Sisters of battle

As per the title, I have a battle this Saturday vs. Sisters of battle/inquisitor army.

A few questions on this army:

1. What do the special rules "shield of faith" and the various "act of faith" rules do?

2. Are they fearless? (wondering if torment grenade launchers would work on them)

Any other advice vs. Sisters of Battle?

I believe Shield of Faith gives a 6++ save.

They are NOT Fearless universally, but they do have Ministorum Priests who are. Just remember, if you hit a unit with a Priest in it even thought the unit is Fearless from the priest the wounds can still be allocated to the other models in the unit, as they don't actually have the Fearless rule (and thus aren't exempt from Soulfright).

Their special rules Shield of Faith & Act of Faith are basically a constant invulnerable save and a series of once per game buffs.

The Shield of Faith is the 6++, which sounds unimpressive except that all their vehicles have it for free too.

Each Act of Faith varies depending on the unit casting it. Each unit has a unique one; the most common you'll find is to grant the basic Battle Sister units preferred enemy for a turn (I think).

For all Acts of Faith, the unit has to pass a ldr check to succeed, with base Ld 8 or so. The Priests don't boost Ld, even if they're purchased and attached to units, so any ldr attacking debuffs you have can be helpful at screwing with their Acts.

As for general advice:

Their basic units can pack 2 special weapons per 5 models, and their veteran versions can get 4 weapons and then throw a combi-weapon on the leader as well. Their even the little units are pretty scary. Sisters players usually spam meltaguns, but if he knows you're playing Dark Eldar he might stack up on Flamers.

Lots of Sister players spam MSU battle sisters in Immolators backed up by Exorcists because they're pretty cool, unique units. Think of them as Razorbacks with multi meltas and Predators with multiple shot (d6) Ap1 Krak Missiles respectively, and remember they all have that 6++.

Almost all their infantry come stock with BS4 and a 3+ save, so if you shoot them with poison, they're as tough as marines. Tougher, in fact, if their 6++ comes into play. However, they're only WS/S/T/I 3, so if you get them in close combat, they're a lot weaker than marines. They buy exceedingly few combat upgrades, so even basic Kabalites are decent in close combat with them in a pinch once PfP stacks up. Furthering the comparison to marines, sisters also don't have ATSKNF, so if you can win a round, you can possibly sweep them. If you have any Grotesques, they will completely stomp sisters...

was thinking of using a grotesquerie.    Just need to get them painted!  (I refuse to play unpainted miniatures against this guy)  

Game has been moved a week back, so that may give me time (though 6 grots is a lot).

If I don't get my grots done, may just need to crack out my wyches.   Suboptimal I know, but could actually be fun against S/T 3.    Pair them with an Autach with banshee mask so that they make the charge into combat.

Alterantively, reaver spam could be really fun too!

Reavers and Wyches might be a bit sketchy with how many flamers could be present. Overwatch would seriously hurt them. But I think they might do alright versus sisters if they can reach close combat. Give it a spin. Sisters and Dark Eldar are regarded among the weakest armies so it should be an close(ish) match up

Silverglade wrote:

As per the title, I have a battle this Saturday vs. Sisters of battle/inquisitor army.

A few questions on this army:

1.  What do the special rules "shield of faith" and the various "act of faith" rules do?

2.  Are they fearless?  (wondering if torment grenade launchers would work on them)

Any other advice vs. Sisters of Battle?

1. Shield of Faith gives Adamantium Will and a 6++. Acts of Faith effects vary by unit so let me just do a run down:
Canoness: Hartred during the Assault Phase
Sororitas Command Squad: Fleet, Crusader, Move through Cover during movement phase
Celestians: Furious Chard during assault phase
Repentia: 3+ Feel no Pain during assault phase
Battle Sisters: Preferred Enemy during shooting or assault phase
Dominions: Ignores Cover during shooting phase
Seraphim: Shred during shooting phase
Retributors: Rending during shooting phase
Celestine: Only can use if dead, comes back to life with full wounds (since she's not on the table when testing she can't be affected by Ld modding when using it)

Units can attempt their Acts once per game (+1 attempt if they have a Simulacrum (though if the Simulacrum dies before they use their AoF they lose the normal use of it), +1 attempt if Jacobus is in the unit (Jacobus auto-passes his use of it)) by taking a leadership test. If a model with the Martyrdom rule dies (and stays dead in the case of Celestine) the army can auto-pass their Faith Tests for that turn.

Priests have War Hymns as well. The priest takes a Ld test during the assault phase (on their leadership, not the units as the test is taken by that model, and not the unit) and if passed they get one of three rules:
1. Unit re-rolls failed armour and invulnerable saves
2. Priest gains Smash
3. Priest and unit re-roll failed to-wound rolls.

If the unit has multiple priests they effects stack. There is also a relic that lets the bearer auto-pass acts of faith and war hymn tests.

2. Priests have Zealot (which is not the same thing as fearless) and have a low Ld (7) for testing their War Hymns on, and Repentia, and Celestine are Fearless, and anyone 12" of Jacobus is Fearless and has Counter-attack. Otherwise the Canoness is Stubborn and everything else has Marine Ld stats.

3. Other stuff:
Exorcists will make you cry. They're a predator tanks with a 360 degree Line of Sight weapon that fires 48" S8, AP1 D6 times. The GW one can go full hull down behind Rhinos and still shoot you too (Line of sight is drawn from the organ pipes, which are the weapon, but you can't target weapons to shoot the tank back). It also has Shield of Faith to help keep it alive. That said, outside of the Heavy Bolter it is the army's longest range weapon so taking them out really shortens the distance of the army.

Sisters can take Ignores Cover in every unit that packs guns thanks to flamers and heavy flamers. So watch your ranges lest you get barbecued out of cover or your transports. Combi-flamers are usually fairly popular, and Celestine (who has a Heavy Flamer sword) with a unit of Seraphim with Twin-Hand Flamers tend to run a muck a lot too when they get their Shred AoF off. Celestine is Daemon Prince fast (I7) and hits at WS7 too. That said, she really does better mowing down troops than fist fighting an HQ as she's only T3 with 3 wounds and no Eternal Warrior. Her real bonus is she has 6 attacks on the charge and wounds on a 4+ or better so she can reasonably threaten anything in the game that isn't a vehicle. Seraphim also have a rule that lets them re-roll failed AoF tests and SoF saves too. This means they almost always get shred off when they want too, and effectively have a 3+/5++. With their Hit and Run rule with Celestine's I7, if they get caught in combat (or charge to try and finish a unit but fail to kill it) they can break off from combat fairly well as well to turn and fry the unit they ran from afterwards.

Dominons are another unit to look out for as a popular use for them is to scout forward and on their first turn disembark and fry something with 4-5 (depending on if they took a combi-melta or combi-flamer) ignores cover melta hits. They usually die immediately afterwards if run as a MSU in a Immolator (often with TL-multimeltas (for helping crack transports and big tanks), or TL heavy flamers (to fry things that were inside of a transport) depending on the unit's role).

A popular unit build is 2 Priests (1 with the auto-pass relic), 3 Crusaders (Power Swords and Storm Shields but only WS4 1 attack) and 4 Death Cult Assassins (2 Power Swords each, 5++ save, hits with WS5 with 2 attacks base, +1 for 2 CCW, +1 for charging means they hit with 16 S3, AP3 attacks at I6 on the charge, usually re-rolling the wounds). Personally I've put Jacobus and a nameless priest in the unit a lot because he gives them Fearless and Counter-attack while the Priest carries the relic to auto-pass the War Hymn tests. This makes a surprisingly durable deathstar despite being T3 and focused on stabbing people in the face (for the Emperor Corpse God).

From personal experience fielding them they basically play like a short ranged Marines army that dies a little easier to most weapons thanks to quantity of wounds, and their biggest strengths are in short ranged shooting. The few close combat units can't really be spammed effectively (one being an HQ choice, the other being an Elites choice and now that Repentia only have a 6++ save outside of their AoF attempt (save for the Mistress of Repentance who wears Power Armour) they die too easily to consider running, even if a unit of raging Eviscerators can delete things from the table surprisingly well on the charge) so the strength of the army is 12" or less shooting and it can do a pretty good job doing that. Nearly everything has an Invul save of some kind (outside of Penitent Engines and Arco-flagellants) so low AP weapon won't kill them automatically, but with only T3 they'll have to take more saves than Marines do.

