Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Sisters of Silence Tactics

"We are mute but not without power, we are silent but not without resolve, we are untouchable but not without courage, we are sisters and have but one father. We are seekers and we shall find our prey, we are warriors and woe to those we oppose, the Emperor's mark is on our brow, all who deal with the Warp must beware, His Judgement and vengeance is ours to deliver!"

– Motto of the Sisters of Silence (which they probably have to write down on a note or sign at their enemies)

This is the current tactics page for the Sisters of Silence in HH 2.0. The 1.0 tactics can be found here

For the generals on how to play the game and the basics on list building (as well as other tactica rules), you may want the General tactics page. You may also find the Horus Heresy general thread as "/HHG/" on /tg/.

Why play the Sisters of Silence

The original Bolter Bitches, who one up the Nuns with Guns by being Knights with Guns and being an army of Psyker and Daemon mogging maidens. The Sisters of Silence are the Elite humans of the 30k, and while this puts them on the same footing as Marines, they come with a bunch of extra rules that help them go toe to toe with the Armour clad post humans. In terms of equipment they have some of the trolliest and fun war gear options that favour the application of precise strikes over brutal overpowering force.

Pros

• The Emperors mute, psyker kicking left hand and all the perks that come with it.
• One of the fastest armies in the game with most units having Fleet and a choice between Scout or Infiltrate
• Retinue choices with Line, allowing your HQs to score.
• The best duellist character in the entire game (baring Primarchs).
• SoS are the only army to have actually gained new units for HH2, rather than loose them.

Cons

• Sisters are halfway between Space Marines and Solar Auxilia, meaning while they have a marines 3+, they are stuck with a humans S/T3.
• Sisters units are cheaper than marines but have smaller starting sizes for most of their squads, and a squad of 10 Prosecutors is actually slightly more expensive than a base Tactical squad. So while initially seeming like a cheaper army they cost around the same amount of points as a marine army with a similar model count.
• While Sisters do have a bunch of new units, almost none of their units have models and will need conversion work, or you need to wait and hope they get models later.
• Sisters are a very infantry heavy army with few vehicles and lack any real way to deal with armour or 2+ saves, and need allies if they want to field any serious amount of armoured firepower.

Army Rules

• Silent Sisterhood (X): Each Sister of silence unit belongs to their own Chamber militant, that gives them special rules. Apart from the Chamber of Vigilance only a limited number of each chamber may be taken, with 3 units from each chamber being able to be taken for each HQ of the same chamber brought in the same army, so you'll probably need to take a lot of HQ units.
  • Chamber of Vigilance: Units gain Scout or Infiltrate, and there is no limit to the number of units with this chamber that you can take.
  • Chamber of Oblivion: Units gain Fearless when locked in combat with Daemon or Corrupted units.
  • Chamber of Judgment: Units gain Fearless when locked in combat with a Psyker.
• Ex Oblivio: Chamber of Oblivion ICs really throw their opponents off. During any Assault phase at Initiative 10, you can trigger this rule which reduces the WS of one enemy model that this sister is engaged with/challenging to 1. You then roll a D6, and on a 2+ nothing happens, but on a 1 the unit with Ex Oblivio suffers a save-negating wound.
  • This ability can be used during every assault phase, and you should because it's amazing and can turn a fully kitted out kill-Praetor into a wildly flailing liability. That said, savvy opponents will take advantage of Chosen Warriors to keep their ICs out of base contact with yours, and your ability works on 1 model; it does nothing to prevent the Praetor's retinue from splatting your own retinue with Power Mauls, which at S6 AP3 inflict ID and ignore your Vratine Armour. Moreover, as it works on WS, it does nothing to flat bonuses to hit. Unless the IC in question is Jenetia Krole, this is not a "I win" button.
• The Anathema unit sub-type is something all Sisters infantry have and it has a bunch of extra rules as well.
  • May not be targeted by Psychic powers.
  • Cannot be wounded by psychic weapons and negates Force weapons.
  • Models that do not have the Anathema sub-type but has joined an Anathema unit suffer -2 Leadership, and any non-Anathema unit within 6" reduces their leadership by 1 or by 2 if they are Corrupted. This affects Stubborn units as well, but not units embarked in vehicles or fortifications.
  • Note that this does nothing against your opponent using psychic powers to buff his own models beyond making the psychic test harder. Thaumaturgy psykers can still heal, Biomancy psykers can still buff strength, etc.
• Despite not being a specific rule, all Sisters of Silence infantry have Hatred (Psykers, Daemons, Corrupted) and Stubborn or Fearless. All of them also get the Light Sub-Type, which makes them more mobile.

