Tag: Sisters of Battle

Hey everybody,
August is turning out to be quite the month for gaming, I’m very impressed with myself! The other day I had the chance to play a game of 40k with my Sisters, going up against my buddy JP and his Imperial Fists. I took a similar list I had mentioned in my last blog about the Adepta Sororitas, and I lost, quite dramatically at that!

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I didn’t get first turn, and so had a swathe of Primaris Marines coming at me with their ridiculous weaponry, and even though in retrospect I didn’t actually lose that many models, I think the psychological damage of losing some of my Sisters, almost the whole Retributor squad, my Palatine etc really put me on the back foot. Now, the main error I made in this game is not really having a plan to deal with anything – I just deployed my army and thought, that’ll do. It clearly would not do, though, and JP was the complete opposite – a well-thought-out plan with maximum use of relics and warlord traits to make his Primaris Lieutenant, as he said, “a real warlord”, allowing for bonus hits on 6s and extra AP, re-rolling 1s and all sorts. It was quite the beautiful thing, it really was!

While I did have some successes, I was ultimately a very poor showing. Now, I know everybody always jokes about the bad dice and whatnot, but I made some phenomenally poor rolls. Shooting with a squad of Battle Sisters in rapid fire range, I think I was looking at 16 boltgun shots and 4 storm bolter shots, and I might have made 3 hits. Saving throws were also just ludicrously poor, and I was just shedding models across the three full rounds that we played. We should have called it there, but played a fourth round just to see what would happen, and I was thoroughly tabled.

I was able to kill a Librarian, and two Eliminators, and took maybe 5 wounds off the Redemptor Dreadnought. I really did not have any luck whatsoever, and it showed!

So, naturally, I’m looking at a slightly different list now, with a couple of tweaks to see how they do in a rematch next week! I’m swapping out the Penitent Engine and the Sisters Repentia for a Celestian Squad, with flamer and meltagun, and inferno pistol on the Superior. This will kinda function as the foundation for a sort of mini-deathstar type of unit which comprises the Canoness and Dialogus being nearby, hopefully with additional support from the Palatine.

I envision the Celestians acting as a bodyguard unit for the Canoness, who will trigger their +1 to hit rule while they’re within 6” of her. The Canoness also allows a unit within 6” to re-roll hit rolls of 1, which will serve to improve their accuracy further. They have a dedicated stratagem called Exceptional Proficiency with also gives them +1 to hit, and because of the weapon choices I have, they are a good target for the Holy Trinity stratagem, getting +1 to wound, as well. The Dialogus has a new hymn, which improves AP by one when the enemy is within half range, which is just wonderful. Celestians hit on 3s, but with +2 to hit re-rolling 1s they should be really accurate. With three boltguns alone, that’s six shots when within 12”, AP-1, wounding on 4s with +1 to wound. The Palatine will grant re-rolls to 1, as well, which should make them very accurate indeed. On top of that, of course, there is the meltagun which is a single shot, but wounding on 2s and AP-5, D6 damage (D6+2 if we’re close enough for the inferno pistol to come into play, as well!)

I should probably mention that I’m using the Divine Guidance Sacred Rite, to improve the AP further on an unmodified wound roll of 6 for any ranged attack. Basic boltguns at AP-2 is a very nice dream!

On top of all this, the Canoness cannot be targeted if she is within 3” of the Celestians, so the usual wisdom is to hide the Celestians and let the Canoness smash face with impunity. I’m not sure how prevalent that could be, given that 3” isn’t particularly large. However, it is a nice protection. In return, the Canoness has the Warlord Trait that allows core units within 6” to fall back and shoot (and to use any miracle dice as a 6), which might be handy if they get in a spot of bother. Her relic is the Iron Surplice that gives +1W, Sv 2+, and any attack against her auto-fails on an unmodified 1-3. So she does also get some built-in protection for being out in the open regardless, but I think if I’m going to be fairly aggressive with her, I need to ensure she doesn’t die to a stiff breeze.

An interesting footnote to the whole Celestians unit is that, while they can take two special weapons for a squad of five, you can actually take them in squads of 10, although you can’t take any more weapons for bulking up the squad size. Now, you might think, but that’s making them a normal Battle Sister squad? Aside from additional attacks, which is hardly a benefit given that they are only fighting with the generic close combat weapon, the real bonus that I’m thinking of is the extra bodies that a larger squad represents. Hiding a Canoness with a 10-woman bodyguard does seem like it might work out – and this squad has got a lot more to make it highly accurate, whereas the Sisters don’t have the additional +2 to hit from the Celestian ability and stratagem.

