Order of the Azure Flame

[Purifying Tempest]

This is going to be my WIP painting and Order background page.  I've been aiming to do it forever, so it is going to be a train wreck at first... but at least I did it!  Please enjoy!

 

Name: Order of the Azure Flame

Organization: Minor Order under Order of the Bloody Rose

Region: Segmentum Tempestus

Home: Solstice

Specialty: Quick-strike Combined Arms Tactics

Patron Saint: Canoness Magdelyn Lux

Strength: Full Preceptory

Colors: Azure armor, red vestments, gold trim, black weaponry

Allies: Catachan Regiments, Grey Knights

Rivals: Deathskulls, Idols of Perfection (Emperor's Children)

 

Origin:

 

The Fall of Magdelene IX:

 

The Order of the Bloody Rose mobilized to intercept Waaagh! Garaghak as it ran through the Segmentum Tempestus, aiding their follow Orders on the planet Magdelene IX.  The sisters of the Black Selpulchre and the Argent Shroud were defending the planet from the Waaagh!, and their request for aide from the greater Imperium went unfulfilled, leading to a massive massacre at the hands of the Warboss Garaghak.  Despite rousing the ire of the Inquisitor operating in their region, the Bloody Rose sent Canoness Lux to lend what assistance she could to the besieged forces.

 

Canoness Lux's forced reached the planet's surface and were immediately assaulted by the ork tide.  This forced the newly arrived sisters to have to blast a bloody path through the roaming bands of the Waaagh! to get to the fortress to link up with the rest of the planet's defensive forces.  The forces were greatly depleted, and their primary focus was the evacuation of the civilians and support personnel, but the evacuation was taking far too long.  The forces of the Bloody Rose were strong and eager to meet the Warboss who had yet to reveal himself as of that moment.  They would not have to wait long, however, as the main force of the Waaagh! set it sights on the Imperial fortress.  Canoness Lux commanded the remaining forces to evacuate immediately while her forces engaged the Warboss, creating the retreating forces time to finish clearing the planet.  The remaining forces of the Black Selpulchre and Argent Shroud refused to retreat, instead combining their forces with the Bloody Rose to participate in the most glorious eradication of the green skin infestation.

 

The combined forces of the Adepta Sororitas were completely wiped out, but their mission to save the remainder of troops and civilians on the planet was successful.  It was rumored that Canoness Lux died engaged in brutal combat with the Warboss Garaghak himself, after having cut through his forces and issuing the Warboss a challenge herself.

 

Return to Magdelene IX:

 

Word of the incursion and sacrifice of the Canoness quickly spread back to the Bloody Rose.  The Inquisitor chastised the leadership of the Order for needlessly throwing away the lives of so many valuable assets that could have helped stymie the Waaagh! in other more planned altercations.  The Bloody Rose did not appreciate the tone of the Inquisitor, nearly leading to conflict between the two if not for the timely intervention of a Commissar named Vaun.  Commissar Vaun had recently "lucked" into a position within a Catachan Brigade, better known as: a death sentence.  Commissar Vaun proved to be cunning, though, or at least smart enough to save his own hide.  He quickly declared that Canoness Lux's death saved many, many valuable assets for the Adeptus Administratum, and that her intervention alone was the catalyst that would rally the Imperial forces to stop Garaghak.  He convinced his superiors to canonize Lux, and that he would lend his forces to aide the Bloody Rose in the retrieval of her remains for proper retirement.  This ensured that the conflict with the Inquisitor and the Bloody Rose would never materialize, and his Brigade would have something to keep them busy... something that wouldn't lead to any accidental deaths of superiors in the hell-infested jungles of their homeworld.

 

Commissar Vaun's gambit paid off.  The Catachans were more than eager to test their might against the orks, the Bloody Rose were more than eager to strike back at the Waaagh, as well.  A quick force, mobile enough to hit the ground and move to the last known position of Canoness Lux, but with enough firepower to bring any orkish bands to heel was assembled, consisting mainly of Serpahim, Dominions, Immolators, Hellhounds, and the mighty Catachan fighters.

 

The excursion was brutal, the combined forces overwhelmed the ork bands they passed through, keeping ahead of any larger forces that would doubtlessly be pursuing them.  They arrived where the remains of many of the battle sisters lay, but could not count Canoness Lux among the casualties.  The sisters would not let their fallen remain, though, and demanded that a perimeter be constructed so that they could tend to the fallen.  A large patrol of orks was undoubtedly hot on their heels, but none of the forces felt shy about getting a swing back at the orks.

 

Warboss Garaghak wasted no time mobilizing his forces to engaged the "pointy-chested humies".  In his mind the beating he threw at them previously wasn't enough to convince them of his power, and well... maybe a second pounding was needed to get his point across: this was his planet now.  He heard that they had landed and were scouting for something, and have eventually come to a halt and dug in around the remains of their fallen.  A very humie thing to do, but very stupid as well.  Garaghak used his speedy orks to encircle the position and cut off any hope of retreat while his main mass of boys marched.  With his prey trapped, Garaghak signaled his attack and descended upon the human forces.

