Gives the bearer the ability to generate a Faith Point each time she scores a critical hit (this might only count for Fight actions – we await an FAQ) Start by applying a base coat to the armor of the Novitiates. Use a large brush and Celestra Grey or any light gray paint to cover the majority of the armor. Apply multiple thin coats if needed, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next. Hallowed Ground sees the famous witch hunter duo Galen and Doralia ven Denst coming to terms with the culmination of the siege of Excelsis. When Galen disappears into the wilds of Ghur, his daughter sets off on his trail, but what secret is the veteran seeking?

Healing – Both a medic model and an Act of Faith that can heal injured models means you’re a bit more resilient than you look. Novitiates have great ploys, a mechanic in Acts of Faith that lets them change dice results, and a lot of special abilities. A Novitiate player needs to know how these interact, and there is a reasonably high skill level and cognitive load required to play the team, unlike fairly straightforward teams like Intercessors or Custodes or Kroot or Harlequins where it’s a very limited selection of model types. During that activation, a friendly NOVITIATE operative with the Staunch specialism performed a mission action. Unique actions are actions detailed on an operative’s datacard that only they can perform, such as the Dakka Dash action found on the example datacard. Kill Team Chalnath gives us two brand-new kill teams: Pathfinder Kill Teams, which consist of the older unit updated with a new upgrade sprue, and the all-new Novitate Sororitas Kill Team, featuring a unit of all new models. The new kill team trades some of the individual model power of Ecclesiarchy kill teams for more choices and options, and the new rules provide them with their own Ploys, Equipment, custom Tac Ops, and their own rules for Spec Ops. They also have their own rules for 40k now, which you can find here.The Penitent is a terrifying melee glass cannon: It only has 7 Wounds (like the rest of the Novitiate non-Leaders), but its giant Penitent Eviscerator chainsword can dish out a terrifying amount of damage due to a high amount of synergies around its already good damage profile. A good model to take and unlike the Penitent fire team in the Compendium, it isn’t tactically limiting like having half your kill team with no guns is. Novitiate Pronatus

The penitent is a better version of the Penitent in the Compendium list. She has an autopistol, giving her some ranged ability, and an eviscerator with 4 dice, 4+ to hit, 5/6 Brutal and Reap 2. Reap is situational and dependent on enemy models being close to each other, but if you can multi charge this model rewards you for it, as Absolution Through Destruction means that for 1AP you get two Fight actions together. This means you can, with reasonable dice, chainsaw your way through a couple of guard equivalents in your activation, or chop up a marine equivalent. To make your first Fight action even more likely to succeed, Zealous Rage means that in your first Fight action of the turn you can reroll any or all of your dice, to get as many hits and crits as possible. Warpcoven teams were pretty strong out of the gate but have struggled competitively as more and more non-Compendium teams have been released. They get two buffs in the new Dataslate, plus a note on their battle traits as a result of this change, which we’ll cover here but has no bearing on competitive play. The Sister Superior wears full Adepta Sororitas power armour and can wield a boltgun – the only member of the squad to have that honour. She has a range of wargear available to her (and, as you’ll see from her sprue, some fantastic hats), while her Lead by Example special rule lets her activate another Novitiate if she does something cool, like incapacitate an enemy.

Rare Equipment

Select an objective marker more than 6” from your drop zone. If you hold it at the end of a turn score 1VP, if you hold it at the end of the battle score 1VP. Even more fun is their upgrade sprue, which houses enough parts to make 10 distinct kinds of operative, ranging from the relic-bearing Novitiate Pronatus to the Novitiate Exactor with her twin neural whips.

Novitiates don’t just have Acts of Faith, they get some pretty good ploys as well. Acts of Faith mean that you won’t be spending your CPs on rerolls, and this gives you more CPs to spend on ploys that tend to range from decent to excellent. Strategic Ploys Meanwhile, the T’au Pathfinders build upon their existing kit with an upgrade sprue full of advanced technology. Prototype weapons, advanced bionics, and sophisticated drone control systems ensure they always have the right tool for any job. As the comms equivalent it’s a useful model, especially paired with the Penitent to send her charging into the enemy line. Novitiate Reliquarius TheChirurgeon: The one thing I’d note is that you can still move and charge with this, you just have to shoot before you make your movement. That’s a hefty rider to add to it which will limit its effectiveness since opponents can play around it fairly easily after you get off your first shots, but it can also be a big help on a team that normally tries to make up for mediocre guns with volume of shots. Phobos teams were already OK from what I’ve seen, and this is the kind of small tweak I think can be interesting without pushing them up too much. Warpcoven Kill Teams During that activation, a friendly NOVITIATE operative with the Combat specialism incapacitated an enemy operative in a combat.

Strategic Assets

I think the flexibility of Novitiates will see them doing well in a competitive setting, and a smart tournament player has so many tools to use to win. I look forward to seeing them hit the tables. The Novitiate Superior is ably supported by a number of specialist squadmates who really could only find a place on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. Take the Novitiate Exactor, the only “covert operative” in history to dual-wield neural whips.