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Good Uses for Sisters of the Watch??


PhoenixLord

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Hey there everyone! 

Now that I finally have my hands on the Cities of Sigmar battletome, I've been looking at the various warsrolls and the Sisters of the Watch have me stumped. They seem overcosted for what they bring to the table compared to the much cheaper freeguild or darkshard options. Does anyone have some tips for making these girls work well? I love the models and would be grateful for any advice on how to use them effectively. 

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13 hours ago, PhoenixLord said:

Hey there everyone! 

Now that I finally have my hands on the Cities of Sigmar battletome, I've been looking at the various warsrolls and the Sisters of the Watch have me stumped. They seem overcosted for what they bring to the table compared to the much cheaper freeguild or darkshard options. Does anyone have some tips for making these girls work well? I love the models and would be grateful for any advice on how to use them effectively. 

Actually cost wise they are better than either crossbowmen or handgunners. While stationary they deal slightly more damage than crossbowmen versus no or low saves, much more damage versus high saves and they still have overwatch. They do have less wounds, and 5+ save does not help them much with that. But they still offer the best unbuffed shooting in the whole book, so if you can keep them safe, they will always pay for themselfs and more within 2 turns. As to how you can best use them...

The Living City is the most obvious and safe choice - just deploy them from reserve already in range and shoot at whatever you need.

Hallowheart and Tempest Eye are the next 2 choices. The most optimal way to move Sisters (potentially together with their infantry screen) without deepstrike is teleportation, so Hallowheart is great for always getting that 6 casting roll on the Soulscream Bridge, buffing your Sisters with spells and protecting them in a blob from your opponent spells and endless spells on 4+ if you so chose. 1-2 Sisters of the Thorn in support are very useful here, as, besides being a mobile wizards, their spell will make teleporting (thus unmoving) Sisters count as being always in cover for the whole game and throwing mortal wounds back in melee as a slight bonus.

 

Tempest Eye instead offers + 1 to wound for Sisters missile attacks and enough mobility for the rest of your army to keep up with the Bridged Sisters. But you have no extra way to buff your casting rolls here, so Sorceress on foot with a block of Coven troops is a good idea.

Edited by Zeblasky
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20 hours ago, Zeblasky said:

Actually cost wise they are better than either crossbowmen or handgunners. While stationary they deal slightly more damage than crossbowmen versus no or low saves, much more damage versus high saves and they still have overwatch. They do have less wounds, and 5+ save does not help them much with that. But they still offer the best unbuffed shooting in the whole book, so if you can keep them safe, they will always pay for themselfs and more within 2 turns. As to how you can best use them...

The Living City is the most obvious and safe choice - just deploy them from reserve already in range and shoot at whatever you need.

Hallowheart and Tempest Eye are the next 2 choices. The most optimal way to move Sisters (potentially together with their infantry screen) without deepstrike is teleportation, so Hallowheart is great for always getting that 6 casting roll on the Soulscream Bridge, buffing your Sisters with spells and protecting them in a blob from your opponent spells and endless spells on 4+ if you so chose. 1-2 Sisters of the Thorn in support are very useful here, as, besides being a mobile wizards, their spell will make teleporting (thus unmoving) Sisters count as being always in cover for the whole game and throwing mortal wounds back in melee as a slight bonus.

 

Tempest Eye instead offers + 1 to wound for Sisters missile attacks and enough mobility for the rest of your army to keep up with the Bridged Sisters. But you have no extra way to buff your casting rolls here, so Sorceress on foot with a block of Coven troops is a good idea.

That's good to hear! Would you recommend anything beyond a Nomad Prince to buff the Sister's shooting in a Living City Hidden Paths ambush?

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3 hours ago, PhoenixLord said:

That's good to hear! Would you recommend anything beyond a Nomad Prince to buff the Sister's shooting in a Living City Hidden Paths ambush?

Honestly, I would not deploy Nomad Prince near Sisters in Living City in most situations. You need both your CPs and your deepstrike slots for other things, but CPs especially - Living City command ability is always useful, and your hunger for CPs will be insatiable. CP to move your shooting Behemoth, CP to move your Sisters to a new target or away from enemies after they shot, CP for Inspiring presence... Yea, Adjutant is a good idea if you can afford him in your build. Buuut! Sometimes using Nomad Prince CA with Sisters is a viable strategy, for when you really need something to die from your shooting at once. But that's usually when you deploy all of your Sisters in one place and just go all in.

However, if you want a non CP support piece, Hurricanum or Knight-Azyros are both quite good options here, especially if they can support 30-40 Sisters that just deployed together.

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Living City or Tempest Eye are the two best options.

Living City for the deepstrike and double-tap. They will likely get charged so after their overwatch you are essentially guaranteed 3 shots per model. This ensures they can likely do enough damage to support their points cost. If they somehow survive they can go on to really be a thorn in the side of your opponent. I try to support them with a Nomad prince as much as I can and I occasionally use the command ability to make them move on to objectives after they shoot.

Tempest Eye takes a bit more finesse but is likely more powerful in the long run. Hawk Eye on a Nomad Prince makes him into a buffing machine for a potential +1 to hit and wound. However the main reason is for the  movement buffs combined with the Command ability that lets you shoot after running. this gives you a turn 1 threat range of 28 + D6 inches, which is basically like artillery lol.