 

The battle was brutal.  Hellhounds, Immolators, and Dominions provided a large hit against the ork tide, lasguns and boltguns joining in concert to put those down who somehow survived the fiery torrents.  The fighting went on a time, the humans struggling a keep the orks at bey, but armor and supplies dwindled, and each hour of fighting got the orks just a bit closer to the combined forces of the Imperium.  Their armored escorts were smoldering heaps, their weapons depleted, the only weapons they had left were grenades, chainswords, knives, and anger.

 

Just as the survivors were bracing for the incoming horde, a blinding light and loud crackle erupted from the battlefield, causing a pause and stagger among both forces.  A Living Saint clad in blood red armor with black flowing vestments had manifested near the Imperial forces, wielding her massive flaming sword.  Massive gouts of blue flame consumed many green skins, sewing confusion and chaos.  The sisters of the Bloody Rose immediately recognized their colors, and many proclaimed that their lost Canoness had been reborn as a hand of the Emperor himself!  Their forces were reinvigorated and bolstered by the sudden appearance of the Saint, and now their mission was complete as there was no body to retrieve.  A call to retreat was issued by the commanding Canoness and Commissar, and with Saint Lux carving her way through the ork forces, the combined forces were able to find their ways to their transports to escape the doomed planet.

 

The last, and only, words from the Saints that anyone would recount were: "Leave this place, my Sisters.  Spread the word of what happened here so that all of His enemies will tremble at His name, and mine.  Know that I will forever be with you so long as you walk in His light."

 

In the aftermath of the return mission to Magdelene IX, the sisters who survived the excursion were elevated to their own Minor Order, and given a task of their own in the Segmentum Tempestus: to defend Solstice, the world once saved by Uriah Jacobus.  They chose to have their armor colored in the same color of the flames wielded by their Saint, but incorporated the black and red of the Bloody Rose as well to honor their superior Order.  The new Order of the Azure Flame remained on friendly, if such a thing exists in the galaxy, and working terms with their Catachan allies.  The sisters were impressed with the Guardsmens' conviction to a fight that was to doom the men to death, and the Catachan were likewise impressed with the zeal and fury of the sisters on the battlefield.

 

 

Photos:

 

Battle Sister of the Azure Flame:

 

Models mostly finished grouped together:

 

Battle Sisters with Boltguns rotated for some side and rear shots:

 

Old model repurposed for a Simulacrum:

 

Heavy Bolter:

 

Meltagun Dominion - I really like how the Meltagun looks with the red on top and weathering:

 

Pair of Seraphim - really liking how they're turning out, too!

 

[Purifying Tempest]

Edited main post to expand on origin.  Also, adding a shot of my kitbash for a Repentia made possible by a conversion day at my local GW store!

 

 

Statuesque miniatures female head, witch aelves body, Sisters of Silence great blade and arms.  They turned so really cool, I enjoyed putting this together... took hours of sifting through bits to get the parts... but there are a total of seven of these!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your Order's background and history are well-written. Your "counts as" Repentia looks good, though you may need a new name for her unit, and new traditions to explain why she has decent clothing, instead of the rags a real Sister Repentia would wear. (I had Sisters from Catachan dress and act like Astra Militarum scouts. Life on a death world would literally beat a Puritanical attitude out of its inhabitants.)

[Servant of Dante]

I mean, it might just be that different people have different headcanon for what Repentia in general wear :P I know mine is probably different from most.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I mean, it might just be that different people have different headcanon for what Repentia in general wear

Are you including Games Workshop's own writers and illustrators among these "different people"?

[Purifying Tempest]

I was just going with it being they turn in their functional armor, most of mine would probably have been of the voluntary type.  No serious blaspheming.  I mean, Bloody Rose... what, they got a little TOO angry?  They're normally just a pain collar away from being a Berserker?  Earn your armor back through sacrifice, sinners!

[Tirak]

The Black Library contradicts itself often enough that if your particular group in your area does things differently, there's no issue.

[Purifying Tempest]

I'm going to recap a couple of my latest battles here, both with Emperor's Children + Slaanesh Daemons.  I'll do them a little narratively, since that's generally how we play, and then recap quickly what happened in the game.  We're probably starting a narrative campaign shortly after the year begins, but have been exploring the new beta codex the past week.

 

The Idols of Perfection, Space Marines devoted to the Emperor's Children of Slaanesh, launched an incursion that left a cathedral under the care of the Azure Flame in ruins, ransacked and defaced.  Their leader, Lord Furitus, took every relic he could find within the Cathedral, leaving the butchered and defiled bodies of his victims as a taunt to the devout sisters that had proved to be a minor inconvenience to his forces on more than one occasion.  Canoness Preceptor Constance du'Chant received Furitus' message loud and clear, and mobilized her forces, with the blessing of the Ecclesiarchy to declare a War of Faith against the Idols of Perfection.  The two forces initially met as the Chaos Marines were resupplying on a planet, an incursion led by Canoness Commander Serra Brooking, which led to the Azure Flame wounding the Idols and retrieving some of their lost relics... but the battle was mostly a draw, with Furitus managing to slip away again.

