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

Codex Sisters of Battle completion imminent

In just a few short days we will finally have the whole story on the new sisters of battle rules. the anticipation of getting the second half of this silly white dwarf codex is driving me mad. and it doesn't help that i wont be in the state when it comes out so i wont be able to pick up a copy until the Wednesday after at best. so i will just have to rely on the internet to give me the low down.

i am surprised that there really haven't been any rumors for part two on the internet. its like no one cares about this thing anymore after seeing the initial rules last month. i am just hoping at this point everything is decently costed and we get some cool war gear.

anyways my next post will be my thoughts on part two of codex sisters of battle and the beginning of the reorganization of my army.
as another note if repentia are costed well and in a good FOC spot i would like to try them out, but i hate there models. they look stupid and are crazy expensive at this point. i am thinking of using wargame factory's amazons some liberal green stuffing and finding some chainsaws or something and making some better looking repentia. anyone out there have a better idea? i am looking for cheap and plastic. a box of i think 24 amazons is like $20 U.S. which is well worth it.

anyways until next time...
May the Emperor Protect

EDIT:
just saw that the point costs are popping up on the internet, and people are not happy. i am not going to talk about it now as i want to really look at it before either joining the hate wagon or jumping for joy. i will say this may be bad for immo spam lists, which is ok because i didn't like them anyways... we shall see

White Dwarf Sisters Part 1 review: Part 2 the not so good part

So for my first part I tried to be as upbeat as possible since most of the internet seems hell bent on doubts and complaints. this is a list of things I do not like the looks of based on this first part and the revamped sister’s page on games-workshop’s site.

Lest start with the HQs and work through again. So we have standard hero sister (canoness), Super sister (the Saint), a human version of a chaplain, and two super versions of said chaplain. So we have 5 hqs. Now my problem with this is why the hell in a sisters of battle book are only 40% of our HQ options sisters? That really bugs me. I get that the ecclesiarchy is important but seriously drop one of the stupid preachers and just replace it with a freaking special canoness or something. Is that so hard? Hell you don’t even need a model for her just like that special xeno inquisitor in the grey knight book. Just throw in her rules and let us figure it out. I get they want to sell of their remaining stock of dumb rather meh models. It would have been cooler if they just made one an upgrade or something though (heck maybe they still will… yeah right).

Ok next thing. They gave sisters frag and bolt pistols. I mentioned this before but again this annoys me a little. Yes I know they are modeled with them on the models and that is probably why they have them now. But I really can’t see a situation where you would want to use either of these things with sisters. Unless there is like 2 or 3 marines left on turn 5 and you need to clear them from an objective and take it for yourself. And in that case I think just charging them would have to do anyways. Sisters don’t charge. They don’t need frag grenades. They are a close range shooty army that relies on their armor to help them get in there and then protect them if the enemy charges them. It would have been better to give them some kind of defensive grenade. That would’ve been awesome. Oh well I guess I’m just annoyed because I fear this will cause them to cost a few extra points a model then they should.



Moving on from that little gripe let’s look at the web site. Now that they have officially switched it over to the “sisters of battle” section and no longer “witch hunters” maybe we can see where things might fall force organization-wise. Well it is possible that they just left everything set up as It was on the witch hunter side and this look will be pointless but I’m guess how it is set up is how it will be when part two comes out… I hope I’m wrong.

Why? Well I really want pen engines in elite and either repentia or celestians as our second troop. Because all armies should have two troop choices, even if no one uses the second one normal. There must be a choice. But it looks like repentia are still elites and well everything is as it was before leaving us with just battle sisters as troops which is the lame. And, as an aside, if one of the special characters make something a troop that doesn’t count as a second troop choice. Though if something makes seraphim troops I could be happy (but that’s just crazy talk).
Oh and before I forget screw you GW for the immolator. If it isn’t dirt cheap or covered in really really badass affordable upgrades, like say one that makes it a emperor damned fast vehicle like it is suppose to be, I’m am going to be very upset.


Well I think that’s all the complaining in me until the second part comes out. Now before I go I will make one thing clear.

No matter what I will play this codex. I will not give up on the sisters. I do not recommend anyone starting an army of them unless they inherit the army or a million dollars, until plastics come out. But for those of us who play sisters we should not give up on them. I will do everything I can to make this codex work until I am given another.

This whole white dwarf codex will most likely be a setback for sister somewhat. Really the set back is more the lack of affordable models then possible bad rules. But something good has come of it for me. It has given me a definite purpose to continue this blog. I will still talk about my other armies occasionally and actually plan to talk about one of them in the next post. But from here on out Ordo Hereticus will be dedicated to primarily making a good working possibly competitive (don’t hold your breath) list out of the new sisters of battle.

That is all for now
Until next time…
May the Emperor Protect.

Old vs New: Assassins

OK, so I stole the title from the Nostalgia Critic, but past that today we are going to compare the old daemon hunter/witch hunter assassins against the new Grey knight assassins and see which ones i think are personally better.
So lets start at the top. in both versions assassins come in four types (we are not going to talk about death cult assassins in this post) representing the four major assassin temples; the Callidus, the Eversor, the Culexus, and the Vindicare.

In the old version all the assassins had a BS, WS, and I of 5 a S and T of 4, 2 wounds 3 attacks ld 10 and a 4+. they also had fearless a 4++ and infiltrate. thats some pretty awesome stuff right there. of course there are a few down sides. assassins could never join a unit, enter a vehicle, or count as scoring. also, you had to include an inquisitor to filed one and you could only have a max of one.
The new ones had their BS and WS raised to 8, their I to 7, an extra attack and gained a 6+ feel no pain. they also have Move through cover, Fearless, Fleet, and frag grenades. also they no longer require an inqusitor to use and each type counts as a unique infantry so technically you can have three assassins in your standard FOC, they all just have to be different types. the down side to them is they are about 20pts more then their fore runners.
ok so over all though the new ones are more expensive they have fantastic stats and really good special rules standards, and frag grenades standard as any assault unit should have. the only thing i miss is the infiltrate standard because that helps a lot of the assassins out but we will talk about that in the specific examples.

CALLIDUS:

The old Callidus had a C'tan phase sword which was a power weapon that ignored all saves (sick!), a neural shredder which was a s8 ap1 temple weapon taken against the opponents ld instead of t, polymorphine which basically let her apear anywhere on the field when she came in and move normal (so assault after deep strike with out scattering basically), and posion blades which gave her an extra attack at the end of combat that always wounds on a 4. for special rules she had jump back which gave her hit and run as long as she rolled better than a 1 on 1d6, and a word in your ear which allowed you to move one enemy unit up to 6" after deployment but before the first turn. All that makes for one mean disruptive hq killing monster.
the new one stil has the sword but now it is a power sword that auto causes instant death (like AL'Rahem), the same neural shredder except it is now a pistol instead of assault 1, and polymorphine changed a bit. now when she becomes available from reserves she does d6 s4 ap2 hits to a target unti and then deapstrikes within 3" of said unit with out scattering. she also has hit and run and stealth.
so the new one can't assault when she arrives but still has the same basic equipment. frankly i think i prefer the new sword over the old just because it means she will kill hqs faster (only needs one unsaved wound to succeed). i wish she still had a word in your ear but it doesn't detract too much from the new one to not have it. really the new one is about as good alittle better at killing if she can get into assault which she will need help to do. so support her.
my verdict NEW Callidus is a little better.

