One of our customers brought in a digital codex, and here are the first thoughts on the dex.
So, caveats first: I have not really dug into this book yet, this is just my first thoughts after having read through it quickly.
First of all, there are some big changes! This isn’t just a digital version of the book or a supplement, this is a full blown codex with a color section, fluff, new wargear, points value, rules, etc.
Second of all: Sisters are good. Really good and they are gong to upset the hell out of the meta.
Why?
Comdemnor Boltguns. Holy. Crap. This 10pt weapon is 24″, assault 1, Strength 5, AP-, and, wait for it, any unit HIT by this weapons suffers Perils in the Warp….my god! Screamerstar just crapped its pants. So did the Seercouncil, and any Psychic model in the game. Great Gonzo’s nose that is crazy! Any character with access to the Ranged Weapons section of the armory can take these weapons and that is pretty much every Character (including sarges) and Command Squads can pack 5! Wow. That just made every psyker in the game a liability if you find yourself facing Sisters. Eldar get some cushion with Ghost Helms, and FnP still helps, but these are straight deadly. Even overwatch is scary! Taking these liberally throughout an army is going to just shut down enemy psykers.
Some of the other big changes: Faith. Now, faith is a once per game Ld check that if failed means it doesn’t work and you can’t try again. Pass, and you get a cool power for that phase. Taking a Simulacrum lets you use faith twice. It’s a big change and it makes getting faith more reliable but less frequent. A lot of the same ones are there (Rending shots, increased strength, etc.) and you can take the Simulacrum in most units for only 10pts, so you can have a lot of Acts of Faith if you want to. There are lots of ways to increase the odds of getting Faith off too, such as Auras from Characters that allow you to reroll the test or test on your Warlord’s LD, etc.
Celestine got nerfed, but that is a good thing, IMO. She way way OTT previously. She now can only get back up once, but the odds of her getting back up are better (Act of Faith, aka, LD test) and she gets up with full wounds. Fair trade and fair nerf, IMO. Slap her with some Seraphim as per usual, and profit.
Shield of Faith is now 6++ AND +1 to Deny the Witch (Adamantium Will). Nice! Most units have this which is pretty awesome.
Battle Sisters are only 12 points! Wowzers and you can take units of 5 now, not min 10. Plus, at 5 strong, you can take 2 Specials or a Special and Heavy weapon….damn, son. This ties in well with Immolators which are only 5pts more than a Razorback but have Shield of Faith and can take a Twin-linked Multi Melta for free. That is a powerful, cheap transport right there. I think Immolator spam with dual Special Weapons and Condemnor Boltguns is in our future….6 units of 5 Sisters each with 2 Melta, a Comdemnor and a M.Melta Immolator is only 900pts! Mis it up with Flamers as well and holy cow.
Seraphim are a measly 15pts, same as a Grey Hunter and they have a slew of special rules including Hit and Run. They are excellent again, this edition. Plus, they can reroll failed invul saves from Shield of Faith and they can give themselves Shred with shooting through their faith. Not bad at all.
Jacobus is beastly! Wow is he good. For the price of a Thunderfire Cannon you get a LOT. First of all, he gives his unis a 5++ so long as they have Shield of Faith (which is rerollable by Seraphim!) and he himself grants Zealot, a bonus Act of Faith for his unit, Martyrdom (allows all units comprised entirely of Shield of Faith models to auto pass ld tests when he dies) and, wait for it, a 12″ aura that gives all friendly models Fearless and Counter-attack….wow. Think about that with big units of Sisters or IG blobs! Plus, he (and all priests) have War Hymns that allow them to grant impressive bonuses to their unit. On a successful Ld test, the character can grant his unit and any attached characters rerolls of all failed armor and invul saves, give himself Smash, or give his unit Shred. WOW! That is ballin. You can combo this with a Relic called Litanies of Faith that allows you to auto-pass these tests….boom! Holy crap! Permenant Fortune while in combat with a Fearless unit of 20 bodies? Yes please. Toss in a EW (Mantle Relic grants this) Cannoness with a 4++ or Celestine and you have a resilient little tank and Tarpit. You could also stick him with Repentia and make them decent so long as you can get them into combat where a 5++ reroll is fairly solid. They are certainly a lot better than they were. An assault vehicle would have helped a lot here, but oh well. They do get a 3+ FnP with their Faith and Jacobus lets them do it twice, so if you can actually get them into combat, they can be surprisingly tough and with each still packing an Eviscerator, they pack a punch. Also, taking him with Crusaders in Battle Conclave is nuts, rerollable 3++ on a unit is just savage. Toss a Canoness with Litanies of Faith and an Eviscerator and you have a pretty solid unit.
