Tactica: Retributors

Retributors, 1 of 5 heavy support choices for the Witch Hunter army. Can come in a variety of different forms, each of which I will go over.

First of all lets go over why you would use Retributers:
1.) You are facing an infantry heavy army, with weaker troops (like foot slogging orcs, Imperial Guard, Tyranid, actually pretty much anything would work, but Necrons, Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, and Witch Hunter/ Sisters of Battle may be harder to deal with with retributers.) The reason for taking the retributors would be to provide many shots and hopefully more chances to wound and even kill your enemy before he/she reaches you. In this case you would probably want to take Heavy Bolters, because 12 shots from a Heavy Bolter can do a lot of damage.

2.) You are playing a friendly game, and feel that 3 exorcists in your heavy support slots are cheesy (which they are IMO). Also exorcists you take a risk, I have played games were I role 1 or 2s the entire time. When you are shooting 3 ap 1 missiles, your chances of doing a lot of damage are slim. Then again I have played a game where I have rolled a lot of 5s and 6s, and 15-18 ap 1 missiles heading towards a deathwing termi army... well you just gotta see your opponents face :), but Its risk.

3.) You have a themed foot slogging army. I had a foot slogging themed army for a while, pretty fun. Not the most effective way of playing sisters of battle.

4.) You are playing a game against a Highly Mechanized army, ie Imperial Guard army mounted in Chimera, or Space Marines mounted in Rhinos. In this case you probably wanna take Multi Meltas, (E GASP! Multi Meltas, no one uses those! before you get all shocked, just check out the how to use it part)

5.) If you have the models and you want to use them :) (always a good reason, right?)

Keep in mind this is not the only reasons to take rets, this is just a small list of why, I am sure you can think of more ways.


RETRIBUTOR SET UPS

Looking over the codex I can see several ways of setting up retributors. I will go over several ways of setting them up. Some of these are by no means the best way of setting them up, (I believe the best set up is Heavy Bolters mounted in Immolator with Heavy Bolters.)

You have several options for retributors. You must have atleast 5 units in your squad, 1 is a Sister Superior. My first bit of advice is if you are taking any type of sister of battle squad, make sure it is faithful. It is basically a waist if you don't, 14+ points for 1 faith point, that is well worth the cost.

Here are the following upgrades for a retributor squad:
1.) Veteran Sister Superior
2.) 1-5 more Sisters of Battle with boltguns
3.) VSS replace bolt gun w/ bolter pistol and close combat weapon.
4.) If you take VSS you may arm her up with Armoury Shtuff, I will go into detail in set up what you would wanna take from armory.
5.) Frag Grenades
6.) Krak Grenades
7.) Imagifer
8.) Heavy Bolters
9.) Mutli Meltas
10.) Immolator
11.) Rhino
12.) Repressor

Now lets go through each one of these upgrades and when you want to use them.

1.) Veteran Sister Superior:
You always want to take the Veteran Sister Superior, if you are taking any sisters of battle squads make sure they are faithful, consider the 14 extra points as a requirment to field this unit, always take it, I am serious, its worth the points just to make this squad faithful, it also adds another faith point :)

The ONLY ONLY ONLY time you should not take the VSS is if this is the only faithful unit you take. ie, you have a Witch Hunter army, with Inquisition lord/s, arbites as troops, acros, assassins, or Inquisitors for elites, arbites as troops, no fast attack (unless you use a house rule that an arbite squad mounted in a repressor counts as fast attack) and You take exorcists, orbtial strikes, penitent engines, and a ret squad.

2.) 1-5 Sisters w/ boltguns:
I would use this only if you have points, and your sisters are not mounted in an immolator. This could be useful if you are tank hunting or termi hunting, and you set up your MM rets, and then use your other sisters as wounds :)

3.) Replace Boltgun w/ Bolt Pistol and Close Combat Weapon:
Why would you do this? Do not do this, won't help, as you want to keep this squad out of assualts, as they will loose.

4.)Armoury for VSS:
I would take combiplasma or storm bolter, if you take anything at all. If you take the combi plasma make sure you keep her bout 2 inches away from your other troops. If your not a fan of plasma, take Storm Bolter, but most likely this wont do much, with either of these you have a 24 inch range, the combi melta I would say take, but I would recommend you stay farther then 12 inches from your enemy.

