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Ok, I have an IG army and Im going to have a nice infantry SM army...but for some reason, after some reading on GW.com...Iv been thinking about starting up a SOB army...now at times I can put in IG or SM to aid in the fight...do you think itd be worth it to do SOB? Or is it just another army thats not worth paying for and playing??

Witch Hunters can be a very effective force, but I'd advise against taking IG or SM units at all, it's just not worth it really.

And if you're doing anyhting other than msotly friendly play, stay away from anything that isn't in Power Armour (a.k.a. Sister Repentias, Inquistitors, Archos, etc.). They don't really make for an optimised army, but they can be quite fun. If you want optimisation, just take Battle Sisters.

SoB are a fun but challenging force. Do it, but know what you're getting into, both on the tabletop (lack of long-range AT, limited efficient choices) and off (scarcity of new material from GW, expensive minis).

Also, a WH army can't have SoBs as well as inducted Marines. If you want to add Marines, they'll have to be GKs.

it may be just me, but i believe that neither ordo of the Inquisition can take SM as well as their chapter/order. SOB's are possibly the most fun army fluff wise. they have great models and you can have quite large numbers backed up by faith and the holy trinity.

lol well by my mistake I put SoB, when I meant was Witch Hunters...but some of your replies confused me...you said that I should ally them with SM? Now I havent looked at the WH codex in a very long time, and at this time, I have almost nothing to work with besides the internet, and would taking SM along with Witch Hunters be a good choice?

Dunno. Only ever fielded SoB as a pure force, or as an allie to my IG army. The girls are a riot to play! Always had a lot of fun. They used to have quite the following on the yahoo! groups, dunno if those are still active. Have ranged firepower issues, but up close they can get quite toasty. They are quite challenging for competitive play.

What kind of a list are you looking at? What models are attracting you to the WH?

Well, someone was telling me one time about how cheap the SoB are points wise, and at 11pnts, thats awesome, especially when they are alot like the SM (minus a few stats) and I just started reading up on them on GW.com, and for some reason it struck me as interesting. I started liking the models more and more, and I noticed that they (WH) could ally with SM or IG. Plus, I dont think Iv ever seen a SoB or WH army played since Battle for the Lonestar at Grapevine Mills Mall in Texas a few years back, but they were played by an older woman who didnt bring the models justice with her paint scheme...but I felt itd be interesting to see what people think of them. But all in all, I thought itd be interesting to get an army that was the opposite of me, I like mass infantry shooty Marine armies, so I figured SoB who everyone says is good in CC...

Well, someone was telling me one time about how cheap the SoB are points wise, and at 11pnts, thats awesome, especially when they are alot like the SM (minus a few stats) and I just started reading up on them on GW.com, and for some reason it struck me as interesting. I started liking the models more and more, and I noticed that they (WH) could ally with SM or IG. Plus, I dont think Iv ever seen a SoB or WH army played since Battle for the Lonestar at Grapevine Mills Mall in Texas a few years back, but they were played by an older woman who didnt bring the models justice with her paint scheme...but I felt itd be interesting to see what people think of them. But all in all, I thought itd be interesting to get an army that was the opposite of me, I like mass infantry shooty Marine armies, so I figured SoB who everyone says is good in CC...

Huh? Who says SoBs are good in CC? They're not. They have some decent CC support choices, but their forte is short-range firefights.

Well maybe I mistook "close up" for CC..cause I know their WS is 3, which isnt the best...

Sisters are best in-game at rapid fire range bolter'ing. If they can hit you with flamers and get lots of free hits, that's when they do even more damage.

CC they can hold and delay, but really don't beat anyone in CC.

Ok, (I dont have my rule book yet, its still in the mail) but I read that SoB in 4thED can take SM along with them...or did I read that wrong and its just WH?

There is no 4th ed update for SoB/WH so far. They're still using the 3rd ed WH codex. And no, you can't use inducted SMs in a WH army together with SoB. You can have SoB + inducted IG, though.

You can run a smurf army with SOB if you want to. Most people don't, but they are neato.

