Winning games of 40K: Terrain and Deployment.

 Left we forget what 10E was like...

I want to blog about how to play 10E here as we leave 10E behind. What I will endeavor to do is encapsulate the tactics of 10E in the next few blogs.  I do this in retrospect, after hundreds of literal games played, and dozens of tournaments attended and organized but it is just one man's take on a very big subject.

Consider this a guide, in memorium ,of what I learned about being a tournament player.  All of this assumes you were using "Matched Play" (competitive 40K) rules.

Terrain:

In 10E there are eight terrain setups in the ITC.  They were far and away the most frequently adopted.

Unlike in previous editions where terrain setups for Matched Play werent' strictly speaking codified, 10E competitive play ASSUMED all you were using was ruins, and that you were adopting those maps to play on, with the additional conceit that walls are entirely opaque on the first floor specifically.

The ITC never actually forced any TO to use that convention, but TO's just...did to the detriment of the game.  It allowed generals to essentially not have to adjust to terrain at all and create set piece defense or offensive plans.  Simply put you could practice all eight maps on your free time using great tools like TableTop Simulator (an excellent program) or on a home board.  The lack of variables made folks able to literally "game" the boards for advantage and need not plan for literally anything else.  In practice only about 6 of the maps are frequently used.

This feels far too clinical compared to most other true war games that attempt simulation.  That said, I personally recommend that people pop their armies onto Tabletop Simulator to get the right idea about deploying on those boards, because though clinical and fairly uninspiring, Situation is King.  This blog is about winning, not about my opinion on terrain.  So practice deploying on the maps.  You will start to see some of the reasons why I tell you some of the things I'm about to expand on.

A Note about the math of Secondary Objective Cards

This should get some mention for players who want ot be competitive.  You can spend a Command Point to get rid of a Secondary Objective Card you don't like and choose another.  This is useful but people may not have considered the math here and sometimes use up their precious Command Points to do this when they should not.  

It's absolutely true that you only have five rounds to score and MUST take that seriously.  

BUT...  

You can actually only score 40 points on secondaries.  That means you can score ZERO in an entire round and still maximize your secondary points.   Turn one is probably the worst time you can get desperate and give up a Command Point to see what else the deck has to offer.  Don't reach.  If the T1 objectives aren't great, score what you can but remember that you can still maximize secondaries.  Spare yourself unnecessary expenditure and see where you're at after Turn 1.  It's a race to 40 but it's not a sprint.

Conversely...  pay attention in round 5.  If you have ALREADY scored 40 by the time round 5 comes, or if there is practically no benefit to pursuing secondaries in round 5 (such as you've scored 39 and it's your turn on the top of T5), really think about whether it's worth it to even pursue them, and if it might not be better to simply deny him his.  This can happen without you registering it because you're busy looking at totals instead of the scoring breakout, but there are times when you are trying to score a secondary for no reason.

These two decision points happen in Round 1 and Round 5 of every game.  Play it like a pro.  Don't panic early.  If you've followed all the other advice here, then there is a very high likelihood that you're winning, and that in retrospect you will see that a zero on an objective card isn't the end of the world.

Deployment:

In order of considerations:

1.  Attacker/Defender:  

This is decided with a roll off in 10E, winner deciding who will deploy first (Defender) and who will not (Attacker). 

Your default answer is to force the enemy to be the Defender because they must then deploy their first unit before you do, revealing their plans sooner and the less units they have, the more pronounced this advantage will be.  This should not be an agonizing decision.  It comes with a proviso though.  The best question to ask here is:  "when do I not make the enemy the defender?"

IF you have infiltrators, always ask:  "Do you have any units with the infiltrate rule".  If you BOTH have infiltrators, then you will want to be Defender so that you can place your infiltrators FIRST, which stops the opponents infiltrators from being able to block yours; and from the enemy cutting off your Scout units!  If you both have infiltrators, then you want to be Defender.

2.  Order of Deployment.  

Until you know your specific list very well (notice that I didn't say Codex), you should have your units on a piece of colored paper, written in the order in which you want to deploy them.  Handwritten or typed, no one cares, but have it this way with any notations you find useful.

Why do it?  The order matters.  This is a skillset you need in order to be good at Warhammer 40,000.  Since it isn't going to be listed in the correct order by any list builders (usually), and competitions are timed, the time you take making decisions is salient.  Every minute you can save during the early part of the match will help you at the very end not to be stressed for time and to avoid mistakes.

The OVERRIDING considerations for order of deployment are 1) deploy the least important units first, trumped only when 2) you know both players can infiltrate as I described above and finally 3) deceit.  Put simply, you may simply wish to get an enemy thinking the wrong way about their own deployment or "scare" them from deploying in a certain place by bullying a forward objective with a nasty jaclk-in-the-box.

Below is an example.  This is my current T'au Empire list, written out in the order I would deploy it.  For this to be informative, I noted my thinking next to the units.  This extra exposition will be something individual to your list.  Over time the order may change as you experiment and stress test it.  Changing this order to be more optimal changes your win percentages, because you're no longer winging it, and you're making consciously superior decisions faster.

1.  Kroot Carnivores (deploy 4th if the enemy has infiltrators because if they have infiltrators, we need to cut them off with the GhostKeels to stop them from reducing or eliminating my own Kroot and/or Piranha Scout Moves.  Carnivores are my least important unit, the most unlikely to affect what my opponent does, it has sticky objective, so it is really just the back-end objective babysitter until it can move to do better things).

2.  Piranhas (or deploy 5th if they have infiltrators, as far forward as possible, preferably with enough space to hide with a 9" scout if you go second, making sure you have room.)

3.  Piranhas (or deploy 6th if they have infiltrators, as far forward as possible, preferably with enough space to hide with a 9" scout if you go second, making sure you have room)

4.  Piranhas (or deploy 7th if they have infiltrators as far forward as possible, preferably with enough space to hide with a 9" scout if you go second, making sure you have room)

5.  Cyclic GhostKeel (Put it within reach of the natural expansion objective, far from enemies, because: better range than Fusion'Keel)

6.  Cyclic GhostKeel (put it within reach of the center objective, as far from enemies as possible)

7.  StealthSuits (because you want to force them to place another unit and this one has a proscribed role that will be better to carry out once you have seen a few enemy deployments.)

8.  Riptide (determines where you will want Shadowsun, so that the Riptide is within the radius of her re-roll 1's; and also because his base takes a lot of real estate so you'll need to home him first to ensure you don't underestimate the room it will take to properly save him from T1 harm)

9.  Shadowsun (place her where she can future buff the Riptide and Broadsides.  She's a Lone operative)

10.  Broadsides (hidden but within the 5" move, to move from hidden to killing something)

11.  Broadsides (hidden but within the 5" move, to move from hidden to killing something)

12.  Twin Lance (in most cases Deep Striking BUT can also put them within the Shadowsun radius to start if the enemy is quite fast and aggressive just like this list is).

13.  Fusion Ghostkeel (Try to place it 19" from the best armored enemy target, and deploying it last gives you the maximum amount of time to force the enemy to deploy that armor.  This would preferably be near the enemy expansion objective if that happily is where the armor is.  Going first will mean you are within the juicy melta range for his gun Turn 1 followed by a quick Tank Shock perhaps?)

This example should open your eyes as to the depth of thought that practiced players put into the order of deployment, the purpose of their units, and how that affects it.

3.  Where to Deploy

Have a cheaper, preferably Objective Secured type of unit for the backwards home objective (or if necessary use a Stratagem that allows you to "sticky" an objective, as some players refer to Objective Secured types of rules).  It also will serve to block off reserves.

Cut off the enemy infiltrate AND scout moves whenever you can.  Currently a Scout move cannot be done that brings a scouting unit within 9" of the enemy.   When going first with the force I listed above, it's a full 18.2% higher win percentage (as of the time I posted this) when going first rather than second.  This is largely due to the Scout moves it can do.  Highly significant if you can stop it, yeah?

