Monday, May 29, 2017

8th Ed Sisters of Battle Revealed



Sisters of Battle are one of those factions that many people care a lot about. So are you concerned about what will happen to them in the new edition of Warhammer 40,000? I am, so lets see what in store for Sisters fans everywhere.


While this is not out yet, it comes from a good source who has been obviously waiting for Sisters of Battle to come back and be good. There is a review of what he read afterwards, and is of course his own opinion (since I have not yet seen any of this personally) at this point of the game.

via sent in from someone who apparently has seen the new Index.

Hey, as Sisters of Battle are the only force worth mentioning here are some 
changes made to the army:

The Sisters have been "half split" into 2 parts: Adeptus Ministorum and 
Adepta Sororitas

Units have a "Order" key word, this keyword represents the name 
of your Order (Chapter for you Spheezee Mehreene players) and can be 
changed to whatever you like. Example would be "Order of Expensive Metal 
Models We WANT PLASTIC!". This would change the Canoness Lead the 
Righteous ability to say "You can re-roll all hit rolls of 1 for 
friendly Order of Expensive Metal Models We WANT PLASTIC! units within 
6" of this model.

Acts of Faith
Roll a D6 at the start of each of your turns. On a roll of 2+, one unit 
from your army with the Acts of Faith ability can perform an Act of 
Faith chosen from the following list. Som abilities may allow you to use 
more than on Act of Faith in the same turn; when this is the case, a 
different unit must be chosen to perform each Act of Faith.

First glance impressons: We are back to the White Dwarf of uselessness 
with an Act of Faith system that does not scale with larger armies.
1D6 per 500pts (whatever that is in power points) would be better or 
with the new acts of faith allowing a unit to use any of them once per game.
An army ability should be powerful and represent the army, one unit per 
turn out of 5 is decent, one out of 10 is meh and beyond is bad.
You can do more than one AoF per turn though, more on this later.

Hand of the Emperor: The unit can immediately move as if it were the 
Movement phase.
Divine Guidance: The unit can immediately shoot as if it were the 
Shooting phase.
The Passion: The unit can, if it is within 1" of an enemy unit, 
immediately pile in and attack as if it were the Fight phase.
Spirit of the Martyr: One model in the unit recovers D3 lost wounds, or 
you can return a single slain model to the unit with 1 wound remaining.

First glance impressions: Interesting but very lacking, Divine Guidance 
is the new Twin-Linked and The Passion seems pretty meh/useless to be 
honest (haven't played a game though nor read the full rulebook yet. Got 
that next to me and will flip through it tonight.)
I would have liked to see one that gives +1 To Hit with all attacks 
until your next turn, or all attacks auto hit for this turn.
Divine Intervention could have been all models get an Invulnerable save 
equal to their armor save like they had in 3E Witch Hunter codex or even 
make it so no attack could lower the armor save of models in the unit 
for a game turn.
The Passion could have been a unit can move D6 and if within 1" of enemy 
models charge them.
Hand of the Emperor could have been good for assault if transports had 
the Acts of Faith ability, then you could move the vehicle and then 
during your movement phase disembark and later assault.

Shield of Faith: 6+ Inv save and can deny one psychic power in each 
enemy psychic phase in the same manner as a psyker but on D6 instead of 2D6.

Zealot: re-roll failed to hit rolls in a turn which the unit charged, 
made a heroic intervention or was charged by an enemy unit.

Uriah Jacobus: 5power
4++
Banner of Sanctity: +1Ld to ministorum and AM units within 6"

All Priests
4++
M6"
War Hymns: You can add 1 to the Attack characteristics of all friendly 
Ministorum and astra militarum infantry within 6" of any friendly 
ministorum priest.

Crusaders: 1power for 2 models, 5power for 10
M6" WS3 S3 A2
Zealot
Acts of Faith: This is new

Death Cult Assassins: 1power for 2, 5 for 10
M7" WS3 S4 A4
5+ 5++
Zealot
Death Cult Power blades are AP -2, power swords are -3 which they do NOT 
have anymore

Arco-Flagellants
M7" WS3 S4 A2
7+5++
Zealot
Arco flails: +1S and D3 attacks instead of 1. So this means 2D3 for each 
Arco at S5 - They could have just made the model S5 unless this is 
future proofing for plastic Arco-Flagellants with other weapon options.