 

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13 hours ago, Landohammer said:

However the main reason is for the  movement buffs combined with the Command ability that lets you shoot after running. this gives you a turn 1 threat range of 28 + D6 inches, which is basically like artillery lol.

 

Losing half of their attacks because of movement is no fun though.

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11 hours ago, Zeblasky said:

Losing half of their attacks because of movement is no fun though.

True.  But experienced opponents will often screen against Sister deepstrikes. Its pretty difficult to screen vs 28+D6. And its easier to get sisters on to objectives early with Tempest eye. 

That being said, I still prefer LC for sisters at the moment. The meta is *really* heavy on shooting and alpha strike so its quite difficult to keep sisters alive past turn 2. Living City at least guarantees me some shots. 

 

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11 hours ago, Landohammer said:

The meta is *really* heavy on shooting and alpha strike so its quite difficult to keep sisters alive past turn 2. Living City at least guarantees me some shots.

That's why I have 3 fast behemoths in my Living City. Can't shoot or alpha strike Sisters if you're already engaged x)

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On 3/17/2021 at 10:09 AM, Kaime said:

Which behemoths are you using? :)

Dreadlord on a Dragon for those fast flying charges right into the most vunerable unit my opponent has, Treelord for cost efficient tanky roadblock between my Sisters and the enemy, as well as Annointed of Frost Phoenix for being a general nuicance. Dreadlord and Treelord usually start in Hidden path and move after deployment with Living City CA, while Annointed starts in the middle of the field with "COME AT ME" sigh.

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On 3/11/2021 at 2:38 PM, PhoenixLord said:

Hey there everyone! 

Now that I finally have my hands on the Cities of Sigmar battletome, I've been looking at the various warsrolls and the Sisters of the Watch have me stumped. They seem overcosted for what they bring to the table compared to the much cheaper freeguild or darkshard options. Does anyone have some tips for making these girls work well? I love the models and would be grateful for any advice on how to use them effectively. 

Put them on the table, watch them do some scary damage, buy more, paint them and do better in your games.  

They are arguable the top shooting choice for points per damage (uh the dwarf fire shooty guys are possibly on par or better? I cannot recall).  And since Cities is a shooting army they stand out as a prime choice.  

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On 3/15/2021 at 7:30 PM, Zeblasky said:

Losing half of their attacks because of movement is no fun though.

It is only one turn and you get to move pretty far in TE.  I would argue while LC is a better choice for dropping them in, TE offers a good option for them as well.  As you said, dragons (also good in LC or TE) are also good and helpful.

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On 3/23/2021 at 6:09 PM, Popisdead said:

It is only one turn and you get to move pretty far in TE.  I would argue while LC is a better choice for dropping them in, TE offers a good option for them as well.  As you said, dragons (also good in LC or TE) are also good and helpful.

Can you explain to me why the dragons are good in LC? I was reading through their statline and nothing really stood out to me. How are people using them?

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8 minutes ago, FeralMulan said:

Can you explain to me why the dragons are good in LC? I was reading through their statline and nothing really stood out to me. How are people using them?

Any hero with a shooting attack and good melee profile is good in Living City because it can be placed in ambush, shoot and then be moved foreward using the Living City command ability. This makes it easy to charge from ambush. The free one wound heal per round is also pretty nice on high-armour targets.

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1 hour ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

Any hero with a shooting attack and good melee profile is good in Living City because it can be placed in ambush, shoot and then be moved foreward using the Living City command ability. This makes it easy to charge from ambush. The free one wound heal per round is also pretty nice on high-armour targets.

Wait a second, I am fairly new to AOS so this might be a silly question, but things can move after Deep Striking in AOS? (with abilities, obviously)

That is HUGE what the heck :D

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Just now, FeralMulan said:

Wait a second, I am fairly new to AOS so this might be a silly question, but things can move after Deep Striking in AOS? (with abilities, obviously)

That is HUGE what the heck :D

Yes! There is no general rule that forbids this. Individual deep strike/ambush/teleport effects will usually prevent moving right after in some way, but you can frequently still do it using additional abilities.

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6 hours ago, FeralMulan said:

Can you explain to me why the dragons are good in LC? I was reading through their statline and nothing really stood out to me. How are people using them?

As Neil Arthur Hotep explained with shooting they can both move again.  However I don't even think they need that... they can just each charge up with their high move as a counter charge, one triggers his command ability and they both get a boost to wounding.  

4 hours ago, FeralMulan said:

Wait a second, I am fairly new to AOS so this might be a silly question, but things can move after Deep Striking in AOS? (with abilities, obviously)

That is HUGE what the heck :D

You cannot move after any form of ambush/deepstrike.  However you can trigger the Living City Command Ability will allow them a move.  

A few good examples in Living City would be say, Alarielle.  She can move uh 16"? then shoot, then move 16" again.  If you ambush in a Hurricanum next to her she can gain the +1 to hit bonus on whatever she hits within the 10" range of hte Hurricanum.  For 1 CP that's a good 1st turn alpha strike.  It mitigates her weakness (bad to-hit ability).  She can also drop 20 DRyads behind her to help screen your army.  

Other common options are Deep Strike a Durthu (kitted up with LC abilities) and his shooting allows him to move closer so your charge isn't further.  Same with Drycha.  

Of course you can do it with lots of other things like Black Dragons, etc.  Hope that helps :)  

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