If the enemy has the capability to bring in reserves, Find the corners of your backfield, measure 9" diagonally from that and place a miniature there.  Spread the rest as much as you can, preferably 9" FROM the board edge, carefully measuring to maximize the coherency distances for maximum coverage.  Do it on both ends of your backfield, which of course requires two trash units whose whole world is this for a couple of turns.  This cuts off a huge globe of space from being invaded by reserving units.

Be able to get to the enemy zone Turn 1, and no later than turn 2.  This can be done with infiltrating units that can charge into the zone, units that have the "uppy downy" ability, stratagems, Scout+ Moving in turn 1... or just being Votann Jetbijes, Vespid Stingwings or even Wierdboyz (you get the idea).  Deploy so that you can do this.  Secondary Objectives often are worth more when you do Actions in the enemy zone, and some cannot be done outside the enemy zone!.  So simply put, you need to deploy in a way that will allow access early.

Value your 'Natural Expansion" objective.  On every map there is typically a No Mans Land objective that is closest to your Deployment Zone, which is commonly called the Natural Expansion Objective.  Figure out which one that is when deploying, and be certain to employ enough units to hold it successfully as the game progresses.  That and the center are your most important objectives.  Deploy like they matter to you.  Have speed enough to get there and put Objective Control onto it Turn 1 witrh some form of fast trash units.  The third and far objective, while aspirational, is more to be denied to the enemy where possible than actually chased.  It just takes more effort to do something about that one.  When you deploy, stilt your deployment thusly.  Secondaries rarely require you to take all three per se, and the "A Tempting Target" Secondary card, while annoying, really doesn't change that enough in my opinion.

When deploying the heavy hitters, you need to remember that if they take a lot of space, you need to premeasure that space somehow so as not to force them into a position the enemy can kill them from.  You really do not want to be visible with any significant units turn one, either by reserving or by deploying them on the board.  Here I encourage you to think about 1) if they can even be in range Turn 1?  2) How far must it move to attack Turn 1 (called its threat range), if forced to, from where it sits? and 3) what is its truly preferred target type and is that target type even present or likely to be present Turn 1.  One of the reasons you deploy these near the end of deployment is this last point.  You kind of want to see where the enemy is putting its preferred target type, so you can matchup with it.  But the first two things I said kind of determine if that's going to be a viable plan.  Once you have determined it is, it's time to lay them down.  But premeasuring their girth and making sure you leave room is important since you will be deploying these later rather than earlier.

Now for the controversial bit:  Anything that cannot affect the game in Turn 1 meaningfully needs to be a very serious candidate for Strategic Reserve.  You who have read this blog know how big of a fan I  am of that.  I use Strategic Reserves a lot, I preach it and I teach it.  It seems like so many enemy forces will put their best units out and for what?  So they can slog across the entire field and get killed for no gain?  Consider the risk:  in HALF your matches, you will not go first...  So in half your matches, you are taking the chance (in my case) of giving me that 18.2% advantage I mentioned, by lining up your bowling pins to be hit.  If I cave the skull in of Angron Turn one, which I recently did, the only person who will be happy about it is Khorne.  So really consider this.

What decides whether it goes from a strong candidate for Reserves to a weak one?  Simple rule I use is that if the enemy is extremely fast and aggressive and will absolutely make the trip across the board on turn one, then you need to prepare your counter stroke, and so you place trash units in front and the counter stroke units behind (7" behind is good for all kinds of reasons).  If a unit on the other hand is not a good answer as a counter stroke or is meant for scoring objectives later in the enemy zone, then definitely reserve them anyways because that's their role.  The sentence that encapsulates all of this is simply "reserve anything you cannot meaningfully use in turn one".  Once you get used to using reserves more, you will find a lot of games will go much better for you.  I'd rather wait to deploy a big boy, in cae i don't go first, and then definitively get the jump on my foe, than risk losing it for no gain.

Okay we got some things done.  We identified our Natural Expansion Objective and where that is; We have now reserved all things that cannot help us turn 1; we have infiltrated to cut off Scout moves or to gain an early lead on objectives; placed our backfield objective trash unit; deployed to both the corners to cut off reserves if necessary (with more trash units), placed our body shields up front (trash) if called for and our objective Control is ready to start taking Secondaries and Primaries as called upon; placed our counterattack units if anticipating highly quick and deadly enemies; finally, we have protected our heavy hitters behind terrain so that they can step out and immediately end threats they must end.  Until then, they are hidden.

A couple other notes on deployment:

Assault armies need to recognize that they are assault armies and not hang back in their zones any more than humanly possible when deployed.  Hide them but do so at the FRONT to the extent possible.  In a recent game an IG player took some Armigers which was unusual; but then placed them to the rear and got them blocked because he was not thinking about it until too many Guardsman were scattered everywhere.  He was worried about me deploying to kill them, so he waited a long time to place them and didn't account for the rest of his army spatially.  They had to spend an entire additional turn wasted in moving into proper position.  That proved fatal to his chances.  Assault units need to be able to assault.  They cannot go behind everyone else.  It's a waste of their potential unless as in the case of the Kroot in my list, they are backyard babysitters and just happen to ALSO be okay at melee.

Likewise, shooting armies got to' shoot, and a certain modicum of common sense must be used when deploying these armies.  Ask your opponent if they have any advance and charge abilities that will affect you or if they have a stratagem that does this and premeasure before you deploy so that you're not caught in their probable threat range Turn one.  It isn't impossible to come back from a turn one charge, but it's a bummer to have to.  I also would suggest that if you play a shooty army, that you provide yourself some speed bump units to keep the wolves at bay and keep them in front of your guns.  KNow your limitations if you're a shooty army and make sure you can maintain some space at whatever cost your codex enforces.

As an exercise I will put another list in the comments below and I encourage you to tell me what you would reserve against an ultra-aggressive enemy with speed (say World Eaters with 8Bound shenanigans) vs a less aggressive list (Astra Militarum).  The list above is an interesting case because everything in that list has a job to do turn one, and so it has no reserves.  It is a rare thing indeed for me to even field an army like it.  The army I list below in comments will not be like that.  I'd love to hear your opinions on how you would deploy it given all of what I will say here in this blog.

10E T'au: There's Gold In Them Thar Hills!

 

I speak treason in the name of Commander Shadowsun!

The meta has stated that the T’au Empire is low tier in the early going, and that they must needs bow before their betters.  I refuse to tow the line, as I ever have!

Remember when I spoke treason in 3^rd Edition, 4^th and 5^th Editions and even early in 6^th edition by suggesting T’au could be competitive?  That it was the general MORE THAN the codex?  How many articles did I wrote on this very blog, spewing the heresy that skill trumps the numbers on the page?  "Many" is the answer.

I shall do so again.

After looking through this codex and playing some practice games to confirm what Aun’Va was telling me, I have come up with the conclusion that while things have changed, there is still gold in them thar hills. 

Here are three units I think are worthy of most T’au armies and are reasons enemies should rightly fear them, despite the rumors of T’au Empire tumbling in the power rankings.  I think that T’au players may have been slower to take advantage of their new winnings, but I suspect many more T’au generals are going to change the initial negativity.

1:

Chief among the winners of the T’au 10E sweepstake is the Ghostkeel Battlesuit.  It is tough as hell and an absolute points scoring machine.  Most of the mission’s center around what is true at the end of the round or the command phase.  Luckily Ghostkeel Battlesuits can start on any No-Mans-Land objective before the game even starts, covering either situation for scoring points with the Infiltrate ability. At OC 3 they are better than many singular models in the way of OC as well.

Despite being of T’au make, the Ghostkeel Battlesuit can absolutely take a beating from just about anything.  They can bounce shots from Lascannons powered by the Space Marine “Oath of Moment” ability via their drones.  They can absorb normal hits easily with T8 and a 2+ save if they have to, conserving the Drones for bigger hits;  they can penalize the enemy shooting by -1 with their innate stealth ability, and their Lone Operative ability keeps them safe from a LIONS SHARE of enemy shooting.  Enemy units are therefore forced to voluntarily move up and (one hopes) out of cover to try and strike at the Ghostkeel, but it may just fade away again!

