Sisters of Battle Part 3: The Good, The Great, and The Underwhelming

In my previous two sisters analyses (part 1/part 2) I have been comparing the new book to the old book and talking about how the new book functions and how some things have changed, and how some units are very bad. I feel like it's not an unfair handling of those units or that part of the book. I think the faith points/rules system is much more streamlined and easy to explain (which you'll be doing every game to your opponent.) And I even think making the Faith Points a D6 roll works very well with how the Acts of Faith are attached to units, you don't need to rely on them as much and units you need them for will be taken care of with 2-3 Faith Points a turn. And I wasn't out of line by saying Repentia and Penitent Engines suck, because they do. But, no one really took them before so you don't have to worry about them sucking. So now I'm going to give you some real good news. You've all had faith (ahaahhahahah get it?) this long and now you'll be rewarded.

The Good:

Battle Sisters: "Can't Spell Sisters of Battle without Battle Sisters."

12 points of powered armored BS 4 goodness! Yes they are essentially guardsmen in power armor with BS4 but, now they have both kinds of grenades, and a 6++ all the time. They always have had an impressive leadership 8/9 and now they can get their hands on any combination of special and heavy weapons you can think of. Their act of faith while a bit underwhelming is the best all around, it serves as an auto-rally without requirements in the movement phase, or re-roll failed 1s to hit in shooting or assault. It's the only act of faith that allows you to tailor it's function to what you need, which gives regular battle sisters a good amount of their own support and makes them a very welcome upgrade from the old witch hunters sisters. The one huge problem here is they are your only troops choice. It's painful too in a book which used to include some of the most unit options to go down so much in unit variety, especially for troops. This does help with list building since you're going to want to take at least 3 units of Battle Sisters and you're hands are tied to take 2 off the bat, but something else at least as an option would be nice.

Cannoness: "Kiss with a fist."

65 points for anything with T3 and only a 3+ is hard to swallow. She gained WS5 and Stubborn (Fuck yes!) but also payed 20 more points for it since the Witch Hunters book and now her weapon and equipment are pretty standard, especially in comparison to the older book which had so many other options. Her Act of Faith is....weird. +1 Initiative and Preferred Enemy... Yeah, it's not really game breaking, but it's something that will come in handy against regular space marines. What she's good at isn't really clear until you see her command squad (mentioned later) But she's good at tying units up. Give her the invulnerable save, the power weapon and a command squad with heaters, march/ride into a big squad of shooting enemies and soften them up with 3 melta shots and then hit both Acts of Faith and keep those gun guys off your other sisters. This strategy works even better when she's in her command squad with feel no pain, and she's stubborn so you'll be stuck for as long as you can. It's also worth mentioning that with a Inferno Pistol and Eviscerator she makes an excellent tank-buster, cause tanks don't hit back, and her command squad can bring additional heaters to make sure you're not glancing things and leaving tanks alive. The Cannoness is good, not great, but good. She's a dogged fighter with the potential to hold her own and better against the right things. Her 4++ isn't the best but it will keep her out of generic trouble, but she's T3 so don't get cocky. She's the best fighter in the whole book, and she wouldn't have a chance against a real close combat specialist, but that's not what she should be fighting.

The Great:

Retributors: "One who enacts Retribution."

Oh ma gawd! Everyone's favorite unit. If Codex: Sisters of Battle were a highschool Retributors would be the all the popular kids rolled into one. Retributors or Retriboez as I call them have an Act of Faith that grants them rending on all their shooting attacks. They are still only 12 points a sister, and putting 4 Heavy Bolters and 6 regular bolters into the squad is the best setup and cheapest loadout. Plant them where they can see some stuff, and keep shooting and using their Act every turn and you've got a very good performing anti-infantry unit. The biggest boon to the Retributors is that HBolters have a 36" range, letting the sisters cover the gap from everything else in the army that's only range 24". The one problem with Retributors is that you can only have 3 squads, and the fact of the matter is 2 of their slots will probably be filled with exorcists, which sucks. But that's not too bad, since the nature of Sisters of Battle is to grind down the enemy with a continuous hail of firepower, it's not flashy but after 4 turns in the rain your opponent should be much worse for the ware then you are.

Dominions: "Welcome to the United States of YOU JUST GOT DOMINATED!"

The Dominions are special weapons squads able to pack up to 4 special weapons into a unit, though they have to take 10 Dominions to get the 3rd and 4th specials. The real selling point of this unit is it's Act of Faith: Twin-Linked ranged attacks. And, it's special rule: Scouts. Just let it sink in...

...Yeah so good. They can have a rhino or immolator, meaning that with scout and 1st turn you can dump off and blow-up some very surprised enemy vehicles. Granted they aren't as fast as Scouting Valkaries, or as accurate as a drop-pod full of Sternguard, but they aren't nearly as many points as those things. 155pts for 2 meltaguns, 1 Combi-Melter, a re-roll act of faith flag, and a bare rhino. Yes, you're only 5 sisters in a rhino, but you're scouting and blowing up some tanks in the first turn. And, if you take a rhino you can just shoot your heaters off the roof and not have to worry about your sisters getting wasted by return fire. This edition of 40k scouts also lets you "Outflank" a daring and foolish strategy that seems to always ruin games, either for or against you. It's not the best idea to send your best anti-tank unit out for half the game and then potentially not be able to do anything with it the whole game, so i would say no for dominions. But this unit is the only thing in the fast attack slot so if you've got the points and the spare rhinos I would max out of these girls.

