Angel's Keep: A 40K Dark Angels Blog

Hello battle brethren! We had a busy weekend of events, and with it some lists to talk about! We didn't have any event winners, but we had two Stormlances and a Company of Hunters go X/1, so let's take a look at those and see what we can learn from them.   The first list we're looking at was played at 22 & 23 Feb 2025 - OWN's Breaking Point GT at Primal Nerds, a 6-round, 52 player event held in Yukon, OK. Lewis Hersman of Crimson Lion Games went 5-1 with his Stormlance Task Force and took 4th place. You can see Lewis' list on BCP and below. Lion Storm(lance) Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Sammael Chaplain on Bike: Fury of the Storm Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Outr...

Hello battle brethren! It was a slow weekend overall, so as such we only have two lists to look at this week. The first was played by Alastair Helm of Veterans of the Long Black, who went 4-1 with his Stormlance and took 2nd place at Warzone Wellington 2025, a 5-round, 44 player event held in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. You can see Alastair's list on BCP and below.  Friendship ended with Gladius, Stormlance is my new best friend Lion Dad Azrael Sammael Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Storm Speeder Hammerstrike Vindicator Vindicator This looks like a pretty competent Stormlance list to me. If I were running a Stormlance, I'd definitely use Lion Dad. Being able to charge after an Advance or Fall Back move gives one...

Hello battle brethren! It's come to my attention that Poland is using a different tournament score aggregator than BCP. Specifically tournament organizers are using ChampionHub WH40K , which I had not previously heard of. The upshot of this is Polish players whose lists deserve our notice aren't being reported by Meta Monday, who draw data from BCP and that other aggregator that French events use. Thus, on the week of 1/27, when there were no lists of interest in Meta Monday, I missed Grelich Hellich's Company of Hunters that he played at BMCémonalia in Warsaw on the weekend of 1/25, which is a real shame because he went 4-0-1 with it and took 1st place out of a field of 51 players! You can see Grzelich's list on ChampionHub and below.  Armored Core Librarian in Phobos Armour - Warlord Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Ballistus Dreadnought Ballistus Dreadnougnt Ballistus Dreadnought Gladiator Lancer Gladiator Lancer Infiltrator Squad Invader ATV: gatling buggy Invad...

  Hello battle brethren! I'm afraid it's going to be a short one, because only one Dark Angels list rose into the upper echelons of scoring over the weekend. I'm inclined to wonder if maybe some of the people who had been placing highly are refraining from using unique Dark Angels units and playing as straight Space Marines to take advantage of improved Oath. If they listed their armies as Space Marines instead of Dark Angels, we'd have no way of knowing. Unlike, say, the Blood Angels' Liberator Assault Group, none of our unique detachments are particularly competitive and don't see much play even with our unique units, much less without. I have no data to back that idea up with, but it might explain why we're dipping in win rate. Anyhow, our one hero for this week is Jay Seebarun of Vanguard Tactics, who has not succumbed to the lure of a +1 on To Wound rolls. Jay played a Gladius Task Force at Beachhead Brawl 2025 in Bournemouth England, went 5-1, and plac...

  Hello battle brethren! I've been geeking out about Sternguard Veterans lately, so I thought I'd do a quick review of them to bring them to the attention of the community as a whole.  So why am I so excited about Sternguard? Aren't they just fancy Intercessors? That's true to an extent. They have the same basic profile as Intercessors, with the exception of having 1 more attack on their close combat weapons. That includes the weapon upgrades the sergeant can take, so they get 4 attacks with a power fist if you take one.  They start to differ in their ranged weapon profiles. The Sternguard bolt rifle takes the Intercessor's bolt rifle and adds Rapid Fire 1 and Devastating Wounds. They have the option of side-grading to Combi-weapons, which are 1 shot S4 Rapid Fire 1 with Anti-infantry 4+ and Devastating Wounds. One in five Veterans can take a Sternguard heavy bolter, which adds Devastating Wounds to the profile. Even the Sternguard bolt pistols have Devastating Woun...

Hello battle brethren! Sadly, there are no Dark Angels lists that went 4-1 or better at events last weekend, but it was a slow weekend for events, and I already published two Lists of the Week articles this week anyway, so it's nice to switch things up a bit. So, I'm writing a review of our Grotmas Detachment, the Lion's Blade Task Force. I'm basing my review on both personal experience playing the thing, and from the tournament data that we've had since its release.  I was pretty excited when I first saw the Lion's Blade detachment. Like many of you, I'd been hoping for a detachment that incentivized Ravenwing and Deathwing working together, and this detachment tries to deliver that interaction. Let's look at the Detachment rule. In The Lion's Claws Enemy units (excluding Monsters/Vehicles) falling back from a Ravenwing unit have to make Desperate Escape tests, at -1 if the unit is Battle-shocked Deathwing units declaring a charge on enemy units eng...

  Hello battle brethren! Last week was a slow week that didn't produce any Dark Angels lists that rose to the top (boo!). This week was another slow week for events, but we do have a couple of lists to look at. Also, Meta Monday did a compilation of 5-week win rates and event wins, so that gives us some new data to look at. So, without further ado, let's have a look at these lists! Our first list was played at Dearg Doom II: The Redder, The Deader in Cork, Ireland, a 5-round, 46 player event. Peter Ghelfi of Brethren Wargaming went 4-1 and placed 3rd overall with a Company of Hunters! Way to go Peter! You can see Peter's list on BCP and below.  dark angels bikes Azrael - Warlord Judiciar Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter Ravenwing Command Squad Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Gladiator Lancer Gladiator Lancer Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Inner Circle Companio...