20 Woman Battle Sister Squads?

[Astoran]

Hey.

 

Has anyone tried or faced 20 woman BS squads? I was tinkering with a list with a big unit of 20 with all the flamers (2 heavy, 2 normal and 1 combi) to just get mid board supported by characters and being a nuisance to kill. Hospitaler to bring back the dead. Dialogus to boost invul with hymn and Indomitable Belife WL trait.

Thinking of playing them as Valorous Heart aswell.

In my head it seems fun (for me) and a tough nut to crack but I dont wanna build and paint a squad that will be utter trash. 

Thoughs and experiense on this is appreciated.

[EmperorGTank]

When the 9th edition book first came out I played one big squad of 20 in almost all of my games. I ran them with as a custom order but have also tried them with VH and had pleny of success with them. I actually won a local escalation league at one of my FLGS's with a list that had a blob of them. I had success with 4 storm bolters and the character support (Hospitaller, Dogmata, Vahl mostly) but a Dialogus couldbe worth it too. 

I used Catechism of Repugnance along with the Transhuman/Marine strat (Defenders of the Faith I believe?) and almost every game it was just tough to chew through and dished out plenty of damage! Even when it did go down it was always around turn 3 the earliest. I think it is somewhat valid in all but the most competitive of games. Blessed Bolts was great with them too, and the storm bolters rarely died because of all the ablative wounds!

Edited March 19, 2022 by EmperorGTank

[9x19 Parabellum]

I'm thinking of something similar, but t3, 1 wound just seems too easy to kill, even with a 3+(ish) save.  I'm trying to figure out a counter to the Tau player in our local escalation leauge.  It's either this idea, OR fully mechanized / minimal infantry bodies because his flamers and burst cannons just tear sisters apart.

[ThePenitentOne]

Nothing is ever just its statline in 9th though. Defenders of the Faith + Hospitaller is pretty badass, and many Order convictions will sit nicely on a unit of 20- the one that reduces AP of -1 or -2 by one PLUS Defenders? Bonkers. Add in the 4 Storm bolters as mentioned above so that you have an alternative Strat when you need to deal with Invulnerable saves.

 

There's definitely a place for units of 20.

[Astoran]

I was thinking flamers as a charge deterrent. And also, flamers are cool! 

[Slave to Darkness]

Well as Chaos have lost their 20 strong units looks like Ill be taking up Sisters now to run large units of power armour religious nutjobs instead of Word Bearers. 

 

Do certain Orders do better with large units or is it pretty even? 

[Jack Burton]

I also like the 20-strong squad.  If there's cover near and objective and you can pop Defenders of the Faith, then they're super-hard to remove for their points.  That's for their points, of course.  Anything can delete a unit if you pour enough points into doing it.  

[Tawnis]

As per usual it's all about pros/cons of 2 10 sister units standing near each other vs 1 20 sister unit. (This can also logically be applied to 4 units of 5)

 

Benefits of 2 10's:

- Extra Superior with special weapons. 

- More tactical flexibility with them being able to split up. 

- Less vulnerable to blast weapons. 

- Harder to have more units tied up in melee. 

- Less susceptible to Ld failures. 

- Takes up 2 Troop slots allowing for more army flexibility with specialists.

 

Benefits of 20 means more bang for your buck with stratagems and buffs. (While this is really the only benefit, there is a lot to it.)

- Defenders of Faith Stratagem becomes really good, doubling your bolter output and making the unit very tanky for a full round. 

- You could add in a single melta gun to the unit and get +1 to wound with the whole unit with the Holy Trinity strat as well. 

- As you mentioned, War Hymn's get double the value when the unit is large. 

At the end of the day, the only way to know for sure is to try it out yourself, what works for one person, may not work for another. I'd say have a few games (with proxies if need be) to get a feel for it before deciding for yourself. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Tawnis

[Slave to Darkness]

As per usual it's all about pros/cons of 2 10 sister units standing near each other vs 1 20 sister unit. (This can also logically be applied to 4 units of 5)

 

Benefits of 2 10's:

- Extra Superior with special weapons. 

- More tactical flexibility with them being able to split up. 

- Less vulnerable to blast weapons. 

- Harder to have more units tied up in melee. 

- Less susceptible to Ld failures. 

- Takes up 2 Troop slots allowing for more army flexibility with specialists.

 

Benefits of 20 means more bang for your buck with stratagems and buffs. (While this is really the only benefit, there is a lot to it.)

- Defenders of Faith Stratagem becomes really good, doubling your bolter output and making the unit very tanky for a full round. 

- You could add in a single melta gun to the unit and get +1 to wound with the whole unit with the Holy Trinity strat as well. 

- As you mentioned, War Hymn's get double the value when the unit is large. 

 

At the end of the day, the only way to know for sure is to try it out yourself, what works for one person, may not work for another. I'd say have a few games (with proxies if need be) to get a feel for it before deciding for yourself. 

Handy... 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[Montford]

I ran a 20 woman squad for awhile with my Sacred Rose. It did fine; my challenge was getting used to maneuvering a squad of 20 models!

[9x19 Parabellum]

So I played 20 sister squad of valorous heart 3 games this week at 750 points in our escalation league.  Great against both Imperial Guard and Death Guard, but got hosed down against Tau.  Then again, what isn't getting hosed down by Tau right now?

[WAR]

Nice 9x19!

 

I think I may have to make one of my squads 20 sisters.