The Greatest of These: Adepta Sororitas vs Black Legion

Sweetwater Egress campaign: Episode 3

We hold the line and scatter the heathen all around

The heretic will never set foot on holy ground

With bolter round and melta, and with the sacred flame

We purge the hated traitor in His almighty name

All his foes shall perish

In seas of blazing fire!

We thank the Throne on Terra

For our unyielding ire!

    Hymns of the Dymphnades, no.1329

"Set a firewatch upon the gate! Shore up those defences! Sing, Sororitas! They may take our lives today, but they will never silence our faith!"

Mater Prudence's face shone with unquenchable zeal as she ordered her troops into position. They held the Spaceport, but it was useless as a defensive position. Too many civilians, too many ways in, far too many explosives. No, it was better to set up a bastion just outside the port with the bulk of her forces, draw the enemy off and deal with them at a distance. 

Even if that meant sacrifice.

It had to work. But how to draw the heartless bastards away from the vulnerable port, with its throngs of panicking innocents? No, she knew their lives wouldn't be enough. She had to sweeten the pot. 

She took up a position on a crumbling rampart, the already-broken barbican they'd chosen for their final stand, and made sure her sisters could see her. Her voice echoed around the ruin as she addressed her troops. 

"They will be upon us soon, sisters. They bring hate and damnation, and they will not leave the field until we are all slain. This is a simple fact. They have the numbers and they have the will to finish us. 

"But I do not despair! For I know the Emperor is with us this day. Behold!" 

And she threw off her greatcoat, revealing the mantle underneath. The burning sky held little light, but what there was seemed to gather on her, catching the inlaid cloth of green and gold so that her silhouette filled with rivers of shining sparks. Her Sororitas knelt in reverence. 

"The Mantle of Daphne! Our most treasured relic is here with us, and I know you will fight to defend it to your last breath and beyond. We will not live past this day." She paused, taking in the grim faces of her battle sisters. 

"But neither shall they! We break them here, with the Holy Trinity! Ave Daphne! Ave Imperator! Mors ad proditores!"

Death to traitors, the sisters shouted back in one great voice. Prudence looked down on them with mingled pride and fury, knowing that she would not see them again. 

---

The campaign rages on (catch up on previous episodes here), and we welcome Stranger Come Knockin, in his first Skypehammer battle, against Monkey, ever the champion of the Imperium.

Adepta Sororitas

Surprisingly slim pickings in my Sisters army (considering it was 1500pts in 9th). To have legally-sized squads, Monkey has gone for ten Battle Sisters, ten Dominions and five Retributors.

Both Canoness and Palatine have good datasheets, at least. As for the Dogmata - let's say her ability to secure objectives isn't going to come in that handy.

• Mater Prudence - Canoness (warlord)
  Blessed Blade, Condemnor Boltgun
  Mantle of Ophelia
• Sister Faith - Palatine
  Palatine Blade, Plasma Pistol
• Sister Charity - Dogmata
  Mace of the Righteous, Bolt Pistol
• 10 x Battle Sisters
  Boltgun & Power sword, 7 x Boltguns, Heavy Bolter, Meltagun
• 10 x Dominions
  Boltgun & Chainsword, 4 x Artificer-crafted storm bolters, 5 x Boltguns, Simulacrum Imperialus
• 5 x Retributors
  Boltgun, 4 x Multi-meltas

Black Legion

A proper 'death from the skies' army, with every Raptor and Warp Talon at my disposal. To top it off, we have the Heldrake (who may be making his Black Legion debut).

Leading them is a Haarkon Worldclaimer (under an assumed name) and a Jump Lord (using the Haarkon's datasheet, but without the Head-Taker ability - that seems the best solution until we get a legends datasheet).

You may notice the army is considerably larger than the Sororitas. There's a reason for that...

• The Nail - [Haarken Worldclaimer] (warlord)
  Hellspear, Herald's Talon, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• The Hammer - Chaos Lord with Jump Pack
  Chainsword, Combi-bolter, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• 5 x Raptors
  Power fist & bolt pistol, 2 x Astartes chainswords & bolt pistols, 2 x Meltaguns, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• 5 x Raptors
  Accursed weapon & plasma pistol, 2 x Astartes chainswords & bolt pistols, 2 x Plasma guns, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• 5 x Warp Talons
  Warp claws, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• 5 x Warp Talons
  Warp claws, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• Heldrake
  Baleflamer, Heldrake claws, Mark of Khorne

Mission and Deployment

We're playing a custom scenario tonight (so keep your fingers crossed). It's seems appropriate that the Sisters of Battle would martyr themselves in a desperate last stand against the predatory Black Legion, so that's what we're doing.

