Sisters of Battle

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**Jancoran**

Fighting Draigo wing is all about causing as many saves as possible for as long as possible. they are no joke, they take up a lot of space and their only weakness is they can be instakilled and they DO take up a lot of space, so their ability to meneuver can sometimes slow them a bit. Still all in all, anyone who tells you to patiently plink away at them is right. Engaging them in melee is suicide as a rule, though sometimes it is a good suicide it if pulls them off something important or delays them.

I respect Draigo Wing a little bit. It's got DEFINITE limitations but it's an army that can outlast you in annoying fashion.

**pretre**

The problem with Draigowing versus (at least my) sisters is that we have more meltas than they have models. And DCA will eat up a paladin unit for breakfast.

**Jancoran**

And that's why patience is indeed the recipe for success.

**Spidey0804**

So the Idea would be to hit it with multi units at the same time. both Repentia Squads and the DCA squad.

**pretre**

Sure, if you are so lucky. Otherwise, kite them with your mech'd units and melta them. If he's silly enough to let both your Repentia and DCA get to him at the same time, he deserves what he gets.

**Spidey0804**

Most of the time dont dragos just sit there?

**Jancoran**

they get to where they can reach objectives, then sit, fire fire fire, and charge. Pretty much. Meanwhile a couple minion squads keep the enemy honest by harassing the flanks and such. so yeah.

But Draigo can swarm and multicharge SOB's pretty good. So while they might normally shoot at their enemies, a Draigo army, once it pops the Conclave, would very likely press the advantage. That is really the only doorstop for them to fear. Repentias cant instakill them so even they are an acceptable risk because repentia sisters only work well on the charge.

So it's an interesting matchup.

**pretre**

The problem is that he's slow, so he shouldn't really be multi-charging you with a walking draigowing.

**Lucre**

AbusePuppy has a nice set of articles on these subjects that might help the way you think about rock builds. Kirby has also written articles on dealing with rock units.
http://www.3plusplus.net/2011/10/beating-army-draigowing.html

I don't really think it should be all that much trouble though. Sisters could use nicer ways of staying out of close combat trouble for an army that relies on close shooting and relatively larger numbers of SM quality dakka. I'm sure that you all know that though, it's not so much the matchup, as the lack of creativity and cute tricks in the sparse codex. You've already got a lot that GK would rather see less of going on, and the army trains you to play with a mindset that is helpful against low action, but high gravity lists like draigo. At least my initial proxy games with sisters have had me really wracking my mind about my advantages in a lot of situations, and not playing into my opponent's plan. Sadly, so far, I'm not sure how to best use all the resources yet, and that faith garbage is really mind boggling to try to plan around.

My biggest piece of advice vs a list like draigo, is keep them occupied and using their few actions doing something sort of lame, whilst neutering the rest of what they have going on. I really love transport blocking in these games.

Making GK long ranged guns have to take time to protect themselves or one of their other few scoring units gives you a lot of breathing room against expensive paladin units, then you can start using your excessive unit count to start siphoning them and making him make decisions on where he wants to press, and if he's willing to waste time breaking through rhinos. Does he want your objective and your squatting multimelta squad? Should he try to make it back and save his other from the rhino and however many fast attack units heading to his back field? Is that other rhino going to move to get in his way next turn or is it going to move up to flank? He has so many points tied up into that unit, and the more dumb tricks you can use to make their actions crappy, the less it's actually worth them.

Also tank shock.

**pretre**

@Lucre: Well said.

Best plan is to ignore faith and you'll do fine. It is like a nice bonus (unless you take Reps or Rets, and then it is pretty important).

SoB are all about midfield traffic jams, which plays well against DraigoWing. Also, Tank Shocks are my favorite thing ever. I want SoB vehicles to come with Laud Hailers stock.

**Spidey0804**

With multi-objective style missions being seen at tournaments how I think you have to really push for a tabling of this build. I know that's easier said then done.

**pretre**

Table this?

Drago wing 3 dreads. Tech-marine, Librarian and interceptor squad

Challenge accepted. He has 3 Dreads, an interceptor squad and a f-all big deathstar.

I love playing against termy armies.

**Evil_Lamp_6**

Quick question, for 20 strong foot squads of BSS what would you consider the ideal special/heavy weapon choice and why?

Right now I'm torn between 2 x Meltaguns and 1 Meltagun and 1 Multi-melta.

**pretre**

How many are you taking? Is it your objective holder or your go-getter?

Holder = MM/M
Go Getter = M/M

Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you're unsure, probably M/M.

**Spidey0804**

MG Mg on the a squad that is moving a lot. MM MG or MG HB would work for a backfield camper. You also want to put a PW on the VBS.