The Tank Shock Stratagem works on Ghostkeels, as they are now wierdly vehicles!  This has allowed me to kill units on the charge who thought themselves very safe from any Tau threat in the fight phase, including a surprised looking Daemon character holding objectives in the backfield who took four very unexpected Mortal wounds.

I place my Ghostkeels CONFIDENTLY on the No-Mans-Land objectives, as far as possible away from enemies; and also as far toward other No-Mans-Land objective in case you draw an objective card that lets the opponent choose a No-Mans-Land objective you must take.  The oval base is large enough and the unit fast enough to hop to another objective usually if forced.

I have seen in actual game play that you will benefit a lot from running the Ion weapon as Hazardous.  The Fusion Collider really needed to be three shots to be worth taking, not two.  They might be usable for a specialized task in your list but I'm not sold on it as an alternative.  The wounds you take running your Ion as Hazardous is worth it, by the way.  It’s rare that you even take any.  If you do, you will have abated, absorbed or otherwise sidestepped so much damage by then that surely it is no big deal to take a few mortal wounds.

2. 

Firesight marksmen are essential.  The consistent appearance of 20 Necron Warrior blocks and other silly combinations has underscored for me the need to be able to manage those threats by knocking out Orikan or whatever buffer the faction is using.  Even in previous editions (please read back for examples) I extolled the virtue of Snipers for this duty which no other unit can do.  In 10E I see a great need for this utility.  An example is that I count 21 characters in the Ork Codex all with really strong powers.  You can teleport not one but THREE ork units in a round with Wierdboyz (for example) if you don't pop them.  You just cannot afford to be naïve about the need for killing characters before they shenanigan you to death.

Firesight Markmen are really good snipers and reasonably priced currently at 70 points.  They only take up the space of one model in 10E!!!  Not only that, but they can’t be shot because they are Long operatives.  They also can fill in as good Spotters if the need arises to Guide units. 

Each game will determine which way to use them but surely they will prove valuable becasue they serve the dual role of spotter.  Three of them are probably necessary in order to act as quickly as you’ll need to in a five round game to make it matter.  Taking one isn’t recommended unless you do it just for its spotting ability.  That said, these are important units for every T’au.  You simply won’t be CAPABLE of killing certain units in enough time unless you can get through to the beating heart of the units “plan”.

3. 

Breachers are specifically quite lethal and can be projected forward using Devilfish’s.

In theory the Devilfish can move up to 18” plus a 3” disembark, and the Breachers 10” range gives it a threat range potential of 31”.  That's because Devilfish have the unusual ability to Advance and still disgorge its contens.  Add the stratagem that can make you -1 AP.  This on it’s own is fantastic, but they come with an unusual BS of 3, meaning you will actually be hitting on 2’s with 30 shots, and -2 AP when guided. 

That’s likely 11+ wounds against most any Marinelike target.  Add to that the benefit of a grenades mortal wounds, and you have done something very significant.  Perhaps more fun is their Guardian drone which gives them great defense (for a soft T’au anyways).  Overall, it is a good first pawn move that will force an enemy to spend some resources they rather wouldn’t to remove them.  Their Devilfish can spot for them and will be ideal for the task. 

The Breachers are also effective because their ability to pound those on an objective is even more powerful (re-rolling wounds on a STR 6 pulse Blaster?  Yes please?).  Against such a target, it would instead be about 21+ wounds plus the grenade (don’t bother firing a Fireblade when he can be tossing grenades).  That pretty much guarantees whoever was standing on the objective…won’t be.  It’s impressive.  A Cadre Fireblade is no small tax, but killing off units at a time always comes with a price.  Killing those on an objective is often required for the 10E objectives.  Why not be good at it?

 Last point on Breachers:  the Stratagem that allows the breachers to embark out of phase back into their devilfish is quite tasty as well.  The combination allows them to really pound an objective sitter to dust and do so relatively unscathed.

I hope you enjoyed reading it.  If you did, tell a friend.  =)

8th Edition Warhammer 40,000 Exposes Poor Generals.

There are very few places in 8th Edition for a poor General to hide.

In the past, a very good list could stop the most infantile of Generals from being exposed.  Not so good at the game?  Play the Eldar Scatter spam in 7E or while it lasted the Ynnari in 8E.  Castellan+ Ig was similar for a bit, but only for a bit.  While your highs wont be much higher than other peoples (as we discussed in a previous blog) your lows won't be NEARLY as low playing as those kinds of things.  You'll look more competent at the game in general, even if you wont win more tournaments.

In 8th Edition, the rule set is slimmed down substantially and the things that made certain units flat broken (Formations) are gone.  It's just you, your unit and a world filled with almost no cover saves and a whole lot of re-rolls.

The balance of power has swung sharply to favor the better generals in this environment.  MANY more lists are viable than were ever before.  I love that.  The unit you use is mattering so much less than how you use it and when.  Let's set the table with two examples.

Consider the innocuous Razorwing Flock.  The Razorwing Flock is about as useless as a second head.  It says 8 attacks, but they hit on 5's and are at a minuscule STR that guarantees they will need 6's to wound almost anything they try to hit.  In other words, you can count on them to do exactly nothing.  So what's the point really?

Another example:  the Kroot Carnivore.  Once this represented the only melee unit you had and with three attacks on the charge it was at least competent, if not stellar, at its job.  As editions went by it became less and less excellent at its job until finally, it is now just getting one attack (admittedly at STR 4 now), and nothing else to distinguish it in any way.  It's 6+ save is essentially trumped most of the time and T3 is pedestrian.  It is really just a fragile boltgun.  Yet it has proven to have extreme value in 8th edition, moreso than it enjoyed in all of 7th Edition even when they could take sniper rounds (which was also taken from them in 8th).

These two examples are good ones to focus on because they illustrate the point I'm making pretty well.  I would not play without Kroot despite all their disabilities.  I've had Kroot Hounds in my list all of 8th Edition as well because they play roles well.

In the case of the Razorwing, it actually does two things for a general.  The First is that it allows you to saturate the enemy line with the promise of being unable to attack for quite a while.  You can make the unit quite large and they literally just move towards the enemy to "blind" them.  So in a very real way, the unit can be thought of more as a blinding screen than an actual unit.  Its multiple wounds make it exceptionally hard to stop it from happening.  A huge swath of the enemy can be charged, have no damage inflicted whatsoever on them (sadly) and then have all of them forced to fall back, robbing the enemy, for a very economical cost, of an entire shooting phase.  Moreover, it is like a drinking game.  Once you start losing a drinking game, it goes downhill fast as the compounding effects of losing means you have progressively less defense against its effects, for in the subsequent round, those same birds are just going to do it again, and this time only face your overwatch.  The frustration of this happening is considerable.  More annoying is when they consolidate in and lock up yet more units.  A very large unit of these is inexpensive and incredibly dangerous to an enemy's chances.  Morale will whittle the birds down but the BeastMaster bolsters that a fair amount and ensures that the death of a thousand papercuts will continue apace.

Yet on its own, the unit is so terrible that no one who looks at it and a comparable 120 points is going to think "wow, that's a great kill ratio".

The Kroot are similarly deceptive in what they provide.  In the new age of 8th Edition Warhammer 40,000, the concept of what I coined as a Halo is important.  Many weapons are most deadly at shorter ranges and many forces now feature a scatter-free parachute assault type of mechanic where they come in flawlessly 9" from their target.  It's kind of a big deal now in 8th Edition.

The Kroot Carnivore Squad does one thing that's great:  It gets a 7" scout move before the first turn starts, which allows you to form a halo outward.  So if the unit you're defending is at point A, an enemy cannot come within 9".  If the Kroot move to point B, which is 18" from Point A, you have formed a pre-game 18" no mans land between the Kroot Carnivores and their charges, and 9" more from the Kroot to where the enemy must now drop.  Collective'ly a 27" no fly Zone thanks to their Vanguard move.  That's pretty impressive because a LOT of weapons don't even shoot more than 24".  With a Kroot Shaper around to help, a larger Kroot unit can stand sentinel and protect a very large portion of the board from drop spam like the Militarum Tempestus, Night Lords or Blood Angels.