CULEXUS:

OK always a fun guy. designed to kill psykers lets see what he can do. so the old one has psykout grenades, etherium, and the animus speculum. as well as the special rules psychic abomination, souless, psyker assassin, and life drain (another guy with a lot of stuff). ok so what this all means is that you have to succeed a ld test to see him in the shooting phase (if you fail you may target a different unit), his grenades are a 6" shooting attack which causes a targeted psyker to make a ld test and for each point he fails by to loss 1 wound. the speculum his main weapon is a 12" s5 ap1 assault2 that gets an addintional attack for each psyker in 12". also any psyker within 6" must make a ld check on their turn or fall back. any model with in 12" of him is ld7 (unless they wound be lower), he can specifically target psykers in the shooting phase regardless of wheather they are in a unit and can avoid other models to get into close combat with a psyker. and finally if in close combat with a psyker before atacks are made both roll a 2d6 and add ld if the culexus wins the psyker losses with no save allowed. so this guy is really geared for psyker kill and also does not play well with others so keep him away from your guys.
the new guy has the speculum also and it is exactly the same. the etherium but now its a ld check on 3d6, a psyocculum which gives him bs10 if shooting a unit with a psyker and psyk-out grenades which now reduce daemons and psykers to I1when the culexus assaults them. so alot cool stuff but a lot better in my opinion. with the enhanced etherium hes harder to shoot which is great and with out the soulless rules he can now combo with the rest of your army most of which are psykers, so if he is near your forces he gets a huge shooting boost which makes for a great anti infantry unit. this guy kills psyker battle squads, i mean you get them out of their hard shell with anything else and then bam, a minimum of 12 bs10 s5 shots into a t3 unit they are soooo dead.
Verdict. again the new one just synergies better with an army. the old one is really cool and has some great abilities but the new one is just a little more stream lined.

EVERSOR:

ok so this Marbo on crack has a power weapon, melta bombs, an executioner pistol (combi bolt pistol, needle pistol (sx ap6 always wounds on 4+)), a Neuro-gauntlet which was a power weapon that always wounded on 4+ and always glanced vehicles on a 6+ regadless of armor value, and combat drugs which gave him a 12" charge and d6 extra attacks on a charge instead of +1. he also had fast shot, which stopped working once 5th started so we won't go into it, and bio meltdown!. bio-meltdown! meant that when he lost his last wound you centered a small blast over him and all units under it took a S5 hit. Over all i loved this guy. I still use with my witch hunters. hes the cheapest assassin and is really the master of killing troops and causing mayhem. he was simple and effective to use killing just about any basic troopers you put in his way.
And the new one? hes got the executioner pistol which is now 12" s4 ap2 poison (2+), melta bombs, neuro gauntlet (counts as lightning claw), frenzon (gives him his d6 extra attacks on the charge) and furious charge. not a bad set up. hes good at the assault but he has no reliable way to get in. he doesn't have stealth for enchanced cover he no longer has a calvary charge, and he can't infiltrate/outflank. so how do you get him into the assault with out borrowing some one elses transport? good question.
Verdict. the old is much better. the new one may hit harder on the assault but he has no built in reliable way to get there in my opinion. the old one could almost always get in and hit pretty hard always wounded on 4+ or better frankly and then takeing people out with him. to be honest i was greatly disappointed with the new version of this guy. at best hes a lone khorne berserk er now instead of the shadow of death looming over all your tiny week troopers. big fail on this one.

VINDICARE:

the unfeeling master of shooting lets see what this guy can do. originally he had a spy mask which reduced you cover save by one and made his night fighting vision roll a 2d6x5 instead of 2d6x3. he also had a stealth suit which made it always night fighting when trying to shoot at him basically. the exitus pistol which was a s5 ap2 12" pistol, and the exitus rifle. which was a 36" hits on 2+ ap 2 sniper rifle which could use 3 special rounds, though it could only use each round once per game. the shield breaker ignored invulnerable saves, the turbo-penetration did 2 wounds to target or 3d6 armor pen, and the helfire which wounded on 2+. he also had marksman which let him declare what model he was shooting at and shoot at any model in range and line of sight regardless of restrictions (letting him shoot into close combat and killing all your hidden power fists =)).
now he has blind grenades, stealth, infiltrate, and deadshot (wounds caused by vindicare are allocated by vindicare's controller). and his guns have changed slightly. they both are now Sx AP1 sniper weapons, with the pistol being 12" and a pistol and the rifle being 36" heavy 1. also both guns can use the special ammo which they must declare which type at the beginning of users turn, and oh yeah all special ammo is unlimited now. the hellfire is the same. the shield breaker now permanently removes an invulnerable save given by items or war gear immediately upon allocating the wound (so before the target gets to save). and the turbo-penetrator still inflicts 2 wounds instead of one to target (so you roll to hit once then roll to wound once and if you succeed the model takes 2 wounds...saves if any allowed), or rolls 4d6 for armor pen.
Verdict. its a close call the old had some nice defense with the night fight rule and nice offense with the shooting into close combat and reduction of cover saves. but the new can still shoot whom ever he wants can use special rounds in both guns and can always use special rounds which is a huge bonus. i have to say though i love the old the new is a fine remodeling of this hard core sniper.