**pretre**

Spidey0804 wrote: You also want put PW on the VBS.

/shudder

**Evil_Lamp_6**

pretre wrote:How many are you taking? Is it your objective holder or your go-getter?

Holder = MM/M
Go Getter = M/M

Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you're unsure, probably M/M.

So far, looking at 4 of such squads. Also, assume Combi-melta on the SS.

Spidey0804 wrote:MG Mg on the a squad that is moving a lot. MM MG or MG HB would work for a backfield camper. You also want put PW on the VBS.

I'd rather not put a PW on the SS. The Heavy Bolter, while an option, does not seem like that great of a choice for a one of in this kind of squad, even a backfield one.

**Spidey0804**

LOL, as you can tell we have a difference in opinions on this one.

**Evil Lamp 6**

Perhaps some context for my question is in order.

**pretre**

Evil Lamp 6 wrote:Perhaps some context for my question is in order.

2 MM/M, 2 M/M. Let us know how it goes. That many foot sisters is bold without a countercharge unit or Kyrinov for fearless.

**Evil Lamp 6**

My concern with the MM is that I feel I am going to be doing much movement and end up not being able to fire it at all. I definitely see the merits of it for a squad that is going to be standing still. Still somewhat divided on the issue though, hence why I asked for the advice. Anyone have any practical experience with foot SoB and the use of MM?

Automatically Appended Next Post:
If it has certainly worked out before for others, I'll definitely take them.

**pretre**

Not a lot of folks run foot. I run M/HF and 2xMM/M for my mech.

**Evil Lamp 6**

Do you find that you stay put with the squads with the MM to get enough use out of it instead of a 2nd Melta then?

**pretre**

Yeah, most of the time they abhor my back lines and snipe with the MM.

**Spidey0804**

I was running 2 large sister squads as a regular back feild anchor that bubble wraped my heavies so the mm was great for tagging backfeild droppers on a regular basis. I also ran kyrnov in that back feild centered very close to all 3 units giving all 3 fearless. Works great against heavy shooting lists since you never can break to shooting you just have to place the mms right in the middle of the squad as far forward as you can get them that way you have over lapping fire from 4 melats in the mid field. Hooking the bolter sister around the flanks so the can cover those areas.

**pretre**

So I got in a 2000 point game on Saturday, took pictures and everything. We wrap it up and I ask my buddy if he's taking that list to the next RTT and he says yes. Then I remember it is an 1850 RTT.

So yeah, I did pretty well in that game with the extra 150. A couple things: I am more against Reps and Rets than ever before. My Reps failed their faith check on the charge and got wiped before they swung. My Rets failed (with Simulacrum) probably 3 of their 5 faith checks during the game. I think that may be the last nail in the coffin for those two in my lists.

**Jancoran**

It is as I said: Retributors are a good addition to a list, but I would only have one unit of them. I was called crazy and stupid by more than one player for beleiving this. I think in the end I will be proven right. Retributor spam looks better on paper than it does in reality. The range doesn't allow them to play LIKE longfangs and they rely on a mechanic to even approach the same damage output. They are GREAT against hordes and having a unit to spray some down for a round or two is most definitely cool. It fills that niche. Maybe pop a Wraithlord with them. They are useful as a last resort on Rhinos but having 2 or three of them with the lines of sight and range issues they will have is not best practices in MY opinion.

**pretre**

Yeah, I just don't see it. They weren't bad, but they weren't as good as an exorcist and having to 50-25% chance of not doing their job every turn definitely sucked.

Who was saying you should have more than one unit? Yuck.

**Spidey0804**

It was a podcast/internet way to some how add semi long range fire power to the lists but not resipricated by vet sister players. I have 2 of them in the list but they really are not there for opening anything. Unless I don't have anything else to fire at. I use them to pick apart infantry squads that have gotten dumped out of there transports or to pick on MCs. Peopel that think they can be the basis of your heavy fire power are just plain wrong.

**Dervos**

Spidey0804 wrote:Most of the time dont dragos just sit there?

My friend who play's Grey Knights will do one of two things.

He will walk across the board with a full squad of paladins with draigo, or he'll take a squad of 5? in stormraven and just dump them wherever he thinks will be most inconvenient for me and my eldar. In past games it was usually on my units who dared think they could CC with grey knights. Although the last game I played I managed to immobilize on turn 1 then melta gun them to death on turn 2 completely with one unit of dragons. I can't believe I didn't use them before.

I only played one game against grey knights with sisters of battle (my third game ever with sisters, I had previously tied against CSM, and Tyranids, grey knights were my first win) and had no probably killing almost everything he had.

