[40k] My army fluff and a question of heavy support.

[Darth Stabber]

I have my witchhunter army almost ready to go, minus 1 unit, most likely heavy support. I am using inducted guard as both a means of getting a huge number of wounds on to the field, and to get a Leman Russ.

Fluff:
Inquisitor Lord Jebediah Stone has served the Ordo Hereticus for nigh on 60 years. He is a man to lead from the front, with a keen eye for talent. He is notorious among Imperial commanders for snatching up promising young guardsmen (though he is respectful enough to leave officers alone, most of the time). These men are brought together to serve as his personal strike force, who travel with him in his personal ship "the Experianus". They maintain the uniform of their home unit, with the addition of an red Inquisitorial "I" patch sewn onto their left sleave, and have it tattooed on their arm underneath. Lord Stone is also reluctant Psyker, he is hesitant to use this even in combat as he has a strong puritan leaning, however he makes exception for his psychic hood as it is better to protect himself from the powers of the enemies.

Stone's closest confidant is Veronica Alario, Cannoness of the Order of Rapturous Soul. She is a fiery woman, who rose through the ranks quickly with her piety, ferocious combat skill and keen tactical sense. She has an ongoing friendly rivalry with Stone since he saved her life as a young Palatine. This has become a back and forth struggle to out do the other on the battle field, with each pulling the other's fat out of the fire on numerous occasions. She is also still angry over Stone using his power to ensure her promotion to Cannoness after her predecessor's retirement. She now goes where he leads (as he has an amazing nose for trouble), and brings a force of battle sisters with her.

Army List Thus Far

HQ
Inquisitor Lord with Retinue
1 - Inquistor Lord Jebediah Stone - Power weapon, inferno pistol, Power armor, Psychic hood, Frag Grenades, rosarius, and bionic arm
1 - Apprentice(acolyte) - Power armor,Frag Grenades, Chainsword, and Bolt Pistol
3 - Crusaders(warrior) - Power sword and suppression shield
1 - Priest - Eviscerator, Rosarius, and Frag Grenades
2 - Medic

Sisters of Battle Cannoness - Jump pack, Plama pistol, Power weapon, frag grenades, and melta bomb.

Troops
Battle Sisters x2
each includes
15 sisters
Veteran Sister superior with plasma pistol and chainsword
1 Heavy Flamer
1 Flamer
Frag grenades
Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon
Command Squad
Junior Officer with stormbolter
4 veterans with grenade launchers
Infantry Squads x3
Each includes
Veteran Sergeant with bolt pistol and Chainsword
Autocannon
grenade launcher

Elites
Vindicare Assassin

Fast Attack
Seraphim squad
Sister Superior with plasma pistol and chainsword
4 sisters
flamer

Dominion Squad
Veteran Sister superior with Boltpistol and chainsword
4 sisters with stormbolters, Frag Grenades
Immolator Transport
Twin linked heavy bolters
Reinforced armor

Heavy support
Leman Russ Tank
Battle cannon
Hull Mounted Lascannon
Sponson Mounted Heavy bolters
pintle mounted stormbolter
Reinforced Armor


Now I need to add something else to this army, My thoughts are currently are
a)Exorcist
b)Sisters Repentia
c)Sentinal Squadron
d)Retributor Squad
e)Basilisk
f)Arco-flagellants

[Copper8642]

I thought you needed two Troop choices of Imperial Guard to take a Leman Russ?

[Darth Stabber]

Gasp!, I forgot about that. Well now i need to purchase 2 chimeras, 2 armored fist squads ought to fill up that gap efficiently, and for less points to boot. Plus Multi-lasers are fun, and when combined with the lasguns in the hull, Beam Spam (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeamSpam) FTW! At any rate upon reading the rules for exorcist missiles, I cannot in good conscience not get one.

Armored Fist squad
-Veteran Sergeant
--Stormbolter
-Grenade Launcher

[Quayleman]

yeah, exorcists are made of tank-death.
Definetly run at least one.

[tribble]

so wait, with the new IG rules, couldnt you run three leman russes as a single HS choice?

[hamishspence]

its not clear. It would be nice if rule was "1 HS choice" rather than "1 Leman Russ" but its not quite there yet.

Same for Space marines: its "1 land speeder tornado", not "1 FA land speeder choice." Oddly, it has a seperate Land Speeder Squadron choice, dating to the days when Tornadoes had to be fielded singly and Typhoons couldn't be fielded at all.

Personally, i'd say it makes sense, but I don't write the FAQ.

Some choices no longer exist- there are no Armoured Fist Squads any more. Maybe an FAQ should be written that takes the two new codexes into account? Veterans replacing Armoured Fists would make sense.

[Darth Stabber]

I hate arbitrary new additions. What guard troop choice can I pickup on the cheap. And I really don't want to try to fit 3 Leman Russ and an exorcist in under 2000 points.

[hamishspence]

Aforesaid Veterans- if they replace Armoured Fists. If not, minimum sized guard platoon maybe.

[Darth Stabber]

How does GW ever expect Guard to fight in anything less than 1,000 point battles. It has been my experience that Guard effectiveness (as compared to other factions), is directly proportional to the number of points they are allowed. Honestly the amount of overhead to field 1 infantry platoon is enormous. in the previous codex (haven't seen the new one), a guard infantry unit is some thing in excess of 150 points before anything is added to it. Heavy/special weapons, Vox-casters, veteran sergeants, grenades, Transports, and character wargear (you know the things that make units usable) will bring the cost to 250 per platoon conservatively, so with a HQ squad, an infantry platoon and an armored fist squad you easily have you 500 points eaten up, and that includes 1 vehicle(suboptimally equipped) 2 command squads (under equipped), and 3 infantry squads (under equipped). The eldar can fit in a squad of aspect warriors (and believe me banshees or scorpion eat guard alive), Marines can get assault troops, or A small terminator squad in. Dark eldar are actually effective against them (which is saying something). Orks don't really need the specialists against that list, basic boyz just annihilate it. Witchhunters can get seraphim to wipe them. And chaos can throw out some berzerkers to hack'em to pieces. And before you say no one plays 500 points, keep in mind that in the 4e rule book they push the importance of the first 500 points, and I doubt the new rules do any different. So people will either start out guard and quit or switch, and given the expense of this hobby, quit seems more likely.

[Darth Stabber]

Given most of the fluff and Fiction (might post some of it later) My total forces (when all is said and done) shape up to look something like this. this is not the army list

Inquistor Lord Jebidiah Stone and total forces aboard his ship The Emperor's Redemption

-Inquisitor lord + retinue
-Cannoness Alario
-6 Seraphim battle sisters(includes veteran sister superior)
-50+ Battle sisters(including 6 veteran sisters superior and 5 dominion sisters)
-10 sisters repentia and 1 mistress
-2 Platoons of Stone's private army (counts as IG) comprised of 110 men at arms and attendant staff
-2 Priests
-1 land raider (gift from adeptus mechanicus, Stone's personal transport)
-1 Exorcist
-1 Immolator
-1 Leman Russ
-1 Rhino
-2 Chimera
-1 Ordo Malleus Inquisitor w/ retinue (his former pupil)
-5 grey knights(including justicar)
-1 vindicare assassin
-1 eversor assassin
-3 penitent engines

[DeathQuaker]

Sorry I'm late to comment on this. I've been playing Witch Hunters for several years; these are my 2 cents, take or leave. I am certainly not expert, save perhaps an expert in what's killed my army and what hasn't. Just a few thoughts.



-Inquisitor lord + retinue


Looks like you want your Inquisitor and retinue to be a good close combat team, so I'd put in another Crusader instead of the Priest.



-Cannoness Alario

The way you have her built, consider attaching her to your Seraphim when situations call for it, or she is going to be a quick and surprisingly easily killed target.

Another option is to drop the jump pack and give her a Celestian Bodyguard. Celestians are pretty cool, with their Holy Hatred (always hit in close combat on a 3+).



-6 Seraphim battle sisters(includes veteran sister superior)

Seraphim are AWESOME. They shoot a lot and attack a lot and can Deep Strike with their Jump Packs. But they are still crunchy low toughness humans, so they can be torn apart with unlucky rolls. Ergo, max out the squad size to 10. Trust me on this. You've got a lot of special gear bloat you can honestly drop from your HQ units; Seraphim are worth it.