The Cannoness is still a cheap, versatile HQ that grants Hatred in combat with her Faith. She grants Stubborn too, which is awesome. No more 2+ which stinks though, and it seems like no Jump Pack either? Bummer there unless I am missing it. 30pt Eviscerator is rough, too. That’s pricey for a Str3 model, but not too crazy.
Some of the Warlord Traits are awesome such as a 12″ Stubborn bubble!
Penitent Engines are actually not bad. Rage, AV11, 3HP, and hit hard, but only In 3 is a bummer and Open Topped isn’t doing them any favors, either. But at 20pts under a T.Fire Cannon for 1, with units up to 3, not bad. 5 attacks on the charge at STr10 is solid. Exorcists are better, but hey, these aren’t terrible. Shield of Faith helps, too.
The Exorcist is still bad ass and cheap. D6 AP1, Str8 missiles on a Predator Chassis with a 6++ and Adamantium Will, for 25pts over a T.Fire Cannon? Yeah, all day.
They fixed the Crusader/Death Cult power weapon issue and just gave them Power Swords flat out as expected. Still a great unit but not so insanely under-priced as before.
Dominions are still ballin. They can take 4 Special Weapons for 5 bodies and they can ignore cover with their act of faith. Not bad at all! In an Immolator spam list, these ladies certainly have a place. Scout too? Yes, ma’am!
Retributors are still fairly solid, Heavy Bolters and Rending is nice and Heavy Flamers and Rending is, too! Not being able to do it more than 2 times is a bit of a bummer, but they’re still dirt cheap. 5 with 4 Heavy Weapons is only a Thunderfire Cannon in cost! Wowzers! That is crazy cheap. With the Simulacrum they jump up 22pts, but still a steal. Stick them in an Immolator with 4 Heavy Flamers or sit them in the back with 4 Heavy Bolters and go to town.
Celestians still seem worthless to me. Educate me please if I am not seeing their worth.
There’s a lot more but I am tired (sorry for any grammar mistakes, too tired to proof this article) and just wanted to get the big points out there first. This is a powerful book with a lot of combos and when you take this with IG, yeah, the meta just shifted. The only limitation with this is, as always, the exorbitant price of the models. If you find a good substitute, or have the budget for the Nuns with Gun, you can build a seriously powerful army that can provide a punishing counter to many of the top tier lists in the game right now.
That’s good, the bits and pieces I’d heard weren’t very reassuring. I might start playing Sisters again.
They’re VERY good! Like, wow, super good. They are going to break up the meta, no doubt.
I went and got the codex, and yeah, it’s definitely an improvement over the WD. Basic Sisters are still overpriced by several points*, but other than that you get some pretty good options. Definitely re-painting my Sisters now.
*Basic Sister is 12pts, a basic Marine is 14 now. For 2pts, the Marine gets +1 S/T, ATSKNF, and Chapter Tactics, while the Sisters get Acts/Shield of Faith. Between the 6++, AW, and the once-per-game bonus, Faith is roughly equivalent to Chapter Tactics. So for 2pts per model, SMs get +1 S/T and ATSKNF, and access to grav and plasma, in addition to having a much wider array of effective support units across their codex in general.
