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2/2020 - Mac's Sisters vs. Doug’s Necrons
2000 point - Critical Objective (CA ‘19 Maelstrom) - Spearhead Assault
Valorous Heart Brigade / Bloody Rose Battalion vs. Necron Sautekh Battalion

The habitable planets of the Voss system had perpetual populations, billions of Imperial citizens toiling and tithing and living and dying, generation after generation. But the tiny exoplanet Voss-17 had an extreme orbital path and an orbital period of several centuries. Every six hundred years, the tiny iceball swung through the inner system, thawed in the rays of the system’s star, and was colonized, farmed, and mined for a few short decades before veering back out into deep space to freeze and die again. Each time, the noble merchant families of Voss Prima consulted the ledgers of Voss-17’s last few visits and squabbled over territorial and mineral rights, each of them gambling to be the first in and the last out. Each time, renegades, squatters, and rogue traders descended on the planet to undermine the claims of the Vossians. And each time, the Sisterhood of the Ivory Bough and the Sisterhood of the Twisted Briar, the twin Ecclesiarchy convents of Voss Prima, mobilized their forces to go see which shrines had survived the crush of the planet’s glaciers, to rebuild, and to reconsecrate the world.

On this orbit, however, the pattern of uncountable millenia was disrupted. The earliest squatters and most ambitious colonial missions failed to report to their supply ships in orbit. The second wave hesitated as they left the inner planets, mustering additional ground forces from the core worlds as a precaution. The cathedral ships of the Ecclesiarchy did not hesitate, but sped out of the Voss system to meet the tiny frozen planet returning from centuries in exile. Their drop ships landed near the equator, where the glaciers were receding and the permafrost was just beginning to thaw. Picking up a signal from an ancient beacon in one of their shrines, they approached across the tundra to discover that Voss-17 had not been alone on its trek across the outer system. A substantial Necron force had descended on the ice world as it hurtled through the darkness, and was now riding it into the heart of the Voss system. The Sisters of the Bough and the Briar would not yield their world without a fight, though. They recited the Orison of Reprisal and marched on the shrine, intent on reconsecrating the Emperor’s sacred ground and safeguarding the billions of human souls waiting further down the orbital path. With a mix of horror and grim resolve, they watched as a massive slab of xenos archaeotech from a forgotten age burst forth from the thawing ground, hovered over the crumbling ruins of their holy site, and split down all four sides with a crackle of green lightning, revealing the luminous form of an alien abomination straining against its bonds…

[Sorry, astronomers; this is bad science, but I needed a premise for fighting Necrons on a winter-themed table.]



Mac’s Army
Doug's Army

List Considerations
I decided to go big on bodies over tanks this time and worked out a Brigade plus Battalion. It only had five vehicles, but I’d be swimming in CP, and I’m learning that Codex Sisters can really burn through those. I wanted to really test the reputations of two Sororitas Orders: how tough are Valorous Heart, and how choppy are Bloody Rose (very, it turns out, in both cases). Due to the Rule of Three, I had to choose which detachment only got one Canoness (Valorous Heart, although I may bring a second one next time) and gave her the Book of St. Lucius to stretch her aura to compensate. She’d be near the tanks in the back, so she got the Beacon of Faith Warlord Trait for an extra Miracle Dice. That gave me two Bloody Rose Canonesses to tear things up (I expected to lose one at some point), and I took the Heroine in the Making stratagem to give one the Indomitable Belief Warlord Trait for a +1 Invulnerable aura and the Bloody Rose relic chainsword Beneficence (NINE attacks!) to make her punch really hard.

Doug’s Necron list had some quick last minute shifts. He wanted to test out his Tesseract Vault, which he’d only used twice before, so it entered the list at the cost of a Ghost Ark, a 20x Warriors unit, and a couple of Destroyers and Tomb Blades he peeled off from larger units. He left an extra Cryptek in the list beyond what he needed for a Battalion, and with one fewer Warrior units he’d realize later that he didn’t need two of them. He quickly pulled in some Immortals to meet the Battalion minimum, but I’d still be up a dozen CPs on him. His typical Necron list is 3x20 Warriors with all the Reanimation Protocol buffs (a list I’ve never managed to beat), so running the Vault was a big change for him, and his list carried a few curious features like the extra Cryptek as a result.

