Combat Patrol!

So my local game store will be running a small combat patrol league in the coming month. we will be using the adepticon 2011 rules for combat patrol so you can look them up to see exactly what they are, here i will just go over the basics. the force org is 1-3 troops and 0-1 of everything else, plus an extra 0-1 swing spot that can be used for an extra fast, heavy or elite choice. after that there are no mosterous creatures, no psyker powers that involve a roll, no 2+ or 2++ saves, no model with 3 or more wounds unless they are a troop or have the swarm rule, and no vehicles with any armor value over 11 unless it is a dedicated transport or troop in which case it can have a 12. so those are the basics the only things we are change is we are allowing the latest codexes (so grey knights and current Sister are in) and we are playing at 600pts instead of 400pts. ok now that we are done with rules lets talk about what to bring.

so i thought long and hard about what army i should even play. i have Sisters (as we all know), IG, some space marines, enough stuff to cobble together some kind of grey knight list (just so i could have assassins), tau, and chaos. looking at all the choices i had i came to a few conclusions. first i have way to many side project armies, second i figured i should play an army i have mostly modeled and painted. so that brings me down to IG, Space marines, Sisters and Tau. now i decided against Tau mostly because though they are painted i didn't paint them and i am planning to strip the models sometime soon. i got most of my current tau (about 50%) from a friend who decided he didn't want to play them and well he will probably be in the league too and i would feel uncomfortable using his army as is against him. then i figured no space marines because i'm sure there will be plenty of them in the league and i didnt want to rush painting them.

so that left me with IG and sisters. i really thought about this and although IG would be alot of fun, especially since all i really have is infantry so i would just field tons of guys, i think the sisters would be interesting and let me play with some models i usually don't. i am sure you all figured it out based on the picture at the beginning of this post but i said to my self "well this is suppose to be a fun casual kind of league might as well use the one model that i always want to but can never fit in because it sucks in big games... its time to use the penitent engine."

so i decided to play sisters and to fit at least one engine into the list. after playing around with it a bit and talking to a few people at the shop i came up with this.

Troop 1: Battle Sisters- 10 sisters, 2x flamers, combi-melta


Troop 2: Battle Sisters- 10 sisters, 2x flamer, combi-melta


Fast Attack: Dominion Squad- 5 sisters, 2x meltagun, combi-flamer, melta bombs
dedicated transport: Rhino


Heavy Support: Penitent Engine

Swing Slot-Heavy Support: Penitent Engine


total: 600pts

yup i got two engines in =) which makes me very happy. I might squadron them i am not positive yet i will think it over since i have until next week to submit my list.
over all i think its decent. in this type of game there should be alot of infantry so i tried to kit out to deal with that primarily but also have some mech killing just in case. i figure the anti tank will be limited by points, and strategy that the engines might actually stand a chance to do something, or at least draw fire for a turn or two. over all i think this is a fun and silly list that will look cool and die hard... but hey i could be wrong.

over the course of the leauge i will try to keep people updated on my status and also to fix up my sisters. i plan to rebase all of the army so i might as well start here and re base these 25 sisters and touch up the paint on them in the process.

well tell me what you guys think. anyone have some good ideas for a sisters combat patrol under these rules? questions and comments always welcomed.

well that's all for now.
until next time...
May the Emperor Protect

some more thoughts on the Sisters of Battle after another battle

Well, i got another battle in with my sisters. it was a rematch against the eldar from last time with basically the same lists (we went up a few more points so some more doodads were added but nothing major). the battle was annihilation with pitched battle deployment. i ended up drawing the game just at the end and the whole thing was very fun. so now on to some points on the sisters.

-First i would like to say i have been reading the hand flamers wrong. in earlier posts i was gripping about them not working properly. somehow i missed read them so they are a s3 ap6 template pistol so they do work just fine for serraphim so you can be sure i will take some in the future.

-serraphim again are good for harassment and for being extra wounds for the saint and that's about it. either take five, two with hand flamers and superior with an eviserator and protect the saint, or take ten and just jump around pissing people off. i would not use the inferno pistols unfortunately. the unit is not really designed for tank killing in my opinion. or at least domminions are so much better at it that you really just shouldn't bother.

-domminions kick ass. right now i am using a ten girl squad in a rhino with 4 melta and a combi melta superior. i would change this to 5 girls two meltas and combi melta in a immolator simply because half the time they die right after completing their mission of tank destruction so better not to waste points. also this makes it easier to take two squads of them.

-standard sisters are good. yes i would have liked more than one troop choice but well this is a good troop choice. the only real problem is they have no close combat buffs so keep them shooting as long as possible. i have been fielding ten sisters with a combimelta superior 1 flamer and 1 meltagun in a rhino and i think its pretty good. this allows the squad to handle just about everything from orks to marines. you could give the superior a power sword or something but at S&I 3 i just feel its not worth it. just shoot the crap out of enemies and if the sisters get into close combat hope for lucky rolls or have a counter assault unit near by.