Which is a better shooting unit? 5 sisters or 5 tactical marines. how bout 2 squads of 5 sisters against 10 marines. Against dedicated assault units will tacticals last a second longer then sisters? So i guess the extra points going into assault abilities wont helping much at all.
I feel the better argument is for ATSKNF and CTs. Those are worth 2 pts and then some.
I agree with reecius on that one. atsknf is what put marines above most other units for the straight fact of reliability. thats where most armys’ troops fall short. Combat tactics is the other. You can get some of the effects of cts in other armies but again not with the reliability of marines. but with sisters a turn of shooting with preffered enemy isnt bad at all. Just dont try flamer spam against salamanders lol
Not sure how an army that is hardly owned is going to break the meta, but we’ve talked about this. Yes, condemner bolt guns can cause a perils if they hit, but its one shot and can only be taken by characters. If you take an entire command squad with those guns than you really should be rethinking your life choices (like purchasing a sisters army) :/
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Folks will convert armies with SM bits and such.
I feel like Adepta Sororistas has been and always will be a nitch within the 40k universe. They are space marines without any of the genetic fortitude, life-long training, and desire of a man. This hobby is dominated by men, hence if you want female space marines, just add green stuff sculpts to the male equivalents. This is grim dark, 20k years in the future. Everyone favors them because they are “unique”. Frankly, they are not. They are weaker space marines w/ a more religious/pious aspect to them. Personally, I hope they go the way of the squats. Adeptus Mechanicus has more flavor than the “sisters of battle”, and I would wager have a stronger following.
You’d get the **** flamed out of you for posting an opinion like that on a lot of forums. Sisters might not be my main army (I used them as WH allies back in the day), but screw squatting them.
You could just as easily say the same thing about all the non-codex Marines. Which is to say that I do not agree.
I was honestly thinking of starting them with the new codex, until I saw the price tag of just one unit of sisters, I wept and turned back to Chaos …
Yeah, I know, right? I am looking around the net for a suitable substitute.
Let us know if you find any, because I so want some too >-<
Let me know if you find anything, I struggled to find any good alternative models.
Cheers for the write up Reece! This is great to read, I’m so happy that Sisters look like they will be a force once again for players – who can afford them of course, lol. Those Condemnor Boltguns sound absolutely ridiculous! Exorcists getting cheaper by 10 points seems like an odd move considering how good they already were. And hey, Battle Sisters themselves look like they will actually be one of the better troops choices in 6th! I’m very happy for the Sisters players, hopefully this gives them a spark in sales and we do eventually see a full codex release with plastic models.
Yeah, they are crazy in the rules. I couldn’t believe it! You can min/max, blob up, etc. There is so much synergy and so many layers to this book, it’s crazy. I barely scratched the surface, but I can see a no questions asked, tier 1 army in their, solo or with IG allies.
Something about the comdemnor boltgun just doesn’t sound right to me. Gonna have to check out the codex.
It’s crazy! They cause a Perils with a HIT, not a wound, a HIT! =0
lol goodbye screamerstar.
awesome. now they just need some plastic kits.
Screamerstar is still a tough fight, but you can actually fight them now! That’s the key.
Condemnor Boltguns are a combi-weapon, so they aren’t a endless vomit of anti-psyker killingness.
Good point, but they are a powerful weapon, none the less.
They’re a combi-weapon, so only once per game. Not that you need a lot of hits to kill off a Rune Priest or Herald, but much more reasonable.
That is good news… I thought all my synapse creatures were screwed like the old days of mind strike missiles!
A handful of auto wounds is going to have to choose between killing a tyrant or a tervigon – lucky they’ve got a few wounds each!
Actually I just wanted to ask, did you see if Dominions still have Scout? If they do…… *shudders*
They do!
