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Putting together the Adepta Sororitas 'Battle Sisters Squad' and while building the Sister Superior I noticed that you can do some 'variants' with her weapon and heads. I get that different weapons can be chosen (as long as your Army List is correctly filled out and your opponent is made aware - talking casual, beginner play here, nothing fancy), but does using different heads make a difference? I see some with helmets, some with masks, some that are bare faced. I bought some bits from Etsy, and I was hoping that I could use these heads, as they look better IMO than some of the GW sculpts (less He-Man!) Could someone break this down for a noob?

Thanks in advance!

Heads generally don't make a difference - but in the case of the Battle Sisters squad the helmets with the fleur-de-lis on them are intended to denote Celestians.

No difference other than aesthetics.

 handamputation wrote:
Putting together the Adepta Sororitas 'Battle Sisters Squad' and while building the Sister Superior I noticed that you can do some 'variants' with her weapon and heads. I get that different weapons can be chosen (as long as your Army List is correctly filled out and your opponent is made aware - talking casual, beginner play here, nothing fancy), but does using different heads make a difference? I see some with helmets, some with masks, some that are bare faced. I bought some bits from Etsy, and I was hoping that I could use these heads, as they look better IMO than some of the GW sculpts (less He-Man!) Could someone break this down for a noob?

Thanks in advance!

Rules wise, no difference, so long as what they are armed with is clear.

However, I believe it is currently GW policy to not let non GW models be played in their stores. I don't know if that's a factor for you but I thought I'd mention it.

xerxeskingofking wrote:

 handamputation wrote:
Putting together the Adepta Sororitas 'Battle Sisters Squad' and while building the Sister Superior I noticed that you can do some 'variants' with her weapon and heads. I get that different weapons can be chosen (as long as your Army List is correctly filled out and your opponent is made aware - talking casual, beginner play here, nothing fancy), but does using different heads make a difference? I see some with helmets, some with masks, some that are bare faced. I bought some bits from Etsy, and I was hoping that I could use these heads, as they look better IMO than some of the GW sculpts (less He-Man!) Could someone break this down for a noob?

Thanks in advance!

Rules wise, no difference, so long as what they are armed with is clear.

However, I believe it is currently GW policy to not let non GW models be played in their stores. I don't know if that's a factor for you but I thought I'd mention it.

That is good to know! I'll check with my local store and see. I plan on playing at a non-exclusive GW store for the most part, so I hope that flies. Thanks!

In general terms the only optional parts with models that matter are the primary weapons of the unit/tank.


Basically things like grenades, spotting scopes, helmets, seals etc.... these can all be "upgrades" on models stat sheets, but on the tabletop they are basically invisible to the eye. They are also highly impractical to build for because they are a few points each and you might chop and change upgrades a lot game to game as you add and remove models from your army composition and no sane person would have every model with every weapon and upgrade to hand.


So in general main weapons is where most people focus on when it comes to optional parts.



For GW stores it varies a bit what you can get away with and sometimes if you don't ask no one notices/cares when its something small. In general they just don't want you rocking up with a whole army from another manufacturer unless you hand sculpted it yourself (GW encourage hands on skills in a direct sense they just don't want to support their competition).
3rd party stores will generally not care one bit so long as you're not "modelling for advantage". That would mean doing things like converting the model to a different base, a different size; or perhaps making all your units look REALLY similar so that its hard to tell them apart etc....



Tournaments can be a bit stricter, but often you can ask before attending and show photos etc..
There's also a "quality" bias - a really well converted and visually different force has more luck than if you turn up with a load of matchboxes claiming they are marines.