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A very experienced player in my area has a very strong witch hunters army. I have never played against the sisters yet, and am wanting to get some advice since I will likely play against the army some time. I play orks, and can provide some idea of what I have available if need be, but mostly I'm looking for some understanding on who the sisters work as an army, what to watch out for, and what works against them.
Again, I know very little about the with hunters army, and have only observed as best I can this player use them a couple times, but they seem problematic.
The largest concern I have is the Inquisitorial henchmen. He seems to be using an odd interaction of rules between wound alocation abuse and henchmen that redistribute the wounds. I've seen the squad take dozens of wounds, and lose only a couple models.
This player raves about Saint Celestine, is she really as amazing as he says.
Anything else to watch out for and know about?

Witch Hunters still have retinues for their characters. That means they can't be picked out in combat. Pratically every model in a retinue can have different wargear combinations but I think to have every model unique the retinue would have 3 Acloytes, 3 warriors and 1 of the other 4 (so a ten strong retinue)

Saint Celestine doesn't have EW annd is T3. Yes she can come back to life but it's from reserve and it's likely that she won't do much after coming back on the board.

If the player is using sisters then fire, melta and bolter are their strengths.

t3 is their weakness.

The Henchmen things seems fine. They can take a henchman called the Acolyte (up to two), that can take wounds the Lord would otherwise take. He can also take up to 15 points of equipment from the armory (Power Armor/Artificer Armor - not sure if Artificer is available in the Sisters codex). That's with the wounds. Further, with the Chirugeon, the Lord can ignore the first wound he takes unless it's ID, or a CC attack that allows no armor save.

Celestine is power, but not overwhelming. Her armor is great (2+/4++), and her blessed weapon is also a Heavy Flamer (used it once to torch a squad of DE warriors in cover). She has a 12" move in movement, AND a 6" assault move even without assaulting. She can also come back to life if she passes a Leadership test upon dying (whereupon she enters reserve with one wound). She also confers 3 Faith points to the army, and confers fearless onto units she joins. I do really like Celestine, but if you have good CC or AP2 weaponry, you can take her down with concentrated fire from those, or even with small arms, since she is T3, W3.

WH Inquisitors can also get Chirurgeons.

Acolytes allow one wound per acolyte, per phase.
Chirurgeons allow the inq to ignore one unsaved wound per phase. (Including ID or power/AP, if you have two.)

IIRC, it goes something like this:
3xAcolytes with Power Armor, 1 w/SB, 1 with B, 1 with BP/CCW
2xChirurgeons
3xWarriors with 2xPlasmaGun (or 2x Heavy Bolter) and 1xPlasmaC
2xSage (One reroll to hit)

Each turn you allocate any 'big' shots to the Inq and let him ignore the first one. Then normal shots to the acolytes, etc.

Put the unit in cover and you have a very durable unit that can throw some anti-infantry fire down board.

TheRedArmy wrote: They can take a henchman called the Acolyte (up to two), that can take wounds the Lord would otherwise take. He can also take up to 15 points of equipment from the armory (Power Armor/Artificer Armor - not sure if Artificer is available in the Sisters codex). That's with the wounds. Further, with the Chirugeon, the Lord can ignore the first wound he takes unless it's ID, or a CC attack that allows no armor save.

3 Acloytes actually. And Arty armour is not in the book.

And with 2 chirgeons the Lord can ignore the 1st wound a turn regardless or source.

To answer your original question (What should I know if I play orks?):

Sisters have a lot of template weapons, which you don't like as a low armor save army. They have little long ranged anti-tank and excel at the close shooting game.

What they don't do well is assault. Do not rely on power weapons to kill them (as they can be invulnerable) but do rely on volume of fire (or swings in hand to hand). T3 and S3 really handicaps them in this area.

pretre wrote:To answer your original question (What should I know if I play orks?):

Sisters have a lot of template weapons, which you don't like as a low armor save army. They have little long ranged anti-tank and excel at the close shooting game.

What they don't do well is assault. Do not rely on power weapons to kill them (as they can be invulnerable) but do rely on volume of fire (or swings in hand to hand). T3 and S3 really handicaps them in this area.

Their 12" shooting is rather deadly. But in assualt they'll be toast. Unless an act is called and passed or something.

Sisters can pose a nasty surprise to Marines as they can get rending on all their attacks(ranged and CC), but rending doesn't mean much to orks.

you really want to get into CC ASAP as they can bring a ton of Flamers. a God sister army is completely Mech with alot of rhinos for Drive-by flaming.

okay so as a long time sister's player I gotta say I disagree with most of the advice that has been given mainly because it does not revolve around the sister's army. everyone talks about getting into CC quickly, but nearly ever sister unit can get a 3++ save in cc so its not necessarily worth it. First off I have to ask you what army are you playing because that matters tremendously. 2nd what type of sister's army are you playing against? footsloggers? triple exorcist immolator spam? because tactics can vary accordingly.

A few base line tactics I can advise. First and foremost sisters excel at ranges from 18 - 6 inches. That is in rapid fire bolter range, as well as melta and triple flamer range. Base your tactics around avoiding engaging the sister's there. Sister's greatest weakneses IMO is there lack of mobility. If you have fast vehicle use them to your advantage. stay out of close range as much as possible, even a stunned result can hamper a sister's turn.

Now as for specific tactics
1) Rapid firing plasma guns can destroy WH characters through volume of fir
2) if they have 3 excorcists take them out ASAP 2 is annoying and 1 isn't much. This evaluation is based on you not playing tyrandis, if you are then take out all excorcists as first target
3) Do not let your opponent take advantage of acts of faith shenanigans. 3++ SAVE CANNOT be activated after your wound rolls they must be declared earlier. If your are contested ask him or her to read thge book. This could be a big deal.
4) Take out transports. If you are playing against a mech army, if you take out transports you render thier army worthless because they have no range. You can stay afar and whittle away units with impunity
4) Avoid using small hammer units like SM biker command squads, mega nobs, or 5 man TH SS termies, because 3x rending flamers + 14 rapid fire bolters WILL end them. massed assaults are much better.

I hope this helps

the OP is playing orks.

3+ armor and 3++ invuln are no different when Ork boyz are involved.

sure, the PK will bounce, but all those Boy attacks will kill the sisters quickly.

lol he is playing orks which has been stated multiple times and i think multi-assaulting mobs of boyz with warboss/nobz (not bikers, just battewagon big choppa set ups) for precision killing.

He is playing orks. Assaulting is his only real big way of hitting.

Another thing I might suggest (not sure cuz im no ork player) but 3x small loota units might help to down their average armor of AV11

Lootas will certaintly drop those expensive rhinos quickly.

That is what made me think 3 small units would fit the role perfectly?