Dug up a box of my old witch hunters, are they worth playing

[Wintermits]

Hey guys, Currently I'm a space Wolves player; however, I dug up my old Witch Hunters.. I'm debating if I should sell them or possible start collecting them as a second army, Here's What I have.

13 Bolter sisters
3 Storm Bolters
1 Melta Gun
1 Multi Melta
2 Flamers (the one barrel ones)
2 Squad Leaders
5 Seraphim (the old models!) - 1 with flame pistols
1 Saint
1 Cannones (with sword and pistol)
1 Inquisitor 
1 Callidus Assassin
1 Exorcist (its in horrible shape, Do you think simply green would work to strip it?)
1 sister of battle hospitaller

Could I make a decent army list out of this if i got a few more models? or should I just sell them to feed my wolves.

Thanks :)

[march10k]

Well...you've got maybe two squads of battle sisters there, with sub-optimal weapons loads, and that's if you use the stormbolters "counts as bolter."  The assassin is a separate codex now...I don't think you even have 1000 points there, I'd say sell em off quick in case the rumors of  sisters coming out this summer turn out to be true.

[Fibonacci]

Could I make a decent army list out of this if i got a few more models? or should I just sell them to feed my wolves.

Thanks

My response to a similar question on another board:

It is an expensive army. It is not easy to do many conversions. It has some of the most infuriating and difficult models to build. Put together your Penitent Engines before doing the Exorcists; that way you won't cuss the Exorcists as much.

Collecting a Sisters of Battle army is only ever worth it in a very esoteric sense. They are the last of the truly gothic era of 40K. They are unique. They are an army that requires as much blind faith from their players as their soldiers. They have vexed me, taunted me, uplifted me, powered through OP codices and fallen like strawmen just as quickly. And they are they only models I have never traded away. It is a co-dependent relationship. I hate them. I dispise their constant lack of attention and how ever iteration of their rules have fewer options than the previous version; how their unique rules are stripped away and given out to all other armies for free. They are the only army I love and love is always painful.

Yeah, I'm a little burned out and raw right now. And I will always be a Sisters of Battle player even when I leave them at home.

It may be cliche but I am as serious as I can be. If you have to ask, you don't want them.

[Naminé]

Here is the best army list I can come up with for this model collection:

 

HQ:

Canoness with Rosarius, Mantle of Ophelia, Power Sword, meltabombs. (WARLORD)
Saint Celestine

 

Troops:

10x Battle Sisters with Meltagun and Multi-melta, Meltabombs.
7x Battle Sisters with 2 Flamers, Meltabombs.

 

Fast:
5x Seraphim with 2x Handflamers and Meltabombs.

5x Dominions with 3x Storm bolters

 

Heavy:

Exorcist

Allies:

1 Callidus Assassin
1 Inquisitor

 

TOTAL: 969

Uses all but the Hospitaller model.

 

What kind of model is the Inquisitor?  You should look to psychic upgrades first and go for Biomancy/Telepathy.  He can sit with the Canoness in the flamer squad, and with the Canoness as your warlord you can roll on the powerful traits in the rulebook, plus Celestine becomes an annoyance rather then a must-kill.

 

Speaking of Celestine, she should probably Deepstrike with the Seraphim to harass the units that don't go forward towards you.  The Dominions outflank and basically go for an objective, either to hold or contest on your opponent's side, and also get you linebreaker.  With their ranged shooting they can lend support to your other units when they come in, and kill squishy infantry (Eldar guardians and the like) with the ignore cover.  Combine this with the Exorcist if you get chance but mainly the tank should focus on killing enemy transports.

 

With the doms, the Seraphim, Celestine and the Assassin in his backfield, you would have some chances to move up the other infantry.  Run them up as fast as possible to the midfield, pick your deployment wisely and you should be able to win.  The biggest weaknesses are your lack of armour, range, and firepower.  Priests, Transports, Heavy Flamers, Meltaguns, more Superiors and generic troops are all things that would be VERY useful as future purchases if you intend to expand the army, but the list above should at least give you a feel for how Sisters play on the tabletop.

[Wintermits]

Thanks for that army list, doesn't look terrible ha. As for the inquisitor i have this guy http://www.games-workshop.com/en-CA/Grey-Knights-Inquisitor-with-Inferno-Pistol-Power-Sword


One question I had for the dom's.. do people ussualy play them with flamers/meltas in an immolator? I also thought to myself If I paint them the same grey as my space wolves I could get away with using my 2 rhinos/razorbacks and drop pods no? I probably wont field the assassin or the inquisitor, I thought they were still part of the army. (I found I have 4 henchmen, are they still part of the army?)


You make a great point, I'll give them a play tonight vs some of my friends and see how I like it. I love playing something challenging and underrated.



Thank you for the awesome information!

[Fibonacci]

Dominions typically carry 4 meltaguns and ride in a Repressor so that all 4 can fire (plus a combi-melta from the superior if you take one) without having to disembark.  Immolators also work well when scouting the dominions for a nasty alpha strike of 5 or 6 S8 AP1 shots on an enemy unit.

 

If I were going to ally these models with SW, I would drop the dominion squad and take a command squad instead.  Add in the hospitlar to that command squad and move a bolter sister to the short BSS.  Then find some way to convert the last bolter sister in the command squad to carry a banner; a backpack mounted banner should be easy to come up with.  That banner would be the Sacred Banner of the Orders Militant which gives +1 attack and re-rolls to morale, fear and pinning to all friendly units up to 12" away.

 

Henchman went with the Inquisitor to their own codex and are no longer part of the Sisters of Battle.

 

Going forward, the army needs more melta guns and a few more flamers/hvy flamers.  One more flamer seraphim and 1 or 2 bolt pistol seraphim would be useful as well.  Another big boost people want from allied sisters of battle are the priests.  Especially one with the litanies of faith so they always make the hymn's leadership test. I usually put this priest in the Stormfang with my assault unit.  Once you give them zealot and the ability to re-roll all saves in close combat, even the power armored characters like Krom or Ragnar can survive a ton of hits.

 

Borrowing tanks from an already established army has a long tradition in 40K for any army.  You could even proxy a whirlwind for another exorcist and I doubt anyone would care. Or notice.

 

And another thing about SW allies, you could take an empty drop pod from the SW codex and have a Retributors squad with 4 heavy flamers drop in on someones gun line for some instant hurting at only 135 points total.  Of course for that you would need 3 more heavy flamers so it would be something for later.

[Wintermits]

For the Repressor, What model is normally used for it; Do I need the forge world one? I'm not too keen on allying with SW but rather re-purposing the rhinos to use with my battle sisters. I think I'll order some extra heavy weapons and tanks and make this a decent playing army. They seem like a fun army to play and i;m looking forward too it.

[CaptainHelion]

The Repressor is a Forge World model, but several people have made some rather convincing looking modifications to Sisters Rhinos and Immolators. The Rules for it are in IA2, 2nd Edition, iirc