Penitent Engine: 6power for 1, 18 for 3
M7" WS3 S5 T6 W7 A4 Ld8 4+
Zealot
Desperate for Redemption: Roll a D6 after completing the first set of 
attacks for units of Penitent Engines in each Fight phase. On a roll of 
4+, the unit can immediately pile in and attack for a second time.
Penitent Buzz-Blades S2x Ap-3 Damage 3
First glance impressions: Pretty good from the look of things. Got to 
love Desperate for Redemption. Does this prove GW reads dexes sent to 
them? I read a wishlisting dex by MadCowCrazy and it had an ability with 
the exact same name for the Penitent Engine and Sisters Repentia though 
it basically forced them to deploy and scout move as close to the 
opponent as possible during setup.


Adepta Sororitas section
Fluff notice: "So it was that the Sisters of Battle were recruited by 
the millions, their orders rising from the flames of cataclysm (age of 
apostasy) that saw the Imperium all but devour itself.
For those that don't know GW killed of 99.999999% of all sisters in an 
earlier Sisters codex, stating that there were just the primary orders 
and they contained some 10 000 sisters each and nothing else. So sisters 
have gone from millions to less than 100,000 and now back to millions.
Technically it should be billions but GW and numbers....

Celestine: 8power +3 per geminae of 2 max
12" 2+2+3+3+7 6 9 2+ 4++
Bacon of Faith: +1 Shield of Faith Inv 6" bubble, Astra militarum and 
ministorum gain 6+ inv save. Yeah yeah, it's Beacon of Faith but she is 
just so delicious.
The Armour of Saint Katherine: 4++ for her and Geminae
Saintly Blessings: Unit within 6+ can perform an Act of Faith.
Healing Tears: Resurrect 1 geminae at start of each movement phase
Miraculous Intervention: Resurrection of Celestine once per game with 
full wounds.

Canoness:4 points
6" 2+ 2+ 3 3 5 4 9 3+4++
Now has Rosarius as standard
Lead the Righteous mentioned above
Can't take jump pack

Imagifier: 2pts
6" 3+ 3+ 3 3 4 3 8 3+
AoF,  SoF (Shield of Faith)
Simulacrum Imperialis: D6 start of turn on 4+ unit within 6" can perform 
Act of Faith
First glance impressions: This is GWs "fix" to the problem of Acts of 
Faith not scaling with larger armies. You basically need to spam these 
models around and pray you roll a 4+. Doesn't this turn Sisters into a 
gunline army instead of a mid/close shooty army?

Hospitaller: 2pts
6" 4+ 3+ 3 3 4 2 8 3+
Chirurgeons tools S user -1AP
Aof, SoF
Healer: End of movement. Adepta Sororitas Infantry unit within 3", roll 
D6. On 4+ one model recovers D3 lost wounds (IG medipack recovers 1 
wound), if no wounded 1 slain model can be returned to the unit with 1 
wound. A unit can only be targeted once per turn.

Dialogus: 1pts
6" 4+ 3+ 3 3 4 2 8 6+
Dialogus staff +1S -1To Hit
6" Adepta Sororitas re-roll morale bubble

Battle Sisters: 4pts per 5 up to 15
6" 4+ 3+ 3 3 1 1 7 3+
Same as before, so no benefit in taking more than 5 models because you 
can only take 2 special or 1 special 1 heavy per unit instead of per 5 
models.

Seraphim: 4pts per 5 up to 10
12" 3+ 3+ 3 3 1 1 7 3+
Same as before

Celestian: 5pts per 5 up to 10
6" 3+ 3+ 3 3 1 2 8 3+
2 special or 1 special 1 heavy per UNIT
Bodyguard: Character within 3" transfers a wound to unit on 2+, this 
wound becomes a Mortal Wound

Mistress of Repentance: 2pts
6" 3+ 3+ 3 3 4 3 8 3+
Neural Whips S User, -2AP Damage1 Add 1 to the wound rolls for attacks 
made with this weapon if the target unit's highest LD is less than 8 
excluding vehicles. Does this mean the attack does +1Damage, +1 damage 
dice or do you get +1 on to wound rolls?
Driven Onwards: re-roll advance, charge and hit rolls for friendly 
Repentia within 6" of this model.

