Sisters of Battle Rumours – Part 2 via MadCow on BoK!!!

Taken from the Blood of Kittens network who got it from MadCow on Heresy!  Unfortunately this isn’t the sisters I was looking forward to.

 

So lets do a round up shall we.

Blessed Banner: 12” re-roll morale and pinning, as long as bearer is alive Command Squad counts as scoring 1 extra wound in cc for assault results.

Chirurgeon’s Tools: Feel No Pain to the unit.

Condemnor Boltgun: Combi-stake crossbow. 24” S5 AP- Assault 1, Psi-shock
Psi-shock: Any psyker that takes an UNSAVED wound suffer Perils of the Warp in addition to any other effects.

Laud Hailer: 12” bubble, any successful AoF, Roll a D6 and if result a 6 you gain 1 Faith Point.

Neural Whip: Power weapon, vs non vehicles count as S8 and roll to wound against the opponents unmodified LD instead of T.

Simulacrum Imperialis: Unit re-rolls failed AoF tests.

Vehicles
Immolator
Inferno Bolts: Re-rolls to wound

Wargear options, items listed after each other cost the same.

HQ
Canoness
Replace boltgun and/or bolt pistol with:
Chainsword
Storm bolter
Power sword, combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma
Condemnor boltun, plasma pistol or inferno pistol
Eviscerator
May take Rosarius
May take Melta bombs

For every Canoness you may take 1 Sororitas Command Squad, does not count as HQ
Only 5 member, 3 Celestians, 1 Hospitaller and 1 Dialogus
One Celestian may take either:
Simulacrum Imperials
Blessed Banner
Any Celestian may replace her boltgun with:
Chainsword
Storm bolter
Heavy bolter or flamer
Multi-melta or meltagun
Heavy flamer
Can take Rhino or Immolator

Ecclesiarchy Confessor
May Replace laspistol and/or chainsword with:
Shotgun, bolt pistol or boltgun
Stormbolter
Power sword, combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma
Condemnor boltgun or plasma pistol
Eviscerator
May take plasma gun
May take melta bombs

For every Confessor, Confessor Kyrinov or Uriah Jacobus you may include 1 Battle Conclave.
3-10 models in any combination, does not count as HQ
Same costs are GK ones
Can take Immolator or Rhino

Elite
Ecclesiarchy Preacher
0-5 choice, does not use up FOC slot but are treated as Elite.
Each Preacher may replace laspistol and/or chainsword with:
Shotgun, bolt pistol or boltgun
Storm bolter
Power sword, combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma
Condemnor boltgun or plasma pistol
Eviscerator
May take melta bombs

Celestian Squad
4 Celestians and 1 Superior, can include up to 5 additional Celestians
One may replace boltgun with:
Stormbolter
Heavy bolter or flamer
Multi-melta or meltagun
Heavy flamer
One may replace her boltgun with:
Stormbolter
Flamer
Meltagun
One may take Simulacrum Imperialis
Superior may replace her boltgun and/or boltpistol with:
Chainsword
Storm bolter
Power sword, or combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma
Condemnor boltgun or plasma pistol
Superior may take melta bombs

Sisters Repentia
4 Repentia and Mistress, may include up to 5 additional Repentia
Mistress may take melta bombs

Troops
Battle Sister Squad
9 Sisters and Superior, may include up to ten additional Sisters.
One Sister may replace her boltgun with:
Storm bolter
Heavy bolter or flamer
Multi-melta or meltagun
Heavy flamer
One Sister may replace her boltgun with:
Storm bolter
Flamer
Melta
One Sister may take Simulacrum Imperialis
Superior may replace boltgun and/or bolt pistol with:
Chainsword
Storm bolter
Power sword or combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma
Condemnor boltgun or plasma pistol
Superior may take melta bombs

Fast Attack
Seraphim
4 Seraphim and Superior, may include up to 5 additional Seraphim
Up to 2 Seraphim may replace their bolt pistols with:
Two hand flamers
Two Inferno pistols
Superior may replace one of her bolt pistols with:
Chainsword
Power sword
Eviscerator
Superior may replace her other bolt pistol with a plasma pistol
Superior may take melta bombs

Dominion Squad
4 Dominions and Superior, may include up to 5 additional Dominions
For every 5 models in the squad, up to two Dominions may replace their boltgun with:
Storm bolter
Flamer
Meltagun
One Dominion may take Simulacrum Imperialis
Superior may replace boltgun and/or bolt pistol with:
Chainsword
Storm bolter
Power sword or combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma
Condemnor boltgun or plasma pistol
Superior may take melta bombs

Heavy Support
Retributor Squad
4 Retributors and Superior, may include up to 5 additional Retributors
Up to 4 Retributors may replace their boltgun with:
Heavy bolter
Multi-melta
Heavy flamer
One Retributor may take Simulacrum Imperialis
Superior may replace her boltgun and/or bolt pistol with:
Chainsword
Storm bolter
Power sword or combi-flamer, -melta or -plasma
Condemnor boltgun or plasma pistol
Superior may take melta bombs

Exorcist
Searchlight
Dozer blade
Storm bolter
Hunter-killer missile
Extra armour

Penitent Engine
Unit Composition 1 Penitent Engine
Options:
Include an additional two Penitent Engines

So lets start with looking at the retardedly bad wargear.
-Any model that may replace bolt pistol with chainsword.
Why the hell would you do this? A Bolt pistol counts as a CCW in assault so there is absolutely no reason what so ever to do this. Sure it’s free for any model that can do this but WHY?!?!?! You lose the ability to shoot before an assault and gain NOTHING!!

