Games Workshop quietly dropped new datasheets in their downloads today for the Warhammer 40k versions of the recently released Blood and Zeal Kill Teams (you can find our reviews for Sanctifiers and Goremongers in Kill Team via those links). If you wanted to know more about these new units and how they impact your games, then as always, we’ve got you covered.
The new Sanctifiers team is available in both Adepta Sororitas and Imperial Agents flavors, while the Goremongers add new spice to World Eaters listbuilding (here “spice” is a euphemism for “mandatory auto-take”).
Lets take a look at what these units do and what they add (or don’t) to their respective factions.
Sanctifiers
Twohorse: Sanctifiers come in two flavors: One for Adepta Sororitas and one for Agents of the Imperium. The two datasheets are almost identical, so we’ll start with the common parts. Sanctifiers are a nine-model unit with five different model types. As with other bespoke teams the number of each model is fixed and loadouts are box-locked, so configuring the unit is reasonably straightforward.
The team includes:
- 1 Miraculist, the barefoot lady with stakes in her hands and hate in her heart
- 1 Death cult assassin, identifiable as the only one with bladed weapons
- 1 Salvationist, the medic
- 1 Missionary with a flamer
- 1 Missionary with a plasma gun and holy fire, both of which can be exchanged for a meltagun
- 4 Sanctifiers with Ministorum hand flamers, one of which can give up a melee attack for a second hand flamer, bringing your total to five.
Keen eyes will have noted that the box actually includes ten models, and their datasheet abilities are built around synergy with a Ministorum Priest, which would could be represented by the Confessor from the Kill Team box if you’re the sort of degenerate who looks at a flamethrowing chainsaw and says “no thanks, I’ll take the heavy stick instead because I like my poor taste in rules to reflect my poor taste in models”.
Sanctifiers have Scouts 6”, and they can be joined by a Ministorum Priest (or an Inquisitor in Agents), to whom they confer their Scouts ability to the Priest when he attaches. Additionally the unit gets Sustained Hits 1 on all of its melee weapons when a Priest is attached, and comes with a Cherub which works just like the Sororitas/Agents equivalents elsewhere, conferring either a free Miracle Dice after an act of faith or a free CP reroll respectively.
Fortunately every model has the same statline, which tracks what you’d probably expect when looking at the models: 6” move, toughness 3, 6+ save with 5++ invulnerable save, 1 wound each, Leadership 7, and OC1. The bodies are unimpressive, but that’s not why we’re here, so let’s look at the loadouts.
For wargear, one Sanctifier can take a Simulacrum Imperialis, which works exactly like it does elsewhere, and the Salvationist has a medikit, which revives D3 non-character models in your command phase. This unit isn’t likely to survive if an opponent wants it dead, but the medkit is handy to discourage a savvy opponent from leaving the unit alive with one model to deny you a miracle dice from its death.
The Miraculist has perhaps the most hilarious combo of weapon profiles in the Sisters lineup, with a melee attack allowing her to swing once at WS2+ S6 Ap-2 3D with Dev wounds, and a ranged weapon called Holy Fire (also available to one of the missionaries) which is identical to the Brazier of Holy Fire wielded by the Canonesses of enlightened Sisters players and fine gentlefolk everywhere. For those unaware, it’s a one-shot torrent weapon with d6 shots at S6 AP-1 D2.
In melee the unit comes with 19 attacks at WS3 S3 AP0 1D, 4 attacks at WS2 S4 AP2 1D with Precision, and the aforementioned single attack at WS2+ S6 Ap-2 3D with dev wounds. This is just enough to be a threat to elves and guardsmen, and the option to push 3 damage through with a miracle dice is fun. Adding a Sororitas Priest for Sustained 1 and +1 to wound makes this an almost-punchy unit that’s universally middling. Adding an Agents Priest for Sustained 1 and… checks notes… also Sustained 1 is a total nonbo, and you should not consider it.
At range, a fully kitted unit will be packing five Ministorum hand flamers, one Ministorum Flamer, and two Holy Fires, for a total of 7d6 torrent shots of varying strength and damage, in addition to a plasma gun. The plasma and melta weapons are only BS4, so it’s highly unlikely you’ll want the meltagun over the plasma + holy fire combo, both because it runs counter to what the rest of unit is trying to do, and because having a dude with not one but two glowing weapons is the objectively correct decision, as is investing significant hobby time into painting an… 11 point model. Therein lies the rub: the whole unit costs 100 points. Sisters players have long hoped for a way to get a single unit for less than 70 points without resorting to individual characters walking alone, but the Sanctifiers are not that unit.