Now, Celestians are one of the alternate build options in the Battle Sisters box, the other being Dominions, and I do rather like the look of having those as well. In fact, I have also been considering using the other five from the box to build five more regular Sisters to either bulk out my existing squads, or else form a new five-woman squad to get a third troops choice in the list that isn’t the Novitiates. However, I do need some sort of melee option in here, and Novitiates are really my only choice for the time being.

My plan, then, such as it is, is to have the unit of Celestians being backed up with the Dialogus, in range of both the Canoness and the Palatine. At least one squad of Battle Sisters will also be keeping step with this walking mass of doom, to further gain the benefit of the re-rolls from all three characters – because something I forgot a lot in that game was the Dialogus gives core units within 6” +1 Ld. Even though I’m playing Order of the Sacred Rose, so I auto-pass combat attrition tests, I still saw some models flee in the Morale phase.

I didn’t really get a chance to use the Retributors in the last game, because the unit was almost entirely shot off the board in the first turn. But they have an interesting rule that denies any type of cover to units they target with heavy weapons, which is very interesting. Their cherubs allow for one model to shoot again, once the unit has shot, which is really quite useful indeed! Didn’t realise they did that, I have to say! Two heavy bolters and two multi-meltas does make the unit fairly expensive though, and I am thinking it might be worth exploring alternative builds. There isn’t a great deal in terms of support for them either, though they are core so benefit from the re-rolls from the HQs. There is also the Sacred Rose stratagem that gives exploding 6s to hit, which I wish I had known about – although the way I was rolling, it was probably no use anyway!

To my mind, though, it isn’t an easy ride with the Sisters. Many times, when you read through a book, you can find ways to stack things on top of one another and you end up with quite a well-oiled machine. Nothing really leaps out at me from this, though – looking online, it seems very much the consensus is that Sisters are a steep learning curve army, and the T3 makes them very precarious. One post on reddit made me chuckle: “play and be prepared to lose”. For all that I might bemoan the fact that I’m struggling to find answers, I am nevertheless really enjoying the puzzle. It’s clear that they are an army that wants to be reasonably close, but remaining in shooting range and not getting into close combat. Having the army-wide 6++ is very useful, especially when there are ways and means to improve that. I have been tempted to give the Palatine the Indomitable Belief warlord trait via a stratagem, but I’ve already spent 1 CP on her to get a relic bolt pistol, so I’m not sure I should sink so much in there before the battle! I suppose we can see. The warlord trait improves the invuln save for core units within 6”, so it’s all about keeping everything fairly close together as it moves up the field.

I think Acts of Faith are such a key part of how the army is meant to work, it’s crucial to keep on top of that and making sure I don’t forget everything that I can do. I completely forgot about the triggers for gaining them when I destroy a unit, or when my characters die. There are quite a few things that allow you to play with miracle dice, including Faith and Fury (1CP) which lets you use a single dice for the hit and wound roll of an attack, or Moment of Grace (1CP) which lets you discard 1-2 miracle dice to add one to a hit, wound or save roll for each dice discarded. Divine Intervention (2CP) can bring back a character from the dead by discarding 1-3 miracle dice, which brings the character back with that many wounds. Luckily, Order of the Sacred Rose allows you to gain a miracle dice on a 4+ whenever you perform an Act of Faith, so I was able to keep my supply up for a time, but I didn’t really ever find myself with a huge stock of them. I suppose that’s a good thing, because it meant I was using them, but even so, I don’t think I used them as well as I could have done.

Moving on further, I have another squad of Seraphim, or Zephyrim, to build up and paint, and I’m not 100% sure how I want to kit those out. I’ll probably wait and see how they perform as Seraphim on the battlefield before I make a decision. I also want to make a Dominion squad, and I keep having silly ideas about having all-melta or all-flamer squads. I think I want to try and get a better handle on the army in general before I make a final decision on that, though. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the Paragon Warsuits for some kind of heavy-support option. The trouble, of course, is that these suits are now 210 points a model. You’re only required to pay extra for the multi-melta option, but that’s still only three models for 630 points! Definitely something for when I’m playing higher-points games with the girls. They seem like a legitimate choice for close combat though, making 4 attacks each (five with the Superior) at S6 AP-3 D2 with their war blades. They also have a stratagem to do impact damage on the charge, and are core units for all of the re-roll shenanigans I’ve already talked about. Expensive in game terms and real-life terms, I think I’ll come back to them later.