Deployment & Pregame
We decided to play Critical Objective from Schemes of War in Chapter Approved 2019. These new Maelstrom missions are great, and Critical Objective is one of the simplest and most balanced (cycle a discarded Tactical Objective back into your deck each turn).

We rolled up Spearhead Assault, playing end-to-end with deep deployment zones and an 18” no-man’s-land between the two closest points in the middle. This threw us both off a bit as we often default to Dawn of War, and it really shaped the game. Both armies had a lot of 24” Rapid Fire weapons (bolters, gauss, etc.), and our front lines were anywhere from 18” to 48” apart, depending on how far down the wedge we deployed. His Destroyers wound up having a long trek down one board edge, and my Bloody Rose infantry had a similar hike up the opposite flank. We acknowledged that it would have been a very different battle had we played the long edges of the board.

My opponent chose the Attacker role and deployed his Immortals in the ruined shrine with the Tesseract Vault on one side and the two big squads of warriors, their buffing characters, and the Ghost Ark on the other. He positioned his Tomb Blades for a flank attack and deployed his Destroyers safely back from the front lines and partially out of sight, just in case I seized the initiative.

I chose to load both maxed-melta BSS units into the same Rhino (a poor choice… I should have put some stormbolter Dominions in half of those seats). The other Rhino got a Canoness, an Imagifier, a Preacher, and seven Celestians. The Seraphim I held back to deep strike, and everything else deployed on the table. I deployed three Exorcists in cover deep in my deployment zone, set a block of Valorous Heart infantry front and center, and split the difference with the Warlord so Litanies could buff both infantry and artillery. I deployed my Bloody Rose infantry and accompanying HQs and Rhino on the flank opposite his Warriors, who seemed like the best target for the stack of Bloody Rose Order Conviction, aura buffs, and stratagems I’d imagined for them.

I chose to randomize my Sacred Rites (choose one or roll for two) and got The Passion (exploding sixes in melee) and Spirit of the Martyr (shoot or fight as you die on a 5+)... both pretty great for this list. I spent 1 CP on Heroine in the Making, 1 CP to Open the Reliquaries, and 2 CP for Prepared Positions because I had a lot of infantry in the open and had failed to seize. I made a pretty reckless Vanguard move with two units of Dominions right up the middle of the table and just short of 18” from his Warriors. I knew he couldn’t Rapid Fire at me, but that I’d still take a lot of S4 fire. My calculated risk was that either he’d focus-fire them and give my Bloody Rose infantry a chance of crossing the board or else I’d get a shot at Blessed Bolts at short range… and maybe the stack of defensive buffs I’d prepared would keep them around.

A sketchy Vanguard move by the Dominions:


More Deployment Photos:
Turn 1 Necrons
Doug was excited to get the Tesseract Vault into action, so he pushed it forward (realizing later he should have also Advanced) and used his C’Tan powers to spread some mortal wounds around on Dominions and Battle Sisters. His Destroyers moved up, put a few wounds on an Exorcist, and shot up some Sisters when range ruled out my artillery. Up to this point, the Valorous Heart was looking very strong when stacked with Prepared Positions, Tale of the Stoic, and Celestine’s Saintly Blessing (2+/5++/6+++/ignore AP-1 and -2). However, when the Warriors moved up and fired, they still managed to take out both Dominion squads… so much for my Blessed Bolts gambit (it would have been great against the Ghost Ark, I think). The Tesseract Vault chose the Exorcists as a target, but with no AP or multiple damage, not much happened. Doug overlooked his Immortals, but still scored First Strike and a Secure Objective X. Score: 2-0 Necrons.

