Contemplating the Palatine (and friends) with SoD

[Servant of Dante]

Yay stupid thread title! I couldn't resist. Here's what I've been doing for the last hour or two. If it's not clear SoD is supposed to be short for Servant of Dante.

 

The Sisters of Battle lack an HQ choice below the rank of Canoness. Based on the codex, every Order of Our Martyred Lady strike force is led by Saint Celestine, Uriah Jacobus, or the Canoness, who I assume spends most of her time on Ophelia VII. This is obviously ridiculous.

 

Fair warning I guess: I’ll be trying to maintain decent English grammar throughout, and I’ll probably get a little long-winded.

 

I’d like to think of myself as an avid student of the evolution of the rules of 40K (not necessarily knowing all of the rules). Seeing how a rule from a single unit evolved into something multiple codices use is quite fascinating. So, I’ve decided to look back at the Palatine and similar characters (although I’ll be referring to all of them a Palatines when I am speaking collectively) from previous editions to build a Palatine Datasheet for 7th edition as faithfully as possible (no pun intended). I don’t own the 2nd edition rules, but I’m not going to dig them out of the Internet because that game was a whole different thing. Modern 40k is derived from the 3rd edition rewrite as far as I’m concerned, so that’s as far back as I’m going to go.

 

The following entries have been translated into modern rules formatting and language.

 

Celestian Superior (3rd Edition Chapter Approved 2002) 32 points

 

WS 4  BS 5  S 3  T 3  W 2  I 4  A 2  Ld 9  Sv 3+  Unit Type: Infantry (Character)  Unit Composition: 1 Celestian Superior

 

Wargear:

• Power armour

Special Rules:

• Acts of Faith (3E CA 2002)
• Independent Character
• Sacred Rights (+1 Faith Point at beginning of battle and at death

Options:

• May take Weapons and up to 100 points of Wargear from the Ministorum Armoury, including the Sisters of Battle Wargear list.

 

Differences from Canoness (3E CA 2002)

-1 W

-1 A

-1 Ld

-1 Faith Point each time they contribute

 

 

Palatine (3rd Edition Witch Hunters) 35 points

 

WS 4  BS 5  S 3  T 3  W 2  I 4  A 2  Ld 9  Sv 3+  Unit Type: Infantry (Character)  Unit Composition: 1 Palatine

 

Wargear:

• Power armour

Special Rules:

• Acts of Faith (3E WH)
• Adepta Sororitas (marker rule)
• Faithful (+1 Faith Point at beginning of battle and at death)
• Independent Character
• Shield of Faith (deny any power targeting or including them in their area of effect, immune to minor psychic powers)

Options:

• May take Weapons and up to 100 points of Wargear from the Ministorum Armoury.

 

Differences from Canoness (3E CA 2002)

-1 W

-1 A

-1 Ld

-1 Faith Point each time they contribute

 

The 5th edition WD codex did not include a Palatine equivalent, so I’ll not mention it any further. Unsurprisingly, the Celestian Superior from the provisional CA codex is essentially identical to the Palatine in the WH codex. The Canonesses from those sources, are also identical. It appears that a proper Palatine should have one less Wound, Attack, and Leadership than a Canoness, as well as generating one less Faith Point. As for points values, the Canonesses from both 3E CA 2002 and the 3E WH codex cost 45 points, while the WH Palatine cost 3 more points than the CA Celestian Superior. We’ll come back to that at the end, I think.

