Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000: Codex: Adepta Sororitas

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Inspiring Orator- Grants a 6” Aura to CORE for ignoring Half-Strength for Combat Attrition, as well as giving +3” to any Hymns or other Command Phase abilities (not Blessings). It’s fine, ignoring a negative on Attrition can occasionally be useful, though only realistically useful for larger squads. The range boost on Command phase abilities is fairly niche, but this is pretty good as a secondary trait on a Dogmata, synergising with her abilities and her role as a “line holder” for your Infantry. Junith Eruita has this, as it’s hard not to be inspired by a floating pulpit of marble and fire. Holy Smokescreen- Smokescreen, but with extra incense and High Gothic chanting! Granting a tank a -1 to Hit can help offset their general frailty in 9th edition, though by no means a guarantee, but useful if there are only a few threatening weapons to worry about. Cleansed by Fire- Make a unit’s Flame weapons do max shots in the Shooting Phase. It’s a strong ability, albeit pricey at 2CP, so generally don’t use this on units with only 1 or 2 flamers. An Immolator, or unit of Retributors with Heavy Flamers? Go to town. Martyred- Spend a CP to get an additional Miracle Dice when a CHARACTER is killed, and a further D3 if it was your WARLORD . Miracle Dice are already potent, so getting more is not a bad thing, so long as you have the capability of spending them. Obviously try not to get your Characters to die if you can help it, but this at least can help offset the sting when they do. Open the Reliquaries- The usual “More Relics” Stratagem. There’s lots of good Relics, but lots of good Stratagems as well, so don’t go crazy on this just cos you can.

Passive- +1 Strength and Damage to non-Relic Melee Weapons. It’s simple but effective, and can turn even the humble Power Sword into a decent melee weapon, though you get the most mileage from a Blessed Blade, basically making it better then the already existing Relic version.Fiery Oratory- Automatically intones a Hymn with a PRIEST at the start of any non-Command Phase, with the usual caveats of it can’t have intoned any this turn and no duplicate Hymns. Only 1CP, which is nice given some of the Hymns are quite potent, so ensuring an important one goes off can be very useful. A weirdly costed one at 25pts, as whilst the Miraculous ability is potent, the Passive is fairly middling, though does have some interesting utility with certain units. Decree Passive- A max of one CANONESS per Detachment, and one MISSIONARY , as well as a limiting CULT IMPERIALIS PRIESTS in a Detachment to less than the number of SORORITAS CHARACTERS . You’ll rarely find you’d not have wanted to run some of the Sister Characters, so this is unlikely to have ever impacted you. In 9th there are now sub-categories of Stratagems, essentially giving them a Keyword that has interactions with certain rules. It won’t come up all that often, just something to look out for.

Holy Wrath- The Bloody Rose Starter Set, giving the AP boost in the first round of combat. As with them, it helps your melee units really punch through armour, and even helps to make your humble Battle Sister sneak the occasional wound through. Blade of Saint Ellynor First turn of combat’ means any rules that trigger when you Charge, are Charged, or Heroically Intervene. A fairly high cost of 30pts, though it does offer a great Miraculous ability, and a strong albeit not always applicable Passive.

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Your PRIESTS all know War Hymn , and certain characters know an extra one. If they’re a SORORITAS they have access to all six, otherwise it’s just the first three. These are all activated in the Command Phase and last until your next Command Phase (apart from Refrain), so make sure you get set up in the previous turn to use them, but bear in mind only going off on a 3+ means you shouldn’t hinge a plan on them, and each can only be attempted once per Command Phase. Purity of Faith- Deny a Psychic Power on a 4+, which can be used after a normal Deny. Gives you good chances to stop a key power, and at only 1CP it’s worth doing on those really important powers (Warptime, Doom etc). Deadly Descent- A unit of SERAPHIM can shoot after arriving from Reinforcements. It’s only really Bolt Pistols and Hand Flamers, maybe a Plasma Pistol, as your Inferno Pistols will be out of range. It’s not a terrible ability on a unit that is cheap and cheerful, especially if they can help clear a light infantry unit, or are about to do an Action like Octarius Data and you want to add a bit of extra firepower (as both are end of Movement Phase, so you can choose to do this then the Action), but it’s pretty niche and you have plenty of anti infantry firepower without depending on Seraphim.

Here are some key points to remember when reading this Primer, mainly to save it being typed out every time. Don’t forget that this presumes you have the Codex, so some basic things may not be explained here. Moment of Grace- After you make a Hit, Wound or Save for a SORORITAS model, spend 1 CP and then up to 2 Miracle Dice, adding 1 to the result for each Dice you spend. Fantastic if you fail a by a single pip of the dice as this is far more reliable than a Command Reroll, or to help offset negatives. Strong weaponry that is quite easily accessible across a number of units, letting you hit hard and have redundancy Psalm of Righteous Smiting- The PRIEST themselves gets +1 Str, +1A, +1 AP to non-Relics, and Fights Again at the end of the Phase. Can make even the humble Preacher a mini blender, and works nicely on the Dogmata who is already semi-decent in combat. Less useful on things like the Dialogus, who isn’t the best in melee as it is and probably has better Hymns to shout.

Fortification

Inviolate Shieldwall- -1 to wound for a unit of SACRESANTS or CRUSADERS in the Fight Phase. Solid defensive buff, though remember with only T3 they will generally still be wounded on 4s, if not 3s against the real scary stuff out there, but for 1CP every little can help A Sacred Burden- The “Sergeant carries a Relic” Stratagem common for Imperium armies. Some of them are particularly potent on certain units, though others probably wouldn’t be worth the time. The Relics in question will be discussed in the Relics section. Purifying Recitations- Adds 3 to any Deny the Witch test you make, and whilst it doesn’t make you auto deny on a 3+, it can be helpful to help deny middling casting rolls. Realistically this is only going to help you against casts of a 5-7, as anything on 8+ will need the 6 to Deny regardless, on top of being incredibly niche as it is. Might have use in a mixed army for some Psychic defense, but otherwise you can safely pass.

Provides some solid defense ability for its fairly cheap cost of 20pts, though both abilities are quite niche and require good, or at least convenient, timing. Passive- The Character heals D3 Wounds in each of your Command Phases. Obviously not so helpful if you aren’t injured, or die, but can be useful if you’ve borne the brunt of an explosion or Psychic Power, perhaps revived with Divine Intervention, or otherwise managed to take some hits in a previous turn. Not always relevant, but useful when it crops up.Hallowed Martyrs- Be like Our Martyred Lady, getting +1 to Hit when under Starting Strength. A good trait, making your units potentially more powerful if they aren’t outright destroyed, but again is useless for units with only single models. Certain units are very powerful in melee, able to trade effectively and deal with units seemingly above their weight class explode’ essentially translates to ‘An unmodified 6 to Hit does an additional hit’, so read that as ‘Does 2 Hits instead of 1’. Per the Core Rules, anything that might also happen on a 6 to hit (such as auto-wounding) does not apply to the additional hit, only the original.