N18 Sisters of Battle gang plans

[The Good Green]

I've been wanting to put together a gang to represent Sisters of Battle that are assigned to protect an ancient temple deep in the underhive. Since the novitiates were announce the possibility became that much more real. So I finally started playing around with the rules available to see where I could get the variety of load outs that the different sister units I wanted to include have. Those units being the Novitiates, Battle Sisters and Repentia. Started with the enforcers for the access to bolters, but they can't have whips or swords etc. So I moved on to Venators, but that got too costly too quickly to include enough of each unit for my liking. I don't feel like the sisters should be an elite/low number gang. Finally I came to the Escher, who's champs can have boltguns, gangers can have autoguns, and wyldrunners can have chainswords. They also have access to whips and many of the other items the sisters kits come with.

Anyhoo - here's a first list. Nothing too crazy, more of a proof of concept. The names are placeholders.

Sister in the Underhive (edit:no longer the first list)

The Battle Sisters get the under armor and flak (rather than better armor to save on points). I've given the leader Rain of Blows so she can whale on everyone with those whips. One champ has Dodge - her faith in the emperor is so great that she will roll that 6. The other gets spring up cause its so good. Commanding Presence next on the list for the leader.
The Novitiates get autoguns (again for points) but could get any number of load outs based on the new kit even before considering any conversions work.
The Repentia just get chainswords and will stick around with the leader for some crazy group activation chainswording.

I wasn't expecting the Escher rules to work so well for the sisters. I figure if they got official rules, there would be some points adjustments here and there. The weapon access is just so spot on though. They don't have immediate access to some of the heavy weapons, but that's what the trading post is for... right?

I'm happy to hear any thoughts. I was looking for other posts of people running Sisters of Battle and couldn't find anything too recent. I did find the incredible conversions by Coenus Scaldingus here on Yaktribe, running them as Venators.

 

[Heart of Storm]

Is this the right list? Your description mentions autogun armed novitiates but here i see a dual whip queen, 2 boltgun champs, a combi bolter specialist and 3 chainsword wyld runners.

 

[The Good Green]

Interesting! I've been editing the list to align with the models I currently have. I didn't realize that would change what shows up with the link. The ones with armor are the full fledged sisters of battle and the chainsword wielding women are the Repentia, while the dual whip queen is the Sister Superior. I'll put the novitiates back in.

I posted more because I couldn't find any examples of Sisters of Battle that had access to the weapons the sisters usually have. I'd like to combine them with the faith rules from Cawdor but that'll have to wait till a campaign and the arbitrators favor. The plan to get some of those redemption tools in the gang is to ally with the Ko'Iron house.

The sister novitiates would get autoguns as a basic load out. They could have a range of weapons and gear though, as that kit has so many specialist options. Would you recommend any of the options to start with instead of the autoguns? I'm staying away from lasweapons for this gang, as I've never seen Sisters with them.

 

[Heart of Storm]

So the ideal hybrid would be the Orlock weapon list (mesh, boltguns and autoguns) with the Cawdor articles of Faith (which are totally appropriate for a Sisters gang.

The alternative is go pure Cawdor and go the redepemtionist route, eviscerators with bolt in flamethrowers is very Sisters, plus you get access to normal autoguns, rather than the reclaimed ones.

No boltguns is the only drawback

 

[The Good Green]

Do the Orlock have access to whips? That's a big part of the gang for me. The sister superior whipping the repentia into battle. The blowguns are a big part too. The Escher have all but the crazy eviscerator flamer weapons. That's why I'm gonna ally with the House Ko'Iron - for the two eviscerator goons. I'll look at Orlock again tho, maybe their special nicknames can add something too.

-edit-

Looking at the Orlock, they have great access to bolt weapons. Bolt pistols would be a nice option to start with, but only 10pts less than the boltgun it's not the biggest drawback missing out on them. They also have access to way more special/heavy weapons which is real nice too. They don't get the whips to start with though, or the eviscerator. Those heavy weapons might sway me, starting with a heavy bolter sounds real nice, if a bit overkill. I'll make up a list and post it here soon.