Working them into your IG army as allies is a nice way to start building up your sisters. I've had a lot of fun including a flying Canoness(with all the upgrades) and one or two small Seraphim units, as "countercharge" for an IG gunline. The sisters' lack of ranged power is made up for by guard lascannons/battlecannons, and the squishy guard really appreciate something mobile that can tie up assault units (especially when hit&run can open up the unit for guard shooting again). I run them with maximum inferno pistols and eviscerators to threaten vehicles/termies.

If you upgrade the Sera Superiors, you get 4 faith points to play with, plus a free act of faith from the canoness' magic book, plus more once they start dying. That's a lot of (2+ or 3+) invulnerable saves...

That gives you a good base for a sisters army; while using the IG+seras+canoness for playing (and to get used to using Faith Points), you can start painting up some 10-girl squads + rhinos, and exorcist tanks to round out a full mech SOB army.

I've ran a sisters army with a couple of Armoured Fist squads it worked out pretty well using the guard and meat sheilds and objective sitters and the chimeras as mobile cover and gun platforms. Its not as expensive an option as one might think since you don't have to have any IG infantry platoons to bring in the AFs.

Strangelooper:

If you upgrade the Sera Superiors, you get 4 faith points to play with

Whether you upgrade the Seraphim Superiors is irrelevant, since they are naturally faithful. It's a good idea, though.

The only real reason you would want inducted IG is to add some long ranged firepower, since as noted earlier the sisters ar emore specialised at short ranged shooting.

That being said, the main reason people will steer you away from combining them with non sisters units is because of faith. sisters of battle are effective because of the strategic use of faith points. the more non-sisters units you have, the less faith points you have for your army.

Just to clarify: You don't get extra faith from upgraded Sister Superiors in Seraphim units.

You get an extra dice roll a turn from her, and access to wargear; but they are already faithful.

tegeus-Cromis wrote:Strangelooper:

If you upgrade the Sera Superiors, you get 4 faith points to play with

Whether you upgrade the Seraphim Superiors is irrelevant, since they are naturally faithful. It's a good idea, though.

(and ditto from Stelek)


Whoops, you're both right of course (redface), you do get the FPs anyways. I always upgrade the Sera Superior since the squads are usually around 6-8 in size, so the upgrade helps with passing faith tests of either roll-high or roll-low. I forgot that un-upgraded Seras are still Faithful - I never run them without the upgrade...

I used to run two small inferno squads. Run in, pop a tank, try and live. Only cause 3 exorcists just won't cut it.

You can ally Sisters to Marines, just not Marines to Sisters. Because apparently having an Exorcist in addition to Las/plas is just too powerful?

I play Sisters, and the main trouble one has is the balance between being within 12" to rapid fire, but outside hand to hand where Str3 is a huge problem. This makes armies like Tau and IG pretty easy to fight, while MEQ can be an issue.
What you should probably do is get a few Sisters and ally them to your guard to see how you like them. Seraphim are the obvious choice, since Hit and Run is excellent for tying up assault units, only to leave them hanging while you zip into their back field to melta bomb a tank.

The big trick, other than the "Good between 12" and 1"" is the weapons load out. No powerfists, just expensive two handed chain fists. No heavy bolter in standard squads (Heavy flamer though is kind of neat). Anything not in power armor is questionable (though Inquisitors can really work well.) Anything that doesn't give Faith is highly questionable.

Now, that said, the units are cheap on a point per model level. The Ld is great. The Acts of Faith, while not all very good, really leave you a lot of options. Being able to take a 3+ invulnerable when your Seraphim get charged by Captain Power Weapon is amusing. The look on your opponent's face when all 5 attacks bounce is doubly so. Dropping MEQ's with flamers that are AP1 on 6's to wound is great too.

When you get right down to it, they are not top tier. They take a while to paint. They are expensive. I also love them dearly, largely due to how much well played Acts of Faith can change a game. I just wish things like Repentia, Penitent Engines and Celestians would get a bit of a rules tweak, because cool as the ideas are, they just are not that good.