Core Warlord traits

• Maiden of Blood: After combat has finished, but before the combat result is resolved you can inflict D6 AP- wounds on the unit she is attached to, and after these are resolved each model in the unit may make an another attack. In addition you may make an addition reaction in the Assault phase while the warlord is still alive and you may take one extra unit from the same chamber as the warlord.
• Maiden of Resolve: Once per-battle the warlord may activate her trait at the beginning of the controlling players turn. If done so, the warlord and her attached unit cannot move, but they auto-pass morale tests and gain Eternal Warrior and FNP(4+). In addition you may make an addition reaction in the Shooting phase while the warlord is still alive and you may take one extra unit from the same chamber as the warlord.
• Maiden of Sorrow: For each unsaved wound the Warlord and her attached unit suffer, they gain +1 movement and attack (to a max of 4+) until the end of the controlling players turn. The opponent also doesn't gain any victory points for killing the Warlord. In addition you may make an addition reaction in the Movement phase while the warlord is still alive and you may take one extra unit from the same chamber as the warlord.

Wargear of the Sisters of Silence

Melee Weapons

• Execution Blade: The Sister's standard issue two-handed Power sword that gives them S+2 AP3 and Rending(6+). Great for cutting up Power Armour and better than almost every other power weapon available to the Sisters.

Charnabal Weapons
Duelling weapons that rely on speed and precision over brute strength. A few more of these have been added in 2.0, but they all follow the same general theme of relying on Breaching instead of normal AP, but gaining initiative in challenges.

• Charnabal Sabre: The standard Charnabal weapon, with S-User, Breaching (5+) and Duellist's Edge (1). The option that will inflict the least wounds due to having no strength bonus, but strangely the one that will inflict the most AP2 wounds due to having a better version of Breaching than the Tabar and having more attacks than the Glaive.
• Charnabal Tabar: Yeah, I didn't know what a Tabar is either (it's a Persian battle axe of yore), and the Charnabal version isn't too much to write home about. It is a little bit worse than the Sabre as it has the same Duellist's Edge (1), and only has Breaching (6+) in exchange for S+2, which is kind of meh when compared to some Power Weapons.
• Charnabal Glaive: Duellist's Edge (2), Breaching (5+), S+1, Two-handed. Hitting before basically everyone is nice, but is it worth giving up chances to trigger Breaching by losing your +1 attack from having 2 weapons?

Power Weapons
High AP, and a good bonus weapon for squad Mistresses (sergeants) that can't take Execution Blades.

• Power Sword: The standard AP3 power weapon, but now it comes with Rending (6+) so you can actually cut through Artificer armour. It's not reliable, but a buff is a buff.
• Power Axe: The same old S+1 AP2 Unwieldy weapon. Probably the go to choice for the Sisters since they have very few AP2 weapons and need as many as they can get.
• Power Maul: Got a very nice buff as it is still S+2, but now it is also AP3 so it can actually kill marines rather than bouncing off their armour.
• Power Lance: Also received a very helpful buff in the new edition. They are now S+1, AP3 standard and include the Reach (1) special rule, making it more consistent and actually useful after a charge. The premier anti-MEQ melee weapon now, as you hit before everyone else and at 1W generally, they won't get to hit back.