Sororitas Command Squad: "The ultimate fall accessory for the Cannoness in your life."

If you thought the Cannoness was underwhelming, then you need to see her running crew. 2 attacks each on 3/5 of them, WS 4 and access to up to 3 special or heavy weapons. The doctor gives the unit Feel No Pain, and the Boombox gives you a chance to generate extra faith points. They can also have a very useful flag that gives Sisters within 12" a re-roll on leadership tests. But what really makes them too good is their Act of Faith which gives them Move Through Cover and Relentless. Which means that they can jump out of a transport, shoot to full effect and then assault if they want to. With the Cannoness in charge they can also get +1 Initiative and Preffered Enemy, which will help pistol whip their way out of combat, which is good cause their drawback is they can't have any power weapons. You can put priests in their if you wanted but that's a lot of points for a power weapon in a squad that doesn't really want to fight unless it's trying to die slowly and hold off a charge or shooting specialists.

The Underwhelming:

Eccliesiarcchy Priests: "Power Word: Suck!"

These guys come in two flavors, 45 points gets you a single wound 4++ 2 attacks guy that adds a nice buff to your charges. For 75 points he's basically the same stats as the Cannoness butgets a 4++ off the bat, and he's allowed to take some strange equipment options (plasma gun?). But he's only got a 4++ and can't take power armor. The charging buff of getting to re-roll failed to hits is nice....but It's only good on something that cares about fighting, which is Terrible stuff, or the Battle Conclaves (covered later). Which means unless he's in his special and expensive fighting squad or you took something you shouldn't have, he's not a lot more than a waste of points. He's not any worse of a fighter or shooter than the Cannoness, but he doesn't have Stubborn Ld10, or a squad that gives him Feel No Pain. You could add a 45pt priest to a regular sisters squad to give them a target dummy with a 4++, which isn't a bad idea. But the big priest is just not enticing enough to really bank on. The BIGGEST problem with these 2 units (and the Conclave) is they DON'T HAVE Acts of Faith!

What the F. Scott Fitzgerald is that shit?!

It's stupid and I don't know why, they even have the Acts of Faith rule so they can be effected by other units/characters acts but, they don't have them.

It really limits the faux close combat synergies they have.

Battle Conclaves: "Altar boys and murderous dominatrixes."

This unit is almost bad. ALMOST. It's got that strange possibility factor in it though and therefore can't be put completely out of the question. The conclaves are made up of 3 wound allocation groups, Crusaders who have storm shields, Death-Cult Assassins who have 2 Power Weapons, and a 5++, and Arco-Flaggellents who have 4 attacks and Feel No Pain. It seems much like the Dark Eldar beast master squad that this unit would do great. Lots of powered attacks, FnP guy, and 3++ wound allocation groups. On paper you could see these guys crashing through Space Marines and Cutting down Grey Hunters....Buuuuut, they are only Initiative 3 except the I6 Assassins who also have strength 4 but the whole unit has T3. The biggest problem is the unit can only be 10 guys large and there's no assault vehicles in the Sisters book. They are stuck with walking across the board, or spending one turn jumping out of a rhino and getting the fuck shot right out of them. Don't get me wrong if there was a sister's land raider these would be the guys you put in it, put your priest in there, and just barrel out into something that's about to be very unhappy. But they don't and that's why this unit isn't a great buy. It also doesn't have an Act of Faith and you only get 1 squad per Big Priest you take, so there's just stacks of reasons not to take them.

Seraphim/Celestians: "Get out your seat and jump around."

I have never used either of these units, and I probably never will. They are far better off than Repentia, but they still have silly problems. Like relying on deepstrike and only having a 6" range on your melta-pistols...whoops.

Celestians are sisters with +1 attack and are the only real option for elites. Since you can take them with only 5 sisters and they can still have a full compliment of weapons it might be worthwhile to take a unit or two just to add to the total amount of targets your opponent will have to face, and this wouldn't take away from their firepower if they were say in a rhino...

Well that's finally it. The Sisters of Battle Codex...as it stands now. Let me mention that Sisters of Battle have always been about moderation, and refusal to use things that weren't the things that were really useless. Like Penitents, Repentia, and to a degree Arco-Flallegents. You could dabble in the dark side with things like Inquisitors and assassins and such but you were best served by getting as many bodies on the board or in rhinos and immolators as you could. The same is true now, the back bone of this idea is of course the ubiquitous Battle Sisters, but they can't win it alone. You can get it going in the right direction, and get things popping off at the right times to really make it a good army. But you've got one huge thing to remember:

THEY ARE NOT SPACE MARINES!

They don't play like Marines, they can't be careless like marines, and they can't min max like marines. They are almost like Eldar, needing every part of their army to work effectively to win. The good thing is they have over Eldar though is they are a hell of a lot tougher, and cheaper. So putting 100 Sisters on the board isn't as hard as putting 100 good Eldar on the table. So really they are more like guard. But they can't run a flat gunline and never move, someone will shoot your exorcists and then you'll be up shit creek with only range 24". I'd say that the new book shows some signs of improvement from the older one. Acts of Faith work better and for more of the game, but aren't as diverse or decisive, if each unit have a multi-use act of faith it would be a lot more interesting, and the fact that some units just don't have acts of faith is just stupid. The house keeping since the Witch Hunters book also stripped SO MUCH of the book out. Only Sisters is ok, but I yearn for the variety of the inquisitors and allies to spice things up.