Heresy & Heroes

Welcome reader! Your prayers have been answered and devotion rewarded because I have the brand new Codex: Adepta Sororitas and I am here to help out my fellow lazy painters by putting an army list together for the Sisters of Battle that will hopefully not test your patience or tax your time. That’s the point of this series really. I’m not great gamer, but I like painting minis and were I to dive into this range to create an army, this is probably how I’d do it. Why? Because it will have a minimum number of miniatures, plenty of new hotness, and ideally, the army won’t suck too much on the tabletop (it should at least be fun). Will it win you a tournament? Almost certainly not. Will you have fun painting it and playing with it? Let’s hope so. 

I do want to issue a caveat with this one though. I’ve not played Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition yet. What with lockdown and everything, the opportunity has not presented itself. So, I can’t promise you I won’t make a mistake here, but I don’t think I have. Anyway, if you spot one, you know where the comments section is. 

Adepta Sororitas Army List – On A Wing And A Flayer

This list sits at 1999 points at the time of writing which is rather nice. What’s more, it’s hyper elite with a couple of big and very fast moving blobs backed up by some sound support. I know Battle Sisters typically play like an Imperial Horde army, but not when a lazy painter is in control of them they don’t!

Orders & Detachments

I’m not hugely up in all the intricacies of the Adepta Sororitas but I do know you need an Order, but my list is a bit… interesting. None of them really seemed to fit exactly what I wanted to do with the army, or the make up of the units. But thankfully, there is a Minoris Convictions section in this book, allowing you to create your own Order by picking two of these boons. So rather than being Bloody Rose or Ebon Chalice, I’m going to call mine the Azure Eye (sounds ok, right?) and we’re taking two of these convictions.

First up, I’ve picked the Shield of Aversion. This means that AP -1  hits are treated as AP 0 hits – hopefully this will keep a few more minis alive (I don’t have many to lose). Next, I’m taking Devout Fanaticism – the long and short of this means I’ll be adding 1 to the attack characteristic at the start of most combats. That’s going to help a lot with this list too.

And in terms of Detachments, I’m just taking the one of them – a Vanguard Detachment. Like I said, this is going to be quite an elite army.

HQs

Go big or go home, I say. That’s why I’m taking the brand new Morvenn Vahl AND Saint Celestine and her Gemini Superior in this army list. Both hit like a truck, you’ve got a great new mini in there, and a modern classic too, and the latter has that hilarious/frustrating habit of popping back up when she dies the first time around. MV will be taking the role of Warlord giving her the Righteous Rage warlord trait (I say “giving” – she has to have that one). That means that this strength 5, 5 attack monster will be able to reroll the to hit and to wound rolls. Very handy.

What’s more both of these characters are pretty rapid, so we need some things to keep up with them…

Fast Attack

2 units of 5 Zephyrim, each carrying their fancy banner that lets them re-roll their charge rolls. I see the job of these ladies is to keep up with Saint Celestine and support her as she assaults high value targets with brutal close combat attacks with their power swords and high numbers of attacks. 

Heavy Support

A single Exorcist Battle Tank can put out a lot of firepower and will be hugely frustrating to any enemy units who try to avoid the blades of the rest of the army. If you’re facing lots of infantry, it might be worth kitting this out with the Exorcist Conflagration Rockets but the standard launcher works against any army.

Elites

This is the bulk of the army. We have four units here, and you can probably guess what one of them will be – yes, we’re taking 3 Paragon Warsuits. They are super pricy but when you look at the stats, and the miniatures, any painter would want these in their army. And all of them are having Multi-Meltas because… Multi Melters. I love the look of these new suits and honestly, the reason I’m including them is because of how gorgeous the models are; the fact that they can stomp face and serve as a bodyguard for Vahl are a bonus. 

I’m then taking 5 Celestian Sacresants with Halberds, while the Superior will take the Spear of the faithful (which looks beastly) and an Inferno Pistol. Again, this is here because I love these new miniatures and it’s a plus that their rules look fun. The ol’ 4+ invulnerable save is pretty useful too, though they may struggle to keep up with the boss ladies a bit – hopefully they’ll be able to get into the fight eventually though.

Next up, we’re taking a squad of 10 Arco-Flagellants, with one carrying the Endurant Implants. Yes, there are 10 of them, but they’re not complicated to paint at all, and the models are very interesting too. Could be done very easily with contrast paints and a splattering of metallics. They can help to protect the Exorcist or just go on a bit of an annoying rampage.

Lasty, we’re taking 3 Deathcult Assassins. There’s some funny stuff in this book involving Priests, but I can’t see any reason why they couldn’t fit here – they have that all important “Adeptus Ministorum” keyword. I’d probably make my own miniatures for this to add some personal flair to the army, but the old minis still look decent enough. And they’re cheap and can be quite lethal in the right circumstances. Will they survive long? No. Can they take a few enemies with them? I reckon so.

The List:

(Vanguard Detachment)

HQ: Saint Celestine & The Geminae Superior

HQ: Morvenn Vahl

Elites: 3x Paragon Warsuits

Elites: 3x Deathcult Assassins

Elites 5x Celestian Sacresants

Elites: 10x Arco-Flagellants

Fast Attack: 5x Zephyrim

Fast Attack: 5x Zephyrim

Heavy Support: Exorcist

Points: 1999 

Warlord Trait: Righteous Rage (Morvenn Vahl)

Order: Azure Eye (Shield of Aversion & Devout Fanaticism)

Model Count: 36

Command Points: 9 (right? Like I said, 9th is still a bit new to me)

There you have it then. A fun little list that will hit hard, hang around (hopefully) and you get to paint lots of the new stuff too. What’s more, at 36 miniatures, it won’t be too taxing on your brushes. Yes, I could have made it fewer but painting 6 paragon Warsuits wouldn’t be a joyous thing to do, and the army would end up rather wonky probably. Also, there’s so much fun in all of the units in this fantastic codex, that I wanted to ensure some variety.

It’s very much about moving fast and getting into the fight as soon as you can. I look at it and think it’s one of those lists where, depending on your dice rolls, you’ll either table your opponent in 4 or be tabled yourself in 3. At least that means more time in the pub laughing about the game, and you don’t have to faff around with things like objectives – no-one’s got time for that when there’s purging to be done. 

That’s your lot. Thanks to Games Workshop for sending me the book to work with for this article. I’m off to go paint things now – may your hobby prayers be answered. Onwards!