Updated March 25, 2024 with new details and insights.
Some factions in Warcry get all the love. However, judging from how little I hear people talk about them, I would venture that the Stormcast Eternals Sacrosanct Chamber isn’t one of them.
True, SCE is one of the most played factions in Warcry (especially if tournament rosters are anything to go by), but by and large it’s the Thunderstrike Chamber that people bring to the table (gotta love those Vindictor and Annihilator teams).
Table of Contents
I set up some anchors to quickly jump to various parts of the post below:
Stormcast Eternals Sacrosanct Chamber at a Glance
On paper, it’s hardly surprising that the Sacrosanct Chamber gets overlooked and ignored.
Stats-wise, these fellas look like the weaker cousin of the other SCE chambers.
At first glance, they llack units with really standout damage profiles you see with the other factions (such as, say, the 155 point Paladin with Starsoul Mace from the Warrior Chamber who deals 4/8 damage on hits and crits) and those from this faction with good profiles (such as Sequitor with Stormsmite Greatmace) cost way more than nearly identical units elsewhere (like the Annihilators from the Thunderstrike Chamber).
Their roster also has many of the usual SCE problems, such as too many units costing ridiculous amounts of points for what they bring (hello, 330 point Evocator Prime on Celestial Dracoline who pales next to a Varanguard from Slaves to Darkness), compounded by having no cheap chaff (apart from a 115 point Gryph Hound, our Sequitor with Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield is the lowest-priced SCE unit at 120).
Like other chambers, bringing even a single unit with more than 200 points usually means you’ll end up with 5-6 models at best, which can really let you down in an objective-heavy match (such as from the Rumble Pack) or against a mob-heavy opponent (Ossiarch Bonereapers or Soulblight Gravelords for example).
Compounding all these issues, as many of us build lists that really focus on damage output, points efficiency, and generally finding ways to field badass units (hello any list with a Fomoroid Crusher), picking this factions kinda feels like the equivalent of picking a cleric in a tabletop RPG – it exists, but why bother when there are so many juicier options?
By this point, after dissing on them for a few paragraphs, you’re probably wondering why bother looking at them more closely. Well, the cleric metaphor goes further than just the overtly religious angle of this faction (even for SCE).
Like classic RPG clerics, even if this roster has relatively low damage output, they have exceptional tankiness, good survivability, and a few contextually useful abilities whose benefits are not always evident and could really power down some scary pieces on the opponent’s side.
I don’t think this makes them a top tier contender for “best warband to listbuild with” out there, but at least they can be elevated from the bottom of the pile warbands lists (cough cough, alongside the poor Khainite Shadowstalkers).
Unit Highlights from the Sacrosanct Chamber
As discussed above, much of the Sacrosanct list is crap.
However, a couple of units do jump out not only as highlights from this chamber, but also as quite good models from SCE and even Warcry in general.
Evocator with Grandstave
Let’s start with the bread and butter.
These dudes are pretty strong all rounders when it comes to duking it out in melee and surviving to fight another day.
Their value is even more impressive when compared to the highly over-costed Sequitor with Stormsmite Greatmace. The Evocators are 20 points less and gain an ability, while having just 1 less damage on normal hits.
The Tempest Blade variant is also strong, given its additional attack die, but from experience having 2″ range means you will be getting more attacks in overall thanks to the added threat range (the number of times I end a move that’s 1.25 inches away…)
Their ability is, fine but non-essential. While it;s only a double, it gives you a chance to deal 1 damage for any 4+ you roll (with dice based off the ability).
Maybe you’ll find some dice burning a hole in your pocket and take the gamble, or maybe you’ll be up against an elite with 3 HP left that needs to be taken down at the end of an activation. Better than not having it, I suppose.
In any event, for their cost as a front line damage dealer you get a fair damage profile and good overall survivability for the model.