Oh my Emperor……that is just ridiculous. 900 points for those 6 units of 5 Battle Sisters, two meltaguns, a condemnor boltgun and a multi-melta on the tank you said? Throw in three Dominion squads of five with four special weapons, similar Immolators and three Exorcists. Almost guaranteed this is below 1850 points too, allowing for a HQ choice. That is just ridiculous on SO many levels….
Yup. Sisters are going to hit the meta HARD.
If only they didn’t cost so much money! All that’s ever stopped me from getting them is the cost and almost entirely metal range. These rules may just win it over for me though!
Welllll……hahaha, we do sell them at a discount! Haha, sorry, had to do it!
What kind od discount are we talking about here?
Farseers don’t care, they generate 3 warp charge at the start of each player turn and Ghost helm allows them to swap out warp charge to eliminate perils.
Awesome counter for Screamerstar though… Now Farsight Tigerius Bomb just needs a counter!
Yeah, you have to chew through the Ghost Helm before you can get at the unit.
And shame the models still cost you a major internal organ and all look a bit ‘mannish’ and with limited poses… Plastic box and I might get an allied unit.
The downside to the condemer boltgun is that it is a combi weapon, so its perils causing ability can only be used once.
Also until they ammend the ebook or put a new errata out for the 40K rulebook and Adepta Sororitas army can not take or be taken as allies because there is no Adepta Sororitas entry in the Allies Matrix and nothing in the codex to say used this entry like it does for Black Templar in the new marine codex.
I expect this is just an oversight but am sort of hoping that this is used to redo the Sisters Allies to represent the newer Templar Background.
If someone told me I couldn’t ally in my Sisters, I would tell them to go **** themselves.
Not sure on this psy gun, does it only effect psykers it hits or any psyker in a unit hit by? If its only hits against the psyker its self not much good but if its against any psyker in a unit hit by its amazing.
It’s a little vague, but “any unit with the psyker rule hit” suffers perils. If you’ve got a unit with a psyker in it, it has the psyker rule, and someone suffers perils, and only psykers can suffer perils, so… someone could try to be a rules lawyer about it, maybe.
Yeah, that was an interesting point I was thinking about, too. Is it every psyker unit in the unit? Or one per unit? It is confusing.
Good thing i already have a big chunk of sisters minis lol. Not that expensive when you have most of them already. Oh the shame of getting kicked in the nuts by sisters.
Hopefully one of the alternative mini companies can step up and bring something out because those models are old and expensive as hell. They could be such an amazing looking army though! Some nice elegant plastic kits by the Dark Eldar sculpter (Was it Jes? Memorys failing me.) would be awesome!
Raging Heroes new female model line might work…
Specially the Iron Empire range.
Raging Heroes is planning to do 2 more kickstarters. Their Sisters of Eternal Mercy would be made specifically for this. So just start leaving them feedback to get that out before the Dark Elves one.
Nice! I love their stuff.
Prediction. Sisters buff is a quick cash grab to clear stocks of metal sob figs. I bet we see plastic figs and a proper codex within 12 – 18 months. Making them attractive as allies to address current meta is a great way to do it. Sisters spike in interest, stockpile is cleared, and then new hotness comes out.
Would be a smart move if slightly unethical.
The things that attract me the most is their models……….So I cant get subsitutes for them 🙁
IG + sisters = good again.
Book of St lucius is cheap, all the “friendly unit” verbiage means you pass on to IG allies. MMM rerollable 5++ blob squads with 10 leadership.
I may have over looked this, but I didnt see a force org. Did anyone see a force org?
Ok I also noticed that they are no longer “sisters of battle” but are Adepta Sororitas. That means they have no force ORG (so you cant actually field them as a stand alone force) and you cant take them as allies since there is no entry on the alies matrix.
That would be a total DB move to pull on someone. I would counter with adepta sororitas mean sisters of battle in high gothic ;).
I imagine this will be resolved quickly and can’t see a TO taking that stance
so can I go ahead and use unlimited exorcist s? How many troops can I use?
pg 109 brb, the standard force org chart is listed. Since there isn’t one in the AS codex superceding it, you use that one 🙂
I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not.. However, I think the answers to your questions are self evident.
