Sisters of Battle Rumour Thoughts

Ello,

Today I thought I'd run through the Sisters of Battle WD Codex rumours that have been floating around for a bit. Most people know them and / or have read them on BOLS / Elsewhere, but I was looking at my Brotherhood of the Forge army last night and wondered where this is going to leave me now...

 

I'm pasting the rumours from BloodofKittens HERE and HERE and I'll intersperse with my thoughts in.

• Allies gone
• Inquisition gone
• Faith streamlined
• USRs updated to 5th
• Cheaper Unit costs

As most people have said, these are the obvious things to happen.

Allies going is good. I don't mind if the codex has it's own Guardsmen rules or whatever else (highly unlikely) but the system of sharing between Codexes was a pain. Although it was pretty nice when you're starting the army, to be able to ally it into your Marines or Imperial Guard.

I'm a bit upset with the loss of the Inquisition, I really enjoyed using the Inquisitors and their Henchmen - hopefully it doesn't mean the removal of Zealots as well. I really wanted to make a unit of them!

Faith getting streamlined is something I never had a problem with, but I can understand where people had confusion upon reading the codex. All fine by me really, anything that makes it a bit more obvious to the opponent and also means no keeping track of dead models. It's always a fixed roll.

USRs updated and cheaper unit costs are just bringing it into line with 5th ed. The amount of unclear wordings or old terminology from older books, can sometimes cause an issue, or newer rules have done them over.

 Faith

The only thing that really stays the same is only faith producing units can use faith. Gone is the over and under rules based on model count and gone is faith powers that everyone can use.  It is replaced with every unit has its own unit specific act of faith to call upon. 

I did like the unit size rules as it made you think more about the squad size you were taking, as an example, Retributors in the old book trying to get the rending was much easier if you took a 10 man squad, rather than a 5 - as you had to roll under (if I remember right...) the number in the squad. I don't mind either way really

 So for instance Repentia Act of Faith allows them to always land an attack even if they are killed before they can swing. They are little bonuses like re-rolling to wound and hit, no USRs. Now this if fine and dandy if you just pop a faith point and bam! power goes off, but not so fast. Acts of Faith require that you roll 5+ to activate . This makes faith much more unreliable… maybe. In addition every unit that can get faith generates 1d6 faith points per turn. This also means that a new faith pool is generated each turn with no storing of past faith. As well faith can be activated in multiple phases of the game, so for instance you can re-roll to hit in your shooting phase or in your assault phase.

A straight 5+ roll, (which I'd imagine that Imagifiers would give a re-roll to), sounds not too great. Depending how many dice you can chuck at it, obviously. With the sound of a "Faith Pool" similar to Fantasy Magic, I would imagine you can chuck multiple dice and it's not so bad. At least every unit has a chance on 1D6 to get their power off.

I'm in two minds about this however, I did like having to think tactically about where to spend my points across the enter 5 to 7 turns and having a finite amount. I do agree this way is easier to keep track of, but yeah. Not bad, just different.

Random tidbits

• All Faith generating units get +6 invul save
• All units that can get transports get Immolators or Rhinos
• Assassins gone (Death Cult still in)
• Wargear with the same names as GK wargear stay and get changed over. (e.g. Psybolt Ammo)
• Karamazov gone
• Priests in, pretty much same as before.
• No change to the general Bolter, Melta, Flame concept of the Sisters

Invulnerable saves are never anything to be sniffed at. Although I wonder what this means for their Psychic defence?

The Immolators / Rhino dedicated transport options sounds pretty good, it's similar to the Razorback / Venom small unit or a Raider / Rhino for a bigger squad options we've seen about.

I'm glad at least that Death Cult stayed. I'd got 3 of them painted up ready to use. I would have liked to have the option for an actual assassin however.

Wargear I'm not too fussed over, it's one of those things that needs doing.

Karamazov I'm gutted over. I really wanted to convert a Brotherhood version of him.

Sisters have about 5 HQ choices including Special Characters
St. Celestine: Same price as a Grand Master you get 2+/+4 saves, WS/BS 7 Jump Pack, Fleet, Power Weapons always wounds on 4+   Has the power to come back like GK Thawn if killed.

Sounds good, pretty in line with what's already there now, just dependant on what wargear she has (blessed weapon, flamer, etc.) and if there's any additional special rules like leadership bonuses and whatnot.

Confessor: Takes the slot of the old Inquisitors. Cheap HQ (Warboss). Can create a henchman band using most of the henchman found in the GK codex. What makes the Confessor extra deadly is the ability for it to re-roll hits and wounds for her and the squad. This is the translation of the rumor matrix. So think for one second about her and the Death Cult together?

