Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Adepta Sororitas First Impressions
Goatboy here with my first impressions on the new Adepta Sororitas codex. The Sisters are back!
Of course, the question I have is – could I make a corrupted Sisters Army? I mean not really but the army does peak my interest a bit. It doesn’t look nearly as complicated as Ad Mech is so that is a big plus – it also seems to have options for multiple builds as well. That is very good as some of the other books are looking more and more mono faction versus allowing a player to really create something unique. I won’t dive fully into it – I haven’t gotten our book to truly break it down but I can at least talk about the things I saw today and what looked cool.
High Abbess Morvenn Vahl
First – that new special character is pretty bonkers. 265 points for basically an old skool Roboute with some better shooting, better protection, and just overall a better army to build around. This model is going to show up a lot and while some of the other big “characters” are not in every list this kick-ass lady most likely will be. Do I think they push her too hard to the super good category – maybe. Remember her name – Morvenn Vahl – she will be kicking the crap out of your HQ character at some point in an event.
20-Sister Squads!
Oh – I think it is pretty crazy we can start seeing 20 Model Sisters squads. I remember the old days of seeing some of these hit the tabletop – heck I painted a mostly metal Sisters army that had a ton of troops so it is something to be worried about. It is neat we have seen two armies go back to big ole squads so I have high hopes we see Chaos Space Marines stick with the 20 man block. Heck if we could have had 20-man Plague Marine squads we might have seen one unit hit the table. I expect to see a big unit in a lot of armies as it is an easy thing to buff to infinity – mixed with 2 min squads to ensure our Battalion is ready to go.
Faith & Miracles
The overall changes to some of the Faith system and what characters can do is important. I like the new Miracles some leaders can be upgraded too and find that sorta “once a game” special event is a neat mechanic. You do have to burn the miracle it seems and burn a Faith Dice so it will take a bit but the leaked remove Invulnerable saves seems good. We will see how well the others end up but it is something to be thankful for to create unique characters that can help plug in holes.
Alas, the Exorcist
Holy crap did the Exorcist take it a bit losing wounds and toughness. I thought the extra toughness was stupid beforehand – but it made the tank unique. I built three of the old models and that new one is pretty dang cool looking but I expect a lot of these to sit on the shelves. It is always an issue with tanks now as you either have to be cheap with a decent gun or amazingly durable due to the nature of the game, the amount of lascannon hell you have to face, and just how tanks just have issues working. The new tank looks neat – but again just like every tank released – if it isn’t floating, fast as hell, covered in spikes, and cheap it isn’t worth it.
Hello Paragons
The new Sisters Terminators are pretty neat. In some ways, I am glad they are limited to units of 3 as it just means you need 3 boxes to get what you need for your army but it feels like another “loss” for GW. Just like the Outriders being limited to 3 due to being a bit too good I expect these models to do the same thing. Still, they seem neat, throw out some decent firepower, and are hard to shift. They might make up an interesting core for the army as a block of death just like some of the Imperial soups did with Custodes taking that place.
Dominions
Dominions look to have had a nice boost with their Scout move coming back, a vehicle gaining scout too, and a friend able to ride in it as well. Are you telling me a good Rhino Rush army is there with Sisters, friends, and murder? Oh – and how fancy is it that they have a special Storm Bolter that is Damage 2? I love it as the idea of some kind of cool storm bolter might show up somewhere else for other armies in the future. I always wanted the more “elite” gun units like Havocs, Devastators, and other things mixed with more “anti troop” firepower that had a large number of bullets. With the game going to so many 2 wound options you had to up the damage potential. I am hoping we see that in some of the future books… cough cough Grey Knights.
Updated Rules
Oh, and we have more guaranteed Core things that are going to show up everywhere. I played a Sisters player last even and I always was confused to initially see the Exorcist reroll their 1’s to hit. Now just like all the new books – core is limited to specific options. I think it is for the b best and while I will probably abuse the lack of rules update for some of my armies in the future it just needs to happen to everyone.
Oh man – the auto deny on a 6+ seems pretty dang spicy. Of course, the next 2 books are psychic heavy armies so if they get extreme buffs for their mind spells – well Sisters will just get better and better. I remember the old days where countering a spell was a heck of a lot easier and this army is bringing it back. Good thing you can’t as easily get Invulnerable saves as a 4+ all over the board so that makes me feel a bit better.
The Verdict?
Heck overall the book looks to remove some of the rough spots in the last book, update some things to make them more interesting, and then bring in some new stuff that is not completely worthless. You will want to buy the new things because they are needed to make the army work well. That means overall it is a win for GW as while it doesn’t completely invalidate initial Sister players armies, it induces you into buying some new stuff, and the overall purchasing setup via boxes isn’t terrible to collect. You are not going to be left with random extra models as you can easily build out what you need.
Will we see a whole bunch of new Sisters players? Maybe as the whole army is plastic, you can probably get some deals on models if you look around, and I don’t think it is as crazy expensive as say Ad Mech or some of the other options. It is a painter’s army dream as so many models are unique and pretty looking so it’s cool. I’m not personally playing Sororitas, no matter how much I like the Warsuits, but I can guarantee with this new codex is will love to play against it and see more of it on tabletops.
For the Emperor!