Repentia Squad:3 per 3 up to 9
6" 3+ 3+ 3 3 1 2 8 7+
Penitent Eviscerator SX2 -2AP Damage 2 -1 To Hit
So their Eviscerator is worse than a normal one with -4AP
Aof, SoF

Retributor Squad:  6pts +4 for 5more models
6" 4+ 3+ 3 3 1 1 7 3+
Same as before, max 4 heavy weapons per unit so no point taking more models.
Aof, SoF

Dominion: 5 + 4 for 5 more models
Same as above but 4 special weapons
AoF, SoF
Vanguard: After deployment, before first turn, move as in movement 
phase. If all models inside transport has this rule then transport may 
move instead.

Rhino and Immolator
T7 W10

Exorcist T8 W12

Points costs:
Arco 15
Battle Sisters 9
Canoness 45
Celestian 11
Crusaders 11
Death Cult 17
Dialogus 15
Dominion 10
Exorcist 160
Hospitaller 30
Imagifier 40
Immolator 68
Priest 35
Mistress of Repentance 35
Penitent Engine 55 - I thought WOW at first glance then realized the 
mode costs 95pts... scroll down...
Repentia 17
Retributor 9
Seraphim 11
Sororitas Rhino 73

Celestine 150
-Geminae Superia 50each
Uriah Jacobus 100

Melee weapons, if weapon isn't mentioned it's points cost is 0
Eviscerator 22 for S6 Ap -4, SM costs 22pts for S8 Ap -4 why does it cost the same!!!!
 Either make is S8 for everyone or lower the pts 
costs for S3 models!!!
Neural Whips 3 - Only reason I can think of that it's weapons has a 
points cost is future proofing for a plastic model with other weapon 
options.
Penitent buzz-blades 40 - Only reason I can think of that it's weapons 
has a points cost is future proofing for a plastic model with other 
weapon options.
Power axe 5
Power Maul 4
Power Sword 4

Ranged Weapons, if weapon isn't mentioned it's points cost is 0
Combi - flamer 11 melta 19 plasma 15
Condemnor boltgun 1 - Same as a regular bolter but D3 damage vs psykers
Flamer 9
Hand Flamer 6
Heavy Bolter 10
Heavy Fmaler 17
Hunter killer missile 6
Immolation Flamer 35
Inferno pistol 12
Meltagun 17
Plasma gun 13 pistol 7
Storm Bolter 4
Twin Heavy bolter 17
Twin multi-melta 54


Review from the source.
As a long time sisters player and collector I expected to be 
disappointed and I was pretty much right. I haven't played any 8E games 
and will read the main rules next but at first glance it seems they 
didn't balance this army as much as was needed. Probably because play 
testers had no idea how sisters work or what's wrong with them. Not many 
people play or collect sisters, would have been nice if someone 
passionate from the community had playtested them and pointed out the 
problems.

Here are what comes to mind at first glance:
Faith system: Feels pretty meh, not enough Acts of Faith and as always 
they aren't balanced against each other. Divine Guidance is the one that 
will get picked 95% of the time. Sisters have basically been turned into 
a gunline army where you stay back and hope your Imagifiers can give 
units an Act of Faith.
If each unit could perform an act of faith once per game on a 2+ then 
you'd have a reason to run forwards and hope to get it off.
Now there is a 50/50 chance unless you use your Army or Celestine 
ability on a key unit. 1 free per turn works wonders on few units and I 
wouldn't be surprised at all to see people take single auxilliary units 
of Dominions or Retributors to get a double shooting unit each turn.
Hand of the Emperor would be good if it had the clause: If all models in 
a transport has the Acts of Faith keyword then the transport may perform 
the move instead. Similar to how Vanguard works.

Some more interesting ones like Divine Intervention models get inv save 
equal to armour save or attacks can't reduce the armour save of the unit 
for 1 turn or no more than 1 wound can be afflicted by each attack 
instead of D6 or whatever.
The Passion is the worst one for many reasons, sisters suck in combat 
being the main one. What unit would you want to use this with? Repentia 
and Crusaders seems to be the most viable options. But you can use it in 
desperation I hear you say, or I can use another unit to shoot twice.
D6 movement and then assault, heck allow a unit to assault from a 
transport that has move would have been better.
Sisters are all about sacrifice so why not such an Act of Faith? Allows 
you to shoot into close combat but misses hit your own models, auto hit 
would be failed to wound rolls are allocated to your own models.

