We have not done a mathammer of Sisters of Battle yet but it’s not exactly rocket science – they have meltas and flamers. Go. With that in mind and given there has been some questions and buzz around Sisters, it appears to be a perfect time for some discussion and analysis of them. Maybe one day Games Workshop will give us multi-part plastic kits as well… Anyway, we all remember the lovely days of Flamestorm / Immo spam and the success those types of lists had in 5th edition.

As before with the Tau post, while more time has passed and games are under the belt, things will rapidly change with the codex release timeframes but for now, we shall look at must have, okay and bad units.

HQ –

Celestine – I am very surprised more Imperial Soup armies are not using her as a medium priced HQ that can dominate all by herself. Save her a Command Point and you have effectively a 14 wound 2+/4++ model that will wreck things in combat, has a high chance of having two activations per turn and comes equipped with a heavy flamer and 12″ move. Let her die and transport her across the battlefield. If you’re taking Sisters, you start with Celestine who on top of her great statline and abilities, provides one really important bonus and one so-so bonus to Sister models. Firstly, she allows a free Act of Faith – no roll required. With her, you will effectively get 2 Acts of Faith per turn – particularly if you save re-rolls for the Act of Faith 2+ you get with a normal Sisters army. Two extra shooting phases or movement phases for certain units is very strong and while Celestine needs to be nearby the unit in question, her movement ability (along with a potential second move) makes this easier in a primary Sisters army. Her other, rather smaller but potentially just as important bonus, is her ability to increase the standard Shield of Faith 6++ save of Sisters models to 5++ (along with providing Adeptus Ministorum and Astra Militarum units with a 6++). This may not seem like much but when your Immolators and Repressors are shrugging off 33% of lascannon / meltagun hits, their durability goes up markedly. Not as good as an Azrael led Dark Angels army but nothing to be sneezed at. This does limit her mobility though so timing on when to send her forth as a destructive force is important – consider her a cheaper, better, army buffing 5th edition Mephiston. She’s S7 in combat with with 6 attacks at -3AP and 2D. She won’t wreck vehicles by herself but any infantry that are hanging around or vehicles that are damaged won’t be happy to see her.

Uriah Jacobus – Not exactly a Sisters unit but fits with them closely. Uriah is quite expensive (nearly three times the cost of a normal Priest) for… well not a lot. He gets some improved stats, notably plus 1 wound, and has a stronger ranged weapon but his basic principle is the same – give +1 attack to Adeptus Ministorum and Astra Militarum units within 6″. This turns Conscripts into crazy efficient monster blobs, even if they are crap, doubling their attacks with support characters like Straken around is not fun for the opponent. Priests can do this at 1/3 the price. Jacobus does provide a leadership +1 bubble for the same units and has a 4++ but that is not enough to overcome his steeper price tag.

Cannoness – The only stock standard HQ available to Sisters, the Cannoness is cheap and gives a 6″ re-roll 1’s bubble. This is really the only re-roll bubble that Sisters get and since the majority of their weapons are assault and their Ballistic Skill is 3+, this is not always necessary. That being said, moving from a 2/3 to hit to a 7/9 to hit is always nice and she is certainly cheap at 45 points sans wargear (she can take any of the combi-weapons including Plasma and a melee weapon – keeping her cheap can involve giving her a Stormbolter and Power Axe / Maul to take advantage of her BS/WS2+ and 4A; the Eviscerator is a bit too expensive for my tastes at only S3).

Elites –

Acro-Flagellants – At 15 points per model, Flagellants can put out a lot of wounds, particularly on the charge. Base S4 with weapons that add +1 strength and D3 attacks instead of one means each model is giving you 2D3 S5 attacks. Unfortunately, they have no AP modifier and do 1D each meaning they are not great against vehicles and while will reliably wound infantry, anything with a save can tank through them. 2-6 attacks per model is also not amazing though 8th edition attack numbers are generally down across the board. They do have a 7″ move, two wounds, 3+ to hit in melee, a 5++ and re-rolls on the charge but they are certainly not making me wipe my eyes in amazement.

Celestian Squad – Celestians are vastly the same, slightly improved statline (2A) over your normal Battle Sister with options for two specials or one special / one heavy at a squad size of five with the new bodyguard rule (2+ look out sir roll basically and they take a Mortal Wound). In editions where you could not ally, Celestians were great to get double special weapons to load up your Immolators but with Battle Sisters now having the option to take the special / heavy and special at five strong as well, you’re really only looking at Celestians when you hit max Troops or are looking to make a Brigade within Sisters only.

