Tactics for Units: The Command Crew

[CaptainHelion]

Tactics for Units: the Command Crew

A bit of a different article this time. Instead of discussing one unit, we’ll be reviewing three; The Imagifer, the Dialogus, and the Hospitilar. These ladies are all quite closely related in use and design, and all lack much in the way of options, so I figured I’d rather do one article on all three than doing three very short ones. 

These three ladies are all Elite units, and each provide a pretty fantastic buff to units within 3” for the Hospitilar, and 6” for the other two. Their relatively low cost and occupancy of a relatively uncontested Force Organisation Slot slot means they’re each quite inviting options, especially with the larger FoCs.

 

The Imagifer is a banner or relic bearer, whose presence on the battlefield drives her Battle Sister comrades to further acts of heroism.

The Dialogus is a sister of the Orders Dialogus, specialists in the field of interrogation, cryptography, and public speaking, on loan to a Militant Sister Order to assist. Her loud hailer allows her inspiring speeches to be heard over the din of the battle.

The Hospitilar, like the Dialogus, is a member of a non-militant order on loan to assist. She is an experienced member of the Orders Hospitilar, medics and chirurgeons without peer, and her surgical skills are in obvious need on the battlefield.

 

Statistics

These three Sisters share the roughly same statline, that of the experienced Sister of Battle, so BS3+, Strength and Toughness 3, Leadership 8, a 3+ save, and a fantastic 4 wounds! 

The only differences in statistics are between the Imagifer and the others, and is in the form of a Weapon Skill of 3+ and 3 attacks for the former and WS4+ and a “mere” 2 attacks for the latter, as befits their non-militant status. All Sisters are Riflewomen certainly, but only Battle Sisters have that Veteran style experience. 

These stats give the Sisters a solid survivability, meaning they ought to live long enough to deliver their buffs, but they won’t provide much beyond that.

 

Special Rules

All three have Acts of Faith and Shield of Faith. Shield of Faith means they will always get at least a 6+ invulnerable save, so they’re less likely to die to an errant meltagun shot than a random space marine, but it’s not going to come up too often. Also remember the Deny the Witch on 1d6. There’s a few psychic powers that cast on a 4 or a 5, and it might happen. Overall, SoF is nice, but not overwhelming.

Acts of Faith is fantastic, especially for the Imagifer, due to her other special rules. But due to equipment, the only Acts that are likely to be used are Hand of the Emperor, for an extra move to get into range for buffs before the movement phase, and Spirit of the Martyr, for d3 wounds worth of healing, to keep your buff givers sticking around.

Besides those two, each of these three have their own unique special rules.

The Imagifer has the honestly fantastic Simulacrum Imperialis rule, which grants an additional Act of Faith to an Order unit within 6” on the role of a 4+. This AoF works exactly like the army wide one, except restricted to the 6” bubble, activating on the aforementioned 4+, and only working on units with the same <Order> keyword as the Imagifer. A little restrictive, but fantastic.

The Dialogus has the Loud Hailer rule, which is the most simple of the three, granting a straight reroll for failed morale to Adepta Sororitas units within 6”. Nothing huge, and with leadership 7/8 on most of your units, it won’t be super important. But if you’re running larger units of Battle Sisters, this could potentially save your whole squad. It also helps that the Dialogus is half the Power of the other two. 

The Hospitilar’s special rule is Healer, allowing you to heal d3 wounds or return a slain model to a Unit within 3” on a roll of a 4+. This only works on Adepta Sororitas Infantry units, and you can only apply it to a unit once per turn, so no stacking 4 Hospitilars by a unit you want to keep alive. Also, this only applies in the Movement Phase, so you can’t use Hand of the Emperor to do it twice a turn. Broadly useful. Essentially just Spirit of the Martyr in a single unit, activating on the same roll as the Imagifer, but it isn’t restricted to <Order> keywords, and can be applied to a unit that’s already done an act of faith.