You use the same FOC every 6th edition codex uses. They have not printed them in the codex for a while now.
is space marine high gothic for black templar w regards to allies? That would make black templar battle brothers with sisters.
except sisters are only battle brothers with imperial guard.
Sure, but page 78 of Codex: Space Marines specifically says how to handle references to Codex: Black Templars. Allies of convenience
Steven your right. The point was that they went from desperate allies to allies of convenience. The other point I was trying to make is that it is specifically NOT stated in the Codex: Adepta Sororitas how to handle the reference to Battle Sisters in the allies matrix, which is an oversite in my opinion.
Were going to need a serious ruling on those guns, does one hit, cause perils to a whole unit, or does it cause one perils to a unit, also how to assign the perils if it is just one.
yeah, I agree. It is very vague.
so what your saying is grey knights take out the elites and fight, sister take out the hordes and afterwords are uses as turtle wax for the grey knights armor? perfect TAC list oh ya
this has descended into the depths of stupidity really quickly.
The top army is Tau, tau have no psykers, so good luck with your condemner boltguns, anyone with half a brain is not going to allow there psyker to take a hit from them either. Daemons, Tau, Eldar and marines all laugh at what sister can bring because they do it better.
Your mass armour 11 vehicles stand 0 chance against tau, eldar and marines hell daemons with flickering fire as well.
Sisters have not changed in there power level and if you thought they were powerful before why were they never taken?? They are STILL 12 point 3+ guardsman. 6++ is cute but no where near good enough.
There are some gems in this book but I think you accidentally stumbled on them rather than actually finding them. Great allies for guard, fantastic even.
“this has descended into the depths of stupidity really quickly.”
Please don’t post here if that is the way you’re going to speak to others. It’s 100% fine to disagree with people, even strongly, but comments like that only start flame wars and have no place here.
You seem rather enthusiastic.
As an SoB player I have mixed feelings about the new book. Basic battle sisters are better simply because they can be taken in units of 5 and with Immolators. They were the same cost before (more expensive than in the WH book) and they just aren’t great on their own. Their faith is also weakened (one use only, can no longer use it to regroup regardless of modifiers). Retributors also got hit hard (HB used to be half the price and they used to be able to use the same faith power every turn rather than once a game, so they got nerfed) as did Seraphim (also used to be able to use their faith every turn and higher LD on the basic Seraphim, cheaper Seraphim Superior, used to have access to cheaper Eviscerators and could re-roll failed AoF, but on the plus side at least hand flamers are cheaper).
Penitent Engines also got nerfed. They used to be D6+1 attacks instead of 3+1 and also used to have an ability that let them get an extra attack for every wound they dealt. They weren’t worth it then for the extra 5pts, and a weaker version isn’t worth it now for that much cheaper.
Canoness are also fairly terrible, only worth being taken for command squads (which are pretty nice). You can kit them out however you want, but you can still make a better SM captain for cheaper.
I may be sounding rather pessimistic, but overall I’m liking the look of the new book. Min size of 5 and cheaper MM Immos make BSS much better (as long as you’re willing to minmax them), Dominions are better when minmaxed or against enemies in good cover, Celestine is still great (and for people like me who can’t roll that 4+ to save her life, even better) and Seraphim appear to be still usable (though quite a bit worse overall). Overall I would say the book is better than the WD one even if faith has been weakened a bit due to the power of minmaxing.
Thanks for sharing your opinions as a Sisters player. I am not, I was going off of my first reading and not as a Sisters player so take that into consideration.
I agree that there have been nerfs and buffs to the book without question, but as you said, I think in general the army got better due to some slight changes.
And some of the nerfs were to units that you weren’t taking in a competitive list anyway, such as Retributors. It stinks that they still don’t hold a candle to Exorcists, but hey, at least for most Sisters players that means that nothing has changed for them. I actually prefer having a high average of attacks 3+1 than the random attacks, it means I know what to expect even if the high end is lower.
