The Gaming Den

So, here's my cunning plan: I'll write it myself, make sure it's on the same tier as Spess Mehrins and Orks, and then print it out and place the print-outs inside my codex, saying "See? It has it right there."

I would appreciate criticism on how to improve it and keep it balanced. Note: this is just going to be a sort of index, following posts will gradually contain the actual info.

How the Sisters are supposed to be played:
-big squads with massed bolter fire
-many flamer weapons and templates
-the option of being fully mechanised
-ome squads are shooty and just not a good HtH choice
-others aren't very shooty but will murderise anything in HtH - very little cross-over
-the units themselves won't be very good at moving around (aside from Seraphim), and will instead depend on vehicles and so on
-overall individually weaker than Spazz Morans, but Faith can boost them right up
-Faith will provide interesting round-by-round tactical options

What they should excel against:
-swarm/horde based enemies such as infantry Guard, Nids and Orks
-heavily psykic forces, or those with daemons
-tanks if they decide to build up anti-tank forces

What should give them a run for their money:
-small groups of strong individuals (like Terminator marines)
-forces completely devoid of things to use their strengths against (Necrons, Dark Eldar)
-foes who specialise in shooting and haven't much terrain to get in the way on a large-ish map (Tau, Necrons, mechanised Guard)

Special Rules:
-Psykic Resistance (they can get a save against Psychic Powers and immunity to minor powers)
-Faith (several abilities are listed, every round, each Faithful unit declares what Faith power they have active. It automatically applies for the whole round, kind of like how Tau drones can, every round, apply a different bonus to whatever the main unit shoots at)
-Holy Orders (a specific speech can be given at the start of the battle by the Canoness or a Paedophile priest, granting certain benefits ranging from special abilities to special equipment. This is purchased when actually forming the army list)

HQ:
-Heroines (Palatine/Canoness)
-Priests (tag-alongs, not taking up HQ slots)
-Inquisitor Lord (w/ Retinue of 3-12)
-Sisters of Silence Heroine (Excrutiator - counts as Heroine for transport)
-Adeptus Telepathica (tag-alongs, not taking up HQ slots)
-Judge or Informant (must have a Heroine or IQ Lord for the other slot)

Troops:
-Battle Sisters Squad (10-20)
-Initiates ("Sunday School Class", less skill etc., 5-20)
-Arbiters (5-10)
-IQ Storm Troopers (5-10)
-Sisters of Silence Proctors/Vigilators (melee-oriented Psychic-Immune, 10)
-Inducted Gang (5-20, requires Informant)

Elite:
-Celestians (5-10, may accompany non-Excrutiator Heroine)
-Witch Seekers (5-10, may accompany Excrutiator, psyker-killers)
-Repentias + Mistress (5-20)
-Archo-Flagellants (5-10, requires priest)
-Sisters of Silence specialist squad (all flamers, 5-10)
-Inquisitor (w/ Retinue of 0-6)
-Death Cultists (up to 3 for 1 slot)
-Officio Assassanorum (Callidus/Eversor/Culexus/Vindicare/Mechanicus, must have IQ Lord)
-Arbites Special Forces (5-10, choice of special abilities, must have Judge)

Fast Attack:
-Seraphim (5-10, option to go without jet packs)
-Dominion (5-10, must take a transport vehicle)
-Valkyries (1-3) or Vultures (1-3)
-Arbites Dogpack (1 dood and 4-9 cyber-mastiffs, must have Judge)
-Immolators (fire only, 1-3)

Heavy Support:
-Retributor Squad (5-10)
-Sisters of Silence Heavy Assault squad (5, with up to 5 Cerberus Hounds)
-Penitent Engine (w/ variants, 1-3, requires priest)
-Orbital Bombardment (requires IQ Lord)
-Exorcist (1-3)
-Immolator (non-fire variants, 1-3)
-Land Raider Ares (1 only, requires IQ Lord or Judge)

Dedicated Transports:
-Rhino (any non-vehicle except Arbites dog pack and Arco-Flagellants)
-Immolator (Heroine, Celestians, Dominion, Retributor, Heavy Assault)
-Repressor (any non-vehicle except Arbites dog pack and Arco-Flagellants)
-Valkyrie (Storm Troopers, IQ Lord, Arbites Special Forces, Seraphim, Dominion)
-Aquila Lander (IQ Lord or Telepathica)
-Land Raider (IQ Lord or IQ. Includes all variants)
-Thunderhawk (IQ Lord or Telepathica. Requires opponent's permission)
-Stormlord (IQ Lord or Heroine. Requires opponent's permission)
-Lightning Assault Pod (1 Melta Torpedo bombardment without scatter, followed immediately by a drop pod, 3+ cover save for 1 round. Dominion or Retributors or Repentias)

Immolator Variants:
-"Flashfire" (regular twin heavy flamers. May add sponsons w/ heavy flamers)
-"Barrage" (twin heavy bolters. May add sponsons w/ hurricane bolters)
-"Meltdown" (twin multi-meltas. May add sponsons w/ multi meltas)
-"Inferno" (twin plasma cannons. May add sponsons w/ plasma guns)
-"Hellstorm" (cannon unleashes large blast with effect of a heavy flamer)
-"Apocalypse" (cannon unleashes Barrage (4) of flamer-effect blasts)

