New Starter - What to build

[Brother Dallo]

Hi folks,

 

I haven’t played full sized 40K in a long time (possibly 7th edition), but I got a good deal on some preowned Sisters of Battle. The original plan was to grab two squads for Kill Team, but I’ve ended up with:

Canoness

Repentia x10

Sister Superior? (Character with two whips)

Retributors x10

Battle Sisters x46

 

I also got a Tariana, but I’m selling her as I don’t think she is a legal unit in 40K, unless you use her as a fancy Battle Sister?

 

Any suggestions on how to build the Battle Sisters? I’ll probably build ten to use in Kill Team alongside 40K, so will grab a Melta, Heavy Bolter and banner. Other than that, I’m open to suggestions. I think I’ll run one unit of Retributors with Multi meltas. Are the other weapons worth taking or should I convert four more Meltas from the Heavy Flamers?

 

I think the Sisters box can make a few different unit types. Do these use different parts to distinguish unit roles? Like Space Marine Veterans having the Crux shoulder pad?

 

Finally, I’d appreciate any generic advice on starting a Sisters army. I’ve had a look at Goonhammer’s articles which have been helpful.

 

Cheers.

 

Dallo

[EmperorGTank]

Hey there welcome back to the Ecclesiarchy!

 

Sisters in general are in a bit of interesting spot right now due tp the matched play changes that just occurred in Chapter Approved. Certain points increases, no more mixing subfactions, and a few other bits are going to shake some factions up, including us. Because of that I would try and stick with the staples for now and maybe even leave a few things TBD until we as a community see what exactly is "working." If you do not intend on playing too much matched play though, and are more of a fluffy, narrative guy, then it's still pretty much do whatever you want, but I am happy to give you some advice on what has normally been working in most of my games.

 

As for the "staples" I spoke about, here is a good list of things you want out of your Battle Sisters and Retributors and other parts of your collection:

 

-Enough basic battle sisters with Bolters/Boltguns (same thing just the names are interchangeable at this point). Something to keep in mind here is that unlike in 7th and previous editions we are now on a more "Space Marine" weapon limit. Now squads of 5 Sisters can only bring 1 Special or Heavy, squads of 10 can bring 2 Special or 2 Heavy, and then squads of 20 can bring up to 4 Special or 2 Special AND 2 Heavy I believe.

 

-Superiors with either Chainsword/Bolter or Chainsword/Combi-weapon of your choice (Chainswords are free so just give your Superiors them, gives them an ounce more bite in melee should they unfortunately end up there, or fortunately if you are playing Bloody Rose).

 

-Storm Bolters and Meltaguns in general are good to have in either basic Battle Sister squads or Dominions. We have a stratagem for dealing with Mortal Wounds with Storm Bolters which is really nice (though Dominions just went up in points).

 

-Multi Melta Rets as you discussed, and Heavy Bolter Rets are also not bad for dealing with marines and their 2 wounds (other than Deathguard of course) so I would suggest either going all in on 2 Ret squads with MMs or doing one squad of Multi Meltas and one with Heavy Bolters. (Personally I have a squad of each but I am realizing Multi Meltas are probably the way to go and I may be getting one more squad and making a 2nd MM unit so yea...)

 

-The Canoness can be built as whatever you like. I think most builds are pretty viable for her, either whatever melee weapon/pistol you like, the stock version of rod of office/power sword/plasma pistol, or just keeping her cheap with a chainsword/bolt pistol. She can take upgrades known as Blessings of the Faithful now too for certain buffs with our Miracle Dice, so you can always take her cheap and kit her out with one of those for some extra points.

 

-The Superior with 2 whips is just a Repentia Superior now, she is a character and she buffs Repentia pretty well. Repentia in general are another "staple" for the army still, though their use has fallen off a little with all the -1 damage going around in many armies. They will still blend most things in bloody rose or even as any other order you choose, custom or majoris so if you can get a rhino put 9 and the Repentia superior in there and watch them go, or put the repentia in strategic reserve (deep strike thats not deep strike) and have them charge on in turn 2 or 3 with some Miracle DIce.

