I guess I can try both options. I have been meaning to use 'em one way or another, since I have enough models for a full squad with 7 currently assembled.

[tvih]

Further changes to the list... I figure if I add the Hospitaller, I'd have a whopping 6 characters in the list. Which would be a field day for opponents who would all just pick Assassination as secondary objective.

Therefore:

- Add Hospitaller

- Number of Arco-Flagellants upped to 7

- Remove Palatine

- Remove Repentia Superior

That aside, the Big Cheesy Lady is done (except I forgot to clean up the base rim):

I should hopefully have the rest of the list done this week, which would leave roughly two weeks for practice games. I've been too damn tired recently to even think about games though, so I guess we'll see...

[tvih]

The Battle Sister stumbled backwards, the empty boltgun dropping from her slackening grasp. She hit an obstacle, and almost collapsed against it. With supreme effort, she steadied herself against what turned out to be apparent remains of an inner wall of the convent temple, amidst other pieces of rubble. She felt the midsection of her power armor with her hand. The hand came back up soaked in blood. Her blood. Despite feeling herself weakening fast, the heretics responsible for such a violation of a devoted servant of the Emperor being dead on the floor of the crumbling temple brought Sister Teria some solace.

Sister Hospitaller Leta appeared at speed from a doorway across the room, and with swishing robes skidded to a halt on the worn stone floor. She took note of Teria and her condition with a glance of swift appraisal. Quickly she made way to her stricken sister, one she has shared many a campaign with. She quickly ran diagnostics with her chirurgeon's instruments. Even from behind her rebreather her expression told what Teria already knew.

Suddenly a ruckus arose in the corridor where Leta had just entered from moments ago. More heretics, Teria mused. There always seemed to be more, especially on this particular cursed planet that had turned their faces from the light of the God-Emperor. She didn't know where the rest of her squad was. Their vox net had been down for hours. Perhaps they had already joined the Emperor at His side. She locked eyes with Leta, her eyes suddenly afire despite the abundance of vital fluids leaking out of her and making a puddle on the floor. She spoke with some effort, bloody spittle bubbling from her mouth as she did so.

"While I still draw breath, I serve the God-Emperor." A violent cough wracked her punctured body, nearly doubling her over and sending a new stream of blood trickling down from the corner of her mouth. With difficulty she righted herself. "Help me draw breath... just a little longer... Sister." The Hospitaller noded in mute reply, her expression solemn. Teria grasped the holy icon of her chaplet and unholstered her bolt pistol with a suddenly firm and steady movement as she and the Sister Hospitaller started reciting a prayer to Him - "A spiritu dominatus, domine, libra nos!". The enemies of the Emperor came rushing in through the doorway, and Teria opened fire.

Needless to say, got a bit carried away again. In some armies playable models end up as base decorations, in others base decorations as playable models. Gotta say, she looks quite dead already in this photo due to the unpainted eyes. Incidentally I just got home a while ago from buying paints - including the one for the blood - and was supposed to buy some gel/fineliner pens to do eyes with, but of course I forgot despite visiting that specific store.

Edited October 27, 2021 by tvih

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the models, and the short story.

[Dread]

Looking good. Live the base work, gives character.

[tvih]

Move over, Edward Scissorhands, and tremble in fear - the Cablehand Clan is here!

Spent a good part of the last two days on these buggers, as only the red one was fully done previously (minus base). They're still a bit fast-tracked to "actual" Sisters units with not much extra work put into their skins. Especially the two palest ones are a bit plain, but didn't want to make 'em all brown either because... reasons I may do further work on them later, but they're in a playable state for now (though I realize I forgot to finish the eye lenses). I will say that pinning models to the bases is a pain in the butt, though.

This leaves the 5 Zephyrim, one Repentia and possibly Dogmata to finish. I added the 8th Arco just in case - I might do an AS/BR split list after all, because I realized I have no less than 30 melee Sisters in the list between 10 of each Sacresants, Repentia and Zephyrim, so being BR would be quite noticeable for them. In that case I may leave the Dogmata out, but another Canoness and the extra Arco then fills up the list. Only the AS Canoness would be left without Sacresant bodyguards as the Hospitaller can be put in to the BR detachment and still benefit the AS models too, and of course Vahl is protected as a Sanctified character. Biggest problem is being really quite low in CP, especially as I suck at not gorging on relics. Currently I'd have like 5 CP to start with with the split list...