Over all i guess i am more or less happy. the Vindicare is still good (probably better), the Culexus synergies better and is easier to use, the Callidus is ok, and the Eversor is meh. really the only disappointment for me is the Eversor. he just doesn't have that same crazy charm he used to. maybe he is better in play, which i will find out eventually. but i have a feeling that he will only play in my witch hunter now and when they get updated he will go to the shelf and only come out when i need renegade or chaos counts as marbo for my guard.

well I hope you enjoyed this wall of text. i got a silly grey knight Inquisition list in my head that i might talk about next post., but who knows something cooler might pop up then. Questions, Comments and Criticism always welcomed.

Until next time,
May the Emperor Protect.

the evolution of my current army list

Hey all. Since my followership has nearly doubled in the past month (up to 5 people now! ) i figured i should you know actually put something on my blog.
well to start i have been getting a lot more gaming in. i joined a 40k league at my FLGS and it has been great. I have learned a lot... like the fact that i suck at 4ok. I mean sure i had an idea I sucked but not to this level, but I am getting better. SO far in 9 games of league play i have been shut out (no points at all) in 8 of them, most of them were really close as in last turn possbile massive victories for 4 of them and they just went the wrong way. the last one i played i was able to win the primary objective but lost the secondary and third which resulted in a tie. So since i am learning stuff lets look at one of the things that was holding me back. my army list.



Now the most important part of 40K besides having fun is playing well. But, no matter how well you play if your list isn't good your going to have problems. so let us look at the list I ran for the first half of the league. Before anyone asks the league was set up with each player having a standard list for all there games (like a standard tournament) but they were allowed to modify it half way through the league (after the 5th game).
SO my list was:

Witch Hunters: Order of the Penitent Light

HQ
Saint Celestine: 201

TROOP
Battle Sister Squad: 166
10 sisters, Vet Superior, eviscerator, Book of Saint Lucius, 2x flamer
Rhino: 58pts
smoke launchers, extra armor

Battle Sister Squad: 166
10 sisters, Vet Superior, eviscerator, Book of Saint Lucius, 2x flamer
Rhino: 58pts
smoke launchers, extra armor

Battle Sister Squad: 166
10 sisters, Vet Superior, eviscerator, Book of Saint Lucius, 2x flamer
Rhino: 58pts
smoke launchers, extra armor

FAST ATTACK
Dominion Squad: 169
6 sisters, Vet Superior, Book of Saint lucius, 4x Meltagun, Melta-bombs (whole squad)
immolator: 73
extra armor, smoke

Dominion Squad: 169
6 sisters, Vet Superior, Book of Saint lucius, 4x Meltagun, Melta-bombs (whole squad)
immolator: 73
extra armor, smoke

Seraphim Squad: 210
8 sisters, Vet superior, power weapon, 2x hand flamers

HEAVY SUPPORT

Exorcist:140pts
extra armor

Exorcist:140pts
extra armor

TOTALS: 1847pts, 9 faith points, 14 kill points

so whats thew biggest problem you might ask? is it my HQ? no she was pretty useful actually? was it my exorcists? umm no excorcists are the bomb.
i know what your thinking it was the fact i am playing sisters. to this i say go to hell, sisters are a solid army and them sucking has more to do with people not knowing how to play them than the army being bad.

the real problem were those dominion squads. look at them i put way too much stuff into those squads. the biggest thing are the melta bombs. when i was writing the list i was like, " well if they don't blow up a tank in the shooting they can assault and kill it". this thought was frankly idiotic on my part. 4 melta guns at BS4 is almost guaranteed to kill any tank. honestly this much redundancy in one unit is a bad thing. i basicaly wasted about 24pt per squad. that basically left me at a 48pt disadvantage for all my games. i never used the bombs in any game and they reall just ended up wasting valuable army points

Second mistake i made was over specializing squads. since my Doms were so anti tank i made my normal sisters just anti-infantry which meant if i got out maneuvered i could be in a real pickle. for example i over extended with my Doms and HQ/serraphim and my troops were left alone with out any serious anti-tank/monstrous creature against some nids and a trygon popped up and just slammed one squad.

so to fix my list i had to fix a couple of problems. first spread the melta around. 4 squads shooting 1 melta each is better than one squad shooting 4 meltas. the second problem i had to fix was a lack of long range weaponry. sisters over all only have one long range weapon (the exorcists). if i lose my two in say the first turn (which happened several times) i have no covering fire to help my sisters out as they move into position. the third problem and this wasn't major was finding a good distraction or counter charge unit to take some heat off the rest of the army.
so after much thought I came up with the following list.

Witch Hunters: Order of the Penitent Light

HQ:
Canoness:140
Jump pack, Cloak of St Aspira, Rosarius, Eviserator, Book of Saint Lucius

Elite:
Inquisitor: 76
Rosarius, Psychic Hood, Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, melta bombs, frag grenades

Officio Assassinorum Operative: 95
Eversor

TROOP
Battle Sister Squad: 170
10 sisters, Vet Superior, eviscerator, Book of Saint Lucius, flamer, Meltagun
Rhino: 58pts
smoke launchers, extra armor

Battle Sister Squad: 170
10 sisters, Vet Superior, eviscerator, Book of Saint Lucius, flamer, Meltagun
Rhino: 58pts
smoke launchers, extra armor

Battle Sister Squad: 170
10 sisters, Vet Superior, eviscerator, Book of Saint Lucius, flamer, Meltagun
Rhino: 58pts
smoke launchers, extra armor

Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon: 350
Command Squad: power fist, medic, vox castor, 2x flamer
Infantry Squad: autocannon, vox castor
Infantry Squad: Autocannon, vox castor
Infantry Squad: Autocannon, vox castor
Infantry Squad: Meltagun, vox castor

FAST ATTACK
Seraphim Squad: 225
8 sisters, Vet superior, Eviserator, 2x hand flamers

HEAVY SUPPORT

Exorcist:140pts
extra armor

Exorcist:140pts
extra armor

TOTALS: 1850pts, 6 faith points, 17 kill points

so yeah i dropped the Doms and pulled the saint out for some points and made this. the guardsmen give us alot of covering fire and more scoring bodies to hold back field objectives. also the platoon command is an ok counter assault unit espcially when the Inquisitor is added. the Cannoness chills with the Serraphim for a bit for ablative wounds but usually goes off on her own to take on things like HQs, Monsterous creatures, Dreads, and that sort of bit. and she is quite good at it, even one shoting a furiosos dread one game (most awesome thing ever!). this makes her a very good distraction pulling some heat off the rest of the army for a couple of turns. the Inqusiitor besides bring an assassin with him brings a little more psychic protection, huray for unlimited range hood.. even at LD8 its still something. and he as mentioned before helps the platoon command be a decent counter charge unit. and the assassin is just there to bring as much havoc as possible to my opponents back field, again making for a good distraction. just throw him at some troops and watch something die and then lots of stuff try to kill him the next turn.


I am still learning to play this list but i will be probably my go to tourney list until the next Witch hunter codex comes out. which may be as soon as early next year if you believe the rumors.
Well that's all for now. questions comments and criticisms always welcomed. i will try to write more often in the future. i plan on giving my two cents on the supposed leaked pages of the new sister of battle test codex some time soon.
Well, until next time.
May the Emperor protect.