So I was having a bit of fun when... (potential Deathstar)

[Parn]

My wife recently got me stoked back up into playing 40k again, we've been out since our newest wee one has come around!  Anyways... so I was trying to figure out which faction of dull gray models I was going to get back into... because... well, I like destroying the demons!  I have played Eldar, Grey Knights, and Sisters... they all hate things that come from the warp, so... yeah!  Started Eldar, loved the tech and the demon hate, didn't like the horde'ish aspect of when I started playing (tail end of 4th ed, so I'm still a youngin', I know).  Moved into Grey Knights because.. same concept: murder demons, but the model count was much lower, which means: yay, money!  I saw a guy playing a Sisters army way ago and was actually let down quite a bit when I found out that the normal models in 40k were plastic, not pewter, and I have been fascinated with Sisters since.

 

Anyways, enough history.  I went back to building Sisters because they do two things I really like: 1) smiting demons (with a little less stress on the demon part, and a little more on just generic smiting of the unclean!) and 2) doing it with tons of fire!  Oh, Avatar of Khaine, how I loved you!

 

So a lot of Sisters armies tend to build themselves, well... lots of armies do that, just Sisters seems to go: add some troops, add some priests, fill with exorcists and dominions until happy.  And it isn't a bad thing, it just is a thing, and I wanted to start a new thing!

 

So I called on some of my buddies hanging out in the Grey Knight bins... and I painted most of them, too... so hopefully they won't be using my battle sisters for such a project.

 

There were a few things I wanted to play with:

 

1) Draigo

2) Dreadknights (which seems to have harvested more tears than Draigo, lately)

3) Sororita's Command Squad

 

Usually, I use Command Squads for... lots of Heavy Bolter gals with a really spiffy paint job.  This time I wanted to tinker around with the Sacred Banner of the Orders Militant.  Well, that makes them close combat, so I got the best weapon I could: Power Axes.  Losing 2 initiative for some extra Strength and AP2!  I honestly couldn't tell you if they have grenades or not, so if not, they won't have initiative charging into combat anyways, no loss.  Oh, and they come with a Cannoness by default, so let's not forget her.

 

So right now I have:

 

Cannoness (+Combi-Flamer): Keep her cheap and disposable, I looked at giving her the Blade of Admonition it cause some more damage in close-combat, but the points got tight really fast.  She is actually NOT with the kill squad, just enables bringing the Command Squad.

 

Sororita's Command Squad:

3x Celestians with Meltaguns (for deep strike/moving turns where close combat won't happen) and Power Axes

1x Celestian Standard Bearer with Sacred Banner of the Order Militant

1x Hospitaller

 

Toss it with some Grey Knight Support:

 

1x Stormraven, probably kitted for armor busting, doesn't really matter, it is mostly for anti-air + flying brick to deliver the angry payload (and assault ramps!)

 

Kaldor Draigo for Gates of Infinity, and 2+/3++ to soak up some damage.  Also stock Hammerhand for the Celestians, Stern gives this too.

 

Brother-Captain Stern for guaranteed Sanctuary to buff Draigo to 2++, himself to 3++, and the Celestians to 5++, oh, and to soak up more pain and challenges.

 

Finally top with 2 Ministorum Priests with Plasma Pistols and Power Axes.  That gives them the same pew-pew range as the Celestians, for turns that they arrive from reserves/use Gates of Infinity.  I went two to have some War Hymns going off in concert, and mostly to hold onto the rerollable failed saves in case one dies... I think it really pushes this group into another level when it comes to survival.

 

So aboard the Stormraven there is:

 

Draigo (2 slots used)

Stern (4 slots used)

5 Celestians (9 slots used)

2 Ministorum Priests (11 slots used)

 

Which leaves room for 1 more... and I've swung both ways with Celestine and Jacobus.  Neither get their Acts of Faith with the mixed group of Grey Knights, so that really hurts Jacobus, and his lack of umph in the "killing stuff" department doesn't help his case much either.  What he does bring is allowing himself and the priests to roll 2++ with Sanctuary and the Celestians rolling 4++ all via his Warlord Trait.

 

Celestine however is a lot more killy with her blade in both close combat and ranged (have to consider range to limit the affects of being actively kited around and having to use GoI to close).  And I just glanced at her AoF, but it would seem if she is the warlord and is denied her AoF due to unit composition she may not award a victory point.  Don't dwell too much on that, she's there to bring some I7 AP3 5 STR (7 with Hammerhand) attacks with some squishy-mowing ranged attacks in a pinch.  Oh, and she's 2+, 3++ with Sanctuary, not bad..