Ranged Weapons

Adrathic Weapons
The disintegrators of yore are not to be trifled with. Even if they got nerfed to AP3 and thus won't wipe out Terminators outright, having both Armourbane (Ranged) and Instant Death means that any hits you do land will destroy.

• Adrathic Destructor: 12" Assault 1 S5 AP3
• Adrathic Devastator: 18" Heavy 2 S6 AP3

Bolt Weapons

• Bolter: Old reliable. S4, AP5, Rapid Fire.
  • Bolt Pistol: Old reliable Jr. The same as above but as a pistol, allowing a sister to gain extra attacks when they take two of them
• Vratine Bolter: A shorter-ranged boltgun with Psy-Shock, which forces any Daemons or Psykers wounded by it to immediately suffer Perils. What better way to eradicate daemon brutes than to wipe them out with anti-psychic rounds?

Needle Weapons
S2 Poison weapons with no AP, but they all have Poison(3+) and Pinning. The only diffrence between them is the range and amount of shots.

• Needle Pistol: 12" Pistol 2
• Assault Needler: 18" Assault 3
• Needle Cannon: 24" Heavy 4

Snare Weapons
Weapons that don't inflict wounds but reduces the movement of units that are hit by them thanks to the Entangle (X) rule. Could be fun to troll your enemy but probably worth skipping over.

• Snare Gun: Assault 3, S5 Entangle (1).
• Snare Cannon: Heavy 3 S7 Entangle (2).

Equipment

• Compression Tanks: Can be used once per game to add +2 Strength to a flamer weapon. Sounds cool, but the cost of these will drive you up the wall as it's costed per model. Also, you'd damn well hope that your shots kill the unit in question.

• Frag Grenades: Lets units that have charged through difficult and dangerous terrain attack at their Initiative.
• Krak grenades: Lets you inflict one S6 AP3 hit at Initiative 1 against Dreadnoughts, Automata and Vehicles.
• Psyk-Out Grenades: When charging a unit with a Daemon or Psyker model in it, no reactions can be taken against the charging unit.

• Vratine Armour: aka Power armour with boobs.

• Spectra Cloak: Provides no invulns, but it does make any ranged attacks that aren't Templates or fired by units of the Primarch type or otherwise have Night Vision count as firing at a target 6" further. This will mess with any Rapid-Fire blocks of bolters.
• Voidsheen Cloak: Grants a simple 6++ save, which goes up to 4++ against Template or Blast weapons.
• Voidscale Cloaks: Grants a 5++ save, which goes up to a 3++ against Template or Blast weapons.

Unit Analysis

HQ

Named Characters

• Jenetia Krole, Knight-Commander of the Silent Sisterhood, Chief Investigatus-Militant of the Divisio Astra Telepathica, the Witch-Bane, the Soulless Queen: The absolute queen bitch of the Sisterhood returns again and remains just as terrifying to the Warp. Aside from Ex Oblivio, she has Hatred (Psykers, Daemons, Corrupted and Traitor), she has Fear (1), Fearless and Precision Strikes/Shots (5+). Alongside an Archaeotech pistol, she has the Sword of Oblivion, a devastating S+2 AP1 Two-Handed blade with Murderous Strike (5+) and Duellist's Edge (1) to guarantee an edge over her adversaries. The Onyx Cloak improves her artificer armor with a 4++ Invuln that improves to a 3++ against Blast and Template weapons while not being within LoS for Barrage attacks. On top of that, all shooting attacks from enemies without the Primarch type or Night Vision all count their ranges as +6" further, meaning meltas and flamers are wasted unless you're point-blank.
  • Her WT The Soulless Queen makes her sisters hate the warp as much as she does, as all units in her detachment with at least one model with the Silent Sisterhood rule gets Preferred Enemy (Psykers, Daemons, Corrupted). If the enemy army lacks those unit types, Jenetia and up to three other units gain Infiltrate. In either case, she gives an additional reaction in the Assault phase as well as two extra choices from the Chamber of Oblivion.
    • Ex Oblivio mixed with the Sword of Oblivion and Eternal Warrior means Jenetia will beat almost every (non-Primarch) Marine Character in a challenge, including ALL OF THE NAMED CHARACTERS (Including the one who actually killed her in canon). That said, some Legions with flat to-hit bonuses/flat to-hit debuffs on you can stand a chance, Brutal (X) weapons can bypass your EW and the Iron Hands in particular have a Warlord trait to ignore any and all stat debuffs because they're just not afraid of you. You'll probably still win by dint of EW, but losing is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Generic Characters

