Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Adepta Sororitas (section)

==Building your Army==

===Army Composition===

As far as HQs go, it's Jacobus or Celestine. You can pick Canoness, but I'd recommend focusing on the special characters, as they're your bread and butter. Canoness can serve her purpose as providing wound tanking support, using her leadership for AoFs or using her BS for Quad-guns, but Jacobus and Celestine bring so much to the table with their special abilities you'll miss out much if you don't get them.

For your basic troops, two groups of Basic Bolter Babes with flamers and heavy flamers is a good start, although you shouldn't be afraid to customize their wargear to your needs. Your basic Sisters gaining Preferred Enemy is damn nice, especially with those flamers. Seeing as how its an AoF you have to pass a leadership test for it to work, so upgrading a superior offers reliability with the increased LD. 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. Remember, Sisters don't benefit from nice things like ATSKNF which means that if they run, you're fucked. (Don't forget the cheap-ass Book of St. Lucius and Jacobus's bubble of Fearless, though.) Eventually, you can build your army to a rhinospam (10-man groups inside each with few special weapons and priests?) or try out a blob of sisters (20-man footsloggers), if you're feeling particularly manly.

Elites? Not the best part of your codex, you might want to stay light on these choices at first. Celestians? They can work with very aggressive playstyle, but as said, you need to devote yourself to them. Give them a try first by proxying, then decide if you want to get more. Repentia are the other 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 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 I1 (instead of 3) is not such a big deal, since generally Sisters go last anyway, but losing the ability to strike even when dead is a definite kick in the giblets. A 3+ FNP only goes so far (T3). 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... Point being: these girls absolutely have their uses, but be VERY careful HOW you use them. No matter what, take a priest with them (War Hymns, Zealot). If you're using Imperium allies (and why wouldn't you), mounting your Repentia in a Land Raider, Stormraven or Storm Wolf will let them get to the fight in style and safety. 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 Sister Superior. Pop tanks, shred infantry, 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''', so feel season the taste with Simulacrum and superiors for better LD's. Throw in a Laud Hailer, which is mathematically more likely to let you pass your AoF test than the same points spent on a Veteran Superior - but hell, take both if you can afford it. Why? 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. Necrons, Dark Eldar and Tau can do similar cover-based shenanigans - all their tanks (save the Monolith) can Jink. It's also indispensable against Tyranids, when you really must bust that Exocrine sitting in a ruin with a Malanthrope before it blasts all your Bolter Babes to Betelgeuse. Granted, your opponent will generally 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. 

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 (if not three) 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. Alternatively, if you want to play aggressively with the Sisters, equipping Retributors with Heavy Flamers and sticking them in a Rhino makes delicious, mobile, Rending flamers that purge heretics like butter. You can safely skip the Penitent Engines, unless you want to show off one on your display shelf. If you like Forge World, save room for the Avenger - it's hell on wings against flyers, medium tanks and pretty much any infantry without a 2+ save (and with those lascannons, it's a threat to them, too). Let your Dominions focus on the Land Raiders and Monoliths, let the Avenger turn everything else into so much metal confetti.

===Getting Models (Outdated, but still linked elsewhere)===

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, 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. You think you could 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.

So what can an aspiring new player do? There's a few possible options:

*Hound the market for used Adepta Sororitas armies and pieces, they pop up every so often when a neckbeard doesn't love his Sisters anymore, which given the lack of GW support happens more then you might think. They do usually go for a bit higher price than your usual used warhammer figures, due to their status of being collectible and slightly more rare than their plastic brethren.

*Conversions! 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 oversized on Eldar bodies. If you're manly enough you can use DE bodies and legs and a mix of DE and DE heads to come up with some awesome looking models. Scratch some of the spikes and emblems off their armor, 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.

[[Image:ValkirStatuesque.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A nice looking conversion using a Dreamforge [http://dreamforge-games.com/products/eisenkern-valkir-heavy-trooper |"Eisenkern Valkir Heavy Trooper"] body and a Statuesque Models [http://statuesqueminiatures.shop033.com/p/8774376/sma012-heroic-scale-female-heads.html|"Heroic female"] head. Currently 47.20 for twenty bodies, ~14$ for 20 heads, yielding $3.06 per model. Compare to GW's who sell 10 sister models for $79.80, almost 8 dollars a model and you have less control over squad composition. Further special weapons sisters from GW are between 9 to 14 dollars ''per model''. Those Valkirs? They come with some nice looking flamers and 'heavy rifles' which can be counts as storm bolters at no add on price. Additionally if you don't mind the non-standard gear, you can dip into dream forge Support Valkir troopers range to make heavy weapon Sisters at similar price reduction. In total you can get a full 20 women squad of battle sisters for less then what game workshop sells for ten sisters. Assuming of course you don't go hunting Ebay for bolters to complete the look.. The Valkir heads might even work well for Celestians...]]

*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. You could 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'. 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.  For example, [http://dreamforge-games.com/ Dreamforge Games] offers marines that are decently priced and slimmer, which means they could pass for Sisters. Dream forge Games also now make a unit called Eisenkern Valkir, (I.e. girls in power armour) that make very good Sisters if you can find enough female heads to shove on the bodies. A word of warning: this is not a cheap option if you live outside the USA. What with postage and import tax...actually, it still comes in about twenty pounds cheaper than the equivalent number of GW models.
**Another third party options has recently appeared.  Statuesque Models heroic female heads can create a very good result when combined with power armor models, like the Dreamforge games ones above.

*Don't worry about Repentia though, you'll find PLENTY of models for them. Like we said, most sculptors like making scantily clad ladies

*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 (of course you could claim you recasted them/sculpted them yourself from Greenstuff but who does that?). Shipping will be a bitch, costing upwards of $20 and taking about a week usually. And of course, there's always a chance that the models you get can be of [[Finecast|questionable quality]].

* Raging Heroes' [https://www.ragingheroes.com/collections/types?q=Sisters%20SF%20%28SoEM%20-%20SF%29 Sisters of Eternal Mercy]. [https://www.ragingheroes.com/products/pilgrimage-fire-s-sf Current] [https://www.ragingheroes.com/products/pilgrimage-thunder-s-sf Army] [https://www.ragingheroes.com/products/pilgrimage-steel-s-sf Deals]
<s>You won't be able to play them at a tournament</s> ITC tournament rules allow for reasonable "counts as" models, so this should not be an issue, but who cares? All your friends will let you use them, and you are supporting a small business.

*For some of the oddities, like the Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave and the Priests, you could look at Warmachine models. Daughters of the Flame or Kayazy Eliminators work fairly well as Death Cult Assassins, while Thyra, Flame of Sorrow is a reasonably convincing dual-power-weapon Canoness. Holy Zealots could work as Ministorum Priests.

*[[Casting]] is always an option, though it's a skill that takes time.

*3D Printing's an option. Laugh all you want at a decent-quality 3D Printer going for over $1000: With the ability to duplicate models and a batch of 3D printer plastic material going for less than a squad of 10 Battle Sisters, GW's shitty practices and shittier pricing mean that any moron with a decent quality 3D imaging program and some time and effort can get their hands on a bottomless supply of miniatures and make a small fortune supplying his or her friends at the FLGS.

*Even if the rumors about plastic sisters of battle is hot air, we are getting sisters of silence for sure. You can use those models in place of sisters, after all what's ten thousand years between friends? Well except the fact that Sisters of Silence have better rules than their inferior non Emperor sanctioned knockoffs.

*[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1637892615/daughters-of-the-burning-rose Daughters of the Burning Rose] by [http://anvilindustry.co.uk/ Anvil Industry]

*[https://wargameexclusive.com/product-category/battle-sisters/ Battle Sisters] by Wargame Exclusive - they also have great [https://wargameexclusive.com/product-category/heresy-hunters/ inquisitors]