The Order of the Holy Bolter, 2,000 Points of Sisters of Battle Options

[GrandMasterEmrys]

Want to start a Sisters army, and my goal is to keep things simple. Basically, I really want to have a bunch of Sisters on the field firing bolters. Here's the list I have made so far. I only have the Canoness as of yet, as far as models go, so it's open to some change.

To let you know what I am looking for in the way of comments, I would like to hear from seasoned Sisters players on the overall feel and probably battlefied effectiveness of the list.

Thanks in advance.

The Order of the Holy Bolter

- HQ -

Canoness
- Blessed Weapon
- Inferno Pistol
- Book of St. Lucius
- Rosarius

- Elites -

Celestian Squad (9 + VSS)
- Storm Bolter
- Heavy Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS
-- Bolter, Power Weapon

- Troops -

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS
-- Bolter, Power Weapon

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS
-- Bolter, Power Weapon

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS
-- Bolter, Power Weapon

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS
-- Bolter, Power Weapon

- Fast Attack -

Seraphim Squad (9 + VSS)
- 2x Twin-Inferno Pistols
- Meltabombs
- VSS
-- Eviscerator, Bolt Pistol, Book of St. Lucius

- Heavy Support -

Retributor Squad (9 + VSS)
- 4x Heavy Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS
-- Bolter, Power Weapon

Exorcist
- Extra Armour

Exorcist
- Extra Armour

Total: 2,000 Points

[InquisitorPhred]

Well, since footsloggers with lots of bolters if your theme, won't tell you to change that!

The imagifers and power weapons on the veterans however, are huge fat sacks of points that really aren't going to do very much. You could buy an entire additional seraphim squad with all those points! I use one Imagifer sometimes because it's simply too awesome a model to leave on the shelf, but that's the only reason.

10 Seraphim in one unit is also probably not the hottest idea. The squad becomes difficult to move and keep hidden. Melta-bombs are way overkill on a squad with two infernos and an eviscerator. Any tank that survives that has the favor of some higher power. Trim imagifers and power weapons until you have enough spare points to run 2 squads of 8 seraphim instead of one of 10 and I think you'll have a much more dangerous army.

[GrandMasterEmrys]

Well, since footsloggers with lots of bolters if your theme, won't tell you to change that!

The imagifers and power weapons on the veterans however, are huge fat sacks of points that really aren't going to do very much. You could buy an entire additional seraphim squad with all those points! I use one Imagifer sometimes because it's simply too awesome a model to leave on the shelf, but that's the only reason.

10 Seraphim in one unit is also probably not the hottest idea. The squad becomes difficult to move and keep hidden. Melta-bombs are way overkill on a squad with two infernos and an eviscerator. Any tank that survives that has the favor of some higher power. Trim imagifers and power weapons until you have enough spare points to run 2 squads of 8 seraphim instead of one of 10 and I think you'll have a much more dangerous army.

Thanks for the great advice! As a Grey Knights and Maines player I guess I held over the idea that all squads need a power weapon of some kind. But the Faith abilities of the Sisters can make up for that after I thought about it.

I took your advice and went back to my list. Before I write the list again, I know you're gonna bust me for keeping all the Imagifers, but I really like them. Anyway, a run-down of the changes is that I took out all the power weapons and replaced the 10-Sister Seraphim squad with 2 6-Sister squads with twin-infernos and Eviscerator. I also, for points and theme together, took out the Canoness' Inferno Pistol and gave her a Bolt Pistol instead. Wouldn't do to have the Canoness of the Order of the Holy Bolter not using a bolt weapon!

Here's the new list:


The Order of the Holy Bolter

- HQ -

Canoness
- Blessed Weapon
- Bolt Pistol
- Book of St. Lucius
- Rosarius

- Elites -

Celestian Squad (9 + VSS)
- Storm Bolter
- Heavy Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS

- Troops -

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS

Battle Sisters Squad (14 + VSS)
- 2x Storm Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS

- Fast Attack -

Seraphim Squad (6 + VSS)
- 2x Twin-Inferno Pistols
- VSS
-- Eviscerator, Bolt Pistol, Book of St. Lucius

Seraphim Squad (6 + VSS)
- 2x Twin-Inferno Pistols
- VSS
-- Eviscerator, Bolt Pistol, Book of St. Lucius

- Heavy Support -

Retributor Squad (9 + VSS)
- 4x Heavy Bolter
- Imagifer
- VSS

Exorcist
- Extra Armour

Exorcist
- Extra Armour

Total: 2,000 Points

[Utsujin]

Well, I do like imagifiers, but 160 points of em.. well if they work they'll work wonders. To offset that though, i would knock the canoness to just a CCW and BP. With saved points, buy another canoness. That way you will have 2 more faithpoints to use with all those imagifiers, and plus when they die they get all of them back, personally almost getting more bang for your buck. I wouldn't even really want to get into combat with sisters anyway, besides, acts of faith and having pseudo rending is fun.

[Darkseer]

Not a bad list.
Although I wonder how it would fair against the number of mechanised lists which appear to be doing the rounds lately?

[Imperator Mos]

Second list is better, but you will have a hard time against mech Loyal/Chaos marines lists.

[WarriorFish]

The second list is better, but I think that footsloggers automatically meaning storm bolters is wrong. It has merit of course, but you should at least have some melta too. There's nothing worse than staring down some armour you can't put a dent in, especially if you huffed it across the table to get there.

I also agree with the Imagifer sentiments. Though I like them it's impossible to claim they're good value for points so they really need to be placed "intelligently". For example, in a unit that you expect to get stuck in a need a good chance at pulling off some AoF. Of course, putting them in larger foot slogging units does make a lot of sense but it's so expensive! You'd best put all your grey matter into getting the most out of faith if you keep them, I'll be interested to hear how it works out for you too.

Last but not least, in a 2000pt game I fear for your Exos. As the only armour in your list you're going to have to play clever with them as that's a whole lot of AT they'll be up against. I'd feel better if you had a 3rd Exo, plus you could do with some extra AT punch yourself.