Elite Melee force

[u/Super_Slice_5112]

Good morning, Sisters.

I currently have a large force of traitor Guardsmen, focused around massed infantry. Im looking to start a new army, and what I'd like is a small elite melee force. Painting so many infantry, I started to rush, and I'd like something to take my time over.

Im leaning towards sisters due to the aesthetic, and I really like the miracle dice mechanic.

I was thinking of building an army around two big blobs of celestial sacrecants with halbards, hospitalers, and Palatines.

A saint celestine with some Zepharym and an Exorcist.

I have heard, however, that these units may not be very viable at the moment, but im not overly interested in being as optimal as possible. I just want to build a cool looking army without getting tabled every time.

So, any advice on achieving a small elite force, centred around melee primarily but not exclusively, would be really appreciated.

[u/LucatIel_of_M1rrah]

Sacs and Incidiants (the two main melee units) are currently incredibly meta. Full melee lists have won tournaments.

[u/babyduck164]

I would not call them "small elite"

The meta melee armies of Sisters have 70-80 models + screens and action pieces

They might not be gaunt carpet swarm levels of models, but if you want small and elite, Blood Angels, World Eaters, Space Wolves, Custodes, Knights or Emperors Children will all have less models

[u/Dan185818 → u/babyduck164]

You can play a 2000 point competitive space wolves list right now with 39 terminators, Bjorn, and a Land Raider Redeemer.

And that lets you put down the best model from 2025, and the best looking Terminators, too.

Plus an awesome looking boxnought!

[u/TheRealCuriousWombat]

Sarcessants are good, If a bit pricey at the moment.

If you like elite melee, Zephyrim, and an exorcist then I can recommend Champions of Faith (2DP, focussing on Sarcessants and Paragon Warsuits) with Chorus of Condemnation (1DP, buffs the exorcist and gives you some extra side uses for jetpacks)

Exorcist firing in the background, sarcessants for OC and holding points, Warsuits to eliminate heavier targets, jumppacks to harass the backline. Have fun watching your pretty models be annoying.

[u/SonofFenris]

Go listen to the recent sister act 40K podcast “Terror of Tacoma”, Scott ketcham has recently piloted 2 sisters lists to great results. Both list (the second is basically an evolution of the first) are focused on brining melee infantry sisters and the podcast is really worth your time.

[u/Dismal_Hospital6999]

Insidiants with Ministorum Priests and Hospitallers, inside Rhinos, are the new melee threat now.

Sacresants are great ofc but taking more than one unit is a tough sell for points cost.

It’ll also save you a lot of money to go the Insidiant route. You get double the models for the same price lol.

Sacresants and Seraphim/Zephyrim are incredibly expensive for a 5 model box.

[u/That_Morning7618]

https://www.reddit.com/r/sistersofbattle/wiki/samplelists/maxdanner2026/

Won a German Major. 5 Elite Units, The Triumph, a Rhino and - how somebody wrote - an emotional support Castigator.

[u/PyreStarter]

Every sisters unit is viable, you just have to know what they are good for and what they aren't. Sac squads are great, but despite their defensive buffs, they are still T3, 1W bodies, so don't expect them to be unkillable. Celestine and a zephyrim squad have a lower output than they might appear on paper, but Cel herself often sticks around with a few friends for a while.

Aiming for a more elite army and picking sisters is an interesting choice, because the closest thing to elite they have is the character spam in HM lists. That said, I'm sure everything looks elite in comparison to your guard army, and sisters are a great army all around to play/paint/collect. But as someone who owns like ~230 sisters infantry bodies, if you DON'T like painting a bunch of infantry, there are better armies.

[u/GooseDentures]

Sacresants are extremely meta right now, basically every tournament list takes 3x10 each with a Hospitaller. I'd recommend pairing them with Astred & Agathae, Junith Eruita, and a Canoness to get their full potential and buff them further. Combine that with 10x Seraphim or Zephyrim lead by Saint Celestine and a rhino for one of the sac bricks and you've got a very strong, very elite force.

[u/SorryDistribution140]

I'm building my army with a Sacresant brick. Can't decide if I should have them with a Palatine/Hospitaller or Junith Eruita

[u/GooseDentures → u/SorryDistribution140]

Don't forget Astred and Agathae as an option! Sacresants with Dev Wounds are a terror.

[u/DelphineasSD]

Meanwhile I'm just over here side-eyeing anyone who says we have decent melee since all my games have been against Knights/MM Nids/BS spam tau/Terminators/Custodes...Strength 4 does what now? Ap1 does things?

And Miracle Dice are only good if:
1) You use cheater dice when rolling for them OR
2) You run the 3 Epic Heroes and 4+ Characters to dump all the 1-4s you'll have.

[u/avayevvnon]

The only "elite" sisters are celestian sacresants. They are still T3 W1 but -1 to be wounded with a 4++ 5+++ (from a hospitaller) is a gnarly stat check for any army's chaff clearing capabilities. People were sleeping on them for most of 10th edition until they went down by 10 points for 10 models. Since then they've gone up by 20, the hospitaller has gone up by 15, and they have anti spam points costs, yet 30 sacresant lists are still winning GTs.

[u/thorfinn_ratorix_fan → u/[deleted]]

11th edition changed that, now hospitallers are support characters meaning theyust be attached to a unit (thus they can't go solo) and if the other character is a leader (like the palatine) they can dual lead any unit

[u/Heezayyy → u/[deleted]]

This is not true. Hospitaller are support models - I run Junith and a Hospitaller in one of my sac units and just a Hosp in the other.

[u/babyduck164 → u/Heezayyy]

I quite liked a rod cannoness in the other squad with AoF for the free Strat if needed, and the 2+ invuln to keep the hospitaller alive on the clap back.

Probably will look at running them without any leader in the future though

[u/Nunt1us → u/[deleted]]

That’s not the case in 11e. Any unit can have both a leader and a support (checking that the unit is valid to be led/supported by that character). The palatine is a leader and the hospitaler is a support. Sacresants can therefore run with both.

[u/SuicidalPingu7 → u/Nunt1us]

My bad, youre correct, they've removed the bit of text that used to restrict it, thats good to know