Today it’s all about Sisters codex and minis. Let’s do a quick rundown on some of the initial neat things I saw as I pawed through the new limited Edition Sisters book.

With Tomorrow and the next few days all the other 40k releases. With that – lets dive into the deep end of my Catholic Guilt and see how the Sisters of Battle fare.

It’s Pretty!

First, the book is really gorgeous. There is a ton of new art, new reworked designs for the Sisters, and so much just extra weird little bits of graphics that are just awesome. As a lover of this crazy grim dark design 40k has – the new Sister book screams the soul-crushing gasp of an empire crumbling beneath its weight. All the art evokes feelings of Religious convictions and a desire to burn the heretic. I also really like how the artwork invokes the different races that make up humanity as well. This is an interesting thing as you can easily make a Sisters army be whatever you want them to be. I also like how the models look like hardened warriors ready to bolter the enemy into oblivion. Overall as a design piece the book and look is great. A++ from the model designers, the illustrators, and the minds behind building this army brand new from the ground up.

How’s the Army?

I can talk about all the art and design – but that isn’t what you want. You want to know if they are any good. I think the army isn’t too bad. It is not the new Marine Book (Which got better with Faith and Fury…) but that’s ok. I think it can beat the new Marines as while the Marines are probably the best they still can just die to bolters, flamers, and melta. The game has really become a method of massive army crippling in the first few turns so there will be games where a few bad rolls and you lose all your bite pretty quickly. The Sisters themselves are pretty cheap so there will be a lot of them. Mix this with some neat Aura abilities, reworked Faith rules, and powerful characters and it might just be a winning combination.

Orders

There are some good in the initial rules in the book. They have Orders which are like Chapters – with their own sets of rules that range from powerful to Fluffy. I like Argent Shroud as they allow you to shoot a weapon when advancing like you didn’t advance. This means Heavy weapons still are -1 but it does allow you to move, advance, and heavy flamer some enemies to death.

Valorous Heart seems good too as they get a 6+ FNP, Ignore -1 AP, and if they are in range of an Imagifier with a specific Tale working they even Ignore -2 AP. This means a lot of Sisters will have a 3+ armor save then a 6+ Feel No Pain. That seems pretty annoying to deal with when you are trying to kill a 9 pt model. There are some others that get more Miracle Dice so that could be interesting but it starts to depend on how you are army works with them.

Acts of Faith

Acts of Faith have had a big update that has changed them tremendously. No longer are you looking for 3+s, double Aura ranges, and other weird things to get the army to work. Instead, you roll each Miracle dice when you get them (1 at the beginning of the turn and if some things happen in a phase). That d6 roll is what you keep and then you can replace a roll with that dice roll per phase. It’s like the Disciples of Tzeentch dice pool from AOS. You can perform one act of faith per phase (you can do more if you have center characters/etc) and instead of rolling it you just pull a dice and that dice’s result.

Some armies can just swap any Miracle dice to a 6 when you burn it. You can use dice for Advance Rolls, Charge Rolls, Deny the Witch, Hit Roll, Wound Roll, Saving Throw, Damage Roll, and Morale Test. It looks to be limited to a roll a unit/model have to do so like for things like Charge rolls and Deny the Witch rolls you can pick up 2 dice and swap them. You have to decide to use it before you roll so it isn’t a reroll like the Command Point option. It is just replacing the dice roll with an already predetermined roll.

Seems interesting and could be good especially with rolling a few 6’s and some 1’s to ensure you always stay in combat. You gain a Miracle dice if certain things happen in a phase and can only one per Phase. Losing a Unit, Character, deny a psychic power (without using a miracle dice), and rolling a 1 for morale (again with using miracle dice) gets you one per Phase you do this. I expect armies to be chewing through them and building upon them turn by turn as the army looks to be a horde style build due to their costs but will see.

Stratagems

The army has a lot of Stratagems (4 pages) and a to of them seem to work with Overwatch. I won’t go over them as there are a lot but I do like some of the options like making your Immolater blow-up, having your Imaginfier tell 2 Tales instead of one (aura abilities), and options to regrow dead characters. I think the army will want a lot of Command points on top of Miracle dice so while in some ways the army got easier from the Beta – it is still not an easy army to master.

