Friday Projects Update - Sisters of Battle

Well it was a slow week on the painting table for me this week. I have a few other miniatures almost done but they won't make the blog post this week.

I did manage to finish off the last of my Sisters with bolters. This gets me ever so closer to having my Witch Hunters/Sisters of Battle completely painted. I am down to about 27 figures and 5 vehicles. I should be able to have the army completed by the end of November. My goal is to have 4/5 of my partially painted armies complete by the end of the year. Right now I am 1/5 (Black Templars) but very close on 3 other armies.

Well I am keeping this one short tonight so that I may get back to painting. As always any comments are welcome.

-BJ

Casket of Souls - Is it worth taking?

I am getting ever closer to having my entire Tomb King army painted, and as I get closer I have started looking at models I have never or rarely ever fielded. The top of that list is my Casket of Souls. So I started to ask myself why I never use the Casket. Well in the past my answer has been simple, it costs 165 points, it can't move and it uses up a rare slot on my roster. Those 3 reasons alone have kept me from using one for many years now.

Well now that I am getting close to painting the model I started to look into ways that I could make the Casket more useful to me. Then I started reading the rules to the Casket more closely. First thing I noticed is that it can be taken as an upgrade for a regular Liche Priest. I have no idea why but ever since I started playing the army I thought it had to be taken by a Liche High Priest, which I never use. This really got me interested in taking one, but how will it help my army?

Well first off the whole unit (casket, liche priest and guards) count as a war machine and crew. This means added protection from shooting as the hits must be randomized against the war machine and crew. This manes on a D6 roll the crew are only taking a hit on a 5/6. Then this gets further randomized between the crew and the liche priest. Furthermore unlike regular war machines the Casket itself ignores any hits against it.

Ok so protection from enemy fire is pretty good but what about from a charge. Well first and foremost the casket and crew cause Terror, so any wanna-be charges will need to pass a leadership test first. Then the crew themselves are basically Tomb Guards, only they have 2 attacks instead of 1 and come complete with Tomb Blades (killing blow).

The casket power, called The Light of Death, is just full of potential. If you take your time and place your Casket effectively you will be able to effect the majority, if not every unit in the enemies army. The power works on every enemy unit that has line of sight to the casket. This means that you have the potential to cause wounds with no armor save to every unit in their army every turn. The casket even have some anti-magic use for as long as it is on the table enemy wizards take a negative to their casting.

All of that is pretty great as it is, but the biggest advantage I realized is that most players will not just ignore the casket and will save some dispel dice to deal with it. This means that my Lich Priests and Tomb king will have more of their magic getting through to better supplement the army. I think this was the final selling point for me.

I know that my latest Tomb King list now has a Casket of Souls in it. I hope I have made some good points for other generals who are debating on fielding one. I would love to hear any feedback on the use of a casket in a Tomb Kings arrmy.

-BJ

Sisters of Battle Army List Revamp #1

With all the psychers being fielded lately I thought I would make some adjustments to my Sisters of Battle list to give me a little more psychic defense.

My original list was a strictly Sisters army, but now I have decided to add in some Inquisition units. I threw in 2 junior Inquisitors and gave both Hammer of the Witches psychic power. I then took 2 small units of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers. My thought is the Inquisitors can join the Storm Troopers and sit in the back guarding objectives and throwing out 2 Hammer of the Witches each turn to mess with the enemy psychics. I am hoping that this coupled with my sisters Shield of Faith can nullify much of the psychic powers being wielded lately.

I have also decided to take a priest so that I can field 2 Penitent Engines. I know a lot of people feel that the engines suck but I want to give them a try. I figure to run them straight at the enemy, this will hopefully draw fire away from my other units and if they make it into the enemy lines they can be very effective in HtH if my rolling is good for their amount of attacks.

