Sanguinary Guard
SWORD: what Sanguinary Guard kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 275 pts kill ~143 pts in one activation.Typical melee unit: 55 per 100
Best against line infantry, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
Across the game· melee units
SHIELD: how hard Sanguinary Guard is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 275 pts take ~812 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical melee unit: 307 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
Across the game· melee units
What reviewers say
9 reviewers- Much tougher: fewer wounds land, no leader needed 7 of 9
- In most winning lists, in big units 5 of 9
- Self-sufficient, needing few buffs 3 of 9
- The flagship fast jump melee unit 3 of 9
- One profile; struggles into tough targets 2 of 9
- Dearer for what you get 2 of 9
- Leaders rarely pay for themselves 1 of 9
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanguinary Guard275 pts | A | Bottom 45% | Bottom 44% | 75of 87 |
| Death Company Marines with Jump Packs130 pts | C | Top 40% | Bottom 29% | 41of 87 |
| Death Company Marines90 pts | C | Top 15% | Top 23% | 6of 87 |
With a leader
| Solo | Led | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 65 | 65 |
| SHIELD | 295 | 295 |
Per 100 pts: on its own, then with the leader joined.
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Sanguinary Guard, 6 models, 275 pts, with 4 Angelus Boltgun, 6 Encarmine Weapon, 2 Inferno pistol. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: its own abilities.
SWORD
Enemy points it kills in one activation, per 100 pts of its own, against a mix of targets weighted like top tournament lists.
275 pts → kills ~143 pts → 52 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.
~812 pts → 295 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 566 melee units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 10 reviewers' newest Blood Angels tier lists: Happy Krumping (Doc Krump, faction review and recommended list) (12 Oct), Auspex Tactics (full rules review of the BA update, two winning lists) (8 Oct), TacticalRock40K (post-codex character board and epic heroes board) (24 Oct), BA Commander (four post videos: jump Death Company and Sanguinary Guard maths, the first BA GT win, Vanguard Veterans vs BA units) (30 Oct), Goonhammer / tabletopbattles.com (Competitive Innovations, 10-24 Oct: 11 top-placing BA lists) (30 Oct), TacticalTortoise (The Best Armies in 40k, two weekly meta watches: two undefeated BA lists) (26 Oct), Battleborn 40k (points review with their BA player) (3 Oct), Death Company Dropout (opinion piece) (24 Oct), Art of War 40k (first look at the BA supplement with points) (19 Sep), Grimdark Chronicle (counted panel, older datasheets) (19 Sep). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
87 public Blood Angels 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 6 Nov.