Sisters of battle future, Yay or Nay?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**The Imperial Answer**

The Sisters at this point are being slotted into a support army like the Tempestus Scions. GW can get you to buy more models that way if you buy them to support another faction.

**Soteks Prophet**

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Squatting SoB would be such an act of poor faith on the part of a GW who already has a mediocre rep as a price-gouging, anti-consumer bunch, that I feel like even they know it isn't something they can do.

I feel like the next six months will be incredibly telling though. A new Codex and/or kits being released will either happen soon, or they will just let SoB languish forever as a barely-supported, but not officially killed-off, faction.

Because not updating them properly for a decade ISN'T a poor act of faith?

By now anyone that wants SoB either has them or has lost interest due to lack of support. Also who is to say that it wont be another 10 years until an update (hello Bretonnia!)

**pretre**

Soteks Prophet wrote:
By now anyone that wants SoB either has them or has lost interest due to lack of support. Also who is to say that it wont be another 10 years until an update (hello Bretonnia!)

I know 2 people who have started SOB in the last month. As for '10 years'. SOB have never gone that long without an update. They actually get them pretty regularly.

**Mr Morden**

pretre wrote:
Soteks Prophet wrote:
By now anyone that wants SoB either has them or has lost interest due to lack of support. Also who is to say that it wont be another 10 years until an update (hello Bretonnia!)

I know 2 people who have started SOB in the last month. As for '10 years'. SOB have never gone that long without an update. They actually get them pretty regularly.

Several people read Shield of Baal and were interested in starting a SOB army........

**Furyou Miko**

Well, that's a bit of a stretch, Pret.

1996 - Codex: Sisters of Battle

1998 - 3e rulebook

2000 - Chapter Approved

2003 - Codex: Which Hunters

pretty regular up until then, then nothing until...

2011 - Chapter Approved

2013 - Codex: Adepta Sororitas

So, pretty regular, aside from an eight year gap between 3rd and late 5th edition.

**Soteks Prophet**

Last new models when?

**pretre**

Furyou Miko wrote:
Well, that's a bit of a stretch, Pret.

I agree. Saying 10 when it was only 8 is a bit of a stretch.

Also: C:WH was 2004. C:SOB was 1997.

**Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl**

3rd edition. 2003. A 12 years gap.

**pretre**

Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
3rd edition. 2003. A 12 years gap.

Umm no. If we're counting only printed books that say 'Codex: Sisters of Battle' on them, it's been what... 19 years?

The books in between certainly count.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
3rd edition. 2003. A 12 years gap.

Oh, Oh you meant models.

**Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl**

Yeah, I was answering to Tenehuini/Tenehauin (not sure about the “new” spelling”).

**JohnHwangDD**

Sigvatr wrote:
Sisters of Battle not getting brutally slaughtered in a book? Wow GW, way to break with the fluff.

....that wasn't serious. Calm down sisters.

I know. If we look at Armageddon, what happened to the girls there?

I particularly like the Grey Knights bit - it seems like GK should always be bringing a few disposable Sisters for those 2++ saves against Daemons...

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Soteks Prophet wrote:
By now anyone that wants SoB either has them or has lost interest due to lack of support.

Really? Over the break, I finally decided to clean up my Seraphim and get them on their bases. Earlier this summer, I finished cleaning, gluing, and priming other Sisters models. Seems like some of us are still interested.

Quite frankly, Sisters getting a Stormtrooper treatment isn't a bad thing. They're obviously not going to be rivalling the Ultramarines anytime soon.

**MWHistorian**

Do I think SOB should be supported? Yes.
Do I think they will be? No.
No new model in a decade and their dex still isn't in print. Neither shows a lot of interest from GW.

**ClockworkZion**

MWHistorian wrote:
Do I think SOB should be supported? Yes.
Do I think they will be? No.
No new model in a decade and their dex still isn't in print. Neither shows a lot of interest from GW.

New lore and new art shows an interest, but sadly we can't see inside GW to know how far that interest goes or if models are even being worked on right now.

**The Imperial Answer**

Is there a faction the sisters have not lost a battle to in the lore ? For an imperial faction, I think its on record of them being defeated in minor conflicts by the Guard and Space Marines.

**pretre**

MWHistorian wrote:
Their dex still isn't in print.

Depends on the definition of print you're using. It is certainly in print, but not in print, if you know what I mean. Just because there is not a physical book, does not mean they don't have a book. I mean, compare them to LatD, Genestealer Cults, etc so on. Those are not in print.

**MWHistorian**

pretre wrote:
MWHistorian wrote:
Their dex still isn't in print.

