Are there any official stats and rules for sisters of battle in dw? I was thinking they might make a good force to secund into the deathwatch as auxiliary troops that are far superior to most guardsmen, far more loyal and devout than inquisitor henchmen and highly effective while still being cheaper than space marines. Sure they're not as powerful or durable as Marines but are, in cold terms, cheaper and easier to replace too. Add in power armor and bolters plus access to special gear from the ninistoirum and they could be an attractive option to the deathwatch. Hell, give them access to some dw gear plus bionics and they can come close to a stock marine in power.

They could be assigned by the ecclisarchy or possibly 'recruited' because they saw something that they should not have seen but are too loyal and devout (not to mention valuable) to just put down so they are given the chance to serve the emperor as deathwatch forces.

Also in game terms they give an excuse to have female PCs for female players. The only other way I can see a female pc in deathwatch would be a female inquisitor and I don't know if dw has rules to make an inquisitor.

If there's a new edition of dw I hope it adds some options for female PCs and sisters of battle are a God possibility for that.

The rules for using the Sisters of Battle are in the (1st Edition) Dark Heresy books & Player Resources.

1. DH11 - Dark Heresy: Ascension

2. DH12 - Dark Heresy: Blood of Martyrs

3. Heresy Begets Retribution - Ascension Companion, Ascension Rules for Sisters of Battle (Player Resources Section of the Dark Heresy Products site, DL content)

All these (1st Edition) Rules are fully compatible with Deathwatch, it specifically says so in the Deathwatch Core Rulebook as well as Rites of Battle.

You can even have a Sister of Battle become an Inquisitor. Obviously, joining the ranks of the Holy Ordos means the Sister is, technically & officially, no longer part of the Adepta Sororitas, though the now-former Sister of Battle retains her previous skills and talents. What she does not retain is her Sororitas-specific gear (boltgun, power armour, etc.), replacing them with "regular" versions; though as an Inquisitor, it is highly likely she will have used her Influence to replace them with Best-craftsmanship (non-Sororitas) gear equivalents.

I'll have to post a contradictory opinion.

I was thinking they might make a good force to secund into the deathwatch as auxiliary troops that are far superior to most guardsmen, far more loyal and devout than inquisitor henchmen and highly effective while still being cheaper than space marines.

If we were to go by codex fluff, the Convocation of Nephilim means the Sisters of Battle are working for the Ordo Hereticus, not the Ordo Xenos. A Xenos Inquisitor's attempt to "steal" them would certainly be blocked by the Ordo Hereticus as an act of interfering with important resources, possibly triggering an internal conflict within the ranks of the Inquisition.

There is still the possibility of a joint operation if both military forces are pursuing a common goal, but since cooperation would be voluntary, the prideful Battle Sisters would likely be unwilling to second themselves as auxiliaries if they see themselves as equals in battle -- a notion grudgingly shared by many in the Adeptus Astartes, if the 2E codex is to be believed.

Sure they're not as powerful or durable as Marines but are, in cold terms, cheaper and easier to replace too.

They may well be more expensive and harder to replace, if we look at where they're coming from and how they fight compared to the Space Marines:

Every Battle Sister is an orphan raised from infancy(!) in the Schola Progenium. After 14 years of raising a little kid, honing her body and teaching her a variety of military and other skills, they enter a novitiate in one of the two Primary Convents (Sanctorum on Ophelia VII or Primaris on Terra) that takes another 2-4 years. Finally, upon successful completion of the novitiate, every single Battle Sister joins an annual ceremony in the Ecclesiarchal Palace on Holy Terra where they are formally adopted into a squad.

That's 18 years of investment, compared to the Space Marines taking an already teenage native and beefing him up with genetics and hypno-indoctrination. According to the Space Marine codex, making a Marine takes only 4-8 years, but results in a much more resilient warrior who is harder to kill. The six Major Orders of the Sisters of Battle, on the other hand, have a considerable attrition rate which is made worse by the fact that they are fewer Orders that are at the same time more eager to get into a fight -- especially compared to the Space Marines, where some Chapters don't even care much for what happens beyond the borders of their assigned fief.

This is why the six Major Orders of the Adepta Sororitas Militant count a grand total of ~30.000 warriors, compared to the million Space Marines. And this is why Games Workshop's force disposition charts for the Third War of Armageddon or the 13th Black Crusade have more Space Marines than Battle Sisters listed among the combatants.

Personally, I think the "easier to replace" is merely a problematic assumption based entirely on them being somewhat less capable than the setting's poster boys, but combat prowess must not always equal ease of recruitment.