 

The next campaign took the Azure Flame to a warp-twisted world, as their campaign drew nearer to the home world of the Idols of Perfection.  The occupiers of this planet were aligned with Slaanesh and the Emperor's Children, but not with the Idols of Perfection.  This made little difference to Canoness du'Chant, any worshiper of Chaos would be put to the flame, and this system was of strategic importance to Sisters.  The Canoness Preceptor again tasked her Commander to take the field, Canoness Brooking was eager to get her previous excursion behind her and prove to her Superior that her faith and confidence was not misplaced.  She assembled a force of battle sisters and Dominions, while enlisting Canoness Katherine Upshaw's Retributors and Exorcists to assist this time.  The heavy support would ensure their victory, this time.

 

The Azure Flame hit the surface hard, immediately engaging a large force of prepared Marines... so prepared that they had time to summon in some daemonic reinforcements.  The way forward would not be easy.  Canoness Upshaw ordered a massive first volley, completely leveling the entrenched artillery the the worshipers of Slaanesh had brought to bear, giving her Exorcists a little room to work in while her Retributors covered the advancing foot soldiers of the Azure Flame.  The daemonettes were quickly upon the sisters, though, stalling both of the flanking squads while the Emperor's Children attempted to occupy the intel-rich outpost and keep information safe from the Imperium.  The foot soldiers of the Azure Flame proved to be too much for the first wave of Marines, though, overwhelming them in close combat to allow the Sisters access to the site.  Both flanking assaults had been halted and repelled, though, so Canoness Brooking doubled down with her assault on the mission.  The daemons were now out of position chasing the battle sisters around the perimeter, the vital point now easily within the grasp of the Azure Flame.  After their last encounter where they failed to retrieve the relics, some of the sisters relinquished their arms and armor, choosing the path of the Repentia for their failings... and these Repentia charged one of the failing flanks, taking eviscerator to the exposed flesh of the daemonettes, cutting as many down as they could before they too were overwhelmed by the tide of daemons.  Their sacrifice provided valuable time for the Canoness, though, as her forces worked tirelessly to uncover where Furitus was heading and why he had stopped here.

 

The battle took a vicious tilt towards the Emperor's Children as they brought in their heavy reserves.  A squad of Obliterators took one of the Exorcists tanks completely out of the fight in a hail of fire as a Keeper of Secrets emerged to put down the piddly humans who dare tread on her ground.  The counter attack took the Sororitas by surprise, but the two Canonesses held onto their forces, rallying them for one final blow to break the disciples of Chaos.  Canoness Upshaw had sent some of her Retributors up to perform close support, a decision which paid off dividends as they were able to bring the Keeper to her knees with their heavy flamers and finally lay her low with the assistance of Canoness Brooking and a Missionary that joined the Sororitas on their War of Faith.  Canoness Upshaw ordered her remaining Exorcist to retaliate against the Obliterators while she closed to finish off the brutes in close combat.  The facility was now securely in the hands of the Azure Flame, with the remnants of the Chaos forces desperately throwing themselves into sisters to keep them from their bounty.  The losses were great for both sides, but the Azure Flame emerged victorious as the Emperor's Children were sent fleeing, and the intelligence that would surely lead them to Furitus' home world was secure in their hands.

 

 

Tactical Recap:

 

This game was brutal.  First game with the beta codex, and a lot of things to absorb to learn it all.  Slaanesh daemons are fast... and I had way too many fights going on across the table, which let him get a lot of hits in that I shouldn't have let happen.  Both of us were bleeding models to morale through the game.  I tried of Vessel of the Emperor's Will with a Canoness hitting a large BSS, some Stormbolter BSS, a HB Ret squad and 2 Exorcists.  It got me off to a strong start, but losing the 3 CP was probably a bit stiff... fun though.  He made a few "tactical errors", which led the game to being a lot more slanted towards the Sisters than it really was, but he wanted to see how some of the units and strats played out.  Repentia were solid, but really need to get the alpha strike (which they did, but they got charged in return, too, and then fell over).  I made a few squads with the ability to trigger Holy Trinity, but only managed to land it with a 10 girl HF Retributor squad the practically destroyed a Keeper of Secrets in 1 volley... and I forgot to use Suffer Not the Witch or even Faith and Fury... zzz.  The HF Rets then cleaned up a few other squads that were trickling through to try to contest the mission objective, they were pretty darn solid.  Exorcists took an unfair amount of punishment.  The T8 with a 4++ or 5++ really made them tough to crack.  It was a really fun game... started with an advantage for the Azure Flame, but started slipping away until the Retributors and Canoness cleaned up the Keeper and Obliterators, respectively.  Ended up being a 6-4 victory for the Sisters.

