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Before an extended hiatus from the hobby, my main army was blood angels. This year I’m remaking them in a new scale for armies on parade.

++The Order of the Alabaster Tear++ ++ORIGINS++ In the early 140:M41 the reports of chaos activity inside the Gothic sector increased considerably. These omens of an imminent war put the Imperium war machine in motion. Forge-worlds increased weapons’ production while a considerable force gathered in the sector. The Adepta Sororitas deployed its forces. Minor orders were instituted, some to fight others to provide support. Among the latter an Order Hospitaller, the Alabaster Tear, was sent to provide medical support to the troops stationed in the proximity of the Avalon system. The order counted many novitiate and very few sisters with actual combat experience, as they planned to rely on the protection of a nearby astartes’ chapter: the Silver Feathers. Despite being a fleet based order, due to the scarce number of its members, the order of the Alabaster Tear was given only a single lunar-class cruiser: the “Piety” although it was equipped with cutting edge medical technology. Thus the Piety departed from Terra away to the fringes of the Gothic sector. ++ORIGINAL ORGANIZATION++ Selune was an old sister and veteran of countless war zones. During her time serving side by side with the guard, she met numerous soldiers and situations which tested her faith in the Emperor. She always emerged from these crisis with a renewed and stronger determination, soon she had become someone to look up to for the soldiers who struggled to see the true meaning of their sacrifice. This earned her a good reputation inside the Sororitas which rewarded her with the leadership of the Alabaster Tear. To ensure the safety of the order a combat squad was attached to it. This squad was composed by four sisters and one outsider who fought together with them countless times. Their leader, Miria, was supposed to take the leadership in case the order came under attack. Besides them very few sisters had actual combat experience as most of them were still novitiate. ++FIRST CONTACT++ The Piety exited warp-space near the Avalon system. Soon, the on-board sensor registered an unknown signal moving fast in their direction. Captain Ushar shouted orders to the crew and the escort vessels, three in total, assumed a defensive formation around the Cruiser. From the radio room they hailed the mysterious ship. The answer was an excruciating screech, followed by the alarms indicating that the Piety was under attack. A distress signal was immediately sent by the Astropath to Port Maw, the headquarters of the Navy in the sector. Meanwhile the ship’s nature became clear as the first images came up on the holo-screen: chaos marks were painted everywhere along Nurgle’s star. After an exchange of long-range torpedoes, the wretched ship went on full thrust, launching a barrage of boarding torpedoes. The ship crew armed itself, yet despite the sisters’ training they were medics not warriors. Miria, the leader of the combat squad, deployed the forces on board into patrols spread throughout the ship. With a harsh maneuver the Piety was able to evade most of the torpedoes while it kept on engaging the heretical ship. Shots, screams and prayers spread throughout the corridors of the ship as the boarding party gained more and more ground. Two of the escort vessels took severe damage crippling them, while the third rammed into the enemy at full throttle. Under Ushar’s terrified gaze the ship repaired itself before unleashing a broadside on the escort ripping the bridge open. Out of nowhere a storm of torpedoes and lasers forced the chaos’ ship to get on the defensive. From the darkness of space emerged a battleship escorted by two cruisers. On the black ship shined the imperial eagle beside silver letters which read:” Cathubodva”. Under the crossfire the heretic barge got quickly annihilated. A thunder-hawk launched from the Cathubodva holding a squad of astartes which, after landing inside the hangar, dispatched the plague marines still on the Piety. Thanks to Miria’s expert leadership the order managed to contain the casualties but the ship suffered heavy damages and was unable to travel the warp. Thunder-hawks shuttled back and forth between the escort vessels and the Piety bringing in the survivors and leaving them in the sisters’ care. A delegation of Astartes from the Cathubodva met with both Miria and Selune to discuss the actions to be taken. After a consultation with the sector’s headquarter they decided to split the order in two. Miria took the most experienced sister and half of the novitiate and boarded the