Brent: When Do You Know an Army?

5 Minute Read

Oct 22 2013

Brent here on a fine Terrible Tuesday morning, all primed and ready to talk some ~~Sisters of Battle~~ Adepta Sororitas as well as ask…

…when do you really know your army?

Over the last five or six years, my Warhammer 40K habit has been to collect and paint a tournament army then play it for a year or two, taking it to any of the Indy events I’m lucky enough to be able to attend. It was Eldar, then Daemons, and finally Space Wolves. This past year was ‘time off.’ With my wife finishing her degree, hobby money for luxuries like plane trips and ticket prices was simply not in the cards.

At least, that’s what she tells me. I stalked around the house randomly kicking things like a petulant 4-year old. I’m selfish I am. (I’ll leave you to decide if that’s true or not!) My whining will come to an end in 2014! Jenn is finished with school and my own career is going well: I’m looking forward to hitting the scene again and getting to see old friends.

But what to take?

I’ve spent this year putting together large Dark Eldar, Imperial Guard, and ~~Sisters of Battle~~ Adepta Sororitas armies, not to mention collecting almost everything I need for my 30K Alpha Legion goal. I’m spoiled (in general) for choice.

I’m really leaning toward the Sororitas. I cut out a pound of flesh this weekend and dropped the $40 bucks for the iPad version of the book.

Begin rant: GW, if you happen to read this, your community loves GW Digital – but why the hell are we paying the same price as a hardback book? You should really consider a price cut, as well as offering those players who have purchased a book a free digital copy. No, I don’t know the margins, but it seems to this Blogger that offering value to your customers would pay off in the end. End rant.

Reading through the book on Saturday morning, I was immediately excited. I started texting Goatboy, Big Red, and The Hoff – the last being a buddy of mine that played Sisters for years. The Condemnor Boltgun, a combo-weapon option for a number of squads in the book, jumped out as immediately being useful.

You’ve probably read this, but with a successful hit the Psyker will take a Perils of the Warp test. Look up the rules for Psi-Shock:

Any unit with a Pskyer, Brotherhood of Psykers, or Psychic Pilot special rules that is hit by a weapon with this special rule suffers the Perils of the Warp in addition to any other damage.

Ouch! Bye-by, Herald Star. Piss off, Grey Knights. Take this, Monstrous Creature Flying-with-Level-3-psychic-abilities that is evidently as common as dish soap in the 41st millenia! It’s also Strength 5 Assault 1, so it’s not useless even if you happen to face another army. Point is, it’s a hard counter to some armies that would otherwise steamroll just another MEQ army.

I don’t agree with some of the comments that this was just a minimal reworking of the White Dwarf articles. Some thought went into this. I agree with all the points costs, particularly dropping the Priests to 25 points each with the options for upgrades. I suspect small Battle Conclaves will support the army nicely.

The single biggest change that makes this book playable is the change to the Troops options. The base cost is 60 points for five models, including a Sister Superior, whom you don’t need to upgrade in order to purchase the aforementioned Condemnor Boltgun! The five-strong Sisters can purchase either two Special Weapons or a Special Weapon and a Heavy Weapon.

Yeah.

The most difficult part of balancing a ~~Sisters of Battle~~ Adepta Sororitas army with the White Dwarf rules was the minimum squad size of 10. After the weapons purchases and usually a Rhino, the base cost was higher than the utility of the squad. There was only so many points for supporting units such as Dominions or Celestians that are oh-so-important to the army running effectively.

Problem solved! I suspect the army will be an MSU Hybrid. I suspect it will be surprisingly effective. I’m planning mine with a Firestorm Redoubt to anchor it.

And I really, really want to build and play this army for 2014! So I will. I’m going all-in on the idea they will be an effective an All-Comers army for what I suspect will be a very interesting and diverse tournament year.

But I have to ask – how long does it take to know an army?

Really. I’m asking.

I’m lazy I am; I almost always wait for Army Builder to release the files before I really start tearing an army apart, with multiple lists for every crazy option I can think of. But that’s just the effort it takes to get a general feel for what can fit in an army. One has to actually play the army at some point. Right?

So question: what do you fine folks think about Sisters? What ideas are you coming up with that I can ~~steal and claim as my own~~ borrow? Am I deluded to think Sisters will be a good army choice? Will I require allies to take on the Tau-Eldar-Deamons trifecta?

And more generally, how long does it take to know an army?

So that’s it! Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?

Extra!

My man Doug from TableWar has a Kickstarter I’d really like you to check out. You can see the LINK HERE.

I own the Full-Case and I can personally recommend this product. The Mini-Case is the new product TableWar wants to develop – something that can fit under the seat of an airplane. I don’t think you’d be disappointed with this fine product. I love mine. I hold it and squeeze it and call it George.

Don't Miss:

Author: Brent

Sisters of Battle - Adepta Sororitas