Adepta Sororitas Operations

[Nabterayl]

So, this is a question that's been on my mind for a while, and I'd love to poll the community's collective knowledge about it. What do we actually know about the sort of operations conducted by the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas?

We know a fair amount about the way space marines prefer to fight, and what they can and can't do. Rapid response and short, hard-hitting operations seem to be the space marine specialty. Their equipment has some glaring holes in it - no heavy artillery (except for orbital bombardment, which has its limitations), no heavy armor*, a low vehicle count per chapter**, no air superiority fighters***. What space marines do have are a lot of mobility options - jump packs, bikes, drop pods, Thunderhawks, teleporters, and very fast vehicles - and superior infantry. They are equipped for, and described as preferring, commando operations - hard-hitting direct assault against high-value targets using their superior mobility to dictate the terms of engagement, after which the marines withdraw**** or turn over operations to forces better equipped to hold ground or fight large-scale conventional battles, such as the Imperial Guard.

What about the Sororitas? What examples do we have of actual battles they've fought that describe the role they play in a battle? What can we say about how they are and are not equipped to fight? What can we say about how often they are seconded to Imperial Guard or marine forces, how often Imperial Guard or marine forces are seconded to them, and how often they fight alone - and under what circumstances?

I'd love to have actual examples to discuss, although in the absence of actual examples, generalized statements in the fluff will do too.

So how about it, Loungers? I'd love to know what you know.

* Yes, they have Land Raiders, but Land Raiders aren't really tanks per se. They're more like glorified infantry fighting vehicles - rock hard, yes, but they function as transports as much as tanks.
** For instance, we know that your typical space marine chapter maintains between 20 and 30 Predators for the entire chapter - a drop in the bucket compared to the number of tanks an Imperial Guard tank regiment fields, and even a small number compared to the number of tanks some infantry regiments field.
*** Yes, Thunderhawk gunships are tough enough to serve as air (and space) superiority fighters. But given the few numbers of Thunderhawks a space marine strike force fields, and their importance to maintaining the strike force's mobility, a force commander will often refuse to contest the skies rather than put his Thunderhawks at risk, as the Avenging Sons' experience on Taros demonstrates. Of course, the Imperial Guard doesn't have any air superiority fighters either, but I think it's fair to say that the independent nature of space marine operations means that space marines operate without air cover more often than do guardsmen.
**** Even during extended operations during which they are operating alone, as Imperial Armour 2 tells us, space marines will typically withdraw to their starship(s) after each individual engagement to rearm and refit. Space marines are not the types to hold ground, and don't even seem to have any logistical support vehicles except for Thunderhawk transporters.

[Aldramelech]

I don't know much about them really, but my perception has always been that they are the Inquisitions SWAT force?

[Scoops]

I thought they fought with other imperial forces, namely, the imperial guard. They're not only warriors, they're symbols of imperial faith, and would be immensely inspiring to the common soldier. They even have rules for their "Acts of Faith". From their lore, it seems that they, unlike space marines, are not entirely dedicated to war. Even those not in the non-militant orders, I'd guess they would spend plenty of time being used as bodyguards for imperial high-ups and the like. So basically -

The Sisters are effective soldiers, but aren't an effective army. They provide supplemental forces to give forces such as the imperial guard more punch and an enormous morale boost.

Plus, they do sting operations for the ecclesiarchy and the inquisition.

[Nabterayl]

So what do we know about the so-called "Wars of Faith?" Who conducts those? With what forces?

I don't know much about them, really, except that I think the Ecclesiarchy declares and prosecutes them. What I don't know is who they prosecute them with. As far as I know the only troops under the Ecclesiarchy's direct control are the Orders Militant. If a "War of Faith" is conducted primarily with Sororitas troops, that would suggest a) that Wars of Faith are fairly small-scale, and b) that Sororitas OMs have more of an ability to engage in pitched battle than do marine chapters, both of which would be interesting facts. But if a "War of Faith" is conducted primarily with "borrowed" Imperial Guard regiments, with the Sororitas providing specialized capabilities, that raises the question of what capabilities they provide or enhance (e.g., would they conduct primarily commando-style operations, as marines would, and/or would they be used to stiffen a battle line, as marines wouldn't?).

[Lord Anubis]

I can't quote anything to back this up, but for some reason I always got the sense the Sisters were the "big guns" the church called in if there was a heretical/ church-threatening situation. They only show up for religous purposes, but they're still far more common than seeing Space Marines.

Your city has an odd little cult that's drawing people away from the local church of the Emperor? Maybe have the arbites look into it. They may call on the local junior inquisitor or maybe even the PDF if the cult is particularly large or well-armed. If it turns out they're really well-armed and maybe having some success with demon-summoning, you declare a War of Faith and call in the local representatives of the Orders Militant. I think they probably act on their own if they are very local (same planet) and probably under Cardinal/ Inquisitional order within a given system or sector.

