Where have all the flowers gone?

[Dominoris]

 

I'm getting back into the hobby after being away for a few years.   I can't help but notice this place is kind of quite.  Is it Sisters of Battle only or just sort of the hobby in general that's slow right now?

[WrathOfTheLion]

I think it's just the Sisters of Battle forum here. I know I've got some, but haven't really had much to talk about for a bit.

 

I'm planning on getting more active with my Argent Shroud this year, though.

Edited January 19 by WrathOfTheLion

[WAR]

It all depends on releases, Sisters have not been in a spotlight for a little bit. Some players are not liking 10th edition, and a variety of other things. Between My Valorous Heart and Grey Knights not getting much love and my group not wanting to play 40k it has made us all focus on 30k.  

[Dominoris]

Sisters of Battle haven't been competitive since the 5th ed codex dropped so no news there.  LOL  It has been so long I now call myself a narrative gamer when I bring the Sisters

 

Anyway, rather than filling up the first page with questions that are probably already answered somewhere, I'll just re-ask here.

 

First, there is no limit to the what I take as far as battle roles, right?  I mean I can field 20 Palatines and call it a 1000 point army. 

 

Second, I am going to play in an escalation league starting at 250 points tomorrow.  I'm assuming the spreadsheet with secondary objectives to chose from that was 9th is no more.   Which would be better with the new meta, more OC or field as big of a character as I can get?  

 

Also about the meta, guns or melee?  It seems like close combat has been scaled back a bit more than ranged weapons but I'm not sure if I can build a shooting army easier than one for CQB.

 

Finally, is melta still worth spamming?  

Edited January 19 by Dominoris

[WrathOfTheLion]

SoB were pretty competitive in both 8th and 9th editions, although that was with Bloody Rose with a very heavy melee focus.

 

So there is a limit as far as the rule of three. Any unit that isn't battleline can only be taken three times, and then battleline units can be taken up to six times. So you wouldn't be able to field 20 palatines, at least in a standard constructed game.

 

I'm not too familiar with the current SoB meta, I haven't done anything with them in a bit. Some of the other folks might be better in tune with what works now. I know people are having pretty good success with them in tournaments, but I'm not familiar with what they're taking or doing.

Edited January 19 by WrathOfTheLion

[Emperor Ming]

There's alot of fixing that's needed if the majority are to return to sisters, few of those are:

 

Fixed unit sizes, I really don't wanna pay for 5 extra sisters with bolters, they are never going to do anything. 

 

Majority of weapons are a bit crap, flamers, melta, basic bolt guns, its like using muskets sometimes in the age of death lasers

 

Alot of the internal points are crazy, celestine and 5 jump pack ladies, are almost same cost as a land raider as an example

 

There's alot of units that their stats are so terrible, like celestians, why would you ever use them. 

[sitnam]

I'm not a 40k player, just a hobbyist, but my Sisters army has just been on pause out of greater interest in other factions. I got back into painting because the the range refresh, and I completed the army box and a few other kits, but in that time some other factions I'm into have rose in interest. I want to get more PE's, Arcos, Sacresancts, etc. But I've just been distracted by other things

[MoshJason]

8 hours ago, Emperor Ming said:

There's alot of fixing that's needed if the majority are to return to sisters, few of those are:

 

Fixed unit sizes, I really don't wanna pay for 5 extra sisters with bolters, they are never going to do anything. 

 

Majority of weapons are a bit crap, flamers, melta, basic bolt guns, its like using muskets sometimes in the age of death lasers

 

Alot of the internal points are crazy, celestine and 5 jump pack ladies, are almost same cost as a land raider as an example

 

There's alot of units that their stats are so terrible, like celestians, why would you ever use them. 

Have you played a lot of 10th? Sure our bolters and flamers aren't amazing, but our Meltas ***ARE*** death lasers lol

 

I routinely have this situation: Multimelta - 2 Autohits and 2 Autowounds, for 2d6+4 wounds, spend my Cherub, and fire another multi-melta that auto-hits and auto wounds one of the two shots, which then can spend the Cherub to do 8 damage. I don't even have to roll - it's just a guaranteed "do you have an invuln and a god to pray too?"

 

Celestine and 10 Zephyrim are expensive. They should be. They routinely win games for me. They pop out of deepstrike, reroll their charge, and wipe someone off an objective. Then the opponent has to dedicate *a lot* of shooting against them, and even if they kill Celestine, she comes back. 

 

There is a very good reason we've popped back up in tournament win rate - we have some intense builds.

[Dominoris]

Every character gets Divine Intervention now for the low cost of 1 CP plus a few of those MD with poor rolls sitting in your pool.  :D

 

 

 

[Emperor Ming]

3 hours ago, MoshJason said:

I routinely have this situation: Multimelta - 2 Autohits and 2 Autowounds, for 2d6+4 wounds, spend my Cherub, and fire another multi-melta that auto-hits and auto wounds one of the two shots, which then can spend the Cherub to do 8 damage. I don't even have to roll - it's just a guaranteed "do you have an invuln and a god to pray too?"

Yep I've played 10th, and sisters, since 2nd ed

 

Unless I've missed a strat or rule, how are we getting 2 auto hits and wounds in the same phase

[MoshJason]

1 hour ago, Emperor Ming said:

Yep I've played 10th, and sisters, since 2nd ed

 

Unless I've missed a strat or rule, how are we getting 2 auto hits and wounds in the same phase

The Triumph of Saint Katherine's Ebon Chalice rule lets you use as many Acts of Faith as you want for any units within 6" 

Dialogus makes them all sixes

Palatine gives you lethal hits

 

You spend perform two Acts of Faith for the multimelta - they are all sixes, so they trigger lethal hits. 

 

The trick is to take at least 3 Battle Sisters squads (maybe more) - you want as many miracle dice as possible, and want BSS with Multi Meltas where they can do damage, plus you want to wrap the Triumph.  Crusaders are super inexpensive, so throwing them into enemies is a good way to get miracle dice as well.

Edited January 21 by MoshJason

[Dread]

Did I miss something about deep strike. How do the zeraphim do that and still charge? Thanks for any info.

[Xenith]

On 1/19/2024 at 7:04 PM, Dominoris said:

Sisters of Battle haven't been competitive since the 5th ed codex dropped so no news there.

 

 Where have you been?  Sisters were destroying people through 8th and 9th, as above, and remained competitive until the end of 9th ed. They were one of the strongest in the game for a good deal of 9th's existence. 

 

In terms of actual fleur de lys, they might be copyrighted, GW redesigned their own version for Brettonians recently, sisters might be going through the same. 

Edited January 29 by Xenith

[WrathOfTheLion]

They've also been doing really well recently. I haven't checked the results at LVO or any other more recent tournaments, but they were placing in the top three and were winning a couple of tournaments when I last looked a couple of weeks ago. So they're definitely relevant in the current tournament meta.

Edited January 29 by WrathOfTheLion

[Emperor Ming]

Its mainly internal balance that's the issue, not that their not doing ok

[MoshJason]

On 1/28/2024 at 10:43 PM, Dread said:

Did I miss something about deep strike. How do the zeraphim do that and still charge? Thanks for any info.

You've been able to deepstrike and charge for a while. Not sure if it started in 8th or 9th edition, but there's no restriction on it. You just have to make a long charge, which Zephyrim are uniquely kitted out to do - they re-roll charge rolls for the Sacred Banner, and you can use a single '6' to make it easier. Since you have to be outside of 9"s to deepstrike, and engagement range is 1", you need to be able to get a 9 overall, so with a six, you are looking at needing to roll a 3.

[Emperor Ming]

Dataslate changes are disappointing to say the least for sisters

[MoshJason]

1 hour ago, Emperor Ming said:

Dataslate changes are disappointing to say the least for sisters

Yeah, exorcists going up 180 pts seems unneeded.

Zephyr going done just means I have to convert up even more Zephyr

[Dominoris]

No more unlimited MD per phase.
Morvenn and the Nundums got a little cheaper for the combined unit.  
Exorcists went up?!  Why?
Arcos went up in cost but otherwise escaped the nerf hammer so they still perform the same.

All in all it's a wash, really.  Expect to see more Cassies and fewer Exorcists maybe.  Also Repentia may see more table time; I know I'm swapping out an arco squad for Repentia now..  Heavy Bolter Rets?  Heavy Flamer Rets in a Immy?  These are looking more like a possibility now.  Doms are a little cheaper too but still stuck at 10 models only.

 

That's what I got out of it.  Knights are cheaper if you are using one as an ally so yay, I guess.  I would still take 30 arcos over most any Knight, tho.

Edited January 30 by Dominoris

[Dominoris]

There are a few units that are stuck to shelf sitting.   Aestred & Agathae are still baffling.  Missionaries are still Saintly Example MD bait so they will see play time at least.  I wish the Sacresants would have gotten a little love.  I love the models.  They look great guardiung my old metal minis in the curio cabnet :(

[Emperor Ming]

So with further nerfs to the triumph, is it still worth it?

 

Funny really, it wasn't a favourite pick in previous editions, now its a shadow of its former self

[Dominoris]

Did you really have the MD to spend on more than 2 acts of faith per unit per phase before?  We are going to have to rely on hitting with the melta first now before spending MD to get the wound and max damage.   Yeah, a nerf is a nerf and there are going to be times you wish the limit wasn't there but I don't think it drops the triumph from being a good take still.

But that just the opinion of a filthy casual ....  I can find a role for any unit I thinks looks cool.

 

Edited January 31 by Dominoris

[MoshJason]

13 hours ago, Dominoris said:

Did you really have the MD to spend on more than 2 acts of faith per unit per phase before?  We are going to have to rely on hitting with the melta first now before spending MD to get the wound and max damage.   Yeah, a nerf is a nerf and there are going to be times you wish the limit wasn't there but I don't think it drops the triumph from being a good take still.

But that just the opinion of a filthy casual ....  I can find a role for any unit I thinks looks cool.

 

Yeah, realistically speaking, I think the play now is - roll 2 shots, see if either hits. If 0 hit, CP reroll one and use a miracle dice (which GW endorsed at one of their tournaments, otherwise I would say you can't do that) to ensure 1 hit.

 

Then use 2 miracle dice to force 2 wounds, and pop your miracle cherub so the next squad has one. I'd take the 1d6+2 damage from each multimelta, and hope that I end up with 2 unsaved wounds and roll average or better then save a dice to guarantee a 6/8. 

[Dominoris]

Found 'em.

 

https://discord.gg/sisters-of-battle-516719700399357952

 

Very active community there.

[NKirkham24]

I’ve just found my log in again for on here. I’m playing sisters pretty much exclusively atm, in prep for a GT next week. We’re rumoured to be getting a jump pack canoness when the codex rolls round.