Adepta Sororitas: Penitent Host Detachment Guide

At the start of the battle round you can select one of three Vows of Atonement to be active for your army until the start of the next battle round. You can only select each Vow of Atonement once per battle.

That last sentence is the one people miss. This is not a menu you re-pick from every round. There are three Vows and three uses, total, across the entire game. Once you have spent The Path of the Penitent, it is gone. So the real decision this detachment asks is what order you spend them in, and a game that runs past round three has rounds with no Vow active at all.

The three:

The natural sequence is Path of the Penitent to close the gap, Absolution in Battle on the turn you charge, and Death Before Disgrace held for the round you expect to be counter-charged. The pack rewrote this rule's first paragraph, and the above is the rewritten wording.

All six cost 1CP, and all but one are PENITENT-only.

Purity of Suffering (your opponent's Shooting phase or the Fight phase, just after targets are selected). PENITENT models in your unit have Feel No Pain 4+ until end of phase. A 4+ FNP is a strong number and this is the card that walks a penitent block through the last stretch of open ground.

Lash of Guilt (your Movement phase, before a PENITENT unit Advances). Your unit is eligible to declare a charge in a turn it Advanced. If it has PENITENT ENGINES, do not make an Advance roll at all; instead add a flat 6 inches to its Move. That clause turns an unreliable charge into a plannable one, and it is why Penitent Engines are the unit this detachment most wants.

Passion of the Penitent (Fight phase). Each PENITENT melee attack scores a Critical Hit on an unmodified 5+. Volume of attacks is what converts that into damage, so it is best on your biggest block.

Devout Fanaticism (your opponent's Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit has shot). Your unit makes a surge move of up to D6 inches. The pack rewrote both the When and the Effect sections, simplifying it to this, so older descriptions with extra conditions are stale.

Final Redemption (any phase, Epic Deed). A PENITENT unit destroyed while within range of an objective you controlled keeps that objective under your control, even with no models nearby, until your opponent controls it. A scoring stratagem that pays you for the thing this detachment does anyway, which is lose penitents.

Boundless Zeal (your Movement phase, after an Adepta Sororitas unit Falls Back). The unit is eligible to shoot or charge after falling back, or both if it has the PENITENT keyword. The only card here that works on non-penitent units.

Verse of Holy Piety (15 pts). PENITENT model only. Once per battle, at the start of the battle round, select one Vow of Atonement; until the start of the next round it is active for the bearer's unit in addition to any active for your army, even if you have already selected that Vow this battle.

That is the direct answer to the once-per-battle limit, and it is why this enhancement is better than it reads: it lets you re-use a spent Vow on the one unit that matters. The pack's FAQ also confirms the Vow stays active for the rest of the unit even if the bearer is destroyed mid-round.

Catechism of Divine Penitence (15 pts). CANONESS, PALATINE or MINISTORUM PRIEST only. The bearer gains the PENITENT keyword. The pack rewrote this to exactly that text, stripping out an earlier leader restriction. It is how you get a real character in among the penitents so the PENITENT-only stratagems and Vows reach them. Note the cost: a model given PENITENT is excluded from Sanctified Orators' Hagiomnifex, which cannot go on PENITENT units.

Psalm of Righteous Judgement (20 pts). While the bearer is on the battlefield, each time an enemy unit is destroyed by a PENITENT unit, discard 1 Miracle dice then gain 1 showing a value of 6. Turns your worst dice into sixes, paid for with kills you were making anyway.

Refrain of Enduring Faith (15 pts). PENITENT model only. While the bearer leads a unit, that unit has a 5+ invulnerable save. Penitents are not naturally durable, so this changes how far the block gets.

Enhancement points are dataslate-volatile; confirm in the app.

Repentia Squads are the core penitent block the Vows are written for. Penitent Engines are named specifically in Lash of Guilt and get the flat 6 inch Advance replacement, which is the single best clause in the detachment. Arco-flagellants are a cheap, high-attack body that gets the most from Passion of the Penitent's lowered critical threshold. A Ministorum Priest is usually the cheapest model to convert with Catechism of Divine Penitence. The Penitent Crusader Host bundle is a reasonable entry point if this is the detachment you have committed to, though verify current contents before buying.

At 2 DP this is a core detachment. [Chorus of Condemnation](/40k/armies/adepta-sororitas/detachments/chorus-of-condemnation) gives a clean split of labour, with penitents demanding attention up close while the angels work at range. [Sacred Champions](/40k/armies/adepta-sororitas/detachments/sacred-champions) provides a durable second melee threat with no keyword overlap, since Holy Quest buffs CELESTIAN models and the Vows buff PENITENT models.

[Sanctified Orators](/40k/armies/adepta-sororitas/detachments/sanctified-orators) works too, with the caveat above: keep the Hagiomnifex and the Catechism on different models, or one of them does nothing.

This is SprueSentry strategy commentary, not official rules. Written against the official Adepta Sororitas Faction Pack version 1.2, legal for matched play from 26 August 2026, with Detachment Point costs, force dispositions, Unique Tags and enhancement points from the official Munitorum Field Manual version 1.3, read on 27 August 2026. Adepta Sororitas were part of the 26 August reissue, so the pack was current on the day this was written. Enhancement points are dataslate-volatile; the Warhammer 40,000 app is the final word.