Crusaders – Another 15 points per model melee unit, Crusaders are really the same as they were before – storm shield carrying power sword wielders. Thankfully they have been upped to 2A and 3’s to hit but they are still strength three and do not have much else going for them. They do get to use Acts of Faith so a squad in combat could actually do some decent damage but Flagellants do nearly double the damage against MEQs where Power Weapons are supposed to be at their best. There are better units to be using Acts of Faith on as well and without their ability to be mixed into squads, cannot tank hits with their 3++.

Death Cult Assassins – My favourite underutilised unit of all times – back in 5th and 6th edition, these girls could blend through any unit with ease; the trick was getting them there. They largely maintain their statline with 3’s to hit and four attacks but unfortunately, they have lost their strength bonus and their power blades are only -2AP instead of -3AP like most. Although they have Zealot, this means they are still slightly worse than Flagellants and with the same speed, decreased durability (1W compared to 2W) and increased cost, these girls have unfortunately lost out as well in the edition change. EDIT: My index shows them as S3 when the rest apparently are S4, awesome. This means their damage is much more respectable and they have the damage edge against Flagellants who have the durability edge. They still suffer from the same issues as in previous editions in being very easy to shoot down but if you can get the charge off, they will blend a unit.

Dialogus – Re-roll friendly Morale tests for Sisters units within 6″. Given most Sisters units are going to be running MSU style except maybe, maybe, Battle Sisters squads, the Dialogus really has no point.

Hospitialiser – 4+ a Sisters infantry unit can recover D3 wounds or revive a lost model. We are not seeing healing units for a reason – three revived models or 3D3 wounds on a multi-wound infantry unit is not a lot throughout the game, particularly given the affinity for units to be completely wiped out. While it’s not useless, and at 30 points she’s decently cheap, her prime target in Celestine will easily outstrip her in terms of distance covered and you cannot stack the ability, even if it failed.

Imagifier – The ability to get an extra Act of Faith every turn is huge and while it’s not reliable, Command Point re-rolls exist. Over an average game length, for 40 points you get an extra three actions across your army. Throw away three CP and you have an extra 4.5 actions per average game. Add in Celestine and the normal Act of Faith and you have 15.5 (close to 16.5 if you add in a re-roll for your normal Act of Faith – so we are looking at 4 CP plus a CP for Celestine’s resurrection so a Sisters army with Imagifier needs minimum 5 CP; remember this). That’s a potential extra one to two turns of activations for your whole army depending upon unit numbers and while this will certainly not be the case as your army takes damage, that’s a lot of extra movement, shooting or combat options (or heals). The huge caveat here is that Acts of Faith cannot be used on vehicles as they do not have the special rule and the clarity of embarked units using it is hazy (i.e. Dominions in a Repressor). This makes the Imagifier a good but certainly not auto-include option. If you are taking pure Sisters, I would strongly encourage this, but if you are not and using allied Imperials or the Sisters as the allies, there will only be some many opportunities when you can use three Acts of Faith in one turn and it can certainly be foregone.

Ministorum Priest – This turns your Conscripts into something that’s actually fearsome. Conscripts are already one of the most points efficient units the game. While adding characters to buff them (Astropath, Commissar, Company Commander, etc.) quickly makes them more expensive, it also covers some of their key issues. Imagine a Conscript squad sitting in cover with a 3+ save, 2A base, effectively immune to Morale and shooting out Rapid Fire 2 weapons at will. Yes 7th edition buffing is dead ;). If you’re taking Imperial Guard infantry support, take a Priest as well to make them scary in combat. If you’re not, leave him at home as he provides no real benefit to your Sisters units.

Mistress of Repentance – If you’re not taking Repentia, do not take the Mistress. If you are taking Repentia, take the Mistress. Repentia have limited attacks (see below) and with a -1 to hit, need all the benefits they can in that area. Repentia do not exactly hit like a truck but are not to be ignored either, especially with a timely Act of Faith giving them two bites at the Apple.

Repentia Squad – The final combat squad in the Elites section, Repentia are 17 points a pop and use the Battle Sister statline (so 3’s) with 2A base. This means the Eviscerator is only S6 and much like the Cannoness, that’s not amazing, particularly given it’s -1 to hit modifier. A straight 2D is always nice compared to variable damage. They perform worse than Flagellants against MEQ and GEQ type models and are only slightly better against your multi-wounds models like vehicles and multi-wound infantry (0.889 wounds vs 0.793 wounds against Primaris Marines for example). If you’re after melee models to do damage against multi-wound targets, Repentia are certainly your best option in house, they do also gain the benefits of Acts of Faith and the Mistress. Use the Mistress to have them advance behind Immolators unseen or plonk them in their own transport. While similar in cost to Flagellants, remember the 38 point tax for the Mistress.