 

It’s worth noting here that the Dialogus and Hospitilar lack the <Order> keyword, so they can’t enjoy the effects of any abilities that key off of that, but it doesn’t prevent them riding in Adepta Sororitas vehicles. Additionally, they all have the Character keyword, which helps their survivability.

 

 

Equipment

Equipment for these ladies comes in two rather restrictive stripes. Firstly is that of the Hospitilar and the Dialogus. These ladies each have one weapon, which is an improvised use of their Order’s equipment. 

The Hospitilar fights with her chirurgeon’s tools, which grant her attacks AP-1, presumably because they’re very sharp. 

The Dialogus uses her Dialogus Staff, which is the staff with the Loud Hailer, which allows her to fight at +1 strength, but she must subtract 1 from her to hit rolls, meaning her Strength 4 attacks will be hitting on 5s. Appropriate for a non Militant Order member, but painful.

These ladies, you will note, lack ranged weapons entirely. No grenades, no bolt pistols. So their BS3+ is going entirely to waste. Oh well.

The Imagifer is in a different place entirely. She can’t change any of her weapons, but she comes carrying the standard Battle Sister loadout of a Bolter, Bolt Pistol, and both Frag and Krak grenades. So she can actually shoot things! Remember the Bolt Pistol can be fired in combat, and as she is her own unit, she can always throw a grenade if you’re within 6”.

 

Equipment for these ladies is a bit of a disappointment, but you’re not taking them for their shiny equipment options, so it’s a disappointment we can easily gloss over.

 

 

Tactics

Stash the lass beside a unit you want to benefit from her buff, and go hard. It’s fairly simple, really.

More specifically, the Dialogus gives Leadership protection to large squads, letting them survive morale tests as well as your average Space Marine, which is nice. Not much beyond that, though.

The Hospitilar is a cheaper (If you’re playing points, but not under power), option to the Imagifer for keeping a squad alive, and works on squads that have already used an AoF, so it can be worth pairing them up together to keep a squad alive and firing. 

Because you revive one model with its original wargear, this can be good for Retributor or Dominion squads to keep them firing at full capacity. 

Imagifers, due to how Acts of Faith work, excel with larger squads, but are also still super useful for smaller squads. Having them hang out with Retributors in your back line to keep them providing fire support, or have her ride with a squad of Battle Sisters to give extra AoF to your mid-field. 

Overall just remember three things. 

1. These ladies aren’t any good at fighting or shooting. They here for their buffs, and nothing else
   
2. They’re infantry and need to stick around with infantry to be of most use. They can’t keep pace with Seraphim, for example
   
3. They’re still T3 with a 3+ save. Keep them close to other units to their Character keyword can help keep them alive.
   

 

[dracpanzer]

Good stuff. I have had my Imagifers achieve some silly things. Best example is having one charge a unit of Tau suits with flamers in an attempt to lock down the overwatch fire so my Repentia could charge in at full strength. She took thirteen wounds, made 9 and I dropped a cp to save her. Worked great for the Repentia, not so good for the Tau.

 

I have experimented with multiple Imagifers. Two is about the most I would recommend taking. They get expensive if you end up leaving AoF on the table.

 

I wouldn't recommend the Dialogus or Hospitaler unless you are running maxed out BSS units. If you are, a base of fire with a large BSS, 1-2 squads of Rets and possibly Exo's centered around a Canoness, and the command crew with an extra Imagifer is durable and can really put out a lot of supporting fire for your Doms, Sera squad and Celestine.

 

Usually fits nicely in my 25% of 2k I set aside just to keep my opponents guessing. Mind you I don't list tailor, I just try not to show up at the game table with the same exact force every time. Keep em guessing.

 

Edit: The command crew makes for a fairly cheap elite detachment required units as well, back up Canoness and you have a pretty self contained base of fire that gives you a CP as well.

Edited September 15, 2017 by dracpanzer

[RedSquig]

Great article! :) thanks for your tips!