[Purifying Tempest]

Second fight today with the Emperor's Children + Slaaneshi Daemons.  The necron player we were showing up to play with fell ill, so my friend and I took the opportunity to smash each other again.  This time it was a more urban brawl.  Still exploring the beta codex ahead of us starting up our next narrative campaign... so Furitus gets another pass!  We'll get him soon enough...

 

Emboldened by their victory, the Azure Flame continued their push into the Slaaneshi-dominated sector, hot on the heels of the Idols of Perfection.  Up next was another planet where the Azure Flame detected more activity by the Emperor's Children.  It turned out to be a planet they were attempting to fortify, shipping supplies to the surface.  Canoness du'Chant detected no activity in the area, and decided to lead an excursion down to the surface herself.  They weren't particularly lacking in supplies, but denying these to the Emperor's Children just felt... right.  She marshaled her forces, organizing a large force of flame-weaponry to put off of the supplies to the torch.  The Azure Flame hit the ground just in time to get a strong position as the Emperor's Children and their daemons entered the area.

 

The daemons spearheaded the assault, but the Immolators of the Azure Flame proved to be up to the task, holding back the daemons with walls of flame.  Canoness Upshaw was tasked again to provide ranged support with her Exorcists and Retributors.  The Keeper of Secrets made an appearance again, but this time was at the front of the assault with her Seekers.  A fierce fight erupted between the two forces as supplies dropped from the sky.  Noise Marines secured supplies while providing covering fire, and across the area the battle sisters were doing much the same... only the supplies they secured were set ablaze in the Emperor's name.  The Keeper as again sent back to the warp with the combined fire of the Dominions and support of Canoness Upshaw's artillery.  Things were looking decisive for the Azure Flame until a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh appeared on the battlefield, along with more Obliterators and a massively armored Chaos Lord.  The Chaos Lord immediately turned his Obliterators on the Exorcists, knocking one completely out of the fight and severely damaging another.

 

Again, the forces of the Emperor's Children had hit back hard.  The daemons had stalled out the advancing forces, and now the lines of the Sororitas were torn between a wall of daemons and the heavy forces threatening to wipe out all of Upshaw's support.  The Canoness proved again to be crafty, deploying the squadron of Retributors bearing heavy flamers against the Obliterators and Chaos Lord, inflicting heavy damage... but the forces of Chaos weathered it well, protected by their heavy armor.  The invading Daemon Prince grievously wounded Canoness du'Chant, forcing her to retreat.  Her sisters rallied to cover the escape of the Canoness before focusing all of their wrath on the daemon to send him back to the warp.  The Retributors charged in, undaunted, to hold the Chaos Lord and his entourage in place.  Their attacks glanced off of their massive foes, but be it faith or fortune, they emerged from the conflict unscathed.

 

With the daemon prince neutralized, the Retributors fell back to set up a wall of fiery death while their sisters provided suppressive fire on the Chaos Marines.  The Obliterators were taken down in a final volley by the nearly demolished Exorcist, and the Chaos Lord issued a final roar of defiance.  He raised his sword and charged through the hail of boltgun fire and into the awaiting Retributors.  A wall of flame engulfed the Lord, their blue flames all converged on the massive figure.  The Lord staggered through the flames, his massive footfalls slow and thundering, but the armor was not enough.  He crashed to the ground at the feet of the Retributors, signalling the end of the tense fighting.  With their leaders fallen and forces scattered, the remaining Noise Marines withdrew their forces while the Azure Flame regrouped.  It would not be long until the Sororitas turned their sights up the battlefield, and there was nothing to gain from this fight.

 

Tactical Recap:

 

Training wheels were off this time.  Chaos came for blood!  There was a lot of line-of-sight blocking terrain, which really hurt the artillery units, but both of us prefer maps with a little more focus on close-quarters tactics.  His daemons were super fast, again, but with him going first this turn, his only good target was an Immolator with Dominions inside.  He lost a Spawn and 3.5 Seekers trying to charge into the Immolator.  Their 5+ save against the Immolation Flamers, which rolled VERY generously, was just really, really hard for him to deal with.  His Keeper also shorted her assault after the seekers took the overwatch but locked the Immolator down, but it was a decently long assault.

 

The Dominions with Flamers and Combi-melta piled out of the Immolator, as the Immolator took off to block a road to keep his daemons from flooding through into my softer units.  The other Immolator did much the same, trying to swing out a bit wider to prevent a single daemonette squad from charging one and piling into the other to lock em both down.  Holy Trinity + Suffer Not the Witch (learned my lesson!) with the Flamer Dominions took a chunk out of his Keeper, and the Exorcists both converged fire to finish her off (she made a TON of 4+ invulnerable saves, and took an amazing about of punishment before going down).  Mostly everything else was incidental fire on targets of opportunity, but nothing huge... the Keeper going down proved to be invaluable, though, because...