• 0-1 Knight Abyssal: Part of the Chamber of Oblivion and the elite hero of the sisterhood, having WS/BS6 gives her an edge against most HQs. Though the Sisters lack any detachment rule limiting your HQ choices, you are hard-capped to 0-1 for this girl. She has Ex Oblivio, making her quite strong as challenge character, and Precision Shots (5+) and Precision Strikes (5+) allows her to reach out and touch those models you really want to die. That said, her S3 makes wounding marines an issue and she's still T3 and has no protection against ID beyond 2+/5++, so she can still die to Space Marine ICs in a challenge. Moreover, the vast majority of her melee strength comes from Ex Oblivio, so look again at the rule entry for its limitations, however these limitation can be overcome or lessened by giving her the Maiden of Sorrow warlord trait. All in all she's a solid HQ choice and can be an effective duellist and can tie up opposing characters in combat very well.

• Knight Centura: The Sisters Captain equivalent. She is dropped down to WS/BS 5 with 3 attacks, but she retains the Ex Oblivio which means she's still makes her a decent duellist. While she can be a good character to draw out duels against Praetors, she has less chance of winning them since she lacks access to a Paragon Blade and she's better at going around at beating up support characters and leading the charge against really annoying units (and psykers) you want gone.

• Silent Judge: The Chamber of Judgment's equivalent of the Knight Centura and the shooty character for the Sisters. She lack the Ex Oblivio rule of the Knight Centura, but she has an Excrutia Armatus and a Distortion Field which will help keep her safe from ranged attacks, and she comes armed with two Bolt Pistols. She can also take some heavier weapons having access to a Flamer, Heavy Flamer Vratine Grenade launcher or a Adrathic destructor (which is safer for her to use since she has Artificer armour) and she can buy Compression Tanks to improve her flamer/heavy flamer's Strength by +2 for one turn in case you really want to incinerate something. She also has the Precision Shots (6+) and Precision Strikes (6+), which means she can potentially snipe characters She's probably worth taking to support your army with some extra shooting and to give you access to a few Chamber of Judgment units.

• Silent Fury: For an extra 10 points you get a Silent Judge on a Jet bike. She retains all the same rules and equipment as the standard Silent Judge, but she also has the the Deepstrike and Outflank rules, as well as the Anti-grav sub type (the jetbike has it, even if she's not listed as having it herself). She can also change the weapon mounted in her Jetbike. It comes with a Snare Cannon which you should swap out for either a Needle Cannon or Adrathic Destructor.

• Questora Cadre: The Chamber of Judgments retinue squad, blessed with the Line sub-type so they can cap points while protecting your boss. They all have 2 wounds and come equipped with Vratine Bolters and Spectra cloaks, in keeping with the Chamber of Judgments more shooty attitude. That said they're not slouch in melee armed since they have WS5 and Chosen Warriors, and if they are equipped with Power Weapons they'll hold off marine squads quite well. They only have BS4 which is a shame, but they do also have Precision Shots (6+) and access to a wide array of guns including duel Bolt Pistols, Assault Needlers or Flamers and two Sisters get access to some Heavier weapon options.

• Raptora Cadre: The Chamber of Oblivions retinue squad an a step up to the Questora squad. The squad starts off at 3 Sisters and can be upped to 9, and all come with Line and 2 wounds, with the whole squad being equipped with Execution Blades and Voidsheen Cloaks from the word go. They have the Chosen Warriors and 'Precision Strikes (6+) rules and two of the models in the unit can swap out their Execution Blades for a Power Fist or a Neuro-lash, but the rest of the squad can't take any other melee weapons though. The whole squad can swap their bolt pistols out for Hand Flamers, Needle Pistols or Plasma Pistols, so don't be afraid to swap them out soy you can vomit a bunch of templates or Breaching(4+) onto an enemy squad before you charge them.