]02-03-2012, 17:05

Had a game with my friend today, at his suggestion we played a modified Capture and Control game where you would get one victory point per every full turn you held a objective, and half a point for a contested objective. No one in our group has been his Grey Knights yet(Tyranids, Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar, yeah were all pretty squishy)(I forgot my pen so most of this is coming from memory, sorry)(He and I both thought that capture and control was weird since it was only seize ground but with less objectives and thought it would make more sense if points were awarded every turn)

He'd been wanting a battle between my sisters and his knights and he even came up with a fluff justification for it.

Basically there was a relic that was incredible valuable to the sisters in this cathedral, but Tyranids are headed to the planet and the grey knights want the relic and hidden gene seed samples at the site and want to evacuate the planet. The sisters refuse to allow the Grey knights to take possession of their most valued relic and refuse to cooperate with them even in the light of a impending tyranid invasion such is their zeal

GK list

He had

1750
Draigo
DreadKnight
StormRaven with a terminator? squad and unval thrawn?
Large Purifier squad? Regular Grey Knights?
Paladin Squad
Vindicare Assassin

1750
SoB List

(245)
Uriah Jacobus
x8 DCA
Rhino

(115)
Saint Celestine

3 Troop Choices
(190x3)
9 sisters & Superior
x2 Melta guns
Combi Melta
Rhino

3 Fast Attack Choices
(135x3)
4 Dominions & Superior
x2 Melta Guns
Combi Melta

Heavy support
(135 x3)
x3 Exorcists

He had his objective placed behind a glacier I had mine placed inside the ruined cathedral(representing the relic)

I deployed my three exorcists on my right flank, 1 dominion on my left flank with Uriah's rhino, and 2 dominions on my right flank, the three sister rhino in and behind the cathedral. I forgot to place Saint Celestine (do'h) so she went into reserve.

He deployed his purifiers? on his objective behind a glacier across the table from my exorcists, and his paladins were in front of those as close to the center as possible, in the center across from the cathedral was the stormraven and draigo, and further down the board was the Dreadknight.

We roll off for scouts/infiltrators, he gets to deploy his assassin first in a bunker on my far left flank. I scouted my dominions at cruising speed, one headed towards the dread knight, one towards draigo and the other towards the paladins.

First turn I move all three dominions rhinos again and dump out the squads in front of their intended targets. Uriah's rhino follows the far left flanking dominion rhino.

The exorcists move up to draw line of sight on the paladin squad.

Two Rhinos band wagon around the objective in the cathedral creating a choke point at the entrance.

The far right dominion squads kill two paladins with the melta guns, the exorcists kill off another 2. The middle dominion squad wounds Draigo once, the far left dominion squads gets three wounds on the dreadknight, and no assaults are made.

Grey Knights first turn, Stormraven dumps the terimanators at the front entrance of the cathedral, the paladins angrily ramapage towards the dominions draigo follows the stormraven and the dreadknights moves up to the dominions that shot it.

Shooting, the assassins penetrates one of the troop rhinos by the church but only shakes it. The Dreadknight kills two sisters with its template weapon. The paladins I think shot at the dominions and killed one? Storm raven immoblizes Uriah's rhino with lascannons?. Purifiers do nothing but hold on.
DreadKnight assaults the dominion squads and kills two, sisters hold their ground. Paladins amazingly fail to hit at all. Sister return with nothing. Terminators assault the rhino inside the cathedral but immoblize and shake the rhino.

Turn two, Celestine Deep strikes in behind the paladins, far left rhino heads towards draigo, uriah's group piles out and heads towards the terminators. The imbolized sister rhino has its troops hop it so the squads melta guns can be brought to bear on the terminators. The other two sisters rhino wait, the exorcists move up, one tryies to shoot the storm raven but misses the others have no targets in LoS yet.
Assault phase, the dominions squad with the dread knight surivive and hold with 2 left, draigo stays in combat with the dominions, paladins finish off theirs and consoldiate towards the rhino. Uriah's group assaults the terminators with a whopping 40 power sword attacks, with righteous rage there are only 3 misses, and 18 wounds are made, the terminators fail too many attacks and are wiped out but unval thawn which attacked at the same speed managed to kill two DCA's. The group consolidates along the wall outside the church towards draigo, confident that 3 sister squads with melta guns can handle thawn by themselves. Celestine cannot hit anything with her template and cannot assault anything.

GK turn 2
Unval Thawn does not come back, Dread Knight drops a template on the DCA squad killing another DCA. Paladins assault a rhino and stun it(we had horrible rolls on vehicle damage results all game) Draigo finishes off the dominions he engaged, the assasisin manages to penetrate a rhino easily but amazingly shield of faith saves it. Storm Raven moves off and neatly wrecks a exorcists with a multi-melta and stuns another one. Purifiers sit.

SOB turn 3

Celestine charges towards the purifiers/grey knights? and kills 4 off with her ardent blade template, assaults and luckily makes 4 wounds out of her 6 hits on the charge, leaving only two knights that manage to get one wound on her.
The lone exorcist kills one more paladin leaving just one paladin. The one sister rhino stays where it is with the camping sister squad, the other two rhinos cruise off, having to drive around the long way around the wrecked exorcists, it's unlikely they'll make be able to make it to celestine in time.
The rhino's ineffectually shot their bolters at the dread knight, and Uriah's group assaults Draigo and I think manage to get one wound or two on him but lose two more DCA. A sister squad inside the cathedral shoot their meltaguns at the storm raven destroying the lascannons.

GK turn 3,

Assassin shoots at another rhino but only shakes it. Storm raven multi-meltas a exorcists but misses. Draigo hits backs and leaves only one assasin and Uriah alive. Paladin only shakes the rhino again. Celestine kills off the remaining purifiers/grey knights in close combat.Unval Thawn fails to come back

SOB turn 4

The two Exorcists destroy another weapon on the storm raven and immbolizing it twice, translating it into a wrecked vechicle. One rhino turns around to wait with the other squads just in case there's any Unval thawn shenangians. The other rhino falls in behind the exorcists that just fire rushing up as fast as they can. Uriah's and the assassin and draigo remained locked in combat.

GK turn 4,

The lone paladin moves towards the lost objective, the assasins wrecks a rhino with its turbo penetrator ammo, the dread knight moves towards the cathedral in a round about way, there are rhinos blocking the fastest way towards the cathedral. Draigo finishes off the squad, both failing their invuln saves.

SOB turn 5

The exorcists fails to kill the lone paladin or draigo, celestine chases after draigo over the glacier but can't quite get into assault range.

GK turn 5

Unval thawn comes back to life....shoots and kills two sisters, and assaults killing another two sisters, contesting the objective. Draigo hits back to no avail, dread knight doesn't come close to anything

Games ends turn 5 on the D6 roll.

SOB win with 5 points to GK's 2.

Boy was I glad I brought all that melta(12 melta-guns, 6 combi-meltas, 3 exorcists(not melta but still str8 ap1), he had a real hard time dealing with all the armor I had with what he had brought, he glanced a lot but really failed to destroy a lot of vehicles who should have been by rights destroyed. The exorcists did well making a mockery first turn out of the paladins who I tried so vainly to out CC with my eldar in previous games, I rolled high a lot of times but only ever hit with half of my rolls. Going first was really great for me because I was able to gum him up on his left and right wings with dominions scouting and spewing melta guns everywhere, which gave me plenty of time to roll up his terminators with uriah and the conclave. For the first time ever I didn't chase after his stupid assassin and just ignored it,which I spent silly amounts of time on in other games chasing him while everything else that needed my attention wrecked me.

Although I had not intended to put saint celestine in reserve, my mistake turned into a boon because I was able to deep strike her in turn 2 and on turn 3 she wrecked face with his troops holding the objective.

I was also lucky that we had decided on a modified capture and control game, because of anval thawn's last minute intervention regardless of how well my troops had performed it would have been a draw ultimately since his objective was vacant and he was contesting the relic my sisters were guarding.

An all DCA squad was terrifying;y amazing when they got their charge on, but they got nickeled and dimed to death when not in combat and without that torrent of rolls I was unable to force him to roll a lot of saves. I think I'll take a least one or two crusaders next time, the squad might no completely wipe out the squad but it won't have to worry so much about being shot up or losing its members so fast.

I'm interested in trying a higher point game again against grey knights, I'd probably take celestian squads loaded out the same way the dominions are since there isn't much left to pick from, and pick up a few crusaders for sure, though I'd wonder what he'll bring next time to deal with all the hulls I brought.

Sisters are now 1 win, 2 draws(tyranids and chaos space marines respectively) and 0 loses at the moment.

I wish I could get more games in but my friends all go to college and have jobs and I work full-time, might try going to GW for the first time to play with my Eldar since my sister army uses too many proxies at the moment.

Anyone have thoughts? If your curious about the grey knights list, he bought the army a while back from a friend of ours who got out of the hobby, he only bought two more units to add to the models he got and then moved on to making heavily converted nurgle CSM army which he has almost finished painting.