 

Again, he struck back with savagery.  Chaos Lord and Obliterators came down in the backfield, and with Veterans + Cacophony, he crushed an Exorcist and took the other down to 2 wounds!  Thank goodness that T8 shrugged off quite a few blastmaster rounds, otherwise I would have been short BOTH.  His Hellbrute used Fire Frenzy to crack open the Immolator with the melta dominions, then used the Daemonettes to tie them down in melee.  Another melee Hellbrute wiped out the Dominions that took down the Keeper, but they had already done a good job keeping that Keeper from trashing the battlefield.  He did lose his Fiend in overwatch against the Immolator, which really hurt him, since the Immolator would have been crap in melee and couldn't retreat from that fiend.

 

He had two choices of sides to come down with the Obliterators... one would have practically put them out of the game outside of popping the Exorcists, but safer.  The other put them right in the middle of my forces trying to scurry around.  He decided to taunt Celestine (his Terminator Lord had a Murder Sword with her name on it) and the HF Retributors instead, mainly to keep them in the back instead of scurrying up the field towards his softer forces.  The sisters took the bait, of course.  The Exorcist managed to wipe out the Hellbrute up top with the help of a 15 girl BSS with flamers and a combi-melta.  The Chaos Lord and Obliterators proved to be a rock, though.  Divine Guidance + Holy Trinity + Faith and Fury with the HF Rets did practically nothing (I think 1 Obliterator died and another was at 1 wound), Celestines Heavy Flamer and the HB Rets in a building all did nothing, too.  I had to charge into those things to keep them shut down the turn.  Celestine miraculously survived the Murder Sword (he rolled 2 extra attacks with Death to the False Emperor, but snake-eyed one of them and only did 5 mortals to Celestine).  Celestine did her best to pretend she wasn't actually there by missing 2 attacks and failing 2 wounds... to which he made 1 of the invulnerable saves.  Rets did a bunch of wounds but didn't get anything through.  I did revive a meltagun with the Dominions that were slap fighting the Daemonettes, the Bloody Rose order trait allowed them to destroy the squad of daemons the prior turn, but they were boxing with a Herald still.  Seraphim pounced down behind his lines... due to a miscalculation on how far the edge of the table was from his melee noise marines (there was about 11", which gave me a solid 2" to work with).  They used Burning Descent to wipe the 7 marines out.

 

His turn 3 was probably the low point for the game.  Daemon Prince jumped over my 15 girl squad using a building, the Warp Timed right to my Canoness Warlord with the Blade of Admonition.  I failed denying Warp Time with my last CP.  Chaos Lord finished off Celestine, Obliterators slapped a Retributor dead, and the Daemon Prince tied up the Canoness, Missionary, and a BSS... all of which did nada in return (he overkilled the Canoness first thing, so the rest was just slaps).  My Stormbolter Dominions were the only thing really left on one table edge trying to push up at a Sonic Hellbrute, with the Melta Dominions stuck against the Herald.  More slapping where the Herald failed to kill a Dominion, and the Dominions failed to do much back to the Herald (she was at 1 wound).  Large portions of my army were locked up in melee and Celestine suffered her first death.

 

My turn 3 saw Celestine try to hop up to take out the Daemon Prince, leaving the Rets to deal with the Chaos Lord and Obliterators (hint: they didn't do too good of a job).  Missionary ad BSS walked away from combat, Dominions with melta walked away, too... they had enough.  They did revive another meltagun, though, which brought the squad back up to 4!  Stormbolters finished the Herald, thankfully.  Seraphim made some armor saves on the previous turn, which shocked us both, so they got to go romping on a ranged Noise Marine squad by assaulting a Sorcerer and piling into the Marines.  I managed to get the Daemon Prince down to 3 wounds, but Celestine did her dance... missing 1 attack and failing 3 wound rolls... leaving him to only save 1 out of 2 of the wounds to live.  He saved both and flipped Celestine the second time for her efforts.  I was fortunately scoring the mission pretty hard (because in the new CA, the person who wins the first-turn roll off goes second... but chooses map and deployment zone... we had 4 moving objectives, but my DZ had 2!).  I really had to take care of the stuff that was proving to be REALLY tough, though.

 

His turn 4 saw some more slap fighting, the Rets weathered the storm nicely.  The Seraphim stole a point from him since they super-scored objectives for the mission and had gotten in far enough to prevent his Noise Marines from holding it for the turn, but they died in their duty.  His Daemon Prince went to do the same to my 15 gal BSS who had strung out to put some fire on him the previous turn while holding the objective.  He jumped over to the objective and put like 11 sisters in the dirt!  Negated the morale with the Act of Faith, thankfully, since we were both out of CP by now.  He did swing the girls out of melee, and couldn't consolidate into the melta and flamer that survived, which would be his undoing.  Most of my transports were at 1 or 2 wounds and one was destroyed... they strayed up to distract his blast masters from turning their guns on my HB Rets.  He seriously knocked 3/4 of my transports down to 1 wound... the 4th got put on 2... and 3 of them stayed around making some number of saves at 1 wound.  But he did manage to finish off the second Immolator and a Rhino.  Pretty rough turn, but the HF Rets surviving was really costly for him... mainly because Celestine had ate 2 rounds of melee from the Chaos Lord.  He took a couple of the melta dominions and stormbolter dominions down, too.

