Blade Champion
Its datasheet changed in a BSData update since we rated it; SWORD and SHIELD are measured on the new datasheet, the letter is from before, until we rate it again.
SWORD: what Blade Champion kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 175 pts kill ~93 pts in one activation.Typical melee unit: 55 per 100
Best against heavy infantry, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
In Adeptus Custodes
Across the game· melee units
SHIELD: how hard Blade Champion is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 175 pts take ~368 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical melee unit: 307 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
In Adeptus Custodes
Across the game· melee units
What reviewers say
7 reviewers- A hero-killer with violent profiles 2 of 7
- The cheapest character 1 of 7
- Squeezed out by Trajann or a Shield-Captain 4 of 7
- Lacks the extra-command-point warlord rule 3 of 7
- Weak leader bonuses, nothing stands out 2 of 7
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blade Champion175 pts | C | Bottom 46% | Bottom 10% | 90of 271 |
| Shield-Captain180 pts | A | Bottom 21% | Bottom 11% | 27of 271 |
| Shield-Captain in Allarus Terminator Armour185 pts | C | Bottom 17% | Bottom 22% | 80of 271 |
Leading a squad
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 53 | 39 |
| SHIELD | 210 | 242 |
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 53 | 41 |
| SHIELD | 210 | 225 |
Per 100 pts: on its own, then for it and the squad together.
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Blade Champion, 175 pts, with its datasheet's weapons, in Emperor's Chosen. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: its own abilities, the army rule and the detachment's rule.
SWORD
Enemy points it kills in one activation, per 100 pts of its own, against a mix of targets weighted like top tournament lists.
175 pts → kills ~93 pts → 53 per 100SHIELD
Enemy points it takes to kill it, per 100 pts of its own: the points of the cheapest units from top lists that kill it 80% of the time. It's per point, so a costly unit has to be much tougher to score the same.
~368 pts → 210 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 571 melee units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 8 reviewers' newest Adeptus Custodes tier lists: Auspex Tactics (codex unit tier list, five tiers with tier 2 split) (21 Oct), Art of War 40k (every datasheet in the new codex ranked, with a Custodes specialist) (13 Oct), Black Crow Gaming with 6 Plus Plus Gaming (units tier review, two competitive Custodes and teams players) (28 Oct), Deploy on the Line 40K (first codex tier list, from his own games; characters rated against each other) (7 Oct), Goonhammer / tabletopbattles.com (codex review, roundtable, Competitive Innovations: 2 new-codex winning lists and 2 summaries) (30 Oct), TacticalTortoise 40k (meta watch of the first three X-1 new-codex lists) (27 Oct), Night Geist Gaming (one own Take and Hold list on preview points, explained unit by unit) (11 Oct), 1d6chan (community 11th-edition tactics wiki, updated for the codex) (30 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
271 public Adeptus Custodes tournament lists, September – November 2026, from grimstat-corpus (CC BY 4.0). Also from Listhammer. Organisers and players: ask us and we'll take a list or an event down. Numbers run 4 Nov.