Femme Fatale's - Another Route for Sisters

So, despite my post about switching to Grey Knights as my main "tournament" army, I am still a firm believer in needing to have a more relaxed and casual side of the game available.

This can actually be manifested at tournament level, since if I were to become a regular tournament attendee (which I'm not) I'd actually be more inclined to use my casual or "less than optimal" list from time to time. However, when your events are few and far between (busy people are busy!) you do want to be a bit more focussed on the goal.

HOWEVER! Myself and Atreides got some good news recently. We are getting a new local store (LGS) which is actually going to be at the end of my very own highstreet (and a short bus ride away from Atreides). I don't want to say anything bad about our current LGS, as I actually am quite fond of some of the players and staff, but it is nice to know we will get a chance to have some fresh blood and get straight in at the start. However, GW stores are one thing, casual, and while we might be able to edge in some things like tournaments and better rules/systems, we know that more often than not, it will be the source of our unwind games.



For me, the Sisters of Battle will primarily be my casual army. I've loved and played them since 2nd Edition, and actually still kick myself that when I restarted the hobby around two years ago I started back with GK's rather than Sisters.

THE LIST

I've been running the more "common" version of the Sisters list that feature Retributor squads, and I have to say I have been largely under whelmed. While they offer solid anti-infantry, something you do need, then never really were all that great - with a multitude of squads that can deal with infantry, the Retributors became more valuable for their immolator than their heavy bolters, despite being a cheap squad.

This lead me to re-evaluate the list, putting me with this:

HQ:
Saint Celestine (115)

Uriah Jackobus (90)
Battle Conclave: 5x Death Cult's 2x Crusaders (105)
DT: Rhino (35)

ELITES:
5x Celestines - MGx2 - Immolator w/ MM (100 + 80)
5x Celestines - MGx2 - Immolator w/ MM (100 + 80)

TROOPS
10x Battle Sisters - MGx2 - Rhino (140 + 35) - 175
10x Battle Sisters - MGx2 - Rhino (140 + 35) - 175
10x Battle Sisters - Flamerx2 - Rhino (130 + 35) - 165

FAST ATTACK
5x Dominion - MGx2 - Immolator w/ MM (90 + 80)
5x Dominion - MGx2 - Immolator w/ MM (90 + 80)
5x Dominion - MGx2 - Immolator w/ MM (90 + 80)

1730

This kept a large amount of what I loved about the list.

DCA's are absolutely brutal. I feel like 5 is the correct number, with two crusaders to help protect them. They so often get the charge that 5 of the girls is more than enough with their +1 attack and re-rolls to get the job done, going to six I found to be just over kill.

Saint Celestine is just reliable. She is not a superstar, however, she just does lots of things. You can stick her on pretty much anything in the game, and with her ability you can be super aggressive in the early turns. Oddly enough, given her model size, its actually not hard for her to present cover to a rhino or immolator (with the aid of some terrain maybe), making it a bit easier to move your tanks around (I.E dont have to stick them behind walls for 50%).

The biggest change however,  Celestines. Most of their "good stuff rules" are actually completely useless. Their faith is incredibly pointless for the list, though I'll say that and one day it will save me (I doubt it will win the game ...), much like their WS4. However, they are another unit that can get double melta and an immolator unlock, and provide a more solid second wave to support the dominion, making your Battle Sisters (the scorers) that much safer. It also keeps the same number of immolators, but puts more expendable bodies into the midfield, which I think is better than having 10 mediocre shooters at the back.

I did have to fight the temptation of exorcists (which I don't think are as bad as people make out, but obviously they have reliability issues), as they would be the best line of defence against GK dreads.

So what's people's thoughts? I feel like I might well be committing to the midfield route far to heavily here, but the book, and certainly the retribution don't overly lend themselves to solid long range support. I am submitting to the theory of stick to your strengths. Though I admit I need to stick some flamer goodness into this list.

Its a real shame they aren't fast (or fast when they have flamers), as I think this would be a perfect list with the old style immolators.