I did also consider the second Exorcist instead of some of the infantry, but... it'd take days to finish and I'm not sure if it'd be an improvement anyway. Depends a lot on what kind of enemy I'm facing, I suppose. It might actually make sense to have the second Exorcist instead of the MM Immolator given the small difference in points, but... eh. Just dunno.

Edited October 30, 2021 by tvih

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the arco-flagellants.

[tvih]

2000-point battle against Thousand Sons yesterday.

My list:

AS Battalion

Morvenn Vahl

Canoness

3x5 BSS

MM Retris

HB Retris

Exorcist

HF Seraphim

SB Dominions

MM Immolator

BR Vanguard

Canoness

2x5 Sacresants

Hospitaller

8 Arco-Flagellants

10 Repentia

10 Zephyrim

Opponent's list:

Magnus

Ahriman

Infernal Master

Mutalith

3x5 Rubric Marine squads

10 Zaangor

2 Heldrakes

Rhino

1 Chaos Spawn

I picked Assassination, Leap of Faith and Abhor as secondaries. Obviously the better Deny for a Sacred Rite. Incidentally I had managed not to pack my Hospitaller model with the other models, so had to use a random Sigmarine proxy loaned by another player. Fail!

Turn 1:

Opponent went first. Heldrakes immediately boosted over to both of my corners. Mutalith and Zaangors moved up the sides, and Rhino with Rubrics and a foot Rubric squad more to the middle.

Not much shooting beyond the Heldrakes, who luckily didn't accomplish too much, killing a Zephyrim or two, and maybe one Battle Sister?

On my turn the Dominions disembarked and let loose on the Zaangor, killing 6 with MW but only... one? with regular hits - an underwhelming result to say the least given they only had a 4++. The Immolator got zealous and drove forth with an intent to shoot the Rhino. But as was to be a theme in this match, none of the MM shots did anything, and the HB shooting at the Zaangors again only killed one.

To get aforementioned theme really rolling, almost everything in my deployment zone fired on the Heldrakes. That's among other things 14 S:8 D:D6 shots. None of which did any damage whatsoever. Could've just as well been throwing rocks. The lighter weapons didn't do much either. In total I shaved just some scant wounds off the buggers.

A BSS and the HB Retributors moved up to shoot at the mutalith, doing at least some damage and ensuring it couldn't do two of its weird nasty attacks the next turn. The Repentia followed too, but of course couldn't attack anything. One Sacresant squad also moved to a second objective, and a BSS moved up the middle.

In the charge phase my Zephyrim charged the Heldrake in their corner, losing two or so to overwatch. The rest got a few wounds through before losing a few more models. The zealous Immolator charged the two remaining Zaangors, crushing one into pulp - but unfortunately the last one survived, meaning it still held the objective thanks to Insane Bravery employed by the opponent.

Turn 2:

Magnus appeared from his hiding, and the Heldrakes hovered. Their shooting attacks didn't really do much again, lost a couple of models at most. The Rubrics from the Rhino disembarked and the third squad moved up with Magnus, leading to three objectives being occupied by Rubrics. Witchery spam ensued, leading to the Immolator tanking most of them, and actually succeeding with some stratagem 4+ saves against them. But being assailed by Rubrics, Magnus and the other HQs meant it was a foregone conclusion, and eventually it perished. Sadly didn't explode.

Elsewhere my Repentia (6-7 casualties) and the middle BSS (4 casualties) were hit. And the HB Retris took damage as well, losing three models, as did the BSS near them (near the mutalith). Dominions went extinct as well.

The Heldrakes charged things, locking my Exorcist and Arcos in combat - and my second Sacresant squad Intervened the other one, leading to that Drake's destruction in the end. Two remaining BSS near the mutalith where consolidated into by the mutalith. The arcos did a few wounds, losing one model in return.