Land Raider Variants:
-as per the various codices and Imperial Armours

Faith Powers:
-Splendour (Fearless and immune to Psychic Powers)
-Resilience (gain Invulnerable save equal to Armour save, Feel No Pain)
-Magnificence (HtH attacks count as Rending Power weapons)
-Reckoning (ranged attacks gain +1 Strength, count as AP 1)
-Brilliance (Flamers use the Hellstorm Template, Bolters and Meltas use Blasts (though 5 of the same get converted to 1 large blast, or 10 to 1 enormous blast))
-Supremacy (+2 Strength (HtH and Shooting))
-Retribution (Fleet, Move Through Cover, Furious Charge)
-Sanctity (Stealth, Rapid Fire weapons all fire 3x instead of 2x)

Holy Orders:
-Burn the Witch (all Flamers and Heavy Flamers are twin-linked, upgrade bolter weapons with Inferno ammunition)
-Destroy the Mutant (bolters become Assault 2, all other assault weapons gain +1 to assault value)
-Kill the Heretic (Favoured Enemy: Imperial Guard, Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines, upgrade bolter weapons with Hellfire rounds)
-Protect the Innocent (certain squads gain Feel no Pain (medi-packs) and Counter Attack)
-Sanctify the Grounds (units may always test to regroup and can contest/capture objectives, double range at which they may hold objectives)

Later on I shall make more posts going through stats and costs.

Special Rules for a Witch Hunters/Sisters of Battle Army:

Psykic Resistance
Sisters of Battle are so adamant in their faith that they are almost closed off from the Warp, unable to be affected by otherworldly forces. They are immune to minor powers, and against Psychic Powers they enjoy a 4+ saving throw.

Untouchable
Sisters of Silence all possess the Pariah gene, and as such, are completely immune to Psychic powers of any kind. Additionally, they can never suffer a penalty to their Leadership.

Faith
Any unit or character listed as being Faithful has the power of faith, able to manifest her belief and determination into an almost mystical force. At the beginning of a game turn (regardless of who goes first), all Faithful units must select which Faith power they are using (from their list). The power remains in effect until the beginning of the next turn.

Holy Orders
When writing up the army list, you may designate (and purchase) a single Holy Order. This applies to all Adepta Sororitas units, characters and vehicles, as well as Priests, Arco-Flagellants and Penitent Engines, granting benefits based on the Order chosen.

Unless some recent dex added minor powers back in there aren't any to be immune to.

The disappointing thing about GW products is that in part because of the competitive nature and in part because of the company's extremely proprietary tirades about WYSIWYG, it is incredibly hard to get people to allow you to play with any army set that isn't "official." You should have seen the shit I got for my Clan Moulder Mordheim warband list. It gave up fucking fighting claws for its whips. And people still went off about how broken it was compared to the official product. Now granted, I personally could totally school people with it. But I could totally school people with the Eshin Skaven warband out of the basic book too. Skaven are faster, cheaper, and more numerous than you. Also, they have slings. Which under Mordheim rules are OMFG fantastic when you happen to be faster and more numerous than your opponents.

But regardless. The fact is that most people won't let you play an army list you wrote yourself. It's like dealing with RPGAtards. What you want to do is to find an existing army that happens to not suck, and then simply play your army as a reskinned version of that.

For example, if I had the time and fund on my hand to make a Hrudian Nightwarriors army, I wouldn't write my own (because people would not let me play it), and I wouldn't wait for GW to print one (because there is a very real chance that the heat death of the universe would happen first), I would simply find an existing army and use Hrudians for it. My choice for that would be Alaitoc Craftworld Eldar. Then my nightwarriors would mostly be Rangers. I'd use Rat Ogres for Wraithguard, and Warlocks for Warlocks.

King of a cheesy army? Well yes. Actually it would probably be less balanced than something I wrote myself. But it's official, so I could play it.

Most armies can be made better by being Chaos. When they first invalidated the firing line Guard army, I announced that we were fucking Alpha Legion for a while. That actually kept my army legal and effective for some time. Since your women are already running around in Power Armor, you have access to any of the varieties of Spess Marines to be an all-chick chapter of. Obvious choices would be Salamanders and Black Templars, because last time I checked those were both ridiculously good. But there's lots to be said for being Blood Angels or White Scars. Or you know, Commie Mutant Chaos Traitors.

-Username17

Thanks, that's worth considering on the off chance that I go back to singles. My plan actually hinged on not telling anyone I wrote it myself. "Well it says right here in the codex that..."

But I suppose just picking the strongest Marine chapter and filing off the barcodes could work. Although I still feel the best thing to do is just build that 6' titan and be Apoc-only, possibly even just wandering in, setting up, and having my arm raised in victory via foregone conclusion every time.

Because of the Sisters of Silence (note: there are perhaps ten people in the world who know about them) all being Pariahs, I was tempted to look over Codex: Undead in Spaaaaaaaaaace and making them count as Necrons (seeing as, in Apoc, it doesn't matter who allies with what).

And I can see using Chaos so that Faith can be represented by psykers, but I spend enough time trying to point out to people that they ARE different, I'd be scoring an own goal.