 

Retributors strolled away from the Obliterators and Chaos Lord.  Daemon Prince got waxed by the 2 remaining sisters from the 15 girl pile... which freed my army up to put an obnoxious amount of fire into the Oblits and Lord.  Got the last Obliterator off the field with a lucky shot from the Exorcist on 2 wounds.  Also managed to take another 4 wounds off of the Chaos Lord, putting him at 1 wound with a wall of Heavy Flamers boxing him in.  The score was also starting to run away at this point, too, so turn 5 was just for fun more than anything.  He took down both remaining squads of Dominions finally (the meltas kept popping up with Spirit of the Martyr), and finally launched a volley at the HB rets, killing their Superior and Simulacrum.  The Chaos Lord made a triumphant charge into the wall of Heavy Flamers... taking exactly 1 wound!  Which was just enough to stop him.  My turn was just to sit around, collect points, and shake hands!  Sisters won 11-6.

 

It was a great game.  We both noticed that the Sisters army can push through a lot of adversity now.  They have amazing burst strength, too, with stacking Strats and/or Acts of Faith.  The new deployment rules for Chapter Approved are really showing how they empowered the player going second (choosing deployment, deployment zone, and getting to see your opponent's deployment is a HUGE advantage).  Turning the battlefield to get those two objectives in my deployment zone was definitely strong, even though I had to chase them a bit, I could never win the roll-offs to move them by 3" each turn.  I've really like making 6 girl squads of Dominions with the Superior having the melta or flamer needed to complete the Holy Trinity with a Simulacrum.  Holy Trinity + Suffer Not the Witch took a grip of wounds off a model those Dominions had no business engaging.  But again, the Heavy Flamer Retributors saved my bacon!  Divine Guidance + Holy Trinity + Faith and Fury put a ton of wounds on his Obliterators, but he made a very large number of saves to keep them in the fight.  They also toughed out 2 hard turns of combat with 1 casualty.  I intentionally did not use Vessel of the Emperor's Will turn 1 to see what I could do with the CP throughout the game, and I am certain that it was not a mistake.  Vessel is a strong Stratagem, but there's a lot of other strong ones, too, that cost a bit less. 

 

2 games in a row he was throwing haymakers on turn 2 and 3... 2 games in a row my army has pushed through it and earned hard wins in turns 4 and 5.

 

PS:  Still haven't used Blessed Bolts.  Have yet to see this stratagem earn the salt it is mining.

 

Edit, PSS:  Spirit of the Martyr did some work this game, too.  Keeping those Melta Dominions around longer than he wanted them kept the attention off of my HB Rets for an extra turn or two.  Pretty sure they passed it at least 3 times, maybe 4, each time getting a melta-dom back.

 

Edit again: Forgot to mention how much work stacks of 15 Sisters with Flamers/meltas in whatever combination have been doing.  I think I took 2 Flamers + Combi-melta today and it did not disappoint. They never seem to do much throughout the game, except keep me in a good position to win points and threaten Holy Trinity when needed... while still putting out a decent amount of firepower for a troop.

[Purifying Tempest]

Added some more photos to the original post!

[Montford]

Added some more photos to the original post!

 

That's kind of a cool idea for a Simulacrum. 

[Purifying Tempest]

Another campaign warm-up game, we turned the points down a little: 1500.  He played double BN with Slaanesh Daemons and Emperor's Children vs. Azure Flame BN + Outrider (all playing as Bloody Rose).  No narrative today, unfortunately :(

 

First off, even at 1500, 9 vs 13 CP felt like a BIG step down from the previous double BN.  I trashed my CP by turn 2, and my FP by turn 3 (started with 9 FP, 9 CP turned to 8 since I tried the relic pistol, too).  I did play 3 Dominion squads:

 

4 Dominions with Meltaguns, Superior with Combi-flamer, Simulacrum in an Immolator

4 Dominions with Flamers, Superior with Combo-melta, Simulacrum in an Immolator

4 Dominions with Storm bolters, Superior with Storm bolter, Simulacrum, 4 Bolter Dominions in a Repressor

 

4 Dominions with Meltaguns simply moved up, there was nothing in the front I wanted to hit, so they sat.  Transport got rolled turn 1 and then they went down afterwards, so no impact on the game.

 

The Flamer Dominions wrecked a couple of squads and a HQ... HT on this squad was nauseatingly good.  Fortunately, they got to go into T3 models, and wounding on 2s with 4 Flamers was pretty gross.  Pretty sure they got to do this twice, and also got The Passion off on a charge and stacked up another pile of wounds during close combat against an assault unit (2 stacks of 14 attacks each).

 

Stormbolter Dominions cleaned up some chaff while also lobbing Blessed Bolts at some Plasma Chosen.  First use of Blessed Bolts... and I was pretty underwhelmed.  I've done so much more damage with Holy Trinity, Faith and Fury, and Suffer Not the Witch that Blessed Bolts felt so meh.  You really need heavy multi-wound infantry targets within 12" to get the value out of that stratagem.  Holy Trinity opens options for wounding, Blessed Bolts restricts targets (to get value out of the Strat), so I'm still in a weird way with one of our better stratagems (Blessed Bolts).