 

I haven't drawn up the actual breakdown of the squad, nothing outside of it is expensive!  But it looks like a ton of fun to play!

 

The rest of the army is pretty stripped down even for 1850 level play.  A Grey Knight troop squad in a TL Lascannon Razorback (running out of Nemesis Strike Force, of course).  Two groups of Battle Sisters in TLMM Immolators.  And of course a Dreadknight, because this is a list with Grey Knights in it.

 

An alternative (aside from Jacobus and Celestine) could also be to replace the Stormraven with another Dreadknight.  The amount of pain they bring is pretty immense from when I played!  But that makes the deathstar a little more reliant on moving around with GoI, which uses 3 Warp Charges... and this army isn't exactly spewing Warp Charges, especially with the reliance on Sanctuary.

 

Beat it up, laugh at it, call me a scrub... but thank you for at least reading it and entertaining my madness!

 

Burn on!

[Vykryl]

4

 

Edit: pulled my phone out of my pocket to continue reading, found it had posted a random number while I was working

[KiwiBen]

I'd be inclined to drop the Command Squad and the Storm Raven in favour of ~20 Battle Sisters.  This would likely still leave you sufficient points to take both Celestine and Battle Santa Jacobus.

 

Celestine's hit and run, coupled with Jacobus' boost to Invul Saves (from his Warlord Trait), and the war hyms from the priests, make the unit pretty ruthless.  You don't need to panic too much about walking them across the board either.  With a 5++ on the regular girls, and Dragio for tanking, they should be pretty survivable, and you've got plenty of numbers anyway. Bonus points for Litanies of Faith, and extra Librarians (hell, why not ally in a SM Librarian Conclave).  You're already forcing the SoB's to tolerate a filthy witch (Dragio), why not a few more.  They could then look at laying on extra buffs (Biomancy perhaps?).

[*Furyou Miko]

You are cheating yourself by not putting Litanies on one of the priests.

 

To get the most out of the Sacred Standard, you need it to be surrounded by other units - the SCS does not a deathstar make on its own, it's much better employed as a Force Multiplier for other squads, because the Sacred Standard? It affects every friendly unit within 12".

[Warsmith Aznable]

Jacobus

Priest with Litanies

Battle Conclave half Crusaders half DCA

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor with TDA, TH, psycannon

Land Raider Crusader

 

Drive up, jump out, smash heretics.

[Goonbandito]

 

So aboard the Stormraven there is:

 

Draigo (2 slots used)

Stern (4 slots used)

5 Celestians (9 slots used)

2 Ministorum Priests (11 slots used)

 

Nearly 1000pts tied up in 1 unit and its transport! That has to start in reserve and can't charge the turn it disembarks anyway!  Eeep!  And if Draigo gets tied up in a challenge vs some other tanky character, you're relying on Stern (who only has an AP3 weapon) and the Priests to do any real damage. 

 

Sounds interesting in theory, but I think you'll find its faaaar too expensive to run in a real game, even in a casual setting.  You've only got about 800pts to spend on the rest of the army, and some of that is going to have to go a Strike or Terminator squad to fill the rest of the Nemesis Strike Force.  800pts of Power Armour in Rhino chassis', even if it does include a Dreadknight, is probably not going to last very long against over twice that amount of points shooting back at you until you pass a Reserve roll and bring in over half your army's point value.

[Willy Pete]

I believe the Stormraven is still an assault vehicle.

 

But I agree with you on the reserve rolls.  My Stormraven usually refuses to arrive until turn 4, which really limits what its passengers can do in that game.

 

I think that a blob squad with Jacobus, Litanies of Faith, and as many priests as you can afford, would generally work out better.  I've gone up against one a couple of times, and the damn thing just Will. Not. Go. Away!  The only time I successfully wiped it out, it took 3 turns of pounding it with a Manticore and two squads of mortars.

[Goonbandito]

I believe the Stormraven is still an assault vehicle.

Oh it is, I just worded that poorly.  What I meant to say was that you can't charge the turn you come out of reserves anyway, so you're stuck either sitting inside the Stormraven hoping something doesn't drop it out of the sky (and therefore take the Crash and Burn hits on your models inside), or disembark and be stuck standing around twiddling their thumbs for a turn.