I take it we can expect to see a 3 character combo box like the 
Genestealer cult got, this time with Imagifier, Hospitaller and Dialogus.
Laud Hailer could be so much more than just re-roll morale as well. It 
plays the warhymns of the Ecclesiarchy after all. So why allow units to 
move, run and then shoot, or instead of D6 run get double movement. 
Bonus for assault of some sort. Laud hailers on vehicles could allow the 
unit to assault after disembarking from a transport that has moved. This 
could be a very interesting Laud Hailer, that you could put sororitas 
units in any transport, move it, then disembark and charge.

It's really good to see that most Sister Superiors can take Eviscerators 
again, they lost that ability in the WD, digital and Imperial Agents book.
Now Superiors from Battle Sister, Celestian, Retributor and Dominions 
can take weapons from the Melee weapon list which includes the 
Eviscerator and I didn't see any stars that prevents that.

Also happy to see that Hospitallers are better healers than a guardman 
with a medi-pack.

Really happy to see the Sisters now number in the millions instead of 
less than 100,000.
Penitent Engines seem good. A Dreadnought is 6" 3+ 3+ 6 7 8 4 8 3+ for 
70pts vs M7" 3+ 5+ S5 T6 W7 A4 Ld8 4+ for 95pts
Interesting thing is that Dreadnoughts can explode when reduced to 0 
wounds, Penitent Engines can not.
Here is the problem with GW and points costs, ranged units are almost 
always cheaper than close combat units. It should be the other way 
around since a close combat unit has to do just that, get close, which 
means they will be a priority target. The Dreadnought is cheaper, has 
the same number of attacks even though it only has 1 DCCW, has a better 
save, more S, T and W, on top of this is comes with an assault cannon 
and storm bolter, smoke launcher as well if you count that. All this and 
it's 25pts cheaper, the thing Penitent Engine has is the Desperate for 
Redemption rule which is the most powerful rule I've seen so far and 1" 
more movement. So at a glance I would have expected the Dreadnought to 
be more expensive since it's superior in all ways except for the 
Desperate for Redemption rule and 1" less movement.

Most of the codex seems decent, only time will tell if I'm wrong and 
sisters are still complete shit compared to everything else.

Some wishlisting: Allow any model to exchange the boltgun for a bolt 
pistol so that all Adepta Sororitas models could dual wield pistols.
Change per unit to per 5 models on the number of special and heavy 
weapons a unit can carry, sisters only have access to the holy trinity 
of bolter, flamer and melta so it'd make sense if they had more of them 
than anyone else.
Allow Seraphims to take 1 hand flamer and 1 inferno pistol, give them 
the rule that if they can wound a transport vehicle they can also flame 
anyone inside.
Make Loud Hailers more interesting than re-roll morale, like allowing 
any unit to assault after disembarking from any vehicle equipped with a 
Laud Hailer or that was also transporting a Dialogus. Dialogus must also 
assault if able to do so.
Interesting vehicle upgrades like promethium tap, increasing the range 
of any model equipped with a flamer that's in base contact with the 
vehicle by half the weapons normal length. Negative is that the vehicle 
explodes on 5+ and does D6 mortal wounds.

Sisters only have access to the Holy Trinity of bolter, flamer and 
melta. Why not give Retributors a Trinity Heavy Bolter with a special 
combi melta that can be used as a normal melta in focused blast or as a 
flamer with wide dispersion. Deathwatch has a Heavy Bolter with flamer 
and when I saw that it fit pretty well with sisters in my opinion.

Give Immolator side sponsons with heavy bolters, heavy flamers or multi 
meltas.

Allow any model in a Celestian squad to take any weapon, this would make 
the unit more interesting than just a wound sponge for characters.

Change the WS of ALL Adepta Sororitas to 3+. WS doesn't determine how 
good a unit is in close combat, S and I did. Now we only have WS and S 
so let me ask you this, is a Battle Sister better trained in close 
combat than a guardsman? They are still just S3, so WS3 would go a long 
way to properly represent the Elite nature of the Sisters of Battle.