Add in power armor and bolters plus access to special gear from the ninistoirum and they could be an attractive option to the deathwatch. [...] Also in game terms they give an excuse to have female PCs for female players. The only other way I can see a female pc in deathwatch would be a female inquisitor and I don't know if dw has rules to make an inquisitor.

You may be disappointed here -- FFG's RPGs have come up with a weird "tiering" of gear that unfortunately moves the Sisters of Battle quite a bit away from Astartes (whose weapon stats and armour have been buffed considerably, compared to their first iteration in Dark Heresy 1 as written by Black Industries).

Damagewise, the Sisters' standard weapon, the boltgun, is almost impossible to punch through a Marine's excessive soak of 16+ damage before even being able to inflict a Wound. If you consider that the Marines in the DW RPG are balanced for special DW-level enemies, and that these are the same enemies that an attached Sororitas character would have to face as well, there could be a problem in that the Battle Sister - unlike codex fluff suggests - would not be able to deal enough damage whilst simultaneously being too squishy to be of much use.

You could use their space magic Faith talents from Blood of Martyrs, or put them into a Horde for the inexplicable damage bonus, but either option sounds like a bad representation and waste of potential,

Of course, in the end everything is a matter of interpretation, and with contradictory sources the choice is entirely up to you based on your own preferences, but as a person who claims a certain degree of background knowledge on the topic of Sororitas, I thought I'd provide another perspective to prevent devaluation.

If you want auxiliaries for a Kill-team, I would instead suggest a unit of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers. For SoB player characters, I would houserule an improvised/adapted version of the Tactical Marine class and as such build the character based on the rules of the game you are actually going to play. Just remove the Marine's Unnatural traits and implant bonuses, compensate by giving the player access to DH 2 's Acts of Faith mechanic in Enemies Within, and swap Astartes-specific Skills for Ecclesiarchy ones.

Some limitations on the wargear would be appropriate (no missile launchers, no Terminator armour), but other than that the relative similarity the Space Marines and Battle Sisters have in terms of equipment use and tactical doctrines makes it easy to re-write the rules for one for the other.

That being said, don't automatically assume that female players are never interested in playing male characters -- there's many different Space Marine Chapters to choose from -- and just like with playing alien characters, being a Marine (or a Sister, for that matter) is a much more profound identity than simple gender! The bloody battlefields of the 41st millennium are great for facilitating equality.

The rules for using the Sisters of Battle are in the (1st Edition) Dark Heresy books & Player Resources.

well, remember that it takes gene seed implants to make a marine and those are a very finite resource and apparently getting rarer as the geneseed decays over the millennia.

As you your other points you may be right. In the wargame a SoBs bolted and power armor are equal to a marine's but it may be different in the FFG games. Likewise the SoBs may be considered part of another Inquisitioal faction.

I was thinking the SoBs might be fitting to use against necrons as the first while dwarf battle report featuring necrons had them wiping out a SoB force. And you know in 40k no one ever let's anything go....

well, remember that it takes gene seed implants to make a marine and those are a very finite resource and apparently getting rarer as the geneseed decays over the millennia.

That's true; both geneseed compatibility as well as efficiency are subject to the ongoing "tech decay" that is a major factor in the setting. It's not so much that the geneseed is getting rare (except if a Chapter has almost been wiped out), but rather that the stuff they have doesn't work as well anymore.

This can certainly affect recruitment numbers, but it depends heavily on the Chapter (and seed) in question, as well as the planet they are recruiting from (the Index Astartes mentions the Flesh Tearers' homeworld to have a particularly adaptable native population, for example). Furthermore, it doesn't seem so bad as to have the Chapters drop their optional and in some cases rather crazy requirements, such as the Salamanders requiring all prospective aspirants to be good blacksmithes.

On the other hand, the Sororitas have a similarly silly requirement in only recruiting the top performers among those girls who actually grew up in the Schola Progenium, rather than allowing older orphans to try qualifying. Whilst I imagine this to have a profound effect on their faith and dedication to the order, it still sounds like a huge limitation -- and yet they still manage to get by, mostly, so much so that the Sisters of Battle were able to expand from 4 to 6 Major Orders between M36 and M38.

Both factions are somewhat needlessly capping their recruitment potential, but with the training time and wargear value involved, I still think a Space Marine gets you a lot more bang for your buck, simply because they don't die quite as easily.