Wehrkind wrote:You can ally Sisters to Marines, just not Marines to Sisters. Because apparently having an Exorcist in addition to Las/plas is just too powerful?

It isn't too powerful...and it's possible!

The problem with SoB and inducted Guard is, that a part of your army needs to get close and personal and the other one tries to keep away from their enemy.
Doesn't sound like a good plan.

Oh it works really well, actually.

What you do is, you move your Sisters forward and try to engage in short range firefights with units moving towards your gunline. Sisters are honestly probably best in-game at short range firefights. They can hold in CC for a long time with the book and faith points, so being exposed to shooting and charging isn't really a big deal.

It is like running two different armies, but if you get adept at it it's a serious problem trying to deal with it.

Not alot of players have experience playing vs Sisters, so adding them to the mix doesn't hurt. Also bringing a pie plate tank and loads of lascannon troops lets your exorcist punch line troops down instead of taking on tanks.

It really is a nasty ass army. I had hoped my buddy wouldn't do it, but he did and eventually I'll have to play it. I don't look forward to it. lol

I'm writing test lists my own atm.
But it's only valuable above 1750 points. Otherwise your Sisters lose a lot of punch and I'm still not sure on taking assassins and Rhinos blocking my own LOS.
Armoured Squads or Shooty ones?
3 Exorcists or 2 and a Russ?

I'll post a list soon.

No, you really can't get marine las/plas squads and Exorcists. IG yes, but not marine. If you take Sisters as Allies, you are not allowed heavy support choices. Unless I am really mis-remembering my codexes.

Still, using the girls as narrow purpose troops mixed with other armies seems like a good idea to me. I would think that IG would be alright for their cheap and long ranged anti-tank. I don't know that Marines would be worth it, but maybe.

I've been playing SOBs for 2 years now, first with allies (IGs) and more recently as pure SOB, it works well for me , as said before , most players don't know much about them and they're usually quite surprised by the FPs (once sent a pack of genestealers running for their lives with standards sisters and a couple of FPs) . It sure is not the best army of 40K but i also love them dearly ,for their looks , the fluff that goes with it ,the unusual character of an all girls army and the fun of playing a tricky army.
We play big games APOC type (more than 8000 pts on each side ) and i find APOc good for sisters . I ally myself with another SOB player (more experienced than me ) and we win more than we loose even if winning is not our top priority (or maybe because of it) .We supplement the lack of long range firepower with flyers .
If you want to have a look at our games ,here's our site URL :

http://skaarbeek.freehostia.com/

Since i do most of the scenery ,feel free to let me know what you think of it (and any new ideas of course )

cheers,

Shannon

Shannon,
excellent scenery! I'd make sugesstions, but I really can't see much beyond the obvious...

MORE! More is ALWAYS better. When in doubt, more! Seriously, I'd be proud to put models on those tables.

I've played sisters off and on for several years (more off than on, as I have been with 40k as a whole), and have always enjoyed gaming with them. I've used them allied with my IG several times, usually just with some basic sisters to round out the in-close fire. All those bolters really bucks up the "firepower" of a bunch of flashlights. I've never gone the opposite way, but am interested to try it.

Speaking of that, someone help me out here. Looking through th IG codex at the Infantry Platoon, I am seeing a basic platoon of 1 cmnd sqd and 2 infantry sqds + total of 3 lascannons as being the cheapest way to get the LC fire to bust tanks at range. Of course, looking at add-ons to my sisters. Throw in two sqads of these, the Russ, a couple exorcists, and the points are creeping up quick. I'm really not sure where to go from here. I have the seraphim to run amok with them, but they are pricey points wise. maybe a squad just for the mobility, but nothing to design an army around. I hate to thow the girls into rhinos with entanglement, but walking them everywhere to try and engage seems, well, slow. Any suggestions?

You need ideas about your scenery? Looks great to me!

Since i do most of the scenery ,feel free to let me know what you think of it (and any new ideas of course )

Dude thats a beautiful table and some great conversions.

always good to see the flyers and other FW goodies on the table.