Tactics for Units - Repentia; Sisters and Mistresses

[CaptainHelion]

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?

 

 

[Beams]

They work well in a Repressor, since you can fit the full 10, and get the bonus of two heavy Flamers and a stormbolter of shooting. Then the Repressors can charge first vs whatever you want dead, absorbing overwatch and dealing a bit of damage with the dozer Sheild, followed by the penitents, who then finish it off.

[A.T.]

One of the two units (the other being arcos) that really want a priest in tow for the extra attacks - without aura support the repentia are inferior to death cultists in almost all ways, including anti-tank.

[Beams]

The act of faith to fight twice in a single turn is also really powerful on them

[Servant of Dante]

How often do Repentia really start the turn in combat with enough enemies that they need to fight twice and enough of them left alive from the previous turn's combat to be effective?

[Beams]

I've used it quite a few times.

 

One case I had them charge into a ton of plague Marines, a bunch of pox walkers and Typhus (index versions), accompanied by a mistress, priest, Celestine and a squad of celestians.

 

At the end of the first round, I had killed Typhus and the plague marines. They had tried to focus down Celestine since she was my warlord, and wss/is a huge threat. They killed her. The Repentia then got to do a free assault, killing a ton of pox walkers, and freeing them up to then move and charge again, killing his Lord of Contagion.

 

Ive also had them charge vehicles in a way that prevents them from being able to move more than 1" away and survive into the next round.

 

If you present more targets than just them, it's not that rare.

 

Consolidating into combat helps a lot too, that way you only have to survive one round of the enemy attacking you.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Beams

[Montford]

Two months ago I had a battle wherein my Repentia took the last 4 wounds off an Imperial Knight and destroyed it. That 2 damage comes in handy.

[dracpanzer]

I have been using at least one squad in all of my games of late. Though I am starting to like the chance to bring three squads to every game. When just running one squad they go great in a HB Ret Repressor as a back field counter charge unit. Likewise they are fun in a dual heavy flamer Repressor with a Canoness, Mistress, Imagifer and Priest. You can fit an entire elite detachment in one drop, roll them up behind your Dom vanguard rush and be able to hit something turn 2. Perhaps not optimal with all those character points, but certainly scary.

 

My favorite when fielding a Battalion is to bring a squad of three in each of my BSS Repressors. Put the Mistress and Priest in the center Repressor, aim them at some heavy Infantry as they come up behind your Dom rush. When they are close enough, drop the Repentia and take any overwatch with a Repressor. If I don't need all nine I might only drop one unit, leaving them outside for very long tends to not go very well. You can protect the characters with the Repressors though, and either mount them up next turn with a remaining Repentia unit next turn or drop off additional Repentia and charge something else.

 

You don't need to have the Mistress to make them get their points back in their quest for martyrdom. A canoness is a pretty good at helping them hit, give her a squad of Celestians and three Repentia in a Repressor and you can have a lot of fun against heavy infantry. I find Repentia to be of great use against Necrons living metal rules too, far more reliable than meltas.

 

Side thought:

Would Hand of the Emperor allow a unit to embark on a transport within 3" as an AoF allowing you to move with the transport during the regular movement phase?

 

Note: In my personal game group we have given the Repressor the same keywords as the sisters rhino and immolator. So all the characters may not fit in the Repressor for strictly competitive environments. I probably wouldn't load them up as above in a tourney at any rate. I would however run them around as tag along chainsaw killers in otherwise shooty units Repressors if I had rhe points available. They are great against heavy infantry, tau suits and vehicles, Necron living metal vehicles in particular.

Edited September 30, 2017 by dracpanzer

[GodwynDi]

I have had several good successes with them.  Occasionally they will be obliterated with range before getting to get in there, but its rare.  Had a squad of them + Celestine and the twins take out Magnus in two turns.  It is also amusing watching the Repentia take mortal wounds instead of another unit.  They weren't going to save anyways.  And so many armies seem to be fielding lots of mortal wounds now.

 

They tend to be pretty reliable, even though they take a bit of work to make them so.  The main downside is that they take a lot of points for having only a 6++.  I find it rare that I am dissatisfied with their performance, which is more than I can say for some things (the Exorcist).  The games I don't have them, I tend to find myself wishing for them.

[theodoris]

Are they really worth it? really?

lets say you take 9 of them and  an mistress

thats 389 points

put them in a rhino  makes 462

 

thats an big point sink.

thats about 40 points every 1 model.
 

They die very quickly from any shooting ,they have no save(ok 6++) and 1 wound, thats about 40 points when  1 model dies.

 

How is this an good unit? ( way too many points if you ask me)

I have the models, i still have them sealed in plastic from when i bought tem 20 years ago, I still don`t think they are worth painting.

yeah sure they can kill an unit, and then they die (poef! gone 1/4 points of my army)

 

I could be wrong, please explain.

And i`m not saying that you are wrong, I just want 2 understand

every thing said above in other posts didn`t explain it

Edited November 5, 2017 by theodoris

[dracpanzer]

Its 188 for a Mistress and a 9 strong squad, I would re-check your math.

 

They are great with six Repentia, Mistress, chainsword Priest, Imagifer and an Eviscerator Canoness in a rhino. Still less than the 389 you were considering and counts as an extra Elite detachment. Not crazy cheap, but if you like your chainsaw martyrs, they have the vehicle and characters to take overwatch and should kill what you point them at.

[theodoris]

yup, my bad
​I  counted  the normal Eviscerator, so that why the moddels were about 40 points.

Edited November 5, 2017 by theodoris