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So how do sisters, specifically competitive mechanized sisters, deal with a terminator heavy drop pod army?

How do they deploy?

I would think Castle, that's just my first impression, though.  By keeping the army tight and the heavy weapons (Exorcists) back away from possible drop sites the army should be able to concentrate firepower on an as-they-arrive basis.

Such an approach uses the rhinos primarily to block LOS rather than as transport. 

This strategy is also problematic in scenarios where the objective is taking territory.

Here's what I'd bring:

Roughly:

matryred pattern jumppack cannoness.

2 squads of 7-8 serpahim.

2-3 squads of rhino sisters

2 larger 16 strong sisters

Rets w/ Hbolters.

Left over points into exorcists.

The idea is to use the rhinos as mobile cover to Block LOS. Serphim as fast enough to snag you sooner rather than later. Cannoness hunts down smaller units and is a *female dog* to kill: could hit eitehr the tactical or the landspeeders.

The larger sister squads move folward in the beginning and get ready to shoot anything. 16 stron faithful sisters with books are a BITCH to kill.

Alternatively mount up fully and deal with you. 4-5 rhinos, seraphim squad 3 exorcists, cannoness martyr pattern(blessed weapon, inferno pistol, cloak-2+Sv, matle-immune to instantkill, jumppack).

Use the rhinos again as mobile cover, move up first turn, circle the wagons, dismount. Then go hunting once you land.

*shrug*

Harder to expain, until you know the mission and its lvl. In omega, I would absolutely make you go first.

Ok, this is Theory-hammer, since I've never played my Sisters vs a strong drop-pod list before.

My 1850 list contains:
2x Canoness, jump & evisc
4x hf/mg BSS in Rhinos
2x 8 Seras
3x Exorcists

The default tactic I would use is a corner-castle.  However, I would leave enough space to drop pod behind me - maybe he takes the bait and drops off the table, if he doesn't, he's in rapid-fire range of a *lot* of guns.
Still, vs Ed's list, it might still be worth it to drop a 5-man melta squad back there to take out an Exorcist...

Just for haha's, here's a rough diagram on a 4x6 table:

Detail View:

Rhinos & Exorcists should be obvious, Seras are Diamonds, Canoness' are Circles...

Hmmm, against that, assuming a normal drop of half the army on turn 2, I think I can pop the two rhinos and the exorcist on the right. I should be able to drop such that I'm out of serious seraphim range. Sure, some flamers will reach me, but I have to expect some loses. And that leaves the seraphim dead to whatever comes in next turn.

But I think that's the right deployment.

Of course many missions would make that deployment very bad. Or at least not as advantageous.

See its hard to play theory hammer when missions and level are unknown. Omega might be better or worse. The games might go better if you go first in an omega mission, but would be worse for me if you go first in an alpha mission.

Hmmm, against that, assuming a normal drop of half the army on turn 2, I think I can pop the two rhinos and the exorcist on the right.

I'd likely pop the smoke on the rhinos before your first Reserves turn... if you can still pop them, then yeah, it'd be an uphill struggle for me.

Well, if you do that, I'll simply drop 28" or so away, and hide behind my pods until help comes.

If you do that, though, you wind up hitting him with just under half your army (2/3s of the remaining half), with the first half out of position to immediately support (except for your termies), and working with limited mobility. And he knows you'll only have a couple of units left, thus making it much less painful to break formation and hit your stuff that just dropped on turn three. Could be viable.

Well, if you do that, I'll simply drop 28" or so away, and hide behind my pods until help comes.

Thats why I think castling in the corner is a mistake.

We played the game tonight, and it ended in a tie. I'll post a full report tomorrow, since dakka is slow right now.

Cool. Can't wait to hear how it ended.

Capt K