Well hello again JaRalloes and JaRettes it's time to mount up in our rhinos and explore the changes to the rules in 6th edition and how they affect Sisters of Battle. This is going to be an in-depth look at the changes to the 40k rules, that help or hinder our little sisters.
This first post will focus on things that apply to more than just 1 aspect of the SoBs army and can either be helpful or an interference.
General:
Power Axes: One of the issues before was sisters inability to get powerfists with their troops superiors...
...or really any superiors at all.
It was a problem, since once charged sisters are stuck there with their good leadership and good armor saves not getting to shoot and eventually losing. You really are just hoping to break at the right time to allow a quick regroup and a good round of shooting whomever you were fighting.
Now you can pay 10 points for what is essentially a powerfist for sisters with a power axe. 5 strength isn't 6 strength, but it's AP 2, and it's going to do some damage if you're getting charged...which is likely considering how fast everyone seems to be in this edition. And you might get lucky and make a good round of attacks and saves and win a round of combat.
Regrouping: Wow! People who aren't Space Mareens aren't babies anymore? Sweet! And everyone can rally at down to 25% and can do it at any distance to the enemy? And they can shoot? Wooooow! This really makes SoBs auto-rally ability and high leadership much better for them. Still losing combat and getting caught because of Initiative 3 is going to explode you but you at least have a quick solution to any kind of running sisters unit.
Wall of Death: Overwatch in general is great for sisters, more shooting for sisters is never a bad thing and flamers have always been pleantiful and cheap. Now sisters have got an even better reason to take flamers. d3 autohits is the only reliable way to hit someone with overwatch. And overwatch itself is a valuable asset, if not a bit unreliable. I've played about 10 games of 6th and only seen snap fire take away 2 charges. Both were against my squads with flamers and my opponent was charging into difficult terrain. Combi-Flamers might even be a good buy now, yeah they're 10 pts, but saving them for a good wall of death, or a really opportune 3 flamer attack is pretty useful. My new sisters superiors are getting Power Axes and Combi-Flamers, it's 20 points but if you put her in the right place you're probably going to get a shot off once a game (all you need) it's even more usefull to SoB squads that are going to be getting out of rhinos close to the enemy.
Rhinos: Whoooo boy. This isn't as good a buy anymore....you can't stop and assault out, you can only go up to 6 and shoot out the hatch and hull points make them vulnerable to fussilades of fire. But, for sisters the rhino is still a formidable thing to sit in. It can go up to 18" in one turn, and it's not going to matter to regular sisters that you can't assault.
Oh! and now they're cheaper since you're not going to need Extra Armor anymore, just the basic box with sisters inside pointed twords the bad guys, nothing fancy.
Immolators: Before immolators were suicidal tanks that had suicidal squads of sisters with special weapons...This hasn't changed, the Immolators and Dominions lust for selfdestruction hasn't changed. However scouting still works the same and getting a melta laiden pile of stuff right into the opponents grille on turn one is pretty good still. And it seems like the new chart and damage table basically give your 3 melta shots (2 regular and 1 combi) a very good chance of putting down a vehicle in one volley. Penning a tank 3 times will usually destroy it, and each penetrating damage result is a 50% chance to put down the enemy tank in one-shot. However this tank is still 80+ points and has just as much chance to get glanced to death as a rhino.
Exploding Vehicles: Oh my god. This sucks. If there's one thing thats never been very forgiving for sisters is being inside a speeding bomb.
And now it's even worse!
The only result on the vehicle damage table that destroys a tank causes an explosion. It's 'just as likely' to destroy a tank as it was in 6th 1/6, but with AP1 2/6 and AP2 it's 3/6. But that's always an explosion.
That's really going to hurt your toughness 3 girls when they're ride blows up more often than not. This is a problem that also extends to destroying tanks...
What's the thing you're most likely to blow up a tank with in sisters?
If you said melta guns...
With premeasuring it's probably in your best interest (if possible) to position your girls at a safe distance before demolishing your targets.
Rapid Fire: Is better now that you can move and shoot up to 24" but most of your sisters aren't going to be far from their targets, and if they are they're usually not moving much. But any buff to Rapid Fire is good for SoBs.
Going to Ground: Oh my! This is a good one. You can only snap fire when you go to ground, which isnt' good...
..but you can still overwatch, and you can still fight normally in combat. So it might be in sisters best interest sometimes to hit the dirt to get a 3+ cover save (in ruins) if you're going to take some heavy fire before an assault. Especially if that assault's going to last a few rounds. It makes sisters in ruins with an objective quite hardballz, just hope they don't get sabatoged objectives lol.
FUCKING ALLIES: OMFG! OAFUHGA! Yes! Hi-Fives all around!
Sisters are only BFFS with Guard...
...but do you need anymore than that? Guard have a lot of things Sisters really really need, like Long Range Anti-Tank Firepower, Flyers, Reserves Gimmicks, Big Hands to open Mayonaise Jars, and of course AV 14. They want to help you.
Next time we'll be looking at individual units and perhaps even some army lists.
This weekend is our LGS's first official 6th edition Tournament I'll be taking...
...Kroot Mercs!*
Wait! NO!
Sisters, and guard as allies!
*If this army list was still legal I'd still be playing it :D
