Codex: Adepta Sororitas

[Nabterayl]

I'm not actually clear on how they do work now. The user may forego the usual +1A to strike at I10? Does that mean the Initiative thing only works on the charge?

[Undeadreagan]

Keep in mind, I based my changes off of the Marian Reforms, and so the theme of the Sororitas in this codex is changing from Holy Warriors to Holy Soldiers, if that makes sense. The reformation was started after the Sororitas ranks were devastated all across the board by the wars of the 41st millennium, as zeal and pride caused a great deal of Sisters to make foolish military choices and do things which supported their zeal but greatly diminished the long-term cause of the Sororitas. And so, the woman-- whom had been declared a Living Saint by the Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy beforehand-- began to reform the remaining Sororitas as well as begin to rebuild the organization, ensure all new leadership within the organization learns from not only the great tacticians of the past (such as Macharius, for example), but also the follies as well, including the organization's own follies and victories-- no loss is too shameful to remember and learn from, no victory too great that it cannot be reproduced or even surpassed by a brilliant and educated mind.



On the Priestess of the Machine: The Sororitas are the only faction in the Imperium that don't have a justification of how exactly their machines are maintained. As part of the reformations, the Living Saint who initiated the reforms met with the Mechanicus, and made certain agreements with them in exchange for training certain mechanically adept Sororitas in the rites of the Machine, so that their maintenance would be performed within the organization rather than from without, allowing the Sisters to be more independent in function but also raising issues (quite frankly, unnecessarily so) with some Inquisitors and Ecclesiarchal officials who fear that these individuals will corrupt the Sisters, making them accept the Cult of the Machine over the Emperor.

On the Vindictor Squad: I felt that a sniper squad worked perfectly with the shooty nature of the Sororitas, myself. The Vindictor squad also ties in with the Noviciates.

On the Confessors: Correct, they are a reworked version of the Priest listings from C:WH and C:IG. Their name is a reference to the Confessor unit of second edition C:SoB. Basically, there are three "ranks" of Ecclesiarchal officials in this codex. The High Priest(ess), the Confessor, and the Priest(ess)-- the High Priestess is an HQ unit, the Confessor is an attachable unit, and the Priest is a squad leader or the retinue of the High Priestess.

On Noviciates: I didn't give them bolters because I wanted to keep them from being too similar to Scouts. They function, essentially, in one of two ways: As a cheap and expendable assault squad, or as a cheap and large sniper squad. The story being both of these is simple: When equipped with the autoguns, they are essentially seen as doing target practice and improving their marksmanship, except their targets are firing back-- it's why I gave them BS3 instead of BS4. When using the combat shotguns, they are learning how to storm enemy positions, which Sororitas definitely do with their many short ranged weapons.

On dominians: They gained the Scouts special rule, and are able to purchase either lots of combiweapons or a smaller number of special weapons. Their transport also gains Scouts, of course.

On the Nightflame Squad: This goes along with the basic idea of the Repentia, a cult of Sisters whom take an aspect of the Sororitas and take it to the extreme. The Repentia take the self-deprecating nature of Sororitas culture (Described in C:WH as a lifestyle of "extreme self-denial") to the far end of the spectrum. The Nightflame squad, however, takes instead the reverence of flame to the extreme. To the Nightflame, fire is the Emperor's Own Implement-- such as the blindingly bright white fires that were used by the Living Saint Celestine. Essentially, they are pyromaniacs even by the measurement of the Sororitas, and have sought to use ambush and infiltration tactics in order to make better use of their most holy flamers.

On Seraphim: Seraphim were relatively unchanged except for a price decrease. I simply didn't see why Seraphim should be more expensive than Assault Marines.

On the Zealots Squad: It's not complete yet, but the idea is for an assault-oriented squad of, well, zealots. They are intended to have fleet and fnp, but other than that, I haven't decided. They might get Furious Charge instead of Fleet, but I'm leaning towards Fleet.

On the Heirophant Siege Tank: The Sisters don't have the long-ranged weaponry to commit to a long siege, nor do their choices of weaponry really lend them to that. The Heirophant Siege Tank is thus intended as a siege-breaker-- that is, it smashes through defenses and utterly decimates anything in front of it, breaking a hole in the defenses through which the infantry-- the true power of the Sororitas-- can pour through.

On the Exorcist Tank Hunter: Suit yourself. I think it'd look great, and depending on which version of the Exorcist you use, it would either make the pipe organ look even more massive or it would add a single missile launcher on each side of the Exorcist, which itself looks awesome in my mind.

On the Leman Russ Vengeance: Actually, the Exorcist is described as having armor somewhere in the middle between the Predator and Leman Russ. And don't try and say anything about what the Sisters are supposed to have tank-wise. In second edition, their only real "tank" was the Immolator. In third, the Exorcist, a tank hunter with heavy armor, was added.

This means, effectively, the Sisters currently only HAVE two actual tanks (the Rhino being a pure transport). There isn't honestly isn't much to draw upon. The primary reason I picked the Leman Russ as a basis is because it kept the Sororitas from looking too much like the Astartes. It also has the benefit of being more up to date, and is able to carry heavier weaponry. The fact that the current Leman Russ already has multimelta and heavy flamer options helped my decision along.

On the Sororitas Dropship: This was added as a means for Sisters to get from point A (space) to point b (the battlefield). It is essentially a flying rhino, based off of the [url=http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/arvusl.htm]Arvus Lighter[/url] which already exists in 40K and even has its own miniature-- it is not based on the Valkyrie.

On the Chimera: This is actually intended to be used only by Ecclesiarchal units, rather than those of the Sororitas. Chimeras are much more common than Rhinos, and much easier to procure due to them being present in Guard and PDF.

All hail the Mighty Melissa for her wonderful work on the Sisters of Battle,
Bow to her in thanks,
I said BOW!!!