The big one though, as you noted, is that you can min/max battle Sisters and spam Immolators. That is where the power lies in the list.
I know Blue table painting did a few videos on their youtube on a sisters army they made based on wyches with bolters, might be worth looking at
Nice one! Will have to check that out.
http://www.ragingheroes.com/blogs/news There you go.
Done and Done. I love those minis, they look fantastic.
Does a unit with a librarian have to get hit by a condemnor boltgun or does the librarian have to be hit for perils to occur?
The way it is worded it is just the unit getting hit.
I don’t have the Sister’s codex, but using the Grey Knights codex as a guide under Condemnor Boltgun it says a psyker hit. Even if the current wording in AS codex is different, I suspect it might be errata’d to wording GK uses. Hitting the unit and then wounding a psker in it could be problematic (multiple psykers, etc)
We checked and the wording is different on the Sisters weapon. There are a lot of subtle changes between books such as with Crusaders and Deathcults having Power Swords not weapons, etc.
I am having a hard time understanding “Psi-Shock”:
Any unit w/ a Psyker, Brotherhood of Psykers, or Psychic Pilot hit with a “Psi-Shock” weapon suffer Perils in addition to any other damage.
How does that play out? I hit, before or after I roll the damage the squad takes a Perils roll? Does the Perils have to be taken on a Psyker or on anyone?
Only Psykers can Perils, no other models can suffer the effect of Perils. So, as I read it, You shoot a unit of Tactical Marines (for example) with a Librarian attached. If you hit, the Libby suffers Perils and the unit is hit by the Str5 hit, which is resolved as normal.
They have zero flyers or flyer defense. Would they have a chance against the Flying Circus?
Or against Cron-Air?
Immolators with twin linked multimeltas for regular flyers are fine. You use weight of fire from lots of units on FMC to force grounding checks. Once they come down hit them with condemner boltguns forcing perils checks, twinlinked multimeltas and exorcist launchers.
Exactly. Twin Melta weapons are actually really good for killing flyers. Plus, you can always ally with IG for some Vendettas.
I’m secretly building an awesome substitute for sisters! Soon they shall be unleashed!
I shall be waiting, sir!
I think they also give the possibility of an IG Deathstar.
10 Ogryns (hopefully cheaper w/ their Codex)
Primaris Psyker (Nightshroud)
5 SoB Priests w/5 Condemner Bolters (4++ in H-to-H) who are now ICs for 2+ LoS, while allowing the Ogryns to Reroll to W in H-to-H
Saint Celestine (Hit and Run allows the player to gain the most out of Hatred)
Run the Deathstar with the Priests in front, throwing 2+ LoS to spread the wounds evenly across the Ogryns.
When the IG codex comes out, you could add another 5 priests to it, who all have 4+ invuls and access to Eviserators.
My wife and I play with our converted Sisters of Battle (built from wytches with bolt arms and backpacks, plus a Imperial stuff as desired) and though it is probably not as competative, the War Hymms make large 20 Battle Sister units buffed up with Uriah Jacobus and Saint Celestine pretty tough. With an agressively deployed Aegis Line they can dominate the center of the board. Also, a seemingly overlooked point is that Saint is an IC that has Hit and Run!!! A battle sister block with her an Uriah can double tap, absorb a charge, get counter attack from Uriah and reroll saves in that combat. Stick around because they are fearless, and then Hit and Run out of that combat in the enemy turn off Saint C’s I7. There are alot of moving parts to it and without good planning the system breaks down, but its been a fun concept we have been playing with all weekend. The best part is that the Counter Attack effect is a bubble, so you can make another “Chick Blob” as we have taken to calling it, that functions almost the exact same with a Priest in it. You just have to shuttle Saint into the unit that you need to Hit and Run with before the combat starts as you cannot leave/join units in combat.