Dominion Squad

The most likely to suffer the 'Red Rage' among the Sisters.

Dominion Squads are made up of the most ferocious and aggressive members of the Sisters of Battle who desire nothing more than to be the first to meet the enemy and destroy them so they can move on to the next as quickly as possible.

Deployment

Perhaps the opposite end of the scale from Retributor Squads, Dominions are singled out for their sheer aggressiveness on the battle and their utter lack of patience. Neither are they deployed individually amongst ordinary battle sisters, Dominions are always gathered together into complete squads.

Dominions are armed with the traditional apparel of the Battle Sister: the Boltgun and Power Armour, so the distinction between them and normal Sisters might not be entirely obvious to an outside observer. But on the battlefield they may have a higher proportion of specialist weaponry; such as Storm Bolters, Flamers or Meltaguns than normal squads. This is due to their role as shock troops on the battlefield, though there is nothing inherent to the role of Dominion that makes such weaponry exclusive to them.

So while a heavy weapons bearer in a squad of ordinary battle sisters can call herself a Retributor, a special weapons bearer in the same squad will not be a Dominion.

Their duty is to clear trenches, fortifications and important objectives before moving on to the next on while their other sisters follow behind to consolidate their gains. Dominions act as the vanguard to their army, always deploying in advance of the rest of the force and are usually carried in a transport of some description to assist with their mobility.

Tabletop

Occupying the Fast Attack slot alongside the Seraphim Squad, the Dominions are notable for having up to four special weapons and the ability to Scout.

Their unique Act of Faith is the power to imbue their shooting attacks with the Ignores Cover rule for a phase, representing their ability to clear out cowards who might be hiding from them.

The traditional loadout is fairly unimaginative, because there really is only one way to use them: give them four Meltaguns. Anything else is a waste of potential:

• Taking Flamers means there is no benefit in ever using that Act of Faith, and the same role can be filled with a Retributor Squad with even heavier Flamers.
• Taking Storm Bolters in such small numbers only adds four more shots between 12"-24" than they would have had than if they had kept their standard bolters, so you need more regular sisters with boltguns to make the most out of that enhanced range bracket, but that also removes their ability to charge following the shooting attack. That's before you consider that while you might ignore cover for a turn, AP5 bolters aren't cracking the carapace or power armour behind that wall.
• Four Meltaguns means four AP1 shots that are guaranteed to ignore everything between you and the meat of your target short of an invulnerable save and when concentrated into four at a time will make short work of any tank stupid enough remain close to your scouting, mobile Dominions on the tabletop.