Elites

• 0-1 Knight-Vestal Covenant: At last, the sisters get medics. Just like the Apothecaries of the astartes, you get to attach one member of this group into another unit for the sake of that ever-precious Narthecium. The one major drawback from grabbing one aside from their narrow weapon selection (as in, your only melee options are either power weapon or charnabal weapon because you're stuck John Woo-ing it up with two bolt pistols) is the fact that they cannot take bikes. Also not convenient is the size limit of three models.
• Oblivion Knight Cadre: Your elite sword masters don't feel so elite anymore now that your HQs can take actual retinues. That said, the knights have the distinct edge of having free reign between power weapons, charnabal weapons and neuro-lashes. Voidsheen cloaks also give them a measure of protection against plenty of things, especially blasts and templates. They all have Precision Strikes(6+), 2 attacks and a WS of 5, making them pretty effective fighters and the squad can be increased to 10, meaning you can fully kit out the squad with Power Axes and pick fights with terminator squads with a decent chance of coming out on top.
• Eradicator Cadre: A squad of five elite markswomen, and slightly reminiscent of the Legions Seeker squads. The squad can take 5 more Eradicators and they have Precision Shots(6+) and you can buy combi-weapons for the entire squad and while the stock Vratine Bolters are decent for hunting psykers, take the damn Combi-weapons. Give them all Combi-Volkites to give them nasty amount of anti-infantry shots or give them all Combi-meltas and go Termiantor/Tank hunting. Sisters of Silence suffer from a good amount of AP2 so if you see any of it, grab it with both hands and use it.

Troops

• Vigilator Cadre: The basic bolter bitches of the Silent Sisterhood aren't even stuck to plain bolters. If you're desperate to channel the power of John Woo, you can give every sister double bolt pistols or buy them Assault Needlers if you expect to be having issues with wounding the enemy. Two sisters can also swap their Bolters for Snare Guns for free, but this is only really worth it if you want to keep assault squads at bay while you gun them down. The Mistress can take a Power or Charnable weapon, and also get access to a Hand Flamer, Needle Pistol or Plasma pistol. These are your basic Line Troops, and since they are also part of the Chamber of Vigilance you don't have a limit on how many you can take. They also have a starting squad size of 5, which can be upped to 15 and you'll usually want to be running at least 10 to help they stay effective.

• Prosecutor Cadre: You Line melee squad for the sisterhood, gifted with Bolt Pistols and Execution blades which are great but you can't take anything else on the regular girls. They can swap their Bolt Pistols out for Needle Pistols and Hand Flamers, which can be further upgraded with Compression Tanks and the Mistress can take a Free Power weapon, a Neuro-lash for 5 points or a Power Fist for 10 points. They unfortunately only have a single attack which is bad for a melee unit and they take up one of the ever valuable Chamber of Oblivion slots. That said a large squad will chew through power armour, so the best strategy for them is to take a single 15 woman unit, throw them in a Acquisitor, and roll them into a backline objective hogging marine squad and watch them wipe the marine squad in one turn, while securing the objective themselves.

Dedicated Transports

• Kharon Pattern Acquisitor: Your lone form of transportation is this weird nigh-phallic hover tank with AV 13/12/11. Fortunately, it's a Fast vehicle and has Deep Strike and Outflank so you can get it to arrive anywhere you want to dispense the anti-psyker firepower wherever you wish. 16 slots lets you carry a bit more than a stock squad of sisters and the addition of Assault Vehicle means that they can always charge once you get there. Defensively, it has the Spectra Distort Field to make all shots count as if they're +8" further away in a way similar to the Voidsheen cloaks. It has Night Vision and is armed with Hellion heavy Cannon array which will hurt infantry and two Vratine missile launcher which can hurt infantry and tanks. It can also swap out the cannon array for a Twin-linked Multi-Melta for free which helps it be a bit more of a threat to heavier tanks, but for 150 points it's not a cheap transport option (the model is also very expensive from Forge World).

