The Stormcast Eternals are the most famous of Age of Sigmar armies and they could not miss the opportunity to move war to Chaos in Archaon’s stronghold itself.
They have different warbands available for Warcry, if you are looking for an elite warband with solid options, then this is the warband for you.
Other than the Sacrosanct (which this guide is about) you can also find guides for the Stormcast Warrior Chamber and the Stormcast Vanguard.
What changed in the new edition for the Stormcast Sacrosanct?
The Stormcast Sacrosanct warband profiles saw minor changes, in particular the Celestial Dracolines now provide an extra attack to their riders, and the Castigators have now a 6″ minimum range instead of 3″.
Apart from this, Leader wounds went down, and few abilities changes, in particular Thunderous Pounce now allowing up to 12 damage instead of 6 and Soul-shield Channelling instead of increasing Toughness allows critical hits to be treated as hits, that is much more useful.
Background and Lore of the Stormcast Sacrosanct Warband
The Stormcast Eternals are the mortal heroes taken by Sigmar a moment before their death to create the most powerful weapon he could imagine to fight Chaos: an army of supernatural warriors almost immortal.
Once Azyr’s doors were reopened, the Stormcast have been sent by Sigmar to spearhead the retaking of the territory lost in the Age of Chaos and re-establish civilization in the Mortal Realms.
Stormcast Eternals are composed of different chambers, the Sacrosanct being composed of the re-forged most powerful wizards and magic-attuned fighters that ever walked the Mortal Realms.
The Sacrosanct chamber represents the warrior-mystics of the Stormcasts with an extremely important duty: not only are they responsible for managing any magic menace to Sigmar and his allies, but they also oversee the process of re-forging.
On the Anvil of Apotheosis the process to re-forge a soul is a dangerous one and sometimes things can go wrong and these fighters are there to ensure the process is completed or the rebel souls eliminated.
Being adept at magic and any kind of research, this chamber is also tasked to find a solution to the imperfect process of re-forging, hoping one day to prevent the loss of memory and personality that afflicts each new reborn Stormcast.
The Lord-Arcanum are the commanders of this chamber, assisted by Knight-Incantors, both powerful mages.
The rank-and-file warriors are not less attuned to magic and they can call the power of the storm to enhance their weapons or their shields.
The Castigators arrows explode emanating celestial energy, while the Evocators empower weapons with cracking lightning.
In the Eightpoints the Sacrosanct Chamber warbands are searching any clue for fixing the flaw in the reforging.
But how do they play on the tabletop?
Let’s take a look at the fighters and abilities of the Stormcast Sacrosanct warband.
Overview and Points for the fighters in the Stormcast Sacrosanct Warband
Note: if you haven’t read the basic rules for Warcry before reading this article, it might be helpful to know that the game’s abilities are activated by using 6 dice that you roll at the start of your turn.
If two of the dice show the same value, they can be used to activate a Double ability. If three show the same value, they can be used for a Triple ability, and so on.
So, when this article refers to an ability being a Double, a Triple or a Quad, it refers to this system. It might sound a bit confusing, but takes no time to get used to when you start playing
The Sacrosanct Chamber warband is made from many kits with 24 options of which 15 are leaders.
Lord-Arcanum
- Lord-Arcanum on Celestial Dracoline: 315 points
- Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger: 305 points
- Lord-Arcanum: 210 points
The Lord-Arcanum are the commanders of the Sacrosanct Chamber and as such they are also powerful wizards of their own.
They have two ranged Attacks at 7″ range for 3/6 damage on Strength 4 and a decent melee profile too: 4 Attacks at Strength 4 for 2/4 damage. The Lord-Arcanum on Dracoline adds 1 to the damage on critical hit (2/5) and the Gryph-Charger one in Strength.
Interestingly, the Dracoline does not count as a mount while the Gryph-Charger has the Mounted runemark preventing climbing, going through doors, etc.
All Lord-Arcanum have access to Shatter Spirit Flask that for a Triple that can do up to 6 damage to anyone within 3″ of them, including themselves and friends. It is a good option to avoid being surrounded or if you are going on a suicide mission. The high number of Wounds (in order 40, 38 and 30) allows them to actually shrug off that damage if they are not too injured.
Toughness 5 is also a tough nut to crack, so should prevent most smaller units from doing too much damage.
Both beasts have 10″ Movement, while the on foot version has the standard Movement of 4″.
The Dracoline allows for a Quad also the use of Thunderous Pounce, for up to 12 damage at the end of a Move action.