Troops –

Sisters of Battle – a necessary, while not evil, unit if you want to get any significant number of Command Points and while Sisters do not have their own stratagems yet, re-rolls on meltagun damage, Acts of Faith and Celestine can all be very useful (always keep a re-roll available for Celestine’s resurrection). Anyway, back to Sisters squads. They are cheap with a 3+Sv, can bring a special and special / heavy weapon at five and the Sister Superior can take a combi-weapon. This is great – three specials on a troop squad with 3+ to hit, 3+ Sv and they can be 5 man strong? Sign me up. With the Heavy Weapons being heavy flamers, Multi-meltas or Heavy Bolters, the stock standard loadout will likely be a meltagun / meltagun or flamer / heavy flamer (more expensive) with the Superior taking a combi-weapon. Interestingly, the combi weapons include plasma so if you’re running a heavy Sisters force, this is a nice way of getting plasma into your list without Imperial Soup fun. Taking the other heavy weapons on Sisters when their range is generally short anyway is not the most efficient use of points, particularly given the expense of MM’s these days. A single squad or two with heavy Bolter / storm bolter / storm bolter could be a decent backfield holder but that loses weight of bodies up front. Either way, meltagun / meltagnu / combi-plas is a cheap (less than 100 points) and effective Troop choice, perhaps one of the better ones in the game.

Fast Attack –

Dominion Squad – You take Repressors and you put these ladies in there. Dominions are the same as ever – standard Battle Sisters who get access to four special weapons (plus a combi on the Sister Superior) and still maintain their “Scout” move (which transfers to vehicles). Dominions are the perfect unit to pack a lot of special weapons into and get rolling. The best ways of equipping them are the most simple – all meltaguns or all storm bolters. Stormbolters are cheap and five of them in a Repressor puts out a decent amount of firepower but I feel like their strengths are being wasted – I would much rather cramming Acolytes with Stormbolters into Repressors; they give you slightly less output at 6 4+ stormbolters compared to 5 3+ stormbolters but there is no opportunity cost of losing 4 3+ meltaguns.

Seraphim – Seraphim are not amazing by themselves. They are cheap but their special weapons are short-ranged and their pistols do not do an amazing amount of damage – they’re pistols afterall. One of the misnomers of 8th edition has been that pistols will help up general attack numbers in combat – the Fall Back rule invalidates this unless you are able to trap a unit in combat so Seraphim’s combat utility is also rather small. What they do have going for them is being one of the few initial squads to benefit from Acts of Faith in the early game for Sisters as they are not in a transport. They are also a great escort for Celestine and moving 24″ or firing four pistol shots per turn makes a bit of a difference to their usefulness. They are never going to be an amazing unit but they are solid at using early Faith and being a disruption unit. Their durability is slightly improved with a re-rollable Shield of Faith roll (throw in Celestine for a 5++) but small arms fire will still plink them to death like most MEQs. They make a good, cheap harassment unit – use them this way.

Heavy Support –

Exorcist – Simply put, the Exorcist is inefficient. At 160 points you get a very durable platform with T8/W12/3+Sv but you are only getting D6 shots which do D3 damage each. Like the standard Leman Russ Battle Tank, this makes the Exorcist vary wildly in its actual damage output. Something like 2D3 shots or D6 damage on each shot may have made a difference but at 160 points, there are much better options available in the Imperial Soup arsenal and given we are likely already seeking other options for ranged support, you can still keep separate detachments and not lose codex advantages / objective secured. I want to love the Exorcist for purity and it’s durability is insane for what it is (a Rhino chassis) but look to your Predators, Imperial Guard artillery, etc. first.

Penitent Engines – If I did not have to pay 34 points for two heavy flamers, I would be all over Engines to be annoyingly decent combat options. As they are, they are weaker Dreadnoughts that are rather easy to put down given their T6/4+ Sv and this makes them way too expensive for what they are. 130 points that a Rifledread’s standard deviations can drop it in a turn (average is 4.8 wounds;)? That being said, if you get the Engines into combat, they are impressive as most Walker type units are – they do not deteriorate, they have a good number of attacks at 4 and hits on 3s. With a flat 3D and -3AP, they will chew through vehicles, particularly if they get Desperate for Redemption ability off and can attack again (save a CP).

