Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Adepta Sororitas (section)

==Building your Army==

As far as HQs go, it's Jacobus or Celestine. Although I do have a potentially fun tactic with a Canoness ya'll might enjoy (see below) 

For your basic troops, <s>the 1-Click Collection on Games Workshop's site is a fair loadout, obviously a combi-flamer is far better than a power sword, so just proxy or make one (Sister with Storm Bolter and Death Company Hand Flamer works well.)</S>. All of the aforementioned is valid, I only strike it out because the one-click costs the exact same as the sisters individually, so if you are buying through GW, might as well avoid the one-clicks and customize to your heart's content. Veteran Superior can be very useful, and I would take one. Your basic bolter sisters gaining preferred enemy is damn nice for a turn. Seeing as how its an AoF, though, you have to pass a leadership test for it to work, so the superior offers some security. Not required, of course, but far more justifiable than, say, upgrading to a veteran sergeant in a DA army. I would also recommend taking a Simulacrum, because it means you can now get preferred enemy twice (!). There are a variety of sizes in which you can run your troops, and honestly, I think all have their uses. A shitton of immolator spam with 6 man squads could be hilarious, but with special weapons, Simulacrums, and vets, that will get real expensive real quick, and remember, sisters don't benefit from nice things like ATSKNF, which means that if they run, you're fucked. I am going to skip the ten man squad in the rhino. The mechanic is similar to that of the immolator, and if you have ever played with or against a marine army, you have a basic idea of how this works. My personal preference--and if you want to feel like an incredibly manly motherfucker-- is just to spend the damn money and make blob sisters: 2 squads of 20, with priests as well.

Elites? Good joke. Celestians? Please. Priest could be cool with War Hymns, but really, Sisters are crap in CC, and a polished turd is still a turd. Here Repentia are really your only option. They could potentially pop tanks, but if that's what you need, scroll down to Fast Attack. Their best use is as a suicide unit (duh) pointed directly at your opponent's dedicated close combat squad. As much as I love the Repentia in theory, in practice they have serious problems. Striking at initiative one (instead of 3) is not such a big deal, since generally that means they will go last anyways, but losing the ability to strike even when dead is a definite kick in the giblets. A 3+ fnp only goes so far. If you point them at terminators, good on ya, because generally those terminators will strike simultaneously (unless they are chaos and equipped with power maces, then you are fucked. So long fnp), and the end of that combat will be a wonderful hot mess, with you coming out on top insofar as his 200+ point squad just got reamed by your 155 pt masochists. But if you point them at a blob squad of orks, or chaos marines, or hormagaunts, or hell, even blob squads of imperial guardsmen/cultists, well, you might find yourself in trouble. Point being: these girls absolutely have their uses, but be VERY careful HOW you use them. No matter what, take a preacher (for the reasons discussed above in the Repentia entry), and war hymns are probably smart. While I cannot say for sure, my guess is that these ladies are at their best when behind a wall of other sisters (I think a ten man squad of basic troops with a priest should suffice), rather than in a Rhino, for the reasons discussed above in their entry, but if someone has had other, better experiences, please let me (and all of us!) know. One more thing to note: don't COMPLETELY neglect these ladies. Their apocalypse formation (and seeing as how its war in the 41st millennium. EVERYONE should be playing an apocalypse game or two) is actually pretty cool, especially when combined with the proper strategic asset (like, say, I don't know, preventing the opposing army from shooting at them for a turn [i.e. shield-generator]?).   

When it comes to Fast Attack, you'll want one squad of Seraphim, with two Hand Flamers and Melta Bombs on your Veteran Sister Superior. Pop tanks, shred infantry, the works. Nuff said about that. Dominions work amazingly when spammed with Melta and put in an Immolator with T/L Multi-Melta. Take 2. Ignoring cover is extremely useful as now tanks get cover from 25%, but <s>if you don't have the points to spare, you won't miss a Veteran Sister Superior or Simulacrum Imperialis</s>. Not so sure about this. In certain circumstances, yes, such a statement is correct. Generally, cover is only 5+ for tanks, BUT...anybody ever fought Eldar serpent spam? All sorts of GW Cheesiness has been slathered on those stupid tanks, and you need to be able to ignore their cover to take them out. Even if not Eldar, ignoring cover is just so damn useful. Granted, your opponent will only have a 30% chance to save, but if he happens to make that save on his Leman Russ demolisher, you're going to be really butt-hurt you didn't spend the points to assure your passing your AoF. Generally, if you don't have the points to spare, I would probably not drop them here. There are other places where you can shave points in your army. 