Overall the army is it's own beast that combines aspects of Eldar (specialised units, T3/S3 namely) and Marines (saves, similar wargear) with a splash of normal humanity (most things are I3). It needs to get in close to do most of its damage, has 3 formations that are apoc only (preventing the army from doing anything super clever) and the army is stuck playing either Unbound or CAD.

There isn't a lot of variety of builds either. I ran the 10 Sister base squads in Rhinos with a reasonable support but the other build is MSU with Immolators and spamming those like crazy.

As someone with SOB army and now am very upset b.c the new faqs I cant have Drop pods everyone seems to have given you amazing advice but just to make sure you know how important it is, SOB can have MANY units that will make you cry.

Rending Heave Flamers
Ignore Cover Melta Guns with Scout
All Vehicles with TL-Heavy Flamers or TL-Melta Guns (some with Scout)

Both that will completely destroy you.

They are Best played MSU army, with 12 ish Vehicles (give or take 2 due to point levels) with Metla's/HF's everwhere

Many LOVE the Exorcists, I personally dont like them and dont play them, for a few points more you can have Rending Heavy Flamers, there are ways to teleport and DS them with allies, I always do WAY more damage with them, there are times I will kill a whole unit AND a vehicle other times 2 units.

Played my game.  

I won 9 points to 5.

He took:
St. Celestine with a squad of 10 searphim
2 squads of troops in the SOB transport
2 Exorcists. (that`s the one with the random D6 hits right?)
1 devastator squad
Coteaz with a squad of henchmen
Command squad in transport including his sister superior or whatever she's called.


I took:
1 squad of wraithguard w. Archon WWP and huskblade
2 squads of scatterbikes w. farseer
2 squads of scourge with haywire
1 squad of 6 reavers
2 ravagers
2 squads of warriors in venoms
1 dark artisan formation

At the end of the game, he had st. celestine and one seraphim on one end of the table, and 2 models from his command squad left.

The overall heroes of my army were the dark artisan formation though.   They just chewed things up.

Silverglade wrote:

Played my game.  

I won 9 points to 5.

He took:
St. Celestine with a squad of 10 searphim
2 squads of troops in the SOB transport
2 Exorcists. (that`s the one with the random D6 hits right?)
1 devastator squad
Coteaz with a squad of henchmen
Command squad in transport including his sister superior or whatever she's called.


I took:
1 squad of wraithguard w. Archon WWP and huskblade
2 squads of scatterbikes w. farseer
2 squads of scourge with haywire
1 squad of 6 reavers
2 ravagers
2 squads of warriors in venoms
1 dark artisan formation

At the end of the game, he had st. celestine and one seraphim on one end of the table, and 2 models from his command squad left.

The overall heroes of my army were the dark artisan formation though.   They just chewed things up.

He took a rather weak list IMO. And yes the Exorcist is the Random D6 shots. Only 5 Vehicles... thats not god, they might be armor 3, but SOB are T3 with amazing short-mid range shooting, they really need there Vehicles kinda like DE. Seraphim are very fun, but honestly not worth it most the times, and taking 1 squad of 10 isn't good at all, if you take 10 you always take 2 units b.c you only get 2 special weapons, so taking 2 units will get you 4 special weapons.

But Grats on the win!

PS what points level you played at?

My list ATM (b.c we are playing with new faqs, and due to those I cant use my drop pods now, so this list is for the faqs)

Canoness

Battle Sister Squad x5: HF, Melta, Immolator: Melta
Battle Sister Squad x5: HF, Melta, Immolator: Melta
Battle Sister Squad x5: HF, Melta, Immolator: Melta
Battle Sister Squad x5: HF, Melta, Immolator: Melta

Dominion Squad x5: x4 Melta, Immolator: Melta
Dominion Squad x5: x4 Melta, Immolator: Melta
Dominion Squad x5: x4 Melta, Immolator: Melta

Retributor Squad x5: x4 HF, Immolator: Melta
Retributor Squad x5: x4 HF, Immolator: Melta
Avenger Strike Fighter

Cerastus Knight-Lancer

Against the New SM list it does extremely well, it is for sure a Rock, Paper, Scissors list, Eldar and Tau going 1st does enough damage "most the time" to ensure a victory, BUT with Scouts after Seize rolls now, my Dominion Squads do MUCH BETTER.

It looks like a boring list, but honestly it is alot of fun.