Last Stand: mission

• The Black Legion will have 775pts to the Adepta Sororitas' 500pts.
• The Sororitas' win condition is to destroy at least 388pts (half) of the enemy force.
• The Black Legion win condition is to wipe out the Sisters and take fewer than 388pts of casualties.

Additional rules

• For the purposes of calculating points destroyed, each model lost will represent a percentage of his unit (i.e.18pts per Raptor, 20pts per Warp Talon).
  Monsters and characters will be half points if reduced to half wounds.
• As the Black Legion could entirely deepstrike, it seems redundant to give Sororitas the first turn, so Chaos will automatically go first, and Sororitas can deploy anywhere on the battlefield.
  (this is to prevent the Sororitas having a whole turn of doing nothing)
• If the entire Black Legion goes into deepstrike/reserves, the Sororitas get free (and unlimited) Overwatch in the Charge phase for the first turn.
  (this is to prevent, or lessen, an entire first turn of 9" charges ending things early)

With a free reign over the battlefield, the Adepta Sororitas bunker down in the strong points.

The Palatine and Dominions (no need for them to scout ahead) grab the ruins in the north-west corner).

The Retributors take one corner of the central ruins.

The Canoness, Dogmata and Battle Sisters take the other corner of the central ruins.

Nothing else to do now but watch the skies...

Turn 1 - Black Legion

No sooner had the echoes of their warcry died away than the screams of the foe took their place. 

Distorted shrieks seemed to roll down out of the troubled skies, disturbing howls without apparent origin. Under them, Prudence could hear the wail of jetpacks and the shrill of chainswords revving on empty air. 

For a moment, a huge shadow moved across the sky, flexing jagged wings as it passed between rocky outcrops. 

"Number 312, Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones!" Prudence called, and the line of her sisters sang out the hymn. 

As they reached the first Alleluia, the sky split open and an armoured host of black-clad fiends spilled out. 

"Cry out, Dominions!" sang Prudence, and the line opened fire. 

It's a tentative start for the Black Legion, only deploying half their forces: the Heldrake emerging from strategic reserve in the south-west corner.

One unit of Raptors deepstrike into the north-east ruins, led by the deputy warlord: The Hammer.

A unit of Warp Talons emerge from a rent in reality directly south of the Canoness' defensive position.

Naturally, Canoness Prudence isn't about to let them get away with that. So with an Overwatch stratagem, and a miraculous number of hits, three of the Warp Talons are cut down even as they arrive.

The Raptors try to even the score, and pick off a Battle Sister with plasma fire. The remaining Warp Talons charge in, losing another to Overwatch. The last survivor staggers into combat and, feeling like he's got a lot to make up for, rips down four more Battle Sisters. The Canoness then steps forward and runs him through with her blessed blade.

One entire unit removed - that's a strong start for the Sororitas!

Score: 100pts destroyed (388pts needed)

Turn 1 - Adepta Sororitas

Bolter rounds split armour, toppled the howling foe. Caught in a deadly enfilade, the traitors leapt and bounded from rock to rock, the weird pinions on their backs hurling them through the air in short, twisting flights. They were fast, dangerously so. 

Most were not fast enough. 

A single one of the pack managed to reach the ramparts. The rest of its kin perished, shattered amongst the rubble at the foot of the bastion. At this range, its speed and unpredictability made it impossible to draw a bead on, although the sisters never stopped trying. 

Screeching, it crashed down on the nearest and grappled her with the cruel, hooked claws, boosting back into the air again and using her as a shield against the bolter fire of her sisters. She cried out once as the fiend dropped her, then plummeted back into the line, slicing and slashing with the sickles welded to the back of its gauntlets. 

Dogmata Charity stepped in behind it, swinging her matzouka. The heavy ceremonial mace crushed its hawk-beaked helm. Charity kicked the body off the battlement before it had fallen further than its knees. 

Their song had faltered in the heat of battle, and Prudence could hear more of the screaming heretics approaching. 

"O for that flame of living fire!" she sang anew, and the armoured chorus joined her gladly. 

Unsurprisingly, the Sisters of Battle aren't keen to advance from their strong places, and with the Heldrake out of range of the multi-meltas, everything is poured into the Raptor unit. The two plasma gunners are felled, and a wound taken on another Raptor.

The Canoness's condemnor boltgun is able to precision-hit and wound the Hammer. This could come in handy, as a half-strength character is still going to give up points.