Lord-Exorcist: 210 points
The Lord-Exorcist is a wizard with the same ranged profile as the Lord-Arcanum while in melee he loses only 1 Attack.
High Wounds and Toughness 5 make him a strong option as a leader.
The difference is made by his special ability, Open Redemption Cache. While the Lord-Arcanum damages everyone including themselves for a Triple, the Lord-Exorcist, in the same radius, blasts only enemies (up to 6 damage as well) for a Quad.
A Quad is rarer than a Triple but there’s no side effects.
Lord-Ordinator
- Lord-Ordinator with Astral Grandhammer: 220 points
- Lord-Ordinator with Paired Astral Hammers: 210 points
The Lord-Ordinator are instead the Engineers of the Sacrosanct Chamber.
They have 30 Wounds, Toughness 5 and Movement 4″ like most of the warband.
Their special ability, Meteoric Slam, adds +1 to Attack and Strength for a turn transforming them in powerful fighters.
The Grandhammer can therefore become a 4 Attacks at Strength 6 for 3/5 damage on a 2″ range while the Paired Hammers become 5 Attacks, Strength 6 and 2/5 damage.
Statistical the extra attack on the Paired Hammers does a little bit more damage.
Knight-Incantor: 205 points
Do not underestimate the Knight-Incantor thinking he is your usual wizard. His ranged and melee profile is identical to the Lord-Exorcist, however he shares the same ability as the Lord-Arcanum: Shatter Spirit Flask, for up to 6 damage to anyone within 3″.
Evocators on Celestial Dracolines
- Evocator-Prime on Celestial Dracoline with Grandstave: 315 points
- Evocator-Prime on Celestial Dracoline with Tempest Blade and Stormstave: 330 points
- Evocator on Celestial Dracoline with Grandstave: 275 points
- Evocator on Celestial Dracoline with Tempest Blade and Stormstave: 285 points
And here comes the cavalry.
These powerful wizards don’t actually count as Mounted, on the other hand they have access to Thunderous Pounce that for a Quad allows to allocate up to 12 damage to an engaged enemy at the end of a Move action. The cost of this ability seems incredibly disproportionate to what actually does, but need to take in consideration the 10″ Movement of these fighters.
As the Evocators on foot they also have access to Summon Celestial Lightning that allows for a Double to roll as many as 6 dice and allocate to an engaged enemy 1 Damage for each 4+.
Considering the statistic chance to fail 50% of the rolls, it can be used if you really need to get rid of a low wounds character without wasting a disengage.
The main difference between the weapons is that the Grandstave has 2″ range for 4 Attacks at Strength 5 for 2/5 damage while the Blade and Stormstave has 1″ range, 5 Attacks at Strength 5 for 2/4 damage.
Usually more attacks means more chance for a critical but in this case the weapons are quite balanced statistically.
The Evocator-Primes add more wounds and damage on critical hit: 2/6 for the Grandstave and 2/5 for the Blade and Stormstave.
These are the most expensive fighters in your warband, roughly a third of the cost, and probably not worth it.
Evocators
- Evocator-Prime with Tempest Blade and Stormstave: 200 points
- Evocator-Prime with Grandstave: 205 points
- Evocator with Tempest Blade and Stormstave: 150 points
- Evocator with Grandstave: 150 points
The Evocators are your wizard type of infantry.
As the rest of the warband they have access to Channelled Empowerment but considering they already have Strength 5, being able to increase it is extremely situational.
The Primes have access to Cleanse the Realm of Taint that for a Double allows a bonus move or attack if they finish an enemy in the same activation.
And then the special ability in common to all Evocators is Summon Celestial Lightning discussed above.
The Evocators have 2 weapon options: the Blade and Stormstave increase the number of attacks to 4 (5 for the Prime), have same Strength (5) and a lower damage on critical hit (2/4).
The Grandstave instead has longer range (2”), less attacks (3 and 4 for the Prime), same Strength and more damage on critical (2/5).
As all Stormcast on foot in this warband, the Evocators also have Movement 4”, high wounds (20 and 25 for the Primes) and high Toughness (5).
Sequitors
- Sequitor-Prime with Redemption Cache: 170 points
- Sequitor-Prime with Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield: 165 points
- Sequitor-Prime with Tempest Blade and Soulshield: 175 points
- Sequitor with Stormsmite Greatmace: 175 points
- Sequitor with Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield: 170 points
- Sequitor with Tempest Blade and Soulshield: 125 points
The Sequitors are the main infantry and the model with most options.
