Rhinos or Immolators?

[Flying Tigress]

Halp. Halp. I have sunk an atrocious amount of money into starting a Sisters of Battle army. about 2000 points worth, all at once.

I'm looking at my two new spiffy Exorcist tanks... so pretty. So cut and dried. So not able to carry troops. So much more survivable than the transport options.

So. I now have the assembled hulls of... six Rhinos/Immolators. And I'm stuck. I have no idea what to make or what not to make.

I know I want at least three Rhinos, as the reason I got this force was because I fell in love with the tabletop game watching my hubby play it, and him and his friends, and for that matter the local game shop, play a lot of objective, take and hold missions, and getting from Point A to Point B seems to be sometimes more important than who you kill getting there. And I have three squads of 10 sisters, so that seems to make sense. Have them all as like an armoured cavalry type deal.

But the other 3! I don't have any more 10-sister squads (yet, except Repentia, but they can't be transported). I have a Canoness with a 5-sister Command Squad (kitted for close combat), Uriah with a 5 Death Cult Assassins (also Close Combat), and two 6-sister Retributor Squads (obviously, if I'm running two Exorcists, I can only use one at a time). One is 4x Heavy Bolters and one is 4x Multi-Meltas.

So... I'm noticing the Immolators can't travel full speed and shoot in the same turn. My idea was to kit them with multi-meltas and use them as sort of secondary back-up anti-armour for the Exorcists or the Retributors if I field the multi-melta squad, but if they are going to transport as well, that seems like a waste of perfectly quick transport. The Retributors would be better served getting where they need to go quickly, no?

For that matter, the Death Cult Assassins would be also better suited to get where they need to go and get stuck in rather that waiting for a "tank" to plod into firing range before popping and assaulting. Same goes for my CC Command Squad.

And for that matter, if I have multi-melta armed Immolators, or any variation of Immolator, although I'd be much more likely to take the heavy flamers over the heavy bolters, I can't see them surviving long. They don't really have much going for them in the way of armor. Heaven forbit a couple lascannon shots find them. Heck, I'd be worried about a glory-hungry sentinel with an autocannon deciding to take pot shots... my hubby has enough of those darned things sitting in the game case.

Are these things better off as Rhinos? And the Rhino description says I can add another Storm Bolter for 10 pts... is this worth it? If I'm running the other things as Immolators, should I take these? Or should I add the storm bolters to the Immolators for 10 pts? It seems like a pretty high price to pay for a measly bolter that pot-shots a couple times a round. I mean a sister upgrading to a storm bolter is only 3 points...

Ack. Headache. Too much too soon! Curse my addictive personality! Thank you very much for your input, all.

[jmg202]

lol funny seems we are both starting sisters together.i havent had a game with them yet, but a few things in your post bring thoughts to mind. your repentia can be transported they just cant start the game in a transport, though u could start a unit that took a transport out of said transport and deploy your repentia near the tank and turn one embark and move.

secondly i think you tend to want more rhinos then immolators from what i read, my plan was to have 3 immolators and the rest be rhinos, mostly to you the immolators with dominions for scouting turn one melta shots or outflanking maneouvers.

just my thoughts, although i have no exp with sisters.

[edmundblack]

An additional storm bolter on a Rhino is only really good for being taken off when your opponent rolls "weapon destroyed" as opposed to being auto-immobilised if you've no weapons left. Generally however, this isn't such a big issue as they're either static or have got to where they need to be already.

What you have seems OK. You just have be aware of cover and use it well to get a cover save, utillise smoke launchers, identify and take out priority targets and do what SoB's do best: mid-range firefights. If you're up against Guard though, feel free to assault them. They've not got too much that'll bother Power Armour, other than numbers. And flamers take care of that quite nicely.

[Flying Tigress]

These responses are great! Thank you for the feedback!

I actually wasn't aware the Sisters Repentia could be transported. That makes one decision very easy. Rhino!

That leaves me with 3x Sister Squads in Rhino transports (and now with an extra storm bolter), and. Sister Repentia squad, also in a Rhino.

So now I have a Command Squad and my Uriah/Death Cultist squad, and either my heavy bolter or multi-melta Retributor squads to choose from. As these are all 6-model squads (for now), I think I'll make the last two Immolators. Putting them with the HQ squads and letting my Retributors slog through the muck seems to make the most sense to me, as the HQ I've both made CC.

Now... Between the two Exorcists and one squad of sister's with two meltaguns, and my multi-melta Retributors, do I have enough anti-armour? If I do, I'll outfit the Immolators with Heavy Flamers and not Mutli-Meltas. As they'll be paired with CC squads, this seems to make sense.

Am I on the right track?

Thank you so much for the feedback!

[edmundblack]

They can hi-jack someone else's transport and ride in that, but cannot have one directly bought for them. They also cannot assault out of it if the vehicle moved, so timing is key. Alternatively, take more. You'll lose some as they make their way over to where you want them, but they've got Feel No Pain which is great, so aren't too bad. My brother takes 19 + Superior, and they do OK. They'll rip up whatever gets in their way quite happily.

Each squad of Sisters should be carrying a melta gun, maybe two per squad (heavy flamer is also awesome), and between those and Exorcists you should be OK. There's really no such thing as "too much", but you need some mobility in there.

[Flying Tigress]

Each squad of Sisters should be carrying a melta gun, maybe two per squad (heavy flamer is also awesome), and between those and Exorcists you should be OK. There's really no such thing as "too much", but you need some mobility in there.

Hmm... I kind of varied up my Sister infantry squads. One with 3x storm bolters including the first shirt, one with a flamer/heavy flamer, and the last with 2x meltaguns.

I was aiming more for those squads to focus on the bulk of the small arms fire.

I'll have to spit-ball an army list here, as I suppose it's getting a little off-topic.

Definitely food for thought though! Thank you for adding even more considerations for the noob. everyone here is awesome. I was just going to walk into GW and get my butt handed to me and cry, but I feel like I have a little bit more preparation. Cheers!

[edmundblack]

Each Sisters has a Boltgun, that's generally fine. If they're on foot, then massed Storm Bolters are nice. However, if it's those or a melta gun, take the melta gun as it'll rip anything apart easily.

Start low, around 750 points to get used to things. Then build up as you gain experience. 2000 points is massive for a new starter, and can easily get too much.

[Flying Tigress]

Lol too late.

There's a newbie 750-pt tournament at my games store next month for people that have started sets I'm assuming over the holidays and such, to get them used to the social aspect of the game and the rules. I'm tailoring a tiny force around that. It's nice to have almost 3x that worth of options. Having a look at lists on the other forums gives me a bit of an idea of what to expect.

I think I'll pick up another four meltaguns just because you make a lot of sense.

I've also made the decision not to glue the weapons onto the Immolators so I can swap up heavy flamers and multi-meltas as the situation allows.

Now to painting! The most exciting part of all!

[Grey Wolf]

Rhinos are almost mandatory for Objective games. You need to field your Battle Sisters in them and move as fast as you can to the objectives. You could do the same for Immolators filled with Dominators to act as a decoy and Scout ahead to "Secure" the objective(s), while your Battle Sisters move up to take or tie near the 3rd to 5th round.

[Grey Wolf]

One thing I'm still wondering is if its better to take a unit of 20 sisters vs. 10. I know the more Rhinos you have, the better you can survive if your enemy has a lot of ordinance weapons, or even a Thunderfire Cannon, you don't take x number of hits against your Sisters if they are embarked already.