Editing Saint Celestine (section)

==On The Tabletop==

{| class=wikitable
! || Power || Points || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Saint Celestine:''' || 8 || 160 || 12" || 2+ || 2+ || 3 || 3 || 6 || 6 || 9 || 2+/4++
|-
| '''Geminae Superia:''' || 2/model || 25/model || 12" || 3+ || 3+ || 3 || 3 || 2 || 3 || 9 || 3+/6++
|}

'''Keywords:''' Character, Infantry, Jump Pack, Fly

Before Chapter Approved 2018, Celestine was one of the best [[Distraction Carnifex]] units in the game, a nigh-unkillable juggernaut whose badass sword, free act of faith, and resurrection abilities made her a killing machine. In the grim darkness of Chapter Approved 2018 however, she's... okay. Her statline is mostly the same (minus a wound), and like before, she can resurrect with full health on a 2+. Offensively, Celestine is still a beast. Her sword is +4 Strength, -3 AP and 2 damage while also being a Heavy Flamer. With 6 attacks, she is sure to deal some damage. Instead of giving a free Act of Faith... she gets no replacement rule and GW just took away one of the best reasons to take her, especially now that Acts of Faith work differently. Saintly Blessings still increases nearby Shield of Faith saves by +1, which means Seraphim get a 4++ save, and still gives nearby Ministorum and Astra Militarum units a 6+ invulnerable save. On the downside, they inexplicably removed the Geminae Superia, making them their own unit. This might make ''some'' sense if they also did something to make the Geminae stand out on their own (they are [[Canoness|Canonesses]] after all), but they're functionally the same as they were when with Celestine; the only difference is that they can Look Out, Sir! for her on a 2+.

This is a bit of a kick in the teeth for our favorite <s>[[daemon prince]]</s> {{BLAM}} [[Living Saint|living saint]]. Separating Celestine from the Geminae ''drastically'' reduces her survivability. Not only does it effectively drop her wound count, but it can easily lead to situations where Celestine makes a charge, but the Geminae don't, or vice versa. In the former case, this makes Celestine much easier to kill, especially if she's fighting [[Assault Terminators|a unit that can actually cause her trouble]]. In the latter case, you get stuck with the Gemniae's dinky S3 power swords while the real melee heavyweight gets sidelined. All of this, combined with the fact that Celestine can't deep strike in this edition, encourages you to play much more cautiously with her. Whereas before she could reliably run around on her own, now it's a good idea to have some Seraphim rolling around with her to keep enemies from shooting her, and you have to be much more careful about charges now.

And before you ask, no: the 2019 codex didn't change anything. She gained Sacred Rites, but did ''not'' gain Order bonuses. Pray to the Emperor that [[Games Workshop|GW]] realizes the error in their ways and repents before it is too late!

===7th Edition===
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Saint Celestine:''' || 200 || 7 || 7 || 3 || 3 || 5 || 7 || 5 || 10 || 2+\4++
|-
| '''Eleanor\Genevieve:''' || As Above || 5 || 4 || 3 || 3 || 2 || 4 || 2 || 10 || 3+\4++
|}

Celestine is arguably the best [[Distraction Carnifex]] in the entire game. Seriously, it's nigh-impossible to put her down. For starters, She's an Eternal Warrior with 5 wounds, a 2+ armor save, and a 4+ invulnerable save. In addition to that, she's got two 2-wound [[canoness]] bodyguards who have 3+ armor and share her invulnerable save. Should one or more of them die, one will automatically respawn at the beginning of each of Celestine's turns. On top of all that, assuming you actually manage to chew through 9 total wounds, she can resurrect with all wounds and res one of her bodyguards once per game with a successful leadership test.

Alright, so she's functionally unkillable, her offensive capabilities can't be great, right? Nope, with a S5 AP3 Armorbane sword/heavy flamer and the ability to call orbital bombardment, she can be a murder-machine as well. Add her ability to buff nearby Imperial units and you have one of the best HQs in the game. And the best part? She's 200 points. For less than any of [[Dante|The]] [[Logan Grimnar|Big]] <s> [[Marneus Calgar|Three]] </s> [[Roboute Guilliman|Four]], you get a unit that is nearly unkillable, and packs a decent punch to boot. Bring her to battles and send her straight at the biggest, scariest enemy unit. Even if she doesn't beat it, she's all but guaranteed to keep it tied down for the entire game. Her main weaknesses are [[Deep Strike|deep strike]] mishaps, [[Assault Terminators|heavy assault troops]], and [[Lukas the Trickster|"remove with no saves allowed"]] weapons, so be even more wary of those than usual.