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Hi everyone Thousand Nuns here, I’ve been a member for a few months now and thought it about time I posted an article. This project came about pre membership when I saw a photo shopped picture in the gallery for a sister’s superheavy based on the stormlord kit. Knowing I was doomed to try and make my own version of this awesome idea I got ordering.



Rules Bit:
POINTS: 450
UNIT OR FORMATION: Ophanium Tyrannus
TYPE: Super heavy, Tank
STRUCTURE POINTS: 3

WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT:
1 hull mounted Vulcan Mega Bolter.
1 hull mounted Twin Linked Heavy Bolter.
Laud hailer.
Smoke launchers.
Holy icon.
Searchlight.

OPTIONS:
Front Sponsons can be upgraded with the following:
2 twin linked heavy flamers 20pts
2 Flamestorm cannons. 75pts
2 Inferno cannons 75pts
No weapon, Armour 14. Free

Rear turrets can be upgraded with the following:
2 twin linked heavy bolters 20pts
2 twin linked multi meltas 40pts
2 exorcist launchers 150pts


Blessed ammunition (not VMB) 10pts
Holy promethium (all flamer weapons) 30pts
Hunter Killer Missile. 15 pts
Pintle mounted storm bolter 10pts

UNIT STATS: BS 4 Front 14 Side 13 Rear 12

WEAPONS RANGE STR AP SPECIAL VMB R60" S6 AP3 Heavy 15,
Primary weapon

SPECIAL RULES:
All power to weapons:
If the Ophanium Tyrannus remains stationary it may fire the Vulcan mega bolter twice or the rear turrets twice or use the Hellstorm template for both front sponson weapons.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Transport 20, 10 models may fire from the rear fighting platform into the Ophanium Tyrannus' rear fire arc, 180deg.



Fluff Bit:
DESCRIPTION: The Sisters of Battle have often lacked the heaviest of armour with which to tackle their foes however this was to change at the siege of Tyrannus hive on Mercia Primus in M38. A relief force from the Order of the Bloody Rose under Canoness Elohim arrived two years into the siege. When they arrived the imperial forces were in disarray much of the Guard high command had died in a suicide attack 3 months earlier and the 4th company of the Emperor's Hammers space marines had been annihilated when the rebels collapsed several levels of the underhive behind their breach cutting them off from their reinforcements as the rebels counterattacked.
The sisters saw that the siege would need something radical to break it. Elohim sent scouting parties into the lower hive to find a suitable breaching point and found the wreckage of three Land Raider Redeemers. The weapons were salvaged under the cover of night and passed to the tech priests assigned to the Order. After Elohim had executed Colonel Dieus for incompetence and assumed overall command of all forces on Mercia Primus, 3 Stormlords passed into the order's hands. Seeing that her exorcist tanks were not heavy enough to force and hold another breach the launchers were stripped and with the salvaged Flamestorm cannons used to create a new tank. The Stormlords were heavily modified to produce a hybrid of guard simplicity and space marine levels of lethality. The tanks, Faith, Hope and Mobile Suppression Palace saw action in the first assault under Elohim's direction.
Another breach was forced as the new tank’s exorcist launchers blasted the hive and the Imperial troops poured in behind the new tanks. Several elite Celestian squads had infiltrated the hive the previous night and disposed of the enemy engineer squads before they could bring more of the hive down on the attackers As the tanks advanced through the factory complexes and highways of the lower hive the Flamestorm cannons drove all resistance from their path and into the Vulcan mega bolter's kill zone, the assault was suitably brutal and swift. The tanks broke the back of the resistance but as the assault moved up the hive the tanks bulk began to work against them. In the confined spaces they began to encounter up hive. They were withdrawn after the Faith was badly damaged as the rebels outflanked and counter attacked her whilst bulldozing her way through some hab blocks. The sister’s battle and Celestian squads supported by flamer armed Dominions continued the assault. The hive fell within a week of bloody fighting with Elohim personally beheading the sump spawned psyker witch who had instigated the uprising. With a new Imperial commander installed, the Sisters withdrew.
To assuage the pride of the Space Marines for the "looting" of their land raiders the geneseed from their fallen brothers including their captain was collected and returned by the sisters hospitalier, the guard were afforded no such respect and the sisters returned to Ophelia VII in glory. The Tyrannus pattern tanks have seen service ever since, with new weapon fits being used as battlefield situations demanded. With blessing of the Ecclesiarch and his subsequent petitioning of the Adeptus Mechanicus, many more vehicles have been produced for the sisters with each being treated as a sacred icon of the orders.



Conclusions:
The model led to the rules rather than the other way around, I’ve not had much time to play test these yet so consider them very much a first draft. My main concerns are the points the rules aren’t that different from the Stormlord’s.
1. The points at 450. I’ve swapped the las/hb sponsons at -100pts for BS4 +50pts. Is this a fair swap? Should the points go up or down?
2. The weapons, with no vehicle conversion rules anymore do you think these costs are fair? I have tried to base them from the cost of the predator/Baal pred and exorcist as they are BS4 tanks.
3. Is it worth keeping the rear firing platform and transport capacity?
4. Should all power to weapons affect all the turrets as well as the VMB?
5. Should the flamer weapons have the Hellstorm template or fire twice? Personally i think if the tank hasn’t moved the flamers will need the extra range, agree or disagree?
6. Should I add any special rules, for example upping the range of the laud hailer or improving the holy icon?
My reasoning though an uncommon vehicle I would still like it to be used a lot so upping the rules/points to Fortress of Arrogance levels didn’t sit well as I wanted to use it in small (ahem...) apoc games. You can have a basic tank to get a titan scale weapon in smaller games or tool it right up for the really big games making it pretty flexible.

Well there you go all constructive comments welcome.

Now thats a faith inspiring vehicle, I love the conversions and overall look of the model and the paint job just seals the deal, perfect example of making a warmachine your own armies baby.

now C&C:

in a purely model driven POV I would say either increase the structure value to 4 or rais the side armor to 14, because to me that thing looks alot more potent than a standard Stormlord, and since the SOBs tend to primarily fight in cities and other built up enviroments I could really see the neccesity of the up armor.

Second point wise I think your's are right on the mark, but playtest it a few times and see.

Again bravo on the model its gorgeous

The model looks amazing. nicely done!


My only niggle is the options for the rear Turrets. The Exorcist launchers look great and are fluffy as well. i just think that, being where they are, havign a H.Bolter or M.Melta up there woudl be pointless as their field of fire woudl be radically reduced by the hull of the tank.

I woudl think the top turrets woudl act more as long range fire support. So maybe longer range gund up there? Autocannons/Lascannons etc, that way they can target things further downfield where the hull might not be as much of an issue.

i love the Flamstorm sponsons.

I like it but I think you'd have to price it pretty high if you can fire the Vulcan twice at BS 4.

I am absolutely in love with that model.

I would agree with Praxiss about the rear weapon options. Other than that, have you considered stained-glass on the immo turret windows? I'm doing stained-glass on my immolator windows and it really adds to the ornate look.

Thanks for putting something together. This is a great idea, and gives me a ton of my own. Buildin' time.

Nice conversion work. 3 things:

1) Bump up the price due to BS4. The original stormlord is BS3 only. I'd say +50pts for BS4.

2) If you add the rear exorcist missile launchers, get rid of the transport. It's a little OP with all those weapons and still be able to transport 20.

3) 2 flamestorm hellstorm templates?!? Whoa....back it up there. Way too OTT. Since the original All Power to Weapons special rule only affected its Mega Bolter, I don't see why this version would make the other guns more powerful. No super-heavy baneblade-type tank has more than 1 primary weapon. With the hellstorm templates, this tank essentially has 3 primary weapons. You'll need a vehicle more like a warhound titan to shoot like that.

Good point, i missed that.

/agree with Jy2. At most if you want to buff up the flamers for that rule, make them twin linked for that turn at most rather than 3 times as powerful.

Imagine if you used that rule after opting for Inferno cannons on the sponsons. You coudl place a Hellstorm template facign any direction within 12" of the tank. Nasty and ever so slightly OP.

