Defiler
SWORD: what Defiler kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 300 pts kill ~186 pts in one activation.Typical unit: 48 per 100
Best against heavy vehicles and monsters, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
In Chaos Space Marines
Across the game· units
SHIELD: how hard Defiler is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 300 pts take ~714 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical unit: 306 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
Across the game· units
What reviewers say
7 reviewers- The strongest unit: fast, tough, huge firepower 7 of 7
- In nearly every list, one to three 3 of 7
- Picks off units in overwatch 2 of 7
- Nuts in the engine detachment 1 of 7
- Price keeps rising 1 of 7
- Dies to other Defilers and dedicated killers 1 of 7
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defiler300 pts | S | Top 27% | Bottom 20% | 62of 134 |
| Chaos Vindicator180 pts | B | Top 21% | Top 46% | 14of 134 |
| Forgefiend155 pts | C | Top 15% | Top 43% | 9of 134 |
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Defiler, 300 pts, with 1 Ectoplasma destructor, 2 Excruciator cannon, 2 Heavy reaper autocannon, 1 Shearing claws - strike, 1 Shearing claws - sweep, in Nightmare Hunt. 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.
300 pts → kills ~186 pts → 62 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.
~714 pts → 238 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 935 units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 8 reviewers' newest Chaos Space Marines tier lists: M.S.G. (CSM tier list, 25 Oct) (25 Oct), Goonhammer / tabletopbattles.com (dataslate review, Detachment Focus, Competitive Innovations: 4 post-dataslate lists) (28 Oct), Auspex Tactics (meta watch of 30 lists, first month of 11th) (14 Jul), Boltgun Tactics (dataslate review and London GT recap; his own lists, inferred) (6 Oct), Exalted40k (every CSM list at the WTC, counted; post-dataslate list writing) (6 Oct), 40K Dirtbags (Chaos Cults list, 3-0 and 1st of 30 at an RTT) (19 Oct), 6 Plus Plus Gaming (interview with Theo Hayat, 5-0 at Birmingham) (14 Jul), 1d6chan (community 11th-edition tactics wiki, much text carried over from 10th) (30 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
134 public Chaos Space Marines 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.