Angel's Keep: A 40K Dark Angels Blog

  Hello fellow 40K enthusiasts! We've had another weekend go by, and if you're like me, you like to know which armies are at the top of the pack. I've gathered that data, so I'm here to share it with you. It looks like we have a continuation of the three factions that have been at the top of the meta for weeks now trading positions with each other but collectively not letting anyone else up there. Top Faction this week is Chaos Space Marines, with two 1st Place showings, six (6!) 2nd Place showings, and one 3rd Place showing. Only one of these showings was at an event with over 100 players though. It almost doesn't seem to matter what detachment the CSM list is, because the scoring results are spread out across 5-6 detachments. The uncertainty comes from one of the lists not naming the detachment on BCP and not having any identifiable Enhancements for me to use to figure it out. Based on the unit choices, there's a chance it might be a Soulforged Warpack, but th...

  Greetings honored battle brethren and fellow 40K enthusiasts! I join you in rejoicing at the generous bounty Games Workshop has bestowed upon us! In their infinite wisdom, the game developers have released two new Space Marine detachments! Thank goodness, because when I got up this morning, I said to myself, "You know what Space Marine players need? More detachments!" Actually, when I was doom scrolling on Facebook this morning, I noticed that someone in the Dark Angels Competitive group mentioned there were two new Space Marine detachments that centered around tanks. My immediate thought was, "Don't we already have the Ironstorm for that?" I was curious and had time to go look. Now I'd like to share my thoughts with you.  Armored Speartip It's not entirely accurate to state that the Armored Speartip is centered around Tanks. It actually centers around Transports, and more to the point around the interactions of Transports and the units that they carry...

  Greetings honored battle brethren! Dark Angels players have battled it out with heretics, xenos, traitors, and misguided jealous lesser Astartes players across the globe over the weekend, and I have the honor of reporting on the lists that did the best. It was a bit of a slower weekend, with about 10 less Dark Angels players than usual. That said, it seems like the drop off of high performing lists is sharper than the drop off in player count, as only three lists went X/1 over the weekend. That said, one of those lists took 3rd place at the biggest event of the weekend, the ALPINE-CON 40K Singles 2026 - Alpine Cup, an event of up to 7 rounds with 202 players held in Graz, Austria. Zugzwang's Niklas Frerichs went 5-1 with a Gladius list and beat out 199 other players for his spot. You can see Niklas' list on BCP, and of course we'll check it out below. Niklas' list Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Librarian Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky mac...

Hello fellow 40K enthusiast! I'm back with the meta snapshot of the past weekend. We're back to a more normal number of events, which allows frontrunning factions to clearly emerge. Unfortunately we do have clearly frontrunning factions, and they are what I think have emerged as the usual suspects: Ultramarines, Necrons, and Chaos Space Marines. Top Faction of this week is Ultramarines, with one 1st Place result, four 2nd place results, and two 3rd place results. The 1st Place result and two of the 2nd Place results were Blade of Ultramar lists, and the other two 2nd Place results and one of the 3rd place results were Gladius lists. Those two detachments are so similar they may as well be considered the same detachment. The last 3rd Place result was a Reclamation Force list. All of these lists featured some combination of Ultramarines Epic Heroes (though not all the same in every list), multiple Repulsor Executioners, and Victrix Honor Guards, with Roboute Guilliman and Ballist...

 Greetings honored battle brethren! The event tempo picked up last weekend, which brings us some lists to talk about! A total of six lists went X/1 over the weekend. That number includes four Wrath lists, one Gladius list, and one Stormlance list. We'll begin with the Gladius list, because it arguably was the best performing list of the weekend. Rules Lawyerz' Phillip French went 4-1 and took 2nd place in a field of 30 players at the April GT held at Gamer Geeks in Warrior, AL. You can see Phillip's list on Best Coast Pairings, and we'll check it out below. Gladius no Lion needed Azrael - Warlord Captain: The Honour Vehement Librarian: Fire Discipline Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Impulsor Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Invader ATV: melta buggy Land Speeder Vengeance Land Speeder Vengeance Repulsor Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Sternguard Veteran Sq...

Greetings esteemed battle brethren! Today I'd like to bring you a review of the units unique to our legion chapter, rate them on the familiar A-F scale, and discuss the reasons why I'm giving them the rating I'm giving them. This will give us a point of contrast for when we get our 11th edition datasheets. We'll see how our units fare in the transition.  S Tier Azrael In these rating systems, it's become a convention to have an S Tier for units that deserve to be rated above the A Tier units. I don't know why everything doesn't just get knocked down a letter grade, but it's the convention. If we have an S Tier unit, it's Azrael. It might be a little strong to say Azrael is the chapter master every Space Marine player wishes they had, but chances are everyone who doesn't play Dark Angels will be jealous of at least one of his abilities.  Azrael's got a pretty typical chapter master profile: Toughness 4, 6 wounds, 2+/4++, Leadership 6, OC 1. H...