Morale phase was a disaster. I think I lost one or two more Repentia, leaving the squad at just 2. The sole survivor BSS in the middle failed and died. The HB Retris failed and both died. Sigh. Didn't even have suitable MD at the time to help.

On my turn the lower table edge's forces pushed ahead, joined by the Seraphim and MM Retris arriving to confront Magnus. Choices where to land were limited given the TS having as stratagem of intervening with deep strikes with a meager 18" range... great. Still, found a suitable spot, with 2 of the MM being in half range of Magnus, and Seraphim being in flamer range.

The Seraphim did manage to take a couple of wounds off, and then the Retributors let loose, adding Cherubim to the mix... turns out the two closest models firing twice each already did the trick, and Magnus evaporated back into the immaterium where he belongs.

Little luck with shooting elsewhere though. The Exorcist managed to get four wounding attacks through the Heldrake, but it 5++'d them all. Typical.

My BR Canoness and Hospitaller charged the mid Rubrics. Canoness killed two, Hospitaller did nothing. Then Canoness died.

Turn 3:

Rubrics and Daemon prince at the lower edge moved up. Seraphim and Retris there proceeded to die, largely thanks to more witchcraft. Not sure what much else. In melee, my Exorcist did its first damage by damaging the Heldrake. My Canoness also intervened... I think. Or did I already charge the previous turn? Anyway.

On my turn I finally killed the second Heldrake. The remaining Sacresant squad (the other had perished... to the witchery I think?), the remaining two Zephyrim and Vahl charged the Daemon Prince. Vahl did basically her only worthwhile deed in the battle by causing 6 wounds, despite being reduced to 3 attacks instead of 5 because of an ability the DP had. In part due to the same as well as a 3++ the Sacresants managed only a single wound despite full rerolls from Vahl, but luckily the two Zephyrim managed to sneak one in as well, causing the DP to be sent back to the warp.

Turn 4:

Backline Rubrics teleported behind Vahl, and together with the squad that had been next to the DP they killed the Zephyrim, Sacresants and brought Vahl down to 3 wounds. Hospitaller died as well.

On my turn Vahl killed the Chaos Spawn and lone Zaangor from near her. AS Canoness moved up and shot the remaining mid-objective Rubric with her Plasma Pistol. Exorcist exorcised the mutalith.

At this point we had been playing for a good 5,5 hours, so we fast-forwarded turn 5 without actually throwing any dice etc - most likely Canoness and Vahl would've died and the opponent would've grabbed three objectives again. With those in mind, the score was something like 20-60. He still had Ahriman, Infernal Master, Rhino and the two Rubric squads at full strength, while I would've had 6 Arcos and the Exorcist with one wound taken.

In retrospect, Leap of Faith was a total fail pick for a secondary since I only scored like 2 VP from it. The insane first round already basically cost me the match for not being able to kill anything at all. I did forget to use the AS's built-in rerolls (as I've now done in 4 matches out of 5 I've played... sigh) but it would've made little difference since the opponent kept saving everything that I managed to wound with anyway and for the mutalith's side of the map the Canoness was giving to-hit rerolls anyway, and Vahl both kinds on the other side. Vahl definitely underperformed terribly, but then again most of the units did... some due to my rolls, some due to the opponent's.

While we were definitely not trying to play particularly fast, it's still clear that ~70 infantry models is just too much for me to play in a tournament. Sadly kinda knew that would be the case. For casual play I'm thinking adding another Exo (though this requires an Auxiliary Detachment or a dual Patrol), Immo and Seraphim squad for an all-AS list, removing Repentia, Zephyrim and 2 Arcos instead. Dominion would be in contention instead of Seraphim if only I had another squad of them, or if doing the dual patrol could have two of each if I left out the Arcos. But in any case that'd lower the infantry count by 17 while adding the two vehicles. It's not something to go to a competitive tournament with given how quickly vehicles blow up there, though.

[tvih]

After a small break from painting, today's effort yields Sister Dogmata Judith.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on Judith's model.