Score: 136pts destroyed (388pts needed)

Turn 2 - Black Legion

"As a fire is meant for burning, with a grim and deadly flame," sang Prudence. 

More of the Black Legion were dropping out the sky, ripping through the heavy clouds and firing as they came. A deadly rain fell on the defenders. 

Their return fire was broken, distracted, not the deadly enfilades of moments ago. Targets popped up and vanished back into the clouds too fast. The screams of their jetpacks drew fire, but they were adept at using their speed to distract, one retreating to cover another's assault. 

Across the broken bastion, on the other side, she saw her Retributor sisters engage in good order against an altogether bigger target, that vast, bladed shadow she'd glimpsed before. Their multimeltas blazed, throwing a torment of heat at the thing. 

She had no time to watch - more of the Legion's assault troops had reached the battlement, were cutting down her sisters with roaring steel. One amongst them, taller than the rest, wielded a long glaive that came to a needle-sharp point. He swung it round himself, sending sisters flying. 

"I am the Nail!" he bellowed. "Your coffins are closed!"

"So our Church is wrought for battle in the Imperator's name," Prudence sang, drawing her own sword and moving to challenge him. 

Now the Black Legion descend in wrath. Another unit of Warp Talons emerges from the same hole in reality that their luckless brethren used.

The Hammer's Raptor squad flies directly at the Dominion squad, with the Nail himself lands in the south-east corner, with eyes fixed on the Canoness.

The Heldrake swoops down on the Retributors, shrugging off their Overwatch and engulfing four of their number in its fiery breath.

The last surviving Retributor uses the Rejoice the Fallen stratagem to shoot back (plugging the multi-melta barrel directly into its maw, we assume) and blasts 8 wounds off it, before getting plugged by the small-arms shots of the Hammer's Raptors as they pass by.

Still reeling from the hit, the Heldrake fails to charge into the Dominions. But the Hammer and his Raptors strike home.

Against the Canoness, the Warp Talons (having heard what overwatch can do to them) hang back, but, heralded by a couple of melta shots, the Nail and his Raptors dive straight into the fray. The Nail's Head-Taker ability wipes out all the Battle Sisters before the fight begins, and it's down to the Canoness and Dogmata.

The Canoness activates The Emperor's Grace (a 2++ save for that phase), but even that's not enough to save her from the Nail's spear and the backstabbing attacks from the Raptors.

Now would have been a good time for the Divine Intervention stratagem to resurrect the Canoness, but alas the cupboard is bare.

All that remains is for the Dogmata to vent her grief on the Raptors with her mace of the righteous, smashing down two of the squad.

The Hammer hits the Dominions with equal ferocity, taking out eight of the Sisters. But the Dominion Superior and Palatine fight back and cut down another two Raptors.

The Sororitas took a beating in that turn, but with the Heldrake reduced to less than half wounds, and  almost all the Raptors gone, it wouldn't take much to reach that victory mark before martyrdom claims them all.

Score: 310.5pts destroyed (388pts needed)

Turn 2 - Adepta Sororitas

Prudence caught the warlord's stroke on her crossguard, using the turned momentum to spin herself past his guard and slash at his armour. It was a fine hit, right into the weak point between the tasset and the cuisse. It should have split his groin wide open. 

Dangling from the Nail's belt was a chained trophy case, an ancient chunk of knotted oak the size of a man's head. He'd hammered a heavy nail into it for each of the Imperium's champions he'd murdered in close combat, and after countless centuries of killing, there was more metal than wood in it. 

Prudence felt her sword fouled. She was over-extended, caught in a fighting lunge right in front of the spike-armoured captain, there was no time to recover. The Nail's thrust tore through her armour at the neck, pinning her to the parapet as he stood over her. 

He knelt and ripped the mantle from her shoulders. She looked into his face, yellow pupils blazing feverishly from blackened sockets, and coughed blood weakly at him. 

"A pretty shroud," he sneered. With both hands, he gripped the heavy cloth. Embroidery woven in an age almost as old as he was tore apart to rags in a moment. "Where is your relic now? Where's your victory?" he asked her. 

"Behind you," she whispered, as Dogmata Charity swung her mace at him. 

The Sororitas would love to break from combat, but with no options to fall back and shoot, they'll have to tough it out.

Critically, the Palatine squad fail their battleshock test this turn (thanks to the Raptor's fearsome aura). That means no falling back, no reroll stratagems and no Divine Intervention for the Palatine. It's now or never.

