December Detachment Review: Champions of Faith

Another day, another detachment. Today we have one that’s extra spicy and not for the reasons you think. It’s our friendly neighborhood Adepta Sororitas.

I know I’m going to misspell that at least 19 times this article.

The detachment rule for this one is Righteous Purpose which lets you, in your command phase discard up to 3 miracle dice, then pick as many Adepta Sororitas units as miracle dice discarded. Those units become Righteous and gain the following until your next command phase:

+1 Move
+1 Leadership
+1 Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill if they’re a Battle Sister Squad, Sacresants, or Paragon Warsuit model.

This is the detachment which lets you play all the super cool units. Even better, your Sacresants gain +1 OC when not battle-shocked. Cowards wouldn’t make them battleline.

The rule seems fine and good. It’s just really funny that it came out right after the harsh nerfs from the balance dataslate needing X amount more miracle dice than the army has at the moment. Womp womp sisters players.

Enhancements

The enhancements are all pretty good, with Triptych of Judgement and Sanctified Amulet being generic enough to always be taken. Meanwhile, Eyes of the Oracle is out here being an incredible source of CP generation in the mid game.

Only one of the Enhancements need the unit to be Righteous to work which is interesting design from GW to say the least. Maybe this was written with the nerf in mind?

Triptych of Judgment is 15 points and lets the bearer’s unit ignore modifiers to the weapon and ballistic skill as well as to the hit roll. These are always solid, Retributor Squads will be happy to have it at least. A

Mark of Devotion is a silly 30 points and gives the bearer’s melee weapons +1 attacks. Which is way over costed. But if they’re Righteous they gain +2 attacks and 1 damage instead. Now that’s spicy. Is it worth the 30 points? I think on a Canoness it can be for sure, that blessed blade looking kind of hot at 3 damage. A-

Eyes of the Oracle give an Adepta Sororitas model Precision on their melee weapons. If the bearers unit destroys an enemy character you gain 1 CP. The key here is that the unit has to destroy the character. Not in melee, not in shooting. It’s however you feel. This could be a very free CP. The crazy part is that this is only 10 points. It feels like an auto take. A+

Sanctified Amulet gives the bearer a 12″ no Deep Strike / reserves zone. It’s a bit expensive at 25 points but depending on how the 6″ Deep Strike nerf lands, this might be worth the cost still. A

Stratagems

This is a pretty wild pool of stratagems to pick from. On the surface most of them don’t seem like anything special, but tools like Path of the Righteous and Indefatigable Dedication in the right context can become an omega headache for your opponent.

Shield of Denial is a 6+ Feel No Pain against mortals, or a 5+ if the unit is Righteous. Most of your bodies are 1 wound, so this isn’t nothing, but compared to other stratagems here, I don’t think it’ll be too common. It solves the Doombolt problem though, and that’s always a bonus. We hate Doombolt. B

Suffer Not The Unfaithful give a Righteous Adepta Sororitas unit Lethal Hits or Sustained Hits 1 until the end of the shooting or fight phase. Considering the detachment wants you to make your Warsuits and Sacresants Righteous, we should look at this stratagem in that context. Paragons with access to Sustained is pretty scary when miracle dice, regardless of what reddit tells you, do in fact still exist. This stratagem also gives the opposite ability to each Sacresant load-out. maces getting Sustained Hits, halberds getting lethals. A+

To The Heart Of Heresy adds +1 to the strength characteristic of an Adepta Sororitas units melee weapons. If that unit is Righteous they also gain +1 AP. Strength 13 AP 2 Damage 3 Paragon Warsuits make me upset and I don’t know why. A

Path of the Righteous is one of those stratagems which are detachment defining. Letting you Pile-In or Consolidate 6″ instead of the normal 3″. The crazy part? If you’re unit is Righteous, they don’t have to end closer to the closest enemy model, but to the unit instead. Really goofy plays for someone who has put the time in to learn the in and outs of the army. S+

Bastion of Faith is a weirdly worded one but I’ll simplify it. In the fight phase, a Sacresants unit picked as the target of an attack gives the attacking unit -1 to hit. If that unit is Righteous, you can pick another Sacresants unit within 6″ to make it so that when they’re targeted, they also subtract 1 from the hit roll. This asks you to ball up your Sacresants, which I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing to be frank, Sisters isn’t my faction.

The first part is good and probably usable on a big block of 10. I don’t know if I’d go out my way to spend the miracle dice to make the unit Righteous in addition to give another Sacresant unit, which might not even be targeted and could be out of position to do that. It’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and with miracle dice being so sparse now, it’s not looking worth the time. B+

Indefatigable Dedication both teaches you a new word and lets an Adepta Sororitas fall back and shoot. If they’re righteous, they can also charge. This was made for Paragon Warsuits. A+ for making Warsuits untagable.

Lists

We reached out to someone who is very talented at the game and has done very well with sisters in the past, but alas, they didn’t feel qualified. And that’s okay, we still appreciate you. So instead I grabbed the jack of all trades man himself, Mr. Hudson once again. He played a good amount of sisters in the edition, and with a high level of competency so if I can’t get an expert, I’m glad to get someone who is able to 3-2 an event with the army comfortably.

