Sisters of Battle Update Rumors: What I think!

Well as you may have already heard the Sisters of Battle are getting a new "White Dwarf" codex. You can check out The Blood of Kittens article 1 and article 2 both of which have excellent information and TastyTaste is usually pretty accurate with his rumors.

Needless to say I am more than a little nervous about another White Dwarf release codex. The Blood Angel codex in White Dwarf was nothing to brag about so when I heard they were doing the same for my beloved Sisters I became nervous. Some of the Blood of Kitten rumors helped, but others have confirmed my concern.

So let me just tackle the rumors as listed on Blood of Kittens.

As always let us start with the easy ones that pretty much everyone figured was going to happen. 

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

I am completely fine with all of these. I never used allies and rarely used the Inquisition.

So let start with the big one and perhaps most controversial change to Sisters of Battle: Faith

I was amazed reading around the Net how quite a few people are pretty close to understanding how Faith is going to work. One caveat about the faith rules: I only have most of the story so let us hope someone else can pluck the rest from the aether. 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.

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. What is not clear is a few things. Like how many dice can you throw at a single act of faith? How many times can you attempt to activated a power? If you get an act of faith to go off in one phase does it carry over to the next phase? If you fail an act of faith does that mean you cannot try again in another phase? I don’t have the answers, but what do you think?

While I completely agree that faith points needed some work I am not sure how I like this system. I do like some aspects of it but the 5+ to use doesn't leave a warm feeling. Maybe if different units had different values or if upgrading to Vet Sister Superior dropped you down to a 4+. I will just have to wait and see I guess.

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

Again I am ok with with all of these except the Assassins. I really think Sisters should have access to them but I guess GW feels differently

Specifics

Sisters have about 5 HQ choices including Special Characters

Looking forward to seeing what Special Charcters there are.

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.

I really like the sound of this!

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?

No real opinion but sounds interesting!

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

EXCELLENT! I love Repentia and these changes sound very cool.

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.

Interesting also curious to see if Immolators have an expanded transport capacity. If so I will never run Rhinos.

Exocists: Pretty much same as before.

Very excited to hear this as I love the Exorcist as it is!

 

ROUND TWO of the Rumors.

What is not in the Codex

• Repressors 
• Arbites

I was interested in the Arbites but I can live without them.

The Units (more information than others)

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.

I will be severely disappointed if the Canoness ends up a weak unit!

Repentia: Forgot to mention they have fleet

Excellent!

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

I hope they have something extra because this sounds meh!

Sister Battle Squad: Can still get a Heavy Flamer

Good to know as I have them in every squad I own!

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.

I love my Seraphim and I like where it sounds like the rules are going!

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

Good to know!

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.

Cheap Retributors is again an excellent change I will look forward to.

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)

Extremely happy that these are still in. The rules sound very cool and now I think I may just have to pick up another one so I can have a squadron of 3.

Well those are my thoughts on the current rumors, please for free to let me know what you think! I will be posting a more thorough review of the actual rules as I get the copies from White Dwarf.

-Meatball