Angel's Keep: A 40K Dark Angels Blog

Happy New Year battle brethren! After a 2-week break for the holidays, we have had GTs take place once again! Despite us probably entering the beginnings of the Ultramarines meta (at least as far as top-performing Space Marine lists goes), some Dark Angels lists did place well at their events, including winning the biggest event of the weekend. I was a little disappointed to see that none of them were Lion's Blade or Company of Hunters lists, but only one of them was a Gladius. So, let's look at the lists that did well over the weekend! Our event-winning list topped the 2025 Glass City GT in Toledo OH, a 5-round, 100-player event. Zachary Morales took a Vanguard Spearhead and defeated all comers to take 1st place! You can see Zachary's list on BCP. The short version is below. Dark Knights Azrael - Warlord Librarian in Terminator Armor: The Blade Driven Deep Techmarine Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying ...

  Hello battle brethren! It's been a couple weeks without a major event (I looked on BCP), so I thought I'd take a little time to look back at how we did in 2024 and take a look at what we have to work with in the new year. The Year in Review It seems like forever ago, but at the beginning of 2024 we were using the Leviathan mission deck. The Ironstorm Spearhead with Azrael, a Darkshroud, and Stormravens and/or Repulsor Executioners were the most reliable high-performing DA lists. Our codex released in February and landed with a thud, with underwhelming dataslates for all of our most iconic units. Only Azrael and the Darkshroud saw much play in DA list. Ironstorms pretty much ruled the roost until the summer Balance Dataslate. That was when Games Workshop buffed Deathwing Knights and Inner Circle Companions. Maces of Redemption getting Anti-Monster/Vehicle 4+, DWK swords getting Damage 2, and ICCs' swords getting AP -2 were enough for the most common Dark Angels lists to sh...

Hello battle brethren! Sorry this is late. Best Coast Pairing took a while to process my subscription renewal, plus as you can imagine it's been a busy week, what with holiday obligations and all. Meta Monday still hasn't given results for the weekend either, so I'll be going through the events on BCP looking for Dark Angels lists to tell you about.    As it happens, the first Dark Angels list I found that placed well won its event - Winter GT - A Wh40k Grand Tournament, a 5-round, 34 player event held in England. Jak Payne went 5-0 and took 1st place with his Gladius Task Force. You can see Jak's list on BCP. The short version is below.  Jak's list Azrael - Warlord Judiciar: The Honour Vehement Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Incursor Squad: 5 scouty knifey spotty boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 sp...

 Hello battle brethren! Games Workshop released a new Balance Dataslate! You can download it over on Warhammer Community , and I highly recommend it, because there are some extensive changes you should be aware of. I've written at some length about the failings of the rules for Ravenwing, both at the individual unit level and the detachment rules. At the core of that has been the disconnect between Black Knights' best mode of attack being shooting but their datasheet rule being a buff to melee. I kind of figured the solution to that would be to give them a datasheet rule that buffs their shooting, but GW went a different route.  Well, that is interesting. Giving Dev wounds to the Black Knight combat weapons does put more emphasis on their assault capability. Remember they have Anti Vehicle/Monster 4+ on the charge. Now, instead of maybe taking the last couple wounds off a mostly-dead monster, they can actually do a respectable chunk of damage on the charge. Average dice if you...

  Hello battle brethren! I'm afraid to report it wasn't a great weekend for us, but at least it wasn't a complete wash. Two DA lists went 4-1, both at the same event, the SA40k Commissar Cup GT in Edwardstown Australia, which was a mid-sized event with 44 players at it. Let's look at the lists and then discuss statistics. The highest scoring DA list of the weekend was played by Benjamin Reggett of Indomitable Phalanx. He went 4-1 with his Gladius Task Force and took 3rd place. You can see Ben's list on BCP. The short version is below. lion Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Judiciar Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky stay-off-my-lawn boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awe...

Hello battle brethren! There weren't a lot of events in the United States over Thanksgiving weekend, but the rest of the world kept on playing 40K. We don't have a lot of lists to look at, but there are a couple, including one that was the event winning list, so let's start off taking a look at that! The event in question was 40Kings Cup in Emden, Germany, a 5-round, 50 player event. The event was won by Sebastian Müller of Groundzero Kiel, who went undefeated with his Gladius Task Force. You can see Sebastian's list on BCP. The short version is below. DA: Der König der Möwen Lion Dad Azrael Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Gladiator Lancer Gladiator Lancer Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky stay-off-my-lawn boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome...