Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I don't see a thread for the new Sisters of Silence. Let's talk about how we'll squeeze deathstars out of the meta!

GW published dataslates here: https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Datasheets/Burning%20of%20Prospero%20Imperial%20Datasheets.pdf

What Imperial armies do they best compliment? Obviously those without psykers of their own, but who specifically can they best help?

What's the best way to grant them mobility and/or protection? The draft GW FAQ will influence their transport options, as do popular tournament formats including ITC.

What are good configurations? One unit of five models? Three units of five or ten? Greatblades or Flamers?

How can they best position themselves within a a game to neuter deathstars and other psychic shenanigans? Which popular armies can prevent Sisters from achieving that goal?

Greatblades, all the way. I5 AP2 is incredibly hard to come by, especially for imperial players. Flamer spam is good, but not all that hard to come by in comparison.
I plan on either taking 3 5-Woman units, for maximum Psychic denial (-2 Warp Charges and three small, annoying units for 225.)
I find that they acompany Sisters of Battle extremely well. A 25 Point Priest can give rerolls to-hit and to-wound, which mitigated their middling Weapon Skill and Strength.

Inquisition also go well together, because an Inquisitor with Rad Grenades and the Big Book of Heresy can be devestating. -1 T for turn one of combat rocks, Scouting is great, and giving them Fear won me a game.

Sit them in a ruin and fly around with a bunch of psychers nearby using earth magic.

 koooaei wrote:
Sit them in a ruin and fly around with a bunch of psychers nearby using earth magic.

You don't know how Sisters of Silence work, do you?

Waaaghpower wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
Sit them in a ruin and fly around with a bunch of psychers nearby using earth magic.

You don't know how Sisters of Silence work, do you?

You don't target the squad, you target a piece of terrain with this spell.

 koooaei wrote:

Waaaghpower wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
Sit them in a ruin and fly around with a bunch of psychers nearby using earth magic.

You don't know how Sisters of Silence work, do you?

You don't target the squad, you target a piece of terrain with this spell.

Well, okay, that's a pretty big loophole I hadn't noticed. It's technically legal, but I think you're going to get a lot of funny looks if you try it. (It completely massacres the fluff, and I think pretty clearly goes against RAI as well.)

Waaaghpower wrote:

Well, okay, that's a pretty big loophole I hadn't noticed. It's technically legal, but I think you're going to get a lot of funny looks if you try it. (It completely massacres the fluff, and I think pretty clearly goes against RAI as well.)

Well, that's tabletop. Forget about fluff and RAI as everyone has their own views on the matter. Currently, the best way to run khornates is to shove in a bunch of wizards from kabal. Same with sisters of silence. Get a bunch of sm wizards and fly dat ruin or bunker around. We need some artwork of this thing, really.

 koooaei wrote:

Waaaghpower wrote:

Well, okay, that's a pretty big loophole I hadn't noticed. It's technically legal, but I think you're going to get a lot of funny looks if you try it. (It completely massacres the fluff, and I think pretty clearly goes against RAI as well.)

Well, that's tabletop. Forget about fluff and RAI as everyone has their own views on the matter. Currently, the best way to run khornates is to shove in a bunch of wizards from kabal. Same with sisters of silence. Get a bunch of sm wizards and fly dat ruin or bunker around.

I'd say there's a difference between Khornates working well with Psykers and Sisters of Silence having an exploitable loophole to cast psychic powers on them. The first goes against some fluff (Though there are instances of Khornate psykers and khornates taking advantage of the same in the fluff,) but is explicitly permitted by the rules and at no point is there any indication in the rules that Psychic Powers cannot or should not be cast on them.

Sisters of Silence are explicitly psyker repellant at all times. In the fluff, they cannot interact with Psykers in any way, and in the game, the rules say that they cannot be targeted by any Psychic power. (Though I note upon rereading that it also says that being embarked in vehicles will nullify the effect, meaning that you could cast GoI on a rhino that they're in as well.) It's technically legal, but it's far sketchier.
Khorne with Psykers is like pineapple on pizza: A little weird, but explicable. Sisters of Silence with Psykers is more like mixing vinegar and ice cream: The two really shouldn't be going together at all.

Waaaghpower wrote:
The two really shouldn't be going together at all.

That's your pov. The psycher will likely peril as it's a ml3 power and he'll invest even more to not get denied, so you can consider it something like a magical backlash or something.

Waaaghpower wrote:
The two really shouldn't be going together at all.

... whereas the masters of the Dark Angels Chapter and the Ultramarines' Chief Librarian have nothing better to do than follow huge mobs of Fenrisian Wolves and cavalry around. Then you've got St Celestine and her Priests, who abandon their holy duties every so often to meander at the back of an Iron Hands Biker Command Squad or similar unit.

None of those things are more unlikely in-universe than Sisters of Silence choosing to scoot around in a flying terrain piece to gain a tactical advantage.

Y'all, combining SoS with psykers sounds fun but is that really their most effective use? Most tournaments are restricting that terrain-shifting power.

How can sisters best protect armies without psykers?

Give them transports then run them at psykers. They can't Deep Strike, Infiltrate or Outflank so there's no way to surprise people with them (and they're no tougher than regular Maroons so I'm not sure that'd be a good idea anyway). They don't have any extra mobility rules like Fleet or Crusader so footslogging isn't an option. Under these conditions I'm not sure what else you'd do with them.

Just take a flash tearers detachment and throw them in 3 pods...