Using This Unit
Sanctifiers land in contested space in the Sisters lineup, sitting next to Battle Sisters, Dominions, and Novitiates as a roughly 100pt infantry unit. Unlike the others, Sanctifiers can’t currently be split by an Immolator so they’re in an awkward spot. Their defensive profile calls out for a Rhino to offer protection and make use of their scout move, and their datasheet abilities want a Priest to get the most out of them, but that’s an additional 50points in a unit that will usually only activate once.
The mobility offered by Bringers of Flame makes Sanctifier shooting more flexible, but without the movement tools of Dominions or Seraphim they’re always going to be making a one-way trip. The Penitent keyword might make them interesting in Penitent Host, but unfortunately they don’t have it (and attaching a Priest only unlocks a few stratagems where they’re not an ideal target).
Army of Faith offers additional AP on their flamers and melee to become more consistently relevant, but unfortunately at 100pts this unit will struggle to justify itself over competing options. That said, I’d love to be wrong, and I have a hunch that some lunatic will take three of these in Teams events where they can focus on zooming across the board into matchups where their profiles are consistently relevant like Eldar, Guard, or GSC.
In Agents of the Imperium they offer the faction’s first access to Scouts, which unlocks the powerful combination of Scout + Infiltrate for Imperialis Fleet, so they may see use there as an early board control piece.
Goremongers
TheChirurgeon: On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Goremongers, a unit of wanna-be Bloodletters who come equipped with chainglaives and a bunch of backwards-bent robot legs. Unlike Sanctifiers, Goremongers are only available to World Eaters, and act as a sort of elite Jakhal unit, taking on an entirely different role that the army desperately needed – having the Infiltrate rule.
Goremongers come in units of 8 models and are tougher than the average cultist, with T4, though their 6+ save won’t protect their 1-wound bodies from much. They come equipped with Chainblades that give them 3 attacks each at S3 AP0 with Lance. But they hit on 4+ so their value as melee threats is pretty insignificant, and while the single Blood Harpoon they can take is cute – and should be something you take all the time – these aren’t guys you ever want charging into melee unless it’s to finish off a unit of Cadians or something that qualifies as “T3 chaff.”
So how does a unit that’s bad at combat become a “must take” in an army that’s all about melee?
Using This Unit
Goremongers have Infiltrate. That’s it. That’s the whole story. If you’re a World Eaters player, you’ve been praying – nay, begging – Khorne or Games Workshop or whoever to give you a unit with Infiltrate, so you can slap that bad boy down in the middle of the table, forcing enemy Infiltrators to stay 9″ away and clearing a path for your units to jet across the table and land their turn 1 charges without getting tripped up by speed bump units. If you’re playing World Eaters, you want to be the Defender in any game where your opponent has Infiltrators so you can slap this unit down first and dictate deployment and stop enemy Scouts from moving into your lane. Even if you’re not Defending, your single unit of Goremongers will keep an opponent from boxing you out with multiple Infiltrators and helps clear a path for your own Scouting units.
On top of having Infiltrate, Goremongers move 9″, making them very fast, and they have a the ability to move D6″ whenever an enemy unit ends a move within 9″ of them, helping them back out of tough situations they aren’t equipped to handle and keeping them in the role you really want them in: Doing actions and screening out enemy reserves.
As a utility piece, 85 points is a bit on the expensive side but Goremongers offer an indispensable piece for the World Eaters, letting them deal with one of their biggest problems and filling a crucial gap in their roster. You absolutely want one in every World Eaters army you build; the second is more a luxury you can’t afford.
Final Thoughts
Both of these units are fire, and a welcome addition to 40k for the armies they belong to, though of the two Goremongers are much more likely to see play, showing up as must-haves in World Eaters lists. We’re big fans of the way Games Workshop uses Kill Team to create and push new units and rules in the Warhammer 40k, and it’s a welcome addition for an army like World Eaters who are otherwise looking at only a new character with their upcoming Codex release. Having Goremongers on top of that really helps beef up the new release and round out an army that was pretty light on the number of datasheets to its name.
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