I guess I've just found what my Inquisitor model will now become. Time to start thinking about how to convert the Henchmen. With the last codex I really wanted an Inquisitor leading a retinue of all Crusaders (I'm thinking of Dwarf Shieldbearers) but that fell by the wayside when I read the "Max 3 of each" line.

Repentia: Cheaper close to SM cost. FNP, Rage, Fearless, 6+ invul, no transports

Good. I love the Repentia, I just want more and cheaper. Start thinking about getting another box of Dwarf Miners now then...

Battle Sister Squad: Cheaper 10-20 unit size (no combat squads), but has access to Immolators which begs the question… Immolators either get increased transport capacity or Sisters break the rules concerning model count and buying transports. Multiple acts of faith.

As people have pointed out here, this 10-20 unit size causes issue with the Immolator capacity. I'm hoping that maybe the 10-20 is a mistake and it's actually 5-20, meaning 5 sisters in the Immolator. Glad to see they're cheaper (although it means I need to make more...)

Exocists: Pretty much same as before.

If they aren't broke, don't try to fix them. What I would like is maybe a Blast firing option, even as a paid for extra.

What is not in the Codex

• Repressors 
• Arbites

Booooooo! I wanted Judge Dredds and the Repressors would have been a really nice new vehicle, just for some variation.

Canoness: Here is my special shout out to the Canoness: you are terrible. I mean grossly underpowered. Now this is going to sound like a cop-op, but I am not going into details because my hope is that she will be changed before release. It just sounds and looks like she is an unfinished product. She gets her own retinue that cannot do anything; she starts out cheap, but her upgrades are expensive and lame when you compare to everything else. So here is hoping to GW getting her fixed.

Not too great. I was hoping that maybe even if she wasn't too good, that she'd unlock a Celestian squad (or all) as Troops, to get people to consider taking them. Hopefully will get more info on why exactly she's terrible.

Repentia: Forgot to mention they have fleet

Excellent. Might mean they actually get across the board without being mown down, and provide more of an unpredictable threat.

Celastians: Cheaper than a Marine, but not really anything going for them (that I know of)… extra attack. Re-roll hits for act of faith

There goes my Imagifier theory.. Damn. Hopefully they'd be able to take some cool items or weapons?

Sister Battle Squad: Can still get a Heavy Flamer

Good news I guess. I never used them, preferred the cheaper Flamer / Melta option.

Shraphim: They are pretty amazing. Cheaper than a Space Marine you get a Jump Packing, Hit and Running, and an act of faith that has them re-rolling wounds. You can also upgrade them to run with double hand flamers and melta pistols. They act both as an extra close combat weapon and become assault 2 instead of being twin-linked. So that means Assault 2 melta weapons.

So in other words, no change to how popular they are nowadays. Assault 2 rather than twin-linked is a bit swings and roundabouts really. It does mean you might get 2 Melta shots, rather than 1 pretty good chance of getting 1.

Dominion Squads: Still get 4 special weapons. Act of Faith twin-linked.

Never really bothered using them because they weren't scoring unit. I can see the benefit for them in an Immolator, hopping out with 4 meltas to trash something but other than that I wasn't sold. We'll see.

Retributor Squads: Pretty fantastic. CHEAP! Talking under Long Fang cheap to fully kit out. Expect the return of the Heavy Bolter with these. Act of Faith is Rending.

These were one of my favourite units in the current codex. As soon as I read the act of faith for ignoring armour saves on a 6, I wanted 4 Heavy Bolters to try and waste through a Marine unit or other such. I'm glad that their act of faith in the new book is actual Rending, now it means everyone will be jumping on the Heavy Bolter fun.

Penitent Engines: Again fantastic. Same statline (Walker). No Scout or Infiltrate. Cheaper and can be a squadron aka 9 Engines. They still get the 1D6 attacks, but any wounds generate additional attacks (don’t know if they work like Blood Talons). 6+ Invul (don’t know if they generate faith)

I like Penitent engines, in the last book it was just a shame you couldn't take more (and that the models were expensive and weighed a ton...) but it was always my intention to take some. I figured with the rumours of a new book and updated models (and Finecast changes) I'd hang fire on these guys for the time being. I'd really like at least 1 unit of them in my force though. I love the idea of the walkers going mental. I'd also like if they did an upgrade character for these, like a Priest Overseer, allowing them re-rolls or 1 mob to be a Troop choice.

So that's it folks... Took me a while to compile and comment on them, but overall I'm really excited (as with any new Codex!) and I'm glad to see a WD update. I know a lot of people have got up in arms over it, but I'm beyond caring. Any update is a good update, in my opinion.

Thanks to Blood of Kittens for the rumours initially.

Peace,
SB