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Tactics for Units - Repentia; Sisters and Mistresses Welcome back to Tactics for Units, my multi-part series on Adepta Sororitas tactics, for Adepta Sororitas units. This time we’ll be looking at somewhat of a controversial unit in 8th Edition; the Repentia. We’ll also be examining the Mistress of Repentance, as her abilities and fluff mesh so well with Repentia that it’d be more difficult to examine them separately. The Repentia are heavy infantry and light vehicle slayers, and a potentially deadly close combat threat to most anything else. They are lightly armoured, of average speed, and occupy an Elite Slot that is currently more diverse and competitive than ever before. The Repentia are those Sororitas who have committed acts so heinous to the Sisterhood that the only redemption to be found is in a glorious and sacrificial death. Divested of their regular wargear, they wield enormous eviscerators, and hunt down the greatest of threats on the field. The Mistress of Repentance supervises the Repentia, both driving them on to greater fervour, and restraining them from ill-advised assaults, helping to maximise their battlefield effectiveness, and the likelihood of their redemption. Statistics The Repentia have a good, though fairly standard stat line at first glance. It's the same veteran line you'll see on Sisters Superior and on Celestians. Of note is the 2 attacks and Weapon Skill of 3+, as befits a dedicated combat unit. Like other Sisters, the strength and toughness of 3 are a bit mediocre, especially on a combat unit, but leadership 8 is great to help them stick around. And you'll need it, because these ladies have a 7+ save. That's right. They don't even have shirts on. They die easily to a harsh look. The Mistress of Redemption has what you might consider a Canoness-lite stat line. WS and BS are 3+, and she has 4 wounds and 3 attacks. Pretty good! Everything else is standard for a Sororitas character; LD8, Strength and Toughness of 3, a power armour 3+ save. Overall, a nice little character with a bit of heft. Special Rules Repentia share the two standard Adepta Sororitas special rules, Acts of Faith and Shield of Faith. Shield of Faith is very important for Repentia, as it actually gives them a save. Sure, it's only a 6++, but, as it's an invulnerable save, you'll always have it, which can't always be said. It's important, but it's not necessarily going to be very useful. Repentia will still die in droves if you're not careful with them. As ever, the 1d6 Deny the Witch exists. It might happen. Probably won't. But you never know! Acts of Faith is going to be roughly as useful to Repentia as it is to most other Sororitas units. Of particular note, Hand of the Emperor’s extra move phase would really help position the Repentia where they need to be to do the most damage, and Spirit of the Martyr can help patch up the fact that this squad will be taking considerable losses. Repentia are also one of the few Sororitas units that might want to use The Passion, as their strength is certainly in the assault, so why not double up on that? And it's a fight phases free of retribution, which definitely sounds good for the paper thin ladies. Just remember that you need to already have the unit engaged in assault to use this one. The Mistress of Repentance has the shared rules Acts of Faith and Shield of Faith, and a couple of her own. Shield of Faith means the Mistress will always have that 6++ save, and given she actually has an armour save to speak of, she might survive long enough to pass the one 6++ roll she might have to make. The Deny the Witch is not likely to come up, but maybe it'll work. There's always a chance. Acts of Faith are, as ever, always going to be wonderful. Hand of the Emperor could allow the Mistress to keep up with her Repentia charges, which is a perennial issue with 8th Edition and unit specific buff characters like her. With the random nature of charges and Advancing, a unit can quite easily get pulled out of coherency with their buffing character or vice versa. Hand of the Emperor helps rectify this. Avoid Divine Guidance, as her shooting is lackluster and you are almost guaranteed a better use of your Faith. As with any multiwound model, Spirit of the Martyr is great to keep her wobbling along the battlefield a little longer. Like the Repentia, The Passion is worth a look, as an extra chance to deal out her lovely 3 attacks is certainly nice. The Mistress’ other special rules are Angelic Visage and Driven Onwards. Angelic Visage allows the Mistress to reroll failed Shield of Faith invulnerable saves. Ooh yes please. Statistically, this boost the likelihood of passing the save to 30%, which is almost as good as having a 5++. Driven Onwards is the Repentia-specific buff rule you're probably bringing the Mistress for. It allows <Order> Repentia to reroll Advance, Charge, and To Hit rolls. It's a 6” bubble, but notably does not affect the Mistress, as she lacks the Repentia keyword. With a 6” bubble, you could potentially get several Repentia within range at a time. Equipment Repentia have exactly one piece of equipment; the Penitent Eviscerator. Don’t be fooled by the eviscerator title, this isn’t the beastly queen of close combat that the Canoness can take. This is still good, don’t get me wrong, but in a very different sense. Strength x2, AP-2, and 2 Damage is great, and in many ways more reliable than a standard eviscerator, but losing out on the AP-4 hurts a bit. The 2 Damage helps rectify things, though, as it is something reliable on what is often an unreliable platform. Attacking with these gives a -1 penalty to hit, so it’s good Repentia have WS3+. The Penitent Eviscerator means that Repentia are perhaps best in the role of heavy infantry and light vehicle shredding. The Mistress of Repentance has Neural Whips, and both Frag and Krak grenades. The Neural Whips are AP-2 power weapons that grant a +1 to wound if the target unit’s highest leadership is less than 8. Which is great. It doesn’t work on Vehicles, though, so she’ll be striking at her mediocre S3 against tanks and Space Marines. Overall, a solid enough weapon, and she has 3 Attacks to actually make use of it. It’s important to remember frag and krak grenades, of course, as she doesn’t have any other ranged weapons, so if you’re within 6”, have her chuck one. Frag is useful if you’re against T3-5, and if you can hope to force a few failed saves. The low strength and lack of AP can be annoying, though, and there’s always the chance of rolling a 1 for the number of shots. The Krak grenade runs the risk of just outright missing, but against most things it’ll be wounding on a 3 or better, and d3 damage can really help take out an annoying character or vehicle. Tactics Repentia hit hard, but they’re fragile as anything. With that, and their average move stat in mind, they really need a transport. Either a Rhino or an Immolator will do you well, though my money's on the Rhino, as the Immolator’s weapon can make it tempting to shoot, when you really need to be Advancing across the battlefield. Barrel across the field, drop them off, and have them charge something valuable. Don’t expect them to survive after this, though. Alternatively, you can use them as a counter-charge unit in your backfield. You’ll still want to put them in a vehicle, though. The Mistress of Repentance is almost an Auto-Take with the Repentia, as rerolling to hit rolls alone is worth the ticket price, but rerolling charges really helps guarantee the Repentia will be charging where they need to be. She’s also comparatively good at clearing chaff that might slow down the Repentia. I’ll be honest here. I haven’t used Repentia very much, and when I have, they certainly haven’t impressed me. I’m not entirely sure how to recommend their use. As such, I’m just going to throw open the floor to the community. How do YOU use Repentia? What do you think of them?