All Sequitors, except the one armed with Greatmace, have a shield that for a Triple allows them to treat critical hits received as normal hits instead (Soul-Shield Channelling). This ability is much more useful than its previous iteration as it provides a solution to the problem that afflicts all elite warbands: critical hits.
With high Toughness, and good wounds, the only thing bringing down a Stormcast is critical hits, especially against horde units that really on those pesky 6s. This ability allows the Sequitors to spear-head the defence and absorb most hits.
The next ability they share with the rest of the warband increases the Strength of the value of this ability for the next attack (Channelled Empowerment, costing a Double).
It is probably more useful for the Sequitors with Tempest Blade and Soulshield as they have Strength 4 but more attacks than their other counterparts (3 attacks or 4 in the case of the Prime).
The Sequitors with Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield instead have Strength 5 but less attacks (2 or 3 in the case of the Prime, including the one with Redemption Cache).
The guest star is the Sequitor with Stormsmite Greatmace: he trades Toughness (“only 5”) for 3 attacks at range 2” and 3/5 damage. No special abilities but the highest potential damage output across the non-leader fighters.
The Sequitor-Prime with Redemption Cache has access to a Quad ability, damaging every visible unit within 3” up to 6 wounds.
This ability makes him an interesting option in case you need a Sequitor to lead your army as it has otherwise the same attributes of the Prime armed with a Maul.
In summary the Sequitors can be divided in 3 groups:
- The maul that provides increased Strength (5 can be brutal)
- The blade for increased attacks
- Greatmace for good damage
All of them have movement 4″, that is just average but not great.
Castigators
- Castigator-Prime: 240 points
- Castigator: 210 points
The Castigators are your ranged options and they are essential to compensate the overall slowness of this warband (unless you use Dracolines).
With maximum range 15” they can really make a difference: 3 attacks at Strength 5 for 2/4 damage are not to be underestimated.
In melee they don’t shine with 3 attacks (4 the Prime) at Strength 4 for 1/4 damage.
But if you can, keep them at distance to be able to also use their ability: for a Triple they can add up to 3 to the damage (for both hit and critical) to the next ranged attack.
With a good Triple you can then get those 3 attacks at Strength 5 doing 5 or 7 damage!!!
The Castigator-Prime can use Cleanse the Realms of Taint also on his ranged attack (there’s no minimum range requirement) for a potential 3 attack sequences on a single activation (translated in 9 attack rolls in a turn provided the first 6 kill at least one enemy model).
Castigators cannot use Channelled Empowerment on their ranged attack, but they can benefit from it for their melee attack that have only Strength 4.
Castigators share the same Movement (4”) and wounds as most other fighters in this warband.
Gryph-Hound: 115 points
The cheapest unit available in this warband is the Gryph-Hound. They have good attacks (4 Attacks at Strength 4 for 1/4 damage), a great movement of 6” and the Darting Attack ability.
For a Triple they can do a bonus attack and then a bonus disengage move getting in a better position around an objective or forcing the opponent to follow them and waste one of their activations.
In defence they don’t excel with Toughness 4 and only 12 wounds, and comparing with the rest of the warband they are quite fragile.
The Gryph-hounds are an interesting option in Warcry in particular for their cost and to compensate slower warbands with few elite members, but remember that being Beasts they are limited in what they can perform (grab treasures, open doors, etc.).
Stormsire’s Cursebreakers
- Averon Stormsire: 235 points
- Ammis Dawnguard: 180 points
- Rastus the Charmed: 180 points
Stormsire’s Cursebreakers are a Stormcast Eternals Sacrosanct Chamber Bladeborn warband from Warhammer Underworlds Season 2.
- Storm of Eldritch Lightning (Triple, Averon): a change to perform quite some damage (up to 18) to an enemy within range.
Despite Averon being a Knight-Incantor (lore-wise), he has the same profile and abilities of the Lord-Exorcist (with 2 wounds less and a similar cost). Open Redemption Cache, from the Lord-Exorcist, allows to damage all enemies at a close range, while Storm of Eldritch Lightning, allows to damage an enemy at 9″ range for up to 18 damage (3 damage for every 3+, roll as many dice as the value of the ability). These are expensive abilities but provide many tools in Averon’s arsenal for every situation.
