Capt_gigglepants wrote:So im a complete noob to all this, I was planning on getting into this kinda slow and building an army up a few sets at a time, thus i gave myself a budget... [Pause for you to laugh], yeah kinda blew past that number...
So... I ended up getting a really good deal on a Sororitas lot. I only had the Celestine kit before I made this purchase, but I ended up spending $500 on this:
Current Codex
Amelia Novena
Triumph of Saint Katherine
2 Combat Patrols
2 Paragon kits
Repentia Squad
Engines of Redemtion
Retributor squad
Imagifer
So assuming I actually end up building all these kits and broken this down correctly... I should have:
Celestine + Geminae Superia
Sister Superior Amalia Novena
Triumph of Saint Katherine
x2 Canoness
x2 Rhino
x3 Repentia Superior
x17 Sisters Repentia
x4 Penitent Engine/Mortifiers
x20 Battle Sisters
x10 Seraphim
x6 Arco-Flagellants
x6 Paragon Warsuits
x5 Retributors
x2 Amorium Cherubs
x1 Imagifer
So what should i build with this?
additionally, desperately trying to stay in my new budget, im going to be buying some storage stuff, dice and maybe one more kit to hit a free shipping minimum price. so what should i angle to buy next to maybe round off this army?
-side note- alot of these kits are not opened yet, so im not opposed to selling off a couple to buy something else in its place.
any recommendations?
Hey man! Welcome to the hobby and to Sisters! For $500 that is definitely a pretty great deal and you are off to a solid start. I will give you what advice I can, and I apologize in advance because I get long-winded on most things, sorry!
In terms of what to build with what you have, I will give you some suggestions, but if you aren't planning on playing super competitively please build them how you like, this hobby is about fluff and fun first and foremost though don't get me wrong, I (and many others) LOVE to win my games! Honestly the main answer to all of this is "magnetize" so you are able to change things out as you want/need, but I have always been bad at that personally, so I just have 150+ models built to try to cover most of my bases
lol.
With 2 Canonesses I would suggest trying to build 2 different kinds. You can make one more of a "buffing" lady with a rod of office, plasma pistol and power sword, and then a more "generalist/fighty" one with either a blessed blade and inferno pistol (or plasma pistol if you prefer) or even a chainsword if you plan on going Bloody Rose so you can give her the relic chainsword we have. If you are thinking you are going to play agains psychic heavy factions, then a null rod is also pretty good on at least one of them, but if you only have the Canonesses from the Combat Patrol you are probably looking at a "buffing" build and then if you convert a little you can make either a blessed blade/inferno pistol girl or a chainsword/"pistol of your choice" girl. The options in the Combat Patrol are a bit limited, but you can make it work without much issue other than the null rod or brazier of holy fire.
2 Rhinos are fine the way they are, if you wish to add the hunter killer missiles on feel free, but I think keeping them cheap and stock is usually the way to go. These will be your main transports for getting Repentia/possibly Dominions into the fight. I personally LOVE our motorpool and bring an Exorcist/Castigator/Immolator to almost every game (I choose the tank based on casual or competitive list building, as the Exorcist is pretty much our most "competitive tank" and even then it's meh at best right now
lol). Just Rhinos are good enough though usually (I have 2 myself!).
As others have said, 3 Repentia Superiors are definitely NOT necessary. You probably will never need more than 1 (though there can be a place for 2 sometimes). I would suggest converting at least one into a Palatine or Hospitaller. The Palatine is probably the easiest to convert though, grab a random power sword and bolt pistol, stick it on the body and grab whatever head you like and paint her a little nicer than a normal battle sister. Nobody will really know the difference!
The Repentia are great, you can have a unit of 8 and a unit of 9 which is right where you want them I believe. I usually bring units of 9 but in Bloody Rose lists I believe 8 plus a Repentia Superior and a Canoness in a Rhino is fine, so you can do 8 in one Rhino with support and 9 in the other with maybe a Palatine depending on how you want to play!
The Penitent Engines/Mortifiers are interesting. Personally, I still think Mortifiers are the way to go, all the Heavy Bolter shots are just really solid, though the flails have gone down in effectiveness since they got reigned in a little. I would honestly say "rule of cool" here. Penitent Engines are a bit cheaper and have their place, and their advance and charge ability is really nice. Personally, I have 2 Mortifiers and 2 Penitient Engines (that I run as Mortifiers usually) 2 have Heavy Bolters, one has Heavy Flamers, 2 have Flails and 2 have the Buzzblades. I haven't played them much at all in 9th though so don't take much from me here. I think they are still good and have their place, but I just really prefer the Sororitas side of the army other than the priests like Preachers and Missionaries. I am sure there are more that can tell you exactly how best to optimize them, I just built what I could to have 4 in order to bring to games as either Mortifiers or Penitent Engines, depending on what I wanted to play that day!
