So once again I trundled down to my local Games Workshop to play my second game of 6th Edition. My opponent while an experienced Warhammer player was new to 40k as this was third ever game and the previous two were played just before me. I was playing Chaos Daemons and he was playing Sisters of Battle. Having never played or read any of the rules about Sisters of Battle it was a new experience for me and I got to try out my new screamers and flamers with their buffed rules.
My opponents Army List:
Saint Celestine (HQ and Warlord who can come back from the dead on a 4+, very annoying)
Canoness
Sororitas Command Squad of 5, Immolator Transport with a twin Linked multi-melta
Dominion Squad of 5 including Champ with an Immolator with a twin linked multi meta.
3 x 10 Battle Sister Squads with Champions, each squad has a flamer (maybe a melta gun too but I can’t remember)
2 units of 6 Seraphim
2 Penitent Engines
My Army List (number in brackets indicate wave number)
Kairos (1)
Lord of Change with Master of Sorcery (1)
5 Flamers (1)
4 Flamers (2)
3 Fiends (I think of them as Tzeentchian warp monstrosities)
5 Horrors+Bolt of Change+Changeling (2)
5 Horrors+ Bolt (1)
5 Horrors+ Bolt (2)
5 Horrors+ Bolt (2)
9 Screamers (1)
Mission= Relic
Deployment= Hammer and Anvil
His Celestine took a personal Warlord Trait and got Master of Offence
Kairos took a strategic trait and got Strategic Genius (I was overjoyed at this being able to reroll my reserve rolls). I also rolled successfully to get my first wave.
I won the dice off for table edge and elected for him to choose and go first.
His Deployment from the perspective of my deployment Zone left to right was:
Two of his Battle Sister Squads in rows, behind which was his Two Immolators containing their squads (there were just left of centre), then in the centre was his other Battle Sister Squad and his Saint Celestine. Then there were his Seraphim Squads and his Penitent Engines behind a ruin.
Turn 1
In his turn his army surged forward towards the centre were the relic was, most of his army also ran getting his central most Battle Sister Squad inches away from the relic. The penitent engines trundled through the ruin without any problems and the Seraphims used their jump packs to well, jump over it.
In my Turn instead of landing right in front of the enemy my screamers scattered nearly landing on a ruined building slightly to the right of his forces. I tried to deep strike Kairos out of the way back and to the left but not too far away, but he scattered 12 inches and landed facing the entire Sisters of Battle army in the open and within easy charging distance of the Celestine (gulp!). The Lord of Change landed bang on target within a few inches of Kairos to help him, and the flamers landed bang on target in front of his two Battle Sisters units that were left of centre. The Horrors landed out of the way to the left of the centre ground but scattered further towards the enemy lines slightly.
In my shooting the flamers annihilated one Battle Sister Squad wiping it out (first blood to me, got to love flamers). The Screamers turbo boost over the Battle Sisters nearest the objective; and after 19 hits with the slash attack killing 4 of them and ending up behind the ruins the Sisters had just moved through. The Lord of Change unleashes its powers against the Saint Celestine whose armour and invulnerable save shrugs it off. Kairos shows him how its done though and strikes her down with a bolt of Change. But she picks herself in her turn fully resurrected minus one wound. How annoying! Kairos then kills some of the Battle Sisters with the relic with his daemonic gaze, killing 2.
Turn 2
In his turn his central Battle Sister Squad secures the relic. His Saint Celestine flies over for a potential charge against Kairos. The other Seraphims moved to support the Battle Sister unit with the relic. The other Battle Sister Unit lines up to shoot the hell out of the flamers. At the rear the Command Squad and Dominion Squad disembark to fire at the Screamers. The penitent engines move towards the closest enemy. So one moved towards the flamers, and the other heads back towards the screamers going back through the ruin.
In shooting the flamers die to the combined fire of a unit of Battle Sisters, the heavy flamer on the Penitent engine and the just under half strength Battle Sister Squad with the relic and a Seraphim Squad. The wound makes them quite durable. The Command Squad and Dominion Squad pour fire at the screamers who benefitting from a 4+ cover save due to turbo boost and taking models from the direction of fire, one dies and two more take 1 wound. There is some melta gun and bolter fire from the Seraphim at the Lord of Change who is unaffected. Then in the assault Phase the Saint Celestine charges Kairos who standing and firing strikes her down again with the Breath of Chaos (phew! Thank god for Breath of Chaos d3 ap1 hits, all of which managed to wound!). His Penitent Engine declines to charge the Screamers after my opponent sees what their teeth will probably do to it.
In my turn thanks to some good dice rolling and the strategic genius warlord trait my entire second wave turned up! The fiends I placed at the back right but they scattered closer (I put them here to distract and engage the command squad and potentially cut off this line of retreat for the squad with the relic. I placed the Changeling Horrors close to here but they scattered and ended up on the other side of a ruin on the left out in the open. I placed another horror unit on the right of the centre zone but they scattered to within 1 inch of the table edge. The last Horrors I placed on a hill in the far right corner of the table to cut off that avenue of escape. The Horrors already on the left of the middle zone move up to fire at the Battle Sisters squad. The flamers were going to land right in front of this same squad but ended up scattering and landed were the previous flamers were in front of the penitent engine (gulp!). I suddenly remembered to take some pictures, so here is the battle as I was deepstriking in turn two before I moved units already on the board.
(Saint Celestine had yet to roll to get back up for the second time, and see the flamers deep striking in front of the penitent engine. The squad with the relic is just to the left of the penitent engine)
Kairos and the Lord of Change start to swoop and head off in a diagonal direction to the right landing amidst the Seraphim Squads. The screamers then move back between the Battle Sister Squad and the Dominion squad and then proceed to turbo boost over them killing a few.
