Silent Hunters: The 11th-Edition Custodes Sisters of Silence Detachment

Two clauses, both restricted to ANATHEMA PSYKANA units.

First: when a friendly ANATHEMA PSYKANA unit is selected to make an advance move, that advance move does not prevent that unit from being eligible to start an action.

Second: friendly ANATHEMA PSYKANA units gain Ceaseless Vigilance: in your Shooting phase, this unit can select one visible enemy unit within 12 inches, and that enemy unit is nulled. While a unit is nulled, that unit has +3 inch detection range.

Be precise about the second clause, because it is widely described backwards as stripping enemy stealth. It does not remove anything from the enemy and it is not a debuff to their concealment abilities. It increases that enemy unit's own detection range, which in 11th edition's detection system makes that unit easier for your army to see and target. It is an offensive tool aimed outward, not a defensive one aimed at your own sensors.

The first clause is the one that quietly wins games, and it is the reason to take the detachment. Custodes field somewhere in the high teens to low twenties of models. Every model standing on an objective is a model not fighting, and every model running a secondary action is a model not doing either. A Sisters unit that can advance across the board and still start an action when it arrives is the only cheap answer the faction has to that arithmetic, and it costs one Detachment Point.

One scope note that matters at list-building time: Sisters of Silence do not have the Martial Ka'tah ability, so they are outside the army rule entirely, and outside Shield Host's Martial Mastery too. That sounds like a drawback and mostly is not. It means the two halves of a mixed list do not compete for the same buffs.

Three, all 1CP, and each names a different Sisters datasheet, so what you get out of the detachment depends on which Sisters you built.

• Deathsong Scythes (the Fight). When a friendly VIGILATORS unit is selected to fight, its melee attacks have [LANCE], and its melee attacks that target a PSYKER unit have +1 Attack. [LANCE] rewards charging rather than being charged, so this is the stratagem that lets a cheap melee unit punch into something it has no business beating, provided you make the charge.
• Umbral Prosecution (your Shooting). When a friendly PROSECUTORS unit is selected to shoot, its Boltgun weapons have [RAPID FIRE 2] and +1 Armour Penetration. Both halves at once turns the cheapest unit in the detachment into genuine short-range shooting for a phase, and it is most of the reason Prosecutors are worth more here than as a body count.
• Synchronised Inferno (your Shooting). When a friendly WITCHSEEKERS unit is selected to shoot, its [TORRENT] ranged attacks have [BLAST 1]. Blast scales the attack count against larger units, and because Torrent skips the hit roll, every extra attack lands. This is your screen-clearer.

The habit to build: these are cheap enough to use most turns, so the question is which Sisters unit you are actually leaning on. If your list runs one Prosecutors block as an action-runner and nothing else, two of the three stratagems are dead weight. Build at least two different Sisters datasheets so the detachment's toolkit is live.

Two, and they are very different in weight.

• Encircling Hunter (15 pts). ANATHEMA PSYKANA model only. When both players have deployed their armies, you can redeploy up to three friendly ANATHEMA PSYKANA INFANTRY units, and when doing so you can set those units up in strategic reserves regardless of how many units are already in strategic reserves. This is the strongest single effect in the detachment by a wide margin. Redeploying three units after seeing the whole enemy deployment is a large information advantage, and the strategic reserves clause bypasses the normal limit, which is how a Custodes army hides its cheap scoring pieces until it knows where they are needed. Put it on a Knight-Centura.
• Psyk-out Grenades (Upgrade) (10 pts). ANATHEMA PSYKANA unit only. This unit has EXPLOSIVES, and when you target this unit with the Explosives stratagem, if you select an enemy PSYKER unit you can re-roll rolls to determine whether that enemy unit suffers a mortal wound. It is an Upgrade on the unit rather than a character relic, so it needs no Character. It is also the most situational thing in the detachment: against an army with no psykers, the re-roll clause does nothing at all.

If you can only take one, take Encircling Hunter every time. Take Psyk-out Grenades as a second when you know you are facing psykers.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• Prosecutors are the bolter Sisters, named in Umbral Prosecution, and the cheapest ANATHEMA PSYKANA body you can put on an objective. In this detachment they are your default action-runner.
• Vigilators are the melee Sisters, named in Deathsong Scythes. With [LANCE] on the charge they punish an opponent for standing near the unit you just nulled.
• Witchseekers are the flamer Sisters, named in Synchronised Inferno, and the answer to a screen trying to keep your Custodes off a point.
• Knight-Centura is the Sisters character and the natural Encircling Hunter bearer, which is what makes the three-unit redeploy possible at all.
• Aleya is the Sisters Epic Hero and a much better leader for a Vigilators block than her points suggest. As an Epic Hero she cannot carry either enhancement.
• Custodian Guard and Allarus Custodians are the Custodes core. This detachment produces action economy and detection, not damage, so it needs gold warriors to do the killing.

On boxes: the catalog's Sisters of Silence Vigilator / Prosecutor Squad builds all three Sisters datasheets from one kit, which makes it the single most efficient purchase for this detachment. The Knight-Centura has no catalog entry, so we link no box for it. See the army page for the full roster.

Take it when your 2-DP anchor is doing the killing and you need somebody to do the scoring, which in a Custodes army is almost always. One Detachment Point to stop giving up a gold warrior every time the mission asks for an action is the best rate in the faction, and it is our default recommendation for the spare point in any 2-DP list.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. The rule covers ANATHEMA PSYKANA units only. It does nothing for your Custodian Guard, your Terminators, your Dreadnoughts or your jetbikes. It adds no damage, and the nulling clause is a detection effect rather than a to-hit buff, so it does not improve any attack you make.

Sample gameplan: pair it with Shield Host (2 DP), which is our recommended first Custodes list. Shield Host improves every melee attack made by a model with the Martial Ka'tah ability, and because Sisters do not have that ability the two detachments never compete: your gold warriors fight under Martial Mastery while your Sisters advance onto objectives and start actions. Put Encircling Hunter on a Knight-Centura, hold one or two Sisters units in strategic reserves, and let your opponent commit before you decide where the mission gets won.

For the fundamentals underneath all of it, read the Adeptus Custodes army guide.