The Battle Sister Box

The Battle box!

I love the box art for this set.

I know I'm a little late to the party with this one, (news travels so fast these days) but I wanted to do a short post about the new Sister of Battle Box now that the contents has been confirmed by GW.
I'm sure everyone has seen the contents by now, after all it was announce almost 2 days ago, but I'm going to talk a little about the parts of the box I'm most exited about and which units will find a place in my army when the full release hits in a few months time.

So first off we should start with arguably the most important part of the Sister of Battle set: The Battle Sisters themselves! I'm blown away by the quality of the kits, and even though they seems to be (mostly) push-fit models, there doesn't seem to be a lack of variety. There are a couple of duplicate poses, but with the different heads, its a far cry from the 3-4 repeated sculpts we are used to. When the full release hits there will be a much more customisable kit released, but for now this will keep me very happy.

It is a shame we have a lack of weapon options; all bolters aside from a single flamer which isn't ideal, and the Sister Superior has a bolter and a chainsword which is probably the last load-out anyone would choose. That being said, it looks very easy to switch a few weapon options around, that chainsword could easily become a powersword or an eviscerator, a bolter could easily be swapped for a melta etc.

A special shout-out for the standard bearer, I think she looks ace.

All in all I love the design, I think they've kept to the classic grim-dark ascetic but still manage to bring them up to date so they can stand side by side with the new marines without looking out of place. These girls will be the first thing I build and paint from the set and (if I'm super lucky) I might try to swag a second unit off eBay post release.

Next up we have the Seraphim. 

I must admit, I've never had much interest in the Seraphim as a unit; the old metal ones had stumpy bases and duel bolt pistols seemed pretty wimpy as a load-out. These kits however have completely changed my mind. I love these models and even with the repeated poses they look different enough to not look like copy/paste jobs.

I do wish they had stuck with the parchment bases like the Celestine / Gemeni kits as I have had nothing but trouble using those flimsy clear tubes, but I'll probably just magnetise them so it's not a huge issue.

I don't know where these guys are going to fit in my mechanised list, but who knows, maybe I'll use them to fly alongside Celestine. My plan is to order some inferno pistols, clip off some of the bolt pistols and replace them with some Holy melta.

Now for the Repentia!

Apparently quite a few people don't like these models at all, which really surprises me. Half naked girls wielding enormous chainsaws? Yes please!

I'm not a huge fan of the Mistress' head, but there are going to be plenty of spare replacement heads in the set I can use. The larger whip looks like an accident waiting to happen, but I said the same thing about Celestines parchment stand, so what the heck do I know? 

The Repentia themselves awesome models, dynamic and peak-grimdark. 

4 seems like a very odd number to put out in the set, these guys really need to be in big old blobs to be effective. (I'll be running 2 squads of 10 in Rhinos)

Hopefully someone out there in the world will be willing to trade me their Repentia for the next model kit in this set...

...The Arco-flagellants.
It's not that I don't like the models or the rules. I think the kits looks neat and the rules are pretty killy when taken in squads much *much* larger than 3. It's just that they dont really fit in with the theme of what I'm going for. 
My army is going to be lots of angry Nuns, cute girls and big tanks. Surgically augmented criminals don't really fit with what I'm going for. 
So it's nothing against these particular models, but I will be looking to trade these with someone else for more Repentia.

The Penitent Engine is a similar story to the Arcos, but it's just about Grim-dark enough to make the cut. Although I am gutted that we only get the male version of this kit (I want an all girl army dammit) I'll keep hold of this naughty lad until the full PE kit gets released as I want to run them in a squad of 3 anyway.
He won't be part of my core army, but I'm sure he can find a place in some narrative games or at least be a fun painting project.   

As a model I think he looks very cool, he's got that cathedral motif thing going on and the flaming braziers scream "Sisters of Battle" to me, so despite the Ork "Killa-Kan" vibe of the arms, I'm still impressed with the kit overall. 

 The last model in the set is the Canoness.
Like almost everyone else I've seen talking about this kit, I was really not enamoured at all.
"An ugly old hag has no place in my army of beautiful, youthful warrior women." thought I.
Now that I've spent a few days looking at her grizzeld old mug... I kind of love her.
She's the perfect model to represent Prioress Agnea Plopps, the cantankerous and curmudgeonly old woman who is always trying to ruin the Sisters good times. She's basically going to be the grumpy old Dean in every 1980's American College Comedy film.

I don't think she's going to see much time on the table as her load-out isn't great and there is a much more beautiful Canoness coming with the full release next year.

No box set run-down would be complete without mentioning the absolutely stunning Limited edition Codex... just look at that cover. This was the thing that finally gave me the push to order the new set. I was originally going to wait for the full release as I don't really need the Arcos or the Penitent Engine, but I *have* to own a copy of that glorious codex.

Well, that's it from me, I've finished my little review just in time to start writing up my thoughts on the new kits that GW announced last night. XD

It's a difficult job having some many exiting new toys to talk about, but someone's got to do it. ;)