The Imagifier is a model I want to include, as I have her in my to-build pile, but her effect doesn’t seem to be worthwhile, really. Situational, at best. I don’t face a lot of S3 weaponry, and I don’t really want to be advancing or charging a lot of the army up the field. That leaves the +1 Strength for core units within 6”, which is not amazing, but I suppose if I were to get charged, it could be useful to be wounding (potentially) on 4s and not 5s.

Saint Celestine is a model that I’ve had since the Triumvirate box came out late in 7^th edition, and despite building her up a long time ago, I haven’t seriously considered her as my general. She actually has a lot going for her, with two built-in bodyguards, a 4++ and subtracting 1 from any damage allocated to her (with no minimum, so…). There are deployment things and whatnot, but her signature move is to return to the battlefield on a 2+ when she has been destroyed for the first time. She does seem quite useful, although at 200 points she might be a little out of my league for now. Maybe when I’m getting into the realms of 1500 point games…

Of course, everybody talks about Morvenn Vahl, and with good reason. She rolls a Canoness and Palatine re-roll abilities together, she can nominate a unit to gain that effect before they move and leave her, she halves damage allocated to her and can negate mortal wounds on a 4+. With 8 wounds, she’s the toughest thing in the book that isn’t a tank or diorama, and is armed with a heavy bolter, missile launcher, and lance of kill your face. At 280 points, however, I don’t foresee any time soon for me to be using her in my games!

I think I definitely need to play with the army more, and get more familiar with what the various units can do. I also need to cement the way Acts of Faith work into my brain, because I definitely lost the plot with those halfway through that game! There seems like a lot of book-keeping that needs to be done with the force, but it should nevertheless be an absolute joy to play, whether I’m burning the heretics or dying in droves.

Hey everybody,
If you follow me on Instagram, or if you’ve been checking in with the blog regularly over the last week or two, you’ll have seen an uptick with my work on the Sisters of Battle, as I have made an effort to make something with the army. This is really nice for me, because it’s a really beautiful force made up of stunning miniatures, but one that I have had shelved for years, and came close to selling it all off after having stagnated for so long with them all.

I’ve already talked about my long struggle with colour schemes for them, and there have been several blog posts over the years that I’ve written that saw me attempting to build an army, only to then become disheartened by the level of detail on them. But, hopefully, no more!

For 9^th edition, the army I think is fairly similar to how it worked in its last incarnation. We still have the army-wide rules of Acts of Faith and Shield of Faith, as well as Sacred Rites. Everything has been ever-so-slightly tweaked, though, so while the names are the same, they don’t always quite do the same things as they used to.

So what do all of these things mean?

Acts of Faith is the biggest one, and has a full page in the codex to explain how it works. At the start of the battle round, you gain 1 miracle dice – you roll a D6 and the result is that miracle dice’s value. Once per phase, a unit can perform an Act of Faith, which basically means you substitute a miracle dice for a single dice in an advance, charge, hit, wound, save or damage roll, or one morale test. So if you rolled a 6 for the miracle dice, you can swap out the meltagun damage roll for that 6, and if you’re shooting from 6” away, that will guarantee you 8 damage against your target – awesome!

In addition to getting that one miracle dice per battle round, you also get one if an enemy unit is destroyed by your army, or if one of your units is wholly destroyed. Almost feels like you might need multiple small units in the army to try to capitalise on that, really! Now, while only one unit per phase can use a miracle dice, any unit that has a Simulacrum Imperialis can perform an Act of Faith even if a unit has already done so. So it’s going to be key to sequence your battle, as you don’t want to find yourself performing an Act of Faith with a unit that includes a Simulacrum before you then need to use it on a unit without!

There are a number of other rules that interact with these things, such as relics and warlord traits that allow specific models to gain one for you and so on. But the feel is very much that these Acts of Faith will be quite rare, and you won’t be subbing out dice left and right – making it feel very much like a clutch moment in the battle (queue angelic choirs, light from above, etc!)