5.) Frag Grenades:
I would avoid getting into assaults with infantry, so don't take Frag Grenades, unless facing an infantry heavy army, in which case, you may want to take them, but I would bet that if you go into combat with an infantry heavy army with rets, then the rets will be dead, so Avoid assaults with rets vs infantry.

6.) Krak grenades:
This might not be so bad of an option, using Krak a long with MM could provide a little better against vehicles, but most likely this will just be wasted points.

7.) Imagifer:
Use this only if you take a squad with 6-10 rets, For the most part I would recommend you not to take one of these, but It may be useful to assure you to get a faith test.

8.) Heavy Bolters:
This is probably the most useful upgrade for the rets. Always take 4, unless you take MM,then take 4 of those. 12 attacks are great. Heavy Bolters should target infantry squads. I would strongly recommend using the Heavy Bolter, not much else to say about it, it just works.

9.) Multi Meltas:
Most people will say with Witch Hunters, you probably don't want multi meltas. I agree for the most part. Use Multi Meltas only if you are mounted in a transport. This is so they can actually get into that 24 inch range they have. Also take these only when you are facing a highly mechanized force.

10.) Immolator:
Probably the second best upgrade (right after Heavy Bolters (HB)) You want to mount up your Heavy Bolters in an Immolator, drop the rets off at the the beginning of the game, then go infantry or tank hunting. This basically gives you an extra heavy support option.

11.) Rhino:
Take only if you are taking 7-10 sisters in your squad

12.) Repressor:
I would not recommend taking the Repressor for the rets, I love the repressor, but this is not the place for it.

Ok Now that we have gone over Upgrades, lets go over set ups:

1.) 4 Heavy Bolters and 1 VSS (w/ various upgrades) - Set this up in cover during placement. If you can't do this then move them to cover quickly. Use this squad to take out infantry. I love using these to kill my buddies Space Marines taking out an average of 2 per turn. That is quite effective seeing it is against Space Marines. You should in theory take out 1.5 space marines per turn with this set up. With Imperial Guard, you should take out around 6-8 per turn, and I believe with orks it is about this same number. I would recommend not going after termis, you probably wont do much damage.You could also add 1 sister to act as a wound.

So quick recap of this set up: Move to cover, shoot at infantry.

2.) 4 Heavy Bolters 1 VSS (w/ various upgrades) mounted in Immolator - Exactly the same as set up number 1, only you drop off the retributers, then send the immolator off on its own. You could also add 1 sister to act as a wound.

3.) 4 Heavy Bolters 1 VSS 5 Sisters of Battle- Same as 1 only try to set up as close to enemy as possible so those extra 6 attacks from bolt guns have a chance to hit at some point.

4.) 4 Heavy Bolters 1 VSS 5 Sisters of Battle mounted in Rhino - Send the rhino up to cover, drop the sisters off, and use as either cover for this squad, or use as a path denial or block somewhere. Besides that use this the same as you would option number 3.

5.) 4 Multi Meltas 1 VSS - This probably will not be effective for first 1-2 turns, use these to go deny a tank group from passing.You could also add 1 sister to act as a wound.

6.) 4 Multi Meltas 1 VSS mounted in immolator - use as option 5 but drop off sisters then use immolator freely. You could also add 1 sister to act as a wound.

7.) 4 Mutli Meltas 1 VSS 5 sisters of battle - Use like option 5, only you get more wounds, I would recommend this over option 5.

8.) 4 Multi Meltas 1 VSS 5 Sisters of Battle mounted in Rhino - use like option 7, only use rhino as cover and to get your troops up to battle, this and option 6 are probably the best ways to use Multi Melta Sisters of Battle.

These are only some of the set ups. There are a lot more but this is just some ideas for you to get thinking on how you will use this awesome unit in your own way.

HOW I USE RETRIBUTORS:

Generally I mount up squad of 4 Heavy Bolters and 1 VSS and 1 sister of battle in an immolator, then drop them off and send my immolator (with TL flamer or TL Heavy bolter) out to kill infantry.

When I first start I used 4 Heavy Bolters and 1 VSS sitting in a building laying down rounds to most of the field. I tend to place my rets in the middle of the field as this allows me to be able to hit more squads. This also gives you best Line of Sight Possible, as you are high up, and you have a wider angle you have a 180 degrees. angle to the enemy compare to placing them on the sides where that is cut to about 90 degrees.

I have found that this set up is very hardy for me. This set up also seems to be the favored way by most Witch Hunter players.

More tactica (including videos will be coming soon :) )