 

The Main issues come when we get to Special Rules and Acts of Faith. Wargear and Options seem to be the same for a Canoness and a Palatine, so those are not issues, as they can be directly copied from the most recent Canoness unit entry. Stats changes are simple and consistent, as discussed above. The only difference in this are will be WS, which will be 5 rather than 4. An argument could be made for WS 4, but I would rather maintain the pattern of stat differences between the Canoness and Palatine

 

I’ll be ignoring rules pertaining solely to the older versions of Acts of Faith, other than as a reference for relative power levels. Starting at the top of the current Canoness’s Special Rules, we have Act of Faith, then Independent Character. These rules seem like they obviously belong on a Palatine’s datasheet, as they where more or less shared between Canonesses and Palatines in the 3E codices discussed above. Martyrdom, while not necessarily as clear-cut, seems to belong on a Palatine. The WH codex even had a “Martyrdom” heading in its Acts of Faith section, although it applied to all Faithfull characters in that codex. Shield of Faith has always been an army-wide special rule, so it will be included on our new Palatine.

 

The tricky question, to me, is whether to include Stubborn. It’s a rule that is newer than the codices I have referenced (the rule may have existed in some form on a select few units, but in any case it was not widespread). I’m going to include it for now, although I’m interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.

 

Finally comes the Act of Faith. This is the most difficult question for me. As we have seen, the Palatine generally is less “faithful” than the Canoness, but previous editions gave full access to a few Acts of Faith to every unit. I don’t see a problem with giving the Palatine the same Act of Faith as the Canoness, except that it breaks the pattern of each unit having a unique Act of Faith. Since The Passion is a close combat oriented Act of Faith, something similar would seem to be appropriate for the Palatine. It should be no more powerful than the Canoness’s, but should affect the Palatine and her unit. I really need your input on this aspect, and I can’t think of anything suitable right now.

 

All right, here it is.

 

Palatine (3rd Edition Witch Hunters) 51 points?

The Palatine is an HQ choice for Codex: Adepta Sororitas

 

WS 5  BS 5  S 3  T 3  W 2  I 4  A 2  Ld 9  Sv 3+  Unit Type: Infantry (Character)  Unit Composition: 1 Palatine

 

Wargear:

• Power armour
• Bolt Pistol
• Chainsword
• Frag grenades
• Krak grenades

Special Rules:

• Act of Faith
• Independent Character
• Martyrdom
• Shield of Faith
• Stubborn

Act of Faith:

• ???

Options:

• May replace bolt pistol with a boltgun
• May take a rosarius
• May take melta bombs
• A Palatine may take items from the Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons and Ecclesiarchy Relics lists.

ACT OF FAITH

???

 

For the points cost, we have examples of 10 and 13 points less than the Canoness; however, another way to view these numbers is as approximately 78% and 71% of the cost of a Canoness respectively. This gives us four (rounded) values:

 

65-10: 55

65-13: 52

65*.78: 51

65*.71: 46

 

The matter is further complicated by the changes in core rules that may increase or decrease the value of certain attributes, but given the rules similarities between the Canoness and the Palatine, along with the inexact nature of GW points costs, I think we will be ok.

 

For the fun of it, I found the mean of the values above. It’s 51. I think that might be about right, but to be honest, the way I arrived at this number doesn’t actually mean much. It might be a little low. We’ll have to see how the Act of Faith turns out.

 

Finally, I would really appreciate your comments and suggestions in this matter, but please at least skim what I have written before suggesting a change. Note that I have not attempted to make sure the Palatine is competitive, or that it has a useful or unique tactical role on the battlefield. I wanted an alternative to the Canoness, and I wanted to stay true to the heritage of Sisters of Battle rules.

 

Thanks and apologies to anyone who read all of that!

[GogglesDown]

This might be a bit pedantic but I think having the option to swith your chainsword for bolter fits better. Sisters run around with bolt pistol and bolter so they can shoot and assault. It doesn't make sense to me too give up my pistol instead of chainsword.

[Servant of Dante]

This might be a bit pedantic but I think having the option to swith your chainsword for bolter fits better. Sisters run around with bolt pistol and bolter so they can shoot and assault. It doesn't make sense to me too give up my pistol instead of chainsword.

As I noted in my post, the options are directly copied from the Canoness entry in the codex. You have a point, but I would like to remain consistent.

 

Thanks for the comment!