Shield of Faith grants a unit a 6+ invuln save, and also lets you attempt to Deny the Witch with any unit with this rule – you only roll a single dice, but a 6 will always succeed regardless of the Psychic Test result. Sisters hate the Psykers!

Sacred Rites are a series of 6 rules that you can use to affect the course of the battle – you select one and it remains in play, but there are ways to tinker with this as well, including ways to give a specific unit multiple Sacred Rites, which are quite nice. The Sacred Rite that I have chosen for my force is Divine Guidance, which improves the AP by 1 of a ranged attack when you roll an unmodified 6 to wound. Most of my army, as you’ll see, is going to be shooting, so this should be quite useful!

The Orders are still present, with the six Orders Majoris having a suite of special rules, and there are two pages of rules that allow you to make your own Orders. I have gone for the Order of the Sacred Rose, which is the Order that I was using for last edition (and which I had attempted to paint, at one point!) They have the army-wide rules to auto-pass combat attrition tests, and when performing an Act of Faith, you can roll a D6 and on a 4+ you get a miracle dice back. So that could be very useful to keep the supply going! The Sacred Rose stratagem gives you exploding 6s to hit, which is always a favourite rule of mine, so that should also be helpful for several of my units!

Now, there are a lot of rules here, and I think I need to really get some games in with the force before I can properly begin to weigh these up as to their utility. As this goes on, I think it’s possible that stuff will change, whether I look at creating my own Order or move to one of the others, or whether I invest more in those rules that increase my miracle dice, or allow me to really shape the Acts of Faith that I perform. But I need a starting point, so this is what I have chosen!

So this is what I’m building towards. It’s actually not that bad really, the core of the army is coming from the launch box, with a couple of squads being added in to bulk that stuff out. For those of you who may be interested, the contents of that box now come to 470 points (keeping the Canoness upgraded as she is here). I think there is a fairly decent balance among the army at this point, with the big blobs of Battle Sisters posing quite a decent threat, the lighter Novitiates can run about doing whatever I might need of them, objective grabbing or backfield support, the Celestians can help the Canoness get into range and the Retributors can sit on objectives roasting anybody who comes close. The Seraphim can cover the battlefield pretty well, and that just leaves stuff like the Repentia and the Penitent Engine to fill in wherever they may be required.

Let’s have a closer look at some of this stuff, though.

The Canoness, as the star of the show, allows core units within 6” to re-roll hit rolls of 1, and her rod of office extends this ability to core or character units within 12”. She can also improve the invuln save of core units within 6” by 1, so the army-wide 6++ becomes a 5++ for one unit close to her. Core units are obviously the troops, but also the Retributors, Seraphim, Repentia and the Celestians. My plan for the Canoness is to be hanging about with her bodyguard team of Celestians, who are packing a fairly serious punch with the melta weaponry there. The Canoness cannot be targeted while she is within 3” of the Celestians, and they in turn get +1 to hit while they’re within 6” of her. So they have +1 to hit and are re-rolling 1s to hit, which is lovely. But wait! Celestians also have their own stratagem that gives them +1 to hit! Marvellous. Now, there are two boltguns in the team, which are Rapid Fire 1, so that’s fine, but then we have the combi-melta and the meltagun, both Assault 1 weapons firing at S8 AP-4 D6 damage. They have a 12” range, and melta once more means a bonus when within half range, so we’ll be getting fairly close for these things to go off properly. But getting extra close isn’t a horrendous problem because I also have the heavy flamer in there, with 12” range and Heavy D6 shots that auto-hit (so no need for the Canoness this time, but I like the big flamer anyway, so meh) with each one being S6 AP-1 and D1. So big flamer and scary melta should hopefully give people pause before coming after the pair of units. And there is also the stratagem to allow you to make the maximum number of hits on a flame weapon, but if we’re already using a command point for the additional +1 to hit, using 2CP to get 6 flamer shots might seem like overkill.

The Celestians are also the only squad I’m currently giving a Cherub to. These little guys can basically give you a miracle dice once per battle – you roll 2D6 and choose which one you want, and you have to use it on the phase you rolled it otherwise it’s lost. It’s still considered to be an Act of Faith, so you can’t perform two Acts with the unit, but it might be useful, especially if my miracle dice aren’t looking that brilliant!

