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As I finalize my fandex/expansion, I realize that while I've got new wargear, new units in every FOC slot, and Sororitas superheavies, I'm missing one thing: formations! So here, for your delectation, dissection, & destruction, I present four new formations for Codex: Adepta Sororitas, all incorporating at least one of my homebrew units.


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Righteous Raiders
Wildfire spreads fast, but the fire of faith spreads faster. The Sisters of Battle boast many fast-moving scout units, from Dominion weapons teams to Throne Bikers and Lucifer Scout Tanks. While these typically play a supporting role on the flanks or in the vanguard of heavier troops, sometimes the demands of a campaign require them to be concentrated in long-range reconnaissance and raiding forces. Indeed, some Preceptories -- especially of the Order of the Bloody Rose -- and Minor Orders Militant are entirely devoted to such operations. Moving too fast for heavy support and often out of range of air cover, what they lack in firepower they make up in speed.

Design Notes


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A Mighty Fortress
A mighty fortress is our God-Emperor. As soldiers of the Ecclesiarchy, the Sisters of Battle must defend its many sacred places. The most important of these shrines are, naturally, well fortified and garrisoned by heavily armed Sisters organized for a diehard defense rather than mobile warfare.

Design notes:


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Valkyrian Drop Troops
On the Emperor's Judgment Day, the sky itself will fall upon the wicked. Extremely mobile even by the standards of the Sisterhood, and extremely expensive even by the standards of the Ecclesiarchy, every woman of these specialized Sororitas strike groups flies into battle, either on a Seraphim jump pack or in a Sororitas variant of the Valkyrie. Such elites are reserved to act as the spearheads of a War of Faith or a rapid-response force to defend valuable Shrine Worlds.

Design Notes:


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Frateris Crusade
Many faithful, few Sisters. The God-Emperor's domain is vast, and even its most pious planets far outstrip the ability of the Adepta Sororitas to protect them. Often, the untrained but zealous Frateris Militia march into battle with no Sisters to stiffen their ragged ranks. Those that die victorious will surely ascend with the Emperor's blessing; those who fail will burn forever.

Design notes:

If you're allowing Victorias for the Celestians and SCS, why not the BSS?

I'd shy away from Victoria DTs, personally - the Guard air cav list retains Vendettas purely as a Fast Attack choice and only allows Valkyries as dedicated transports.

For Slip the Surly Bonds, rather than the line about not being forced into your dedicated transport (what?), it would be better to give them Airborne Assault and let them bring half their Valkyries on in turn 1.

The Mighty Fortress pretty much invalidates standard Battle Sisters unless you're going for a combat list based around giant blobs of Sisters. Basically: Retributors are better in every way unless you have to move, and the fortress is never going to since it ranges pretty much everything that might threaten it except Basilisks and Railheads.It ranges them with high RoF rending at that.

The Holy Raiders have the same problem at the opposite end of the spectrum: Dominions wipe the floor with anything they can hit, and the formation lets you put the whole army into range.

Good points. I'll definitely drop Victorias as a dedicated transport option (for the uninitiated, Victorias are Vendettas, only with multi-meltas instead of lascannons, so, ouch). And I'll look into Airborne Assault; I don't have the Elysians book, though, which is where I presume that's from; any help on what it says in more detail?

And I can see that the formations that effectively let Retributors and Dominions (respectively) replace your Battle Sister Squads are... potentially overpowered. I'd thought the lack of mobility in the Ret-based "Mighty Fortress" list and the lack of heavy support in the Dom-based "Righteous Raiders" might balance them, but if you don't ever need to move (in one case) or can scout/outflank the entire army into the other side's face for an annihilating alpha strike (in the other), it's not much of an offset. Hmmm.

I wonder what would be a balanced way to do a fortress garrison themed formation and an "everybody scouts!" formation....

Checking...

Ah, it's actually called Combat Drop, and states;

"Before the first turn, choose a number of Valkyries, Sky Talons, Drop Sentinels and Sentry Turrets equal to up to half the total number of such units in the army. These units must deploy by Deep Strike at the start of your first turn. Any units not chosen will come on from Reserve as normal. Drop Sentinels not chosen may go into Reserve or be deployed as normal."

Hmmm, I do not really see any problems here, good job

However, In the Righterous Raiders detachment, I suggest granting the Palantines Acute Sense, to make as many units arrive at the right destination as possible.

And the Frateris Crusade detachment, I suggest making Confessor a compulsory choice.

Compulsory Confessor -- yes. I left him at 0-1 to allow for the possibility there's just a semi-organized mob with some priest sort of in charge. But if they're as fired up as their special rules indicate, then at least one of the priests should be an extraordinary individual, counting as a Confessor rules-wise even if they don't have the title.

Palatines with Acute Senses would allow for a LOT of precision out flanking -- three units -- so I'm leery but tempted. The Raiders formation is just hard to balance....

The Fortress formation can get a lot better just by losing Objective Secured and Preferred Enemy. You don't need any more bonuses besides Retributor spam.... I'm tempted to say that no squad may take a dedicated transport, but that seems both overly restrictive and unrealistic, since a good fortress garrison sorties sometimes.

the main problem I have on these formations, is the very little requirements they actually have.

Most formations are very inflexible in what you can bring, forcing you at the very least to bring some units of any type available to the formation, if not giving a fixed number of each. these are basically "run the army as you like, get extra benefits"


The crusade one is the biggest offender, being a practically "superior CAD for the Frateris codex", if you play your army with these units there isn't even a question if to take that or a standard CAD, you literally gain every CAD benefit anyway.

Yeah, I''m wrestling with this Formations thing -- I used to not even read Formations in the books I bought.

And yes, the Frateris Crusade is basically getting a superior CAD in exchange for using a very narrow selection of pretty godawful units.....

After much pondering of people's advice above, I've rewritten these formations significantly, below:


*

Righteous Raiders
Wildfire spreads fast, but the fire of faith spreads faster. The Sisters of Battle boast many fast-moving scout units, from Dominion weapons teams to Throne Bikers and Lucifer Scout Tanks. While these typically play a supporting role on the flanks or in the vanguard of heavier troops, sometimes the demands of a campaign require them to be concentrated in long-range reconnaissance and raiding forces. Indeed, some Preceptories -- especially of the Order of the Bloody Rose -- and Minor Orders Militant are entirely devoted to such operations. Moving too fast for heavy support and often out of range of air cover, what they lack in firepower they make up in speed.

Design Notes


*

A Mighty Fortress
A mighty fortress is our God-Emperor. As soldiers of the Ecclesiarchy, the Sisters of Battle must defend its many sacred places. The most important of these shrines are, naturally, well fortified and garrisoned by heavily armed Sisters organized for a diehard defense rather than mobile warfare.

Design notes:


*

Valkyrian Drop Troops
On the Emperor's Judgment Day, the sky itself will fall upon the wicked. Extremely mobile even by the standards of the Sisterhood, and extremely expensive even by the standards of the Ecclesiarchy, every woman of these specialized Sororitas strike groups flies into battle, either on a Seraphim jump pack or in a Sororitas variant of the Valkyrie. Such elites are reserved to act as the spearheads of a War of Faith or a rapid-response force to defend valuable Shrine Worlds.

Design Notes:


*

Frateris Crusade
Many faithful, few Sisters. The God-Emperor's domain is vast, and even its most pious planets far outstrip the ability of the Adepta Sororitas to protect them. Often, the untrained but zealous Frateris Militia march into battle with no Sisters to stiffen their ragged ranks. Those that die victorious will surely ascend with the Emperor's blessing; those who fail will burn forever.

Design notes: