# Sisters of Battle FAQ



## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

So GW finally put up the SoB FAQ

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA..._of_Battle_FAQ_Version_1_0_December_2011.pdf_


FAQs
Q: Can a unit attempt the same Act of Faith more than
once per turn? (White Dwarf,August 2011 Page 94)
A: No.

Before you rage about this one it only applies to Battle Sisters as they are the only ones with an AoF that can be used in multiple phases. So basically if you use it to regroup you can't then use it in the shooting or assault phase to re-roll 1s to hit.

I also believe this means you can't spend another FP to try and use an AoF from which you failed the Faith Test. So if any unit attempts an AoF and fails they may not spend another FP to redo the test. If I'm reading this right then that is a pretty big nerf as it makes AoF even more unreliable.

Acts of Faith are just shit now...



Last updated 10th January 2011......... yeah, this shows just how much they care :crazy:


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

MadCowCrazy said:


> Acts of Faith are just shit now...


I am pretty sure they were shit before. AoF became useless as soon as they made them unit specific and not general army special rules. It is my opinion that GW looks at them as the black sheep of the 40k world, something to be tolerated because they just can't get rid of them. Maybe one day we will get a good codex, until then........ <Midge seals his 7500 points of Sisters into their army case while weeping silently.>


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## Zion (May 31, 2011)

On the other hand they just made Celestine impossible to truly kill. She can even come back from "remove from the game"!


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## Valafar (Sep 6, 2011)

Just a Quick Question what happend to Karamazov ?

I mean is he not a valid HQ for the SoB. 

As I can see him in the GK HQ section but not in the SoB one ?


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## Kettu (Nov 20, 2007)

He's an Inquisitor and so has been removed from the Sisters side of things as frankly, he should have never been there in the first place.


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## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

Valafar said:


> Just a Quick Question what happend to Karamazov ?
> 
> I mean is he not a valid HQ for the SoB.
> 
> As I can see him in the GK HQ section but not in the SoB one ?


As Karamazov is a Witch Hunter he has no place in the SoB codex. They merged all the ordos into the GK codex which is the reason he's in it.
There are no longer any WHs in the SoB codex, this leaves us with what else they might throw in there. Will they make it 100% SoB or will they throw something else in there like Arbites as they were in the WH codex but they are not in the GK codex.


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Well at least there won't be any more arguments about how Celestine is/isn't an Independent Character. That's about the only good part of all this.

Hopefully the time between now and 6th passes quickly so we can have the Sisters get a proper Codex.


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## Valafar (Sep 6, 2011)

Ok, this is confusing for me. 


I have always seen Karamazov as part of the SoB i mean SoB are the mllitary part of the WH right ? Who is going to lead them if not the Inquisition. They are the church armed forces are they not ? 


Can someone explain this. 

And even if you see the artwork of Karamazov , he is surrounded by SoB, repentia and so on. 

Karamazov is out of place in the GK by my opinion. The GK are just Brutes without much of thinking process going on. I have always seen Karamazov doing purges with the SoB, but I might be mistaken.


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Valafar said:


> Ok, this is confusing for me.
> 
> 
> I have always seen Karamazov as part of the SoB i mean SoB are the mllitary part of the WH right ? Who is going to lead them if not the Inquisition. They are the church armed forces are they not ?
> ...


There's nothing really to explain. GW figured that Inquisitors should be with the Grey Knights and Sisters should be largely stand alone. That's all there is to it.


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

And seeing as the Sisters outnumber the GKs, fluff wise, it makes sense.

Agreed with Katie on the matter of the Celestine. Probably one of the most irritating set of occurances in 40k right now (across the army spectrum).


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## Inquisitor_Win (Jun 9, 2010)

FAQs
Q: Can a unit *attempt* the same Act of Faith more than
once per turn? (White Dwarf,August 2011 Page 94)
A: *No*.

And here I was happily picturing Acts of Faith like that old lawn mower cord starter that wouldn't start until after the third try; silly me.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Valafar said:


> I have always seen Karamazov as part of the SoB i mean SoB are the mllitary part of the WH right ? Who is going to lead them if not the Inquisition. They are the church armed forces are they not ?


The Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy are two different organizations. 



Valafar said:


> Karamazov is out of place in the GK by my opinion.


No, he really is not, since the Inquisitions new home in in Codex: Grey Knights. 



Valafar said:


> The GK are just Brutes without much of thinking process going on.


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## Purge the Heretic (Jul 9, 2009)

Yet another short history of battle sisters for those that don't know. Did this from memory so I apologize if I make an error.

Codex SOB, 2nd edition. Sisters were a possible add on to an existing imperial force. "Could" be used to create an army of their own in the codex.

**In fluff they were the fanatical army of the ecclesiarchy with convents spread across the galaxy. Mostly orphans raised from childhood to be Zealous warriors in the service of the god-emperor**

Codex: Chapter approved, early-ish 3rd Edition. Gained full army status. Lacked ANY long (over 36" and that was only heavy bolters) ranged fire support except hunter killer missles. Battle Sisters Vs Dominions(did they exist in that one?) VS Retributors were very distinct and all were fairly useful in their roles.

