Warhammer 40K: What Happened To The Witch Hunters?
A few months ago, I decided to finally give Warhammer 40k a shot. I had known people who had played and despite the high price of models these people fervently collected, assembled, painted, displayed and fielded their armies. I figured anything that warranted that much time and devotion from anyone must be worth a shot. So I sat down with my boyfriend (and avid Warhammer 40k player) and we discussed army choices. Actually, he handed me a giant book full of lore, races, basic rules and awesome pictures and told me to read it. By the end of looking at all the pictures and reading the summarized army backstories, I knew I wanted to play Witch Hunters. It was a no brainer. I like to paint and the Witch Hunters offered the opportunity for badass color schemes, they were crazy (with religious fervor), and they were almost all chicks. Sold. After that we made up an army list and went down to the local comic store to buy some models. Good thing that they didn’t have any Witch Hunter stuff in stock because we hadn’t bothered to check Games Workshop’s website. The Witch Hunters had been discontinued.
There are now “Sisters of Battle” which are units formerly from Witch Hunters but now make up their own army. This wouldn’t be a problem (besides my amazing color scheme I had planned!) except that the Sisters of Battle’s codex makes them a much worse army than Witch hunters. Many of the units that made Witch Hunters playable were stripped for other armies (specifically the Grey Knights) and the Sisters were what was left over. Inquisitors and Land Raiders, formerly powerful options for a Witch Hunter army, are not permissible in a Sisters of Battle army. This means that the Sisters of Battle lost both their elites and their powerhouse tanks. These changes weren’t published in a full codex but rather in articles in White Dwarf Magazine. The army list for Sisters of Battle is so limited that there is only one option for troops, which cramps the creator’s options severely.
This announcement was very frustrating. I was extremely excited about the prospect of an all female army. Most things in nerd culture aren’t specifically geared for women since sadly there are less women than men involved. However, why can’t we nerd girls get some love? I couldn’t wait to have my sexy, crazy, deadly matriarchal army up and going, and now (because no one wants a fail army) I’ve got a Grey Knight army with girl heads glued on. Don’t get me wrong, they look great and I can’t wait to finish collecting them, but I’m disappointed in Games Workshop for gutting the female force and making them basically unplayable.
The players who previously fielded Witch Hunter/Sisters of Battle armies have been posting on the forums and the general vibe seems to be that this is a period of transition for the Sisters and that they will be fixed eventually. I hope this is true, though I don’t know if my wallet can take the stress of collecting another army. Many people posting on the 40k forum have also expressed frustration with the cost of building an army that is now obsolete. Hopefully Games Workshop will release another codex for the Sisters, but for now we’ll just have to wait.