The Palatine has an aura to allow core units within 6” to re-roll wound rolls of 1, which can sometimes be the more useful of the two abilities, and I think it could be funny if a unit like the Celestians were to cross over within both of these auras, but I don’t think it will be my primary focus for the army. In the main, I’m hoping to get her working alongside one of the big blobs of Sisters. Possibly the second squad, with the meltagun and the heavy bolter, as I think having an expensive unit stuck in melee is always upsetting, but I have given the Palatine a warlord trait for -1CP that will allow a core unit within 6” to fall back and still shoot. The warlord trait, Light of the Divine, also allows her to use any miracle dice as a 6 when performing an Act of Faith, which could prove to be very useful! I’ve upgraded the Palatine’s bolt pistol to the relic, Wrath of the Emperor, which is a slightly punchier pistol as S5 and AP-1, but is also Pistol 4, which is just lovely!

The only problem with pretty much the entire army, though, is that they’re pretty much all Toughness 3, and even the Canoness has 5 wounds. I suppose that’s why things are pretty cheap, though.

Staying with the second Sisters squad for a second, that is a surprisingly expensive unit, though it’s mainly because of all the weaponry I’ve tooled them up with. The condemnor boltgun is almost entirely situational, as it has the option for dishing out mortal wounds to Psykers, but it does make for an interesting combo with the stratagem that adds +1 to hit against a Psyker, so that could be handy! I had originally included a flame weapon in there, because there used to be a fairly hefty focus on the “holy trinity” of bolt, melta and flame weapons (if I remember correctly), but as this is now limited to a single stratagem, which grants +1 to wound when firing these weapons at the same unit, I’ve moved away from that a little. Instead, I have a meltagun with its delightful melta tricks as I’ve already mentioned, then the heavy bolter for three S5 AP-1 D2 hits, and then eight boltgun shots which are all rapid fire 1, so if I’m in range for the meltagun to be firing that’ll be 20 shots coming at the enemy, most of them regular bolts but with enough other bits and pieces going on to cause some chaos, with any luck!

Moving on to the Dialogus, another fairly key unit for the army here. Her aura adds 1 to the leadership of core or character units within 6”, which can be useful, and she has a second aura that allows an Adepta Sororitas unit within 6” to alter one miracle dice by 1, up or down, when performing an Act of Faith. That’s very nice, I have to say! The big change for the Dialogus is that she is now a Priest, and has the Chaplain-like prayers that she can intone during the Command Phase. (The Dogmata model is also a Priest, and I do fancy getting one of those at some point). She knows War Hymn, which grants +1 attack to core, character and engine units within 6”, so the Penitent Engine gets some love from that, and I’ve given her Refrain of Blazing Piety, which allows her to dish out D3 mortal wounds to an enemy unit within 12” (3 mortal wounds if that unit is Chaos). She’s otherwise not very durable, so I think having the attack prayer could be of more use to her than being a blessing battery for the army, though there is something to be said about providing target saturation for the opponent, and forcing them to not know whether it’s best to attack the annoying unit or the unit making everything else more annoying.

The Repentia are one of my melee options in the list, and will hopefully be dishing out 8 attacks at S6 AP-3 D2 each, though their massive chainsaws are -1 to hit. So they’re hitting on 4s unfortunately, which is always a bit of a downer for a melee unit. They have the Zealot rule, though, which allows them to re-roll the hit roll on the charge, and the Repentia Superior allows them (and herself) to advance and charge, and she grants them +1 to wound when they are within 6”. They also have a 5+ feel no pain save, which should help to keep them alive when they’re being targeted, but otherwise there’s little hope for them – they’re very much a cheap unit that should be able to deal out some damage before crumpling like a wet paper bag as there isn’t much in the way of stratagems to keep them going.

The Sisters Novitiates are my other melee focused squad, and they have quite a good profile for the scout equivalents in the list! There are eight models who have Novitiate melee weapons, which grant an additional attack (so that’s 16 attacks for these girls), and they get +1 attack on the charge, so 24 attacks coming at the enemy, granted they’re on 4s to hit, and will likely be 4s to wound with no AP, but that’s quite something! The Novitiate Superior also has a power sword, so she’s making 2 attacks of her own at -3AP, which is helpful! They also all have pistols for the following shooting phase, whoever survives the fight back. In a way, it’s a shame that the full range of Kill Team upgrades doesn’t get rules, but I suppose having a scout with a Condemnor Boltgun, for instance, or a scout version of the Dialogus, might be a bit odd, but surely they could have allowed Scout Dialogus access to just War Hymn, and it only affects her unit? Hm.