 

Finally Tariana Palos can definitely be used as a Superior/fancy battle sister so you don't have to sell her. Nothing wrong if you do of course! Also, in general the only "parts that distinguish unit roles" in the basic Sister and Celestian/Dominion kits that I can think of are the Celestian heads. Those are the heads with the more prominent fleur de lys on their helmets I believe. Other than that, Sisters with Special or Heavy Weapons can be either basic Battle Sisters of Dominions or even Retributors for that matter. You have plenty of flexibility honestly, and I doubt any opponent would call you out for not using the "right heads" even if they understood that it was even a thing with our army. If you want to distinguish certain squads yourself and do not plan on using Celestians at all (which is pretty much the case still, Celestian Sacresants and Paragon Warsuits are the way to go now if you want to use our "elite Battle Sisters") then feel free to use those "different heads."

 

Sorry this got a bit long, hope this helps a little! Let us know if you have any other questions!

[Brother Dallo]

Hi EmperorGTank,

 

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate you taking the time to put it together.

 

I think this army will probably be a slow grow project as none of my original opponents play 40K (though I know of a few in my area who do). To start with, I’ve got my Repentia cleaned up and primed. They seem like they should be quicker to paint than Sisters since they’re mainly skin and the undersuit.

 

I’m leaning towards making my own colour scheme (thinking bone, with a muted green for the robes), but still settling on a name.

 

Cheers.

 

Dallo

[EmperorGTank]

Oh very nice, yea I do a custom scheme myself. Honestly, it's probably the best way to go since it allows you to use custom order traits if you want, but also the major order ones if you prefer one of those since you can just take the "In the Footsteps of Saints" or whatever its called, which is the custom trait that allows any custom order to fight like one of the six major ones (Ebon Chalice, Bloody Rose, Our Martyred Lady, etc.). 

 

So I would say paint them however you like and at least right now, the codex allows you to play them as any order you fancy. Happy I was able to help, and again, if you do have any more questions, plenty on here are happy to give a response. I am around here a bunch too so don't mind tossing a reply whenever I can!

[RolandTHTG]

EmperorGTank covered most of it. 

 

I will add on that while Tarania is game-wise just a special battle sister model, the battle sister box sprues have a sheathed powersword (part 103) that is easy to attach to her belt to make her a sister superior model. 

[ThePenitentOne]

If you're looking for a slow grow, I'd suggest you still do paint up a Kill Team first, that way you can't start using your models before the whole army is painted.

 

I'd go with split fire teams- so one of 5 Battle Sisters and one of five Repentia. You'd get to pick which team gets the leader- and that speaks volumes about your Order; having a Repentia Superior in charge of your KT is an unconventional choice. Interestingly enough, being a Character model, if you build up to 500 points/ 25 PL without painting any other characters, that still gives you a potential Warlord... Another crazy story hook.

 

By contrast, if you put the leader in your Battle Sisters squad, she's just a Squad leader.

 

The other thing it does is put variety into the Repentia fire team- if you don't take the Repentia Superior, it's just 5 identically armed models. The Battle sister fire team still has potential for variety even if you don't put the leader in there, because it can take a gunner, a heavy gunner and an icon bearer.

 

If you're playing a Spec Ops KT campaign, you can add two additional fire teams of your choice as you acquire RP. With 20 models, you can get to 15 PL (assuming you have a Repentia Superior as a leader). From there I'd build it into a Crusade. Since XP levels are the same for both KT and Crusade, you can swap your KT Battle Honours for Crusade ones and keep your XP when you transition.

 

That's if you're into the whole narrative thing.  

 

This is my favourite part of 9th ed- the game is designed to grow armies as they are painted. Long gone are the days of fielding an ocean of grey plastic because the missions were designed almost entirely for 1500-2000 points. I'm a slow painter, and I always used to feel bad playing against someone else's fully painted 2k list when I only had 500 points or less painted myself.

Edited February 1, 2022 by ThePenitentOne