Now you're at Heavy Support, and if you're not taking at least one Exorcist, at any points level, punch yourself in the face. At 1500 points you want two with Laud Hailers, along with some Retributors loaded up with Heavy Bolters, a Veteran Sister Superior, and an Simulacrum Imperialis. Sit the three behind an Aegis Defense Line with a Quad Gun, you'll have two chances at Rending at Ld9 with a reroll. Don't argue, do it. 
**Canoness tactic!!!! Yes, folks, here it is. I give you a potentially effective way to use her [!]: Give her the mantle of Ophelia (perhaps the cloak of St. Aspira too? if she's behind an aegis, I am not sure a Rosarius is all that useful, and the cloak is only 5 pts more) and join her with the Retributors. Put her and the quad gun OUT FRONT. Now you have a ballistic skill 5 model manning the quad gun (2+ rerollable to-hit rolls, anyone?), AND she can tank wounds for your retributors, since she is immune to instant death! Oh, and the squads AoF(s) is now at leadership 10, so there is that too. As an added bonus, I would also put an inquisitor back there (with a hellrifle) and a cheapy squad of acolytes. Flank them with two exorcists. Now you have prescience to give all your retributors when firing their rending shots, and when not you can prescience your exorcists. Once the retributors AoF(s) have been spent, have the inquisitor join them to give them stubborn, since your canoness will likely be close to dead by this time from the wound tanking, and with the Hellrifle, she synergizes well with the Heavy bolters. Obviously, it still remains useful to have a couple of soaks in the retributor squad for when the canoness gets down to one wound.
**Additional thought: I am debating whether or not to give the inquisitor a Liber Heresius. On the one hand, without the rending on the HBs, the ability to split fire the quad gun might be exceedingly useful (since it can still pop tanks and fliers, which the HB's really cant do without rending). On the other, by turn 3 (or 4, depending on whether or not night-fighting happened for turn one), once the AoF(s) have been spent, I have my doubts the quad gun will still be alive, seeing as how it will almost certainly draw fire (if not round one, certainly round two when your opponent realizes you can make it rend). Plus such a load-out on the Inquisitor is beginning to get expensive. 
**Final notes: Don't forget that generally speaking, the inquisitor's WL traits are more useful than the Canoness (who, remember, if you take her, is GOING to be your warlord, unless you also took Celestine), so there is that added bonus. No matter what, I STRONGLY recommend getting an inquisitor for this back-line, since prescience is just too damn useful. Remember as well to at least roll on the Divination table, since some of the other powers work really well against certain armies. If, for example, you happen to get perfect timing against an Eldar opponent, you probably want to take it, cuz your retributors suddenly ignoring cover would be rather hilarious. This is a bit of a long entry, and technically its not just about the canoness, but the combination just described is (I think) an exceedingly effective way to use her, and should be considered in your games. You're welcome    

Quite unfortunately, the Sisters have two major problems to anyone trying to create an army with them.

*Problem one: all their units are sold in three model packs and they're made of Emperor damned pewter and they all cost WAY too much. To build a single ten sister squad you need to get at least four of those and that's almost 60 dollars right there, not counting any special or heavy weapons you want to add. So your other option is to proxy the sisters using other models, which leads to problem two:

*Problem two: the sisters are unique. If you look around among other miniature manufacturers you'll find that the 'army of nuns in power armor' theme is, surprisingly, uncommon. Sure you can find one or two models but nothing you can replicate army wide. Your odds of finding a good model go up if you just look for 'girls in power armor' but even then your pickings are slim (for some reason miniature sculptors tend to make female models with very little clothing on, not so much full sets of armor, go figure) and again any option you do find will likely be hard to use army wide unless you really commit to kit bashing to deal with weapon and pose problems. 

*The running best option seems to be to combining body's from the Dark Eldars with Space Marine arms and weapons, which both look a bit oversize on Eldar bodies. If you're manly enough you can use dark eldar bodies and legs, and a mix of dark eldar and dark elf heads to come up with some awesome looking models. Use empire rifles and arms to give them that steam punk look and you got yourself some cool fuckin' models. Think Sisters of Silence, but without the armour that covers half their face.

*Another option may be going 'screw it!' to the sisters aesthetic and use Space Marines with female heads on them. But this makes proper Sisters sad. A third option would be to find  miniatures that while 'slimmer' than a space marine are still in full armor. Something you can point to and say 'looks like a girl can wear that' but again, this only solves the 'army of girls in power armor theme' not the 'army of nuns in power armor' issue, which is truly what the Sisters are about. Don't worry about Repentia though, your find PLENTY of models for them. Until GW puts some plastics out, there are no good options for sister players at the moment.

*If you're particularly desperate, the chinese recasters have taken notice of the "re-release" Adepta Sororitas and are offering resin versions of Sisters. Unfortunately, they've also taken notice of the GW prices and while cheaper, they're still quite steep in price compared to other armies. You probably won't be able to take these to a tournament either, since any organizer worth their salt will know that Sisters should be metal.

*One more (extremely badass) option is coming down the pipe. Keep your eyes peeled for Raging heroes' 'Sisters of Eternal Mercy'. Raging Heroes generally does amazing work, and they are clearly going to be creating Sisters of Battle type models (they are, in fact, nuns in space). You won't be able to play them at a tournament, but who cares? All your friends will let you use them, and you are supporting a small business. Plus they will look WAY cooler. the kickstarter will begin in the spring. Heres a link to the concept art (its the pic at the bottom of the page): 

http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.com/2014/02/toughest-girls-of-galaxy-update.html