Maybe for the 10^th edition Codex…

For now, however, this is what I am looking to build towards. I still have stuff like the second Battle Sisters squad, and the Celestians, to build, and I still need to paint an awful lot of this stuff, but I think it’s all slowly coming together. I’m on such a high with the Sisters right now, though, that I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a decent amount of stuff painted for the army before I get distracted by something else!

Looking even further ahead, I am considering a Dominion Squad, as I will have five Sisters left from the Celestians box (unless I just bulk up the Celestians to 10), and I think I would like to get one of the tanks built. I have a lot of stuff for the Sisters still to build, such as the Exorcist and the Immolator, a couple of Penitent Engines, another Seraphim squad, the Triumph, a box of Repentia and an Imagifier. I’m trying not to go too crazy here though, because I think there is a bit of a balance that needs to be struck with the force – there are a lot of units available for it, almost too many. I’ve not really thought this about any other force, but the Elites slot in particular has become really top-heavy now that Command Squads have been sundered. I wonder if that would ever change, and allow us to bring them back into a single unit? As it stands, the Dialogus and Hospitaller can be included without taking up a slot, but the Imagifier doesn’t have that luxury. Hm.

I would like to focus more on having significant units, rather than the smaller units (which kinda goes counter to the point above about gaining miracle dice) which can sometimes be difficult to keep track of. I definitely want to keep it primarily Sisters-focused, so I don’t want to get into Death Cult Assassins and Priests and so forth. I think it should look really nice, having Battle Sisters and the smaller squads like Celestians and Retributors, and then having some of the tanks in support as well. While I said I didn’t want to go crazy buying anything, I am considering getting either some of those Paragon Warsuits, or some of those Celestians with shields, who look nice for a melee option.

Something that I’ve long wanted to try is adding in Thaddeus the Purifier from the Blackstone Fortress game, as the model is so cool and I think would make a really nice addition. That always felt a bit too difficult with the old book, however, but the Missionary HQ option seems almost made for him now, having the correct wargear and so forth, even if the picture used for the codex entry is of the old metal model. The rules are also somewhat clearer, as well, in that now everything has the Adeptus Ministorum keyword, so his aura ability will cross over to cover the Battle Sisters squad (though given that his leadership is the same as a Sister Superior, I don’t think it would ever be necessary). I’m not sure if the last book was the same, but I remember having the feeling that building an army for Sisters in 8^th edition felt a bit like a tough prospect, and it always struck me as a bit difficult to actually make things work. The new 9^th edition book feels a lot better in this regard, which has made me pleased!

Anyway, for now, this is my entirely too-long blog post about my current obsession for 40k, the Sisters of Battle!

Well folks, I didn’t quite expect this project to go as well as it did!

Last weekend, I decided to try again with the Sisters of Battle, and stripped the paint from those ten Battle Sisters who had, god love them, been through the mill with at least 2-3 colour schemes, individually. I then thought I’d try out a new scheme again, using as test models some of those from the multi-part kit. However, the paint stripped off so beautifully from those original ten that I’ve decided to keep going with those, and I think by Thursday I had produced my three test models!

These really were quite good, and the scheme didn’t seem to be entirely too onerous to complete. Grey armour and purple cloth, with grey guns and grey bases. Very grim-dark, I think. That’s really what I wanted, as well – I think there’s something rather majestic about the classic black-and-red scheme with pure white details, but when it comes to thinking about actual warriors in the 41st millennium, those guys and girls have got it really tough. I think the fairly muted scheme really reflects this, too, which is nice!

I really didn’t expect to do all ten – indeed, after doing the three testers, I thought I might do three more, and continue on quietly like this, but actually it made more sense to just try and do the whole squad, at this point. It was a bit of a scramble to get them all finished last night, but I’d got to the point where there were just a small handful of details left, then the rims of the bases…

I’m really happy with them, anyway, and having finished the whole squad in a week (a few days, really), I think this bodes really well for the future of the army.