Fire Warriors and Pathfinders are far more effective killers and survivors than the Kroot .  But the ability to stall the enemy offensive in this way is pretty impressive.  Kroot Hounds which are now a separate unit make for a useful way to plug the inevitable holes in the halo, so you can hold that halo for a couple of turns at least before ultimately having to give the enemy their chance at you. 

Good Generals are having a really good time in 8th Edition.  They can rely on roles so much more than before.  Their enemies will need to become more creative in their approach than just spamming "the best thing in the codex" seven times.  List variety has definitely improved in 8E, as people discover the little guys, what they can do for a force and how to interlock them in a jigsaw puzzle of success. Ask Plaguebearers. Ask Orks which are finally Krumpin' again.

There will always be the players who only ever play the most powerful thing there is, but it's quite comforting to know that it won't save them.  Skill matters more.

The State of The Sisters of Battle

I did a review of the codex recently and thought I'd share it with you!

Celestine:  essentially an auto-include.  Say what you will about the fact that she gives up the King Slayer secondary points so easily in ITC matches.  My answer to that is:  so what, she does her job.  She takes pressure off your army when you need it, and puts pressure on the enemy as long as she's alive and that's a real thing of value in this game, in my opinion.  Currently I don't think her two guardians are worth taking, but that's a call you can make.  For my money, she's better off alone without the Geminae.

Canoness:  She will want to EITHER carry the Brazier relic OR the Sword, depending on the foe.  Because you may change the relic from game to game (but must list the first relic on your list) choose another character as the "normal" relic carrier and leave this one fluid to change.  I would also say that she is your basic force multiplier, as most Imperial armies have to buff your shooting and assaults, so she sort of just goes into the category of "why wouldn't you take at least one".  Every force you face will have some similar utility in it in competitive play, that's fo' sho'.  The Index version of the Eviscerator is better, so if you don't take a Power Sword, look that up and take it.

Missionary/Uriah:  As you will quickly find, Arco-Flagellents are simply an auto-include and that means so is a Missionary.  One can easily argue whether Uriah is necessary, but I think he is definitely worth just a few extra points.  Either way you'll need one.  Advance him every chance you get to keep up and assist in the charges.

Sisters of Battle:  Most of the lists you see with Sisters of Battle are min/maxed weapons caddies.  This is twice as true if you use the Forge World (booooo) Repressors because you can stuff two 5-lady Sisters into it with a total of 6 Meltas!  I mean a Repressor chassis that can run around firing 6 meltaguns out of its ports is kinda potent.  Add to this that you can get a 4+ invulnerable save on them by having Indomitable Belief Warlord Trait coupled with Celestines aura.

 Even if you're not doing this, most people will tell you that because the Sisters aren't individually super expensive (point wise), taking small units with heavy load outs maximizes the heavy weapons on the table very affordably.  I don't agree with this being better, but it sounds great when you read it, doesn't it?  The really real reality is that small units just start losing the heavy weaponry that much faster in small units ,and give up Butchers Bill as a secondary far too easily (and you're already giving up King Slayer easily with Celestine!).  Further, the Acts of Faith can be a significant play if you learn to maximizetheir usefulness and small units or armoeed ones limit your number of Faith Points.  It also limits the VALUE of those Faith Points.  All in all I would rather consider the extra models in the larger units of Sisterrs AS your rhino, if that makes sense.  Advancing gets you nearly as far as a rhino will and with +3" moves, your first unit (generally your screen in many cases) may well move 15" total.  I'm just saying:  consider it.

Arco-Flagellents:  There simply is no better unit in your army to handle ork rushes.  As my Battle Reports show you pretty clearly, they were super stars in all games against hordes.  They also served ADMIRABLY as Engineers for the Secondary Objective of the same name.  They are remarkably versatile.  Breathe hard enough on them and they die, but on the offensive, they are peerless in the Codex.  Keep a Missionary near them at all times and then use your 2 Point stratagem to maximize their number of attacks.  The result is pretty breathe taking.  I use just six in my force and they are never coming out of my list.  They don't occupy an Elites slot, so be aware that if you're trying to fill a certain number of elite slots, they don't do so.

Sisters Repentia:  Here is a unit that is SLIGHTLY underrated.  They don't cost as many CP to run effectively, compared to the Arco-Flagellents.  They are really meant to strike at a different type of target, such as armored things, Damons with annoying Feel No Pain against which multiple wound weapons can pay dividends and so on.  Their primary benefit over the Arco-Flagellents is that it will benefit from the Shield fo Faith and therefore, they are FAR tougher to wound in the first place than the Arco-Flagellents who only have "Feel No Pain".  But this is highly dependent on Celestine staying close.  Given lets say 20 bolter shots. 4.44 unsaved wounds on the Repentia beats 5.9 unsaved wounds on Arco-Flagellents but the difference is the Arco-Flagellents will only lose 3 total of their number while Repentias lose closer to 4.  All in all this is a marginal difference.  Arco-Flagellents have so many attacks that the Sisters Repentia really need a points reduction if they are going to be relevant but they do an admirable job against armor and larger enemies.  They benefit a ton from having a Mistress of Repentance.  Only multi-wound damage weapons being fired at them truly make the Repentias look better for the elites slot, but that is an unlikely scenario more often than it isn't, because most such weapons won't be aimed at them anyways.

Hospitaller:  A great addition to a force, especially if you lack a lot of Faith Points, or didn't afford Celestians (and Emperor knows you better not have).  Its an elite slot filler which is handy for all kinds of list building reasons.  Her attacks don't suck and she can be made your Warlord if you need one.  No matter the Warlord you choose you'll want the Book of St. Lucius on her most likely and in this case it serves two purposes:  one to add to Indomitable Belief Warlord Trait and second, to increase her heal aura so she can better afford to advance every turn and still be within range of more people to heal as needed.  Assassins are now a thing.  A Hospitaller can be a great weapon against them.  Add to this the actual Act of Faith that heals wounds, and you can quickly see how she might be useful, inexpensive, a great slot filler and not a terri-bad combatant with her Tools (as such comparisons go within our codex).

Imagifier (Index):  I don't want to forget this.  She's not in the Codex but is important.  The Imagifier is a character that carries a Simulacrum Imperialis, allowing the model to be +1 on its own Acts of Faith.  The trick here is to have one of these and then to use it to get the +1 to shooting buff.  Seems silly, until you realize that what you're really doing is giving the Imagifier the buff so that it can then share it with all the units within 6" using the Vessel of the Emperor Stratagem!  The +1 makes it far more likely to go off.  Now I personally selected the Ebon Chalice as my <Order>, and so the Imagifier is actually +2 to get Acts of Faith off, and re-rolling with a Dialogus near.  Another use for this is the "Fights Twice" Act of Faith.  Normally it only goes off on a 5+.  But if the Imagifier does it, it's a 3+ and again with a Dialogus I am re-rolling!  So if you have a Canoness with the Sword of Admonition and Celestine and a bunch of sisters around, that is a LOT of extra attacks.  If the Missionary is close enough (he often isn't) this means all those involved are getting his +1 attack twice!  The Imagifier isn't inexpensive and that may turn someone off.  Don''t let it.  Acts of Faith are our defining special rule and making no use of it makes no sense!  If you don't have a lot of Command Points, you may find the Imagifier less useful since Vessel of the Emperors Will is a whopping 3CP to use.  But in my list, I am benefiting from it heavily and the Imagifier makes sense.

Dialogus:  Also an Elite and a great bargain.  You need this in your force since they let you re-roll your critical Acts of Faith.  Acts of Faith are the defining thing about our army and so you would be much remiss not to insure they go off every chance you can get them off.  They make leadership easier to pass as well and when a Missionary is around, the buffs to leadership significantly protect you from some of the new Psyker shenanigans like Purge Soul, Mind War and so on from casualty losses.  When you take larger units of Sisters, you will see larger casualty counts within them but not to worry!  The Dialogus is there to buff you with the missionary.  You'd have to lose 5 Sisters to even be in jeopardy of losing one to morale.  Add to this the Rally the Faithful Stratagem and you may never have to SPEND the 2 CP to auto rally a unit aaaaand...  If you have THREE units that need to rally, you can use Insane heroism stratagem for one, Rally the Faithful for another and then an Act of Faith to save another.  That's three units you potentially can save from desertion in one round without being forced to take the <Order> that mitigates leadership losses.  Pretty impactful in the ITC which scores progressively on Killing more than your enemy.  Denying enemies those points is key.  The Dialogus helps you do it.  That buff is easy to forget.  Don't.

