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After getting the Daemon Hunters Codex I decided to also get the second book of the Inquisition, The Witch Hunters Codex. And it has really got me thinking. I'm not sure if I should play a full Witch Hunters army, or use them as allies. And if I play a Witch Hunters army who I  should use as allies, IG, Space Marines, and/or Damon Hunters?

What do you guys think?

Mech Sisters is really the only way to play them (outside of CoD).

They don't work well as actual allies, since they need a lot of faith to be really effective. And they don't get a lot of faith unless you do a pure sisters army.

They're pretty fun to play with (IMO) being a mechanized force. They have a bit of everything and are surprisingly resilient when you need them to be with their ability to turn their saves invulnerable.

But if you don't have faith the whole army falls apart, so you really should look at doing a Mechanized Sisters army and see if it appeals to you.

If you're going to do allies....make WH as the core, bring in some IG and perhaps some greyknights.

Ig and sisters area good mix.

They're an army I've been toying around with and building up slowly.  Personally,I don't think Seraphim are worth it for the cost.   However,I've found that a 6-woman Dominion squad mounted in a twin H.Flamer Immolater w/4 flamers,an Imagifier,and a Vet.Superior w/combi-bolter/flamer is devastating if you can make a Divine Guidance roll.  This would probably be a better tactic to use with 10 Dominions in a Rhino. 

Between Sisters Repentia and Arco-Flagellants,you've got two pretty beastly CC units as well.  I typically stick the one Priest I buy so I can take the Arco Flaggellants with the Repentia,and find that works extremely well.

A couple of big mobs of 15-20 Sisters could cause some heavy shooting casualties,as until you get down to 11 models in the unit,you're going to pass your Divine Guidance rolls on anything but "boxcars."

The big weakness seems to be dealing with vehicles.  Besides Exorcists and melta-guns in Dominion squads,you don't really have a whole lot of tank-busting.  I think three Exorcists is pretty much going to be a must in making this army work.     

Mech Sisters are a very good list, probably not the top of the top, but they're solid, and many people won't know what they're up against until it's too late.

They have TONS of shooting, but it's almost all very short in range. The drive up, dump and shoot is a good use of their skills. With their Faith abilities, Bolters and Flamers can destroy even the hardest enemy units in a single turn.

As has been said, their biggest weakness is probably ranged tank killing. Exorcists are only S8, but they get a lot of shots, so they can do well against armor. Dominions with Meltas in a (mobile) vehicle are pretty much a sure Pen on any vehicle they can start a turn within 20" or so inches of, but the obvious exceptions apply (Monoliths, Falcons, etc.)

They're not great in CC, but they're good enough to hold their own against the counter-charge from the unit they just shot the crap out of, and their Faith abilities can help in CC as well.

Seraphim are a great unit, but a lot of care is required. They can jump on an enemy unit, fix it in place, stay alive long enough to Hit and Run after the opponent's turn, and leave the unit stranded for Rhinos to pounce on with Bolter and Flamer fire. They can also hang back, and then assault into a combat if a Rhino squad's shooting goes poorly and they're in assault with more than they can handle.

It's not rocket science, but make sure to read all the Faith rules a few times to make sure you have them all sorted out.  Bear in mind that 7 is the average on 2D6.  Notice what acts are likely to work when.  Proper use of Faith is what will probably most effect your results.  Pace your use of it, and use it when it's going to give you the most effect.  AP1 Templates into cover on 3+ save troops is smart.  Shooting Templates into cover on 3+ save troops, and realizing you have no Faith left, is dumb.

Hunt Witches, of course!

Posted By carmachu on 05/14/2007 4:13 PM
If you're going to do allies....make WH as the core, bring in some IG and perhaps some greyknights.

Ig and sisters area good mix.

Quoted for truthery.

Its about the only way to get lascannons in a sisters list. Well, actually, it is the only way you can get lascannons in a sisters list.

Sisters are awesome, but they lack a variety of weapons that can be found with the simple addition of merely a couple IG squads. Even if you fancy mortars (heaven forbid) youll get them with IG and all at the cost of a squad or two of sisters (or at the cost of a couple faith points, depending on your perspective).

thier CC units do look nifty but unfortunately they are the worst part of thier army

arcos?

congradulations on giving your opponant full VP for those when you set them on the table

penitent engines? open topred dreads with AV 11 and no ranged weapons-hardly ever make ti to where they can be effective

repentia-good at killing vehicles and little else

and the biggest problem with all these CC choices-once you commit them they are random, you have no control. they must assault the nearest enemy unit weather they can hurt it or not.

 

mechanized sisters with lots of flamers and faith points  or seraphim heavy sisters armies both with exorcist fire support(preferably all 3) are the best builds for the army. if you want to spice it up a bit the FW sister specific rhino called a repressor is a godsend. it has a vehicle pintle mounted  heavy flamer and pintle storm bolter, firing slits as well as a top hatch that your sister toteing the squad heavy flamer and another with a bolter can fire out of. all without being counted as open topped and the squad cannot be assaulted as they are still counted as being inside the tank.....great for dealing with gaunts and the like.

 

 

Their also AP1, which is a HUGE advantage.

Actually, arcos have not let me down yet, whether its a regular game or CoD. Thier a pretty solid unit.

