Thoughts on the Triumph of Saint Katherine

[ThePenitentOne]

As some of you know, my particular history as a Sisters player is very connected to the Triumph of Saint Katherine's Aegis.

 

For those who don't, here's a quick recap: from 2007-2009, I played two 1500 point armies- A pure sisters Holy Choir and a pure witch hunter/ Inquisition army. Often these armies fought together as a single force; the lack of a detachment system in those days had me build them as separate armies. My Inquisition/ Witch Hunters were mostly Adeptus Arbites (with Storm trooper rules), and their role as law enforcement made them the ideal supervisors of the Penitent Legion, which was the actual fighting force of the army.

 

In the culminating Apocalypse battle, each player declared the fluff for their objective. I chose to make my objective the Shield of Saint Katherine. My current Cannoness (who was a mere Palatine back then) retrieved that objective in the last turn of the battle against all odds; the Palatine's personal bodyguard of celestians sacrificed themselves to block the charge of an Ork Warboss and his Nobz while the Adeptus Arbites tar-pitted a Daemon Prince on the opposite flank and Jahalla Athebraxis made a break for the Shield.

 

At the time, it felt like the greatest non-Marine story ever told. I'm going to be rereading all of my Sister's source material, looking for snippets of all of the founders; I remember Katherine being described as Alicia Dominica's shield bearer. The Praesidium Protectiva was said to be made with fragments of the Emperor's Holy armour, and though the shield borne into battle by Saint Katherine was never in the Witch Hunters explicitly defined as the Praesidium, those were the rules I used to represent the shield in subsequent battles.

 

Fast forward to the current dex. Katherine's shield is now explicitly refered to as the Praesidium Protectiva, and the model that leads the Triumph is equipped with it. All of the members in the Triumph are members of the Pronatus, but each was a full fledged battle Sister of the Order she represents in the Triumph, prior to being chosen by their respective Cannoness Superia to join the Triumph.

 

It seems to me that the Triumph IS the ultimate SoB Crusade story. Each one of the Relics in that procession has a story, and every Militant Order Majoris is represented in the story. The reclamation of each of these Reclics is a Crusade for the Order in question, and then the holders of all six relics must fight their way across the galaxy to find each other and form the Triumph.

 

I'm modifying the base of my Triumph so that individual Pronatus models can be used separately. With Palatines on the way, I think a 25PL + 5RP combat Patrol commanded by a promising young Palatine for each order could play through a campaign of games, culminating in a battle where the Relic from the Triumph connected to each of the Orders is retrieved by the corresponding Palatine as an actual battlefield objective. This leads to the Palatine's promotion, at which point the new Cannoness can be represented by her model from the Triumph; she'll be fielded as a Cannoness and her Triumph Relic will be purchased with RP as a Crusade relic after the battle in which it is retrieved as an objective.

 

But it goes even further than that. Because if you could replace the body in the procession with the Matriarch of any of the other five Orders, you could rearrange the positions of the Relic-Bearers so that the one in the lead corresponded to the Saint whose remains were being revered. The model could then be fielded as the Triumph of Saint Mina, or Saint Arabella, etc. The real beauty is that all versions of the Triumph have the same rules since all six Orders are represented in the model, but the story changes each time it appears on the field. The type of battle, the expected outcome, or the specific enemy being fought would determine which Saint's remains were carried in the procession- effectively, the question is "Whose procession to we send in order to help us win this particular battle?"

 

Even if the rules are the same, the story becomes so much richer, and the model more meaningful to each of the other five orders.

 

Is there anyone else out there who thinks that a Crusade for your Order's Triumph Relic would be fun? Would you consider doing something like this, or am I just crazy obsessive about toy battle nuns?

 

 

[toaae]

You've put a lot of thought into this, and it shows. I think the Triumph is such a cool model, and I can't wait to someday actually play with the damn thing. But your concept of "rotating" the relics, for lack of a better phrase, depending on which Order you're playing is a great idea.

[Aqui]

I'd be cool with that too. It would give no unfair favour to any of the Orders, but still have an Epic feel to the model itself :)

 

I think GW needs to know about this, cos, well, it's a great idea.

[Lemondish]

This was a joy to read, PenitentOne. That Crusade idea is fantastic.

 

I honestly cannot wait to see what the next codex provides for Crusade content.

[ThePenitentOne]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I've decided that I will refight the discovery of the shield- bringing that event forward in the timeline so that it happens during the Campaign, rather than before. It's going to shake things up, but it's going to be just awesome. This way, the Sisters get to actually do something in the early stages of the campaign, rather than letting the Cult factions grow until they draw Imperial attention.

 

So now I've begun to think about how to actually build it. I found this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0tSGoCzar8

 

It's pretty good, but it indicates that two of the models are difficult to rotate because their feet and robes interact with the sculpted stairs of the base.

 

Once I get the girls built I can play around with them and see if there is a way to make all models work in any position. If not, I'll just follow the video exactly- it will still allow the Pronatus to be used separately, which is more important to the crusade concept than being able to rotate the models in the Triumph.