Right here goes, firstly thanks for all your responses some really good points their guys.

Soo'Vah'Cha, two good points their the model has ended up being pretty big especially from a top view the predator top plates used for the weapons have bulked it out a lot. I can see two design paths i guess you could call them one to up the power and points with an extra structure point and av 14 and another to allow the upgrading of a more basic tank i think to keep it more in line with the existing superheavies i'll keep the av 14 free option with no sponsons. I'd envisaged the tank as more field conversion than production (hence the green oil drums on the back) so though the extra bulk is evident i'll keep it the same as the storm lord. On another note if you have any idea how to cost a structure point (i have no clue on this) or a ball park of what you think one should cost please say i'm mulling over starting a more ambitious project. Finally playtesting totally agree unfortunately my apoc games aren't as regular as they used to be families etc but i'll try to get one soon. Thanks.

Praxiss, thanks, right i've put a couple of immloator turrets on the tank to check line of sight and a space marine needs to be 3" from the front of the tank to completely obscured, so i take your point, however any model here could be seen by the front hull mounted bolter and be right under the two flame sponsons on the side, so as a super heavy's weapon can target separately (I think..) if models got into this blind spot they could still shoot something else they and let the other weapons do the business in the blind spot. This little test did show that the multi melta has to shoot at nearly 12" to hit a man size target this close so they may be a little redundant compared to an exorcist or the hbs. I would prefer to keep las/auto cannons off the model as they aren't really used by the sisters and part of how they play i my opinion with only one long range anti-tank weapon and the rest needing to get up close and personal. If the next codex changes this i'll revisit it. Cheers.

thebaroness, lovely thought but my painting skills are nowhere near good enough to pull that off, i could do some contrasting colours on some , dark green or purple perhaps, i have got some spare canopies from back in the days where they could be ordered separately so i may try that next time.

jy2 and grayspark, nice one, 1. i took off 100 pts for the las sponsons and added 50 pts for bs 4 as this seemed to be what several other peeps had done for fell blades and marine superheavies. So another 50pts would make 100pts for bs4 though admittedly i've not seen one with a titan scale weapon on so how about an extra 25pts to make it 475 for the basic tank?
2. Good point though the original stormlord can add las sponsons and not loose capacity, though not on the main superstruture i'll admit. I'd like not to overcomplicate the rules though you could reduce capacity if exorcists are added but keep it if MM's or HB's are taken?
3.Excellent point i did debate hellstorm templates quite a bit Praxiss' second post looks the best solution? Though i may add not shooting any other weapons when "all power" is used to the rules to balance it up a bit as you can get 4d6 exorcist shots which is also pretty potent.

Nice would hate to face that

I absolutely love it!!
I've been thinking alot about making a super heavy Sororitas vehicle for my own army and this has given me alot of inspiration!

Omigawd. I know the photoshopped pic you mean, but I never thought someone would actually do a conversion like that. Simply amazing! Kudos and congrats to such an awesome model.

I think the "classic" Exorcist missile launchers would have given the tank a more ecclesiastical look, but of course that's a matter of personal taste and I know that the turret design has been subject of much debate amongst SoB players (I've actually favored the FW version myself some time ago until I "came to terms" with the idea of the organ).

Saving those pics. If you ever set up this model next to a few other SoB minis (diorama style), take a couple more photos and post them here please.

Wow thanks guys glad you like the tank, get building and post the pictures its always good to see support for the sisters, especially with some new rules due in the next couple of months.

Yeah i've always been in two minds about the exorcist turrets, personally i really dislike the GW version i'm more a believer in it being a practical weapon of war first then a religious icon. That being said the FW is maybe lacking a certain "ornateness" but hey hum no model's perfect. Plus the Organ version is way too big to fit more than one on a baneblade chassis in my view. But who knows someone may convert it up someday.

I'll see what i can do on some photos with some sisters models in next weekend and let you know.

And just a teaser i'm slowly building up bits for a larger sister's project but thats a good few months away yet...

Wow! It looks fantastic! Good work.