Crusaders:  These guys fill a niche that really no other unit does for Sister of Battle.  I consider them a very simple tool with one mission:  never let the VIP be th closest to the enemy.  By carrying Storm Shields around, it takes forever for enemies to tear through these units, which are there pretty much like a shield wall to protect some character you cant afford to lose.  They can kind of fight also, but that is sort of secondary to their true value.  3 attacks with a Missionary each is really good and they are zealots which matters.  They will never output the kind of offence of the Arco-Flagellents but will FAR outlast them on any objective.  An especially exposed objective is a really good place to put these hard to kill little guys.  It's a niche unit for sure but it has the virtue of being able to get across the field to where you need them without fear for their frailty.  Being a speed bump of significant toughness, or LIne Breaking and other duties like it are all good reasons to consider them.

Death Cult Assassin:  Accompanied by a Ministorum Preiest as usual, they are 5 attacks death blenders, re-rolling misses.  That's damn good.  At STR 3 its a little bit less impressive than Repentia Sisters or Arco-Flagellents can be, but they are definitely capable of a lot of destruction.  Unlike the other two, there really is no CP cost to maximize their value, which makes them a different proposition than just whether it can do more work or not.  It can do ENOUGH and they draw attention.  If I didn't take Arco-Flagellents, I'd use these instead.

Celestians Squads:  Waste of time.  It has been for several codex's running.  They're 2 attack sisters of battle who can carry some gear,  but mostly just die when characters nearby get sniped They are just extra wounds to whomever needs them.  There are other ways to erase wounds in the army.  I'm not spending a single point on this unit.  If I'm doing my job correctly, my characters, other than Celestine, will be the least of their worries and St. Celestine isn't going to be hanging around some slow moving Celestians anyways.  It's not THAT easy to snipe characters dead in one go.  Let your Acts of Faith and so on work for you.

Seraphim: true work horses.  Small squads are plenty, most of the time.  I mostly recommend you have three units of them, with the Fusion pistols. They've done absolute work for me and are fast enough to get away with just being "weapons caddys", counter to my advice otherwise which I gave in the Sisters of Battle section.  I have killed more Dreadnoughts, Assassins and characters with them than I can count.  They are a great surgical unit, fantastic looking models and they just get the job done.  Sisters of Battle can be played as a fast army (though nowhere near as fast as in the Index), but ESPECIALLY in my version, the need for some additional threat saturation early is important and they deliver.

Dominion:  These were absolutely incredible in previous iterations, but in the newest Chapter Approved Codex, I'm really not sold any longer.  The trouble with them is multi-fold.  They seduce you with their scout move which is just absolutely fantastic and immediately makes you want to commit to three of them because you can be seriously threatening very quickly.  The thing that has dampened them is that Repressors with normal sisters (as aforementioned) can bring more meltaguns to the party than the Dominions can, and the Sisters of Battle have Strength of Faith (what we used to call "Objective Secured") which Dominion do not.  With a 4+ invulnerable save potential, many Repressor players are just willing to dare the enemy to try and kill those Repressors instead of relying on the scout move.  Scoring objectives easier and getting 6 Meltas instead of 5 just makes sense if you're using min/maxed units (IF).  The other thing that hurt Dominions is that they essentially must go forward without the support from characters to maximize their chances, while walking into the enemies meltaguns if they don't go first or risk losing the advantages of their deployment shenanigans (and then why are they there at all?).  You can see the risk/Reward problem there.  Getting wrapped around by hordes would be an equally bad outcome if they do move forward while not going first.  Dominion scream Take me, you fools at you.  I think they've lost a lot of luster.

Having said that, these are dangerous units and one of the few ways you can bring 5 meltaguns to the party all in one unit.  If you are not using Repressors, and you have Rhinos instead, then they are a little more attractive because the transport is less points and you're not really trying to pack 6 meltaguns in, so 5 is pretty good at that point and plus you can ablate incoming wounds by taking full squads.  I really like Dominions even though this makes me sound like I don't.,  It was how I played early on in the codex.  The thing is, my results were 7-4 using an armored corps and all my wins and losses were marginal.  I had nowhere near the success doing it that I have now.  Can it be done?  Yes!  I won that way.  I did not win nearly as overwhelmingly though, and in ITC play, it does matter how much you win by.

Exorcist:  One of the least reliable tanks in Warhammer 40,000 and a notoriously bad idea if you only plan to take one.  Take 3 or don't take any would be my advice.  You need the numbers to average out the production and any Necron player will tell you how good a bevy of Doomsday Ark can be, which is kind of what they are.  Your enemies have become stronger, even since the Chapter Approved Sisters of Battle Codex dropped.  The new Space Marines look positively insane now.  I point this out because out-ranging the enemy is more important than it has ever been, given the silly amount of firepower people can wipe entire Sisters squads out with.  From the Scorpius batteries to the Leviathan to the copious numbers of Re-rollable this-and-that from Chapter Masters, the Battle Sister squads suffer badly from incoming fire (all the more reason to have more of them).  Battle Sisters are really most effective at 6"-12".  Outside of that range, the Adepta Sororitas are truly disadvantaged.  The Exorcist gives you something you really need:  ranged threat.  It doesn't even matter that they aren't reliable, because at the end of the day, the range gives you AT LEAST the chance to even the scales on the "killed More" side of ITC scoring as you stumble forward turn one.  It takes fire off of other units that can afford to take that fire less so than the Exorcist can.

I recently fought an ork (see last battle report) that obliterated half my sisters in a single turn...  Turn one!  When enemies can do that to you, through all their various buffs and shenanigans, you have GOT to be able to counter punch.  The Exorcists allowed me to kill enough of his strong but singular models to keep up on the scoring end.  So if for NO better reason than range, I like the Exorcists and they meant a lot to me in games against big single model type threats.  As you can tell, my list doesn't lack anti-tank at all even without the Exorcists.  I have boat loads of it.  However, it does you no good if you cannot reach anything.  That will be the case for a couple rounds!  Early rounds will be very impacted by having Exorcists present.  It makes taking Old School as a secondary more attractive, and it makes super elite armies kind of cry a little over the course of time.  Just know that they will disappoint you and not to rely on them for anything in any particular turn.  If your "master plan" this round starts with a sentence like"okay and then my Exorcists should be able to..." then stop.  Rewind.  And never say the word should again.  I will repeat:  they absolutely cannot be relied upon for anything in any given round. They are there because over time, and especially in the early two rounds, you just flat need the threat of that reach.  Just the threat of them will do a lot for you.

Retributor Squad:  These have been solid performers over the years.  The ability to take 4 Heavy Flamers and a combi-flamer is pretty boss, especially when delivered from Rhinos/Immolators.  Alternatively, being able to shoot 36" with heavy bolters gives you the range that Sisters lack so often.  Heavy bolters are also seen as a good way to handle the Ork menace on the come, standing behind the sacrificial first unit and blazing away in the aftermath to tremendously satisfying effect.  Space Marine Bolt Rifles and the like are rapidly taking away the advantages of heavy bolters for Battle Sisters.  The escalation on ranges in general is starting to be  damaging to the value of the Heavy Bolter Retributors, really.  As small units, they made more sense when it was work to get at them and shut them up.  Now they are getting shot turn one, just by a simple move by the enemy!  I really still like the flamer build.  Many flyer armies are being seen, and heavy flamers just don't care about your silly Hard To Hit rule.  If you add a Combi-Melta to the Sister Superior, you can make use of the Holy Trinity Stratagem, which is pretty nice on Retributors like this.

