Sororitas Avenger: Extra armour & Shield of Faith

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**SisterSydney**

Wait, isn't the Avenger already Sororitas? Well, no: It's crewed by Imperial Navy guys with their miserable Ballistic Skill of 3 (4 on a strafing run). So I couldn't resist putting out a proper Sisters version, one that replaces the lascannons with single-shot Exorcist missiles and that partially addresses the big complaint about the original Avenger, its fragility:

[The final (?) version of this unit -- and 29 more -- are now in my fandex/expandex.]

[edit: Revisions in italics -- now I've decided Exorcist missiles don't need to Get Hot, it can have four of them without the risk of glancing itself to death...]

*

Sororitas Avenger Strike Fighter: ~~195~~ 225 points
BS:4 Armour:12/11/10 HP:2 Sv:6++

Spoiler:

Costing:

Spoiler:

**Furyou Miko**

Why are the Exorcist rockets all Gets Hot? The Exorcist Launcher is unreliable because of the complexity of the firing mechanism, not because of any inherent instability in the payload itself.

In the design notes, you mention a Heavy Bolter. Where is it on the final piece?

According to the FW Exorcist model and the size of the organ pipes on the GW one, Exorcist missiles are pretty small. You could probably get away with a single Heavy 1 or Heavy 2 Exorcist Missile Launcher without the Single Shot rule to replace the two lascannons.

**SisterSydney**

It's more about thematics than physics. I went back and forth over how a single-shot Exorcist missile should work, and a reliable Exorcist seems out of character, and since a 1-shot weapon can't roll for the number of shots, I thought Gets Hot was the best way to depict that. Fluffwise, imagine that taking the missile out of the regular launcher and putting it on a launch rail solves one problem -- the firing mechanism -- but exposes another -- that the missile wasn't designed to fire like that so it sometimes does nasty things with backblast. "We solved Problem X but the solution causes Problem Y" is pretty common in human experience.

Heavy bolter thing is a typo. Fixed!

**Nevelon**

I think you had a variant exorcist missile thread at one point, is this using the same rules as there?

In general, I prefer thing to be kept simple. If you have a bunch of these flying around, you are going to have to keep track of which one is loaded with what, and if they’ve shot them off yet. Frankly, I’d be OK with missile pods loaded with S8 AP1 H1 missiles; pod, not one-shots. You sidestep the temperamental d6 nature of the exorcist by just shooting one a round. Seems a fair trade. As a swap for the LC, you are giving up a point of strength for a point of AP; which seems fair.

**SisterSydney**

Yes, the one-shot Gets Hot missile are right out of this post. And I'm certainly willing to reconsider Gets Hot!

I'm not so worried about keeping track of which Avenger has which missiles, because the Navy Avenger has lots and lots of options for under-wing ordnance that this doesn't, so the complexity ends up being about the same. Just paint a different color dot on the nose cone of the missiles for different types -- which is what actual militaries do, I believe.

**J3f**

The latest GW incarnation of the Avenger Strike Fighter (Imperial Armour 12) has the Avenger Strike Fighter with 3 Hull Points. It's actually one of the most sturdy flyers in the Imperial Navy.

I gave the Sisters something similar in my Codex. I kept everything stock with +1 BS and Shield Faith, because Sisters Pilot. I costed it at 170 points.

The reasoning behind keeping everything the same is because the Sisters of Battle revere it as an icon of Sebastian Thor. If Lascannons were good enough for him then they're good enough for the Sisters.

It's like collectors wanting everything stock on a classic car.

**Furyou Miko**

The IA12 Avenger is typoed - it got FAQ'd to point out that it and the Lightning's HP should be the other way round.

**J3f**

Furyou Miko wrote:
The IA12 Avenger is typoed - it got FAQ'd to point out that it and the Lightning's HP should be the other way round.

That makes a lot of sense now.

Would you happen to have a link to that FAQ?

