It’s been a while since new rumours about the Sisters of Battle appeared and even now it is less a rumour than some interessting steps Games Workshop took lately.
3 things caught my attention the last days:
- A new bundle for pre-order: The Living Saint Patrol Detachment
- Celestine, the living Saint as a stand-alone model
- Another Facebook-Comment from Games Workshop/Warhammer 40.000
Let’s take a look step by step
The Living Saint Patrol Detachment
For a couple of days now, you can pre-order a patrol detachment for the Sister of Battle, containing several squads like Battle Sisters, Seraphim, but also Saint Celestine and Canoness Veridyan. In general a pretty nice idea, but it’s a bummer that this bundle, as common for GW these days, offers no discount … its really just all the units added up and voilà, you get … well, you get a lot of metal for a lot of money. £300 / 400€ are really a big investment. (And really just another reason to go for conversions!)
But is there more behind this bundle? It leads to some speculations.
Is GW cleaning up it’s Sororitas-range for new releases? Possible, even though some people might be pretty upset when they invest so much money and suddenly there’s a new range coming. On the other hand, this is a common practice before new releases.
Is GW testing the responses to this bundle? It might be a way to find out, if players are really ready for the Sisters. But that’s hard to believe, since the main reason for weak sellings are the old models and the pricing. None of this is addressed in this set.
So overall it was maybe just a missing bundle and a good timing with the release of the Saint Celestine stand-alone.
Celestine, the living Saint
Our beloved Celestine is a great model and even when packed in a Triumvirate Set, she sold pretty well! She’s a frightening enemy on the battlefield and lots of players got her simply for showcasing. Yet I’m pretty sure, a lot of people hesitated to buy the set, since it was a lot of money and most likely including 2 models, you never wanted to obtain. So is this release a sign for something bigger?
Unfortunately, I don’t think so. I could very well imagine, that the sales for the Triumvirate-sets went steadily down and reached a point, where it makes more sense to sell the models seperately. This way, you can get some additional players and of course some additional money. Anyway, if the sales go up drastically (for the saint), this might be another incentive for GW to release a Sororitas-line some day.
Last but not least, there were a couple of interessting Facebook-posts coming with the current pre-orders. One caught my eye:
“No problems, Sam, we hear you!” … that’s not a lot and pretty vague, and by the way not the first response of this kind to this generel topic, but still, adding up with the current releases and the rumours of last year, I’m more and more convinced, that something is coming our way.
The problem might be: It will take quite a long time.
There are lots of other rumours out there, that show a pretty detailed plan of codex-releases over the year (at least till sommer) and I see no chance for getting the Sororitas in. It’s not like the Custodes, having a model-range from Forgeworld as referance and being so elite, that they only need a handful of units. The Sister would need a lot more.
So is there any conclusion? Let’s say I’m optimistic about the end of the year/beginning of 2019 for some changes and new releases for the Sisters of Battle, but also I stay humble and try not to get frustrated when all hope was once again in vain.
For another coverage, Chapter Master Valrak released a short Youtube-video:
Feel free to leave some comments and may the Emperor be with you!
Sisters of Saint Nora 