Depends on the definition of print you're using. It is certainly in print, but not in print, if you know what I mean. Just because there is not a physical book, does not mean they don't have a book. I mean, compare them to LatD, Genestealer Cults, etc so on. Those are not in print.

I meant physical. They're the only full dex that doesn't have a paper version. That's telling about GW's attitude toward SOB.

**pretre**

MWHistorian wrote:
pretre wrote:
MWHistorian wrote:
Their dex still isn't in print.

Depends on the definition of print you're using. It is certainly in print, but not in print, if you know what I mean. Just because there is not a physical book, does not mean they don't have a book. I mean, compare them to LatD, Genestealer Cults, etc so on. Those are not in print.

I meant physical. They're the only full dex that doesn't have a paper version. That's telling about GW's attitude toward SOB.

Or it is telling about their attitude to paper. Or it is telling to their attitude to ePub. Really, it doesn't tell us anything except that they don't have a paper version.

**ClockworkZion**

The Imperial Answer wrote:
Is there a faction the sisters have not lost a battle to in the lore ? For an imperial faction, I think its on record of them being defeated in minor conflicts by the Guard and Space Marines.

They survived the Baal campaign. There is also a bit of fluff where you have Sisters going to a Shrine world that was spit out by the warp and recovering artefacts from the ruins and leaving before the Grey Knights could even show up and while suffering heavy casualties with those who went into the crypts the mission was a success.

And if you count the two novels they

Spoiler:

.

So they have victories, but they're almost always hard fought with heavy casulties. Despite this they come out of the ordeals unbent and unbroken despite being heavily bloodied.

**The Imperial Answer**

pretre wrote:
Depends on the definition of print you're using. It is certainly in print, but not in print, if you know what I mean. Just because there is not a physical book, does not mean they don't have a book. I mean, compare them to LatD, Genestealer Cults, etc so on. Those are not in print.

LatD are in the IA Vraks Trilogy and IA13 update. They have a physical book.

**ClockworkZion**

I think Petre was referring to the actual Lost and the Damned codex, not the Renegades list from FW.

EDIT:

Since this is a general Sisters thread let me just bring this gem back (because it'll get posted eventually anyways):

Deep within the bowls of near eternal darkness, the ten sisters of battle sat within plastic containment. The two stuck together in one pocket of plastic had been good friends for well over a decade now.

"Sister Maria-kun...when will we get to serve the Emperor?" she would ask at least once a week. Ready to hear the comfort from her superior.

"Nisa-chan...soon. Soon we will show them the Emperor's fury." Maria would always reply in a confident tone.

This dance of emotional support spun on for years... one day, though. One day everything shifted. Jostled from sleep, Sister Nisa exclaimed, "Maria! Maria! We're moving! We're going to get to serve the Emperor!"

"Yes Sister Nisa!" replied Maria with excitement.

Soon, light filled their world. The dim blue gray of overhanging light-tubes. The plastic was opened, and the sisters were dumped with their squad into a massive bucket filled with other sisters.

"Maria! Where are you?!" Nisa yelled "Here here, over here!" Maria jostled her way over the other sisters to Nisa, "Surely this will be the largest holy war the Sororitas has ever seen or will see!"

Thousands of Sisters of battle yelled praises to the Emperor as they were dumped into a lead bowl. "A transport?" questioned Maria, as the cold metal touched her. The world moved again, and orange light filled the air and their bucket was placed into an enclosure.

"Its hot Sister Maria-kun! Its hot!" exclaimed Nisa in panic.

"Don't worry Sister Nisa-chan. We will serve the Emperor. We are protected!" she said as pewter droplets began to form on the surface of her armor and roll off into the container. "The Emperor protects!"

That was the last word from the sister as her face boiled away and pooled into the bottom of the container... in a matter of minutes the super heated oven had turned all the Sisters into a pewter bar. Ready to be melted into other forms or separated for its various metals.

**pretre**

ClockworkZion wrote:
I think Petre was referring to the actual Lost and the Damned codex, not the Renegades list from FW.

Right.

Since this is a general Sisters thread let me just bring this gem back (because it'll get posted eventually anyways):

Wasn't the great melting proved to be a lie anyway? Obviously, they never melted off all of their metal stocks to replace them with finecast/plastic/etc.

**AnomanderRake**

Soteks Prophet wrote:
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Squatting SoB would be such an act of poor faith on the part of a GW who already has a mediocre rep as a price-gouging, anti-consumer bunch, that I feel like even they know it isn't something they can do.

I feel like the next six months will be incredibly telling though. A new Codex and/or kits being released will either happen soon, or they will just let SoB languish forever as a barely-supported, but not officially killed-off, faction.

Because not updating them properly for a decade ISN'T a poor act of faith?

