A report; nothing adopted. For each army scoring below about 60% on its reviewers (Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Death Guard, Agents of the Imperium, Genestealer Cults, Drukhari, Space Marines) and for Thousand Sons, research agents found the narrative reasons behind the units our ledger rates most differently from the reviewers: the reviewers' own stated reasons where their videos' captions could be read (Thousand Sons, Drukhari, Death Guard, Dark Angels), else community reasoning, rules (Wahapedia 11th edition, read to understand, never copied) and winning lists. Jordan's own notes cover Tyranids and Leagues of Votann. All in our own words; unit names only. The agents' working copies stay in the session's scratch folder, never in the repo.
In plain English
- Most reviewers grade how replaceable a unit is in a winning list, not its strength per point. Three said so outright (Drukhari: "S = every list, C = needs a reason"; Death Guard: "close to auto-take"; Genestealer Cults: "breadth across detachments"). Our ledger measures output per point. That alone explains much of the gap, and is the case for value over replacement (T-708).
- The same handful of missing mechanisms recur in almost every army (table below). The top two, a unit's worth being what it gives others and losing its slot to a better option, appear in all ten.
- Some of the gap is the yardstick. Space Wolves' reviewer graded the new codex (Oath of Moment gone, Toughness 5, new points) while our data is from before it; Dark Angels' and Space Marines' lists rate units since sent to Legends; Genestealer Cults' livestream partly followed chat and may assume leaked post-update points; the Death Guard Malignifier's S was partly a joke. Single lists of 20–30 units are noisy.
The recurring mechanisms, across ten armies
| # | Mechanism (what reviewers value that we miss) | Armies | Examples | What the ledger has | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Worth = what it gives others (leaders, supports, auras, army-wide buffs) | 10 of 10 | Biophagus, Benefictus, Ridgerunners (army +1 AP); Lieutenant (army re-roll on an objective); Librarians (4+ invulnerable, disciplines); Kroyle (army hit re-rolls); Wolf Guard Battle Leader; Biologus Putrifier; Exalted Sorcerer; the Kâhl | joined forms measured and, since T-715, priced right (dice lent: 51% leader check); army-wide auras mostly not | not credited in rankings; every leader toggle still below zero held out |
| 2 | Slot competition: a better or cheaper option does the same job | 10 of 10 | Hand of the Archon over Kabalites; Mutalith over Maulerfiend; Venerable over Murderfang; Eradicators over Devastators; Truck over Rockgrinder; Biophagus over Locus for the one Support slot | archetypes group roles (T-716: 9 of 13 pairs); dominance finds none | no working dial; the preferred rival is better on things we don't measure |
| 3 | Objectives, OC, actions; cheap scoring bodies; OC 0 punished | 8 of 10 | Scouts (S from every reviewer); Navigator; Hand of the Archon's chosen objective; Wulfen and Murderfang OC 0; Gargoyles; Sagitaur splits | Score line (small); objective presence (Votann-only) | weak |
| 4 | Delivery, reach and uptime | 7 of 10 | Raider and Venom; Drop Pod; Land Speeders; Centurions at 4"; aircraft off the table; Ballistus from turn one | unavoidable burst (+2.7 held out); exclusive transports (army-specific) | partly |
| 5 | Detachment gating: rated for the detachments winners run | 7 of 10 | Librarius Conclave in three quarters of winning Marine lists; Biosanctic + Xenocult; Skysplinter; Grand Coven | each unit at its best detachment (generous) | partly; bonus share by keyword failed |
| 6 | Battle-shock, OC denial and debuffs (−1 to hit, suppression) | 6 of 10 | Navigator; Suppressors; Magus; Njal; Clamavus; Rotigus | shockPressure (own shock); debuff auras not | partly |
| 7 | Stratagems and enhancements | 5 of 10 | Thunderkyn and Hearthguard burst; Rubric and Scarab psychic bonuses; Sanctus combos; Librarius enhancements | none | parked (T-713) |
| 8 | Cover, Hidden and visibility | 5 of 10 | long guns hitting on 4s into cover (Defiler, Bloat-drone, Annihilator); mounted units can't hide; Suppressors stack with cover | no terrain | parked (T-699) |
| 9 | Durability tricks: full heal each phase, fight on death, stacked Feel No Pain | 4 of 10 | Beasts of Nurgle; Abominant; Wolf Guard Terminators with Arjac | Soak effects (Tyranids, Space Marines only) | T-696 |
| 10 | Resource economies (Pain tokens, Cult Ambush, rituals) | 3 of 10 | Cronos and Haemonculus; Iconward; Magnus | army rules partly | partly |
| 11 | Stepped pricing (the third copy costs more) | 3 of 10 | Defiler 300/350; Aberrants; Rockgrinder | to check: which price the ledger uses for later copies | open |
| 12 | Reliability and variance | 2 of 10 | Bloat-drone "a casino"; random-shot weapons into cover | averages only | none |
Armies, one line each
- Thousand Sons (38%): casters valued for rituals and squad buffs; generic engines lose slots to the Mutalith and Tzaangors; Rhino S is the reviewer's own reading.
- Space Wolves (51%): the reviewer graded the new codex; OC 0 Wulfen punished; Battle Leader, Arjac and Priest as multipliers; Venerable over Murderfang.
- Dark Angels (54%): detachment effects (Darkflight, Wrath, Librarius) and better siblings (Thunderstrike over Hailstrike); reviewer out of step with winners on Outriders and the Lion.
- Death Guard (55%): force multipliers (Biologus, Tallyman, Rhino's re-roll), cover making long guns unreliable, Beasts healing every phase; Malignifier S partly a joke.
- Genestealer Cults (56%): one Leader and one Support per squad, so characters compete; Biophagus, Benefictus and Ridgerunners multiply the army; breadth across detachments.
- Agents of the Imperium (56%): the Fleet and Recon plan (Breachers, Subductors, Navigator); Battle-shock as objective denial; Kroyle's army re-rolls; prices are correct (Agents-army prices in the ledger).
- Drukhari (58%): replaceability tiers; Venom and Raider as delivery and squad splitting; Hidden is infantry-only; the Pain economy; a Scourge-sceptic reviewer.
- Space Marines (60%): Librarius Conclave gating, Scouts as cheap scorers, the Lieutenant's army-wide re-roll, delivery and uptime; the two scored lists are pre-codex, the right era.
What this suggests building, in order
- Credit what a unit gives others (mechanism 1), now that leaders are priced right: the uplift a leader, support or aura gives the units it reaches, credited to it over the best alternative (the value-over-replacement idea, T-708), plus army-wide auras (Kroyle, Lieutenant, Ridgerunners) measured on the units they reach.
- Stratagems and enhancements (T-713): the recurring explanation for "the rival is better but our numbers can't see why".
- Objectives and OC: OC 0 as a real handicap, cheap scoring bodies credited per objective they can hold.
- Terrain (T-699): cover and Hidden, where long guns are overrated in five armies.
- Yardstick hygiene: flag reviewer lists graded on rules newer than our data (Space Wolves' Art of War), and units since moved to Legends.
Sources: the seven research reports (session of 5 Oct), with their links to the reviewers' videos, Tabletop Battles, Wahapedia's 11th-edition pages, Listhammer and Lexmechanic meta pages, and tournament list write-ups; summarised here in our own words.