Evocator Prime with Grandstave (or with Tempest Blade)
Both of the Prime versions of the Evocator are pretty powerful, if a bit expensive, meaning you’ll like only get 1 in any list.
At 205, the Grandstave gains an extra attack, 5 more HP and Leader abilities, making him a meaner version all around from the regular one.
The Tempest Blade version is also quite strong. 5 points cheaper than the Grandstave, going up to 5 attacks makes him pretty scary if you ever get the opportunity to do two attacks with Onslaught (6 attacks at 5 strength is going to chop up a lot of enemy HP).
However, as I am often a crit farmer who likes doing so from a distance, the extra range is usually my go to variant unless I need the points (which some lists do need that 5 points extra).
Sequitors with Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield
Like most SCE warbands, they don’t have any true chaff (nothing in the 50-75 point range…) but they have one model that is among the lowest costed in all the chambers at 120 points.
It can be a matter of personal preference as to which Sequitor “chaff” you prefer, but my vote goes to the Maul wielders over the blades.
The Tempest Blade has more attacks, but makes them seem like slightly worse Vindictors (1 less range and 1 less critical damage), while the Stormsmite Maul gives them a bit of character on their down, even if the number of attacks are low.
However, and crucially, the Maul variant costs 5 points less which makes a huge difference when it comes to listbuilding as we’ll see below.
Now, if the relatively weak damage profile jumps out at you, that’s okay – these guys aren’t really gonna be in a list for the damage. Instead, they’re there for the numbers and remarkable survivability.
At 6 toughness, almost every unit in the game is rolling 5-6 to damage them, and their ability (discussed below) can make all those crits into regular hits.
Case in point: in a couple of recent games, I’ve had these guys survive against some incredible odds. A few standout moments:
- Surviving a double attack activation from an Ogor Maw Iron Gut with 8 HP to spare while camping on an objective.
- Taking only 5 damage from a Ogor Maw Gutlord (who rolled 4 dice)
- Surviving a double attack from two separate Vulkyn Flameseekers with Bokaz (one being the hero).
- Surviving at least one round against an Ironjawz Mega Boss.
In any of those cases above, most of the bottom tier units on a list would have been obliterated many times over, but not these beefy bastards.
Castigator Prime
Now, here’s the real badass of the team.
Castigators are veritable snipers with remarkably good damage profiles for ranged units (and which they should be at their 200+ points costs).
While our Prime is pricey as heck, he is actually good value compared to the regular Castigator. For 30 points more (which from 210 to 240 isn’t much of a leap) he gets +5 HP, 1 more melee attack, and, more importantly, access to hero abilities.
And this is crucial. Not only do the Castigators have an awesome triple that can do some serious damage with a value of 5-6 (as discussed below), but having access to the Sacrosanct universal double that allows an extra action after a kill is the perfect ability for this guy.
For example, with your Prime you pretty much get two ways of activating him:
- If you have good triple, use it to buff his damage (up to a 5/7 damage profile on his ranged attack) and then blast away at enemy elites.
- If you have a double, aim for the chaff. If you kill one you can get a free move or attack.
To understand how dangerous this is, in a recent match against a pure Ogor Maw Tribes list, I was able to take down 3 Gnoblars in a single turn. True, they only have 6 HP, but those bodies were the ones that would have given my opponent an advantage when it came to securing objectives. (Plus, on the following turn, using a Triple 5 allowed me to deal 17 damage to an Iron Gut in a single attack activation).
A closer look at some Sacrosant Chamber Abilities
Abilities can make or break a warband, and in the case of the Sacrosanct, using them well can really elevate this team.
Soul-Shield Channelling
At first glance, this triple looks pretty unimpressive.
It buffs the single model activating it until the end of the battle round, causing critical hits against them to count as regular hits.
On paper, for a triple, there are certainly better looking abilities out there – such as ones that grant bonus moves and attacks, or area buffs granting nearby allies by +1 attacks and that sort of thing.