As you your other points you may be right. In the wargame a SoBs bolted and power armor are equal to a marine's but it may be different in the FFG games. Likewise the SoBs may be considered part of another Inquisitioal faction.

Yeah, if you want to analyse the prospect of how they'd compare in terms of power levels here, there have been a lot of threads about the subject for both Dark Heresy (where the Daemon Hunters splatbook allows people to play a Grey Knight) as well as Black Crusade (where you can play Human or a CSM). It's so bad that BC actually introduced separate Horde rules depending on whether the exact same enemy group is targeting a Human or a Marine, as apparently the designers recognised the issue by now.

That being said, with Deathwatch being an RPG, you can easily houserule such things to sort them out and create a more equal playing ground, if that is what you wish! Same for other possible reinterpretations of the setting, such as altering the background of faction affiliations and linking them closer to the Ordo Xenos.

Thinking about it, unlike Games Workshop's own books, the RPG actually handles the Deathwatch as a separate, independent faction merely allied with the Ordo Xenos (even though they still have the Inquisitorial seal in the artworks), so you might be able to circumvent the issue by bypassing the Inquisition and as such this possible problem altogether. To me, it still feels wrong to push a faction intended as equals into the role of auxiliaries, but in the end, it's your game, and I at least wanted to list all the options regardless of my own predisposition.

I was thinking the SoBs might be fitting to use against necrons as the first while dwarf battle report featuring necrons had them wiping out a SoB force. And you know in 40k no one ever let's anything go....

Absolutely.

Speaking of White Dwarf, issue #382 mentioned that the Sororitas can just as easily deploy against aliens as they can against human heretics, so there shouldn't be a limit in possibilities just because their purpose focuses on an internal force:

"Heretics take many forms. Most are lost humans, whose weak minds have been corrupted by the manifold temptations of a dark and sinister galaxy. None are immune - planetary governors, Imperial Guard commanders and even whole Space Marine Chapters have been declared heretic and been exterminated as such by the Sisters of Battle. Yet there is no stricture within the Ecclesiarchy that heresy is a purely human crime. Aliens can also be sanctioned as heretics - that the creed against which they transgress is not their own is of no account. Nevermore so is this true than of the alien who chances his army against the Emperor's Will by inciting rebellion, subverting the will of Imperial subjects or invading by force. Genesis matters naught - all heretics are damned, and all must be purged with fire, lest their apostasy gather a following."

I've actually argued in favour of Battle Sisters in Deathwatch before, as they seem like an obvious female counterpart to the Marines. Squishier, but with similar ranged firepower, and their own edge in the form of Acts of Faith. Just that I've envisioned them as comparable player characters, and as such based on modified Marine profiles from the DW core rulebook, like so (excerpt from a work-in-progress, though I haven't actually touched this in quite a while ...).

Well, a marine has a huge load of genetic mods and implants to make him superhuman, it's never been said a SoB has any mods so their stats would still be human, top line human, but still human.

As to the DWs relationship with the big I, maybe after some inquisitors royally XXXXed over a few too many marines the adeptus astartes decided to renegotiate their agreement with them. For an example of an inquisitor screwing over and dishonoring a kill team, read the deathwath themed story "Exhumed".

Well ... there wouldn't be much to negotiate -- aside from the Adeptus Astartes being far too disjointed to come to such an agreement, going against the Inquisition as a whole means betraying the entire Imperium. Not only would it trigger another civil war, it also means the Marines rejecting their holy vows and their very purpose of existence.

Neither the Marines nor the Inquisition, nor any of the other Imperial institutions, has an interest in disturbing the status quo, so the various disagreements that arise tend to be solved on a more personal level. There are a few Chapters with good ties to individual Inquisitors, for example ... Inquisitors who could then make a move against the troublemaker and resolve it as an internal matter by dragging him or her before an Inquisitorial court (or simply assassinating them outright).

That being said, there are also a few Chapters with good ties to the Sororitas, and perhaps this would prove a more suitable angle for cooperation. The Black Templars in particular are said to share a great deal of respect and several mutual vows of assistance with the Sisters of Battle, so if your Kill-team includes or their Watch-Captain is a Black Templar, maybe he could pull a few strings and bypass the Inquisition entirely?

