Detachment Focus: Penitent Host

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Penitent Host Detachment from Codex: Adepta Sororitas.

The Adepta Sororitas – or Sisters of Battle as they’re more commonly known – have always had one of the game’s more powerful mechanics in Miracle Dice, and when their Codex launched early in tenth edition they received a slew of powerful new rules and detachments. One of these was the Penitent Host, which focuses on the most fanatic penitents among the Ecclesiarchy.

Detachment Overview

The Penitent Host Detachment is all about the faction’s zealous penitent units – Sisters Repentia, Arco-flagellants, Mortifiers, and Penitent Engines – and getting those units into battle with the enemy early and often. The Detachment gives you some solid flexibility with its Detachment Rule, letting you choose one of three effects during the game’s first three battle rounds, and comes with a suite of solid enhancements and Stratagems to boost your army’s melee output. The only downside is that you’re forced into a very specific build with this Detachment, but if you ever wanted to experience the thrill of playing World Eaters, but didn’t want to give up your faith in the Emperor or your precious guns, the Penitent Host offer a close alternative.

Detachment Rule: Desperate for Redemption

At the start of the battle round, pick one of the following Vows of Atonement to be active for your army until the start of the next battle round. You can only pick each one once, and you have to pick each one on the game’s first three rounds, so you won’t have anything active on rounds four and five.

• The Path of the Penitent – Add 3″ to the Move characteristic of Penitent models in your army.
• Absolution in Battle – Each time a Penitent model from your army fights, if it made a Charge move this turn it gets +1 to the Attacks and Strength characteristics of its melee weapons.
• Death Before Disgrace – Each time a Penitent model from your army is killed in melee, if they haven’t fought, roll a D6; on a 2+ you keep them on the table and after the attacking unit finishes making its attacks, your dead models fight before being removed from play.

These are three very solid abilities, and there’s a clear natural rhythm to them – take the Movement turn 1 to get your Repentia and Arcos across the table and set up to stage for their turn 2 charges, then power them up with +1 S/+1 A for your turn 2 charges, then throw out fight-on-death to punish your opponent’s inevitable clapback, or to just discourage them from doing one to begin with. The big downside here is that you have to pick one of these round 1, precluding the idea that you might forgo an early pick when going first, and you won’t be looking at any bonuses in the game’s final two rounds. That’s a stiff penalty for an army which is likely to be dwindling in size late in the game. If you have to throw an ability away to preserve the other two for later rounds, it’s likely to be fighting on death, as against some armies – such as Thousand Sons or T’au – losing models to melee attacks isn’t so big an issue, and they’re like to just shoot you to death and render the ability inert.

Enhancements

The four Enhancements for the Penitent Host Detachment are excellent, and the Verse of Holy Piety in particular is great for the Detachment as it gives you a full additional round of Vow power. That said, they’re an expensive bunch, and while you’ll certainly want to have all four, you’ll often have to settle for one or two.

• Psalm of Righteous Judgement (30 points) – While the bearer is on the battlefield, each time an enemy unit is destroyed by a Penitent unit in your army, you can discard one of your Miracle Dice to gain one with a value of 6. This is really good, in part because it can work from anywhere, and in part because your Penitent units will often plow through anything they can touch. It’s also great for when you can use a unit of Mortifiers or Penitent Engines to kill something with flamers, then you can trade out a low value for a 6 to use in the following charge phase. (TwoHorse: Rob is underselling this a bit. A Penitent Host list starts with 1970 points, because this enhancement is actually the detachment rule. Turning a miracle dice into a 6 every time you kill something is absolutely a massive power boost when all your melee units are glass cannons and a failed charge can end the game on the spot. Also the whole army has a 6+ invulnerable save, so if you open a turn with several of these banked you can more comfortably swap the Triumph into the double-dice aura to make your tanks infuriating to kill.)
• Verse of Holy Piety (15 points) – Penitent model only. Once per game, at the start of the battle round you can pick a Vow of Atonement and that vow applies to the bearer’s unit until the end of the round in addition to the current one. You can also pick a vow you’ve already picked this way. This is fantastic, and basically a must-include in the army because at 15 points a once-per-game movement buff is pretty great. (TwoHorse: It’s good, but alongside the requisite Priest it also means you’re investing 65 pts to boost a unit of Arcos. Depending on your gameplan, that may not actually be mandatory.)
• Refrain of Enduring Faith (25 points) – Penitent model only. While the bearer leads a unit, they get a 5+ invulnerable save. 75 points is a lot to pay for the benefit, but a unit of Arco-flagellants using this in conjunction with a 4+ Feel No Pain (see stratagems below) is an incredibly durable menace.
• Catechism of Divine Penitence (20 points) – Canoness, Palatine, or Priest only. The model gains the PENITENT keyword and, during your game setup, can be attached to a Repentia squad unit. This is pretty nifty as a way to get free Stratagems and some extra output on your Repentia, but they don’t necessarily need more output, particularly if it makes them much more expensive in the process. Still, it’s a solid ability and it can lead to some fun interactions with Stratagems or Enhancements like the Psalm of Righteous Judgement. (TwoHorse: In our Codex Review I was really hot on giving this to a Palatine and attaching her to a unit of Repentia for a massive wombo-combo that deletes the world. You can still do that, but I was wrong about whether it’s a good idea. The value here is in applying the Penitent keyword to units that wouldn’t otherwise have it in order to unlock stratagem interactions and trigger the Psalm. More on that later in the stratagem section)