Now for the so bad it has to be a mistake wargear.
-Condemnor boltgun
I understand the point of this weapon but why such shitty rule for Psi-shock?
Must me shitty editing as spelling errors and other problems can be found in allot of places.

Grey Knight Condemnor Boltgun
Psi-shock: Any psyker HIT by the stake crossbow shot suffers Perils of the Warp in addition to any other effects.

Sisters of Battle Condemnor Boltgun
Psi-shock: Any psyker that takes an UNSAVED wound from the stake-crossbow shot suffers the Perils of the Warp in addition to any other effects.

Now for some missing wargear choices.
Celestian Squad
Where is the option for every member to replace their boltgun with a chainsword? The only unit in the army where you would consider doing this and you can’t do it. The Command Squad Celestians can so why not the regular ones? So what is the point of the Celestian squad? Why the hell do they cost 15pts each? Grey Hunters cost 15pt each and come with +1S +1T +1I the same amount of attacks base (they come with CCW and Bolt pistol) but Ld8 instead of Ld9.
So you are telling me +1Ld is worth the same as +1S +1T and +1I?
They also get their flamer for free and their meltagun costs 5pt while ours cost 10.

But Celestians may sometimes have +1S and Fearless and have a 6++ save!!
/facepalm, sit down and shut the fuck up you Spheeze Mehreene fanboy!

Blessed Ammo
Where has this gone? Why wasn’t there any special ammo in our list?

Now for some ”wtf?” wargear.
Any unit that can take either a multi-melta or a regular melta, they both cost 10pts. I guess for the Command Squad you’d always take Multi-meltas over meltas as your AoF gives Relentless.

Seraphim Squad
Two hand flamers cost 20pts per model
Two Inferno pistols cost 30pts per model

This looks expensive but the Seraphim pistol rule says they can fire both pistols separately. Does this mean you can fire each hand flamer and inferno pistol? The points cost would suggest this.

Now for the ”Good” parts of the codex.
Saint Celestine
At 115pts she is a real bargain, probably one of the best SC for the points cost in the game. Is this another one of those Cruddace Valkyrie units?
As it’s common for Cruddace to have low points costs (compared to other units in the same FOC slot) for new kits (Valk and Trygons) does this mean GW has an abundance of Saint Celestine models they want to get rid of? Most likely is the answer to this…

Now for ”It could have been good but in the end fails to deliver”
Sororitas Command Squad
You can give each Celestian a special or heavy weapon and their act of faith gives Relentless amongst other things but in the end the unit will rarely be useful. Reason is there are no models in the unit you want to assign wounds to. If you give the Celestians heavy weapons and put them in terrain the Hospitaller or Dialogus will be the first to die, if you dont give them special weapons the Celestians will be the first to die. For the bonuses they provide the unit is rather useless for combat, the turn you get shot at is the turn you will lose this unit. If anything you would put them in a transport and keep them close for the Laud Hailer bonus or a Banner bonus but other than this the unit is pretty bad. Perhaps 1 meltagun so you can use the vehicles firing port.

Penitent Engine
At 85pts each they are way to expensive, they will never make it into combat because they are too easy to destroy and Rage makes them predictable. At 50pt I would have considered them because they have less survivability than a killa-kan.

Unit Composition says 1 Penitent Engine, options say: Include an additional two Penitent Engines
It does not say anywhere that the PE are in a squadron like it did in the old codex, does this mean that each PE is independent of the others? This would have been a huge boost to them but they will still never make it into combat.

Conclusion
This codex is rushed, it lacks in pretty much every department. Heck even the WD itself seems rushed with spelling errors and other mistakes in almost every unit entry. This seems like something the WD team was told to throw together the day before the issue was to be sent to the printers. It doesn’t explain the spelling errors in the 2nd part though.

All in all the codex is shit, you may try to convince me otherwise but unless the FAQ makes some huge changes, as in a complete rewrite of the codex I see no hope for it. The army lacks variety, every single Sister entry is copy paste of the last with a slight change. Units and wargear is too expensive to be useful, most of the AoF are useless and doesn’t scale with the size of your army. Allot of choices seems to point towards a close combat army but you NEVER EVER want to end up in CC with your Sisters. I get the impression that Cruddace thought he was writing rules for a Space Marine army and not units with human stats.Close Combat Weapon (p42 40k 5th)

Some little point teasers from the Sisters Second White Dwarf.

Regular Sisters 12 pts each
Cannoness 75 pts base
Coffessor 55pts base
St. Celestine 175 pts
Repentia 90 pts 4 + 1 Mistress
Celestian & Sheraphim 15 pts each
Retributer 85pts for max heavy bolters