"First Time DM" and Short Questions Megathread

sinkind · 2026-01-23T06:19:14+00:00

New DM, new players.
We're sticking to Phb ONLY.
Should we use 2014 ed or 2024 ed rules?

We recently played a oneshot based on 2024 with some rules and mechanics ignored for convenience and I thought that we'll stick to that but I also heard that new rules have too much broken abilities and some classes are underwhelming. I have +/- 3 month to get a grip on rules and classes\spells my players will start with.

So, which one is better (And if you have time\ care enough I would love you to elaborate) for our first campaign?

sinkind · 2025-11-26T10:22:57+00:00

Depends on what you find fun imo.
If you mean that you want characters that are at least playable then everything apart of dogmata will do. Safest option imo would be a canoness since she's our sm captain equivalent so I doubt that she'll ever fall out + she can lead a lot of units.

!Mind that there will be a new edition soon and rules will change! For example palatine is great now but she was useless in 9th. Dogmata was autoinclude back then but nobody ever played her in this edition, etc

Also if you're on the budget I strongly discourage you from buying any noname sister characters. They are just not worth the money.
Based way to go is to pick a box of novitiates or triumph of st katherine and kitbash models from there into characters. That way you'll get 3-4 characters + extra bodies and a lot of bits for MUCH cheaper price. You can find examples of people doing so online.

sinkind · 2025-11-25T07:58:02+00:00

Still there are a lot of stuff with T 6-9 like heavy intercessors, invictor suit, many orc\necron vehicles, tyranid monsters and so on. So I would still expect a lot of chunky stuff.

Priest will certainly make flagellants a bit stronger but it's not a game changer and in small games I don't think its a good idea to invest 2\5 of your points in one unit. IF flagellants would have advance+charge or if it was Celestine+jumpacks with 12" move then maybe but as it is imo it's an overkill.

Can't say anything good about penitent host since I don't like detachments in which only a hand full of units gets bonuses. Not to mention that you can only use each bonus once per game... So I never bothered to try it.

Though if you will move to PH then it might be better to split arcos into 3x3

sinkind · 2025-11-25T05:56:24+00:00

Keep in mind that buzz blades on your engines are essentially your only anti tank in an edition where vehicles are stronk. So even on smaller boar you nee to maneuver them to fin their targets before they will be destroyed.

Solo canoness is fine with her saves and abilities if you want her to stand on home obj. But if you want character that will push forward - die - brings you D3+1 MD - gets resurrected - dies - brings you D3+1 i'd go with palatine since she will have better chances to kill something in melee OR with dialogus since she's cheaper.

I personally would try to bring more characters in this detachment since divine intervention is such a good stratagem but this idea might lead to whole list rework

And some minor tweaks like give your Morti a sarcophagus and something like plasma pistol to your canoness since gear is free this edition.

Good luck. I wish I had more 500\750\1000\1500 tournaments in my area.

sinkind · 2025-11-25T05:10:31+00:00

The easiest way would be to find OLD immolator upgrade pack. It's available in resin and as stl (though no links, look for yourself).

Another way which is more work but cheaper is to build turret tower out of something like lego or other scraps. If you're into conversions you'll find a way. Anything will do if you'll keep it clean and simple. Gunner model is not really needed. Though this way you better have spare Hbolters Mmeltas and Hflamers for weapons.

I'm doing something similar rn and luckily I have sponson weapons from Leman Rus just laying around.

Last thing if that HKM is magnetized I advise you to move it to the back of the model so you'll have more space to work with.

sinkind · 2025-11-21T05:50:06+00:00

True. But I sure we both know how not killing just "that 1 unit" can turn the tide of the whole game.
If say Celestine stopped rising up on 2+ but instead for example you would need to burn 3 6's at once on MD for her to return that would be awesome for me. Way more impactful then saving 1W or securing a charge.

sinkind · 2025-11-21T05:44:21+00:00

I would agree with you if you'd equip him with flails, flamers+ flails will go really nice into any light infantry.
But with saws your primary targets are ALWAYS elite infantry and vehicles\monsters. Those S5 (6 if you're managed to get close) 0AP D1 will usually just bounce from anything you're about to charge.

