Sisters: Ideas, In Light of Plastic Sisters, 2019(ish)

[General Strike]

"I wanna be in the room where it happens"

 

I think they will follow the trends they've set with the past couple releases. I don't know much about Sisters current rules, I just know that I didn't have faith for metal miniatures, but am fully on board for plastic.

[ERJAK]

"I wanna be in the room where it happens"

 

I think they will follow the trends they've set with the past couple releases. I don't know much about Sisters current rules, I just know that I didn't have faith for metal miniatures, but am fully on board for plastic.

Sisters current rules are actually baller. They're an incredibly strong army(for being an index force) and play in a way that almost no one else does. They catch people off-guard constantly and punish you HARD for not preparing correctly. You can actually tell INSTANTLY if someone has an SoB player in their local group just by how they deploy.

 

For example, I had a match at adepticon against a guard parking lot where, after deployment, we were rolling off for who would get first turn and he was sort of like 'golly gee willickers, it sure would get me going on the right foot if I got to go first!.' and I was just staring open mouthed at how carefree he was. He didn't even see the fact that if I got first turn, there was no mathematically possible way he could win. If I go first, ALL of my melta is in melta range on the first turn off ALL of his tanks and my immolators will be free to do as they please. If I had gotten first turn I would have killed his baneblade, 3 of the character leman russes, the majority of his infantry, and tied up the tanks that were left with immolators. It would have been an absolute bloodbath and I don't think even now he realizes just how bad that game could have gone.

[Atrus]

Dammit. "Gee golly willickers". Now ive got Rick and Morty voices in my head.

 

M: aw gee Rick. Maybe we should let the girls go first-

 

R: Keep it in yer pants Morty. No really, these sisters a more likely rr*urrrp*rip it off and beat you to death with it and shave a flamer up your rear- and not necessarily in that order.

[General Strike]

I've been reading up on them since the announcement, and even though Im sure the rules will be different once they release a codex, presumably alongside plastics. I am really loving them as an aggressive close shooting army with a unique mechanic of faith. Love it.

[Progenitor]

For some reason, I've got the idea in my head of Repentia with shoulder-fired TOW missiles. Obviously completely against the fluff of the unit as it stands, but a light skirmishing heavy weapons unit that's very different to their current incarnation at least seems cool to me. 

[FrozenHoss]

Honestly Im suspecting that they will bring out all new units, maybe Sisters on bikes, and some other new options

[Aothaine]

Honestly Im suspecting that they will bring out all new units, maybe Sisters on bikes, and some other new options

 

Perhaps... but the line doesn't need new units. It just needs updated models.

[ERJAK]

 

 

Honestly Im suspecting that they will bring out all new units, maybe Sisters on bikes, and some other new options

Perhaps... but the line doesn't need new units. It just needs updated models.

You may not want new models, but saying we don't need them is lying to yourself.

 

Right now, with what we have available, sisters of battle are girl space marines.

 

WAIT! Hear me out! SoB have a very distinct aesthetic that exists basically nowhere else in tabletop gaming and their rules are designed in such a way that they play closer to Eldar than space marines, but that doesn't change the cold hard fact that there is a 1 to 1 model parity between SoB and SM except for repentia (who are as cliche as cliche gets) and dialogus (who are pointless).

 

Battle sisters are tacticals, dominions are sternguard, celestians are honor guard, seraphim are assault marines, retributors are devastators, canonesses are captains, hospitallers are apothecaries, imagifiers are chapter ancients, exorcists are predators, penitent engines are dreadnoughts, immolators are razorbacks, rhinos are rhinos, even Celestine is Guillamen.

 

New models and new units have the opportunity to finally break the entire army out of that bubble and make us more than 'space marines, but if space marines were fun and interesting'. They could push us even further into the sister's 'crazy nuns with guns' aesthetic and be exactly what we need as a faction to break that old stigma.