These are solid. You generally want the Verse of Holy Piety and the Psalm of Righteous Judgement. You can live without the others, and will likely have to given the current points costs for Sisters units.

Stratagems

There’s a very powerful suite of Stratagems on offer to Penitent Host armies, but the catch is they mostly only target Penitent models. All six Stratagems are priced at 1 CP.

• Final Redemption (Epic Deed, 1 CP) – Used in any phase, just after one of your Penitent units was destroyed while within range of an objective marker you control. That marker stays under your control until your opponent controls it at the start or end of any phase. This is very good, and a great way to punish an opponent for thinking they can just shoot you off objectives. It lets you under-commit units to rear objective control while the rest of your army rumbles forward, and it’s great for when you’re going up against Indirect Fire threats or any mono-phase shooting army that doesn’t want to come stand close to your angry ladies behind walls.
• Purity of Suffering (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase after an enemy unit picks targets. Use this on a Penitent unit that was targeted. Until the end of the phase, they gain the Feel No Pain 4+ ability.  This is very good, and a great way to weather what might otherwise be lethal amounts of damage.
• Passion of the Penitent Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase on a Penitent unit. Until the end of the phase every time a Penitent model in that unit makes a melee attack an unmodified hit roll of 5+ scores a Critical Hit. This is great on Repentia and Arco-Flagellants, both of whom have Sustained Hits 1 and can really make use of the extra output.
• Lash of Guilt (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your Movement phase on a Penitent unit that is about to advance. Until the end of the turn, they can Advance and Charge and if they’re a PENITENT ENGINE, they automatically advance an extra 6″ without rolling. This is massively good, and absolutely necessary for the regular function of this army. Advance and Charge combined with Miracle Dice helps you pull off some truly insane distance moves, closing gaps and crashing into enemy lines. Note that this one targets Penitent units rather than models, so a Canoness wearing the Catechism opens up some incredible mobility options for units like Sacresants or Zephyrim that would not otherwise have access to the speed on offer here.
• Boundless Zeal (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in your Movement phase, after a Sisters unit in your army falls back. Until the end of the turn they can still shoot or charge, and if they are a PENITENT unit, they can do both after falling back. This is the lone stratagem in the detachment that doesn’t require the PENITENT keyword, and it’s great for getting your Exorcists out of sticky melee spots and continuing to shoot.
• Devout Fanaticism (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in the opponent’s Shooting phase, after an enemy unit shoots. Pick a targeted Penitent unit and roll a D6; your unit can move up to that many inches, and when it does so it has to move as close as possible to the closest enemy unit. Notably, this version of Blood Surge says “models in your unit can be moved within Engagement Range of enemy units” rather than “…within Engagement Range of that enemy unit”, which makes it more powerful than the version available to units like Khorne Berzerkers and Wolf Guard Doggo Lieutenants because your opponent has less agency over which unit you’ll touch, since you can tag everything within that d6″ range as long as you also tag the closest unit. There’s an insidious cabal of wolf jail players out there who will try to claim they can also do this because they believe that the closest unit to their unit is determined on a per-model basis. Those people are wrong, but we can’t blame them because dogs can’t read, and that’s ok.