Cathubodva heading for the front. Selune and the remaining sisters stood on board of the Piety and were escorted to Avalon VI where the ship could be repaired enough to allow warp travel. ++THE PLAGUE++ The order of the Alabaster Tear, upon arriving on Avalon(a feudal world), deployed a camp using it as temporary HQ. From there Selune gave the sisters various tasks like walking among the population to check for any sign of heresy or lending medical care to nearby villages. The word of these prodigious healers spread quickly among the locals and soon a large crowd gathered outside the order’s camp, many of them asking for true miracles. In some individuals the sisters had found an incubating virus which, after further studies, appeared to be of a similar strain as Nurgle’s plagues. Soon, they ordered a quarantine and conducted additional tests on the population to see how far had the infection spread. The chapter master of the Silver Feathers refused to send notice to the inquisition and vowed that his astartes would undoubtedly find the heretics responsible for this. With the order’s forces halved and the plague spreading, Selune couldn’t risk a conflict thus she agreed. Somehow the information on the nature of the contagion spread to the population and caused major disorders as many innocents were accused of spreading the disease and were burned on the stake. Some peasants even went as far as accusing the order and attacked its camp. Obviously the technological superiority assured a swift end to the incursion but plunged them even deeper into suspicion. At the zenith of this madness in 143:M41 the 12th black crusade properly started. A Chaos fleet attacked Avalon which defences were compromised by the revolts on the surface. Meanwhile the plague was infuriating, ripping victims in the million. The Feathers’ forces gathered again, bringing with them the other half of the order as well as two regiments of the guard. ++THE INVASION++ The forces of chaos landed first in the city of Asader, where a chaos cult had rose in rebellion taking the city, securing it as a bridgehead. From there their offensive was swift and merciless, the defenders fought with all their might and managed to stall them but not before a considerable part of the planet fell into their filthy hands. At some point the High Command proposed an exterminatus on Avalon to which both the chapter and the order strongly opposed. Sister Ophelia organized part of the still loyal population into a war-band and conducted a guerrilla behind the enemy lines, helped by the ever present mist. Local hunters reported a massive force of heretics converging on the camp. The Silver Feathers were engaged on many fronts and couldn’t come in their aid. Thus Selune and Miria joined in counsel and decided to evacuate immediately the camp, although many of the novitiate were among the wounded. Thiara, the youngest sister in Miria’s squad, decided to stand and fight, refusing to abandon her sisters and, symbolically, stood in the courtyard for the entire day. By dusk, when the heretical chorus could be heard, more than five-hundred warriors, both from the order and the guard, had joined her. Miria led them in a desperate stand to buy enough time for the novitiate and the wounded to evacuate. Ophelia joined midway into the fight with her guerilla squads, shortly afterwards Miria had fallen on the field. When the evacuation was almost complete, of the five-hundred defenders only Thiara, Ophelia and Morgaine who was one of the locals participating in the guerilla still stood. Encircled and with no way out, they were soon torn asunder by the swords and axes of the Enemy. Yet, just when the chaos astartes’ attention turned on the novitiate still inside the camp, dying screams lifted from the rearguard as the three women ripped through the astartes in waves of eldritch power. Each of them presented black wings, sprouting from their back, piercing through the tattered armours. When the novitiate found the heart to plunge into battle, by the time they got out of the camp, everything was over and there were no trace of their saviours other than their empty armours. ++CANONISATION OF SAINT THIARA++ Once the war was over, the word of what happened back then already spread throughout the entire order. The martyrdom of Thiara, who was disposed to fight even alone to protect her sisters, soon became symbolic to the order. Tales of her resurrection were narrated like those about the saints of the past. Many considered the resurrection of the three a miracle of the Emperor and petitioned the Ecclesiarchy for her canonisation. Thus in 154.M41 Thiara was decreed a saint of the Ecclesiarchy and patron of the order of the Alabaster Tear.