But painting up more Sisters of Battle hasn’t been the only thing I’ve done – I’ve also been building the Novitiates from the Kill Team box that came out a while ago! These girls are primarily melee focused, so they will fit in with the general feel of my army I think, and the models really are quite spectacular. I definitely want to get another box of these at some point, so I can get all the fancy models built as well as some more of the bread-and-butter troops. Going with melee options fits in with my idea for having them as almost zealots keen to prove themselves in battle, rather than equipping them with the autoguns.

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I have plenty of stuff built up already for the army, however, so I need to make sure I’m not going to be getting too far ahead of myself with building yet more units. I want to keep going with painting more models for the force, so I think my next move might be the Seraphim squad, because it really bothers me that they are just floating around without bases. I might do a character or two as well, so that I can get ahead on that front a bit, too. 10 models doesn’t seem to have been that cumbersome to deal with, all told, so I think 6 or 7 should definitely be fine!

Famous last words…

Hey everybody,
Welcome back to the second part of my Codex deep-dive into the Sisters of Battle, this time looking across the wider suite of rules n the book and seeing what I can make with the models that I have.

Last time, I was looking at the army-wide rules and how they all fit in with what the army is trying to accomplish. Now, I’ve started to re-work my list ideas into something that I will have to aim for, without trying to get too far ahead of myself, of course! There’s always the danger of running away with myself when doing this sort of thing – building a load of models up, and then feeling overwhelmed by it all! I’ve moved away from the initial list that I had made,

I’m aiming for 1500 points, though I don’t want to worry just yet about how I will fill all of this. I mean, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be getting more troops, of course, and with the new releases on their way I want to keep my options open for what new stuff I’ll be sprinkling in.

I’m playing Order of the Sacred Rose, as I’ve said before. The rules for this Order Conviction are:
– no more than one model can flee when a Morale test is failed;
– regain one Miracle die on a 5+ after performing an Act of Faith;
– Overwatch attacks hit on a 5 or 6.

In addition to the usual relics and warlord traits on offer, there is a stratagem for the Order that allows for hit rolls of 6 during Overwatch to score 1 additional hit. Wonderful stuff!

Let’s start at the top, anyway, with the Canoness. The warlord trait that I have chosen is Light of the Emperor, the Sacred Rose specific trait that allows for the warlord to gain one Miracle die after performing an Act of Faith, with no roll needed. The relic she has merely improves the damage output of the blessed blade from D3 to a flat 3. I’m not really sure how to use the model yet though, as I’m always a bit wary of throwing my warlord into the thick of things, but there are a number of stratagems that can protect characters – and even bring them back from the dead, if need be!

I’m intending to run the Canoness around with her bodyguard unit of Celestians, anyway. The squad has a slightly better stat line than the basic Sisters squad, though both units can equip one heavy weapon and one special weapon, or two special weapons. They have a better WS, and more attacks, which could be seen as making the case for equipping the Celestian Superior with a fancier weapon, but the chainsword is always a solid option for granting one additional attack! I’m going for a general theme of having my Sisters preferring melta weaponry, so the squad has a meltagun and an inferno pistol in there. However, there is also the heavy flamer, and three bolt guns, meaning that it is a viable target for the Holy Trinity stratagem, which gives +1 to wound if flamer, melta and bolt weaponry all fire at the same target. In addition, Celestians can re-roll hit rolls while within 6″ of a character model, so I think it’ll be good to keep them close to the Canoness!

Let’s talk about close combat now. I said before that I’m planning to have the core of the army reflective of the launch box for the new army, so I’ve worked in the squad of Sisters Repentia with the Repentia Superior to chivvy them along. The elite slot is really heavy in a Sisters army, though the Repentia Superior doesn’t count in it while she comes alongside a group of penitents. However, when I start wanting to expand into the Dialogus et al, I think I’m going to need a new detachment!

The Repentia can re-roll wound rolls of 1 when within 6″ of the Superior. They also have the Zealot rule, which allows them to re-roll hit rolls if they charged or were charged that phase. So there are definitely options to improve their accuracy. 8 attacks in the squad, at S6 AP-3 and 2 damage each, togged up with these re-rolls, should be quite nice! The Repentia also have their own stratagem, Final Redemption – when the unit is being attacked, each time a model is destroyed, you get to inflict a mortal wound on the attacking unit on a 4+. There is also the option, for 3CP, to get the unit to fight again at the end of the fight phase, which may also be useful!