**Fluff mostly the same, added one line about the Witchhunter branch of the inquisition requisitioning them for purges. Still mostly fanatical church ladies.**

Codex Witchhunters. Late 3rd early 4th?

**In an attempt to get the three ordos done, Sisters of Battle were slapped into the inquisition, instead of remaining the army of the church, it seemed they were getting used more by inquisitors. The codex completely ignored previous fluff and the fanatical hatred the Sisters have for psychers, allowing sanctioned psychers in the army. It added some new interesting- but ultimately useless due to the way rage worked- units that fit the sisters fluff such as the flagellants and penitent engines, beefed up fire support in the form of the exorcist from the forge world rules, but it made the retributors obsolete. Not only were they unable to carry four heavy flamers for roasting fun, they could not compete for a slot/points with the exorcist. It missed an opportunity to make celestians actually semi-useful in close combat by giving them all a sarissa, and the rules for either 4th or 5th edition nerfed pistols which made seraphim much less effective.**

White dwarf codex- Late 5th

**Made them fanatical nuns again, the army of the church. Many old time Sisters players rejoiced. Newer players who didn't get it cried for their lost inquisition. Fixed some problems, left others alone, created new ones, made the army bland and not competitive in play. Nerfed one of the sisters two unique vehicles into near uselessness. Nerfed Seraphim even more by restricting them to a standard hit and run, though it did fix the problem with pistols and dual wielding. Other stuff.**


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## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

The SoB are in a strange position in 40K fluff, they are the chamber militant of the Ecclesiarchy yet at the same time they can't say no to the Ordo Hereticus if they request the aid of them. I might be mistaken but I think it's been mentioned that they are both the chamber militant of the Ecclesiarchy AND the Ordo Hereticus. I'm just going by recollection here. What I do know for certain though is that the SoB are at the disposition of the WHs but their main duties revolve around protecting Ecclesiarichal interests. When the Ecclesiarchy declares a war of faith the SoB are the ones to carry out this war together with whatever mobs of ppl the priests can gather. If the WHs are in need of an army for something they can and have used the SoB as their instrument of war.

I've read most books, comics etc related to the SoB and I can come to one conclusion, they are the least respected of all the "organisations" in the world of 40K. They get killed left and right by all sides, almost never win a battle and when they do they will have lost 90% of their forces unless it's vs some useless rubble.
Their authority is always stepped on, in Hammer and Anvil they are pretty much told to go fuck themselves by the Ordo Xenos and the Techpriests of Mars. In Daemonifuge they are told that if they refuse to hand over Stern the Ordo Hereticus will be forced to purge every Sister in the chapter. In Fireborn a chaos daemonengine (funny how there is a rumour for this to become a unit in the game) just plows through every single Sister, they use bolter, flamer, melta, exorcist missiles and a sister even detonates a melta bomb in the side of the thing blowing herself up in the progress. A living artifact has to sacrifice her power just to halt the damn thing and then a single SM kills it with a Thunder Hammer.





> I heard on a podcast there is a story about Sisters asking a SM legion what they are doing in the sector or some such and they respond by whiping out the Sisters fleet. There were something about imperial space marines eating the brains of people and when the Sisters question this they get killed and eaten as well. Not sure where this story is from but I'm sure someone knows what I'm talking about.
> 
> Heck in 5E 99% of all the Sisters in the universe suddenly got killed of, they make it seem like there are roughly 50k Sisters in 40k when that number is statistically impossible.


The part in quotes I have not read myself but it wouldn't surprise me if it's true.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

Yep lot of hate coming down the pipe at the SoB from GW these days. Although I have never been a fan of the army they really should be shown as being at least more effective then regular guardsmen (Not going to happen though with imagined pastoral and modern ideals about the inherent nobility of sacrifice and courage in the British military). Hell they do still wear power armor and carry hand held grenade launchers don't they. SoB seem to almost be a back drop for simply illustrating the idiocy of the religious branch of the imerium.

I say this as 40k these days has attached distinct historical archetypes to every army these days. BT are medieval Christianity during the crusades. GK are a heavily romanticized of generally the same concept. While SoB are a kinda of cathartic venting about the disdain for the Spanish inquisitional period, and other frowned upon puritan movements.


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

> I heard on a podcast there is a story about Sisters asking a SM legion what they are doing in the sector or some such and they respond by wiping out the Sisters fleet.
> 
> This would appear to be a garbled rendition of 'The Ecclesiarchy Comes to Fenris'. Long story short the Space Wolves are heretical wolf-shagging barbarians about this -><- close to worshiping Khorne, so the Ecclesiarchy sent a delegation of Priests to Fenris to ask them if the rumours were true. The Space Wolves shot down the ship full of unarmed Priests and then effortlessly eliminated three whole Orders of sisters who came looking for the Priests.
> 
> ...


They weren't 'killed off' so much as retconned into a much smaller bracket of possible numbers. No firm number is given in the 5e rulebook, 50k is within the realms of what is said, though. It states that there are "_three_ Major Orders" (no, I don't know either) each numbering "_several thousands_" and "many lesser sisterhoods comprised of around _a hundred or so_ Battle Sisters"

Goodness me! A hundred, you say.

One hundred thousand would appear to be the upper limit of such language.

My favourite part, though, has to be:



5e Core book said:


> Wherever there are foes of the Emperor, the Sisters of Battle will be found fighting to the last.


The book even says that they are only good for dying... Ye gods of old rome.


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## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

> Wherever there are foes of the Emperor, the Sisters of Battle will be found fighting to the last.


Well, this can't be true if there are a million worlds in the imperium but only 50k sisters of battle 

In the least there has to be millions if not billions. At the very least every world with a billion or more guardsmen has to have a few hundred thousand SoB.

I think the developers can't do math basically. They've forgotten how big the 40k universe really is and how many planets the imperium of man occupy. I believe I've read somewhere that the Sisters defend Ecclisarchy churches and important places, the Ecclesiarchy are also amongst the first on new worlds occupied by humans. Even if there was just a single battle sister on each world with some Ecclesiarichal presence there should be hundreds of thousands of SoB.


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## Necrosis (Nov 1, 2008)

GW employees are only human and the do make mistakes. I seriously stop caring about the sister of battle fluff cause I'm expecting it to change in 6th edition. So let's all calm down about it and wait till 6th edition. If it doesn't change then we can all start raging again.


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## Majere613 (Oct 14, 2008)

I'm annoyed they didn't fix that idiotic Penitent Engine misprint. I mean, I assume everyone reads it as 1 with the option of up to 2 more, but that's not what it says and we all know there's someone out there who'll argue the toss about it for three hours.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

Everyone bitches about the Sisters entry in the 40k rulebook being tiny. No-one chooses to mention that the GK one is even smaller. 

It's lovely to be able to be so very blinkered about things sometimes. Other times it's just irritating and makes the complainant look whiny and childish.

As a Sisters player of over 12 years, I like this list best of what we've had so far. And if I didn't, constant bitching wouldn't change anything, except to put off people trying out the new list (which works just fine, thank you) and so making GW believe that even less people than they thought are interested in Sisters. So we enter the horrible downward Catch 22 spiral, and it's entirely your own fault. So maybe, just maybe, try playing the list and finding ways of enjoying it like I have, or GW may just decide no-one at all likes it and just cans it...


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## Thornin (Dec 9, 2011)

I know of a player whom uses a black templars template if you like (as I cantthink of a better metaphor) that is a very sucsessfull army. Now I know the fluff and stuff doesnt exactly fit but instead of whining and getting narked about something that GW may never fix play it as a alternative or look for something different as a angle to play. Not only is is for a SoB army effective but he had also included bikes and runs a pentient engine as a dread. 

If I find pictures of the bikes he uses its the old VOID bikers converted with the fleur de lys emblem on the front carapace two low mounted bolters painted gloss black with a sister riding upon them weilding swords. It sounds very anime and thats indeed how it looks but hell take GW's ball and run with it and have a better time than some anal GW suit bitching about loosing profit margins. 

After squats I do intend on making a SoB army to test ouf my skills. But it doesnt mean that ill use GW's rules (when ever do I )


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## Kettu (Nov 20, 2007)

MadCowCrazy said:


> Well, this can't be true if there are a million worlds in the imperium but only 50k sisters of battle


Authors in general can't unto maths.

Either they can't add things up, don't add things up or won't add things up.


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## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

Majere613 said:


> I'm annoyed they didn't fix that idiotic Penitent Engine misprint. I mean, I assume everyone reads it as 1 with the option of up to 2 more, but that's not what it says and we all know there's someone out there who'll argue the toss about it for three hours.


Perhaps this means squadrons no longer exist in 6E? Has any of the newest codicies had squadrons of any kind? I can't think of anything really since IG with hellhounds etc.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

MadCowCrazy said:


> Well, this can't be true if there are a million worlds in the imperium but only 50k sisters of battle
> 
> In the least there has to be millions if not billions. At the very least every world with a billion or more guardsmen has to have a few hundred thousand SoB.
> 
> I think the developers can't do math basically. They've forgotten how big the 40k universe really is and how many planets the imperium of man occupy. I believe I've read somewhere that the Sisters defend Ecclisarchy churches and important places, the Ecclesiarchy are also amongst the first on new worlds occupied by humans. Even if there was just a single battle sister on each world with some Ecclesiarichal presence there should be hundreds of thousands of SoB.


I think your forgetting just how derp the math skills of GW are, for instance in wars involving millions of combatants on any given world a single marine would have to kill around 1000 people in each battle to contribute anything to the endless waves of city crushing tanks or billion strong waves of gaunts.
SoB are just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to this mathematical failing.


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