Calling on Space Marines has always seemed like the absolute last-resort thing, to me. They're the genie in the bottle that can't be controlled once they're unleashed, and I think most of the folks who have the power to call them know this. Yes, they'll wipe out your cultist infestation in 72 hours or less. They'll also level 90% of your hive city in the process, and then maybe kill every fourth person in the hive as a lesson against allowing such deviant behavior on your world.

But the cultists will be dead...

[Aldramelech]

We need Melissia to jump in here......

[Emperorsmercy]

Yeah. On the threads that arent discussing sisters of battle melisia comes, but on ones actaully discussing them melisia doesn't.

[Melissia]

Hey... I have a life you know...

What do we actually know about the sort of operations conducted by the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas?

Page 7 of C:WH lists several of these. Not gonna do a direct quote, obviously. From the codex, lexicanum, GW's website, and so on, here's what I have found. Note, four of the six founders of the orders participated in their own crusades, leading huge forces of Sisters, Guard, and Astartes until they were finally killed. The other two were less militant in nature, with one, IIRC, actually being a pacifist of sorts (but then, there's so little information about them that I'm really unsure).


1000 Sisters of the Order of the Bloody Rose liberated 100 worlds from a tyrant, supposedly by themselves. I think the impression was that they were supposed to fight on each world one after the other, but I'm not sure, it doesn't go into detail. This order fought alongside the Black Templars during the Vinculus Crusade.


The Order of the Sacred Rose besieged and destroyed the defenders of a "Palace of Radiance", some kind of fortress-temple of a schismatic cult. This was the Order that participated in Soulstorm, although that isn't really canon (even Relic has sort of disowned the storyline in Soulstorm for the most part).


The Order of the Argent Shroud completely wiped out a large mutant population on Charak. They were also present on Armageddon as well. The Flesh Tearers have a bad history with this Order, as during the Battle of Armageddon they slaughtered the militia because of their bloodlust, and the Sisters withdrew rather than try and fight their allies, then reported it to the Inquisition, demanding the destruction of the chapter.


The Order of Our Martyred Lady has a long history of being GW's whipping girls, almost to the point of them becoming the Lamenters of the Sisters of Battle. They took heavy losses attempting to defend shrine worlds against Hive Fleet Leviathan as the populations of those worlds evacuated (probably evacuating slower than normal because of the Ecclesiarchy's nature to want to hold on to ancient relics). They also fought against the Orks on Armageddon, where their numbers went from whatever they were (hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands? The book doesn't say, it gives a fairly large range) to mere hundreds of noviciates.


The Order of the Ebon Chalice has almost no information about it. This is rather peculiar to me, considering it was founded and led by Alicia Dominica, the founder of the Adepta Sororitas. The only mention I could find is in the Dark Heresy rulebook, where the Order of the Ebon Chalice guards the Abby of the Dawn, the primary Sororitas holding in the Calixis sector, and even then there are only twenty five fully fledged Battle Sisters present in that sector (with a far larger number of non-militant Sisters).


The Order of the Valorous Heart have a similar problem with information. They purged Hive Tumulus on planet Fargium, but how or with what resources it doesn't say.


Supposedly, an entire order of Sisters participated in the Therrix Suppression (which seems as likely to me as an entire chapter of Marines, but that's GW for you). While I can't find which order had forces on Sanctuary 101, my guess is that it would be the Order of Our Martyred Lady-- but it's still speculation. An unknown order had forces present during the Gallilenus Heresy, guarding the planet and coming into conflict with Inquisitor Dag. Sororitas of a few orders participated in the 13th Black Crusade and continue to guard Cadia. An unknown order participated against the Tau's latest expansion. The Sisters, of course, participated in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, much like any other crusade led by a living saint, but at the moment I can't find information about which orders (Lexicanum is surprisingly a poor source of information on the Sisters, being extremely vague and often forgetting to mention them at all even if they made major contributions to a battle). Members of several orders participated in the Second Siege of Perlia, but this battle isn't really that useful in determining how the Sisters deploy because most of the forces were mind-controlled, while the rest of the Sororitas presence consisted of a single Battle Sister and a few Noviciates in aged power armor in need of repair. In a note of questionable fluff, a "force of celestians" were completely wiped out by the remnants of the Sons of Malice (which to me smacks of bull****, because that's like having a large force of Sternguard being wiped out... how exactly are you going to put together such a large force of battle-hardened veterans when there's only a few million Sisters at most in the galaxy?), but again, how they fought wasn't stated-- they were just used as a scratching post to make the Sons of Malice seem stronger, so they were probably the Order of Our Martyred Lady :P.




So... that's about all I can find. It's not much, but make of it what you will.