Hi all! I'll admit, I had decided I wasn't going to collect sisters. Don't get me wrong, I'd seriously considered it, even almost purchased the army box, but with two of my group of friends already slated to grab them I had decided to let my interest lie and concentrate on other projects. Fast forward a month or two to my birthday and the arrival of a friend on leave from the army for a few days, bearing a rather large birthday gift. Now, I'm no stranger to his gifting process which can be inadequately described as "generous" and I was expecting having to scold him yet again for spending too much on me when I just can't do the same in return (3 year olds tend to spend your money fater than you can make it). As he passed me the gift I noticed how heavy it was for an army box sized present, immediately intrigued by what it was. At this point I assumed it wasn't anything hobby related as sprues just don't weight that much. My son and I tore into the wrapping paper, famously over-wrapped so it took us a while, revealing in all it's glory the sisters army box. So now I play sisters after all! I must say, I'm such a happy bunny. Assembling and painting the first few models has been such a joy and I have constantly kept my friend updated with my progress, hopefully he appreciates it as a small token of how blown away I am. So, I'm here to create a log of my progress. It may not be updated that often, who knows? Below is what I have so far. I present the Order of the Bloody Rose: I'm not sure how these will turn out when viewed on the post, but I have used a contrast metallic red method for the armour. To the naked eye they pop quite nicely.

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?

Alright, inspired by Eddie's comments in the Codex Wishes thread, here's my take on Sisters cyborgs basically (the idea I have is that their limbs are more or less gone, they're basically just their vital organs and head implanted into this robotic body). RULES PDF (my plain formatting version) Rules and initial concept: Servant of Dante Datasheet formatting and concept art: Ezr91aeL ORIGINAL POST Hidden Content EDIT: The issues below have been addressed in one form or another, but feel free to leave another sugestion anyway - I don't have a name for the unit yet, so suggestions welcome - I'm not sure they should have both the vehicle and infantry keywords, but Sister vehicles don't usually have AoF . . . - I wanted to represent that the pain the Sisters feel from the neural connections of the body kinda wash out the pain from wounds, but just giving them the FnP ability felt a bit off. So it has a downside. A rather steep one, but I think it's pretty fluffy. - The Praesidium Protectiva's rules are based on how it worked in 2E compared to the Storm Shield. For reference, here's how their respective functions are paraphrased in the Battle Bible: Storm Shield: “Model receives an extra armour saving throw of 4+ against shooting or hand-to-hand combat (32) which cannot be modified and applies only against attacks from the front 90 arc. May be used to parry (33).” Praesidium Protectiva: “Requires a free hand to use, and may parry (33) a close combat (32) attack in the character‘s front arc, and provides an unmodified 4+ saving throw on a D6 against close combat attacks. If a roll of 6 is made for the save, the attacking model receives the hit instead. Has no effect on shooting attacks.” Comments Appreciated

Reposting this from my thread on the Sisters forum :D I'd appreciate any comments you might have. Please though, if you suggest a change to a particular part of the datasheet, read my notes on that particular rule/part to get a bit of an idea of why I did what I did :)

Alright, I just finished adapting Helena's 2E rules to 8E I've got the rules and notes in pdf form, and I'll post them below. I'll also link my 7E adaptation of Helena thread. I feel like there was other stuff I was going to say . . . but I really can't remember what it was Feel free to ask any questions (actually I'd enjoy answering them). I plan on doing the other 2E characters in the future too, any preferance on who to do next (does anyone even care? I'm thinking of Praxedes or Armandus Helfire). 