Heavy Support for Sisters of Battle

One problem with the Sisters of Battle is that their heavy support choices are limited. 3 choices and only the Penitent engine can be taken in a squadron.

Penitent engines are random fun up to 3 can occupy a single organisational slot. Hence at 85 points a mini using them in strength can be done. This is needed due to their high target potential and also their unpredictability. The downside of the all metal penitent engine is the work to construct robust mini. If this were not so off putting there could be a horde of up to 9 of these crazed beasts to deliver mayhem across the entire battle field.

Exorcists are more robust but again the random number of shots from these venerable machines can be irritating, and the ability to take several of these 135 point tanks in a squadron would be great.  Always add a storm bolter to the Exorcist to give it a little greater survivability, by leaving it with a weapon once the first choice weapon is destroyed by your opponent.

Finally there is the sensible choice with a Retributor squad armed with heavy bolters and mounted in a rhino or Immolator. Sigh

Poject Pipeline

Work on my current projects  or the second Battle Sisters Squad and the Exorcist has been slow. A combination of the erosion of inspiration and the deamnds of work and life and a bad bit of toothache. Not working on the projects releases time to think about other projects in the pipeline such as the Steel Legion Mortars and these below.

I have a forgeworld Mars Pattern Mk II Tank Hunter Destroyer conversion that could be better. I am sure that the resin components could be paint stripped fairly easily. A new Leman Russ might be needed. An appropriate weapon for the tank ace Knight Commander Pask surely even if not mentioned in the codex. A more sinisterly lethal shape and high powered weapon for instant kills. The forgeworld rule from The Citadel Journal issue 34 gives the Turbo Laser Destroyer weapon a range 72 inches, strength 10 AP 1, ordnance 1 characteristic. Combine this with Pask's ballistic skill and crack shot special rule for a true tank and monster killing machine.

Then there are the Bob Olley minis. Rare but I plan to have a squad with shotguns as veterans eventually.

And finally a partly collected squad of Arbites.

Sisters of Battle and Steel Legion Mortars

Only a small bit of progress on the hobby front. Work, family, changing the car and a PC game called UFO Afterlight has restricted the time for 40K this week. But there has been some progress with 2 projects. The second squad of sisters, acquired via ebay. These minis go for unreal sums on ebay but are still cheap there compared with the GW prices which are so mega far above unreal.

Second project is some mortars for the steel legion. GW does not do specific minis for these but combining the loader from the missile launcher team with the controller from the lascannon team plus a mortar does the business reasonably convincingly, at least I think so. Mortars are not every one's choice and lets face it there are other weapons more capable of inflicting more serious damage but I like mortars for the indirect template "bolter" fire. It drives opponents mad often and makes them forget their game plan under fire. 

Army Build

Off topic but, how should sentinel scouts be armed. The emphasis in anything I read is always on autocannons or lascannons, or now a plasma cannon. The ability to move and shoot, take out tanks and terminators. Yet in the days when I played in this way the sentinels were always too fragile to stand in the gunline against tanks or autocannon equivalent armed terminators. IG guard shooting was also then as now apalling. When push came to shove a critical miss was more likely than a game winning hit. The maximum armour on sentinels was 10. A squad of bolter armed spacemarine equivalents could take a sentinel out the game with a few well aimed rapid fire shots. The special scout move seemed most useful for taking cover. And why get up close and personal when the sentinels had ranged weapons.

Then I realised what sentinels were actually for. They were diposable. They were not for taking out tanks but for mayhem during the first 2 turns. Ranging in front of the gunline and causing pain to the enemy. Armed with a heavy flamer the ballistic skill worries were gone. A strength 5 hit on the rear of a rhino had a good chance of causing pain. There were no cover saves. The scout move could be used to get up close and personal and flame the space marines instead of hiding. In the absence of power fists a strength 5 attack in close combat could also sometimes cause pain and disruption by popping a rhino or space marine or 2. Hence I used a cloud of basic sentinels armed with heavy flamers to scour space marine heavy weapons teams from cover before they could dominate the battle or to disrupt the rhino rush.

Nothing has changed with the new aroured sentinels. Heavy flamer is still best. The extra armour gives greater survivability. What do you think autocannon or heavy flamer. Range attacks or close and personal?