Acolyte Iconward
SWORD: what Acolyte Iconward kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 50 pts kill ~5 pts in one activation.Typical unit: 47 per 100
Best against hordes, weakest against heavy vehicles and monsters
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
Across the game· units
SHIELD: how hard Acolyte Iconward is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 50 pts take ~167 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical unit: 305 per 100
What reviewers say
6 reviewers- Keeps a big Neophyte brick alive 4 of 6
- Moves the ambush markers 2 of 6
- Low value in damage-focused detachments 1 of 6
- Seen in few winning lists 1 of 6
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acolyte Iconward50 pts | B | Bottom 2% | Top 38% | 16of 55 |
| Biophagus50 pts | A | Bottom 4% | Bottom 1% | 38of 55 |
| Clamavus50 pts | D | Bottom 1% | Bottom 1% | 4of 55 |
Leading a squad
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 10 | 48 |
| SHIELD | 334 | 274 |
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 10 | 40 |
| SHIELD | 334 | 292 |
Per 100 pts: on its own, then for it and the squad together.
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Acolyte Iconward, 50 pts, with its datasheet's weapons, in Xenocreed Congregation. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: 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.
50 pts → kills ~5 pts → 10 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.
~167 pts → 334 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 930 units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 7 reviewers' newest Genestealer Cults tier lists: Nexos Floof (dataslate review, Las Vegas Open recap, Final Day tier list) (12 Oct), Goonhammer / tabletopbattles.com (Competitive Innovations: 5 full GSC lists and 8 summaries; September balance review) (30 Oct), 40k Rey (unit tier list) (11 Sep), 40k Vtuber: Christian Von Carmian (tier list stream, A to D) (27 Sep), 6 Plus Plus Gaming (London Open 4-1 with his own list; state of GSC) (28 Jul), Hero of Mathematical Wargaming (Brood Brothers Auxilia with Xenocult Masses, own list) (17 Jul), 1d6chan (community 11th-edition tactics wiki, text largely before the dataslate) (30 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
55 public Genestealer Cults 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.