[Just_Me]

The biggest problem in answering this question, to my mind, is that when considering how the Sisters function in battle we have to put them into context with the other forces of the Imperium. Unfortunately we have little or no information on how the sisters are organized, suggestions indicate that at least the main Orders are far more numerous than Space Marines, but are not deployed in numbers as large as the guard. This seems to be because they are very decentralized, any given Order is spread across the galaxy in many different shrines and cathedrals, each such unit lead by a Canoness or Sister Superior (probably depending on the size and prestige of the posting). Each of these units seems to function almost as a Space Marine chapter in miniature in that they represent a discrete and self-contained fighting force. There is little indication that each great Order has any centralized leadership (although there are some suggestion to the contrary), rather it seems that individual units take their orders directly from the Ecclesiarchy.

I think Nabterayl is on the right track looking at the equipment for clues to deployment, we have already noted that the Space Marine and Guard equipment reflects their stated strategic and tactical roles, so it should not be a big step to apply the same logic in reverse to the Sisters. For starters the sisters are even less equipped with armoured support than the Marines they have only two fairly thin skinned tanks and a handful of APCs. Secondly the Sisters are extremely deficient when it comes to long ranged weapons (virtually nothing they have is greater than 24” range). Thirdly they are very heavily armoured by in-universe standards. Fourth while they lack ranged capabilities they are devastatingly well equipped for close ranged firefights, and are particularly adept at defeating technically or numerically superior forces at that range. Finally their acts of faith combined with their highly decorative appearance (you think Astartes are stylized? Take a look at the Exorcist!) makes them very flashy and inspirational.

Given these facts we must conclude that their role, whatever it is, is very specialized and very limited. All things considered it seems that the Sisters would be best suited to defense; mechanized support would be secondary and their short reach would not be a disadvantage as the enemy would be forced to enter their threat range where the Sisters firepower and heavy armour have the overwhelming advantage, finally they would serve as an inspirational and object lesson to all troops fighting with them. This makes perfect sense for their role as the defenders of Ecclesiarchy’s holy sites. On the offense the Sisters would have to be employed as direct assault “storm-troopers” in situations where they would be able to get close to their opponents as fast as possible, especially if supported by some of the Ecclesiarchy’s “disposable” weapons like Penitent Engines and Acro-Flagellants. Therefore while the Guard is designed to dominate the battlefield through massive ranged firepower and have the manpower to undertake holding actions, and the marines are designed to fight ultra high mobility hit-and-fade actions against strong-points, the Sisters function best in defensive low maneuver environments or storm operations.

In wars of faith the sisters would likely function as the spear-tip of offensive operations and the lynchpin of defensive ones. They would not be the line units and foot-soldiers, but would act in support of the Guard and the unreliable Fratris Militia, strengthening their resolve and combat abilities (after all, the Fratris Militia are nothing more than common citizens whipped into religious zeal by the Ecclesiarchy, not professional soldiers).

[RogueGarou]

The type of operation will probably be determined by the Order and by the needs of the situation or mission. For example, there are many non-militant orders who can and do provide assistance to the militant chambers of the Sisterhood and other Imperial forces. I would imagine the Battle Sisters would then try to protect those non-combatants as well as shrines and artifacts of significance to the Ecclessiarchy and modify operations and tactics accordingly. The Sisters seem to me to be a bit more flexible in some ways than other armies because their tasks are often more varied than other forces. For instance, Sisters don't seem to have the naval elements available to a Space Marine force commander. In the Sisters novel a couple of years ago, the Sisters open the novel transporting a dangerous and wanted psyker aboard a non-Ecclissiarchy vessel. Those Sisters were not members of a group dedicated to hunting and eliminating or incarcerating psykers so their equipment and transport was not tailored for that task. However, there are Sisters who fulfill the role of psyker management and are equipped appropriately. There are the Sisters of Silence who come to mind as operating in such a role. Or the Sisters who are guarding the crew of the Eisenstein upon their eventual arrival in Terran space.

If the Sisters are being seconded by an Inquisitor then they may be provided different resources and will carry out operations differently. If they are working with Arbites or in a similar role or perhaps in a more urban environment, they have access to different APCs than a Rhino. They carry out operations against everything from full-blown wartime operations to squad-level skirmishes with cells of heretics. From the fluff, they seem to deploy, arm, and conduct their operations as seen fit by the commander of the operation.

Again, going back to the Sisters novel, when the commander of the convent eventually decides there is a problem requiring the intervention of the Soroitas, it is a total deployment of all resources at her command and is pretty much a fight to utterly destroy the enemy. Until she realized what they were dealing with, the operations to discover the enemy and investigate the circumstances around the psyker escape, it is up to a single, under strength squad of Sisters who had just been mauled by the enemy.

Sometimes a group of Sisters is garrisoning a Shrine or other installation and are limited to just themselves to fight. Those Sisters will use whatever is at hand to fight. Other times that small contingent of Sisters may have a sizable force of militia to assist them or even planetary defense troops.

From artillery to flagellants to penitents to boltguns, the Sisters will use whatever is needed, whenever it is needed. They will deploy whatever is required and act in a fashion that the commander feels is appropriate. They do not seem to have a playbook like the Guard or the Astartes but instead play it by the seat of their pants, err... habits. Or power armor or something.