[IofRaw]

So I'm pretty new to the forum, and I hope I've done everything properly here. After reading and participating in some of the threads in this sub forum, it became clear to me that I don't necessarily play the game the way everyone else does. After all the chatting we've done, I wanted to share the background of my army, because that is what drives all of the decisions I make as a player.

Now I noticed that there's a place for fluff, so I figured that's where I should post background, not here. Yet, you guys are my fellow witch hunters, and I have no idea how many of you ever go to the fluff forum. Since you're the ones a wanted to share the background with I figured I'd put post here to direct anyone who's interested to my post over there.

I hope this doesn't break any rules of etiquette. Anyway, here's the link:

The Witch Hunters of Escutcheon III

I'm curious to see what you guys think.

The dual nature of this army leads to interesting battlefield choices- ie. when I have to choose which units to use as reserves, it'll usually be all the models in one army that start on the board, while the other gets summoned as back-up once the battle is underway. I have two large pieces of themed scenery- one is the precinct fortess, the other is the chapel. When I'm being attacked, I'll deploy the army that matches the scenery on the board and keep the other army in reserve. I never field both pieces of scenery at the same time- in Planetary Empires, the buildings are three hexes apart.

If I'm the attacker, I don't use either piece of scenery, and it's almost always the sisters who fight. The arbites are pretty much restricted to patrolling their own jurisdiction, and the penitent legion is released only as a drastic defensive measure. The sisters, on the other hand, have a standing agreement with the BFG fleet surrounding my planet, and they can hitch a ride any time the Ordo Hereticus is on the tail of a witch somewhere else in the sector.

The background also influences the way the army grows. The arbites can grow through planetary recruitment, as can the ecclesiarchy. The penitent legion doesn't grow unless the arbites make an arrest. If the sisters army grows, it's because they're getting reinforcements from Ophelia VII, which means I have to fight a BFG battle to land them. It took me three BFG battles before my exorcist made planetfall.

The inquistors in the sector (there are 3) only every show up when the story behind the battle would realistically merrit their presence. I use the inquisitor rules to represent my adeptus arbites marshall so that he's tournament legal, but I don't consider him to actually be an inquisitor.

The best is when I get to play Apocalypse. Because my army is actually two distinct smaller armies, I'm over limit in certain categories on the force organization chart when I use the entire force. Also, it's usually the Apocalypse games that draw the attention and presence of the inquisition (with the exception of my marshall, who like I said is only an inquisitor as far as the rules go).

Anyway, these are the reasons that my tactics may sound bizarre to tournament players, and why I have such a hard time pinning a dynamic army list into a static force. Check out the history if that's the kind of thing that appeals to you. As always, I love feedback.

 

[Epidemic4774]

Sounds pretty cool! In terms of tactics you mention that you use different forces depending on the situation but in terms of actual in game strategy do you do stuff that bizarre like most ppl on this forum (ex. do you rush, do you sit back and shoot, etc etc...) or is the only bizaare thing beside the army compostion is putting units in reserve when others might say in would be best not to?

 

[IofRaw]

I love to rush with the penitent legion. If my opponent is deployed in a gun line, I throw the arcos, the repentia and the penitent engines at him as fast as I can. The sisters advance behind that charge, and the never get fired upon in the first turn, because my opponent will be too busy targeting the penitent legion. Of the three squads, the penitent engines suck up most of the fire just because they're big. The repentia are fragile, but the arco's usually survive.

When I spoke about tactical oddities though, what I primarily meant was that a lot of people here seem to believe that the only way to play this army is as a mechanized force, and I don't really see it that way. Runnig rules mean that foot troopers don't need vehicles to cross the board.

The other thing is that people tend to do is field small squads rather than large ones- particularly with units like seraphim or repentia. I like big squads for their survivability. I like to take at least one squad of battle sisters that's twenty strong. A perfect game for me is where I get the best of both worlds- if I get a squad of twenty sisters on foot, I'll take two suads of ten in rhinos.

I don't play in a lot of tournaments, but I've played in a couple. The don't generally interest me as much as other games though, because when you're at a tournament and you start asking questions about the story behind the battle, people tend to look at you like you have two heads, and that just makes me feel like the Imperial eagle, which is weird.