Friday 5 May 2023

Games 3 recap - Sisters of Battle

 So after a bit of a break, mostly due to our family holiday, i got my third league game in. This was the first game where i though i might have a good chance of actually winning, as although the sister are a power armoured army, they are only T3 and so my lasguns would actually have a good chance of wounding them. However, being a game of both dice and cards, you can never be to sure about the result.

The game started well for me though, with a good draw on the mission and the deployment, being hammer and anvil, so keeping the sisters at range for the first turn or two. The fact that i also got to go first made a big difference as it meant i could get the first blows in. 

Guard deployment.

Sisters deployment

The table

As you can see the table was nice and symmetrical, so no side could claim an advantage early game. The big building in the centre, formed from the pair of building ruins, are obscuring terrain, blocking line of sight for everything but my Hellhammer. 

Priority targets

My first turn, and first turn of the game, was focused on taking out some of the main threats to my army. In this case it was the Sisters predator (Castigator??) and the rhino containing the Repetia. I would have liked to hit the paragon warsuits with their multi meltas, but I couldn’t see them. With some lucky shooting from the hellhammer and some supporting fire from other units, i managed to take down both these targets but targeted little else.

Sisters push early

In response to my tentative start, the sisters pushed up hard, with the repentia advancing and charging all the way in to my forward lines. The big damage however was done by the sisters with their melta guns (celestians??), who scored only two wounds but did a massive 12 damage. With all the chip damage down by the other squads, the hellhammer was crippled. The Paragon warsuits only managed to do a couple of wounds luckily, otherwise the big lad would have been gone turn 1 again. 

Sisters turn 1

The repentia slicing and dicing guardsmen

Turn 2 and the hellhammer took some modicum of revenge on the sisters, throwing out shots left right and centre to take as much down as it could before its inevitable demise. Unfortunately it wasn’t as effective as i would have liked, as the paragon warsuits managed to survive with very little damage done. As it was, it was the “not penitent engines” engines that killed the hellhammer in combat.

Sisters eyeing up their target

By this point, the bottom of turn 2, i was starting to get a little worried. I had done damage but the sisters were not getting up into my lines and i was in damage of being folded up from one side to the other. My big anti armour unit was gone and others were not in a position to take on many targets, so the last sisters vehicle, the Immolator, was pretty much free to just go round burning stuff at will, which it pretty much did until the end of the game. 

Sisters in my lines

By this point, Turn 3, i was slightly worried, however, i had one advantage i could play. The Scions had dropped in the back last turn and now i had units to the front and back of the sisters, meaning there were few places they could hide and i could advance on their home objectives. The scions really came in to their own in this game, with ap-2 against T3 units they were actually killing sisters at a significant rate. 

The trap closes.

However, i had a minor problem i had to deal with. A paragon warsuit was right up in my line, slicing guardsmen to bits with impunity and so it had to die and die it didn’t! It took 2 turns of throwing several squads and my warlords command squad at it to kill it off and it was only on one wound for most of that time!

Necrons appear on the flank! 
Ignore these, they are my youngest child’s, he just wanted to join in.

By now we're in to turn 3 and were trying to put the squeeze on the sisters. Unfortunately, they were not going to roll over without a fight. The immolator was busy toasting characters over in the corner but I had managed to take out a chunk of the other models. It was at this point that Morvenn Vahl stepped up to the plate and started munching squads. 

End of turn 3

In turn 4 the flyer finally died, taken out by Morvenn Vahl's missiles and bolter, in-between munching squads with her blade. I did manage to put a few wounds on her but not nearly enough to kill her. However, by this point I don't think it really mattered, I had the advantage and was doing what I could to keep it, even if that meant feeding units to be munched.

Morgen Vahl ripping through the scions

End of turn 4

At the end of turn 4 it was clear that I had won but there were still points to play for. The paragon warsuit was still causing me bother in the backfield, refusing to die no matter how much I hit it! In turn 5 there was little for me to do, I finally managed to take out the immolator, just! And I finally took down the paragon warsuit! This one model and Morvenn Vahl were responsible for the majority of my infantry deaths I think, with Vahl claiming two Scion squads,a Scion command squad and a character (plus the flyer) all by herself and the paragon warsuit killing off at least a squad and a half of infantry as well. There was little for the sisters to do in turn 5, with just one model remaining. However, Morvenn Vahl claimed the last of her vistims, a priest before moving into take on a platoon commander. Unfortunately for her the battle ended before she could claim his scalp.

The battlefield

In the end, there was very little left on the table for either side. The Sisters were the worse off but the guard didn’t exactly come through  unscathed. 

The survivors

The sisters ended the battle with just Morann Vahl and the guard ended with less than 3 guard squads and a command squad. Points wise I don’t think there was much in it. 

The guard castle still holding firm!

In the end 


In the end the game was really good fun and I’m so happy that i managed to pull out a win. The guard were just able to keep pushing and the cards came out in my favour this time. I think that i was lucky to win by such a margin but I’m glad that it wasn’t a major win (winner has twice the VP of the looser) as i think that wouldn’t have been a true representation of the game. Again, the Hellhammer did a sterling job and really shined with the T3 enemy models. Next up were the Eldar and i was hopeful that i could pull out another win. 


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