These are some pretty great Stratagems, and you’re going to use that Advance and Charge early and often, along with Final Redemption and Purity of Suffering to alternately sticky objectives and stay on the table. You’ll need to be careful about what you use and when, but that’s a good problem to have here.

Playing This Detachment

In this Detachment Sisters very much feel like “What if World Eaters, but with gun?” Many of the pieces are here, from early bonuses to movement and the ability to Advance and Charge to getting +1 to your Strength and Attacks on the charge. They key difference is that you have better shooting options and much less durable units in many respects.

On that note, let’s start with the biggest issue: In an army like this, you need the Triumph of St. Katherine. The combination of buffs it gives you – extra movement and increased AP specifically – are huge, though just as important here is the free 6-value Miracle Dice it gives you each round. You can potentially live without the extra Movement it grants you on the first turn, as you’ll already be getting +3″ from your Vow, but the auto 6 is absolutely necessary – you need it to start your train of 6 results rolling via the Psalm of Righteous Judgement Enhancement. Penitent Engines are huge for this as well, as every time one of your Penitent engines kills something you’ll be able to turn one of your dice into a 6. Your goal should be to have four to five 6-value Miracle dice by turn 2, and while that seems insane, it’s important to know that if your Repentia fail a charge the game is more or less over for you right there. You simply cannot fail to connect with a 180-point unit that has the toughness of ten guardsmen.

On that note, your army needs two to three units each of Repentia and Arco-flagellants. You generally want full 10-model units of Repentia, but you can go lighter on a unit or two of the Arco-flagellants. A Priest or two to boost Arco-Flagellant output may also be welcome depending on your supporting cast. From there you have options. Penitent Engines combine wonderfully with Exorcists, as the extreme speed of the Engines allows them to trade up at long range using the Exorcists to soften their targets first. Similarly, Castigators combine nicely with Mortifiers and Penitent Engines to boost their ranged AP (as well as just being all-around great value) allowing you to start making 6’s in the shooting phase to support your charge phase. Broadly, the Sisters roster is excellent for supporting your melee blenders with shooting backup to force your opponent to respect your output at any range, and access to the game’s best Indirect Fire platform can punish an opponent for simply waiting until you run out of Vows before committing to the mid-board.

While traditionally Sisters have wanted transports – specifically, Immolators – for their units, you don’t really need that as much in the Penitent Host. Between the Triumph and your Vow you’ll be looking at +5″ of Movement on the first turn, giving Repentia an extremely healthy 12″ Move before they add in a D6+1″ Advance. That’s more than enough to get set up and staged for turn 2, and that will typically be the play, since charging directly into your opponent’s lines on turn 1 is usually going to be a bad idea. Instead you want to pick your spots and line up shots with your vehicles to generate extra Miracle Dice for those charges. It’s more important that you be able to threaten an opponent with turn 1 charges rather than actually doing it, buying you some room to position your army while the opponent holds back.

A Sample List

Although it’s still way too early to understand exactly how the meta will shake out for sisters armies with the new points, we can point to a few lists which may give us an idea. The big one here to look at is Will Whittaker’s list from the London Grand Tournament, which gives us one of our lone glimpses at a successful Penitent Host list. Will took this list to 5-0 start, making the top cut before losing in round 6. It’s a proper blender of a list, though it will need some retooling following the Q4 points update.

The list - click to expand

This list didn’t pick up nearly as many points hikes as other sisters lists, but there’s still a lot to contend with – the Triumph is a must-take and it went up an eye-watering 60 points, and you’ll want to keep the Castigators as well. That means likely cutting the lone Immolator and the Dominion squad and looking for alternatives. Will’s been on Penitent Host for a while, scoring a top 4 with the army back in August, with a list packing a Dialogus and more Dominion Squads.

Final Thoughts

Penitent Host has more speed than Bringers of Flame, more fight-phase control than Hallowed Martyrs, and better miracle dice manipulation than Army of Faith, but each only for a limited time. Stringing together powerful abilities with the faction’s least durable (and most expensive) units is the essence of playing Penitent Host, and when orchestrated skillfully the detachment is a symphony of flesh-rending evisceration. Alas, a Repentia’s faith is armor against doubt, but not against the humble lasgun, so the Penitent Host will punish the pilot’s mistakes as swiftly as those of its opponents.

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