 

Not to mention the fact that as is, listbuilding is very stale. Our codex has what...15 units in it? Counting penitent engines, which are technically ministorum. Most codexes have a hard time making more than half its units compelling choices, so that's 7 options to choose from, and that's optimistic.

 

And the final, and most cynical reason we need new stuff: we need this army to SELL. If SoB come out and bomb, we will never see any attention, ruleswise, model wise, or fluffwise ever again. New units are going to be important because they'll be flashy and interesting and they'll draw more people into the faction, and they'll ALSO be something that will help pry money out of the 'I don't need no plastic models, ya whipper-snappers! Now get off my lawn!'crowd.

 

I mean...new artwork, developing the different orders, expanding the background, getting novels, being included in licensed properties, all sounds pretty cool to me.

[Atrus]

You make those comparisons yet i keep hearing the 'new releases' crowd merely screaming out for bikes or termy equivalents aka just more space marines but more interesting and fun.

 

Im not going g to chip in any more on this particular topic because frankly it gets my blood going. Im content with plastic of what we have. If GW can release something fir us that is unique and fun and suits the aesthetic and isnt just glorified termy rip offs (seriously, ahield and maces type? Can any one say dark angel termy- *breathe*) well then thatd be cool. But until GW shows us their progressions theyve promised and show us cool unique avsoluting nothing like marines units; then i shall sit here on my porch and yell at the pesky kids.

[Deadlight]

Would love for them to have sisters of silence in there with them. U know it makes sense. For a flyer they could use the valkyrie from the guard range?

[Atrus]

I wouldve been happier if SoS just werent a thing and instead they were just SoB that got called in a lot as part of the chamber militant of ordos hereticus and their anti-psykery stuff was simply pentagrammic/hexagrammic wards in the armour. Bang, useful Celestians/new unit there. That makes more sense to me than SoS impersonating SoB....

 

Yeah im tired and cranky and a little salty, sorry.

[Beams]

Can I just say that Celestine isn't Guilliman? They don't share a role, shes a fast assault unit and he's not slow buffer.

 

But most importantly, she was out for decades before that fat heretic.

[Ezr91aeL]

 

 

Honestly Im suspecting that they will bring out all new units, maybe Sisters on bikes, and some other new options

Perhaps... but the line doesn't need new units. It just needs updated models.

You may not want new models, but saying we don't need them is lying to yourself.

 

Right now, with what we have available, sisters of battle are girl space marines.

 

WAIT! Hear me out! SoB have a very distinct aesthetic that exists basically nowhere else in tabletop gaming and their rules are designed in such a way that they play closer to Eldar than space marines, but that doesn't change the cold hard fact that there is a 1 to 1 model parity between SoB and SM except for repentia (who are as cliche as cliche gets) and dialogus (who are pointless).

 

Battle sisters are tacticals, dominions are sternguard, celestians are honor guard, seraphim are assault marines, retributors are devastators, canonesses are captains, hospitallers are apothecaries, imagifiers are chapter ancients, exorcists are predators, penitent engines are dreadnoughts, immolators are razorbacks, rhinos are rhinos, even Celestine is Guillamen.

 

New models and new units have the opportunity to finally break the entire army out of that bubble and make us more than 'space marines, but if space marines were fun and interesting'. They could push us even further into the sister's 'crazy nuns with guns' aesthetic and be exactly what we need as a faction to break that old stigma.

 

Not to mention the fact that as is, listbuilding is very stale. Our codex has what...15 units in it? Counting penitent engines, which are technically ministorum. Most codexes have a hard time making more than half its units compelling choices, so that's 7 options to choose from, and that's optimistic.

 

And the final, and most cynical reason we need new stuff: we need this army to SELL. If SoB come out and bomb, we will never see any attention, ruleswise, model wise, or fluffwise ever again. New units are going to be important because they'll be flashy and interesting and they'll draw more people into the faction, and they'll ALSO be something that will help pry money out of the 'I don't need no plastic models, ya whipper-snappers! Now get off my lawn!'crowd.