[tvih]

After yet another inactivity period:

More gold and such to differentiate from the first one. Needs a few more finishing touches once I can find the required paints. Half are misplaced or dried out, as usual 

[WAR]

1 hour ago, tvih said:

 Half are misplaced or dried out, as usual 

I feel your pain on that. I had one pot dry out and grabbed the spare unopened pot only to find out it was dried out too. Ugh

 

Exorcists is looking great so far tvih!

[tvih]

I can't even count how many Evil Sunz Scarlets have dried out over the years. Incidentally that's what the reds are supposed to be highlighted with but once more can't seem to find a "liquid" one. That aside a few touch-ups of overspills, a few wash applications (like on the scrolls), some work on the statuettes... and should be done. Playable as is of course, not that I've played 40k since November :P It's such a hot mess once again. Might try a battle next month though now that I'm finally finishing this second Exorcist. Made a preliminary 2k list with the new points, but would need to paint a Missionary for it - don't have one with correct WYSIWYG though. It's harder to fit the units into a single battalion than with the ol' dual AS/BR detachments, which is why I need a priest to make Arcos not take up a slot.

Also still need to finish the damn base swaps. Just base-painted the last big batch of new bases today, but still need to do the further steps... and most importantly actually installing the models on them which is a pain due to the pinning as mentioned before. I still have an old painted base batch awaiting installation for the same reason too.

[tvih]

Everything but the penitent engine is now done. Bar some weapon options and suchlike of course. Like need to do the pistol arms so I can have two seraphim squads. Not likely to get the mortifier box any time soon for the conversion of the penitent engine, so I guess I will focus on painting other armies once those arms are done.

[Dread]

It all looks great. Just finally finished my hotrod so will be getting back to painting and gaming. Seeing yours got my fires started to get back on mine. Thanks for the push.

[tvih]

Finally a full army pic. Might have a game later this week with 'em, or might not. We shall see. In any case this is basically the first complete army pic in my 10 years with the hobby. I've of course had fully painted 2k lists before namely with marines, but no other army has ever been complete like this.

[WAR]

Love it TVIH

[FelipeFlops]

Looking great! I'm with you on the whole 'complete' aspect. I think my Sisters are the only army I have, that every model is done for. 

[tvih]

Did in fact have a battle today, as part of our hobby club's new weekly "Fight Club":

Vahl
Canoness
Palatine
Hospitaller
Repentia Superior
3x5 BSS
1x10 Repentia
1x10 Sacresants
1x8 Arco-Flagellants
1x5 Seraphim
1x5 Zephyrim
1x5 SB Dominions
2x Exorcist
1x5 MM Retributors
MM Immolator


Alas, I ended up against the local top player, who also plays for the national team and so forth. So even though he was taking it easy - despite using a comp list of 13 armigers - a loss was assured. We had time for three turns with a six objective mission, and after some extrapolation he calculated it would've ended something like 98-81 (he was probably being lenient in that estimation too). Of course, he still would've likely had 8 or so armigers at that point while I would've had... nothing basically. I already was down to Vahl, Hospitaler, one Retributor, two Zephyrim, two Battle Sisters, five Dominions and five Seraphim at the end of turn 3 despite him going first on turn 1 and not firing a single shot!

When will I learn to remember the Argent Shroud rerolls though? Probably never. I reckon I did like a total of two rerolls of that variety in the entire battle once again...

Edited September 27, 2022 by tvih

[Dread]

Mighty fine army going on there. Keep up the good work.

[tvih]

Two weeks ago had a game against Tyranids end after two turns a week before that due to running out of time. I was leading on VP a bit, but things were looking quite even overall.

 

Then a week ago had a casual 3-game tournament with 8 players participating. I poorly prepared by getting a box of Mortifiers (joined with the army set Penitent masquerading as one) and Paragons to cut down on the number of models, given the prevous problems with games taking too long. Didn't have time to paint them as I only bought them the preceding Wednesday - Paragons especially were a right pain to clean up, so many mold lines... and as such took ages to put together. Morts were a bit faster, at least.