A scattering of pistol shots is enough to kill the last Raptor in the Hammer's squad, nudging them ever closer.

In the main ruin, the Nail fights first and effortlessly skewers the Dogmata, wiping out the last of the faithful.

This frees the Palatine and Dominion Superior to strike first against the Hammer. The Superior goes first, and fails to inflict any harm. It's down the Palatine, with her D2 blade and all sorts of bonuses to account for her squad being slaughtered.

Reckoning the points, the fate of the Hammer's last four wounds will determine victory or defeat.

The Palatine strikes out, inflicting three wounds. The Hammer saves two of them and stays alive. He then strikes back, and hubristically summons a Dark Pact to ensure he cuts the Palatine to pieces.

The Sororitas falls, but the Hammer also fails his Dark Pact leadership test and takes D3 wounds. He could still lose!

The roll is low, and the Hammer clings on with a final wound intact.

Score: 373.5pts destroyed (388pts needed)

Turn 3 - Black Legion

"Hold thou my sword before my closing eyes," Faith sang. 

At her feet, her sisters lay, green robes stained a rich brown with their own blood and the blood of the heretics. Their bolters had been silenced, their song likewise. There was no song echoing back from the far tower where Mater Prudence had made her stand, and Faith knew she stood alone. 

Her enemy stood just below her, also the last of his pack. 

He was huge, a towering hulk decked in the black ceramite of his chapter. His helmet was almost lost in a tangle of knotted tubing, but his lenses burned bright in amongst that snakes' nest. The massive turbines of his pack made him seem even bigger. He stood lower than she did, a few steps below her on the broken stairwell, but still loomed over her. He pointed his spear up at her, the powered tip glowing and smoking as the blood already spilt on it burned. 

"I am Hammer," he rasped through his mask. "You die now."

"Shine through the gloom," Faith sang, and stepped back a few more steps as the traitor stabbed at her. The longer she kept him here, the better chance the last shuttles at the spaceport had of escaping. She was in no hurry. There was plenty of stairwell left, and she had the advantage.

She realised he was laughing. 

"Know that song. Remember," he said, then lifted his broken voice in a harsh parody of the tune. "Point me to the skies!" He lifted his spear upwards, pointing. 

She looked up. 

She caught a swift impression. A winged shadow, a dragon's head, wrought in ancient steel and wrapped in the black armour of the Legion. Talons, pinions - all metal, yet somehow alive. It perched inside the broken tower like a monstrous crow. 

A torrent of hellfire descended on her. 

Not trusting the Hammer to get the job down, the Heldrake dives down and gobbles up the Dominion Superior.

The battle is over, and by the narrowest of margins, the Sisters have failed to destroy enough of their foes.

Score: 373.5pts destroyed (388pts needed)

Result: victory to the Black Legion!

"Good fight," grunted Hammer. 

Nail was standing by the battlements, using the stone parapet as a makeshift workbench. Two bright new spots of metal stood out on his oaken theca. He rolled his eyes as his twin approached. The sisters had given him limited sport, their crude attempt at an ambush nothing more than a short distraction. He'd impaled the one with the mace on his glaive with his bare hands. She'd died on top of her superior, as bloody and pathetic as they all were in the end. 

"A waste of effort. We should have attacked the port directly, as I said."

"My turn today. Yours next," Hammer reminded him. 

"You've deprived me of my choice with yours, oaf," Nail snorted. "The transports will be gone by the time we get there. We've got no way off this world."

"Your choice to come here," Hammer said. 

"Yours to leave the fleet where the Wolves could take it. If we weren't held by pact to finish this world, I swear I'd leave you dead at my feet and set your bones in my feretrum."

"You can choose to try," Hammer said, looming over him. 

They stared at each other for a while. 

"We take the port," Nail said, eventually. "If we can't flee, neither shall they."

"Good choice," Hammer said, and jetted off the parapet towards the distant dockyard.

Locker Room

Well, given how custom missions can skew in one direction or another, I think that worked like a charm! It may have only lasted two and a half turns, but the outcome hung on a knife edge and the smallest detail (a battleshock test, an armour save, a dark pact wounding roll) would have tipped it.

I do like a Last Stand mission, since one side gets plenty of troops to play with, and the other doesn't have to worry about surviving. I also think that little tweaks make the difference - here we had a deepstrike force against a mainly shooty army. If the forces were different, other homebrew rules might have been more useful.

That's three absolute humdinger battles so far in this campaign. Congrats to Stranger Come Knockin and Monkey for a great game (and come on Imperium, pull your finger out and win something!)