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... that I'm having trouble dealing with them,


Dakka, here's my trouble. Myself and a couple buddies play a monthly escalation style (500 points, 750 points, 1000 points and so on) friendly tourney. I usually consider myself to be a good general. I win most of my games, especially in my friends circle. However, in these tournies and in casual play, I'm having some real trouble against the sisters player.

Today we played the 750 points tourney. (next month is 1000 points)

My list looks like:

Captain: Relic Blade, Storm Shield, Artificer Armour

Tac squad: Missile Launcher, Flamer

Razorback

Tac Squad: Melta, Multimelta, Powerfist

Rhino

Vindicator

My tactics: I usually combat squad the ML/flamer squad and join my captain with the flamer and some regular marines. They jump in the Razorback and go hunting for things like elite infantry, hq units, and the odd monsterous creature depending on the stats. ML squad usually hole up around an objective and fire missiles until the cows come home.

Depending on deployment, the meltas stick in the rhino, move up as far as they can, disembark and blow a transport if possible. I may rush them forward and pop smoke for a better firing position. I also set the meltas on heavy infantry if there are no real vehicle threats.

The vindicator usually on gets one or two shots off, but I'm okay with that. Turn one it usually drives 12" forward and pops smoke to get a good line on some heavy infantry or big mobs. (nothing like running a 20 man kroot mob off the board with one shot.) The vindicator usually takes the focus off of my captain long enough to crash some enemy lines which has been really working for me.

The Sisters List

Cannonness with Retinue, Cannonness has power weapon

Sister squad with meltas

Sister squad with flamers and rhinos

Exorcist

Exorcist

His Strategy: Exorcists take out my transports first, making me footslog. Sisters drive up in a rhino, jump out, blow a faith point to get rending bolters/flamers and soften up my tac squads. he uses faith points to get invul saves from the vindicator and usually uses his cannonness squad as a counter charge units. It's been tearing me apart. If I run forward to assault, rending bolters kill me, if i sit back and shoot, exorcists take me apart.

What can I add for the next tourney (an additional 250 points) that can help me against the sisters but not sacrifice my take all comers viability? (my meta is: 2x chaos, 2x tau, 2x nids, SW and the sisters (of course))

I know that some of you don't like Captains but he really suits my play style and I'm not willing to drop him. For my additions, i'm thinking either TH/SS Termies or GKT

Any thoughts, tactics, unit selection would be greatly appreciated.

The Exorcists are the centre of gravity of his army. You don't need to destroy them immediately (though it's nice!), but you have to reliably shut their shooting down. Some potential ways of doing that are:

1) Drop Pod in two Dreadnoughts equipped with Multi-meltas. You'd probably want to swap the Rhino for another Drop Pod so you can land both your Dreadnoughts in the first turn. The Tac squad doesn't even have to deploy in the Pod, you're just making sure both your Dreads are landing on first turn.

2) Field a Land Raider. Exorcists' S8 still only glance a Raider on a 6 (albeit with AP1). Deploying your Captain inside should get him where he needs to go. As another plus, you can split fire with Power of the Machine Spirit to tag both Exorcists in the same turn.

3) Shake them with long-range fire support. Two Predators equipped with Autocannon/Lascannon sponsons would work best here. Besides hitting the Exorcists, that configuration also does a number on transports and monstrous creatures.

Heya Frost,

I agree with some of what Chimaera2000 said but disagree with others. I don't think drop pods will work at all. He can just reserve his excorcists or castle them to negate the impact of the dreads.

Excorcist armies are incredibly powerful at lower point costs (750 - 1000 range) as you can see he has two in a 750 point army. Here are a few ways stop them at the point range you are going into that havent been mentioned. 1 land speeder storm with scouts load up 5 scouts (scoring unit) and then just scout move and try to hit the tank in the rear with the charge, if anything it will be a distraction. The another option is to deep strike or to boost MM speeders. Those are extremely dangerous threats to the excorcist tanks so they will be focused on quickly. Multimelta attack bikes turbo boosting is also an option, as they have a 3+ cover and take huge hits

Don't fret about the rending bolters/flamers - seriously. It looks worse than it is. And he only has five faith points, which he will burn through fast.

Also - the fact that he has one squad with Meltas and one with Flamers is somewhat sub-optimal. Hit the flamer squad with mech and the melta squad with infantry.

Sisters are pretty damned poor in close-combat - certainly worse than Marines, you may wish to forgo your rapid-fire and just charge straight in.

The one thing you must not do is engage at the 7-12 inch range. That's the Sisters' sweet spot and they will beat you there. Close combat or long-range shooting only!

As for the Exorcists. Cover saves, obviously, second - they are AV13 on the front, but much softer at the sides and rear. Attack bikes seem like a good bet - you need only get a weapon destroyed - it only has one (who'd shell out for the storm bolter on an Exorcist?)

The sister player fields the Exorcists in order to get rid of high priority targets. Depending on the list and the sister player what a high priority target is will change.

I think I have a pretty good idea what the sister player will consider higher priority targets. Those would be

Monstrous Creatures
High Armour vehicles
Assault units and their vehicles
Walkers
Anything with long range fire support


At 750 points and the armies in the tourney, the sister player is pretty certain he can outrange any army he faces.


To counter this you can either

1) Field so many high priority targets he can't shoot them all down
2)Protect your high priority targets (going to ground, line of sight, reserves)


Against this army ALWAYS go first. An assault unit that move 12" in its rhino is more terrifying than an assault unit in an imoblized rhino.

If you cant go first, then do what you can to protect your high priority targets. Either place things in reserve or use your Razorback to hide units.



For the 1000 point list, since the sister player probably wont like assault units, have you thought fielding 2 assault marine squads with some sort of Anti Vehicle weapons? That would make it a threat against the exorcists AND his troop choices. The assault troops would still make your list balanced as well.


Since the sister player

The above is quite true.

as I also said - Sisters fair poorly in close combat, and forgoing your rapid fire to just charge straight in will often pay dividends.

Exmond is also right about what makes a good target for the Exorcist. Because it has a variable number of shots, it's always better to shoot at a single big target than a lot of small ones.

Azezel wrote:The above is quite true.

as I also said - Sisters fair poorly in close combat, and forgoing your rapid fire to just charge straight in will often pay dividends.

Quoted for truth. Only thing is is that sisters are in power armor, so if you charge them with a non-dedicated assault troop (i.e: Fire warriors or gargoyles) expect to factor luck into the equation on what will happen.

DS speeder units. Cheap effective and can move off when the jobs is done. The dreds however can assault tanks later if they miss with the melta, more expensive but more effective especially if you start ripping in to the sisters afterword.

Looking at Frostreaver list, I'd make the following changes.

Drop the Vindicator and add either autocannon pred or a unit of missile launcher (or autocannon if available) devistators. Drop the Multi-melta from the razorback squad and take a missile launcher.

Seriously, at 500-700 points you will never see a landraider type vehicle or a large terminator squad. There is no reason to have the multi-melta or the vindicator round. Get some range and keep those shots going into his exorcists to keep them from shooting. They are what are tearing up your units.

At this point level, Devastators might be worth it. A squad with 4 ML would do some serious damage to him. Like everyone said, SOB must be in the 7-12" range to effectively engage you. Marines can out-range them. Speeders with MM and HF will also cause them a lot of trouble.

Question, do you understand how Faith Points and Acts of Faith work?

A 10-woman squad has a very small chance of getting a 3++ invulnerable save, for instance...