 

I tried some Repressors... but the extra points for them just felt like the hollowed out the couple of "midfield" units I normally field... which left my army with strictly upfield pressure units and deployment zone scoring units.  Either that, or they straight stole the Rhino out from under my Repentia, which put a lot of pressure on those fore units to tie stuff up to cover for the advancing Repentia.

 

Repentia got across thanks to Hand of the Emperor + Advancing, but they rolled well enough on their advance that they outpaced their Priest.  Mistress barely kept up, so I got to close combat without the Priest, but I got to close combat! :)  The Repentia made a mess after the Dominion wave, and did a pretty darn good job of being my "second wave" assault.  I did a lot better with Final Redemption, as well, to get a couple of mortals off as he attacked back (they went in against like 3 units and did manage to get The Passion off).  They also shielded a couple of characters with their bodies before finally getting shot off the table after butchering their way out of combat, so they did a pretty good job, again.

 

Heavy Flamer Rets again played a key role.  They were set a little back so rolled in on about turn 3, but they kept some vigilant watch out for Obliterators, and got the Obliterators to deploy instead of deep strike.  Unfortunately, not having the CP left over by turn 3 to Holy Trinity them left things a lot more up in the air, I really felt missing that was a big deal.  They still managed to scrape by, though, and push back an assault on a weakened flank that could have cascaded into losing control of the home half of the field.  I was forced to spend the last 2 CP to interrupt with Repentia when they got charged after splashing into his lines.  They also triggered The Passion, so the CP was WELL worth it, it just left the Retributors in a tougher spot.

 

Three Dominion Squads in transports paid a bit of homage to the pre-Codex army with having 3 vehicles and squads up the field to pin him into his deployment zone, giving me a bit of board control early game.  It wasn't oppressively strong like the Index acts, but it was good enough to get my army off to go a good start on the scoreboard.  I probably won't opt to go the Repressor route again, though.  Their heavier cost + preventing Stratagems on the squads inside just felt like it blunted my alpha strike a little and took just enough out of my army to thin out my "second wave" of models.  I'll probably stick with the much cheaper Rhino for larger squads, and the Immolator with Immolation Flamer for 6-girl Dominion Squads.  MAYBE a Repressor, singular, for the SB Dominions if I keep running them with a full 10 squad since Blessed Bolts just didn't impress me... yet, but going to keep trying to play it to see if maybe it is just timing and target.

 

The game was kinda skewed, but I think my opponent got rolled by his dice more than by my actions.  He did manage to score Slay the Warlord for me with a plasmagun-gone-bad incident.  And that was about the summary of his rolls for the game.  The score ended up about 10-12 to about 5 on the new CA mission The Four Pillars mission.

 

I'm getting a taste for the Flamer Dominion HT squad, though, and still think HF Rets are really strong :)

[Purifying Tempest]

Tagged a game against the Poisoned Tongue Kabal from the Dark Eldar last night!  1250 points.

 

The forces of the Azure Flame were returning to their landing zone for extraction after another victorious ground campaign against the forces of Chaos.  Canoness du'Chant's forces were weary from battle, but they kept on, their conviction strengthened by their recent string of victories.  Their movements were interrupted by a loud snap and blinding light, followed by a sickening wave of ionized air.

 

"Canoness, Drukhari sighted!"  A radioed voice came through from one of her lead squadrons of Dominions.  A kabal of Drukhari snapped into realspace, probably on their way to some sort of raid, but today they had poked their heads out at the wrong spot.  The Drukhari were up to something, but they were clearly not expecting the Azure Flame to be in the area.

 

"Let us see how these profane creatures stand against the might of the Emperor.  Put them to the flames, Sisters!"  Canoness du'Chant ordered.  "Dominions, take your orders from Canoness Brooking.  The rest of you with me."

 

The forces of the Azure Flame quickly deployed into their fighting formation, the two Canonesses directing their movements deftly to quickly descend upon the Drukhari forces who seemed to not be aware of the advancing army of the Adepta Sororitas.  Rhinos and Immolators sped ahead, slowing only briefly to let their embarked Dominions off before thundering forward into their startled prey.  The Dominions hit the ground running, making for exposed Kabalite Warriors, their flames consuming the pallid warriors and reducing most of them to charred husks.  The rest were quickly cut down by the charging Dominions.  The Immolators had stormed past a pair of Venoms, opening up with their Immolation Flamers on the last cluttered group of Kabalites still trying to figure out their surroundings, quickly ending them as well.  The third squadron of Dominions opened up with a wall of lead aimed at a Venom, crashing the hovering vehicle with ease.

 

The Poisoned Tongue were still trying to gain their bearings, and were completely on their heels in the wake of the furious assault.  Their commanders tried to rally and direct the remaining forces, but there just not enough to overcome the fury of the Adepta Sororitas.  The Drukhari salvaged what was left of their army and fled the battlefield, leading the Sisters away from their precious webway entrance.

 

Tactical Recap:

 

The mission was the new Chapter Approved mission: Vital Intelligence.  This was her first match against the new beta Codex, though she had seen a few games played against Chaos.  I lost the roll, so I had to place down my army first (terrible, right?).  Our deployment was the corner quadrants with the no-mans-land in the middle.  Two Immolators with Dominions toting Flamers up on the front towards the middle while the Rhino with Stormbolter Dominions leered at the objective across the map from my deployment zone.  She deployed off the line, ceding the middle, but she had misjudged the Dominions and their scout moves especially with failing to seize the initiative.  All the Dominions jumped out of their transports and made right for Kabalite squads on the ground, the two Immolators then rolled forward to strike her third Kabalites huddled around her backfield objective.  Both got them in range by just a couple of inches.

 

Holy Trinity with the first Dominion squad killed 9 of the 10 Kabalites.  The other flamer squad managed to kill 5.  The combined Immolators killed 9 from the third squad.  A quick assault finished both of the Kabalite squads the Flamers hit, and morale got the 10th from the Kabilites that got hit with the Immolators.  My storm bolter Dominions then used Blessed Bolts with Faith and Fury and Divine Guidance to crack a Venom open.  She fell forward out of the wrecked Venom instead of back towards the Dominions, but got caught by Celestine who was streaking up the middle.  Celestine activated The Passion, managing to kill 4 of the Incubus squad that fell out of the Venom.  Celestine also took a few wounds off the other nearby Venom in that melee (she had charged both), but overall, my Celestine did Celestine things (found most of the 1's on my dice for the turn).  But even then, my opponent was still reeling on her heels from the first hit with the Dominions.

 

Her turn saw her Archon trying to take down an Immolator, managing to get 6 wounds off of one with his melee + Blaster.  His shield cracked in overwatch vs the Immolator, though.  She dropped a named Incubi HQ off near Celestine, using him to down her for the first life.  She one-upped her way an inch back from the madman.  Her Voidraven Bomber put some wounds on the other Immolator, but the rolls let her down and it scratched the paint (3 wounds off of it, I believe).  She also managed to down a flamer from one of the Dominion squads with the Shatterfield Missiles, I think they're called that.  Overall, her forces were depleted, her scourges and mandrakes were stuck in reserves, which didn't give her a lot of strike back with.  She also had moved her Voidraven right into the path of my Rhino lurking around with the Heavy Flamer Rets, which invariably led to...

 

My Heavy Flamer Rets did solid again.  They piled out of their Rhino and made for her Voidraven.  They triggered Divine Guidance after a CP reroll (squad always has a Simulacrum as well...).  Combo'd up Faith and Fury and Holy Trinity to take 9 wounds off of the Bomber, even with the melta outright missing.  Celestine took down her first flyer for me, as well, as she doubled back from where she had popped up to charge the Voidraven and take off the last few wounds.  Her Incubi HQ was stuck staring at a bunch of Storm Bolters with Blessed Bolts, shredding his 2+ Armor Save and sending him back to Vect.

 

Really, by this point, it was just a matter of mopping up.  She got her Mandrakes in, and they did well, downing Celestine the second time.  Her Scourges dropped in and zapped both Immolators.  Hand of the Emperor + Advance roll of 6 = 15" movement on Flamer Dominions, who can still shoot their flamers.  I'm starting to like this squad a bit more each time they hit the table.  Spirit of the Martyr returned 2 Flamers, but was definitely in the "win more" category.

 

I'm really digging Faith and Fury.  The stratagem is strong, and rewards the usage of the Acts of Faith.  And it combos very nicely with Blessed Bolts or Holy Trinity.  Blessed Bolts did some more work this game, too.  The 2 damage profile and -2 AP both put a noticeable amount of wounds out, which helped skew those results a bit more.  10 Dominions with 5 Storm bolters and a Simulacrum were impressive, again, so that squad is starting to grow on me, but the stars of the day were the Dominions with Flamers.  Putting out a ton of wounds on 2+ and 3+ is just really good.  Probably still sucks verses Terminators, but I haven't seen them in a very long time, and Blessed Bolts should be able to help out a lot if they every pop up.

 

I did drop the Melta Dominions, and while it was partially the force I fought against, I really did not miss them.  The Flamer Doms come in like 25-30 points cheaper?  And they do a really amazing job at just melting lines and destroying chaff... which seems to be of great value in many games for me right now.

 

I went into the fight with 8 Acts of Faith and 9 CP.  Both Faith and Command Points were used up very early in turn 3.  I do keep forgetting to get a FP on a 4+ roll with Celestine.  I think I have rolled the test only once in all my games so far, so I really need to get better at that.

 

End score was 19-1 for the Azure Flame   Impressive showing, but I hate when games skew so hard like that (edit: all the objectives rolled hot on turns 2-4, which is why the score was so high).