Additionally, the really odd thing about this ability, and why I had written it off for so long, was that abilities that reduce damage often come in the form of a reaction (such as Lumineth’s Blinding Brilliance where on a roll of 4+ you can turn each critical hit into a normal hit).
However, in play, and depending on who your opponents are, this ability can actually put a major dent in your enemy’s plans.
Sequitors are classic tanks – at 6 toughness and 20 health, they’re designed to take a beating for a few turns while they either lock up larger units or slowly kill off chaff.
This ability effectively cranks up their tankiness to 11. While against chaff with 1-3 damage profiles it’s a bit of a waste, you can nevertheless pop this ability right before sending your Sequitor in to lock up some of the opposing player’s high crit badass.
For instance: for a triple you can make that enemy Blazing Lord who is normally a 2/6 into a 2/2 or their Bullgor Bloodkine with Great Axe from a 3/8 into a 3/3. In both cases, either of those units might have had a fair chance of taking out your sequitor on a double attack activation – but that possibility is now rendered mute, effectively forcing your opponent to decide if they will even bother attack you, or waste activations trying to get away and do better things for next turn.
As mentioned earlier, I’ve personally seen this ability work in a similar manner while in a friendly match against an opponent using the Vulkyn Flameseekers – many of whom have a 2/5 damage profile.
Getting engaged with two of their heaviest hitters and then comfortably surviving a round of 4 attack actions feels pretty smooth.
Burst of Celestial Lighting
Another triple, and this one should speak to pretty much any player – add half the damage value (rounding up) of this ability to the damage of each hit and critical hit from the next missile attack.
While the roster has a couple of units with good old spellcaster blasts (3/7 range, 2 attacks at 3/6 damage) that could benefit from more damage – the relatively low strength of the attack (4) and only 2 dice per attack mean there’s still a high chance of nothing happening (I can’t honestly tell you if I’ve ever rolled a 6 for any blast attack this past year…)
The real beneficiary of this are the Castigators. They’ve got more range (6-15) more attacks (3) and more strength (5), and even though the base damage is lower, with a triple six you’re shooting 5/8 damage holy lightning bolts at people.
This effectively turns these very pricey snipers into very dangerous (but still pricey) snipers who are adept at one-shotting chaff or seriously pummeling leaders and elites who have the misfortune of having only 4 toughness – and never mind what they can do to some chaff, too.
In a recent game where I went up against a Sacrosanct Chamber roster and on turn 1, my opponent had a natural triple and was able to take two pieces of mine off the board – including one who was a mid tier unit of mine (owing to some unlucky start locations for my team and good dice rolls for him).
I was never able to recover after that.
Cleanse the Realms of Taint
For a double, this is pretty much a standard leader ability.
Kill a unit and you get either a bonus move or a bonus attack – pretty straightforward stuff.
However, the clincher here is that it can be used after an enemy is taken down from any attack action – and not simply melee.
This is key because our Castigator Prime, who has access to this, is a boss when it comes to picking off chaff or finishing off bulky units who maybe just axed one of your Sequitors.
Any target with 2-6 HP left can easily be a one-shot, allowing you to activate this and then having 2 more shots to take on another target or move to a better spot and then fire again.
If you’re lucky with your targets and your dice, this ability can really turn the Castigator Prime into a machine gun.
Listbuilding with the Sacrosanct Chamber
Now that we’ve hopefully redeemed this chamber somewhat, let’s see what type of lists we can actually build with them.
Questor Soulsworn Variants
I love me the Questor Soulsworn as allies and pretty much no Stormcast list I bring to the table doesn’t have one of them in there.
Out of all the lists I have on this page, I’d right now rank this as the most competitive-ready of them.