By now anyone that wants SoB either has them or has lost interest due to lack of support. Also who is to say that it wont be another 10 years until an update (hello Bretonnia!)

DE lived for a long time with 3e models and a 3e book.

**JohnHwangDD**

ClockworkZion wrote:
There is also a bit of fluff where you have Sisters going to a Shrine world that was spit out by the warp and recovering artefacts from the ruins and leaving before the Grey Knights could even show up

Given how Grey Knights treat Sisters, leaving before the GK arrive is the smart call.

**ClockworkZion**

pretre wrote:
ClockworkZion wrote:
I think Petre was referring to the actual Lost and the Damned codex, not the Renegades list from FW.

Right.

Since this is a general Sisters thread let me just bring this gem back (because it'll get posted eventually anyways):

Wasn't the great melting proved to be a lie anyway? Obviously, they never melted off all of their metal stocks to replace them with finecast/plastic/etc.

It was more what was discussed what'll happen to the pewter models regardless of how they get phased out.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

JohnHwangDD wrote:
ClockworkZion wrote:
There is also a bit of fluff where you have Sisters going to a Shrine world that was spit out by the warp and recovering artefacts from the ruins and leaving before the Grey Knights could even show up

Given how Grey Knights treat Sisters, leaving before the GK arrive is the smart call.

It happened once, and at this point I'm tired of holding a grudge over what is less a slight against the Sisters and more just an instance of something not being explained well enough (seriously, an event like that needed more than a page to properly explain).

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also Grey Knights treated Sisters decently in the Grey Knights trilogy so it's not like all interactions with the Daemonhunters ends with Grey Knights bleeding them dry.

**The Imperial Answer**

In the new sisters codex they retcon out the blood purity talisman shenanigans. Apparently they are martyred this time around by the blood-tide. In the Grey Knights codex it makes no mention of the sisters at all oddly enough.

And speaking of the Grey Knights trilogy, I thought those books were one of the perpetrators when it came to bad sisters lore. I think at one point their Canoness lost a fight to a badly mauled guard regiment. Still this wasn't as bad as that nonsense I heard happened in the FireBorn audio drama with the daemon-engine thunder-hammer thing.

**ClockworkZion**

I don't recall the guard regiment thing as much as them teaming up with the Grey Knights after it's revealed that there is Heresy afoot and going in swinging to purge as many heretics as possible while the Grey Knights go off to do their own thing.

But it's been a while since I've read the book so someone may want to correct me on it.

**The Imperial Answer**

ClockworkZion wrote:
I don't recall the guard regiment thing as much as them teaming up with the Grey Knights after it's revealed that there is Heresy afoot and going in swinging to purge as many heretics as possible while the Grey Knights go off to do their own thing.

But it's been a while since I've read the book so someone may want to correct me on it.

The renegade inquisitor leads the guardsmen against the Canoness guarding the Grey Knight's rear. The regiment had already been mauled when a piece of a starship engine fell on them and the Ordinatus next to them, causing a plasma explosion that vaporized 1/3 of their numbers and most of their officers. Though to be fair were there 700 of them verses a dozen or so sisters so that might be explainable.

What isn't explainable is FireBorn though.

**ClockworkZion**

The Imperial Answer wrote:
ClockworkZion wrote:
I don't recall the guard regiment thing as much as them teaming up with the Grey Knights after it's revealed that there is Heresy afoot and going in swinging to purge as many heretics as possible while the Grey Knights go off to do their own thing.

But it's been a while since I've read the book so someone may want to correct me on it.

The renegade inquisitor leads the guardsmen against the Canoness guarding the Grey Knight's rear. The regiment had already been mauled when a piece of a starship engine fell on them and the Ordinatus next to them, causing a plasma explosion that vaporized 1/3 of their numbers and most of their officers. Though to be fair were there 700 of them verses a dozen or so sisters so that might be explainable.

What isn't explainable is FireBorn though.

Yeah, 700 vs 12 is the sort of odds that only works if you're a Space Marine (but at most only 3 will be living at the end typically).

I haven't read FireBorn yet. Is it in a book as a short story, or a seperate novel?

**JohnHwangDD**

Guard team up with GK all the time. Then the GK summarily execute all of the Guardsmen, per standard operating practice.

**ClockworkZion**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
Guard team up with GK all the time. Then the GK summarily execute all of the Guardsmen, per standard operating practice.

Unless Space Wolves get involved.

It's because of that though that I don't get too upset about them killing Sisters, they'd probably do it anyways to prevent potential daemonic taint getting out. The part that needed better explanation was the blood thing, which I thought they could sell well if it was done to honor the Sisters and was more symbolic than actually needed.

But that was my take on it.