Heavy Bolter versions need to be used as a counter-punch probably.  I would just be cautious about deployment on them.  Hide them if it's an option and give them a chance to fire throughout the course of the game, and then they can rack up results for you.  Just look to making them maybe protected round one, and then have them come out after you know who is going first and where they will be.  Taking a -1 to hit turn one might not even be a bad thing considering you can use the Vessel of the Emperors Will Stratagem to negate the moving penalties for doing so.  A bevy of Heavy Bolters, if they are protected in turn one, can be a significant boost to long range firepower against a lot of armies; and withering to units who rely on vehicles who get popped.  Heavy bolters are really cost effective, and STR 5 is magical is 8E.

One other factor that does make them a little less cool is that there are now units that ignore weapon AP's of -1.  This is annoying, but it's a thing.  So consider who you're playing as to whether that might affect your use of them.  It's not a lions share of armies but it is a thing to think about.

Penitent Engines:  They have an abysmal history.  If it wasn't initiative in the old days killing them, it's something else.  These are light dreadnoughts with Dual Heavy Flamers and they advance an average of about 10.5" and then hope to charge.  They are getting 8 attacks if not interrupted, re-rolling to hit rolls, and they do have "Feel No Pain" on a 5+ which makes them tougher than they look, really.  It's 100 points of hope per suit.

Taking them in trios is what most people have historically done when taking them at all, to allow the inevitable attrition not to stop their overall mission of gumming up the works.  A little luck and you'll be demolishing units with the trio, and consolidating into more.  That is the theory.  This is more of a fun and fluffy choice for most armies and it will shock you with its efficacy if all three get there so it can be a game winning gambit but it is definitely a gambit.

Surprisingly, it really isn't affected much by Devastator Doctrines and its somewhat resilient against Psychic attacks given their Feel No Pain.  It is a deceptive unit.  In ACTUAL practice in the couple games I gave it the college try it failed spectacularly once and worked spectacularly once.  50/50.  If you are a gambler, the Penitent Engine trio can be a REALLY impactful play.  Just do it in more friendly games because at events where the super serious roam, 50%ish is probably not a great formula for winning overall.  But you will most definitely surprise people with them and you can see entire intercessor units vanish to their tender mercies.  Another piece of advice I would give, and this goes for many units:  don't heavy flamer the unit you're trying to charge most of the time.  Their attacks are plenty good enough to gank their targets.  You don't want to lengthen those charges too often.  I know it seems obvious but with an 8 inch weapon I think we can all recall a time when we kind of forgot that and in the game I failed in spectacularly with them, that was precisely the problem.  Turns out Heavy Flamers can do some work, sometimes too much.

Immolator:  It was the preferred vehicle for delivering min/maxed Dominion to the fight for a real long time.  Stuff a Twin Multi-Melta on it, wind it up, Vanguard move it up and watch it go.  It was also a great way, when the White Dwarf codex was out, to get the old Sororitas Command Squad up there.  Repressors are the clear choice if you own them, but given that its Forge World...  Immolators still largely dominated.

The Immolator is good.  It packs a great whallop for a l'il tank.  If you are min/maxing squads, there is no longer a reason to prefer Rhinos, as now neither allows anyone to fire from them.  Pop smoke round 1, and then start blasting round 2.  It's a credible threat and fast enough to get to Dreadnoughts and the like who do not at all like a little transport knocking them out, so it can divert important fire to itself rather than to your Sisters.  All in all a pretty satisfactory vehicle when and if your list needs them.

Since I prefer larger squads and less threat to the heavy weapons (and because bolters are absolutely still a good weapon), I don't make use of the Immolators in my list style.  Min/max'd squads will love them though.

Rhino:  Nuff said really.  It's great for larger squads and it CAN be made noticeably tougher with smoke launchers and the Celestine+ Indomitable Belief buff.  I will say that bringing dual Storm Bolters on these is economical and fun, and very worthwhile.  I am also a big fan of Hunter Killer Missiles and what the Rhino lacks in actual firepower it can make up for somewhat by carrying one.  When I played an armored list with primarily Rhinos, that is what I did.  There is a tactic among Sisters of Battle players called "Musical rhinos".  I didn't know there was a name for it but there is.  The Dominions jump out of them to blast away at the front lines while the sisters climb into the rhino from behind facing the enemy whenever possible wit hthe front of the tank, and then they replace the Dominions and so on, so the Rhinos become kind of a free movement buff for units behind them or around them, and a place to hide for a round as you approach when you're employing Dominions to wreck the enemy armor round 1.  Anyone who has faced Scorpius Batteries or other artillery armies will recognize the value of such a tactic.  If you are taking larger units, then this is also a handy way to get them forward after taking casualties because they will BECOME small enough units to get in after diverting enemy fire that would perhaps have been better spent on other units.  This can help you protect against the "killed more" ITC point sometimes!

Repressors:  Forge World.  Blech.  Fine, I'll go over this one also...  The main thing to note is that it allows you to load up a couple of squads of sisters and fire out of it.  The smartest play as aforementioned is 2 small Battle Sister Squads toting 3 Meltaguns each (you could also do flamers if that's your thang).  If I told you you that could buy a Rhino with more wounds, that had 6 Meltaguns ATTACHED to it, you'd drop a load in your shorts and have them immediately.  Same for a Chimera if it could do that.  Well that's basically what you're buying here.  Best part is that the Sisters of Battle can score objectives better and so when the tank blows up, you end up with min/max'd squads ready to rock someones world and...here it comes...  no corresponding loss of firepower in the army (because normally the tank would take its weapons to the grave with it, but in this case, it doesn't!!!)  This is silly.  But most Forge World is silly.  The moral of the tale is if you wanna' really play armored stuff, you could do so much worse.

I think I hit them all.  I think the list of must haves are: St. Celestine, Canoness,  Missionary, Arco-Flagellents, and Sisters of Battle.

I think the highly advisable category includes:  Exorcists, Dialogus. Imagifier (index) and Seraphim
I think the "more than adequate alternatives, albeit not aaas critical" goes to:  Hospitaller, Death Cult Assassins, Repentia Sisters, Dominion, and Retributors.

The "do it if you like it fluffy" list is: Penitent Engines, Crusaders, Celestians, Geminaes"

I don't think transports really go into any category other than "potentially necessary".  Repressors are the best ones.  Immolators and Rhinos depend on whether you are min/maxing weapon squads or not.

8th Edition Orks

Orks players have habitually suffered in solitude while bravely sallying forth with their models despite overwhelming odds.  Everyone loves playing against Orks because when you shoot them, you take handfuls of them off the board and its immediately satisfying.  When the Orks shoot, they mostly miss, which never leaves you with the incredibly sour taste on the receiving end of "hits on 2's, re-rolling 1" shenanigans many units can pull off.  As the enemy, you always think graciously when Orks have a good roll, "well the sun even shines on a dogs butt once in a while"; but you're not really upset about it too much because you know the reverse will happen just as soon.

So it is that playing against Orks is always fun because all of the nasty things you wish to do to them work!  In a universe full of  Stratagems like the Dark Eldar have which simply switch off your "special stratagem combo", or Toughness values so great that you are cheering when you drop a mere three models in their tracks, orks provide the playground upon which any army can feel really good about their results.  You have fun absolutely raking endless numbers with your flame, cannon and axe.

The Orks on the other hand are enjoying themselves.  They get to move lots of stuff around and roll a ton of dice!  When they reach you, they overwhelm their target.  It feels good to sense your inevitable victory over the 'Umies even as Ork parts pile up also.  Sure, you just lost 8 Orks in one salvo, 3 on Overwatch and 7 in close combat but so what...you're Orks, and there's more where that came from!  Ask any non ork about how they feel when they pick up 15 models.  The sadness in their eyes tells you all you need to know about why it's great to be an ork!  Wanton and callous disregard for the lives of your Orks is empowering.  Moreover, the Ork player has some silly tricks like mobbing up and you can almost never get an Ork down.  There's just too much fighting going on.  The Ork player is blessed with visually humorous figures and psychologically rewarding point prices for them, so that no particular loss feels soul crushing.  

Orks are just fun.

And now, they are dangerous.  Very very dangerous.

The tournament I attended a couple of weekends ago featured Orks at 1st and 2nd place.  What was more telling than that however is who played them.  Of the two, one was essentially new to Orks and had obviously cobbled together Orks from various friends just to play them.  Three Dakka Jets, 90 orks, 25 Lootaz, some characters and some Gretchin.  Sounds simple because it is and its similar to what I play, if not for the Jets.  His first time with Orks in a tournament and I'll be darned if he didn't go ahead and win it all.

Someone brand new picked up the Codex and won with it.  In a competitive meta.  That happened.

A Few of the Dirtiest Ork Triks

The Mob Up ability was very good to begin with in the Index when it dropped, allowing 40 man Boyz squads to be shot-put'd towards the enemy with enough wounds to weather the nasty leadership hit they inevitably would be forced to take.  After all, 6+ saves aren't all they are cracked up to be.  On its own this would have been a great reason to celebrate.

This can also be used on a unit if 15 and unit of 10 Lootaz.  In turn, those 25 Lootaz can use a Stratagem that makes them get extra hit rolls on 5's or 6's.  Which is quite deadly when they are Bad Moons who re-roll 1's...  And that wouldn't be AS bad as it is if it weren't for the fact that the roll for the number of shots from the Deffguns now affects not 15 but 25 of them simultaneously...

It's awesome.  you can almost take an Imperial Knight down with it, in one go.  A little luck and he will go down.

Another fun trick for Orks is Gretchen.  We have always seen them in our minds eye as bullet shielding.  Lets be honest, they aren't good at much else and they scamper away into the weeds at the very first sign of trouble.  Sitting on an objective completely out of sight like the cowards they are is their best suit and at it, no one does it better but such an ignominious fate...

Now when an enemy selects the aforementioned Lootaz as a target to shut them up, the gretchen can pop their Stratagem to LITERALLY throw themselves in front of the bullets.  If they are closer to the enemy than the Lootaz are, the Gretchen can now take the hits for the Lootaz.  This is absolutely terrifying when you really think about it.  It guarantees that the Lootaz will be firing 2-3 times a game unless you have some way to wrap them up into melee and hook oneof the models with your consolidation!  Every gretchen within 6" must now take it to the face for their overlords in all their exploding glory.  

This changes how you must deal with orks.  Suddenly your only choice is to all your weakest firepower, dedicated to flushing Gretchen down the toilet before you can fire at the Lootaz or option B, once they pop the Stratagem, is to select a different target.  but if you do that you're DEFINITELY in danger of not killing the Lootaz ever again.  Powerful Catch-22.

More ork Dirty Triks?  Well this happened to me in my game against the eventual winner:  I tore his unit to ribbons, and he popped a one use only Stratagem, 3 CP and took the remnants off the board, and brought it back full strength within 9" at the end of the movement.  And then charged the unit I had spent so much time unentangling.  I mean they can re-roll charges so it's a fair bet they willl make it and it really changed the game.  He gained about 21 orks doing this net, but much more importantly was the fact that he had positional dominance because of it.

Da' Jump is the obvious go-to in the ork codex and it was in the Index.  Moving 30 orks to within 9" with the ability to charge you?  Ruh-roh!  I don't think i need to tell you why that's bad.  The REAL trick to this however is making sure the enemy can get their Warboss, Waaaagh Banner bearer (re-roll magic), Wierdboys (extra attack) and Painboy (Feel No Pain) into position.  If they do manage to trail their boyz back to these fellows, the few orks it takes will never be missed as they bury you in ultra effective attacks that almost nothing can hope to survive.  They may try to do it with 40 Boyz by mobbing up which makes this even more true.  I'd highly recommend bringing 40 because T'au Empire T'au Sept overwatch and other factors can make the orks explode even if they are successful and have taken some casualties before jumping.

What to do

Well clearly when you build your list you must have a way to engage the Lootaz. Like all orks they melt like butter to real assault units with a good number of attacks (Sisters Repentia with Uriah, Death Company, or even Kroot Hounds if they can get there) and when you kill a Loota, you are killing a lot of firepower and a goodly sum of points as Orks go.  So having a melee element, even for shooting armies, that can reach out and reliably reach Lootaz is important.  it's very likely that units like this will become a staple of competitive armies so you better get used to it.

Once in the game, the other thing is to decide how much you need them dead turn one.  If you can position so that you limit their damage to a dead rhino or something less important, then wipe out sections of Gretchen.  It not only gives you space to deep strike but also forces as many morale checks on the Gretchen as possible.  It doesn't take many casualties to pop a whole lot more of them.  Riddle the various units with normal shooting if you can afford to.  

Make sure something halfway decent aims at the Lootaz just to make him spend the 3 CP.  If you don't fire ANYTHING at the Lootaz first, he won't be out the CP, which is advantage him.  Consider it a feint, act like you wanna hit his Lootaz and then spray at those Gretchen all day long until they all have to take morale tests if you can pull it off.  You don't need to kill whole units because morale will do the rest.

I suppose it might be obvious but if you can get a Psyker close, fast, that would also help.  being able to deny Da' Jump power is really a big deal.  I was fortunate in that I was playing Sisters of Battle and I never let him get Da' Jump off, even once.  Our game was fairly close and I was making serious headway before they called dice down (orks are so slow!).  However I think i would have done worse had he gotten that off and thoroughly boxed me in.  Even without that he dominated objectives but stopping that is key.  A Jump Psyker or someone who can get within 24" would be a really good idea in a lot of lists, or any items that allows you to do it.  Just note where his specific Wierdboy with that power is and line up a Psyker diametrically opposite of him.  Just stopping it once is a big deal.  Unsupported and left as the only necessary target, ork hordes can melt without compensation for their efforts.  But when they are coming from all sides?  It's not good.

If you want to mitigate Da' Jump somewhat and IF you have the opportunity consider this advice:  you will usually be able to tell WHICH ork unit will be the likely one to receive Da' Jump.  The other two will likely be as far forward as possible while the likely candidate will not necessarily be.  Shooting the Lootaz (other than to get him to spend CP) might seem like a waste given your deployment etc...  But the unit that will use Da' Jump?  PERHAPS you can sucker him into protecting IT with Gretchen and then let loose on the Lootaz if you go first turn 1!  if he doesn't bite that's okay.  If he goes first and you can blast and shoot up that Ork Boyz unit, then Overwatch it when it re-rolls its charges into you and THEN fight it, you might be able to force morale on it.  If you kill 19 they auto-explode on Morale, forcing yet more Command Point expenditure from the enemy which is good because a lot of their most devastating triks are high CP cost and if you can drain them through target priority that is not a bad idea.

So to kind of summarize the tactics here:  Deploy as far back as you can to make his Ork charges a bridge too far.  Screen with whatever screening units you want, to sacrifice to the initial Ork forces.  Target Lootaz with something decent to get him coughing up command points, then lay into his Da Jump unit.  TRY to only kill it down to 11 orks so it will explode on morale or force more Command Points spent to save it.  Often this will work because the other two units are surging at maximum speed and aren't thinking about having to bolster the courage of their buddies behind them  Consider that if the unit is too large (over 10) he cannot "remove and recycle" them with the Stratagem I mentioned earlier!  He just has to accept his losses.  You can't stop them from Mobbing up if they took an extra 10 orks, but it's still solid to try this and take away those precious Command points that fuel so much of what the Orks can now do.  Then kill the Gretchen units to force more morale explosions and leaving less Gretchen shielding (and since he'll likely try to save a more important unit than Gretchen, overloading them with morale checks ensures it)  One last point on this gretchen item:  shooting the Lootaz on the hopes that a stray shot will get through the gretchen shields might at first seem like a worthwhile thing to do, because there is a chance that stray shots could get through (on a roll of a 1+).  It's a trap.  The fact is that if you do this you are now trying to wound T4 instead of T2.  So for all kinds of math reasons, once he pays the points for the Gretchen shielding, just shoot the Gretchen directly.  I know it stings but if you can morale wipe a whole bunch more units this way it will be worth it since you probably aren't stopping his second barrage anyways.  Kill what you can, when you can.  Don't ride uphill to do it.  In ITC formats, killing more units per round is a thing.  This plays to that scoring system as well.  You'remaking lots of kills early and you're making future kills a whole lot less work.