Ammis and Rastus are Evocators with a similar profile as the Tempest Blade and Stormstave but few differences that justify their slightly higher price. Ammis has more damage (2/5) while Rastus has more Strength (6). They both have 2 Wounds more and access to Summon Celestial Lightning, that is similar to the storm from Averon, but with a much reduced scope (1 damage on a 4+, up to 6 dice, 1″ range).
Did you know we make guides for all Warcry Warbands?
You can find all the warcry warbands guides here.
Abilities for the Sacrosanct Warcry Warband
- Channelled Empowerment (Double, Everyone except Gryph-hound): Add up to 6 to the Strength of the next melee attack.
- Summon Celestial Lightning (Double, all Evocators): A chance to do up to 6 damage to an engaged enemy.
- Meteoric Slam (Double, both Lord-Ordinators): Add +1 to Attack and Strength of melee attacks of this fighter.
- Cleanse the Realms of Taint (Double, all Leaders): After taking down an enemy perform a bonus move or a bonus attack.
- Burst of Celestial Lightning (Triple, all Castigators): Add up to 3 to the damage for both hits and critical hits for the next ranged attack.
- Darting Attack (Triple, Gryph-Hounds): Make a bonus attack and then a bonus disengage action.
- Soul-shield Channelling (Triple, all Sequitors except the Sequitor with Greatmace): Until the end of the battle round count critical hits as hits instead.
- Shatter Spirit Flash (Triple, all Lord-Arcanum and the Knight-Incantor): Allocate up to 6 damage to all fighters in range (friendly and enemy).
- Thunderous Pounce (Quad, all Lord-Arcanum and Evocators on Celestial Dracoline): Up to 12 damage to an engaged enemy at the end of the next Move action.
- Open the Redemption Cache (Quad, Lord-Exorcist and Sequitor-Prime with Redemption Cache): Up to 6 damage to all visible enemies within 3”.
Reaction for the Stormcast Sacrosanct Warband
Introduced in the new season of Warcry, Reactions are things that can be done in certain circumstances, but always during the enemy turn. They cost one action, so they can be used only by fighters that have not activated yet or are waiting. There are 3 universal reactions and one specific to each warband:
Thunderous Departure (Everyone except Gryph-hound)
- When: During an enemy melee attack action that takes down this fighter.
- What: D6 damage to the attacking fighter.
Strategy and Tactics for the Stormcast Sacrosanct Warband
The Stormcast of the Sacrosanct Chamber are an extremely elite warband, the one that probably best represents the Stormcast Eternals.
Your warband will usually have 5 members, of which 1 or 2 should be Castigators.
The rest can be whichever you prefer with 1 Evocator and the Sequitor with Greatmace being great options.
Movement 4” can be increased with the universal ability Rush that allows 1 extra inch per action, otherwise you can always count on the expensive Evocators on Dracoline.
With a low count models, each movement will need to be carefully planned and for this Castigators are extremely useful giving you an extra 15” range of powerful attacks, but be careful as their minimum range is now 6″, meaning they need to be kept well outside of the melee if they want to use their missile attack at their best.
In melee the only thing that can scare you are critical hits because with an average Toughness of 5 (6 for the Sequitors with shield) and 20 or more wounds, it will take a bit to take you down. However, Sequitors for a Triple can ignore even that (or better they treat critical hits as normal hits for a turn).
The main contentious point of this warband comes from the abilities.
Cleanse the Realms of Taint is extremely good as it allows a bonus move or action provided you killed at least an enemy within the previous actions and it costs only a Double, but can be used only by leaders, and you’ll have at most one hero in your warband.
It is even more useful on a Castigator-Prime for a chance to attack three times in the same turn maximizing each action.
Burst of Celestial Lightning gives some extra damage potential to your Castigators making them deadly at medium range.
Then we have Summon Celestial Lightning that costs only a Double for a chance of some extra damage.
Can be useful to free your Evocator from a heavily injured fighter that you would otherwise waste an attack on and then move to your next target.
But every dice you roll has 50% chance to do nothing, still it costs only a Double…
Open the Redemption Cache is available to the Sequitor-Prime and the Lord-Exorcist and for a Quad can do as much as 6 damages to any visible enemy within 3”.
On the other hand for a Triple you can try the Lord-Arcanum Shatter Spirit Flask, with the drawback that will damage also you.
If you need a powerful leader, the Lord-Ordinator and their ability to increase their Attack and Strength with Meteoric Slam makes them good options at a decent cost (for this warband).
Finally, Channelled Empowerment increases the Strength characteristic of non-ranged attacks.
Most of your warband will have Strength 5, except the the Lord-Arcanum, Lord-Exorcist, Knight-Incantor, Sequitors with Blade, Castigators in melee and Gryph-Hounds, that can’t use it either.
So, chances that Channelled Empowerment is useful will be limited to few situations, still, it costs only a Double.
Considering all of this, your strategy is pretty clear. Keep your Castigators safe and shoot from distance.
Try to close in with your heaviest hitters. Use the special abilities to increase the maximum damage you can do (in particular the Castigator and the Evocators one).
Be wary of fast-moving units, especially if they are your target.
And if one dies and has not activated yet, use the warband reaction to instantly allocate D6 damage to the melee attacker.
Rinse and repeat.
Pros and Cons of the Stormcast Sacrosanct Warband
Pros:
+ Really elite warband
+ High toughness
Cons:
– Low models count
– Situational abilities
Some thematic warbands for the Sacrosanct Chamber
Just for fun here we present few thematic warbands, meant more for fun or narrative context than for competitive play. Note that in narrative play you need to complete a quest that allows you to recruit a Hero before being able to add him to your roster.
Soul Wars: Knight-Incantor, 3 Sequitor with Maul and Soulshield, 2 Castigators. All available from the Soul Wars box.
Here comes the cavalry: A Lord-Arcanum on Dracoline, 2 Evocators on Dracoline (each weapon profile ideally) and the always loyal Gryph-Hound.
How to buy a Stormcast Sacrosanct Warcry Warband
The Stormcast – Sacrosanct Chamber warband can be collected from a variety of different boxes.
Let’s start from the Soul Wars box (£95) that contains a good number of Nighthaunt miniatures that can be used for another Death oriented warband or resold.
The Stormcast half presents a Knight-Incantor, 5 Castigators with a Prime, 3 Evocators armed with tempest blade and stormstave with a Prime and 8 Sequitors, of which six with maul and shield including the Prime, and 2 with greatmace. It’s also the only place to find the Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger.
In itself this gives you enough to start a Sacrosanct warband, however you will be missing out on many alternative options and builds.
A cheaper and alternative access to Sequitors with maul and shield is the Warhammer Underworld warband available in the boxed game Dreadfane (35£) but also available separately as an Easy to Build set for 10£ (3 models including a female Prime). It can be hard to get (out of stock most places).
To get the Sequitor-Prime with Redemption Cache and all those with Tempest Blade the only chance is however the box of 10 Sequitors (37.5£).
The Castigators can be found in an Easy to Build set for 10£ for 3 models with Prime together with a Grypth-hound.
The Evocators come in a box of 5 for 35£. However only one Prime is available so you may need 2 boxes if you want to have alternatives.
The Lord-Arcanum on foot is available only from the Aventis Firestrike set (£70) when assembling it as Aventis instead of a Lord-Arcanum on Tauralon.
The Lord-Arcanum on Celestial Dracoline comes from the Astreia Solbright box.
The Knight-Incantor is available in many places, from the Soul Wars box to the cheap £5 Getting Started magazine. Speaking of magazines, Mortal Realms subscription service as an exclusive female Knight-Incantor on issue #5.
Another good place to find a Knight-Incantor and 2 Evocators with Temples Blade and Stormstave is the Warhammer Underworlds warband Stormsire’s Cursebreakers.
The Lord-Exorcist is a single blister for £20.
The two Lord-Ordinators are available in different blisters: Vorrus Starstrike represents the one with Paired Hammers (£22.5) while the other model for £20 is armed with Grandhammer.
The Evocators on Celestial Dracolines are available in a £35 box containing 3 models, one of which is a Prime. If you want all possible weapon loadouts you will need to either magnetize or buy a second box.
Finally the Gryph-Hounds are sold in boxes of 6 for £17.5. But don’t forget one is available with the Easy to Build Castigator set.
Tips on painting a Stormcast Sacrosanct Warband for Warcry
Do you have some awesome looking Stormcast Sacrosanct painted up?
I would very much like to display them right here on this page.
All you have to do is send my some files. You can read more about how to make that happen here.
Sacrosanct Chambers are just an auxiliary chamber of the Stormcast Eternals and they can be painted using the many stormhost colour schemas available or you can invent even your own, for example Anvils of Heldenhammer, Maelstrom of Light, Hallowed Knights or Knight Excelsiors.
Being the latest wave, they also benefit from many new tutorials for specific models of the range (assuming the default Hammers of Sigmar colour scheme).
In Warhammer Community there’s also a tutorial using contrast paints.