Fast Attack

• Pursuer Cadre: By themselves, these sisters are underwhelming. They don't even get the fancy swords the others get by default, just CCWs and bolt pistols! The reason you buy them is because you can purchase special pets to run alongside them, adding another body to the pile. Being Skirmish sub-type also means that unit coherency is less of an issue for you. The pets will influence how your unit operates, as they all have differing statlines and rules.
  • The Cyber-Caiman lacks the Light sub-type and has M6 and thus will throttle the movement of your sisters. What it offers, however, is a wall of meat with S6/T6 and W2 with Feel No Pain (5+) to protect it.
  • On the other end of the spectrum is the Cyber Raptor, which has I4 and A3, but it has no defence outside of a 4+ Shrouded save.
  • The Cyber Mastiff is a bit more moderate with an aggressive edge, being S4 with Furious Charge (1) for the alpha strike.
  • The Cyber Felidae sacrifices durability with a 6+ save but gets I5 and Rage (1).
• Fire Brand Cadre: A squad of 5 sisters armed with Flamers, who have the job of hunting down and burning witches and trouble makers. Why does that sound so familiar... The squad can buy Compression tanks which increases the strength of the flamers by 2+ for 1 round of shooting, or swap out the flamers for Snare guns for free or buy Vratine grenade launchers for 5 points.
• Subjugator Cadre: Sisters of Silence on Jet Bikes. Coming in squads of three that can be upped to squads of 10, the riders have Bolt pistols and CCW giving them an extra attack, and they have Outflank and Deep Strike so you can bring the unit down where ever you want them and their Erinyes jetbikes give them Relentless and Shrouded(6+) every time they move and Shrouded(5+) every time they run. The bikes are armed with Snare Cannons, which can be upgraded to Needle Cannons or Adrathatic Destructors.
• Termite Assault Drill: Surprise! The SoS get another vehicle and it can transport 12 sisters in subterranean assault. Being slightly tougher than a Rhino and armed with Twin-linked Heavy Bolters that can be swapped out for Heavy Flamers or Twin-linked Volkite Chargers, it can carry a Sister squad into your enemies backline to deal a bit of chaos. An exotic choice for the Sisters but one that could prove a good one if handled well.

Heavy Support

• Sanctioner Cadre: A sniper squad with Marked for Death and armed with Nemesis Bolters. These can be upgraded to Vratine Nemesis Bolters if you feel like bullying the Thousand Sons and their Spectra cloaks will help negate counter fire and barrage weapons. There isn't much to say about them, but since there are so few other Heavy support choices for the Sisters of Silence, brining a unit of these to take out any annoying support characters may be a great idea.
• Expurgator Cadre: Retributors stolen from the Sisters of Battle, but better. The whole squad comes with Heavy Flamers and can take Compression Tanks to increase the flamers strength. They can swap out their Heavy Flamers for Snare Cannons to troll assault squads, Adrathic destructors to kill Space marine (and themselves) or Vratine Missile launcher that have Frag, Krak and Psyk-out missiles for killing tanks and Psykers. The last option is probably the best as it gives the Sisters a unit that can actually hurt tanks and can deal with quite a wide array of threats thanks to the multiple missiles available to them.

Army Tactics

Warhammer 30,000 Tactics Articles
General Tactics	General (7E) Movement (7E) Psychic (7E) Fortifications (7E)
Imperium	Legiones Astartes (7E)
	Legio Custodes (7E) Sisters of Silence (7E) Mechanicum (Legio Mechanicum • Taghmata Omnissiah)
	Questoris Knights (7E) Solar Auxilia (7E) Imperialis Militia (7E)
Chaos	Ruinstorm Daemons (7E • 7E Codex) Warp Cults(7E)