Shadowsword
SWORD: what Shadowsword kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 375 pts kill ~150 pts in one activation.Typical shooter: 44 per 100
Best against heavy vehicles and monsters, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
Across the game· shooters
SHIELD: how hard Shadowsword is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 375 pts take ~1141 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical shooter: 298 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
Across the game· shooters
What reviewers say
5 reviewers- Budget super-heavy with huge single hits 1 of 5
- Swingy, and blunted by invulnerable saves 2 of 5
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadowsword375 pts | C | Bottom 38% | Top 48% | 3of 88 |
| Baneblade415 pts | B | Bottom 36% | Bottom 38% | 8of 88 |
| Banesword415 pts | A | Bottom 32% | Bottom 38% | 16of 88 |
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Shadowsword, 375 pts, with 1 Armoured tracks, 4 Lascannon, 1 Twin heavy bolter, 4 Twin heavy flamer, 1 Volcano cannon, in Mechanised Assault. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: its own abilities 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.
375 pts → kills ~150 pts → 40 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.
~1141 pts → 304 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 407 shooters. How we score.
The letter
The average of 6 reviewers' newest Astra Militarum tier lists: Mordian Glory (smash or pass, every datasheet) (22 Oct), Euan 40k (unit tier list after the September update) (7 Oct), Goonhammer / tabletopbattles.com (September dataslate review, Competitive Innovations: 2 full Guard lists and 5 summaries, 3 to 30 Oct) (30 Oct), Auspex Tactics (unit tier list, and the 20 Oct winning-lists video) (5 Sep), Battleborn 40k (dataslate winners and losers, one Guard player) (1 Oct), 1d6chan (community 11th-edition tactics wiki, August points) (30 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
88 public Astra Militarum 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 2 Nov.