The Order of the Valorous Heart

HQ:  1 Canoness (407 Pts)

- Book of St. Lucius; Rosarius; Melta Bombs; Inferno Pistol; Eviscerator

7 Celestian Retinue

- Bolter (x5); Flamer (x1); Heavy Flamer; Banner Bearer

1 Veteran Sister Superior

- Power Weapon; Combi-Flamer

1 Priest

- Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; CCW

1 Rhino

- Storm Bolter; Hunter Killer Missile; Smoke Launchers

Elite: Inquisitor (56 Pts)

- Hammer of the Witches; Close Combat Weapon; Plasma Pistol

Elite: Inquisitor (56 Pts)
- Hammer of the Witches; Close Combat Weapon; Inferno Pistol

Troops: 14 Battle Sisters Squad (196 Pts)
- Bolter (x13); Heavy Flamer
1 Veteran Sister Superior
- Book of St. Lucius; Bolt Pistol; CCW

Troops: 14 Battle Sisters Squad (196 Pts)
- Bolter (x13); Heavy Flamer
1 Veteran Sister Superior
- Book of St. Lucius; Bolt Pistol; CCW

Troops: 5 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (65 Pts)
- Frag Grenades; Targeter; Hellgun (x3); Flamer (x1); Meltagun (x1)

Troops: 5 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (70 Pts)
- Frag Grenades; Targeter; Hellgun (x3); Grenade Launcher (x1); Plasmagun (x1)

Fast Attack: 4 Dominion Squad (168 Pts)
- Bolter (x1); Meltagun (x3)
1 Sister Superior
- Bolter
1 Immolator
- Twin Linked Heavy Flamer; Smoke Launchers

Fast Attack: 4 Seraphim Squad (172 Pts)
- Frag Grenades; Jump Pack; Krak Grenades; Twin Bolt Pistols (x3); Melta Bombs; Twin Hand Flamers (x1)
1 Veteran Sister Superior
- Jump Pack; Simulacrum Imperialis; Frag Grenade; Krak Grenade; Melta Bombs ; Bolt Pistol; Eviscerator

Heavy Support: 2 Penitent Engine (160 Pts)
- Dreadnought CCW (x2); Dreadnought CCW (x2); Heavy Flamer (x2)

Heavy Support: 4 Retributor Squad (168 Pts)
- Bolter (x1); Heavy Bolter (x3)
1 Sister Superior
- Bolter
1 Immolator
- Twin Linked Heavy Flamer; Smoke Launchers

Heavy Support: 1 Exorcist (135 Pts)
- Exorcist Missile Launcher

Total Roster Cost: 1849
 
I wanted to know what anyone thinks. Is this list missing anything? I am considering taking an Inquisitor lord to get the Psychic Hood , do you think this would be a better route to go? Anyway feel free to throw out some suggestions as I am open to improving on the list.
 
-BJ

New Blog for Warhammer Fantasy Battles

When I first started Extremis Diabolus, I intended it to be a Warhammer 40K blog. Well after reading over a few of my last posts, I have noticed that I am letting Fantasy Battles creep into my posts more and more. I started to play around with the idea of starting a Warhammer Fantasy Blog, low and behold The Winds of Magic was born.

The Winds of Magic is going to be a sister site to Extremis Diabolus that caters to the fantasy side of the hobby. I will post about tactics, fluff, rumors, as well as pics of my miniatures as I finish them. I welcome anyone who follows Extremis Diabolus to come join me for some good Fantasy Battle discussion.

While working on the Winds of Magic I messed around with different free templates on the web. I really like how the blog turned out so that means I think this blog will be getting a face-lift in the near future if I can find a template that fits the blogs background.

As always thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope to see some of you venture of to The Winds of Magic.

-BJ

Welcome to The Winds of Magic

Where to begin? Well I have been running a 40K blog for about 4 months now and I have really been enjoying it. Recently I have been painting 2 of my Fantasy armies and was posting about them on my blog. This got me thinking about how few blogs I follow actually due articles on Fantasy Battles. So I toyed with the idea for a few days, then decided to start The Winds of Magic and dedicate it to Fantasy Battles.

I have been playing Fantasy Battles since 1998. My very first Army was Bretonnians which I played for a year before buying Orcs and Goblins. I played both armies for about 2 years before selling them and acquiring various other armies. Today my Armies tend to lean more to the evil side of Warhammer. My two main armies are Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts, but I also own Beast of Chaos, Warriors of Chaos and the Stalwart Dwarfs.

I am not a power gaming when it comes to Fantasy, I truly enjoy just playing the game. I love to play fluffy lists and I tend to treat it more like an RPG than just a miniature war game. I rarely field named characters and tend to make up my own characters and backgrounds for armies and units.

I will use this blog to follow the painting of my armies as well as post tactics, battle reports, and general discussion on everything that goes with playing Fantasy Battles. I welcome all feedback on the blog and any ideas on ways to improve or what to cover on here.

Thank you for taking the time to visit The Winds of Magic and I hope you will return again.

-BJ