Turn 1 Sisters
Now that I’d seen how many mortal wounds the Tesseract Vault could pump into my aura-dependent army, I decided to take it down, or at least bracket it. I sent the BSS Rhino blitzing across the board by itself and unloaded both melta squads in front of the Vault. I moved the Bloody Rose infantry up the opposite flank, and did the same with the Valorous Heart up the center, but had them all stop at 18.01” to deny Rapid Fire. My valiant melta Sisters and all three Exorcists (with Devastating Refrain for rerolled shots) combined to do 17 wounds (out of 28) to the Vault, dropping it one bracket (Doug cheekily reminded me that there’s a stratagem for that). Elsewhere, my bolter fire took out a few Warriors. Going all in on the Vault, I charged it with a Rhino and a squad, sending the other squad into the Destroyers on the same flank. I knew everything would just fly away, but I was hoping to constrain Doug’s movement options a bit. I did limit his options somewhat, keeping the Vault from chasing down my characters and keeping his Destroyers from getting easy range on the Exos, but in the process I foolishly walked away from an objective I needed for both a Secure X and Supremacy. Oops. After chastising myself appropriately, I discarded that Secure to make room for new objectives next turn, keeping only Supremacy in play. Score: 2-0 Necrons.

Turn 2 Necrons
With a Rhino and a few random Sisters milling around in no man’s land, the Tesseract Vault was forced to slide sideways as a Fall Back action, placing it awkwardly on top of the shrine at the center. My opponent used a stratagem to operate at full efficiency, piling more mortal wounds on my front line squads, but between my characters’ evasive movements and a Rhino blocking its advance, the Vault couldn’t target my aura characters. The Order of the Valorous Heart continued to prove extremely resilient… the Vault split its fire, but left survivors in two squads; the Destroyers split fire and got the Rhino, but left infantry survivors as well. Gauss fire mopped up most of the survivors on the Valorous Heart side, but at this point, a few squads had absorbed all of the Necron shooting attacks, and all of my Exorcists were still firing after 2 turns. On the opposite flank, Tomb Blades easily cut down a single Bloody Rose Sisters squad, prompting my opponent to remark how much more easily they went down than the Sisters of the Valorous Heart. All told I believe the Necrons wiped out four infantry units plus a transport and scored No Prisoners for 3 points, Age of the Machine (a Necron vehicle-killing objective) for 1 point, and a Defend X for 2 points. Score: 8-0 Necrons, and not looking so good for the Sisters!



Turn 2 Sisters
Valorous Heart had so far lived up to its reputation… it was time to put Bloody Rose to the test. I disembarked the Canoness with the relic chainsword, Imagifier, Preacher, and Celestians, with their Rhino close behind (but unable to get out in front to take the Overwatch). The two remaining BSS infantry units were close behind, and the foot Canoness needed an Advance to keep her close to the fight. I was well positioned for a charge on Tomb Blades and Warriors when the time came. In the center, I advanced the Valorous Heart HQ far enough to lose the reroll aura on one of the Exorcists; even her enhanced 9” aura was having trouble covering the army as they spread out. I sent a single BSS forward to grab the overlooked objective for Supremacy. My single squad of Seraphim dropped just behind my Canoness and used Deadly Descent to kill three of the five Destroyers in the midfield. Close-range stormbolter fire from another BSS dropped one more Destroyer, leaving just one for melee. The three Exorcists worked together for a second straight turn to finish off the Tesseract Vault, which did not explode. Most of the infantry committed long-range bolter fire to soften up the first big Warrior unit for the Celestians to charge in, but the two Bloody Rose units of Battle Sisters turned their bolt pistols (their Order Conviction gives -1 AP on pistols and melee weapons) on the Tomb Blades, killing two of them.





The Bloody Rose Canonesses (one needing a stratagem due to her Advance), the Celestians, and the Battle Sisters charged into the wall of Necron Warriors and their Tomb Blade escort… the last two Tomb Blades went down easily enough, but the real surprise was also carving through all of the remaining Warriors. The Bloody Rose stratagem Tear Them Down gives a +1 to wound, and that plus S4 from the Imagifier, extra Attacks from the Order and the Preacher, exploding sixes from the Passion (Sacred Rite), and the 45-point blender that is the Canoness with the relic chainsword Beneficence got the job done. Celestine took out the last Destroyer in the midfield unit, leaving the center of the board free from xenos and opening the path to the sacred shrine. The Sisters scored Supremacy (control three objectives), Blood and Guts (kill three in melee), and Leap of Faith (make three Acts of Faith) for a total of 7 points. 8-7 Necrons, but the Sisters are back in it!

Before and after the Fight phase:
Turn 3 Necrons
With the Tesseract Vault gone and the scoreboard suddenly tightening up, the Necrons shifted into a more aggressive mode. The Destroyers moved up on the right flank to put pressure on the Exorcists and also positioned themselves to score a contested objective. The Immortals left the shrine to go for objectives as well. The second Warrior unit, still 20-strong, moved up to engage the Celestians and Canoness. The Destroyers split fire to shoot a Sisters squad off an objective, then put some wounds on an Exorcist and dropped it down a bracket. The Warriors and Immortals did lots of wounds in shooting, cutting down the Celestians except for a single survivor left standing next to the Canoness. A long charge in a tight space meant that only some of the Necrons could fight, but those who could stripped all but one wound from the Canoness with Beneficence, although she answered back with another brutal Fight phase. That combat remained engaged. The Necrons scored Supremacy for 1 point. Score: 9-7 Necrons, and still a tight game, although we both had a sense that something had shifted in terms of model count and board control.



Turn 3 Sisters
The remaining Bloody Rose infantry, the second Canoness, and Celestine positioned themselves to join the massive brawl with the Warriors. The Valorous Heart element pressed forward, abandoning the Exorcists altogether the keep the buff aura up front with the shorter ranged Seraphim. The Seraphim and Exorcists working in tandem took out the second squad of Destroyers and put a few wounds on the Ghost Ark. Celestine charged a Cryptek and killed it. Two Bloody Rose Battle Sisters squads followed their Canonesses into the fight, but made the poor choice to include the Overlord in their charge when they should have focused on Warriors. The stack of Bloody Rose buffs continued to devastate the enemy’s numbers, but three Warriors survived the Fight phase, and Reanimation Protocols would bring most of them back… another oops. The Sisters scored a Secure (that happened to match a Defend for next turn), while the Necrons scored a Defend. Score: 11-8 Necrons.

Turn 4 Necrons
The ranged battle was getting pretty one-sided, although objective-camping Immortals and the gauss arrays on the Ark continued to chip away at my infantry. Reanimation Protocols (with buffs and additional attempts) brought back almost the whole unit of Warriors, but now they were spread out and interspersed with Sisters, so it was harder to put pressure on the wounded Canoness. She held on, down to her last wound, and the Necrons killed only a couple of Sisters. The return melee brought the Warriors down to just a few left, and after Celestine killed the second Cryptek, it was just the Warriors, the Overlord, the damaged Ghost Ark, and a few Immortals. The Necrons didn’t have anything scorable, but the Sisters completed a Defend and scored Blood of Martyrs (lose a unit)... Score: 11-11 tied game.



Turn 4 Sisters
By this time my hand was full of board control objectives and I was getting closer to tabling my opponent. The Valorous Heart infantry shifted over to support the Bloody Rose in melee against the Warriors. The Seraphim took out the Ghost Ark, freeing the Exorcists to overkill the Immortals. As the Fight phase arrived, it was clear that if I didn’t finish the Warriors off this turn, the arrival of my reinforcements would likely do the job. There were no objectives coming from the Necron deck that would change the game, and I was about to score a Secure and start in on a Defend. With my 1 VP for Secure, the score was 12-11 Sisters. Only the Warriors and Overlord remained, with both engaged in melee and getting swarmed by Sisters. I had three Canonesses, a couple dozen infantry, Seraphim, and all three Exorcists remaining. I’d likely table the opposing force in either Turn 4 or Turn 5 while running up points on the scoreboard, and without a clear way for the Necrons to reclaim the lead, we called it at the bottom of Turn 4: a Sororitas victory!