7E adaptation thread: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/324975-helena-the-virtuous-7e-adaptation/ 8E adaptation PDF: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6I7dUBoJLwfVFp2ajNhQTZ2X3c ----- Helena the Virtuous is an HQ choice Helena the Virtuous M 6" WS 3+ BS 3+ S 3 T 3 W 4 A 4 Ld 10 Sv 3+ Helena the Virtuous is a single model armed with a boltgun, the Rod of Grace, frag grenades and krak grenades. Only one of this model may be included in your army. Faction Keywords: Imperium, Adeptus Ministorum, Adepta Sororitas, Convent Sanctorum Keywords: Character, Infantry, Helena the Virtuous The Rod of Grace (Shooting) Range 6" Type Assault 1 S 6 AP -4 D D3 The Rod of Grace (Melee) Range Melee Type Melee S x2 AP -4 D D3 ABILITIES Act of Faith, Shield of Faith Rosarius: This model has a 4+ invulnerable save Mantle of Ophelia: Once per game, at the start of any Battle Round, you may declare that Helena is using the Mantle. For the duration of that Battle round you may re-roll Rosarius invulnerable saves for Helena. Sacred Rites: You need not roll a D6 at the start of your turn for the Act of Faith ability, you are always assumed to have rolled a 2+. This does not affect further sources of Acts of Faith, such as the Simulacrum Imperialis ability of the Imagifier, for which you must roll as normal. Holy Radiance: Friendly units within 12” of Helena halve the number of models lost each time they fail a morale check. Round fractional models up. Additionally, all friendly units with line of sight to Helena may use her leadership in place of their own. Revered Leader: The first time Helena loses one or more wounds, even if this results in her being removed as a casualty, or when Helena is removed as a casualty without having lost any wounds, all friendly units gain the Hatred ability for the remainder of the game, as described below. When Helena is removed as a casualty, each friendly non-Character unit must immediately make a Morale test as if it were the Morale phase and four models from the unit had been slain that turn. Helena’s Holy Radiance ability grants no benefit to units making this Morale test. The number of models slain is treated as four even if more models from the unit have already been slain that turn, and models lost to Morale tests caused by this ability do not count toward models slain in the turn for Morale tests made during the Morale phase. Hatred: Units with this ability add 1 to their Leadership and can re-roll hit rolls in a turn in which they charged, made a heroic intervention, or were charged by an enemy unit. Additionally, units with this ability may not Fall Back during the Movement phase when within 1” of an enemy unit. Prioress of the Convent Sanctorum: Helena must be your Warlord. Additionally, your army must contain a unit of Celestians as Helena’s bodyguard. This bodyguard unit does not take up a force organization slot, and it can never fill a mandatory force organization slot. This unit may never voluntarily end the Movement phase 3” or more away from Helena. If, in the Movement phase, Helena moves so that her bodyguard cannot end its move within 3” of her without Advancing, they must Advance and move toward Helena by the shortest possible route. ----- NOTES To keep with the rules presentation style of 8E (even if not in terms of formatting) I have not included any flavor text. It’s worth reading though. I did refer to my notes on the 7E adaptation of Helena as I made this (I made rather extensive notes). The 7E adaptation and notes are linked at the top of the thread. Profile: Adapted using the profiles below. Move is 6” like all humans, and have been omitted from the profiles. The Canoness profiles were used as a baseline for how Sisters profiles have changed since 2E. The WS is the tricky one for me, Helena’s was slightly weaker than the base Canoness, but the 8E system of WS is less granular than in previous editions. Celestine and the basic Canoness are the only models in the Sisters army that have a WS of 2+ in 8E. In order to maintain that Helena has slightly worse WS, I have set it to 3+, though it really should be a 2.5+ (if that were possible). Her BS was even more less than the base Canoness, so a BS of 3+ makes sense for her. On the other hand, both BS 7 and 5 hit on a 2+ normally, but again, 8E does not offer us the granularity of previous editions. I am erring in favor of preserving Helena’s stat differences with the base canoness, at the risk of statistically widening them. Her 2E incarnation had 1 less toughness than the basic Canoness. To represent this (as well as to perhaps balance out the power of her abilities), I have set her wounds to 4, 1 less than the base Canoness in 8E. This is one of the few stats in the 8E Canoness’s profile that is high enough that there is some wiggle room. Helena ignored psychology and break tests in 2E, and she’s quite the important, influential person in the Sororitas, so I have set her Ld at 10 even though in 2E it was equal to the base Canoness’s. (Profiles in PDF, I'm not going to retype them here, sorry . . . ) Weapons: Targeter and purity seals remain dropped as they no longer have rules. Krak grenades added since they are standard for all Sisters. The Rosarius is an Ability now, rather than a piece of wargear or a weapon. Abilities: Act of Faith and Shield of Faith added as standard Sisters abilities. The Rosarius is an ability rather than a piece of wargear now, so it’s listed here (standard rosaries rule for 8E). Helena’s other abilities are described individually below for (relative) ease of reading. Mantle of Ophelia: Since this isn’t a weapon, and the Rosarius was moved to the Abilities heading, I moved this here too. Since Instant Death is no longer a part of the game (invalidating simply copying the 7E version of the Mantle), I have adapted the original 2E functionality, since it’s quite quirky and fun. I’ve not restricted the reroll to failed rolls, to avoid issues with the application of modifiers forcing a reroll of what would be a passed save after modifiers, or keeping you from rerolling what will be a failed save after modifiers. Sacred Rites: In 2E, this ability inhanced the Sacred Rites roll of the unit Helena was attached to (but Canonesses did the same thing, just with a slightly smaller modifier, so there’s no reason for Helena to magnify nearby units’ AoFs since Canonesses don’t in 8E), as well as improving the Sacred Rites rolls for her entire army. I feel that the most simple, elegant way to represent this is to have her let you automatically pass your 2+ AoF roll. Holy Radiance: The radical changes to the morale system in 8E make this one quite tricky. Originally it caused Imperium squads with 12” of Helena to automatically rally, and gave Helena immunity to psychology and break tests (I approximated that as Fearless in 7E). And it let units with LoS to her use her Ld, which is not problematic in 8E, so hardly worth mentioning here. What we have seen so far for morale mitigation (not ignoring it entirely) is simply capping the number of lost models. A negative modifier might sound thematic, but that is no different from simply adding to her leadership since she shares her Ld with those around her (and Ld 11+ is no longer impossible, technically). So, I think halving the number of models lost to moral, on top of sharing her Ld (to those in LoS at least) is a decent solution and approximation of the 2E effect. Since Helena can’t be allied with non-imperium units (she lacks any non-Imperium keywords) except for perhaps the fallen (and at that point, it’s not my responsibility to clutter up my rules to keep you inside the fluff) I’m not going to worry about restricting her Ld buff to just Imperium units. This makes her an interesting character, since almost all characters in 8E only buff their own faction. Since I’m trying to preserve the letter of her 2E rules, I’m ok with this design discrepancy. Her morale sharing effect is probably her most potent attribute in my version of her rules, but I want to maintain this functionality, so she’ll just have to be costed accordingly. The 2E rule also made Helena immune to psychology and break tests, but since Helena is a single model unit she never takes morale checks anyway, and I’m also using this as a justification for bumping her Ld up to 10. Revered Leader: With how every unit spells out all its Abilities in 8E, I’ve decided to make this work more-or-less verbatim, though I have toned down the effects of hatred from what they were in 2E, the Hatred ability given here is derived directly from 2E, rather than relying on a current incarnation (since it doesn’t exist anymore). This ability is quite clunky and requires a good bit of book keeping, bit I am more interest3e in maintaining the function of Helena’s rules than making sure she’s not a bit tricky to play. Unfortunately, once again the massive changes to morale create a translation issue. Previously, the rule forced all units to pass a Ld test or fall back when Helena died (and those that passed became immune to break tests for the rest of the battle), but units no longer fall back against your will ever in 8E. The solution I’ve come up with isn’t an exact representation, but I’m taking GW at their word that losing additional models is the extent of how morale works