The arco-flagellants are one of the ecclesiarchy battle conclave units that are allowed in the army. They also have the Zealot rule, and have a unique stratagem, Extremis Trigger Word. This one is interesting, because the regular group of three – two flagellants and an endurant – has a base 7 attacks. However, for each attack, you make D3 hit rolls, and the stratagem makes that a flat 3. So 7 attacks, making three hit rolls each – 21 dice, at S5 AP-1 and 1 damage each… oh yes! The only downside to this is that you must then roll a D6 for each model, and on a 6, they die.

The group of Retributors that I’ve recently put together is made up of a pair each of multi-meltas and heavy bolters, with the Retributor Superior has a combi-plasma and power maul. I’m still not a big fan of the Superior’s pose, it looks incredibly awkward somehow, but anyway. Retributor Squads also have a unique stratagem, which costs 2CP and allows you to choose an effect depending on the weapon load out – +1 to hit for a heavy bolter OR re-roll the wound roll for a heavy flamer OR +12″ to the range of all multi-meltas and +1 damage for a multi-melta. Having a pair of multi-meltas, I think I’ll probably be using it for them, as the range increase will mean the melta effect will kick in within 18″, but will still give them the same range of the heavy bolters.

I’ve got the Penitent Engine in here for some added threat – it’s not a particularly big model, if I’m honest, though it’s bigger than anything else in this line-up, armed with a pair of heavy flamers and capable of 5 S8 attacks at AP-3. Very nice, but I do worry about it getting stuck in with only being T5 at 5 wounds. There’s very little to bolster it, being an Adeptus Ministorum unit, though the same 3CP stratagem as the Repentia have does apply to the Engines as well, allowing them to fight twice.

Something that I’ve been backwards and forwards on multiple times, though, is the Dominion squad. The purpose of these girls has eluded me for a while, flicking casually through the Codex, but it’s clear that their intended purpose is to move up the board as quickly as possible to maximise on positioning, and then either objective-camp with their fancy weapons, or aggressively go after a choice target. They really are a special weapon showcase, being able to take four of them per squad. On the competitive scene, the go-to load-out seems to be four storm bolters, to use the Blessed Bolts stratagem. For 1CP, you can make storm bolters AP-2 and D2 each. That’s pretty good, although I find it a bit boring to equip the squad entirely the same, you know? So I’ve added in some meltagun girls because they’re going to be moving significantly, anyway – the melta effect comes into play at 6″, but even at their maximum range of 12″, that’ll put the storm bolters into rapid fire range for some serious threat.

I would just like to point out, as well, that the Battle Sisters box, which can also be used to build Dominions and Celestians, comes with four of each special weapon, so you don’t get shafted if you’re trying to build them as Dominions. Excellent stuff, there!

Of course, as with a lot of the ranged units in the force, there are a few targets for specific stratagems that I’ve mentioned; the Sacred Rose-specific The Emperor’s Judgement allowing for exploding hits on 6s in Overwatch will be useful for a variety of units, after all. Blessed Bolts can be used by the regular Battle Sisters, one of whom has a storm bolter, etc.

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I think this is going to be a good start to the army, though of course with a new Codex on the way, who knows how any of this will hold over? Yesterday, I was reading the latest Battle Sister Bulletin that began to tease new rules for the army, giving us six battle hymns that we can have a priest sing at the start of the turn. It reminded me a lot of Canticles of the Omnissiah for the Adeptus Mechanicus, though I suppose the Prayers to the Dark Gods from the Heretic Astartes might be more appropriate. These priests can provide some very nice aura effects, such as causing auto-hits on 6s for bolt weapons fired by a unit within 6″, or to shut down any psykers attempting to manifest powers at a nearby unit. Very powerful, that one, and what I find more interesting is that the Dialogus is now seemingly classed as a priest, herself – as well as the new Dogmata model.

I know not everybody likes the new model, but I can certainly see a place for her with these hymns being on the horizon!

At any rate, I’ve got plenty to be getting along with here, so hopefully I can make a concerted effort to get painting these models next! We’ve got a long weekend coming up, and it’ll soon be time for my May retrospective, so keep an eye out for some progress on the Battle Sisters, soon!!