Repentia are very iffy, but a decent counter charge unit, but extremely fragile.

Pentient engines.....CoD are great for them, otherwise forget it.

I have to side with mughi3 on the issue of sister hand to hand units. In general, they are really bad choices. They are frail, uncontrolable, and quite frankly just don't get the job done anywhere near as well as a basic sister squad in a rhino. So really, spend your points on more rhino squads, get more faith, and leave the hand to hand troops at home.

you can run a unit of arcos behind the rhino wall or use them as counter-charge if you're playing a more static force. Pretty good.

If you want sisters as allies you can take them with IG. I run a squad of seraphim occasionally, and they do fine. Just take them as counter charge and they do passably without any faith points. As it's been said before the rest of the units dont really perform that well alone as they really need divine guidance or invulnerable saves to be effective.

Just from an allies perspective, all the HtH elements of the witch hunters codex suck. They randomly attack and have crappy saves. Besides that they are way over priced. Maybe they'd be effective if you had huge amounts of terrain. As it is you need huge sqaud sizes to absorb the wounds they'll take and they'll really only be effective if your opponent is stupid enough to let them charge what you want and not lure them away.

Posted By mughi3 on 05/15/2007 1:58 AM

Between Sisters Repentia and Arco-Flagellants,you've got two pretty beastly CC units as well.  I typically stick the one Priest I buy so I can take the Arco Flaggellants with the Repentia,and find that works extremely well.

thier CC units do look nifty but unfortunately they are the worst part of thier army

arcos?

congradulations on giving your opponant full VP for those when you set them on the table

penitent engines? open topred dreads with AV 11 and no ranged weapons-hardly ever make ti to where they can be effective

repentia-good at killing vehicles and little else

and the biggest problem with all these CC choices-once you commit them they are random, you have no control. they must assault the nearest enemy unit weather they can hurt it or not.

 

mechanized sisters with lots of flamers and faith points  or seraphim heavy sisters armies both with exorcist fire support(preferably all 3) are the best builds for the army. if you want to spice it up a bit the FW sister specific rhino called a repressor is a godsend. it has a vehicle pintle mounted  heavy flamer and pintle storm bolter, firing slits as well as a top hatch that your sister toteing the squad heavy flamer and another with a bolter can fire out of. all without being counted as open topped and the squad cannot be assaulted as they are still counted as being inside the tank.....great for dealing with gaunts and the like.

 

 

I don't typically build lists with the plan that everything's going to be living in the end.  I expect some units to croak.  Running Arcos and/or Repentia up behind a wall of Rhinos/Immolators works pretty well,in theory.  It keeps them out of LOS,so they won't get shot up on the way up the field.  They'll also should be within assault range to support your 'mech units if/when you deploy them and/or their transports get shot out from under them and your opponent's CC units charge in.  With decent tactics,I've never run into problems with them assaulting units I don't want them to.  With a lot of "mobile terrain,"it shouldn't be excedingly difficult to create the assaults you want/need.  With the AF's d6 power weapon attacks,and the Repentia's S6 PW w/2d6 armor penetration,you're not going to be running into a lot of stuff those units can't hurt.

I've played SOBs for a couple of years now ,with and without allies ,and i find it a lot of fun ,much more than the vanilla marines i had before . Clearly it's a tricky army to play ,with the faith points and all ,but with a little practice ,it works well against most opponents (especially if they've never had to face nuns with guns before) .

As allies ,i use the IG ,but mostly for fluff reasons ,they go well together ,the support choices are welcome for long range  anti-tank ,and it looks good on the table .

It's true that faith makes the difference in most fights ,including HTH ,so learning how to combine acts of faith is crucial  IMHO .

The most effective units are the seraph and the basic infantry , i never had much success with the arcos or the P-engines and the repentias are a disaster ,

Lately ,i've played an all sister army against my usual opponents ( bit of everything but the Tau) and did well , but my pleasure comes mostly from fielding a good-looking army,original in its looks and tactics ,on a nice table ,

heres's the link of our little band :

http://skaarbeek.freehostia.com/index.php

I was looking at the Infantry Platoons and had some questions. Is it 60 pts for a squad of 10 guys or what? Then an Infantry Platoon would be 160 points min right? (Junior officer, and 2 squads)

Yes, 160 points for a barebones infantry platoon.

Go full-on Sisters. You need the faith points. Give every squad a Flamer and Heavy Flamer, and use the faith power (forgot which one) that gives you AP1 stuff. It kills... bad.

And dont forget to ALWAYS take blessed ammo for your vehicles. It all but eliminates the pathfinder threat.

I occasionally add a WH Inq Lord (and assassin) to my SM. I usually take it for the Liber Heresius and the morale attacking powers of the Inq.

The LH is just icing on the cake, but I've found that being able to choose sides makes things much easier. The other powers are much more useful. Got a problem with the SM player on the other side having every model with Ld 10? --Reduce his Master's Ld to 7 with . Have an enemy squad (particularly heavy weapons) sitting in a really good place? --Use the <another power whose name eludes me> to make them take a morale test using the difference between their Ld and the Inq's Ld as a negative modifier (works well with a vindicare who can snipe the vet), since even SM fail morale tests on 6.

Are those game breaking things? No. Are they fun and characterful? I think so (and enjoy playing with them).