Ironsoul’s Condemnors (which are NOT spelled Condemners, don’t let the masses fool you) are probably the single best warband for a new player to pick up and learn with, as they’re incredibly straightforward and easy to understand with solid stats and a limited fighter count. As a result, I’m hitting them next in Spent Glory’s retrospective review of warbands I missed prior to being a part of Games Workshop’s Creator Programme. The models are super old yet are the same as the easy to build sequitors kit so you can find them second hard very easily – or even just proxy 3 other Stormcast Eternals, 3 Space Marines, whatever you have on hand, really. If you’re looking to dive into Underworlds as a new player, or give a friend a reasonably simple teaching experience, this is one of the best warbands to start out with. Let’s see how they work!

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Ironsoul’s Condemnors: Lore

Ironsoul’s Condemnors are three Stromcast Eternals of the Sacrosanct Chamber, specifically known as Sequitors. As the outset of the Soul Wars, when Nagash decided he’s had just about enough of Sigmar stealing the souls of the deceased heroes who “Belonged to the God of the Dead”, Sigmar countered with this new chamber of warriors specifically designed to defeat magical foes such as ghosts and daemons. Of course, that big old aetheric maul does plenty of work against physical foes too! In addition to their genuinely terrifying physical forms, they come with magical augmentations that make them all the more suited for this task; “They wear armour of burning sigmarite, thunder rumbles with their war cries, and their weapons glow blue with the power of High Azyr. When they fight as one, a corona of energy crackles around them, building in intensity to form crowns of corposant that mark the Sequitors as the living weapons of Sigmar”.

Gwynne Ironsoul herself is one such sequitor, and she brings along two more by the names of Tavian of Sarnassus and Brodus Blightbane. While we’ve never been given the details of the individuals themselves to a great extent, it appears all three are a no-nonsense bunch who are here to get their hands dirty and get things done in the God-King’s name. Ironsoul herself is a frequent winner in various voting polls I put out in the ‘Avin a Good Time series as well.

Ironsoul’s Condemnors: Warscroll

Inspire

Among one of the more straightforward inspiration mechanics in the game, this warband inspires a fighter after they make a roll for attack or save and it has crits. You don’t even need to succeed! Just roll a crit somewhere and you’ll inspire. This means you’re incentivized to make attacks early and often, as their inspired stats are pretty awesome, and enemies have a little less incentive to attack any of your fighters who aren’t inspired yet. You’ll want to take cards that give you plus dice and rerolls regardless, but you especially like them when they increase your odds to crit and therefore inspire.

In some games, you’ll get all three inspired pretty quickly, and in others it may take quite a while, all based on the whims of the dice. You don’t have real control over the condition which can be somewhat frustrating (say, when your inspired fighter keeps rolling crits but you can’t seem to find any on your uninspired one), but as conditions go it’s achievable and easy to wrap your head around.

Currently there is some debate about whether the updated Raging Slayers plot card allows you to inspire. That card states “immediately after you make an attack roll… you can immediately change one successful result to a critical success result”. Since that’s the same window of time in which you check to inspire, some people believe you can sequence them however you like (change a hammer to a crit, then check to see you have a crit and inspire). Others will say you didn’t have a crit immediately after the attack but rather after you modified a result and therefore don’t inspire unless you roll a natural crit.

Pending an FaQ, most people have been playing as if the Raging Slayers plot allows you to basically auto-crit on attacks (assuming you rolled at least one success, which you usually will) and thus inspire incredibly easy. Pretty sweet deal!

Bulwark Against the Dark

This is the warband’s only ‘always on’ ability, but it can situationally be fantastic. If you have no Move or Charge tokens, your fighter cannot be Driven Back. If you’re holding a token or sitting in a territory, they can’t push you around and you get to keep it. If they’re desperately trying to boop you out of charge range, this makes it a lot harder. Your fighters all will stay right where they are until you move or charge them, and that can be awesome. For a warband that’s not incredibly fast, this mitigates one of their biggest weaknesses in aggro gameplans, as well as opens up some great flex/hold options that are often harder for elites to make use of. Plus, Hunting Grounds hates being unable to push you and so you’ll enjoy those matchups all the more.

Punishing Blow

In our once-per-game abilities, we have one that affects Brodus only and the other two are usable only by the other two fighters. Brodus doesn’t have a shield, instead he carries a big ole 2-hander. Per the lore, “stormsmite greatmaces have each been laid against the head of Ghal Maraz, the Great Shatterer itself, for a night and a day – and over that time they have inherited some of its godly power”.

