Greetings one and all,
Today we’re going to have a look at the devout followers of the Emperor, those who carry the burning, cleansing light of faith into the darkness of the galaxy and purge the mutant, xeno and heretic. Today, we are going to look at the Sisters of Battle, otherwise known as the Adepta Sororitas and their combat patrol box and ask, is it worth it?
So, what’s in the box? The Combat Patrol: Adepta Sororitas contains the following units: 1x Canoness, 1x Rhino, 1x Repentia Superior, 1x Penitent Engine, 3x Arco-Flagellants, 4x Sisters Repentia, 5x Seraphim, and 10x Battle Sisters. Thats a large number of models and from all across the Adepta Sororitas range. But unfortunately, a lot of these aren’t the numbers you get in the full model sets, so I’m going to have to be creative with the pricing here. Though I will try and get as close a match as possible, so let’s see how the price breaks down:
1x Canoness = £24
1x Rhino = £36
1x Repentia Superior and 4x Sisters Repentia = £ 16.25 (full box is £32.50)
1x Penitent Engine = £18 (box of 2 is £36)
3x Arco-Flagellants = £9.75 (box of 10 is £32.50)
5x Seraphim = £35
10x Battle Sisters = £36
Total = £ 175
Savings = £85
I’ll admit, that is some rather dubious maths. But as we know the 1x Penitent Engine, 3x Arco-flagellants, 1x Repentia Superior and 4x Sisters Repentia are sold in boxes bigger than what is provided in this Combat Patrol Box, so it’s the best that I can do given the information available. So let's add this all up and compare.
All together, the boxset costs £175 in total. To buy at RRP, given the cost of Combat Patrol: Adepta Sororitas is £90. Thats a huge saving of £85! I had to double-check my maths here, but yeah, that's the cost and savings. However, I will point out that due to the models that are in non-standard unit sizes, the cost is hard to calculate as concretely as I’d normally like.
Right, on to the worth of the units on a tabletop.
Canoness - Coming pre-armed with a Plasma Pistol, Power Sword, Rod of Office, Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades, she is already coming on to the table loaded to bear and that's without spending additional points on her equipment. On top of that, she’s got a WS and BS of +2, 5 Wounds and a +4 Invulnerable Save. So, she’s a bit good at combat. On top of that, her Lead the Righteous Special Rule gives all friendly models of the same order the ability to re-roll hits of a 1. So yeah, she’s a rather good HQ choice.
Rhino - It's a Rhino. What more do you want me to say? It carries 10 models, but it’s not very tough at only Toughness 7. It hasn’t got much in the way of its own firepower, but it can get a hard-hitting unit to where it needs to be, or a scoring unit to a capture point. So it’s got that going for it.
Repentia Squad - 1x Repentia Superior and 4x Sisters Repentia are part of the same unit, so I’ll just go over them together.
The Repentia Superior is actually, for a Non-HQ choice, fairly beefy with 4 Wounds and 5 Attacks. She also has the Overseer of Redemption Aura Ability that allows friendly Sister
Repentia of the same order to add 1 to their To-Wound rolls in Melee.
On to the Sisters Repentias themselves; armed with the massive Penitent Eviscerator, this thing will carve through enemy Infantry, Tanks, Walkers, whatever it is, this will smash it to bits. Furthermore, even though they have no Armour, their self-loathing is such that on the roll of a +5, they ignore that Wound. Overall, a very Grim-Dark unit.
Penitent Engine - Okay, this is the most Grim-Dark unit there is; Armour with two massive Penitent Buzz-Blades, this thing’s whole deal is to get into Close Combat and rip and cut the enemy to bits until something else kills them. The Penitent Buzz-Blades are great at causing damage at Strength 8, Ap -4 and 2 Damage per hit, and the Engine gets 5 attacks! On top of that, it’s got the same self-loathing as the Sisters Repentias and so also ignores Wounds inflicted on it on the roll of a +5.
Arco-Flagellants - Only slightly less Grim-Dark (well, not really, but eh). So what do you get for them? Well, they are all armed with Arco-Flails which aren’t too bad, but aren’t much good vs heavily armoured units, though they get the same +5 Ignore Wounds Special Rule as the Repentia and the Penitent Engine. However, I think their true value lies in being a screening force. They are fast with a Move of 7 inches and in a blob of 10, they can soak up shots while your more valuable units are kept safe behind them. In essence, living cannon fodder.
Seraphim - Like winged angels, they fall from the sky (the Astarties will be sending a cease and desist). The Seraphim have a Move of 12 inches thanks to their Jump Packs and can also Deep Strike onto the tabletop, so they’re great at clearing out those backline units. Each is armed with 2 Bolt Pistols, Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades. 2 Seraphim can also be upgraded with 2 Inferno Pistols and 2 Ministorum Hand Flamers, so that’s even more firepower (no pun intended). However, they lack real Melee potential, which is kinda strange for a unit with such high mobility.
Battle Sisters - These Power Armoured, Boltgun armed Nuns are the core of the Adepta Sororitas orders. And although their statlines are rather uninspiring, you can field them in units as big as 20 and when you’re firing that many Boltguns at something, it’s going to feel it, especially when they have a BS of +3. Furthermore, the unit can mix in a number of Heavy and Special Weapons to augment its firepower. It’s a nice basic unit.
So, sum up time, what do I think of this boxset…? I don’t like it. It feels like Games Workshop have really tried to give players a feel for this army and all its rules, which is a good thing, but I think they’ve parcelled out all the units far too thinly. For example, 3 Arco-Flagellants just doesn’t help you get a feel for that unit as there just isn’t enough of them to give them any real functionality, or likelihood they’ll last more than a single round of play. I think a Canoness, 20 Battle Sisters and a full Repentia Squad would have been a much better boxset. Hell, even throw in a pair of Penitent Engines, then you’re getting a much more balanced force that could stand up on its own. If you're just starting out, I guess this could be ok, but then you’re going to have to buy a few extra things to pad out the paper-thin unit sizes anyway, which means you’re just going to end up having some random models that you can’t ever use lying around, because you’ll have too many models to field in an accepted unit size.
I have nothing against the Adepta Soroitas, but I can’t really recommend this Combat Patrol boxset. It’s just a poorly-balanced pick-and-mix of what could have been a nice well-rounded army, if it had only been a little more streamlined.
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