 

I mean...new artwork, developing the different orders, expanding the background, getting novels, being included in licensed properties, all sounds pretty cool to me.

 

Dis.

For example: we need super-heavy infantry but we don't need a Terminator copy. Then why not a less armored unit than a Terminator, but melee focused and with a jump-pack?

 

 

I imagined this unit as a squad of ex-Repentia who survived their penance oath. After that period they have become incredibly skilled warriors so they get equiped with a heavier armor and gifted with a jump-pack to reach the enemy faster. They are an assassination unit: they find their objective, they kill it, they get out.

 

Also we need a deny-the-witch, am I right? Then why not use these witches. Ok wait, I know, witches are corrupted and dangerous but you know what is corrupted and dangerous too? Heretics. And we deploy heretics in our armies, confinded inside incredibly cool robots!

 

 

These witches are lobotomized and then confined inside engines similar to the Pentitent Engine (an excuse to bring a dual kit). They are not able anymore to cast psykic powers but they are still able to deny them or to enfuse their weapons with their powers, making them incredible powerful berserk machines.

 

 

These couple of example shows what I think we need: not bikes, Termies or other "Space Marines stuff" but something original and fluff related.

[taikishi]

You make those comparisons yet i keep hearing the 'new releases' crowd merely screaming out for bikes or termy equivalents aka just more space marines but more interesting and fun.

 

Im not going g to chip in any more on this particular topic because frankly it gets my blood going. Im content with plastic of what we have. If GW can release something fir us that is unique and fun and suits the aesthetic and isnt just glorified termy rip offs (seriously, ahield and maces type? Can any one say dark angel termy- *breathe*) well then thatd be cool. But until GW shows us their progressions theyve promised and show us cool unique avsoluting nothing like marines units; then i shall sit here on my porch and yell at the pesky kids.

 

And I'm the crowd with that thinks we should have gotten Centurions instead of Space Marines getting them. As for shield and mace types, so what? It's a knight or paladin trope and I can see Sisters firmly falling in the latter category.

 

 

 

Would love for them to have sisters of silence in there with them. U know it makes sense. For a flyer they could use the valkyrie from the guard range?

 

And Sisters of Silence added to Sisters of Battle's army list makes no sense. One is a fanatical group dedicated to the worship of the Emperor as a god and purging those who violate his divine will. The other is a secular group that walked with the Emperor during the Great Crusade and know of the Imperial Truth. They're also a bunch of mutants (Pariahs) which the Ecclesiarchy would only barely tolerate.

[Aothaine]

 

 

And I'm the crowd with that thinks we should have gotten Centurions instead of Space Marines getting them. As for shield and mace types, so what? It's a knight or paladin trope and I can see Sisters firmly falling in the latter category.

 

I could totally get behind this. I love the look of Centurions I just wish they were not so expensive. But I think they would look awesome if purposed for Sisters of Battle.

[ERJAK]

 

 

 

 

And I'm the crowd with that thinks we should have gotten Centurions instead of Space Marines getting them. As for shield and mace types, so what? It's a knight or paladin trope and I can see Sisters firmly falling in the latter category.

I could totally get behind this. I love the look of Centurions I just wish they were not so expensive. But I think they would look awesome if purposed for Sisters of Battle.

Realistically speaking, centurion type armor makes more sense(and would be easier to make look cool instead of awkward without reposing) in SoB than SM. Especially considering sisters would be able to get away with wearing the bigger armor as armor instead of the space marines' whole 'awkward hulkbuster' shtick.

 

I also think GW is gonna go REALLY out of the box somewhere. Most of the ideas we have here have to A. Be relatively conservative, because this is the internet and it makes people meaner than they'd usually be. And B. Fit established fluff. GW doesn't have either of those things holding them down so they could do like...a 4-wheeler shaped like a narrow fluer-de-lis with 15 melta guns on it, stolen dawn-eagle jet bikes (saw a cool art piece okay!?!) and a unit of literal avenging angels and just be like 'oh yeah, they had those'.(for the record I went with outlandish over real for the examples).