Well… it sure does seem to have some godly power. Once per game you get +X dice to Brodus’ attack, where X is the round number. For a guy who hits on 2-3 hammers already, you’re taking his attack to potentially 6 hammers if you want to wait until he’s inspired in round 3 to swing with this, which is insane accuracy on a 3 damage hit.

The earlier you use this, the less potent it will be, but the more likely Brodude will be alive to try it. Also, the earlier you land a big 3 damage slap, the faster your game state can start to snowball in your favor. There’s really no ‘wrong time’ to use it, and I have been happy triggering it in round 1 and in rounds 2-3. You just want to make sure that you save it for a hit that will really matter, and that’s going to be matchup dependent. You can also sneak it out in round 1 to try and force an earlier inspire if you’re the gambling type.

Aetherically Charged Shield

Now we’re on to the two abilities your shield-bearing friends can make use of. Once per game, after your opponent picks a weapon to attack a “Shield Aetheric” (Ironsoul or Tavian), you can turn off weapon abilities for that attack. Being able to say ‘sorry, no grievous so I get to live’ can be game-winning. Saying “I know you NEED to hit, so cleave is banned this time” can be as well. Even in some cheeky situations, you can turn off warband specific runemarks like Blackpowder’s Swaggalicious Swashbuckle, The Skinnerkin’s Fillet, or Kamandora’s Slashing which will make those warbands extra grouchy.

This one is straightforward and easy to understand, but knowing when to save it and when to spend it is going to be a real skill-separator among Ironsoul’s players. Ideally you use this to block grievous that would have been the precise amount of damage to kill a fighter – but what if Great Strength never comes out? Do you burn it on this cleave attack since it exists now and you might never benefit by waiting? Exposure to your meta’s threats and understanding what risks you face are going to elevate your decision making here.

Aetherically Charged Maul

The other ability our Shield Aetherics have (that poor Brodus does not) is Aetherically Charged Maul. This ability lets you extend the range of your attack by 1 hex once per game.

Note that this does not specify an attack on the fighter’s profile, or even a melee attack! ANY attack they make can be boosted, so go ahead and slap some upgrades on them and laugh as you launch an unexpected 5 hex Starmaw or range 2 Desperate Rage.

Realistically though, you’ll likely be using this on their (already quite good) standard attacks. If you’re playing full aggro ‘ABC/Always Be Charging’, once you’re charged all 3 fighters you may not have an enemy in rage for your fourth activation. This lets you squeeze an extra swing off. Potentially you’re playing Reckless Fury and need to make charges with all three fighters but have one that’s juuuust out of range. Now you can effectively get +1 charge distance and get your charged-out state! If you’re playing a flex or hold strategy, this lets you make an attack at range 2 without charging so you can stay on your token and also keep Bulwark Against the Dark active to prevent drivebacks. All around, a solid ability.

Additionally, as I understand it this DOES stack with the Plot Card from Nexus of Power. Should you have a covetous fighter holding treasure and already having range 1 go to range 2, you can once per game make this into a range 3 attack. Pretty frightening stuff, especially if you can slap on Great Strength or something grievous for a 3 Hammer, 3 Damage attack (which Saxthom refers to as a “Hellabonk”). Even if you’re off the token and just need to make one more covetous attack, this can sneak in an extra range to hit them where they thought they were safe.

Ironsoul’s Condemnors: Fighter Cards

Gwynne Ironsoul

Our leader, who has a remarkably solid profile even for a Stormcast leader in this edition. She opens the game with 3 hammers which is awesome accuracy, spits out 2 damage, and is pretty likely to roll a crit in there to inspire to 2 shields. This combined with a 5-health profile makes her a real problem to deal with, and once inspired she also picks up cleave. She will hit reliably for you and survive long enough to keep doing it. She’s the priority for using your “Aetherically Charged’ abilities on as she is modestly more accurate but also worth more bounty than Tavian.

Tavian of Sarnassus

Prince Tavian is basically Ironsoul Junior, which means he’s good. They’re identical stats-wise except he’s only worth 2 bounty and inspired he gets stagger instead of cleave. This makes him a decent setup piece since he can grant that reroll to his friends if he hits, and at 3 hammers he often will. Nothing to write home about but he is pretty decent.

