The four parts
The Field Manual is the honest version. It explains what the analysis is doing in concepts rather than equations, including the parts that make the tool look wrong when it is working correctly.
- How the Battle Index worksWhat the score is, what the six dimensions measure, and why 50 is the number that matters.
- How to read your Stat Lab resultsThe score, the breakdown, data confidence, detachment colours, and telling computed numbers from AI text.
- Does list quality predict wins?The honest answer, and the four things that decide games instead.
- What the Battle Index deliberately ignoresThe exclusions, why they are deliberate, and why rules are summarised rather than reproduced.
The short version
- 50 is the meta average. That is the anchor for everything.
- The Battle Index measures efficiency per point — damage, threat, objective control, durability, role coverage and reliability — against the meta.
- It deliberately ignores stratagems, conditional buffs, missions, terrain, matchups and pilot skill, because those belong to the game, not the list.
- Read it as a coach, not an oracle. It does not predict your results.
- Rules are summarised, not reproduced — the official text is not ours to reprint.