 

[Pancake5765]

I am currently running a Sisters gang using Orlock rules. They are looking for a holy relic in a library hidden deep in the under hive. Very similar to your fluff Their SoB theme was bolters and flamers. Using combat shotguns and firestorm ammo as the thematic flamers initially, and I just got two hand flamers for true flaming goodness with my downtime $$. The gang itself only has 6 sisters and a following of “fanboys” attracted from the underhive. Aside from the complete lack of whips, which I think you could have done rather than my chainswords, I can attest to the Orlock rules giving the feel of tough as s**t Space Nunz with gunz.

Beez

Orlock (HoI) gang with a rating of 2755 by Pancake5765

yaktribe.games

 

[Heart of Storm]

Just thought, you could use Wreckers as Seraphim...

 

[The Good Green]

That's a nice touch - hadn't thought of that.

Sisters of the Sacred Rose

Here's a rough list of with that seraphim in it. I like that. The Orlock are lacking a few things that the Escher get, but that seraphim and the heavy bolter are pretty nice. I think I'll run them both ways when I get the chance to test which I prefer. Having a squad of Seraphim in the underhive sounds fun as hell tho.

 

[The Good Green]

Anyone wanna weigh in on color scheme? I'm trying to decide between the Sacred Rose and the Bloody Rose. The fluff for the gang is the ancient sacred sight deep in the underhive, where they send novitiates and sisters that are deserving of a difficult time, and repentia. The Sacred Rose's martyr traveled the galaxy performing miracles, so I figure that works for the sight of this gang. The Bloody Rose chants about the sins of heretics and screams prays to their suffering, which works really well for the repentia side of my plans. I was just reading the wiki about them, did I miss anything special about either of them? I know one has a chainsword as a relic and the other has a glowing brazier. Both fit for the themes too. I was thinking mix and match a bit, but I feel like the different sects of sisters might keep to themselves... is that correct?

 

[Valar]

You wouldn’t get the range of real whips, but if you do go Orlock you could use the whips as a flails?

 

[The Good Green]

Ok, I've worked out two lists using Orlock and Escher for different flavors.

The Escher sisters are themed around the Repentia, so they have whips and chainswords, and a resurrected sister with versatile swords.

Sisters of the Bloody Rose

The Orlocks get a heavy bolter w/suspensors, a Seraphim and plenty of novitiates. They are also accompanied by a preacher that's a surgeon with a shotgun.

Sisters of the Sacred Rose

These are meant to be starting lists. I have plans to add a flagellant counts-as greenhorn with two flails, upgrade armor and so on. I'm interested to hear what you think I should add first, or change in the starting list as it stands. Is Carapace armor substantial enough to make being outnumbered workable?

 

[Heart of Storm]

The Escher gang is a wash, you have one weapon with a 24" range and everyone else is pure melee. It'll get shot off the board in no time.

Also, Wyld runners are terrible, 25 credits for an extra inch of movement over a juve is not worth it, little sister or full sisters only would be my advice, and get some guns into the gang.

Orlocks are better, in that the boltgun and heavy bolter gives you some hitting power at range, however Greenhorns are the worst juves in the game, way too expensive for their garbage statline.

You certainly don't want a 2 handed hammer on a greenhorn, a -1 to hit on a model with a WS of 5+ to begin with is just giving your opponent free xp

I think, keeping thematic, you'd have better mileage with boltgun armed gangers, supported by some double pistol (even if its autopistols) armed wreckers.

 

[The Good Green]

OOO- yea that hammer. I wasn't paying attention to the -1 on a 5+ WS. Just wanted to have that censer mace novitiate... I'll give it to the gunner and lose out on the autogun. Maybe I'll drop some novitiates for a second wrecker too.

There is a bit more shooting than just the one boltgun, but not much. I wanted two bolters but when the death maiden occurred to me, I had to make the model. It's not a big conversion or anything, just a seraphim body with a non seraphim backpack jumping over some terrain. Maybe I can save her for later in a campaign, add her in after a sister has fallen perhaps. It would certainly allow me another boltgun toting champ.

I'm ok with being on the back foot with these gangs, but I'd like to make them somewhat viable. I would play around with the repentia being little sisters but they can't get chainswords to start with that way. The Escher sisters will definitely have to make better use of cover while the orlock sisters will be more inclined to stand and shoot.