Hudson Big Time Loves Woman

Sisters (1995 points)

Adepta Sororitas
Strike Force (2000 points)
Champions of Faith

CHARACTERS

Canoness with Jump Pack (75 points)
• 1x Blessed halberd

Junith Eruita (90 points)
• 1x Mace of Castigation
1x Twin Ministorum heavy flamer

Morvenn Vahl (170 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Fidelis
1x Lance of Illumination
1x Paragon missile launcher

Palatine (80 points)
• 1x Bolt Pistol
1x Palatine blade
• Enhancement: Mark of Devotion

BATTLELINE

Battle Sisters Squad (105 points)
• 1x Sister Superior
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Boltgun
1x Close combat weapon
• 9x Battle Sister
• 9x Bolt pistol
7x Boltgun
9x Close combat weapon
1x Meltagun
1x Multi-melta
1x Simulacrum Imperialis

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Immolator (125 points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Heavy bolter
1x Immolation flamers

Sororitas Rhino (75 points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Storm bolter

OTHER DATASHEETS

Arco-flagellants (45 points)
• 3x Arco-flagellant
• 3x Arco-flails

Castigator (170 points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Castigator battle cannon
3x Heavy bolter
1x Hunter-killer missile
1x Storm bolter

Dominion Squad (125 points)
• 1x Dominion Superior
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Boltgun
1x Close combat weapon
• 9x Dominion
• 9x Bolt pistol
5x Boltgun
9x Close combat weapon
4x Meltagun
1x Simulacrum Imperialis

Paragon Warsuits (220 points)
• 1x Paragon Superior
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Multi-melta
1x Paragon storm bolters
1x Paragon war blade
• 2x Paragon
• 2x Bolt pistol
2x Multi-melta
2x Paragon storm bolters
2x Paragon war blade

Sisters Novitiate Squad (100 points)
• 1x Novitiate Superior
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Boltgun
1x Close combat weapon
• 9x Sister Novitiate
• 6x Autogun
9x Autopistol
9x Close combat weapon
2x Ministorum Flamer
Zephyrim Squad (85 points)
• 1x Zephyrim Superior
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Power weapon
• 4x Zephyrim
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Power weapon

Zephyrim Squad (85 points)
• 1x Zephyrim Superior
• 1x Bolt pistol
1x Power weapon
• 4x Zephyrim
• 4x Bolt pistol
4x Power weapon

“So my initial thoughts at the detachment rule was that “Yea, this is neat, but with the nerf to miracle dice, this will be tricky to activate.” I was left kinda whelmed. But then I saw the stratagems and thought “Okay, there’s definitely some teeth here.”

The detachment ability does require a spend of a miracle dice, which are harder to come by. But it rewards you with 1 of 3 different abilities for up to 3 units that become “Righteous”, granting the ability as well as causing stratagems to work differently. One of the abilities being a focus on Paragon Warsuits, Battle Sister squads and Celestian sacresants that get +1 to Ballistic and weapon skill. While it does try to focus heavily on Celestian Sacresants (with both an ability and a Stratagem special to them), I dont quite see this detachment being the reason you play them.

That said, the other ability for extra movement is good and as well, the Enhancement Mark of Devotion can get a Palatine up to 6 attacks at damage 3 if the unit is Righteous. Combined with one of the stratagems that adds sustained hits, the Palatine has the potential to be a powerhouse. Speaking of the stratagems, they have a couple that are solid tools to have in the arsenal.

Indefatigable Dedication provides fallback and shoot, something Sororitas would love on Exorcists or Castigators that got tagged in combat, as well as Suffer not the Unfaithful for Sustained or Lethal hits, in either shooting or combat, for a unit that is Righteous.

Again, those same tank shooting platforms love having ways to do even more damage and this helps that. Between the heavy nerfs that came to both the Sisters of Battle Miracle dice rule and the Bringers of Flame detachment, most players have been looking for tools elsewhere to work with. And I do believe that this one, even if it doesn’t dominate the scene, does have some potential to be a viable detachment for the army.

I don’t know if I fully agree with Hudson about the Warsuits, but hey, guys had success with the army, and I haven’t. I just work here. Thanks to Hudson for stepping in.

Don’t worry, he’s back tomorrow for Blood Angels.

Final Thoughts

The detachment is really good, and I think that’s mostly due to the stratagems. Mobility wins games, and when you can maneuver a 10 man squad of Sacresants with ease with Path of the Righteous, I think there’s real merit to that.

I’m excited to see it on the table, I have a weird feeling that Sisters players are too depressed from the nerfs to start painting 30 Sacresants though. Or at least that’s what reddit tells me.

Play it, it’s good.

See you all tomorrow for Blood Angels. I think I’ll write a list for that one, they’re a bit of a passion project.

Be safe everyone. Thanks for reading.

Bonus Content: We’ll have a stream game live over on the 3UpTableTop Youtube around 430 today. Hope to see you there.