Well that's all for now.  Just some random thoughts I felt like writing down for you.  Use them or lose them.

8th Edition Adepta Sororitas Acts of Faith

One of my favorite armies over the years has definitely been the Sisters of Battle so I took pretty keen interest in what the new Acts of Faith looks like.  I'll give my thoughts here.

The Beta Codex says you can only use each the Acts of Faith once in a battle round.  For perspective, in the Index iteration before this, you got VERY few Acts of Faith. In fact, just 1. Celestine could use/give 1 more to herself or someone within 6” but that assumes you take her (and why wouldn’t you be FORCED to if you’re only getting 1 Act of Faith army wide?). Key here is they could both do the same Act of Faith. Imagifiers allowed it also. They could trigger an Act of Faith on a 4+ to do the same Act of Faith for a unit that was close enough. With Command Points re-rolls, that allowed for a faaaaair certainty that you’d get 2-3 Acts off in round one to launch your assault with.

Sisters being as easy to kill as they are, you kinda’ need to be aggressive. This level of mobility made the army a very fun army, just because you could do so many interesting little tactics while getting where you needed to go. When the Chapter Approved 2017 Martyrdom Stratagem came along, it made it even more fun because it could be executed on the opponents turn to extricate a unit from a bad combat situation. I cannot begin to tell you how often that was useful.

In the new Beta Codex, you can only ever use the same Act of Faith once per battle round as I mentioned. Even if there were still an Act of Faith that let you move again as if it were the movement phase, it would be once and done for the round in the new rules. It’s even worse than that. No such “free move” Act of Faith exists now.  In it's place is a 3” addition to your move on a roll of a 4+  Just  3”. Not very reliable.

I was understandably floored by that revalation.  Only one unit can use the Act of Faith, making things very different for Sisters of Battle now.  It seems fairly obvious that this will be for Celestines use alone now, who can now move 15” instead of 24”, making her ABSOLUTE best case scenario a 9” charge round one. I say best case because someone would have to be fairly stupid to get caught by this more than once by lining up right on the deployment line instead of an inch or two behind. There wasn’t much you could do to hold her back in the Index.  She was going to get her pound of flesh. Now she’s just basically deep striking round one, and that’s not even a fair approximation because at least with Deep Strike you’d be wherever you wanted and for sure within 9” of something. . I am sure many opponents will be crying very hard about that change. Not. But it actually affects all the Seraphim too, who were using it. So it’s a pretty big deal.

It changes EVERYTHING about the army really. Adepta Sororitas are hardly good at taking a beating so to be caught out in the open with a bunch of Sisters with no way to act (meaningfully) puts a sudden premium on Retributors, and even Exorcists which can at least impact the battle in the early stages without imminent fear of loss. Those units cannot be seen as replacements though for what the Seraphim and Celestine could do.

So whats the trade off? Well it’s not more Faith Points at first blush. Before this Beta, in 5 rounds you might go through 2 Acts each round that were important.  You’ll have about the equivalent of 10 in most games now, because you start with 3 Faith points and then gain +1 per 10 faithful models. It’s pretty much exactly the same number in that sense. You’ll likely need all of them FAR more often now. That’s because they are all useful to multiple units, and every unit will want to use them.

What are the other Acts of Faith? Well the 3” move on a 4+ has been discussed, but there’s also healing as before but on a 3+ (d3 wounds or resurrect a model). There is a 4+ Feel No Pain, which only works on Psyker mortal wounds such as Smite (3+ to make it work), and a +1 to shooting Act of Faith on a roll of a 4+. You can Fight again on a 5+, and auto pass Morale on a 3+.  Here's a change that might slip past some people:  You could use every Act of Faith on one unit!  There is no current prohibition on using more than one on a given unit.  Handy.

Healing was usually reserved for Celestine and still will probably be. The Psyker Phase Act of Faith is new, but you have to choose the unit at the start of the psyker phase and the enemy will know who it is, and it only works half the time anyways. Lame. That leaves the +1 to shooting as the most useful of them.   It screams to be used by Retributors or storm bolter armed Dominions. Fighting again will be Celestines thing most likely. Auto passing morale makes larger Sisters of Battle units more viable, because you can auto-pass once with the Act of Faith plus once with 2 Command Points (Insane Bravery).

So there it is. Acts of Faith are officially back to being available to everyone whose faithful as they were in the Witch Hunters Codex (and rolling to see if they go off like it used to be, albeit in a different way); but only once per battle round unlike then. You’ll blow most of those points in round two if I had my guess. All six could easily be used in round two and you almost assuredly used Move, shoot and Morale Acts turn 1. That means you’ll have used 9 of them by turn two in a very large number of your games.

What can you really do about it? Well Celestine is FORCED to have Beacon of Faith as her trait. It lets her get a Faith Point back on a 4+. The thing about this is, there are better Warlord traits, making it frustrating to make her Warlord.  You probably shouldn’t. Righteous Rage would have allowed the now MUCH slower Celestine to re-roll charges and re-roll wounds which makes her frighteningly better at her job, but you just can’t do it because Beacon of Faith is built in to her.

You can also use a Command Point to trigger the Sacred Rights Stratagem which gains you a Faith Point. That’s pretty useful. Martyrdom still exists as a Stratagem so if you get a character killed, it will generate D3 Faith Points but again, no longer can you use them at the end of a phase which was THE key to why it was so good before. Now it’s just more juice in the juice box.

Relics are here to help as well. Litanies of Faith will refund successful Test points on a 5+. It’s not the bees knees, but does it suck for 1 CP to add it as a second relic? Newp. It will almost certainly pay you back better than the aforementioned 1CP Sacred Rights Stratagem and doesn’t preclude you from doing both if need be.

Another thing you can do about running low on Faith Points: The new <order> Our Martyred Lady lets you get a Faith Point any time you lose a unit. The <Order> Argent Shroud gives you one on a 4+ when enemies are destroyed, which I definitely don’t think is a better solution as enemies will so often be harder to kill than you are, and it's only half of the time.

Trouble is, both of these <Order> are moot solutions because Faith Points basically aren’t worth crap if they don’t go off. As the Faith Points are the defining characteristic of the force it’s kind of hard to see a lot of people choosing either of these when they can instead choose <Order> The Ebon Chalice, which provides a +1 to the rolls to make the Acts of Faith actually work. I mean if you can already pop the Sacred Rights Stratagem, the Martyrdom Stratagem and hell even the bat shit crazy 3 CP Vessel of the Emperors Will Stratagem to maximize Faith Points (character becomes the epicenter of a single Act of Faith and shares it with all within 6”), it seems scarcely necessary to go with either the <Argent Shroud> OR <Our Martyred Lady>.

The Simulacrum lets you get another +1 to the roll.  The new Simulacrum Imperialis is now PART of the unit instead of being a floating character, helping the inevitable popularity of the Ebon Chalice.  Trouble is some units can’t include one (including…Celestine herself...).  So a cumulative +2 for most units to use their defining trait? Seems legit to me. Given this, the Ebon Chalice may be all you see much of.

The one possible alternative to this would be if you invest in the Dialogus. They allow you to re-roll Faith Tests and while it’s more of a gamble (what isn’t?) it might allow you to consider another <Order>. The Dialogus costs 30 points, and it’s radius isn’t great nor is its speed. So you would be advancing him often to keep up or disembarking him from transports turn 2 to make sure he can assist.  One solution is The Book of St. Lucius.  It's a relic and if installed with the Dialogus, it would expand his radius from 6” to 9”. This would not be a bad idea in any list. If you were to do this, suddenly it’s at least feasible to take an <Order> other than the default one if you’re willing to bet on re-rolls to get it down over raw statistical fury.  Do you like Bell Curves punk?  Well do ya'?

Only practice games will teach me how best master this and utilize the new tools at hand. One thing is for sure: many opponents will be pleased with the difficulty of Sisters getting into combat.