Afterthoughts
Well, the Orders need a few more outings to sort out the specifics of the build, but they certainly delivered in this game. Valorous Heart held up really well, and when they did wither away, it was under the S6 AP-3 fire (a.k.a. Sororitas Kryptonite) from Destroyers that would have otherwise been blowing up my Exorcists. My infantry’s resilience resulted in lots of difficult split fire decisions for my opponent, and a lot of those were forced by just one or two models making FNP rolls. Bloody Rose hit plenty hard, and I was pretty pleased with the 135-point 3x5 stock Sisters I brought along for the Battalion CPs, although I might shift back to a Vanguard and see what opportunities that creates. Celestians are rock solid for their points, and I’ll definitely build some more with my new plastic kits. Three Exorcists took down 28 wounds worth of T7 4++ Tesseract Vault over two turns, so that’s probably par for the course when considering rerolls and Miracle Dice. I still need to fiddle with allocating Canonesses (I think two for the big VH detachment and just one to rage with the BR relic chainsword) and figure out Dominions vs. Seraphim in the Fast slots. Both Sacred Rites felt advantageous but not absurd, roughly like a mono-faction bonus should. Miracle Dice were very utilitarian, never game-breaking, but super consistent. I only used about six stratagems, but I used them repeatedly, and the Order-specific strats are great. Overall, this list was both fun and functional, and obviously successful as well.

This was my first 8th Ed. win against Necrons (glad to have broken that streak), despite my opponent running up an early lead and playing with his usual skill and efficiency. The introduction of the Vault, the shift away from his usual 60-Warrior gunline, and the shape of the battlefield all disrupted his tactics and created some openings for Exorcist damage output, Valorous Heart grittiness, and Bloody Rose hack-n-slash to do their thing. I suspect the Bough and the Briar will have some more work to do purging the Necrons from the Voss system, but I’ll take a risk and say they’re up to the task.

Thanks for reading!

Great write up and congrats on a Sisters victory! I find the sisters start off slow in getting momentum but by turn 3 or 4 can turn the tables once we get into that 12” to 24” range in mass.

I think VH holding the backfield and objectives while BR goes on offense is the best mix.

I use 3 full squads of Celestians (30) and a squad of 9 Repentia (for going after armor) in a blob supported by Celestine/ a BR Canoness (with Beneficience)/ Missionary / and Imagifier (stoic and warrior) as well as a VH Canoness with the Casket Relic (reduces opponents T by 1). I usually screen these with Battle Sister squads (VH).
Put Chainswords on the Celestian superiors for one squad to put out 42 Str4 attacks at -1AP. They’re also protected by 3+/4++ ignore AP-1.

That’s brutal. Their melee potential is great for mid board control while our other chess pieces go after other parts of the board.

Then the backfield held by Exorcists and swooping in Seraphim to keep the opponent guessing.

Nice report and gratz on the win! I love the new Sisters codex and wish I could play more myself, but failing that I like to read about them, so keep the reports coming .

Two rules questions: you state the imagifier as part of the VH brigade. If that was so, it wouldn't be able to ride the BR rhino, nor would it give buffs to the BR units. The imagifier bonus is order specific.

In your turn 2 you scored 3 objectives. How did you score the 4th in necron turn 3? Can't you have only 3 active objectives from the start of your turn and play new ones once it's your turn again?

If necron warriors have been giving you trouble imagine how hard it would be if he were to get ghost ark instead of every 10 warriors Same firepower, tougher body, can't be locked in melee and faster...

Ghost ark has replaced warriors completely. Forge the repair ability. That's trap.

Great write up - thanks

What was your opponents opinion on the new Sisters

Nice write-up, sounds like it was a fun game! Just one question, it sounds as if you moved the rhinos and then disembarked? I did I understand that wrong?

Well-spotted details, everyone. I've fixed the write-up. True, I did disembark the melee troops before moving the Rhino. In the photo it looked otherwise because the Rhino kind of got boxed in behind the squad and could only follow them; I usually like to swing it around in front to take Overwatch for the chargers. I missed the visual clue while using photos to recreate the sequence because I don't take notes during the game, only afterward.

There were two Imagifiers, one for each Order, and I'd left one off the list. I'm thinking about doing the pregame stratagem to let the Bloody Rose Imagifier have the double Tale for +1S and ignore -1AP. Also, I goofed on the objectives... I forget which turn I scored Blood of Martyrs, but it was a perfect objective for the face-down 'secret' objective and to score it on the enemy's turn. I suspect it was my leftover third objective from Turn 1 after I'd botched the other ones.

I had over-reported Doug's model count... he only had 4 Tomb Blades and units of 4 and 5 Destroyers, so I've fixed both lists. He had pulled out more than I realized to get the Vault on the table. He usually runs three units of 20 Warriors with gaps between them; into the gaps go his Ghost Arks, Crypteks, and Overlords. I've learned to go for the Ghost Arks and ignore Warriors, but Quantum Shielding is a pain... between that and the Warriors it's just a lot of volume to chew through. My biggest issue fighting Necrons is all the S6 shooting from Destroyers and S6 melee from Wraiths, when my whole army gets wounded on 2s.

As for the perception of the Codex, I think my group is starting to see it's pretty strong. My usual opponents all have 2-4 armies each, whereas I mostly play Sisters, so my play is pretty strong as it is just by knowing all my list synergies and not forgetting tons of things. I had a pretty good win ratio with the BetaDex for that reason, and feel like I'm unlocking the Codex builds a bit at a time. I don't know that this Codex will sweep the tournament scene, but the internal balance will make it solid in a casual meta. It will be interesting to see how it stacks against nuMarines... my group has three new Marine armies built over the last several months, two of which haven't really been played yet: Ultras, Imperial Fists/Knights, and Iron Hands. I think they'll remain strong despite the nerfs, but the Sisters' AP shenanigans might be their Kryptonite.

Thanks for your comments, everyone... I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Nice game ! Love the original paint scheme. You got back to the game pretty well with this devastating assault !
Looking forward seeing more of your battreps !

Had a nice read, thx for the report!

Thanks, y'all... I'm glad these continue to entertain. It might be a while before the next one given our odd circumstances, but there's a few old ones on here (although many of them are BetaDex, not Codex). I think I've done at least one other Necron game, AdMech, Thousand Sons, Death Guard, and Dark Angels and Knights, all vs. my Sisters in various forms.

Love the background story, very 40k. Thanks for the report

 MacPhail wrote:
2/2020 - Mac's Sisters vs. Doug’s Necrons
2000 point - Critical Objective (CA ‘19 Maelstrom) - Spearhead Assault
Valorous Heart Brigade / Bloody Rose Battalion vs. Necron Sautekh Battalion

This was my first 8th Ed. win against Necrons (glad to have broken that streak), despite my opponent running up an early lead and playing with his usual skill and efficiency. The introduction of the Vault, the shift away from his usual 60-Warrior gunline, and the shape of the battlefield all disrupted his tactics and created some openings for Exorcist damage output, Valorous Heart grittiness, and Bloody Rose hack-n-slash to do their thing. I suspect the Bough and the Briar will have some more work to do purging the Necrons from the Voss system, but I’ll take a risk and say they’re up to the task.

Thanks for reading!

Hey, can you explain your color codes on the sisters? I Notice that some are bone+green, some are golden. Interesting in the significance of that !

It's a little loose, but my original scheme (20 years back) was green robes on bone armor with gold trim. Once multiple Orders got different rules, I started painting some with a flipped scheme: green armor with white robes and gold trim. When the Codex dropped and Celestians were suddenly worthwhile, I found a can of Retributer Armor and went gold for my last few metal Sisters: gold armor, silver trim, and white robes with green linings. So in this report, it's Valorous Heart in white, Bloody Rose in green, and Celestians (who were Bloody Rose) in gold. Characters don;t match that perfectly since I find it more important to WYSISYG them, but color-coding the infantry is important. With my new plastics, I'll use all three schemes to fill in gaps, so that will be fun to see how three different colors paint up and shade that new detailed armor.

Similar to what I have it sounds. Well except celestians. For me I have most of my army white armour + red robes. Then some models have reverse of that with red armour and white armour. Allows 2 orders be used.

Only unexpected hickup I ran into is new canoness model the prominent part is actually robes so if I follow that rule it's bit confusing as white armour+red robe appears lot redder than other models following that colour pair...