You have lots of options, lots of resources to use, and you need to be on the ball throughout the game to ensure you bring the trophy to your Sisters of Battle. I expect only a few of them to show up from time to time but there are some interesting ones that seem neat. Like I saw a ton of Overwatch stuff so that will be important depending on if the meta doesn’t shift to as many ignore Overwatch abilities as you can.

Warlord Traits

Warlord traits have some winners that were there before. Indomitable Belief is still there and I expect armies to use that a lot. It is the one that gives a +1 to Shield of Faith saves up to a maxim of a 4+. There is another that gives you an extra Miracle dice and depending on how many CP you are rocking you might try to give that to another leader to stack more dice. There is the normal my Warlord can Deny one as well. The Order ones are ok with another 5+ Feel No Pain option and some other interesting things like the first Miracle Dice gained is a 6. It all depends on if you end up always banking on Miracle dice or not.

Relics

The Relics look ok with the old Aura increaser, some armor, more Feel No Pain options, and a lot of weapons. There is a 4 shot pistol that seems fun – if it was in another army or a rule that let you target characters it could be scary. They are all Damage 2, str 5, and -2 AP. There is a rough Brazier of Eternal Flame that all psykers within 18″ are -2 to cast. That seems pretty brutal versus specific armies and could be a pain in the butt. There is a pretty awesome Chainsword and other Swords too. Lots of neat little Relics with nothing extremely broken. I get the feeling if the Close Combat characters were tougher these things would be pretty good. But you don’t need more than 1 to 2 to really get the Sisters working so at the very least we don’t have a CP sink involved with needing specific combinations of Holy Artefacts.

Procession of St. Katherine… my miniature will be along in no time…

New Models

The last thing I want to talk about is some of the new models. This book is a complete rework all the way. Heck, we even got rules for 2 units that are not even pictured in the book. You probably saw myself and Adam talk about the new model not pictured called Saint Katherine. It is a model that is like the Bone Daddy General in that he is a model surrounded by generals in some sort of boss battle.

This Saint is just like that with a whopping 18 wounds, 14 attacks, and a ton of abilities. It’s supposed to represent all the Leaders of the different orders of the Sisters of Battle and their relics they are known for. As the model loses wounds you decide which relics/auras need to be shut off. To give you an idea on some of the stuff this model does – it has a 4+ Inv save, Sisters units within 6″ auto pass morale, you are -1 to hit the big thing, it can’t go in a transport, and then you got the Relics. One gives you an extra Miracle dice per turn, another causes Mortal wounds to enemy units within 6″ of it, another gives +1 to hit with Melee weapons near them, another gives you another Act of Faith you can do per phase (gives you 2 Acts of Faith per phase), and finally you can move the miracle dice roll up or down by 1 when you perform that act of Faith. This model isn’t pictured but I expect it to be the big release when the army is fully put out next year. It sounds awesome with a bunch of Ghosts around it.

UBER Pulpit!

Beyond that, we got the new leader model with a floating pulpit that seems cool. She has a rule just like the +1 to Shield of Faith saves to all friendly Sisters of battle. This means with the Warlord trait and this you are getting a lot of 4+ Inv Sisters of Battle. She is in a locked Order so that is frustrating so if you want to use her expect to us Order of our Martyred Lady as you rule set.

There is a lot of units with Incensor Cherubs in the army. These guys are things you can sacrifice to gain a quick Miracle Dice that you roll 2d6 and pick the one you want to use. You have to use it right away during that phase but it is another option to save a unit from running away. There are a ton of units that don’t appear to have models yet – or at least not pictures of them in the book. It’s just odd but I know the big release isn’t coming for a few months so just be happy we can see the book now, plan what we want, and even test a little.

I am sure I missed some stuff with this write-up but overall it is a pretty neat book. It is a full reworking of the Sisters of Battle and I applaud GW for doing something interesting with the army. I think it looks unique, looks cool, and seems to function as something different in the world of Marines and their Successor chapter nonsense. Next year will be interesting as we get to see some new models and hopefully see more releases to inspire us to paint up some new and crazy creations.

~For the Emperor!