Here’s what we’re working with:
----------
Warband Roster
1,000pts | 6 fighters
- Castigator-Prime (240pts, Hero)
- Evocator-Prime with Grandstave (205pts, Hero)
- Errant-Questor with Grandhammer (165pts, Hero)
- Evocator with Grandstave (150pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
----------
Generated on Warcrier.netLike I was saying, the Questors are pretty much perfect allies – good profiles and very useful abilities (such as granting bonus moves, gaining bonus attacks, etc.) but it’s sometimes a toss up when it comes which one to bring.
I’m always one for high strength attacks when you have a good regular damage amount (3) but the Questors with Grandblades or Grandspear are also good options (and maybe better, depending on your typical opponent lists – 6 STR for the hammer could be overkill).
And note for the Grandspear to be brought in at 170 points, you would need to swap your Evocator Prime for the Tempest Blade variant at 200 points like so:
----------
Warband Roster
1,000pts | 6 fighters
- Castigator-Prime (240pts, Hero)
- Evocator-Prime with Tempest Blade and Stormstave (200pts, Hero)
- Errant-Questor with Grandspear (170pts, Hero)
- Evocator with Grandstave (150pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
----------
Generated on Warcrier.netStrengths of the List: You’ve got a good balance of strength, damage, and toughness here.
In any kill objective mode, this list can really shine – such as when you’re tasked with eliminating a deployment, assassinating a leader, or acquiring a blood tally every round that’s higher than your opponent (just kill chaff, don’t die, etc.). Especially against any 8-Points Bespoke list.
To make the list work, you need to play favourites with your Castigator Prime. With the right usage of abilities and good rolls, he can pretty much take out a unit or two each turn – you just have to keep feeding him those dice.
The best example was I recently used this list against a strong Ogor Maw list and my Castigator Prime, by end of round 4, had killed 5 Gnoblar and an Iron Gut without assistance – meaning there were only 3 other pieces left on the table for my opponent (and none of my other pieces took any one down, they just ran for the objectives).
One important consideration is to make sure you don’t accidentally tie up any pieces you want your Prime to take down. Any model engaged in melee with one of your units cannot be targeted, so bear that in mind when using your Questor and Evocator Prime to run around the map smashing things.
You can also do good in Rumble Pack scenarios. As long as your Castigator keeps killing stuff, you’ll not have to worry about extra bodies that your opponent might have started with.
Downsides? If you’re playing a scenario with a Round 3 deployment and your Castigator Prime only comes in then, you might have a problem. He won’t get enough activations to truly terrify the opponents and a lot of the units might already be locked up in melee at that point.
Fortunately, scenarios with deployments like this only seem to be in casual games now, and none of the tournament or more competitive mission sets do this anymore.
All About the Castigator, Baby (with Buddy)
In this version of the list, we drop the Questor and bring in everyone’s favourite cheapo Kharadron Overlords Ally, the Company Captain to give even more ways to boost the Castigator Prime.
----------
Warband Roster
990pts | 7 fighters
- Castigator-Prime (240pts, Hero)
- Company Captain (90pts, Hero)
- Evocator with Grandstave (150pts)
- Evocator with Grandstave (150pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
----------
Generated on Warcrier.netStrengths of this list: Here, we bring in the KO ally who can boost the attacks characteristic of the Castigator Prime with a triple (ideally, a low triple since you will want the 5-6 ones for his own ability).
If you’re really lucky and have two triples (or have the wild dice) you can 1-2 combo by giving your Prime more attacks and then more damage with his lightning strike.
Alternatively, if your Prime picks off easy foes, he can also benefit from using his double for an additional attack action while being buffed by his little dwarf buddy.
Apart from that, you’ve got plenty of Sequitors and 2x Evocators who can run around and deal damage for you and lock up the objectives.
Also, since you got 10 points leftover – if you’re playing with Divine Blessings, you can buff your Castigator to get +1 Crit damage and make him that much meaner.
Realistically, this is a bit of a silly list but if you’re well-positioned and feeling hot with the dice for your Castigator, he can potentially dish out some incredible damage with the help of his little buddy.