Actually space marine chapter masters have at least butted heads with other agencies of the imperium on occasion. Space wolf chapter master Logan grimnar actually condemned he treatment of the population of Armageddon after the first majorninvasion of that world by chaos. Basically chaos invaded, with the aid of some space marines including the spacewolves chapter the chaos forces were driven out after a long campaign. The high lords of terra decided the people of Armageddon had Been exposed to chaos too long, ordered them interned in mass slave labor camps, sterilized and worked to death while new colonists were brought into Armageddon to settle the hives and repopulate the planet. Logan grimnar condemned this act as a betrayel of the brave and loyal people of Armageddon. An assassin was apparently sent after him by the high lords of terra over this as a reflex response to any criticism if them by anyone. Logan grimnar is still chapter master, the assassin's fate is unknown.

Oh, I'm aware of this long history of incidents, but the important thing to keep in mind is that such differences of opinion are generally tolerated ... as long as they are kept in the shadows. Take for example the fate of the Celestial Lions: an entire Chapter of Space Marines eradicated just for being too nosy . Though this, too, would certainly cost the Inquisitor his head if the truth would ever come out.

Either way, openly defying the authority of the Inquisition as a whole is arch-treason. And when it comes to assembling troops and war material, the Inquisition's arm stretches a lot further than the Space Marines'. The 3E Codex Witch Hunters actually has a battle narrative where the Inquisition orders an attack on a Chapter because the Marines' leader refused to help out when asked.

In 40k, the Imperium is generally held together by a web of politics and relationships, where - at least on the upper echelons of leadership - the authority someone has on paper is only worth as much as the person in question can back up with favours or loyalty from other important people. It is for this reason that clever Inquisitors tend to request rather than command help from the Marines, as upsetting the Astartes can kick off a chain of events that leaves both sides dissatisfied. A quarrel out of insulted honour, where the only true victor will be the enemies of humanity who are now facing fewer defenders.

Yet open defiance against Imperial authority rather than individual people (who can be deposed and dealt with in order to restore the status quo) is something that simply cannot be tolerated, lest the entire construct breaks down. For example, the Imperial Navy opened fire on the Imperial Fists because Rogal Dorn refused to accept the Codex Astartes as decreed by the High Lords of Terra. Fortunately, he relented in the end. Just as regular geneseed purity checks are considered mandatory, and enforced at the barrel of a gun if need be (see Index Astartes, White Dwarf #303).

In the Imperium, it is certainly possible to push and shove and resist, to a degree ... but cross the line and you get branded a heretic. As mentioned in Andy Hoare's Citadel Journal article, the Adepta Sororitas have special forces just for the purpose of hunting down excommunicated Marine Chapters.

It is somewhat ironic that in FFG's RPG, the Deathwatch is actually independent from the Inquisition, when in GW's background their inclusion as a subordinate part of the Ordo Xenos is partially because the Inquisitors wanted a bunch of Space Marines that are 100% loyal, and willing to fight other Marines if duty demands (see the Thorian Sourcebook , "How the Inquisition operates").

I think a lot of chapters have no problem taking on other chapters. Sometimes you don't even need the inquisition (Badab war)

Also several chapters were all set to invade Terra and kill Goge Vandire.

Also: welcome back Lynata! Long time no see.

I think a lot of chapters have no problem taking on other chapters.

For sure; if possible, the Inquisition actually prefers to involve other Chapters as it can help de-escalate a situation. Plus, loyal Marines get pretty mad and righteous if they find out that the accused actually has betrayed their vows and/or became corrupted.

But still, it's not always an option, either due to them being unavailable, or because a mission is deemed too sensitive to involve what amounts to "unreliable outsiders". No doubt specifically because nobody wants another Logan in their neck being all like "you want me to do WHAT?".

Also: welcome back Lynata! Long time no see.

It's pretty telling that it took them this long, though, and these four Chapters only did so after Vandire already started to send armies against them . If it hadn't been for Sebastian Thor convincing the Chapter Masters in question of the righteousness of his cause, who knows what may have happened?

Also: welcome back Lynata! Long time no see.

Thanks! I don't know yet how long I'll say, but I kinda missed talking about 40k stuff.

I think a lot of chapters have no problem taking on other chapters. Sometimes you don't even need the inquisition (Badab war)

Also several chapters were all set to invade Terra and kill Goge Vandire.

Also: welcome back Lynata! Long time no see.

That was due to vandire being a usurper who had seized power from the lords of terra and was destroy I g the imperium ina civil war. Aldo even the adeptus mechanius was so disturbed by the civil war in the imoerium it was going to send it's own forces to terra to end it. You can bet a lot of the imperium wasn't willing to trust the cog heads to act in the imperium's best interest. So it's no surprise the space marines we're on the move.

That wasn't an invasion, that was a rescue. In the end the force vadire created, the sisters of battle, ended it and him.