[A.T.]

As a general rule I cost an imagifiers act of faith at 80 points (since you need two on average to get one act), so I rarely look to pair them with anything worth around that or less such as heavy bolter retributors when I could just buy a second squad.

 

Aside from being non-faith the hospitallers do act at the end of the move phase allowing them to disembark and/or run around unlike an imagifier doing the same thing. I still find them somewhat situational and unreliable though, if they had the apothecary auto-heal rules i'm sure they'd see much more action and less overlap from the imagifier.

[Helvner]

at 2k points i normally have 3 ret squads with hvy bolters with a imagufier each. In every one of the missions of Konor this setup alone normally lead the way for me to win my missions.

[CrusherJoe]

I love the "command crew" (that phrase will always evoke memories of the "Bridge Bunnies" from Macross...but I digress) but the only one I've had any use for is the Imagifier. I do the MSU thing so the Dialogus doesn't make any difference. If the Hospitaler auto-passed the healing (somehow she's not as good at her job as an Apothecary, I guess?) she'd be up for consideration...but...

 

I have a simple rule: "A walking Sister is a dead Sister" -- and that's enforced by having access to one of (if not the) best transports in the game...so it's Repressors all around. That pretty much renders AoF useless until something happens to the Repressor. It also prevents Doms in Repressors from making that sweet pre-game move. So...there's no point taking them for that.

 

I'm considering loading up a birdhouse-girl with HF Rets and seeing if it makes any difference (if I can find the points). Yes...points are at a premium these days...

[Beams]

So, I find that if you stick your HQs and command crew in an immolator, you can then drop them off in range of your dominions once you realize that their Repressor is on its last legs.

 

I've also ran footslogging girls in small games, and had wild success with them. Unfortunately, I don't have enough Bolter nuns to do a full footslogging 2000 pt list.

Edited September 16, 2017 by Beams

[Montford]

I have had good success placing an Imagifier next to a Heavy Bolter Retributor Squad.

[CCE1981]

I love the "command crew" (that phrase will always evoke memories of the "Bridge Bunnies" from Macross...but I digress) but the only one I've had any use for is the Imagifier. I do the MSU thing so the Dialogus doesn't make any difference. If the Hospitaler auto-passed the healing (somehow she's not as good at her job as an Apothecary, I guess?) she'd be up for consideration...but...

 

I have a simple rule: "A walking Sister is a dead Sister" -- and that's enforced by having access to one of (if not the) best transports in the game...so it's Repressors all around. That pretty much renders AoF useless until something happens to the Repressor. It also prevents Doms in Repressors from making that sweet pre-game move. So...there's no point taking them for that.

 

I'm considering loading up a birdhouse-girl with HF Rets and seeing if it makes any difference (if I can find the points). Yes...points are at a premium these days...

I though Dominions granted their pre-game mive to their ride as long as every model riding in the same tank had their rule.

[Daimhin]

 

I love the "command crew" (that phrase will always evoke memories of the "Bridge Bunnies" from Macross...but I digress) but the only one I've had any use for is the Imagifier. I do the MSU thing so the Dialogus doesn't make any difference. If the Hospitaler auto-passed the healing (somehow she's not as good at her job as an Apothecary, I guess?) she'd be up for consideration...but...

 

I have a simple rule: "A walking Sister is a dead Sister" -- and that's enforced by having access to one of (if not the) best transports in the game...so it's Repressors all around. That pretty much renders AoF useless until something happens to the Repressor. It also prevents Doms in Repressors from making that sweet pre-game move. So...there's no point taking them for that.

 

I'm considering loading up a birdhouse-girl with HF Rets and seeing if it makes any difference (if I can find the points). Yes...points are at a premium these days...

I though Dominions granted their pre-game mive to their ride as long as every model riding in the same tank had their rule.

They do. But the Imagifier doesn’t have that rule is the point.