For example, if all goes well, you could be looking at a 5 attack / 5 strength / 5-8 profile on him with 15″ range. It might only ever happen once, but a profile like that has the possibility of killing pretty much anything in one attack activation save for threats like a Monster or a Tyrant.
8-Unit Tank Brigade (with Dog)
Okay, Gryph Hounds aren’t exactly dogs, but close enough.
This meme list is similar to a meme list I saw on Reddit a while back titled “Oops! All Sequitors.” However, this version breaks the “all Sequitor” rule by adding one more unit to the mix.
----------
Warband Roster
1,000pts | 8 fighters
- Sequitor-Prime with Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield (165pts, Hero)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Gryph-Hound (115pts)
----------
Generated on Warcrier.netThis list for the Sacrosanct is one of the few, among any configuration of Stormcast, where you’ll be able to field 8 units where most of them are neither dogs nor birds. While certainly not the most exciting warband out there, it’s likely going to be one of the tankiest you’ll ever see.
Strengths of the List: The main strength of this warband is that you’ve got 8 units at your disposal – putting your numbers on part with many of the bespoke 8-point warbands and like 1-2 more units than a SCE opponent.
Okay, that’s a bit of a joke, but hear me out.
You’ll suffer less from an opponent waiting you out than usual, and the tankiness of your units also means it might not be the end of the world if your opponent gets a lot of first hits off on you.
You’ll still suffer from a relatively low damage output, but with 5 strength on the main Sequitors you’ll at least be able to consistently chip away at most opponents, and lucky rolls could theoretically one shot some 6-10 HP chaff.
Abilities to Use: Obviously triples will be useful for any Sequitor acting as a primary tank against elites and leader units, but you’ll also want plenty of doubles for Onslaughts.
As the majority of your units have only 2 attacks, Onslaught gives you +50% more attack dice (making it arguably a better use of ability dice than activating a Quad for Rampage in plenty of situations).
Overall it’s incredibly simple, majorly beefy, possibly a little boring, and also pretty friendly for a new player learning the ropes (as opposed to giving them, say, the notoriously paper-thin Khainite Shadowstalkers).
The 8-Point Killers – Pure Sacrosanct (and Questor variants)
This list is designed to pretty much go up against any of the bespoke 8-point warbands (particularly the ones with 8-9 units on the table) and only use models from Sacrosanct.
So, below is the “Pure” Sacrosanct Version if you’re not a fan of allies or things like that:
----------
Warband Roster
990pts | 6 fighters
- Castigator-Prime (240pts, Hero)
- Castigator (210pts)
- Evocator with Grandstave (150pts)
- Evocator with Grandstave (150pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
- Sequitor with Storsmite Maul and Soulshield (120pts)
----------
Generated on Warcrier.netThe list hits 990 points without trying (or 1000 on the dot if you swap for Sequitors with Tempest blades).
The two Castigators can honestly become (too much Castigator!!) or a bit of a crutch if you’re not careful or if the board configuration really isn’t in your favour (lots of walls).
It can be very tempting to just camp both of them on some high ground picking off opponents, but the danger is that leave you with only 4 units for taking objectives and moving around, so more likely than not you will want to send the regular Castigator into melee when needed (he can hold his own, and the same for the Prime).
The Bottom Line
The Sacrosanct Chamber will always have a bit of an uphill battle when competing against its more popular cousins in the other chambers.
That said, there are some definite and even unexpected strengths that can be found in this warband.
The lists we looked at above will certainly make them competitive at the table for friendly game nights, but it remains to be seen how well they can stand up to more tournament level lists (especially optimized ones from some top factions like Kharadron Overlords or the Soulblight Gravelords… or God help us all, a Chimera and some Nurgle Daemons).
If you’re interesting in looking at more lists and some listbuilding, I’ve previously written about some other related topics, among them:
- All the lists from the March 2024 Golden Troll Warcry tournament
- A closer look at the Scions of the Flame tournament winning list I used