 

And before we get into the 'don't change the fluff!' thing, I promise they can do any new unit they come out with, no matter how outlandish, without changing any of the half a codex we currently have. (See the subtext is that even though the fluff we have is really awesome, there's not a whole lot of it!)

[Plasmablasts]

I think Sisters of Silence are more likely to remain as a separate faction: incorporating them into the Adepta Sororitas list would require some fluff-breaking keyword changes. I have no problem with them being run alongside SoB in a separate Detachment given the likelihood of overlapping missions, despite the clear ideological differences: this is the Imperium; uneasy alliances of necessity are normal. I’d prefer SoS to get their own Codex (not unlikely given Codex: Adeptus Custodes), but a slightly expanded entry in “Codex: Imperial Agents” would be ok. Give them at least an HQ choice (though making a Vanguard with Greyfax is pretty good as is).

 

I agree with the thoughts above about the plausibility of “Sister Centurions”: they seem to make more sense than Terminators. What’s better than a Retributor with a heavy bolter? A Retributor with TWO heavy bolters.

[Krom4095]

I just want bada$$ new plastic Penitent Engines with multiple armament options. That model's rules, fluff, and aesthetics simply rock.

 

I don't think there's any chance SoS get thrown into the SoB codex. I hope the Anathema Psykana get an expanded list with HQs and additional options soon, either in an Imperial Agents codex or their own mini codex ala-Custodes.

[Mard]

New units will happen
It's a business decision, you need to sell something to SoB players who also have a complete army in Metal.
There will be players who have a full army and even though they like the new plastics, won't really need to buy more than one just to play around with.
A new model or two to add into the army, whether its cavalry, air assault, new tank, new type of choppy thing whatever even if the army doesn't "need" it will most likely come out.

[Skaorn]

I agree with Erjak that GW should really move away from SM equivalent units with SoB. The problem with expanding their line is not just the limitation of the background but the general resistance to change I've seen in a lot of 40K players out there. I remember how many people where upset when the Tau came out in 3rd ed because "they didn't fit". I personally enjoy spit balling ideas and seeing what comes out, even if the ideas end up being kind of silly. I find that there are a lot of players though, in any army, that tend to be immediately be dismissive as there seems to be this fear that new things will somehow ruin their army, won't sell and kill the line, or prevent one of their other armies from getting updated as fast as they want.

 

For example, I had a thread going about what people imagined a game set in 20K would be like with Dark Age of Tech Humans, Men of Iron, Pre Fall Eldar, and other armies. Sadly many of the responses were off topic about how it shouldn't even apparently be considered for one of the reasons above.

 

To me, this kind of trend in a creative hobby is more troubling than the possibility that SoB might be made more like "girl SM". I personally think we should be looking for ways in which SoB can be expanding in new in fun ways, within their established fluff, to take it from a good as is index Army to be something spectacular.

 

One idea I had today, as an example, was a unit of ecstatics in place of a terminator style heavy infantry. They would only have a 3+ save but also a 5 or 6 FNP save (last time I saw, repentia only had invulnerable, not FNP). I was thinking that they would be a melee unit with literal flaming swords giving them a small strength boost and an extra hit on 6+ rolls so they would be better at dealing with infantry instead of repentia with heavy armor. I was also thinking that if the ecstatics lost a morale roll in melee, the victorious unit would take a single Str 4 hit for the number of SoB units lost.

 

I would also like robot horses over bikes and really push the knight aesthetic much harder than SM. Of course I also wouldn't mind a dog pack unit that they use to root out heretics and witches. I also really like the idea of a unit that gets whatever sin they might commit (no heresy, though) automatically forgiven so they can do truly terrible things like putting mutant babies on spikes to remind you to use protection and be considered pure in the eyes of their order. Rather than a land speeder, I think it would be fun to have a light skimmer that flys over units like a crop duster with napalm, possibly even using a Heavy Flamer's stats in melee instead of its normal combat stats.