Can't start the game embarked in Allied transports, unless there's something particular to Flesh Tearers pods that I don't know about.

Well the gw FAQ isn't official so most people I know aren't playing that currently. The people you play with may vary in this. We use itc rules here and it's legal.

To be honest that seems most sensible to me - the GW ruling is pretty stupid.

I still wouldn't Pod them unless you're running a full-Pod army. Otherwise I'd stick them in a Rhino, or even better a Flyer of some kind. Something that can move the bubble where it needs to be quickly and gives it a bit of protection.

 koooaei wrote:

Waaaghpower wrote:
The two really shouldn't be going together at all.

That's your pov. The psycher will likely peril as it's a ml3 power and he'll invest even more to not get denied, so you can consider it something like a magical backlash or something.

Correction: As was pointed out by a friend, Sisters of Silence 'Cannot be affected by psychic powers'. Period. So, while you could still get around this by sticking them in a vehicle or bunker, (Since the rule also explicitly states that the rule does not apply while they are in a vehicle or building,) it does mean that Shifting Worldscape theoretically would not effect them if it hits a piece of terrain that they are on. (After all, it may be direct, but the psychic power still does 'Affect' them.)
So, shifting worldscape maybe not, but Gate of Infinity is still an option.
EDIT: Oh, except Gate of Infinity has to be cast on the psyker and his unit. Whoops. So just Worldscape/Worldwrithe on a bunker, then. (Or on a piece of terrain that a vehicle is in, if the SoS are in the vehicle.

If you want a loophole-less approach try Magnetokinesis on the transport the Sisters are in.

Honestly, due to the lack of good mobility options, I think Bolter or Flamer Sisters with a couple swords might be a good option. I would have really liked to include a squad of them in my Deathwatch army, but the only non-dedicated transports are a little too expensive. I suppose stuffing them in the flyer might work.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
Honestly, due to the lack of good mobility options, I think Bolter or Flamer Sisters with a couple swords might be a good option. I would have really liked to include a squad of them in my Deathwatch army, but the only non-dedicated transports are a little too expensive. I suppose stuffing them in the flyer might work.

I don't think bolters are good. Free I5 AP2 is too good to pass up, and a flamer or two offers additional utility. I'm building 15 models, 10 greatblades and 5 flamers, evenly spread across three units.

 koooaei wrote:

Waaaghpower wrote:

Well, okay, that's a pretty big loophole I hadn't noticed. It's technically legal, but I think you're going to get a lot of funny looks if you try it. (It completely massacres the fluff, and I think pretty clearly goes against RAI as well.)

Well, that's tabletop. Forget about fluff and RAI as everyone has their own views on the matter. Currently, the best way to run khornates is to shove in a bunch of wizards from kabal. Same with sisters of silence. Get a bunch of sm wizards and fly dat ruin or bunker around. We need some artwork of this thing, really.

Couple of things 1, Literally 0 tournaments allow shifting worldscapes to work 2. While I agree that RAW allows it due to shifting worldscapes not being classified as a blessing for whatever reason, that's a hard sell to a TO.

Best way to use sisters depends on what you're doing with them and what the other army wants to do. Running TWC and Wulfen? Put them on the deployment line and hope you get good enough runs to keep up the bubble. Going against a shooty army? Camp them out in your backfield, preferrably on objectives, and watch what happens to anything that deepstrikes but can't kill the whole unit. Shooty army against a deathstar? Just keep them behind your front line of guns and the star most likely won't be able to risk getting close without getting shot to death. Also AP2 Swords all the time.

 axisofentropy wrote:
I'm building 15 models, 10 greatblades and 5 flamers, evenly spread across three units.

Not when using a decimal system though.

Has anyone done the math on how big an area of psychic denial can one unit of SoS project? I know it'd obviously be bigger than that of a single Culexus, even more so if you spend the same amount of points on Sisters that you would on an Assassin.

 Lammikkovalas wrote:

 axisofentropy wrote:
I'm building 15 models, 10 greatblades and 5 flamers, evenly spread across three units.

Not when using a decimal system though.

Has anyone done the math on how big an area of psychic denial can one unit of SoS project? I know it'd obviously be bigger than that of a single Culexus, even more so if you spend the same amount of points on Sisters that you would on an Assassin.

I mean, I haven't done the calculus or anything to figure out the number of square inches covered, but 10 Sisters can be spread across a 30" line (Approximately 1" bases, plus 2" Coherency,) meaning that you've got a 54"x24" oval that denies powers. Spreading out the unit in other ways is less efficient, of course, because you get more overlap. (Taking two five-woman squads, however, allows for even greater coverage.)

ERJAK wrote:
Literally 0 tournaments allow shifting worldscapes to work

No tournaments allowed superheavies and allies a couple of years ago. Look how things change. It's not long till you can fly your sister's ruin around like a magic carpet. Don't forget to model a keffiyeh for your chief psycher.

Could always just slingshot them out of an escape hatch...

Taking a raptor CAD with Lias Issodon could work. Give all 3 units infiltrate/Outflank.

 Crazyterran wrote:
Could always just slingshot them out of an escape hatch...

This is what I have been thinking. Keep them in a bunker with a hatch and maybe a comms relay (if you needed the reserve rerolls) and drop them when you need them.

Crazyterran wrote:Could always just slingshot them out of an escape hatch...

Remtek wrote:Taking a raptor CAD with Lias Issodon could work. Give all 3 units infiltrate/Outflank.

Yes these are the ideas we're looking for!