Bladeguard Veteran Squad
SWORD: what Bladeguard Veteran Squad kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 180 pts kill ~85 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 Bladeguard Veteran Squad is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 180 pts take ~580 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
7 reviewers- A huge, very durable brick with Calgar 2 of 7
- A blender with the right leader 1 of 7
- In three undefeated lists 1 of 7
- Needs a leader to hit properly 1 of 7
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bladeguard Veteran Squad180 pts | A | Bottom 34% | Top 43% | 183of 817 |
| Aggressor Squad180 pts | C | Top 14% | Top 37% | 62of 817 |
| Deathwatch Terminator Squad190 pts | S | Top 15% | Top 38% | 129of 817 |
With a leader
| Solo | Led | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 72 | 85 |
| SHIELD | 322 | 322 |
| Solo | Led | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 72 | 83 |
| SHIELD | 322 | 322 |
Per 100 pts: on its own, then with the leader joined.
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Bladeguard Veteran Squad, 6 models, 180 pts, with 5 Heavy Bolt Pistol, 6 Master-crafted power weapon, 1 Neo-volkite 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.
180 pts → kills ~85 pts → 47 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.
~580 pts → 322 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 566 melee units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 8 reviewers' newest Space Marines tier lists: Brother Tobias (Ultramarines tier list livestream, after the codex) (14 Oct), Auspex Tactics (codex unit tier list) (16 Oct), Art of War 40k (ranking every datasheet, two hosts) (20 Oct), TacticalRock40K (four post-codex boards: ranged infantry, combat infantry, vehicles, characters) (21 Oct), TacticalTortoise (The Best Armies in 40k, three weekly meta watches: 14 undefeated Space Marine lists) (26 Oct), Goonhammer / tabletopbattles.com (Competitive Innovations, two weeks of event write-ups) (28 Oct), Grimdark Breakdown (five videos grading the leaked codex, before points) (19 Sep), BA Commander (what he likes in the codex, before points; a Blood Angels player) (2 Oct). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
53 public 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 6 Nov.