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I played this game vs. Denny, a regular opponent from my game group. I’m continuing to experiment with new list configuration and he’s getting a handle on his psychic phase… he brings 10 psykers at 2000 points, and my list must be super annoying to test them on. We had a fun game, but a short one with a not-ideal ending, which I’ll detail in a bit.

Mac’s Adepta Sororitas Brigade + Battalion


Denny’s Thousand Sons


We played Strategic Gamble (CA18) on a Vanguard Strike (diagonal) deployment map with scant cover and mostly LoS blocking terrain. My opponent deployed first, keeping Terminators and Tzangors in reserve, spreading Rubrics and Sorcerers evenly across the front line, and anchoring the center with Magnus, his Warlord, and the Helbrute. I deployed second, with Exorcists across from Magnus, BSS spread evenly to set the front line and screen the backfield, one flank overloaded with all the Dominion Rhinos, Celestians, Retributers, and the HQ aura blob, and the Seraphim in reserve.

My Vanguard move was a realization of a tactic I’ve been thinking on for a while that I’m calling Musical Rhinos, though I’m far from the first to do it. In theory, I’d move my Dominion Rhinos into no man’s land with the Vanguard move, keeping them in the 4+ aura 6” bubble from Celestine and the Warlord AND leaving them close enough that additional units could embark during my Turn 1 Movement. By design, these would be the Celestians, the Retributers, and some assorted Characters as mission and opponent suggested. The Rhinos then Advance and deploy Smoke Launchers to survive until Turn 2, when three Dominions, Celestians, Retributers, and Characters disembark, move, and hopefully hit hard with short range shooting and Bloody Rose charges. Additional BSS can then embark in empty Rhinos to go claim distant objectives.

In this game, my opponent cracked a Rhino on Turn 1 (Death Hex took out the invulnerable save and Smite, Soulreapers, and the lascannon Helbrute did the damage). This disembarked a unit of Melta Doms and gave me a tough choice to make on my turn when it came time to mount up. Elsewhere, I had failed to screen my Exorcists effectively from the front, but Magnus failed a charge and took some damage from a lucky missile. The rest of the turn was bearable as I suppressed most of the Psychic phase with the Brazier and range limited the Shooting phase. My opponent’s objective cards gave up several VPs on top of First Strike.

On my Turn 1 I tried to salvage my plan: I re-embarked the newly disembarked Melta Doms and the Heavy Flamer Retributers in the two surviving Rhinos, leaving the Celestians and Character blob to walk. (This kept them out of the action longer that I’d have liked. If I’d had it to do over, I’d have disembarked 2 units of Stormbolter Doms out the front of the Rhinos, as they would have landed in rapid fire range, and embarked all of my short-range specialists to move out for a Turn 2 strike.) The Exorcists got an expensive boost from the Canoness (Divine Guidance + Vessels of the Emperor’s Will) and focused on Magnus, leaving him with a single wound. Recklessly thinking the odds were in my favor, I charged Magnus with the 2 BSS screens, but they failed to take his last wound. His attacks wiped out an entire squad. I missed First Strike and only squeezed 2 VPs from my cards.

On Turn 2, the Psychic phase was pretty well shut down again, although Magnus got some nice buffs and a Sorcerer freed him from combat so he’d be able to charge. My opponent overlooked his Deep Strikers. A second Rhino took heavy damage in the Shooting phase in the same manner as they first, but survived the turn thanks to Smoke and a re-established Celestine Cathedral aura. Magnus charged successfully and one-shotted an Exorcist, but he hadn’t anticipated the right positioning to consolidate any further. The cards went my opponent’s way again, bringing him multiple VPs.

On my Turn 2, the game of Musical Rhinos began to intensify. I unloaded Melta Doms, two units of Stormbolter Doms, and the Heavy Flamer Retributers, all into effective weapon range, and embarked two BSS into the Rhinos, who then lined up for a charge. The Celestians and Characters continued to hustle on foot. I remembered to Deep Strike my big Seraphim squad with Burning Descent, and in the absence of a backfield screen, they took a couple of points off his Warlord. In the Shooting phase, the Melta Doms were just in range to hit the Helbrute hard, who blew up and took the last of the Warlord’s points with him. I finished off Magnus with small arms fire. I used Holy Trinity on the Retributers (they’d brought a combi-melta for this purpose) and Blessed Bolts on the Dominions to knock down some Rubrics, but the combination of cover and All is Dust meant they were still saving on 2+ for the most part. The Exorcists, with nothing big left to shoot at, took off a few more Rubrics. I made a few superficial charges, but the Bloody Rose bonus wasn’t enough without the Character auras that were still jogging up the field. I was dominating the model-count and board-control elements of the game, but the cards were stingy again and we ended Turn 2 something like 11-4.

In Turn 3, the Terminators and Tzangors arrived to take out the Seraphim and Melta Doms. A prolonged melee continued between Rubrics, Dominions, and Retributers, limiting the Shooting potential of my turn, but Blessed Bolts devastated the Terminators, and the Exorcists continued to chip away at Rubrics in cover. The Celestians and Characters finally got into charge range and finished off a handful of Rubrics and a Sorcerer. My opponent’s good fortune with objective cards continued, but I was finally starting to close the gap.

It was late, and it was looking like my main strategy would be to keep a few Rubrics alive while I chased points… I had the mobility and the models to do it over the turns we had left, but it wasn’t a very satisfying idea. We called it after three turns (and a fourth of Theoryhammer) and gave the win to the Thousand Sons on VPs (somewhere around 14-9?). If we’d had no place to be, we might have played it out, and I felt like a win was in reach… but the points are the points, and nobody wants 2 turns of toying with the enemy to eke out a win.

I was pleased with the play of the army. I’m definitely going to revisit Musical Rhinos… I can see that the army must move differently when it goes first than when it goes second, and I need to get my measurements right to make it work. The 4+ invuln plus Smoke Launchers made for some tough Rhinos… if he hadn’t had Death Hex they’d have been even tougher. Immolators are great on offense, but being able to cycle a second squad (and sometimes a third) through the Rhinos and leapfrog them into effective shooting range is pretty useful. Bloody Rose was solid, but not game-changing. Stratagems all seemed worth their cost… Vessels was well spent as it nearly finished Magnus in Turn 1.

A couple of photos: