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Hello, does anyone have a link or know where to find the fluff of the sisters of battle? Are they like female space marines, whats their primary motivation, etc. If anyone can explain or provide links that would be great. Does anyone use them as an army anymore?

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sisters_of_Battle#.ULv14obXuAA here ya go.

They are the church's private army. Many people still use them as an army.

Thank you both! are witchhunters part of SOB?

Exalbaru wrote:
Thank you both! are witchhunters part of SOB?

In terms of what codex they are, they USED to be.

Awhile back, there was a Witchhunters codex, which had the Sisters of Battle and other elements of the Inquisition into a single Codex. Today, Sisters of Battle are their own thing, but their 'codex' is contained entirely in White Dwarf; issues 379 and 380 (August and September 2011). It is an enitrely legal and supported codex, but it is not as robust as a normal codex.

The old SOB codex was called "Codex: Witchhunters" but they have a new codex now, which was in White Dwarf last year.

The Witchhunters in the 40K background, however, are Inquisitors from the Ordo Hereticus and are entirely separate from the SOB. Having said that, their goals often overlap and the Ordo Hereticus often uses the SOB as troops

Exalbaru wrote:
Thank you both! are witchhunters part of SOB?

Witch Hunters is a term for the Ordo Hereticus of the Inquisition

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ordo_Hereticus#.ULwIW4NJNq8

They work closely with the Sisters of Battle.

Thank you all for the quick replies? So just ebay the issues for the codex or is there a place to order specific white dwarf issues?

Best source for Sororitas background is the 2nd Edition Codex Sororitas. There are also a few novels dealing with them:
James Swallow: Faith and Fire , Hammer and Anvil
Also Ben Counter: Grey Knights (before Ward raped the fluff ).

Exalbaru wrote:Hello, does anyone have a link or know where to find the fluff of the sisters of battle? Are they like female space marines, whats their primary motivation, etc.

It is an oversimplification, but that pretty much is the general idea.

"The Sisterhood is divided into two Convents; the Convent Prioris based within the Ecclesiarchal Palace on Terra and the Convent Sanctorum on Ophelia IV in the Segmentum Tempestus. Each Convent has its own fleets and conducts its own affairs in much the same way as the Space Marine Chapters."
- Codex Imperialis

The Sisters of Battle are one of the few organisations outside the Adeptus Astartes that employ power armour, and their weapons and wargear are the equal of the Space Marines. However, rather than being youngsters recruited during adolescence and subjected to genetic alteration and implantation processes, the Sororitas are still "all human", raised from infancy in militarised orphanages called Scholae Progenium and thoroughly indoctrinated in matters of Imperial religion and warfare. They are essentially an army of Jeannes d'Arcs (their insignia is a fleur-de-lis and the origin of their cult is a planet called "San Leor" ), holy warriors with an incredible amount of fanatism and belief - so much so that it enables them to continue fighting even mortally wounded, or summon seemingly supernatural strength from the reserves of their superbly trained bodies (represented in the game by special "Acts of Faith" conferring certain benefits to individual units). They live monastic lives isolated from the ordinary populace, knowing nothing but training, war and prayer, accompanied by daily chastisement in the pursuit of expressing their veneration of the God-Emperor by supposedly sharing in His suffering. Still, their duties take them out of their fortified convents again and again as the Sisters of Battle enforce Ecclesiarchal law throughout the Imperium, accompanying important Church officials as heavily armed bodyguards, protecting pilgrim routes, safeguard holy sites, purge mutants and unbelievers, or hunt down renegade Space Marine Chapters. Many of the latter activities are conducted alongside the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus, to which they are allied and bound as per the Convocation of Nephilim, a secret treaty between the two organisations drafted soon after the creation of the Orders Militant in the 36th millennium of Mankind.



That should be the gist of it.

Kroothawk wrote:Best source for Sororitas background is the 2nd Edition Codex Sororitas.

I agree with this. There have been extremely few changes in GW's own material regarding their background, so despite this book's age it is still fairly current.

Other than that, it really depends. The amount of licensed material dealing with SoB is fairly small, but there are a few novels and other books dealing with them. A possible minor problem here would be that many feature a few deviations (some small, some large) from the studio material, which may be confusing to someone who tries to get an overall understanding of this faction. Personally, I would recommend reading the Codex first, and then taking a look at the other material and cherrypick what you as the individual gamer like the most, whilst keeping in mind that "none of it" (including your own personal interpretation) can be wrong, as Gav Thorpe once explained it. It's all just different takes of the same general idea.

[edit] added some Codex artwork to convey a better feeling for their style

Also, no, Sisters of Battle are not Space Marines.

Sisters of Battle are wholly human. Space Marines are not human; they gave that up to become Space Marines. Whether or not this is cool or a good thing depends entirely upon the player of course.

I'd still say that for someone who has zero knowledge of the SoB it is an accurate-enough description. GW has compared them to Space Marines in the past themselves ("[...] equals to their brother Space Marines [...]").

The distinction comes when one delves deeper into their fluff, but at that point the reader will (should) also find it out for themselves. A fairly strong overlap remains in the form of their armour and weapons and the monastic lifestyle, just that it's warrior-nuns instead of warrior-monks.

Them still being "just" humans (at least biologically) is part of their appeal for me as well, though.

I'd say it's their defining feature. It's like you take a Space Marine and say "what could make him cooler?" So instead of adding more super-genetic-psycho-organic modification, you take it all away. You have a regular human left in that power armor and all the armies of hell at the gates. And she doesn't even flinch.

Pure. Badass.

Well, when you word it that way ...

I think they sound pretty cool and all their stuff I've found is pewter. Which I like much more than plastic or emperor forbid finecast. I'll have to get that codex and those issues of white dwarf so I can delve more into it.

Hah, my thoughts exactly @ pewter. It is unfortunately quite expensive and does not lend itself well to conversions, but imho their weight just "feels much nicer" than featherlike plastics, not to mention self-deforming Finecast.

As for White Dwarf, some of the recent issues had a few more bits about them, including this small overview of the six Major Orders:

Perhaps this can help you to pick an Order, not just by colour scheme but background as well. Since the Orders all follow a uniform command structure culminating in a single leader and share a singular origin, the differences between them are much, much smaller than between the various Space Marine Chapters or Imperial Guard regiments, but as you can see in the small text boxes there still exists a small degree of unique characterisation which was already hinted at in WD #292's Liber Sororitas.

In addition to these six Major Orders you also have the option of homebrewing your very own custom Minor Order - these are essentially smaller "spin-offs" from the Big Six, having only scores or hundreds of Battle Sisters compared to the thousands of the Major Orders, but compensating this by being found across the Imperium (their convents remaining from when one of the larger Orders operated in the respective area) and engaging in local missions or ad-hoc Inquisitorial assistance rather than the big holy wars and crusades.
Here is a small GW story about the Order of the Ermine Mantle, one of the few Minor Orders that got embroiled in the 13th Black Crusade.

People who want to start SoB right now are in a tight spot. SoB are not currently available from GW in cost-effective lots (minimum of 6USD/model with special weapon-toting Sisters starting at $10 ea.). Also, there's some reason to believe that Sisters may be getting a if-not-2013-then-2014 release that will completely replace the line. And, if Jes Goodwin is truly the sculptor, it will undoubtedly be a very, very good line of miniatures. But that 2013/2014 release good obviously turn into a 2015/2016 release ... or further out. Basically, unless you MUST play them now and have an even larger surplus of disposable income than is normally required for 40k, now is not the time to get into them UNLESS you are committed to trawling eBay, barter sites, etc.

There's also the "risk" that the new minis are plastics, and as much as I know loads of people would welcome that, to others this could be less so, and in this case the OP seems inclined to prefer metal. Plus there's a possibility that new minis don't look as cool as the current ones. Call me a pessimist, but Jes also designed the new Dark Eldar and I'm not so fond of the new wych design... I'm not sure how much liberty he has in the studio, but I can't dismiss the possibility that one of the higher-ups makes a call like making him give them high heels or some silly stuff like that. You never know what might happen!

And as you said, we've had zero confirmation about a release coming anytime soon...

eBay tends to be a good source - you can even get minis that GW no longer sells on their own homepage there (like the SoB Banner Bearer). I'd probably recommend a "mix & match" approach combining a few trips to eBay over the span of several weeks, with a visit at your FLGS or the GW online shop (or any other retailer stocking the models) for the stuff you just can't seem to find anywhere else. Don't have to buy everything at once! Make it a project that keeps you busy over the span of several months, ordering, painting, then ordering again. Look to finish a 500 - 1.000 points army first, then add more as per your preferences.

For example, right now I'm spotting an offer of 24 unpainted minis for (at this moment) 31 pounds, 1 day left:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/warhammer-40k-sisters-of-battle-/190761487527?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item2c6a454ca7

I'll have to check ebay and on the swap shop, I'll see if I can slowly gather, I at least want to paint up and have a nice small contingent. Even if just to use as allies. I'll probably wait then if they are releasing some in the next couple years though. maybe they will have a battleforce and a codex I dont have to go on an archeologists venture to find.

Exalbaru wrote:Even if just to use as allies.

This would be a nice way of starting them, actually. Or starting any army if you already have one, for that matter.
On the other hand, if you'd wait too long for the rest, and the new models really do end up looking somewhat different, there'd be a potential issue that the two "generations" of models don't really fit well together.

That said ... if you do not have a problem with potentially waiting several years to start them, may as well wait and then save yourself some money and time/effort later on. Just like I will always advise resisting general scepticism about starting Sisters now, I will also advise to not let yourself get pushed into doing it. Analyse the situation, weigh the arguments, and then make a decision on your own. So, apologies for misjudging your intentions earlier! It sounded as if you were already dead-set.

All aesthetic preferences aside, as they must be since there will be little agreement on the issue, new miniatures will almost certainly have one objective advantage to the existing ones: poseability. The current Sisters models are entirely static and the sculpts do not lend themselves to easy modification. If that means anything to you (having a dynamic, customized army), it's another check in the "I'll wait" column.

 Manchu wrote:
All aesthetic preferences aside, as they must be since there will be little agreement on the issue, new miniatures will almost certainly have one objective advantage to the existing ones: poseability. The current Sisters models are entirely static and the sculpts do not lend themselves to easy modification. If that means anything to you (having a dynamic, customized army), it's another check in the "I'll wait" column.

One of the things that worries me about the long rumored plastics was that they were supposedly done like the robed Dark Angels kit, where specific torsos would fit 'best' with specific bodies.

To give an idea of how it works; the Dark Angels bodies are in two parts.
The main part is the legs and back of the torso, while the front of the torso is its own part which can be made to fit with everything else with a bit of work.

I do hope we'll see the plastic Sisters soon though. They're Jes Goodwin sculpts, and rarely does he fail to amaze.

I'm having trouble imagining the "best fit" problem applied to Sisters, unless is their low-slung grenade belts/rosaries. The sleeve drapery problem is what concerns me. I think they will inevitably go through some slight redesign and, if that's true, any design that poses "best fit" issues can hopefully be edited out.

The "sleeve drapery" was causing the most problems by all accounts and led to a redesign. Last I heard, they had ditched the sleeves for a tabard and a kind of "knight" look to the Sororitas.

The other part was a kind of "veiled" head option, which seemed to be a kind of faux chainmail coif with a muslin half-mask exposing the upper face.

It sounds interesting and makes me very curious to see the final result.

Yes, this sounds a lot more radical than the DE update.

Truth be told, it sounds more like they're moving towards the way the Sisters of Silence were described for the overall "look".

If I had to hazard a guess, they might have changed the "muslin half mask" into that stylized mouth grille for the heavier troop choices/veteran units.

Just trying to think of any points that haven't been mentioned yet. A few things

- The Sisters are the private army of the Ecclesiarchy (the church) - they are all female because after the Age of Apostasy (a period where a crazy Cardinal took over the Imperium) the church was forbidden to have 'men under arms'.

- They play as a short to mid range shooting army, with lots of flamers and cool special rules. They are generally very short on heavy weapons. Stats-wise, a sister is an Imperial Guard Veteran, but in Power Armour, and with better equipment.

- I thought the WD was unavailable now, but it can be found floating around the internet.

- The models are only metal, and I'd recommend eBay. However, a lot can be done with relatively few models. I think you could make a decent list with around 30 actual 'Sisters' models. Some of the best lists are heavily mechanised, which eats up points nicely. Exorcists and Immolators are a must.

- Because of the background, they also work well with Allied forces - you could ally some IG as 'Frateris Militia' or have an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor and his retinue (allied GK).

- Battle Conclaves are one of the best units in the Sisters' list, and also don't feature Sisters models - they are the crazy retinue of Ecclesiarchy priests.


Explanatory Links

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ecclesiarchy
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Age_of_Apostasy
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Frateris_Militia

I'm going to gun for the sale Lynata posted. I think if I get a chance to paint them and read more into the fluff I can see if I want to get more. I at least want some, they seem very interesting to me.

Although I've been a bit of a negative nancy regarding getting into SIsters, I think you will have a good time painting and playing them. Depending on what scheme you go for, they can be very easy and rewarding to paint. They are also challenging but not impossible to play. Just wanted you to have all the information before spending dollars.

well its going to be really hard to make an army i want one but i dont see myself making more then 1000 points without another 1000 i just dont see how somone would have that many points