-50+ Battle sisters(including 6 veteran sisters superior and 5 dominion sisters)

Yes, many sisters and 7 faith points will be useful. Put them in big squads and use Divine Guidance with them when they do well in their shooting phase (you get to pop that AOF before rolling to wound, but you can roll to hit first).


-10 sisters repentia and 1 mistress

These are low-armored (naked) human targets who HAVE to be on foot and have no shooting capability. Despite the "Sisters" in their title, they are NOT Adepta Sororitas units, so no Acts of Faith or Shield of Faith. Sure, if you're lucky and get them into close combat, they'll shred away at the enemy with their Eviscerators, but any savvy opponent of yours is going to keep anything weak in close combat far away from them, and probably obliterate them with weapons fire before they'll ever get to charge forward. Marines will especially make scantily clad mincemeat of them quickly. I have had a friend who has good luck with them, but there's a lot with them that can go terribly wrong, and much of what they can do is very dependent on die roll luck more than tactics.

Not to mention, you already have Penitent Engines in your list. Not to mention close combat focused HQ units. They'll do everything you need these gals to do and then some. Take the points from this unit and add it to your firepower or beef up your troops (Witch Hunters can do fairly well with strength in numbers).

If you are really in love with human shaped shreddy death machines, though, go with Arco-Flagellants instead. They're tougher and stronger and thus will much more likely survive to get to their target. But really, w



-2 Priests

The only reason to have a Priest at all is to field Penitent Engines and a few other units that require them to exist in your list. I can understand why you have 1 (to field Penitent Engines), but there is NO reason to have 2.

Priests have crappy stats (2 wounds, but crappy stats), and while you can gear them up quite nicely, they can end up being a massive points sink that you should instead be putting into your HQ, your Seraphim, your heavy support, etc. Also, their "always count as moving" feature can be as annoying as it can be helpful, given the kind of weapons you have in your army.

The one you have, one possibility is to put them in your Dominion squad with the Storm Bolters, since the assault weapons will always be able to fire and he'll be able to provide them some close combat protection if you equip him right.



-1 land raider (gift from adeptus mechanicus, Stone's personal transport)
-1 Exorcist
-1 Immolator
-1 Leman Russ
-1 Rhino
-2 Chimera

With a Land Raider, a Leman Russ, and 2 Chimera, dump the Exorcist. It's crap compared to the Imperial Armour you can get since you're inducting guard and using an Inquisitor.

I don't get the Exorcist worship (and I have one in some of my army builds). With the fact that they fire d6 times, it's pretty much a guarantee you will fire multiple missiles when you need one and one missile when you need several. It's a target because people irrationally do fire at it, and half the time I have it in my army it just gets mowed down before it gets to do anything. I have a Dominion Squad armed with 4 meltaguns and meltabombs that is far better at taking down tanks than the Exorcist ever is. All the Exorcist does is keep people from firing at the Dominions while they get in place. :smallamused:

Also, pointswise--1 Exorcist=10 Battle Sisters with Veteran and Power Weapon (or other configuration). In some cases, the latter is more useful.



-1 Ordo Malleus Inquisitor w/ retinue (his former pupil)

For flavor, fun, but you don't really need more than one Inquisitor and Retinue. Those'll just suck away points from other things.



-5 grey knights(including justicar)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but since you're inducting Guard, I don't think you can Induct Daemonhunters simultaneously. (The reason why I am saying this is I am building an Allied Witch Hunters/Daemonhunters army and someone was telling me to induct Guard, and my rulesmonkey friend said that wasn't possible.). And only 5 grey knights isn't worth the points. Grey Knight Terminators, yes. Just grey knights, no. You'll do better sticking to your own list or adding more from Guard.



-1 vindicare assassin
-1 eversor assassin

I am not experienced with assassins, but if you want to use them, I'd look around online; there are some very good guidelines for how to use them effectively.



-3 penitent engines

I like penitent engines, but they have weak armor, so 1) it is very good to field them in a unit of 3 as you are doing, so good job!, and 2) just play them carefully--start them in cover and get them marching, and remember they get to fleet during their shooting phase if they're not near to a target they can hurt.

Again, my 2 cents, take or leave. Have fun--always good to see another Witch Hunters player. I always fear I'm the only one in existence. :smallsmile: