Tonight I got a quick game in at a GW store. Sadly my camera decided it would decide to run out of power today so I don't have pics of the game which is very irritating. In any case the lists were as follows:

Raven Guard 3rd Company

Captain Shrike

Captain Balthier Vincati
-Master, Pair of Master Crafted Lightning Claws, Artificer Armor, Iron Halo, Terminator Honors, Frags, Jump Pack, Kraks

Veteran Assault Squad (5)
-Plasma Pistols x3, Terminator Honors, Power Fist, Combat Shield, Furious Charge, Melta Bombs

Veteran Assault Squad (5)
-Plasma Pistols x3, Terminator Honors, Power Fist, Combat Shield, Furious Charge, Melta Bombs

Veteran Assault Squad (5)
-Plasma Pistols x3, Terminator Honors, Power Fist, Combat Shield, Furious Charge, Melta Bombs

Tactical Squad (6)
-Plasma Gun, Lascannon, Terminator Honors, Power Weapon, Auspex

Tactical Squad (6)
-Plasma Gun, Lascannon, Terminator Honors, Power Weapon, Auspex

Scout Squad (5)
-Bolters x4, Heavy Bolter

Scout Squad (5)
-Sniper Rifles x4, Missile Launcher

Devastator Squad ( 8 )
-Missile Launchers x4

Sisters of Battle

Canoness
-2+ Save thingy, 4+ Invulnerable thingy, Inferno Pistol, Sacred Weapon... other stuff

Celestian Bodyguard (9)
-Heavy Flamer, Storm Bolter
-Rhino Transport- Storm Bolter, Extra Armor

Sisters of Battle (15)
-Storm Bolter, Heavy Flamer

Sisters of Battle (10)
-Storm Bolter, Heavy Flamer

Sisters of Battle (5)
-Storm Bolter, Heavy Flamer

Sisters Repentia (10)
-Something probably...

Immolator
-Something that I don't know about.

Retributer Squad (6)
-Heavy Bolters x4, Some Icon Thingy, Storm Bolter

Seraphim Squad (5)
-Hand Flamers x1, Plasma Pistol

Seraphim Squad (5)
-Hand Flamers x1, Plasma Pistol

Terrain

A pair of Fantasy Buildings filled the upper left hand corner of the board, a long river went straight through the center of the board. Several small ruins dotted the upper right and lower left hand quarters. The lower right quarter held a large Eldar webway gate thingy on a cliff and a wrecked Iron Hands Land Raider.

Deployment

Raven Guard
-The Devs went into the back of the way gate platform, the two Tac squads positioned themselves side by side infront of the devs. All 3 Assault Squads and Captain Vincati formed up behind the Eldar structure and the two scout squads infiltrated into the wrecked Land Raider with the bolters in front and the snipers behind. Shrike Infiltrated to the far upper left and scouted forward to get into a position to charge.

Sisters of Battle
-One 10 strong sisters squad went on the left of the river in the upper left quarter, the repentia were nearest to that squad on the other side of the river. Then came the Immolator with the 5 strong sisters squad in it and next to that sat the rhino with the celestians. The Seraphim squads hid behind the vehicles and a ruin right next to them that held the Retributers, the final battle sisters squad on the far right of the line.

Turn 1

Raven Guard
I won the role for first turn and opted to take it. Shrike moved out of cover and charged. The Devs blasted the Immolator to pieces and the Tacs blew up the rhino, two celestians died in the explosion. The Scouts shot down 4 of the 6 Retributors. In close combat shrike killed four of the battle sisters, the rest consolidating into him.

Sisters of Battle
Most of the sisters squads stormed forward. The Retributors lived up to their name and killed three scouts. The Seraphim leaped forward. The Repentia going crazed and rushing towards shrike and away from my main lines, much to my opponents chagrin. In close combat Shrike downed another five of the sisters and they failed their morale and were run down by Shrike, who then consolidated past the Sisters repentia.

Turn 2

Raven Guard
Shrike jumped over the river and near the ruined Immolator, ready to charge the battle sisters squad who had moved forward into the wreck. Shooting saw the scouts, tacs and devs all target the Seraphim, when the smoke cleared only one Seraphim Sister remained and she failed her morale and fled. The surviving scouts in the bolter squad fired on the Retributors and finished them off. In assault Shrike charged the Five strong sisters squad and wiped them out, consolidating into the Celestians.

Sisters of Battle
The sisters held their ground this turn and fired on the scouts, wiping out the remaining two bolter scouts. The Repentia did not go nuts this turn and were slowed in their return to the battle. Assault saw the Celestians use two faith points to give themselves +2 Initiative and invulnerable saves. The Canoness took a wound off of Shrike but was killed in return by Shrike's potent weapons.

It was just into the next turn that the game was conceded. A very short and very brutal fight. Final results:

Raven Guard Cassualties

5 Scouts
Wounded Shrike

Sisters of Battle Cassualties

Canoness
2 Celestians
6 Retributors
10 Seraphim
3 Repentia
15 Battle Sisters

Solid Victory for the Raven Guard

End Game Thoughts

All in all a quick and brutal fight. I'm not entirely pleased with the Results. Shrike was nasty but one burried power weapon or even worse, a power fist is an immense threat. I really need to order the parts to give him some Shrike's Wing bodyguards to join him on his flank attacks. I also need to do some modifications to my Sergeants, the Power Fists are just a waste. I need to drop their Plasma Pistols and Power Fists and give them Lightning Claws, I suppose for WYSIWYG a pair of Power Fists would work if I make it clear and it shouldn't be too hard to do, I have enough spares lying around.

This was one of my very few games against Sisters of Battle. The game just goes to show that I really need to get the Witch hunters codex. Knowing more about the faith points and the armaments and capabilities of my foe would have gone a long way in helping my tactics. All in all the only reason this game had such a result was because my opponent was fairly new to the game and made some simple mistakes. The one thing I knew that helped me was the weakness of the Repentia. Forcing them to chase after shrike and move away from the main engagement was immensely useful knowledge and it kept them from marching forward to tear into my firebase. If the Seraphim and Repentia, and the Celestians had all moved on me at once there would have been little chance of me throwing them all back before they got into a mass and bloody melea. Downing the Rhino and dragging the Repentia away however broke apart my opponent's assault enough that I could easily deal with the units seperate. The Battle sisters also proved extremely vulnerable to Shrike who just cut through them like wheat before the scythe.

So in other words I knew just enough to be able to pick apart my opponent's attack and grind his force down and it didn't take very long either. However I still need to do more research on the army before I wish to face an opponent who knows the army better.

Some advice for my opponent

The main trouble was the dispersion of the force. The Sisters were in bad positions to support each other. The Retributors would have been better in the forrest centering the line with their Firepower and both Vehicles would have done better by hiding behind cover to rush forward 12" first turn and unload their troops behind them. Then even if they get destroyed the Sisters inside are hardly slowed and my lines of fire would have been blocked, covering the assault of the Seraphim and adding the weight of numbers of the battle sisters and Celestians into the mix. With my firebase crammed so closely together a few heavy flamers would have done a good deal of damage followed up by a mass melea the Sisters had the numbers to wear down my Marines.

As for the Repentia, I couldn't expect my opponent to know about the Capabilities of Shrike very well and there was little he could do to stop his Repentia from their mad chase, or to stop Shrike from eating through his flank. However deploying the Repentia more centrally and concentrating his forces would have mitigated the effect some and allowed the Canoness and her Celestians to join the fray and fight off Shrike before he could do too much damage.

I hope the game was a learning experience for my opponent, given some time and experience I bet he will make a rather good player. Some patience and time is all that's needed.