Sisters of Battle at the LVO – Obadiah's Recap
Obi here, between the paint drying and green stuff curing, it is time to reflect on my experience at the LVO. Once again I took to the field with the ever ready to purge Sisters of Ba-Ahem, Adepta Sororitas. However, this time they would be backed up by a freeblade knight to give them a some extra weight in the close combat phase.
The List
Cannoness – Storm Bolter, Book of St. Lucius, Rosarius (Warlord) Saint Celestine
8 Battle Sister Squad – Veteran Superior, Metlagun, Heavy Flamer, Rhino 10 Battle Sister Squad – Veteran Superior, Meltagun, Heavy Flamer, Rhino 10 Battle Sister Squad – Veteran Superior, Meltagun, Heavy Flamer, Rhino
5 Dominion Squad – 4 Meltaguns, Rhino 5 Dominion Squad – 4 Meltaguns, Immolator 7 Saraphim Squad – Two Hand Flamers, Two Inferno Pistols
Exorcist Exorcist
Imperial Knight Detachment:
Knight Errant
Total: 1850
Game 1 – Chuck's Tyranids
The Tyranids I found myself pared against on the 1st game consisted of 3 Flyrants with Twin Devourers and E-Grubs, a Barbed Hierodule, 2 Carnifex with Devourers, a Malanthrope, a Mawloc, and 3 Muclid spores. Having faced the 3 Flyrant, Hierodule, and Malanthrope combo before and never won I was not feeling very confidant of winning, but resolved myself to give ground as spitefully as possible. As this was an Emperor's Will primary my main goal was to keep his Flyrants from moving in and tie the Primary. The turning point in the game came on his turn 3 when he landed his 2 non-Warlord Flyrants next to my two Rhinos guarding the Primary and holding my warlord. I could see his plan, kill the Rhinos and charge the Sisters on the next turn. I was not looking forward to it. Then like a blessing from the Emperor himself one of the Tyrants suffered a fatal perils, and I was suddenly only facing 1 Tyrant on the ground. I was ended up killing the Tyrant with some out flanking Dominions who at first seemed to be out of position and rushed everything I had available toward his objective. In the end I was able to out swarm his Tyranids, and take hold of his Emperor's Will objective securing a win.
Game 2 – Kyle's Knights & Eldar
Going up against 3 Paladins in the Adamantine Lance formation made me feel pretty confident, despite the presence of the Eldar detachment. I have practiced against Imperial Knights frequently and, in a regular point game, I have found the Ademantine Lance to be the easiest to deal with. The Knights have to keep bunched up, so they are not able to make full use of their 12” movement, and their shields are hard to direct against multiple threats. Added to this is the possibility of a fallen Knight falling on one of its compatriots. They dangers of falling Knights made itself evident when one landed on his Farseer Warlord who was riding around with the Mantle of the Laughing God on a Jetbike. The D hit came up a 6 and that was the end of him. The game ended as a solid win on turn 4.
Game 3 – Max's Tyranids
This time I was up against 5 Flyrants with Devourers as well as a large group of Termagants, some outflanking Gene Stealers, a Tervigon, and 2 Venomthropes. Knowing I had no air support, I had a feeling this would be a rough match up. However also knowing he would have to land his Tyrants at some point I decided the best thing to do would be to ignore them until then and punish them heavily when they did. The oppurtunity came quickly when a Flyrant suffered a wound from Perils and crashed to the ground near my Knight. My next break came when his Tervigon popped out its first brood and rolled a double. In the end I killed 4 of the Flyrants including the Warlord, but the roll at the end of turn 5 came up a 2 and the game ended. After counting out the points I won primary and Slay the Warlord, but he took secondary plus First Blood and Line Breaker, so the game ended a tie. My mistake was not moving my Immolator deeper into his deployment zone and out of site, but a tie was not a bad way to wrap up the day.
Game 4 – Phil's Eldar
This was my first encounter with an Eldar Scorpion so right off I was very cautious of the 2, (most often Twin-Linked), Destroyer shots I would be facing. Along with this he had 2 units of 2 Hornets to throw out a hail of S8 into my light vehicles. After a few missed shots and cover saves made against his Scorpion's firing I was feeling a bit better about the game, until I failed a 7” charge into a Wave Serpent with my Knight. Seizing on this opening he poured fire into the Knight until it was gone. I was expecting the Knight to die that round, but now I had missed my best chance at putting that Wave Serpent down. When the game ended on turn 6 I only had a few models left on the table, but I was feeling pretty confident as I had 3 Scouring objectives to his two. It was then he reminded me the Souring objectives were worth the value printed on them, so my 1,2, & 3 only tied his 2 & 3 since he had killed 1 more fast attack than I was able to. We quickly tailed up the secondary and luckily I had done 3 hull points to his LOW and we tied on that as well. In the end it was a 1-1 Tie. I had killed his Warlord, but he took First Blood. It was a little disappointing to realize I had not won, but by turn 4 I was still feeling pretty good.
Game 5 – Clayton's Eldar
Once again I was facing an Eldar list with a Scorpion. However, This time it had a pretty Sky Shield to park on, and was supported by a Warlock Council on Jetbikes with 3 Farseers. With no Psykers of my own his Warlock unit took advantage of every power it had. My hopes of charging my Knight into the unit were dashed when it went down in turn 2 to the Scorpion's shooting and failed cover saves. As it was a Vanguard Strike deployment I outflanked the Dominions, but both ended coming up opposite of his deployment area. In the end I had them add their fire into the Warlock squad which at least gave me the pleasure of killing his Warlord. The game ended with a 1-9 loss, the first of the tournament.
Game 6 – Chuck's Chaos Space Marines & Tau
For the final game of the tournament for me left me facing a Tau Firebase, a Brass Scorpion, a Sicaran Battle Tank, and 2 units of cultists lead by Sorcerers. The Broadsides found themselves without much cover and were quickly picked apart by the Exorcists and Dominions. The Brass Scorpion charged into a Rhino, spilling it contents out, but was then faced with a charge from my Knight and was brought low in the second round of combat. After ward the Knight made straight for the Riptide and finished it off with a few quick chops. By the end of it one of his Sorcerers and cultist units had managed to keep themselves out of harms way, but the battle was won with a solid Victory in my favor.
Conclusions
Over all I wen 3-1-2 which is my best record to date, so I think the list I am running is pretty solid. I am very happy with the addition of the knight as it gave me a unit which could quickly nullify an opponent's Monstrous Creatures, often with little threat to itself. I cannot think of any major changes I need to make to the list, and I came in second for best army appearance, so I will be concentrating on finishing the painting on this army. However one change I will be making is to drop the Veteran upgrade to the Sister Squad the Cannoness rides with and to give the Cannoness an Inferno Pistol. Although she survived all my games, the few times she was put on the spot she could only dodge out of danger and did not really contribute to nullifying the threat.
Plus this gives me a great reason to model up another Cannoness as the old version is looking a little haggard next to all my other conversions.