-20 Battle Sisters are not bad in terms of bodies, but in your next purchases another box would definitely be good! What you probably want to do with the 20 you have is something like this:
-Build 3 squads of 5 girls (4 girls each and a Sister Superior). These can be your "core" Troops, and you can build them however you like really. I would suggest either a Meltagun or Storm Bolter in each squad, as Flamers, despite getting better for us, are still a bit meh right now. If you have the Heavy Weapon bits you are also welcome to build a Multi-Melta or Heavy Bolter, and even a Heavy Flamer isn't bad, definitely more viable than a flamer right now (for whatever that's worth). Though, honestly, if you built them with just bolters that is fine too! Also, I would suggest building the superiors with chainswords at least, they are free and hey extra S3 attacks aren't great but sometimes it helps! That is 15 girls down, but what about the other 5?
-Build the last 5 as Dominions, and just go all Storm Bolters (so 4 girls with Storm Bolters and then another Superior with a Chainsword at least). Dominions look almost identical as basic Sisters, though you CAN give them fancier helmeted heads I believe if you care enough (or just give them all helmets or something while the base girls would be mixed bare heads/helmets). Our opponents really won't care about the heads though as long as they have the right Special Weapons. Storm Bolters are great for a stratagem that dishes out Mortal Wounds, and Dominions are a great place to use it, so definitely take 5 of your girls and give them all Storm Bolters (you should get 2 from the Combat Patrols and you might be able to convert another 2 from one of the Paragon kits perhaps, or just buy another box of 10 Sisters since they definitely come with 4 Storm Bolters).
-Seraphim are good when playing objectives. Personally, I either use them as stock deep strikers with maybe a plasma pistol on the Superior, or put a hand flamer/inferno pistol girl in there to let them either clear out an objective when they deep strike or be a possible anti-tank/character threat if my opponent lets them live. Additionally, you can run inferno pistols on 2 girls and use them as mobile anti-tank starting on the board, or go double hand flamers on 2 girls and deep strike using the strat that lets them fire twice, once in movement and again in shooting, to clear out some light infantry. With tI also have run a deep striking squad with 2 inferno pistol girls and had them survive long enough to take a light vehicle out in my opponent's backfield. In the Combat Patrol you will probably only get a stock squad with the Superior having some decent weapons, so my suggestion is to use a squad or both as deep strikers to drop on a backfield objective or do "Retrieve Nachmund Data" pretty reliably or something.
-The Arco Flagellants have their place, again, like with the Engines of Redemption I really barely use them so not much to say here. I believe they clear light or even medium infantry hordes well though, you can use them to blend Guardsmen, Eldar and Dark Eldar infantry, and even Orks with sheer weight of dice. They have their uses, I just barely make use of those uses. I have 6 myself but I believe 3 are still only primed since I haven't even put them on the table since 8th edition.
-Paragon Warsuits are one of those "they are good in certain circumstances but are still probably overcosted for what they actually do" units. I use one squad in certain games, but I barely use them in any competitive formats unless I know my opponent is building something a bit underpowered. My advice here is build one squad with the Swords and Multi-Meltas and then the other squad really however you want. I would honestly say have a squad of maces or even a mace on the Superior since it IS a source of strength 9 in the army at least, which we don't have much of, so that second squad could be maces and Multi-Meltas, or even 1 mace, 2 swords and then either Heavy Bolters of Multi-Meltas. Honestly, as long as you have one squad of Swords and Multi-Meltas, the other squad can just be whatever you think looks cool, because I don't think it's that viable to run both units in anything other than a fun and fluffy game. As for the storm bolters or grenade launcher things, I think the storm bolters are the way to go, but I personally have mine with 2 storm bolters and then a grenade launcher on the superior because of various reasons. Just take the weight of dice though, 24 shots at half range, even at S4 AP0 D1 is still 24 shots!
-Retributors just give them 4 Multi-Meltas and call it a day. I have a squad of each heavy weapon and I have realized that 2-3 squads of Multi-Meltas are just the way to go. I have tried Heavy Bolters and Heavy Flamers and while they are all okay, Multi-Meltas just outperform everything else on them right now. So give them 4 Multi-Meltas and then give them a cherub (you can only use one a turn now so the second cherub may never actually get used, only take the second if you are desperate to fill an extra 10 points or something).
-The Imagifier is fine, just always give it the strength buff aura or the one that is NOT "strength 3 gets -1 to wound" because that is almost NEVER going to come up.
Now I saved the first 3 units for last, sorry.
-Celestine is great now, she is tanky enough again, and can be killy when she doesn't whiff competely (she does too often in my games, though certain games she's a monster). I would suggest taking her in most games, but if you want to play more fluffy without special characters that is fine too, plus in smaller point games 200 points is a lot.