in 8E, and this is supposed to be a morale check. They treat themselves as having lost 4 models, since Helena has 4 wounds. I think it’s a rather clever parallel to include, since it makes the morale check an actual threat, but it doesn’t hit units that have taken casualties previously the same turn any harder than it hits units that haven’t (it doesn’t consider the actual casualties the unit has taken that turn). Thematically, it helps play up the fact that the units are discouraged because Helena has fallen. I’ve dropped the “ignore break tests for the rest of the battle” thing since that would be too powerful. The wording on this ability turned out to be quite a mouthful, but I wanted to make sure it was clear and consistent with the wording of the morale phase in the main rules (all 5 sentences of them). Hatred: In 2E this let models make Break tests with Ld 10, gave them what we call Zealot in 8E, and made them use their follow-up move to get closer or engage the enemy. I tried to approximate this for 8E, without making it have too large of an impact on gameplay or be too powerful. I decided to stick with granting Zealot, along with +1 Ld (a strong buff, but you did just lose Ld 10 for everyone who could see Helena) and losing the ability to Fall Back from cc, period. This is a major disadvantage, but Helena gives plenty of advantages. I think this is all very thematic. None of this is too hard to keep track of, so I think it’s ok. Prioress of the Convent Sanctorum: Helena’s 2E rules required her to be your army’s commander, so I required her to be your warlord. I know this isn’t something we’ve seen in 8E yet, but I want to keep the functionality of the rules from 2E as much as possible and this bit is easy to do. Next, she was required to take a bodyguard (it was an option for any Canoness to take a bodyguard unit, but it was mandatory for Helena). In my 7E adaptation, I made her join a Command Squad, but now characters don’t join units, so this could get a bit wordy. Celestians, with their “bodyguard” ability, make them the obvious choice, and the Canoness could take a unit of Celestian Bodyguards in 3E anyway. I went back and forth on whether to require the bodyguard to stay close to Helena. In the end I decided I didn’t want people using her bodyguard to protect other characters and not Helena, so I would have to either add a restriction the Celestian’s bodyguard ability, or require them to stay close to Helena. I decided it would be easier to make them stay close, but I made the restriction only apply during the Movement phase. Trying to word it to work in the Assault phase as well would have been far too verbose and confusing. The Rod of Grace: Since we’ve gone back to Damage and Save Mods, I can just use the 2E rules! 2E also had range mods, but the Rod of Grace just was straight dice with only 1 range band, so I’m lucky in that regard. And I’m not going to worry about the armour penetration stat (for use vs vehicles) since vehicles just have T now. Warlord Trait (lack thereof): I thought about giving Helena one, but why not let her be tactically flexible and pick? Also, I really can’t think of one that screams “Helena the Virtuous” now. In any case, I don’t think she really needs one, especially since Celestine just picks from the generic ones now too. ----- Comments appreciated Thanks to anyone who read all that crap.

Greetings all. This will be the repository thread for all progress of powered armor wearing models in my collection. The first post may contain non-power armored themed information for context. Currently, I'm faced with a conundrum. I paint a myriad of types and styles of miniatures due to my day job. I need paint scheme themes to keep me organized with sci Fi and fantasy projects. Historicals are easier to manage due to..well, extant historical information.I trialed this over the last two years with my undead, where I have used green as an overarching main color.So I'm doing something similar now:1. Undead: Green must be a major color2. Imperial: blues and creams if possible. Imperial guard are an exception as they can literally be anything. But I will try to push blues and creams into those schemes.3. Fantasy humans/guild myrmidian: yellow and red.4. Stormcast will always be silver and purple. Here's the issue. This is my latest power armored project prior to this update in methodology: I'm not sure whether to continue and paint the rest as what is extant, or move to my above re-focused plan. Your thoughts, friends?