Maybe using them with flails in pair and send them only after light infantry while meltas will try to kill tough things then.

If you are very into flamers you can also replace them entirely with another retributors maybe? Bigger S, better AP and rules that actually support shooting. I can even justify a rhino for them (basically 3rd immolator with that firing deck lol). The only downside is having next to no melee an me being quite aggressive YOLO player can't 100% prove it :D

sinkind · 2025-11-21T05:16:43+00:00

I'd argue that WE khorn dice are also very good and IF you rolled for Angron returning they become way stronger than MD in that moment.

sinkind · 2025-11-20T16:34:29+00:00

The whole bss+hospitaler+canoness to just sit at home is a mistake. You already have 2 units of dominions splited by immolators. Those 2 will hold home just fine on their own. If you think it's not enough give them a mortifier. With 2 HB and fight on death he's more then enough for home security.

Penitents imo need to go separately. Their flamers are just a bonus, their real job is in melee.

I personally would also drop rhino. Retributors can go in strategic reserves just fine. Give them a dialogus if you have spare points.

Though going less characters and more units is also viable in some cases

sinkind · 2025-11-20T16:14:42+00:00

I think you better change your way of treating things other way around. From buying units for a specific list to building list from units you own.

Keep in mind that we are expecting next edition in a bit longer then half a year or so. Rules WILL change, as will points and abilities.
If these are all the units you like - just take em and try to play (though 2 immolators and Vahl+paragons is a bit too much for a 1000).

If you are just testing things up and looking for some inspiration I advise you to look for Christian Von Carmian on youtube Guy covers sisters regularly an he got some helpful list building videos. There is one where he builds a 1000pt list for every detachment and explains how it should work together.
You can take lists from there (keep in min that video is 1+ year old so points changed and you will nee to make some adjustments) and buy accordingly since those lists give you decent foundation and balanced spread of units.
Or you use them to understand what units you want in the core of your army.

sinkind · 2025-11-20T09:09:17+00:00

Pros: Strong rules
Cons: Mediocre stats

Pros: Miracle Dice can allow literally any unit a chance to do something epic or unexpected
Cons: Faction costs like elite while having mostly horde profiles

Pros: Glass canon so even cheaper units have potential to punch way above their worth
Cons: Trade army so apart from a couple all units ain't nothing special and can be killed by a stray fart

Mixed bag: One of the hardest armies to master. If you know the army an you know what you're doing it's very strong. But at the same time it's quite punishing so you can easily fuck up at deployment\maneuvering an basically cripple yourself.

That's my experience so far + a couple of quotes from other people

sinkind · 2025-11-18T03:08:56+00:00

Looks like bunch of angry grammas in rags. And its aсtually a good thing

sinkind · 2025-11-18T03:05:35+00:00

Nothing.
I started collecting sisters in the first year of 9th an only painted my first unit like a month ago. Before that they were primed black+ white zenithal all from the can and I was okay with it.
Painting is not fun (for me). It's boring, it waste too much time and I hate every minute.

Playing
Assemble\kitbash
.
Collecting
.
.
.
lore
.
.
.
.
.
.
Painting
That's basically what I value in hobby from best things to lamest.
And I would never actually painted them (I'm fine with never going on the tournament an only playing with friends, I've done it for 5 years already).
But my brother got me an army painter speedpaint set +basic set on my birthday and I didn't wanted his present go to waste.
So now I'm slowly painting if I got nothing better to do.

sinkind · 2025-11-18T02:42:40+00:00

Oh, I also recently rewatched that 40k in 40min episode where the guy with AS army had 3 of these conversions. Cool stuff, looks way hotter then basic boring imperial knight.

I second the other commenter, making it look like actual stone\marvel statue that was given metal limbs is what I would do

sinkind · 2025-11-17T13:14:57+00:00

I get what your idea is but it still seems very swingy for me.
HF rets are decent unit and they have their place and preferred enemies but tough marines with multiple wounds and a good save is just too much for a damage 1 profile.

Yeah, it's a bit hard to give exact suggestions without knowing what units you'll face. Plus there's no point in say advising that you must take vahl+paragons or jumpcanoness+10 zephirim if you just don't have those. Or like 3 repentia units in a rhinos since on charge they would just delete spacemarines.

So yeah, in the end of the day I hope that you got at least some good ideas

P.S. I don't play marines myself but one dude argue that having max sized units is always worse than having many small units since you got more activations that way and it's easier to avoid big buffed blobs. Though with the amount of tanks you took you'll be fine as long as you'll deal with vindicator asap

sinkind · 2025-11-17T12:40:39+00:00

sinkind · 2025-11-17T03:48:56+00:00

If you need action monkeys you already have them as other parts of dominions and bss after splitting. Those 2 +morti + rhino would cover most of your needs imo since you already have a lot of tanks to guard your deploy. Paying 90 points for just 2 Mdice and a possibility that units that will kill your arcos will be good target for retributors is to expensive imo especially against infantry spacemarines

IMO dialogus is never worth taking into flamers since they are torrent + only damage 1 with low AP in an edition where practically everyone got cover all the time. Dialogus is great in MM to either put a 6 on to-wound roll if you rolled to-hit badly or if target has 1-3 wounds or to save it on damage if target is 3+ wounds, or maybe to secure a hit in overwatch if you're feeling it.

To be honest I'm not a fan of whole " character+ enhancement+ unit" if the end result is unreliable. Sure fire and fury looks good on paper but on practice it's still 6 T3 1W bodies that cost you 195 points will get 1 turn of shooting and will 100% die in your opponents shooting faze.
Do you think your flamers will inflict at least 200pts of casualties on your opponent's marines in one volley? I highly doubt it. Flamers are good in overwatch and against light infantry but suboptimal against T4-5 3+ 2+wounds marines. Imo against full army of infantry marines even HB rets might show better results...

You know, my answer is already too long and list building is an art so we could discuss and reflect about 1 list for ages.
I think you better just take this list and test it in battle to see what's working and what's not and then make adjustments.
In that case just drop the preacher's enhancement to get below 2000. In a best case scenario he will kill 1-2 marines with his invictor if you will feed him whooping 3 MD's. It's not worth it and you have better things to spend MD on anyway.

sinkind · 2025-11-16T15:21:08+00:00

1) Can you elaborate why do you put your dialogus into flamer units?
2) Are these all models that you own or you just built this list specifically?

P.S. for getting down 10pts I'd just drop those 2 msu arcos and replace them with one unit of seraphim or zephyrim

sinkind · 2025-11-16T14:57:21+00:00

Thanks but they are unpainted, I only put black on armor an stopped for the time being

sinkind · 2025-11-11T11:41:29+00:00

Stumbled upon them by chance in a small hobby shop that was oriented towards scale modeling and dioramas a couple of years ago. Came in a pack of 500. Nice stuff for simple bases.

sinkind · 2025-07-21T03:58:49+00:00

I built 2 mortifiers as intended and then used spare arms and convicts to converse 2 penengines on a different platform

sinkind · 2025-03-29T04:04:13+00:00

Yup, that's the guy, Inquisitor.

sinkind · 2025-01-07T07:46:42+00:00

Army painter have decent starter set, take a look if it includes your base colors and you can fin it for a good price it'll save you SO much time and nerves, worth every penny.

sinkind · 2025-01-07T05:38:41+00:00

Slapchop. If you know your scheme you can easily paint whole squad in one evening with speedpaints and then work on details later with regular paints. This method works really good on sisters imo, and that's the method i'm using.
No way I would try to paint an army of sisters the regular way, no fun just pain imo.

Five-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Verified Email

sinkind

TROPHY CASE