-Triumph of
St Katherine I am told is in a rough spot right now. I personally have never even touched it. It is a really cool model, and that is exactly why, it is just so much for me to ever get on the table painted, unless I were to have a buddy or commissioner paint it up. Personally, I just think it's a bit too slow to get all of it's buffs where they are most useful, and it just doesn't truly do enough to justify it's cost. Some games it may do enough, but other games it is just going to be a target, even with the fact it "cannot be targeted because it counts as 9 wounds" rule. The enemy is going to shoot everything around it in the early part of the game and pretty reliably take it out by turn 2 or 3 if you're lucky. There may be a strategy I am missing here, and I love the Miracle Dice bonuses and manipulation, but for how much it is and what it does right now,I just don't think it's worth bringing unless you are just playing fun and fluffy, which is fine of course.
-The named Sister Superior can just be another Superior, no issue there! If you can convert a chainsword on her great, if not just giver her that bolter, put her in a squad and let her die first instead of the special or heavy weapons!
As for what to buy next, definitely a Battle Sister Box (or Novitiates as our other Troops choice can be very fighty if you are playing Bloody Rose) or a Box of Seraphim/Zephyrim in order to make Zephyrim would be good. Also, Morvenn Vahl is almost mandatory in most lists if you are trying to play any of the higher tier factions like Tau, Craftworlds, AdMech, Dark Eldar (yea Drukhari, hate that name), Custodes, Tyranid Crusher Stampede or even things around our level like Orks, Death Guard, Space Marines, Grey Knights or Necrons. I would honestly suggest getting Morvenn Vahl next and then seeing if you want more basic girls or a box of Zephyrim (which can be built from the Seraphim/Zephyrim box). Zephyrim are good definitely. I still prefer Seraphim personally, but I have been using Zephyrim more and through weight of attacks plus their objective grabbing through deep strike (and charge rerolls with that banner that I still cannot successfully paint no matter what I try, that is really why I barely field them) they have a nice use within the army. Retributors would then be the next buy after that, and just make it a 2nd squad of Multi Meltas
lol (of course do whatever you want but I finally have my 2nd squad of Multi-Meltas girls and man those ladies do work!). After the Retributors, Vahl, some more girls, and Zephyrim, Celestian Sacresants are another really nice buy. A box or 2 all with Halberds and then the Spear on the Superior is pretty good right now. You can also build them with maces if you face lots of marines since that Damage 2 comes in handy (except against Death Guard). Once you do all of that you are probably looking at possibly getting an Exorcist just for some ignores Line of Sight shooting (for the stratagem of course) and then just whatever else floats your boat! More girls, another character like a Dogmata, some more Sacresants or Zephyrim, or even more Engines if you like those! Stagger it as much as you like based on your own situation!
Also remember ,a whole bunch of everything I have said assumes you are trying to play a "competitive" army that has a reasonable chance to win in every game you play. If you are just here for "beer and pretzels" fun with your friends and to roll some dice, craft a story, and put some nice looking models on the table, then build them how you like and what you think looks cool! I have been playing this game for about 14 years now, and while I love winning my games and kicking chaos and xenos butt, I also love just rolling dice and having a good time. I have so much because I want to be able to build some competitive lists and "casual" lists as well based on the opponents that I am playing.
Finally, after (or while) you get these girls built and painted you should also consider what Order you would like to play. Right now the strongest Orders we have are ones like Bloody Rose which is melee focused, Valorous Heart, which is tanky and objective holding heavy and usually involves more shooty lists with melee elements, and Our Martyred Lady, the "poster girls" of our faction who focus hard on trading up in the game, getting Miracle Dice, and scoring certain secondaries with them. Argent Shroud and even Ebon Chalice also have their strengths, with Sacred Rose probably the "weakest" out of them right now (sorry Sacred Rose fans). You can also create your own "Order" and choose to use 2 rules from the "Minor Orders" list, or even choose to play like one of the 6 Major Orders I mentioned. I know this is a lot to take in, but just start to have an idea of how you want to play! Melee or Shooty? Damage or Objectives? Aggressive or Defensive? All of these things will help you decide which Order will work best for your army and what rules make sense narratively and competitively too of course!
Anyway, I hope this helped a bit, I am sorry this got so long! Please remember these are all just my opinions, and others on here I am sure have more experience with parts of the faction than I do. Personally, I have never been a Bloody Rose style player. I hated that the faction became so melee horde focused when the 8th codex dropped, and while I like all the love we are getting, I still plan on playing as a mostly shooty faction with melee elements (which is why I play either my custom Minor Order or Valorous Heart for more competitive games). So when it comes to Bloody Rose or even Our Martyred Lady for that matter, I am not a good guy to talk to. I will also mention that both those Orders do get more rules in different books than the others as well, so if you are looking to be super competitive, that is another facet to consider. Okay, I am going on way longer than too long, so hope you have a better idea of what to do, and good luck man!