**Furyou Miko**

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/d/dkksiegelist.pdf

So actually, I stand corrected - the update to the other DKoK list has it the other way round. Incidentally, the sales page for the Avenger says to use the Aeronautica rules over the other two.

**SisterSydney**

Ok, so definitely 2 HP. Which means that firing two Gets Hot! missiles could theoretically cause it to glance itself to death. (Though only 1 chance in 144, I think). Do folks have good ideas for a redesign of the Exorcist Missile Pod? I think that's the crucial question.

**Furyou Miko**

How about just an Unreliable rule, that's like Gets Hot! but instead of injuring the wielder just causes the weapon to fail to fire this turn?

**SisterSydney**

I toyed with that, but I got stuck on the problem that, if the rule is simply "rolling a 1 means the weapon doesn't fire this turn, but you can try again later," that's actually more reliable than a one-shot weapon that rolls 1, misses, and is expended.

**Nevelon**

While feeling a little orky, you could have it scatter on a miss (or just a 1)

**EmperorsChampion**

Looks pretty good. Not OP and still favors the Sisters.

**SisterSydney**

Thanks. (And Go Black Templars Go!) I'm starting to think that having Gets Hot, scatter, or some other unreliability mechanic on the one-shot Exorcist missiles is more complexity than it's worth -- and not needed for game balance, either.

Compare the old IOM standby,the Hunter-Killer missile, to a one-shot Exorcist:

Hunter-Killer (10 pts): Range:Infinite S:8 AP:3 Heavy 1
Exorcist Missile: 48" S:8 AP:1 Heavy 1

Pretty comparable. Less range, though not as much less in practical terms as "infinite" makes it seem: 48" is plenty for most circumstances, esp. on a flier. In return, significantly better AP.

Compare my homebrew fuel air explosive variant of the Exorcist to the Hellfury:

Hellfury (10 pts): 72" S:4 AP:5 Heavy 1, Large Blast, Ignores Cover,
Flaming Halo: 36" S:6 AP:4 Small Blast, Ignores Cover, Heavy 1

That's actually pretty comparable. Considerably better Str and AP for worse range and smaller blast.

I could probably make a case for a single-shot Exorcist missile to be just 10 points, without Gets Hot or any other disadvantage. I'm definitely comfortable pricing an Exorcist missile without Gets Hot at 15 points.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS: I've gone ahead and edited the original post to remove "Gets Hot" from the Exorcist Missile Pod, which allows the Sororitas Avenger to carry four of the things (the maximum a flyer can fire in one turn) without the risk of rolling two 1s and glancing itself to death.

**SisterSydney**

And Avenger makes 30: This unit put me at a nice, even number when I put all my homebrew in one place for a final pass at comment, critique, & revision: Sisters of Battle Fandex/Expandex: 30 New Units For The Adepta Sororitas.

**Peregrine**

SisterSydney wrote:
So I couldn't resist putting out a proper Sisters version, one that replaces the lascannons with single-shot Exorcist missiles and that partially addresses the big complaint about the original Avenger, its fragility:

You're assuming that the Avenger's poor durability is a bug, not a feature. It's a glass cannon flyer with massive firepower offset by poor durability, take the poor durability away and it's just good at everything.

**SisterSydney**

True, and that's part of the reason I didn't upgrade Hull Points from 2 to 3. (The other part is I couldn't quite swallow the fluff of "strengthened internal structure" required to explain it). So the Sororitas Avenger's got Armour 12/11/10 instead of the base Avenger's 12/10/10 -- a fairly minor upgrade. The 6++ Shield of Faith save is a bigger deal, actually, but even then it works only one-sixth of the time -- helpful but not hardly game-breaking, I think.

So I felt comfortable enough with this unit to put it in my compilation of all my (ready for primetime) homebrew, which I urge y'all to check out and critique: Sisters of Battle Fandex/Expandex: 30 New Units For The Adepta Sororitas.