Troublesome Preachers Redeemed

Preachers are a fluffy addition to Sisters of Battle force, yet what exactly is their place in the battle line. As independent characters in the SoB codex a basic Preacher costs 45 points. Up to 5 may be included in an army for a whopping 225 points for 5 assault orientated basic humans with strength 3, weapons skill 3 and leadership 7 with flak armour, eek. This is supposedly offset by initiative 4, attack dice 2. Initiative 4 only puts them on an equivalent status to most SMEQ opponents, no real advantage there when going toe to toe with power armoured power fisted chaos space marines etc. Perhaps the real value of the preacher is with the available options, yet there are few options and the only interesting one is the eviscerator giving 2 strength 6 yet initiative 1 attacks. Unlikely to be useful against anything that can hot knife and butter slice through flak armour. Yet wait , the Preachers have an invulnerable save, actually they have 2 which is markedly odd as well. They have the special rule Shield of Faith giving a 6+ invulnerable save and as standard wargear they have a rosarius giving a 4+ invulnerable save!

Obviously the rosarius save is useful yet the Shield of Faith special rule must have contributed to the points value of the basic Preacher, as does the rosarius.

The final special rule of Righteous Rage possibly pays for the fluffy ambivalence of the other rules for this mini. Add a Preacher to a squad of death cult assassins and put them in an Immolator for toasting the target prior to assault. Then you have 5 x Weapons Skill 5, Initiative 6, Strength 4, Power Weapons Attacks 2 with re-roll for any misses. Give the Preacher an eviscerator with 2 attacks and a re-roll and rosarius for survivability for a total of 145 points plus Immolator at 65 points. Becomes slightly scary as a serious total disruption and decapitation assault unit, no?