Masters of the Maelstrom
SWORD: what Masters of the Maelstrom kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 150 pts kill ~113 pts in one activation.Typical melee unit: 55 per 100
Best against line infantry, weakest against heavy vehicles and monsters
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
Across the game· melee units
SHIELD: how hard Masters of the Maelstrom is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 150 pts take ~461 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
5 reviewers- Free command point or model back 4 of 5
- Pairs with Huron and Chosen 4 of 5
- Redeploys three units before the game 3 of 5
- A once-a-battle mortal-wound grenade 2 of 5
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters of the Maelstrom150 pts | A | Top 18% | Top 50% | 81of 134 |
| Huron Blackheart135 pts | A | Top 43% | Bottom 18% | 39of 134 |
| Kravek Morne130 pts | A | Top 1% | Bottom 11% | 78of 134 |
Leading a squad
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 75 | 69 |
| SHIELD | 307 | 280 |
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 75 | 61 |
| SHIELD | 307 | 294 |
Per 100 pts: on its own, then for it and the squad together.
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Masters of the Maelstrom, 5 models, 150 pts, with 1 Absolver bolt pistol, 1 Axe of Ending, 1 Bionic gauntlet, 1 Bolt pistol, 1 Force stave, 1 Laspistol, 1 Londaxi maimer, 1 Mind Wrench, 1 Power sabre, 1 Reductor array, in Nightmare Hunt. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: 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.
150 pts → kills ~113 pts → 75 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.
~461 pts → 307 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 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.