Retributor Squad – Another one of the starting foot units that you could potentially use your early Acts of Faith on, Retributors fit one of two roles – Heavy Bolter Support or roasting an infantry squad with 4D6 S5 AP-1 hits. I’m not a fan of the latter as it’s quite expensive and two Immolators can do that already – your army will rarely be lacking in that type of firepower while Heavy Bolters at 36″ help a pure Sisters army of most of its weaknesses. Shooting twice with four heavy bolters early can do a surprising amount of damage but we also know heavy bolters aren’t exactly efficient. You’ll be dropping 2 MEQs or 1 and a bit wounds off a transport with each Salvo – not exactly breaking the bank, particularly when you consider there are much stronger options in the rest of the Imperium arsenal.

Dedicated Transports –

This is a key section for Sisters of Battle with perhaps two of the best transports in the game for what their role is. Remember, with Celestine, you can have an armoured convoy of vehicles with 5++ rolling up the field. They also offer a splendid platform for a first turn volley of HKM if you so wish it to put damage on opponent’s from afar – something Sisters generally struggle with.

Immolator – Standard Rhino chassis – T7/W10/3+Sv with smoke launchers and the option for Hunter Killer Missile and a storm bolter, the Immolator is one of the rare options in the game with an old style template weapon measuring greater than 8″ (it’s 12″). These extra 4″ are huge as getting a bunch of auto-hits at 12″ compared to 8″ (and compared to how they worked in editions past) is huge in the positioning game. Add in they are assault and you can be flooring your Immolator 13-18″ with a 12″ threat range – oh hello turn 1 flame goodness. The statline of the Immolation Flamer is otherwise your stock standard heavy flamer – S5, AP-1 and 1D, nothing amazing but those will pile up, even on tougher MEQ squads (they are also a beautiful source of damage against flyers). The chassis also comes with twin Heavy Bolter and Multi-Melta options but they are heavy weapons (so moving and shooting starts to become a concern) and there are more efficient options for these types of firepower elsewhere in the Imperial Soup toolbag. The Immolator is your anti-infantry workhorse and gets your Sisters / Celestians to the battlefront where their meltaguns are effective.

Repressor – One of the few options left in the game which has any sort of firepoint. It also comes with an extra 2 wounds over your normal Rhino chassis along with a Dozer Ram (D3 hit rolls against infantry in combat rather than 1 per attack). Up to six models can fire from inside the Repressor, making it a great mobile bunker for squads with multiple special weapons (*stares pointedly at Dominions*). The Repressor also comes with a Heavy Flamer and Stormbolter stock standard with an option for a third weapon (another Stormbolter or Heavy Flamer) mean it is quite effective against infantry in and of itself. The range compared to an Immolator is impacted but if the squad inside is rolling around with meltaguns, the vehicle itself is likely to be within than 8″ band range anyway (importantly, you do not have to be!). Dropping a second Heavy Flamer on the Repressor does make it slightly more expensive than the Immolator though (107 points compared to 103) but it is still tougher. Dominions are you go to unit for Repressors though anything can really utilise it as you can still splitfire from inside. The Immolator has a higher offensive output itself but the Repressor means your entire army can stay bunkered up and do well. If Acts of Faith can work on embarked units (specifically being able to shoot out of a Repressor), these things are bonkers amazing when willed with Dominions; they are borderline that now anyway.

Summary

Sisters continue to remain limited in their ability to work across all the game aspects – mostly long ranged warfare. In terms of their own units, Heavy Bolters and the Exorcist are the only things that can reach out beyond 24″ and touch an opponent. Their list building and strategy is not amazingly complex but their application on the table is very important. With Immolators and Repressors being two of the best transports in the game and while meltaguns are not the all important weapon they were in 5th edition, they are still great options to take chunks of wounds off bigger targets, Sisters have a lot of the tools you need to start for a good balanced list. Throw in one of the best combat / harassment characters in the game in Celestine with the amazing utility of Acts of Faith and you have a great starting point for any army. What to do from there though becomes more convoluted – the combat squads are not amazing and likely better taken advantage of by other Imperial units and their ranged support is terrible (as always). A pure Sisters army will struggle with this but if you’re adding in token allies (like an IG artillery detachment) or adding Sisters to an already Imperium army, you’re maximising the strengths covered here but ensuring those weaknesses are shored up. Sort of like 6th edition allies started out as…