The flamers shoot at the penitent engine taking off a hull point. The Lord of Change also fires at it immobilising it and reducing it to one final hull point. Then using we are legion again Kairos finishes the engine off with his bolt of change and then reduced the Seraphim squad to one with his Breath of Chaos and kills two more of the Battle Sisters leaving one with the relic. The two other squads of Horrors on the left pepper the Battle Sisters squad closes to them (see pic above) and reduce the squad further.
Turn 3
In his turn 3 the surviving penitent engine turns around and trundles towards Kairos who is now the closest enemy now that the Screamers have turbo boosted off. But even though it gets very close, it won’t be able to assault him or flame him since he is swooping- woo hoo! However the other Seraphim Squad, and survivors of the Battle Sister Squad all line up to fire at Kairos. His vehicles manoeuvre so that the command squad and Dominion Squad can fire at the fiends. Oh and the irritating Saint Celestine gets up and moves to assault a unit of horrors on the far left, and the one remaining Seraphim of the other unit moves to assault the changelings unit.
In the shooting phase the Seraphims fire with their dual pistols, the Battle Sisters fire, the lone remaining Sister with the relic fires: all at Kairos in the hope of bringing him down. From these entire dice only one six comes up. However I rolls a 5 and stays aloft and the bolt shot does nothing to him. The command squad and the Dominion Squad bring down two of the fiends, and the Immolators inflict a wound on one of the flamers with their multi-melta’s. In the assault phase the horrors over watch fire to no avail. The Saint Celestine kills a couple of Horrors (she ain’t that bad I realised as she only has a strength of 3, just irritating because she refuses to die) and drops a third through combat resolution. The Seraphim kills a horror two and drops another through combat resolution.
(The Seraphims shooting at Kairos, I must have killed the guy with the relic because you can see the last one from his squad just behind him and the relic in the top right corner of the pic)
In my turn 3 Kairos and the Lord of Change swoop just over 12 inches through the gap between the buildings you can see above bringing the horrors over there (not on the pic) into his protective bubble. The horrors on the far right move towards the relic. The fiend moves ready to charge the Dominion Squad, and the flamers move to finish off the remainder of the Battle Sisters just. The screamers come about and move 12 inches towards the full strength squad of Seraphim. I wanted to see what they were like in combat now.
Through shooting the Lord of Change sends a bolt of change into the rear of the penitent engine and blows it up (I only rolled a 3 on the damage chart, open topped gives +1, and AP1 weapons now give +2 for a total of 6). Kairos then finishes off the last Battle Sister near the objective with a Daemonic Gaze and then fails to Bolt of Change a Seraphim. The flamers finish off the last of the Battle Sisters on the left (he now has no troop choices left with which to claim the relic). The fiend charges, his over watch fire is saved by the fiends invulnerable save but the combat is drawn. The Saint Celestine finishes off the Horrors Squad and the sole Seraphim draws with the Changeling squad. The Screamers then assault the squad of Seraphim, the overwatch fire brings down one. Then I do my Hammer of Wrath attacks with the other 7, wound with 6 of them and my unlucky opponent failed 5 of his saves despite having power armour!. My opponent declines to do the combat and removes her (he was starting to get that feeling). I was actually hoping that they survived as I wanted to see how their attacked faired in the combat but he was quite correct really.
Turn 4
His turn he goes for a kill what he can strategy and thinks maybe if he kills Kairos he may be able to go for a draw. But he does not have much to do this with. His command Sqaud Charges to help the Dominion Squad, his Saint Celstine charges the Horrors with the Changeling. In combat his squads finish off the fiend who kills two members of the Dominion squad before it dies. The Celestine and Seraphim roll poorly (being strength 3 doesn’t help) and only reduce the Horror squad to the Changeling who makes his save from combat resolution. The immolators fire at the flamers, who make their invulnerable save from the one wound inflicted.
In my turn Kairos and the Lord of Change alter their course and swoop along to take shots at the immolators. The Horrors move and later run towards the object (one more movement and a non poor run roll and they will have the relic. The Screamers move to help the Saint Celestine in combat with the Changeling. The flamers line up to flame the command and Dominion Squad which they do to Great Effect. The 2 members of the Dominion Squad make their invulnerable saves but the Command Squad who were further back and therefore under the wide end of the flamer templates (and who the target was) were wiped out. I was at this point that my opponent threw in the towel. With first blood and line breaker to my side and my Horrors within striking distance there was little he could do.
(Horrors running for the relic, the Seraphim next to them are casualties)
Final Thoughts
I love my new screamers! Turbo boosting around, being difficult to shoot down and quite scary in combat. Kairos was excellent as always and my flamers worked wonders. I was quite lucky at times and thanks to the warlord trait my opponent could only react to my army in turn 2, when the entire second wave showed up. Thanks to turbo boosting and Tzeentch units being able to shoot I was able to have quite an effect on my turn 1.
Looking to his side I am not sure what I would have done. I might have had the immolators lead the way and go flat out to create a better cordon around the relic in the centre. Having said that the Sisters of Battle did not seem to have anything with a wow factor in their army list. There was the Saint Celestine who stubbornly refuses to die, but was not that lethal due to low strength and toughness. She always wounds on at least a 4+ but she only fought horrors. I would have hated to have been on the receiving end of one of those Penitent Engines in melee, but since my army was swooping, could stand and fire with Breath of Chaos or had strength 5 armour bane teeth there were not much of a threat. Especially as they move towards the closest target and I kept my Horrors away from them. Maybe the Sisters of Battle are just an unbalanced army in a negative way, despite my good luck. It certainly did not seem to be down to my opponent’s inexperience as he seemed a reasonable savvy player. Anyway, praise be to Tzeentch. My forces of Chaos will be back to wreck havoc upon the galaxy!
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