[Atrus]

I could stand girls with horses. You dont see it much (though a guard player at a local club have some great looking australian lighthorse inspired rough riders).

 

That dog pack idea reminds me of witch hunter warband from mordheim. Something like that i could envision as a ministorum unit as a Witch Finder with a pack of dogs or cyber mastiffs...im loving this idea.

 

When i think skimmer, i dont think IoM. I think eldar and tau. Just not a fan of skimmers in imperium.

That said, i would love to see sisters taking melta and flamers to 11. The kind of thing that makes salamanders hate themselves for not being hot enough and dark angels envious because all the sick cathedral looking stuff 'should be theirs'.

So a drive by flaming model/unit sounds cool. Hard to do when immolators and repressors with flamers girls do a good job already.

 

Would love power mauls to be modeled as flaming braziers.

 

Would like to see mobile witch/heretic pyres. Something being pulled along by penitents as theyre whipped by a priest backlit by a shrieking, burning witch/heretic. Something to inspire the sisters and demoralise the foe.

[CaptainMarsh]

I would love a cavalry unit.

[Lord Grimskull]

While I would be happy with new remakes of old models (and ones to differentiate function) along with a codex, it is fun to imagine some extra goodies.

 

A few things I'd like to see:

 

-A true main battle tank that doesn't use a rhino chassis, with something like a heavy 2 36" melta Lance canon main weapon and sponson support.

 

-Skirmisher or assault light craft fliers that are angelic themed that carpet bomb in strips of holy promethum napalm, or short range anti-tank. Maybe bought as a unit of 3-6 but then act independently on the field.

 

-Heavy infantry with better toughness, access to storm shield equivalent, maybe does something different than standard terminators by being more mobile (maybe mini-jumpack support) or something similar.

 

-equipment options like specific bolter variants related to sisters, gattling flamers, the flame based melee weapons like mentioned before.

 

In general I'd like to see the gothic angle pushed a bit more with the sisters, hard lines and spires for power armor is a good way to further differentiate the sisters from the ever rounding space marines. Oh and like maybe another variant on their armor line - like 'Thor' pattern and 'Ophelia' pattern or something to that effect.

[Plasmablasts]

I would love a cavalry unit.

How about being armed with a melee S8 AP-4 D:2d6(choose the higher) (single attack on turn you charge) Lance? Basically a melta-bomb-on-a-stick.

[ERJAK]

I could stand girls with horses. You dont see it much (though a guard player at a local club have some great looking australian lighthorse inspired rough riders).

 

That dog pack idea reminds me of witch hunter warband from mordheim. Something like that i could envision as a ministorum unit as a Witch Finder with a pack of dogs or cyber mastiffs...im loving this idea.

 

When i think skimmer, i dont think IoM. I think eldar and tau. Just not a fan of skimmers in imperium.

That said, i would love to see sisters taking melta and flamers to 11. The kind of thing that makes salamanders hate themselves for not being hot enough and dark angels envious because all the sick cathedral looking stuff 'should be theirs'.

So a drive by flaming model/unit sounds cool. Hard to do when immolators and repressors with flamers girls do a good job already.

 

Would love power mauls to be modeled as flaming braziers.

 

Would like to see mobile witch/heretic pyres. Something being pulled along by penitents as theyre whipped by a priest backlit by a shrieking, burning witch/heretic. Something to inspire the sisters and demoralise the foe.

So one of the things I love most about 40k is vehicles that have just an excessive amount of guns on them (the repressor is actually one of my favorite vehicles for exactly this reason) so one thing I would like to see (and firmly believe would fit both the sisters 'purge them all, let the god emperor sort them out' attitude and their shotgun style on table gameplay) is a light vehicle with at least 4 flamer weapons. Like dual immolation flamers, or dual twin flamers with a hurricane bolter. A light vehicle with just an unnecessary amount of fire pouring out of it seems like something sisters would appreciate.