Warhammer 40K: Sisters of Battle – Miracle Dice Vs Beta Acts of Faith
The Sisters of Battle are getting a new system to represent their Acts of Faith – but how do Miracle Dice stack-up vs their Beta Acts of Faith system? Take a look.
If you missed the news yesterday, then you might have glossed over the new Miracle Dice for the Sisters of Battle. This is a new system that allows the Sisters to get a pool of dice that they can use to:
“…expend these dice in place of certain rolls (hit and wound rolls, saving throws, and more) later in the battle to ensure you get the exact result you need, when you need it.”
This system is very analogous to playing against a Disciples of Tzeentch army in Age of Sigmar. It’s a very powerful ability when used wisely. Even low rolls can be extremely useful in the right situation. You gain these dice in the following ways:
While this pool is limited and generation can be a little sporadic, it is a pool of dice that will fluctuate the entire game. These can be used in lieu of your precious Command Points for re-rolls, and that alone is fantastic. While we don’t know what else the Miracle Dice can be spent on, you can bet that they are going to be very useful! And you can bet that the Sisters of Battle will have some other ways of generating these dice via stratagems or perhaps even Warlord Traits – I wouldn’t be surprised if GW baked some of that into their new book.
This system is new for the Sisters but it was tested and implemented in Age of Sigmar – so GW knows it works and it’s potent. But is it better than their Old Acts of Faith?
Beta Acts of Faith
These are the rules from the Beta Sisters Rules (Chapter Approved 2018). While the Acts of Faith System has been torn down and rebuilt a few times, these are the current rules that GW had implemented. Now, it might be easy to write off this system because, hey, it’s basically getting replaced – so it must have been worse, right? There is certainly a case to be made that is true.
Looking at the rules from a 10,000 ft overview, you can see what GW was trying to do here. They start with a pool of dice based on the army construction and then they can spend them for the possibility that one of these in-game effects would trigger. Each of these could only be attempted once per battle round as well. Some of them weren’t exactly show-stoppers but that element of randomness made them a lot less reliable. And if something isn’t super reliable, you have to wonder if it’s all that useful when you’re planning out your turn.
If you can’t tell, I’m in favor of the new system. While I don’t play Sisters, I think the new system is a lot cleaner and more streamlined. This means as a non-Sisters player it’s also easier to follow. Plus I think it does a better job of representing that “divine intervention” vibe that the Sisters are blessed with. The randomness of the old system was just too inconsistent – it felt like it wasn’t a divine intervention or test of faith. It was more of akin to gambling away a resource for a possible payoff.
It was great when those abilities did trigger, but when you didn’t get the roll you need you were just down a Faith Point. At least with this new system, you CAN actually plan for successes and that is worth the more “limited” scope in my opinion. You might not get an extra 3″ move or a 4+ save vs Mortal Wounds but I’ll take my pre-rolled set of dice I can swap out for that any day.
What do you think of these two systems – do you like the change or would you have preferred to keep using the Beta Rules?
