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Trying to make a go of the new Sisters of Battle WDex. I'm aware they've been nerfed, but want to make the best of the situation. I'm aware that Dominions in MM Immos are the bomb, Battle Conclaves of Crusaders/DCAs are great, and most people swear by Exorcists as well.

What I'm wondering about is how to equip my Battle Sisters squads, who will need to hold (possibly take) objectives. Rhinos are mandatory, though I expect them to get blown up fairly frequently - I imagine that the Battle Sisters will often be camping an objective from the wreckage/crater of their Rhino.

Special Weapons: I like taking the Meltagun as a special weapon for several reasons: opportunity antitank fire, area denial, anti-character threat, benefits from AoF in the shooting phase; but most of all DoG vs vehicles trying to tank shock the girls off of their objective. The DoG is the reason to go with the Meltagun rather than a Superior with combimelta - I don't want to have to risk the Superior to make a DoG attack. The Superior can take a Combiflamer instead, to make up for the fact that there is no Flamer in the squad.

Heavy Weapons: Here is where my main quandary is. Both the Heavy Bolter and Multimelta are great for sitting on an objective and shooting - they benefit from the AoF in the shooting phase, and have great range. They are also cheaper than the other option.

The Heavy Flamer doesn't add much to an objective camping squad - it doesn't benefit from the shooting phase AoF, it has very short range, and it is extremely expensive. However, I expect that the Battle Sisters will often get assaulted, lose combat, and sometimes will escape combat to fall-back. If they still have their Superior, they'll be able to auto-regroup on a 3+ (Superior, lost at least one model) even when very close to their enemy. The satisfaction of applying a Heavy Flamer to the squad that just ran them off would be quite exhilarating. Also, the Heavy Flamer can be used out of the top of a Rhino to clear an objective.

The question is, is the Heavy Flamer actually worth it? How often will the Sisters actually make it to fall back rather than get sweeping advanced? They'd have to beat the die roll of an I4 unit by 2 to get away successfully. As for shooting out of the top of a Rhino, I imagine that my Rhinos will be moving 12" most turns (so no passenger firing) and the plan is for the OTHER units (Seraphim, Flamer Dominions, HF Retributors etc) to do the objective clearing.

One economy might be to drop the combiflamer from the Superior if the Heavy Flamer is taken, though 2 templates on a Regroup attack wouldn't hurt.

Last question: Is taking a power weapon on the Superior worth it? If she replaces her bolter, she gets 3 attacks, but that's still less than one wound on average vs T4. If she could take an Eviscerator it would be totally worth it, but S3 power weapon attacks are not so impressive.

Thoughts?

For sister squads, it depends on what role you assign them. As a defender back row unit, I'd go heavy weapon, melta, combi weapon.

As for whether or not the power weapon is worth it:
It depends on how you setup your leadership. If your style is to play like IG and let them die, then no. If you have a way to keep them around, then the hidden power weapon is surprisingly good for its low cost.

Strangelooper wrote: However, I expect that the Battle Sisters will often get assaulted, lose combat, and sometimes will escape combat to fall-back. If they still have their Superior, they'll be able to auto-regroup on a 3+ (Superior, lost at least one model) even when very close to their enemy. The satisfaction of applying a Heavy Flamer to the squad that just ran them off would be quite exhilarating. Also, the Heavy Flamer can be used out of the top of a Rhino to clear an objective.

The question is, is the Heavy Flamer actually worth it? How often will the Sisters actually make it to fall back rather than get sweeping advanced? They'd have to beat the die roll of an I4 unit by 2 to get away successfully.

I would not in anyway plan for sisters NOT to get run down. The odds are pretty bad of them getting away. Your best bet is a multi-melta for objective holders. An extra Str 8 shot is always useful and is a steal for 10 points. Heavy bolters are IMO only good on retributors.

For PW, I never found it worth it. Str 3 PWs IMO are only good in mass, like banshees or IG power blobs.