Brodus Blightbane

Brodus is an interesting fighter for this warband – he gets Grievous off the bat so he can reach 3 damage early but has only a 2 hammer accuracy. He inspires to 3 hammers which as discussed earlier is ‘pretty dang good’, but you’ll need to roll a crit to get there and with his limited dice that’s harder to accomplish. Should you happen to inspire him early you’ll have a great time slinging 3 damage hits with good accuracy all game, but many games he simply won’t get there, and since he never exceeds 1 shield he’ll probably die first. Get him in a Waystone Hex if you can, or just accept fate and burn your +x attack dice ability on him early.

One thing to keep in mind (and is often overlooked) is that he isn’t carrying a heavy shield and thus has 4 move inspired. A 33% speed boost is pretty important for reaching that critical token or making that all-important charge, so don’t forget it! Otherwise you’ll end up sad like Mike Prime in the Pink Slip match.

Potential Pairings

While you can play this warband in many different styles and they are classified as Flex by Games Workshop, the traditional approach has been to take them as a hard strike team and lean into the “I want to roll crits” strategy. As a result, Blazing Assault is an incredibly common pairing for them as it provides more dice, damage, pushes, and cards that reward you for rolling anyway.

Countdown to Cataclysm has some tasty attack benefits, cards that reward brawling, an out-of-sequence attack for more opportunities to inspire, and several staggers to help do the same. The ping damage can help secure kills or finish people off. Similarly, Wrack and Ruin helps land hits, deal damage, and get into the mix in a more flexy way. CtC has some ‘Hold’ cards, and Wrack has some ‘Positional” cards in their end phases which can be great if you’re looking to play the team ins a more Flex style.

Reckless Fury is a strong choice for them as well since you’ll be rewarded for charging hard as well as get some help in making those charges or achieving a charged-out state so you can swing again with your tooled up pieces.

Edge of the Knife has some very interesting applications, and while you’re not Tempered to start the game, you likely will be as things progress, and you’ll have a quite easy time tempering your opponents since your team is frighteningly accurate.

Raging Slayers has always been a good choice for them but has become even more so now that the Plot Cards allows you to covert a success on attacks into a crit, which many players are interpreting as a ‘free inspiration’.

Finally, they have some real play with Nexus of Power as it synergizes with their built-in range extension, and coupled with their Bulwark Against the Dark inability to be driven back you can stay on those tokens/be covetous more reliably while enjoying a flex hold plan.

In Practice

Data from the Nemesis Statistics Project show that across the whole edition, Ironsoul and co are rocking a 53.1% win rate over 341 games. This jumps dramatically to an ABSOLUTELY WILD win rate of 59.2% across 71 games in the most recent meta (with 62.2% specifically when playing BA/RS), likely due to the nearly free inspire they get from Raging Slayers. It is evidence that they’re able to overcome the otherwise terrible deck thanks to the plot card boosting their great stats.

Please consider reporting your games to the stats project! It’s easy!

I personally have played this warband only 4 times, but with a 75% win rate and an average glory differential of +8. It’s a small data set, but when these stromies win, they can win big. I’ve succeeded with BA/RF, Wrack/Realmstone, and BA/RS. My one loss was an early-in-the-edition rivals game with Emberstone Sentinels, and it was a close once. Playing against them I am 6-3, but with only an average +5.2 glory despite that record I would say they certainly can hang.

BA/RF has traditionally been very strong for this warband, and their best competitive finishes have been this deck by Kacper P, taking 4th in WTC 2025, as well as this deck from Jerzy K who landed 23rd at the World championships in 2025.

A really interesting take on the warband came via Dan Knight’s Blazing/Edge of the Knife build. It’s super fun and pretty strong too! Here’s the deck itself he took to 4th place at the Copenhagen Clash in 2024, here’s a review of the deck on Staggerers, and here’s a writeup on Elite edge strategies in general he wrote for Spent Glory.

This deck, combining Raging Slayers for crits and Wrack and Ruin for elite aggro flex goodness was piloted by Petr V to an 8th place finish at the Maastricht Side event.

Staggerers has also cooked up an experimental deck that looks super interesting, combining Raging Slayers as well as Nexus of Power for huge range extending potential and some scary token occupancy possibilities. Here’s the Dexamples article in which they explain their reasoning.

Finally, Bryce Martin has recently been playing them a bunch, and is 20-3 with this Raging Slayers/Nexus of Power deck (insane record tbh), and you can click the link to read about his experience with it.

Wrap

There you go! A pretty potent and solid warband without too many frills and doodads that’s both rewarding to practice and master but also easy for new people to pick up. Whether you’re taking your first steps into the game or are looking to win a Grand Clash, this warband has what you need to make the game fun and winnable. Now get out there and roll those crits!

Be sure to check out Spent Glory’s other review articles here