12 December 2009 Inner Circle Holiday Beatdown (Intro)

What did I bring?
I’ve had a large number of Sisters of Battle models (and vehicles) for some years now; back during the 4th edition days, I used them as a primarily foot-slogging force chock-full of Faith Points (see that old-school list at The Jungle). With the advent of 5e, the foot-slogging armies are no longer as viable, and after spending most of a year focusing primarily on my Slann-themed Tau army, I was ready for a change of pace. And boy, is this list below ever a change of pace!

• HQ: Inquisitor Lord with Psychic Hood, Hammer of Witches, Liber Heresius, BP/CCW; retinue of Veteran + Melta (x2) and Chirurgeon
• HQ: Palatine with Book of St. Lucius, BP/CCW; retinue of 5 Celestians with 2 Meltas; Immolator with Smoke
  
  
• Elite: 5 Celestians with 2 Meltas in an Immolator with Smoke
• Elite: same
• Elite: same
  
  
• Troop: 10 Battles with Veteran with Book of St. Lucius, Heavy Flamer, Melta, in Rhino with Smoke
• Troop: same
  
  
• Fast: 5 Dominions with 2 Flamers in an Immolator with Smoke
• Fast: same
• Fast: same
  
  
• Heavy: Immolator with Smoke
• Heavy: same
• Heavy: same

This 1850 point list concept comes courtesy of YTTH, and is based primarily around the concept of spamming as many Immolators as possible: 10 in this list, with two Rhinos as well. It has literally no long-range firepower (the longest-range weapon in the army is a bolter), and requires that you get really up-close and personal in order to function, as I discovered over the course of the tournament. However, what it does have, it has in spades – a ton of really cheap units and transports that are effectively interchangeable (and to some extent, disposable), a ton of S5 flamer templates, a lot of speed, and now with 5e, units that can “hop-scotch” from vehicle to vehicle as needed.

And, because I really got to despise psychic powers whilst playing with Tau army lists, this list is about as anti-psychic-power as you can make: a Psychic Hood on a Ld10 Inquisitor that can cover the whole table (as opposed to the new 24” Marine version), plus Hammer of the Witches psychic power, plus the inherent 5+ Sororitas save against psychic powers. That and the heavy mechanization pretty much shuts down most psychic silliness before it can even start.

But this was all theory-hammer, because I’d never played with this list, or this configuration, before. With enough models and miniatures to pull it off, however, I put together conversions in my spare time, primed the vehicles (and some of the models that needed it) the night before, and me and my grey-primer-colored army was ready to roll.