- so my biggest problem is of course this whole counter assault thing. right now the saint is the obvious and probably best assaulter in the book. all the other hqs are ok at best. i run a cannoness with combi plasma and eviserator right now with a command squad with either 3 heavy bolters or 2 heavy bolters and a heavy flamer. this makes an ok fire support/ counter assault unit. they have relentless, move through cover, stubborn, feel no pain, preferred enemy, I4 for the squad, and a god amount of attacks (assuming all your faith powers work). but this over all has been rather... meh they kill stuff but not as much as they could. a transport would of course help (preferably a rhino so you can keep shooting as you roll around the field) but i think this is just a point sick. the next best options are the cannoness again with celestians in stead, if only for a better combo of faith powers, or uriah and a goon squad of crusaders and assassins. the latter i very well might do since i am making some crusaders and assassins right now for an inquisition army so i might as well get some mileage out of them. the problem is i just don't know if i want to field Uriah. just don't like the priests for some reason. even though they have great rules and point costs just not loving them (must be because they aren't sisters).

-i still plan on trying out both repentia for the counter charge and pen engines since they are the only things left to try. i know no one likes the engine rules but im still going to try em. right now i have 2 models ready to go a third in the mail (yay ebay) and enugh bits to make the most likely esential wreck markers for them so i might as well try the damn things. i do have some high hopes for the repentia. used smartly i think they could be a very good unit for the army. giving a nice high strength close combat unit with some resilience (through having an invuln feel no pain and a faith power that lets you get at least one hit in per model)that really might help deal with serious problems like monsterous creatures and close combat dreds.

well that's all my thoughts for now. when i get some more bits in i will try and post some progress on making cheap repentia and the like. i do have one last closing thought. i have been trying to get the most out of my hobby budget as i'm sure most of you do too so i spend a lot of time looking for sales and cheap alternatives when i can. i think ebay can be a great place to shop for cheap second hand models. one thing i did notice though is some people need to do their bloody research before they bid on stuff. in several instances i saw this model being sold as a "oop sisters hq" which is a bold face lie. and not only that but people were bidding as much as $70 US for it. people please always check descriptions as well as the gw website before you bid. this model is still for sale for $15 US on gw and many other places and i would hate to see people get swindled like this.

anyways that's all i got to say. until next time...
May the Emperor Protect

Some thoughts on my Sisters' first battle

Well i had my first game with the new codex this week and i would have to say it went pretty well. unfortunatly there was some cruel jokes of the dice gods against my opponent so we will have to play again to get a better idea of the sisters.

so for this game it was about 1680 points of sisters vs eldar. i know this is a weird value but my friend wanted to try out some new models and i said just filed whatever you have and i'll match it. my opponent was testing out a small group of shadow spectres and a warp hunter tank (both from forge world). besides them he also had some storm gaurdians a squad of dire avengers with exarch, some pathfinders, a wave serpent full of harlequins, some fire dragons with an exarch, a wraith lord, and a farseer with some warlocks. sorry i dont have a point break down or what powers the warlocks had but we made lists up on the spot so... sorry.

to fight this i had the Saint (of course), a cannoness with an eviserator, rosarius, and combi-flame, a command squad with 2 heavy bloters, 3 squads of sisters all 10 strong with a flamer, melta-gun, combi-melta in a rhino with extra armor, a domminion squad 10 strong with 4 melta-guns and a combi melta in a rhino, 5 serraphim with the sister supperior equipped with a eviserator, and 2 exorcists with extra armor. that's a decent amount of stuff.

well the mission was seize ground with three objectives and i deployed and went first. the objectives were lined up pretty much down the middle of the table forcing us to have a pretty straight forward fight. i reserved the dominion to out flank later and hoped for the best. over the game went very much my way. my dominions came on turn two and killed his warp hunter and i killed some other stuff through out. sure the doms died the next turn to blade storm + assault but they did their job. i avoided my opponents path finders just about all game as well as his wraith lord which was good. his specters didn't show up until like turn 4 and the game ended on five so they didn't get to do much. his harlequins basically killed everything they touched which sucked for me but eventually i got them out of close combat and burned them to death. the saint did decent pulling fire and getting back up to kill things. the cannoness and command were a decent range support unit. i wanted to get the into some combat but that never quite happened...next time. basic sisters did fine which made me happy. i usually rolled 2-4 faith a turn and it worked out ok. the first turn or two i only really could spend it for the command squad to get all relentless, which was great and to twin link the doms which was equally great.


My opponent had terrible luck. like i said his specters came in way too late, and the dice hated him. for example he went to wreck my sisters with his harlequins and the troop leader leads of with a bunch of power weapon attacks. he gets three hits and then rolls three ones to wound. but worse at one point i had him down to two fire dragons and they decided to blow up a rhino full of sisters so his storm guardians can charge and kill them and grab an objective. well first he whiffed the shooting phase then in anger he assaulted it. the rhino hadn't moved so two auto hits with melta bombs which of course pen. and then i roll 2 6++ invuln saves tottally crushing his dreams. next turn the saint got up from the dead and burned the dragons and the sister squad in the rhino let their flamer fly and sizzled them to death.

in the end i held 2 objectives to none and i had very little resistance left. so good first time out filled with lots of luck for me and non for my worthy opponent.
so what are my thoughts so far after experianceing the sisters first hand now?

well its a nice breath of fresh air. the faith works though is very limited. the saint is a house and she will basically always be in my list now. i plan to keep fielding the cannoness and her command crew. i like the idea of a range support/counter assault unit and they work pretty well, i think the only change is i will switch to combi-plasma and maybe add a simulacrum imperialis and transport if points allow. a simulacrum would be a good upgrade for any unit really and if i have points i'll tak them i think. the doms worked well. might try a smaller squad with less melta in a immo next time becuase i think 5 melta shots might be a bit over kill. the serraphim did ok as basically a meat shield for the saint. they really are now just a flanking unit to harass opponents with now i think or a meat shield for the saint, they really should not get into close combat if they can help it. exorcists have changed little so they are still pretty awesome. oh and 6++ always helps. its not a lot of help but its a chance to slow down your opponent and piss 'em off.


overall it was fun. i do think the sisters need a more dedicated assault unit. so that means i will be trying out the repentia. i have already ordered the bits i plan to use to make them so hopefully my plan will work, because i refuse to use the games workshop ones (they look dumb). i think they could work well, especially if they borrow someone else's rhino. like say the hq's or the dom's.

anyways i hope to do an actually proper battle report and some proper lists in the near future. oh and maybe i will remeber to take pictures during the game so you can see the enemies stuff. and of course sorry the pics were taken with my phone. my digital camera doesn't like me right now and my computer doesn't like SD cards right now either so double loss on that. so sorry if the pictures suck.

until next time...
May the Emperor Protect.

Sisters of Battle: some comments and future plans

so the new codex is out and done with. i have a few gripes but over all i think its actually pretty decent. there looks to be a good amount of synergy and it all looks cool. they do need to faq the serraphim though. rules as written the hand flamers don't work very well and are thus a stupid point sick. as it is written serraphim can shoot two PISTOLS at the same time. the hand flamer though is a assault 1 weapon. it does not have the pistol rule. therefore not only do serraphim carrying them not get an extra attack for two weapons (which i am going to assume the other all do but that should be clarified as well) but they are basically paying 20pts for a s2 ap6 template. that's a bit of a rip off to say the least. other than that most of my complaints are little things or things i have already mentioned that i won't get into until i actually play some games.

i should be getting my first game with the sisters in this coming Wednesday, so that should be good. i will just throw together something for what i have. knowing my opponent is going to want to try out some new eldar stuff (the forge world spectre guys) i know that the game will probably be around 1300pts. so this will really just be for fun and testing.

after that i am going to try and make some lists from the codex at the 1500, 1750, 1850 and 2000pt levels since those are the usually tournament standards. the codex should work well up to 1850 definitely and most likely up to 2000 before the faith points start to suck with the whole not scaling up thing, so we will see how it goes.

so here is a quick list i threw together that i can field pretty easily for 1500pts. it looks ok and has some obvious flaws but it could be fun and is a start.


HQ:
The living Saint- 115

Cannoness- rosarius, eviserator, combi-whaterver -125

command squad- 3 heavy bolters- 130

Troop:
Battle Sister Squad- 2 melta gun, combi-whatever, rhino w/ extra armor -205

Battle Sister Squad- 2 melta gun, combi-whatever, rhino w/ extra armor -205

Battle Sister Squad- 2 melta gun, combi-whatever, rhino w/ extra armor -205

Fast Attack:
Domminion squad- 10sisters, 4 meltaguns, melta-bomb, rhino- 215

Heavy Support:
Exorcist- extra armor- 150

Exorcist- extra armor- 150

total 1500points

again not a great lists but i can field it right now no problem and lest me play around with some stuff. at higher point levels i want some serraphim and more domminions. i do want to try out the repentia and Pen Engines but that wont be for a while i don't think unless i proxy with my IG and some sentinels.

well tell me what you think. any ideas for sisters lists?
until next time
May the Emperor Protect