 

Regardless, this plus dusting off one of the old-style Immolators cut down the model count from the last two games by 19 or so, bringing it down to 52 spread out into two patrol detachments (due to 4 heavy support not fitting into a battalion):

Vahl

Canoness

3x5 BSS

1x10 Sacresants

1x3 Paragons

1x5 Dominions w/SB

1x5 Seraphim w/Flamers

2x Exorcist

1x5 Retributors w/MM

1x3 Mortifiers

2x Immolator w/Flamers

First battle against Dark Angels still ran out of time after two rounds. I was behind in VP, but with tournament scoring it was a tie. Had real problems trying to damage his terminator spam army what with storm shields mixed into the squads and army-wide Armour of Contempt for him as well. I did manage to obliterate one squad on the left flank on the second turn as my Retributors came in (should've started them on the table, really) but it's hard to say which way the battle would've progressed from there overall. Losses on either side weren't huge.

 

 

In the second game against another Sisters player's Bloody Rose army I managed three turns, while the opponent got a hasty fourth (we used turn clocks for that battle). VP score was something like 90+ for him to my... 43 or something. I just couldn't counter the melee power the opponent had - even shooting his one Repentia squad to bits did little, as his second one as well as two Zephyrim squads ran amok anyway. Also his Vahl took at least twice as much fire as mine - and his took like 1-2 wounds, while mine just flat out died. Gotta love RNG.

 

Third fight was against Aeldari, big gangly titan thingies mostly. He went first and couldn't do much, leading me to bring down one of the titans on the first turn already. He promptly blew up both of my Exorcists and one of the two Immolators on turn 2 in return, though.

 

 

I think we managed to go four turns largely thanks to the opponent's low model count, and I do believe he was out of models by the end. VP-wise it was something like 7X-46, I think? 16-4 for tournament scoring.

 

Of the new units... well, Paragons of course do have decent offensive power and fair durability, but I didn't get all that much done with them. Mortifiers performed so-so... but gameplay-wise one thing I forgot completely about beforehand was that they're not CORE nor <ORDER>, which really hampers with my flow of trying to remember to use the relevant abilities for once. In that sense would've been better off with more Paragons. But collection-wise this is more varied, at least.

 

Vahl mostly underperformed as usual for me, though she did tank one of the titans for a few phases in the last battle, ultimately allowing a sole Dominion to perform Sacred Grounds on the middle objective on the last turn:

 

At any rate, I need to finish painting the new the models sooner or later (got a bit sidetracked with some disciples of the Horned Rat this past week). Paragons are undercoated with one in the process of being painted. There's a problem with it looking a bit too much like an Iron Warrior with my color scheme. Might have to do red insets on the shoulders or something to make it look not-so-IW, kinda like the red fender insets on the tanks.

 

For the next battle I think I may drop one Mortifier and the old Immolator and add HB Retributors plus change the remaining Immolator back into MM (I think this was the first time I ever used flamers on an Immolator), but keep the list the same otherwise. I will say I do wish I had extra MMs to put into the BSS squads, though.

Edited November 26, 2022 by tvih

[tvih]

Completed the Paragon Superior:

[Brother Christopher]

Good job, I like the saturated, deep-yellow golds. The base is also very cool - I don't know whether it's something that GW sells or not but I like it a kit and the way you painted it makes everything 'pop.' As for the Paragon Suits, I'm not a huge fan - the silhouette is great but the model suffers from GW's liking for baby carriers ;) Apart from that, the range reboot is a huge win and I'm happy for you - your collection is pretty sweet.

 

Regardless, I just realised that I never commented here (I've been following your threat, though) and I have to say that I really like your paint scheme for your SoB. The hero in the Paragon Warsuit is particularly nice, with how you managed to get a satin-looking shin on the fabric.

[tvih]

Thanks. Yeah, I'm still not a fan of the baby carriers. If not for cutting the model counts, I likely wouldn't have bought them now either. They'd look so much better as actual dreadnought-like walkers, but I didn't trust my conversion skills to try and pull that off. Oh well, it's not like they're hideous, so one unit isn't so bad.

 

The bases are achieved with GreenStuffWorld rolling pins. Pretty handy stuff. I like this temple base one, though slightly disappointed with the "templar" one that I had intended for my, surprise, Templars. Vahl's satin-like cloth is the varnishing, in real life it's perhaps a bit too subdued and could use more manual highlighting.