I think they're worth it on celestians, but yes, generally sisters of battle are terrible with pw.

However, there are ways to make them stubborn/fearless using characters, so a hidden one isn't bad.

Still, if you want powerweapons, deathcults and crusaders are the way to go.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Yeah, I guess they will get run down much more often than not, and it's not worth nerfing their area control for the off chance of a Regroup - Heavy Flamer shot.

OK, so it looks like the Battle Sisters squads get Meltagun, Multimelta, and stock Superior. Still pretty cheap, a decent threat to both vehicles and infantry with shooting, and maximizes their AoF with respect to the Shooting Phase.

I will have to make a squad of HF Retributors with my heavy flamer models I suppose...expensive but killy.

I have 3 setups I'm currently rotating between to see which ones I like the most.

2 flamers + combi-flamer
2 melta guns
1 flamer, multi-melta

Right now I'm tending towards just the two melta guns.

Warmaster wrote:I have 3 setups I'm currently rotating between to see which ones I like the most.

2 flamers + combi-flamer
2 melta guns
1 flamer, multi-melta

Right now I'm tending towards just the two melta guns.

Why 2 meltaguns instead of melta + multimelta? It's the same point cost I think, and you get an extra 6" range from a static MM (vs moving 6" + melta). I suppose the 2 meltas are better if you're moving a lot, and/or shooting out of your Rhino. But for objective camping?

Strangelooper wrote:

Warmaster wrote:I have 3 setups I'm currently rotating between to see which ones I like the most.

2 flamers + combi-flamer
2 melta guns
1 flamer, multi-melta

Right now I'm tending towards just the two melta guns.

Why 2 meltaguns instead of melta + multimelta? It's the same point cost I think, and you get an extra 6" range from a static MM (vs moving 6" + melta). I suppose the 2 meltas are better if you're moving a lot, and/or shooting out of your Rhino. But for objective camping?

It's because I don't think you can afford to be leaving a unit behind. I think you need all those sisters squads together rushing the objective to do anything. The way I look at it is they all rush towards your opponent. The ones that take casualties and run away then get relegated to holding objectives away from the enemy. By then if my opponent has that many vehicles left I'm screwed anyways. If you have 2 units dedicated to holding your objectives, your opponent can then focus his fire on the two rhino's coming at him and ignore the two sitting away from him. I may have to actually look into multi-melta, melta. That allows you to still advance and be a threat but then have the multi-melta for aggressive armies that have to come to you. For now I would rather keep my rhino's moving.

Warmaster wrote:

Strangelooper wrote:
Why 2 meltaguns instead of melta + multimelta? It's the same point cost I think, and you get an extra 6" range from a static MM (vs moving 6" + melta). I suppose the 2 meltas are better if you're moving a lot, and/or shooting out of your Rhino. But for objective camping?

It's because I don't think you can afford to be leaving a unit behind. I think you need all those sisters squads together rushing the objective to do anything. The way I look at it is they all rush towards your opponent. The ones that take casualties and run away then get relegated to holding objectives away from the enemy. By then if my opponent has that many vehicles left I'm screwed anyways. If you have 2 units dedicated to holding your objectives, your opponent can then focus his fire on the two rhino's coming at him and ignore the two sitting away from him. I may have to actually look into multi-melta, melta. That allows you to still advance and be a threat but then have the multi-melta for aggressive armies that have to come to you. For now I would rather keep my rhino's moving.

Interesting point re target saturation.

Also, I suppose that a unit with melta, multimelta will often only be getting off a single shot: either the melta, if they moved; or the multimelta if they sat still (unless someone moved a unit to within 12" of a static melta/MM unit). Whereas the dual melta sisters will always get 2 shots off - if they can shoot at all.

Perhaps I'll move my multimeltas into a sororitas command squad for the relentless: 12" Immolator move + 2" deploy + 1" base + 24" range = 39" triple-melta threat