Lists of the Week: 3/17/2025
The first list we're looking at was played at the That 6++ Grand Tournament 2025 event, a 5-round, 53-player event held in England. Christopher Langton of Mind Goblins went 4-1 with a Gladius Task Force to take 5th place. You can see Christopher's list on BCP and below.
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Azrael - Warlord
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs - 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs - 5 flying choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
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
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
The event Christopher played at used the current Munitorum Field Manual points, so he was paying 140 for each of the Ballisti and a whopping 185 points for the Vindicator.
This is pretty conventional for what we see from Dark Angels Gladius lists that place well. Of course it's conventional for a reason - what works, works. In the case of Christopher's list, he made the choice to present his opponent with a lot of 2+ saves with the 3 Ballisti, 3 units of DWKs, and the Vindicator. Azrael gets to play with the ICCs instead of being held in the backfield attached to a little skirmishing unit. There's the Infiltrators for holding the backfield objective, Scouts for uppy-downy scoring, and Jump Intercessors for scoring secondaries and engaging opponent's skirmishing units. All in all, a solid, well-rounded list.
This event used WTC scoring, so a 0-20 spread with each point above/below 10 representing a 5 point difference in battle points. Christopher started strong with a 15-5 win against Death Guard, which is not a good matchup for us IMO. 2nd round he crushed Orks 20-0. 3rd round he took a tight loss, 9-11 against Astra Militarum. 4th round he drubbed Chaos Daemons 16-4. 5th round he ended strong with a 15-5 win against Drukhari.
Our next list comes from Iron Cage: Bedford Beatdown, a 5-roiund, 52 player event held in Bedford TX. Raul Valencia of Imperial News Network went 4-1 and took 9th place with an Unforgiven Task Force! That certainly wasn't on my Bingo card. You can see Raul's list on BCP and below.
Iron Cage
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Judiciar: Weapons of the First Legion
Sammael
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Hellblaster Squad:10 plasma boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty choppy boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Vindicator
Vindicator
Seeing an Unforgiven Task Force go 4-1, I automatically assumed it was built around at least one unit of Hellblasters, and I was right. The reason I expected to see Hellblasters is that the UTF has probably the best retributive shooting stratagem in the game - certainly the best one Dark Angels players can use - and it's at least a little funny that shooting the Hellblasters could trigger being shot back at by the whole unit - the ones that die due to the Hellblasters' own datasheet ability, and the rest of the squad via the Grim Retribution stratagem. There's also the handy Unforgiven Fury stratagem that can give a unit Lethal Hits, usable both in the Shooting and Fight phases, with a possibility of triggering crits on 5's if you can contrive to have some other unit be Battle-shocked.
A lot of the rest of the list is built around getting as much out of the Hellblasters as possible. The Thunderstrike can give them +1 to Wound against tougher targets, the Incursors can make their shooting hit on 2's, and Lion Dad, in addition to being a hell of a counter-assault asset, can protect them from failed Hazardous tests with his aura of 4+ against Mortals. I'm a little surprised Raul didn't include an Apothecary for good measure, but I suppose even with all that going for them they're not going to be that hard for opponents to pick up. That said, Raul can count on 2 good activations from them, once in his own Shooting phase, and once in his opponent's Shooting phase.
The lack of Deathwing Knights is a little surprising, but Raul has Lion Dad, ICCs with a Judiciar with Weapons of the First Legion for that sexy Damage 3 in melee, and Sammael with Outriders who will also bring some Damage 3 on the charge, so he's not lacking for melee threats. He's also got a couple Vindicators to blast things with their casino cannons and generally be a pain in the neck to remove from the table with their T11 and 2+. There are 2 Scout Squads for utility work, plus a pair of Intercessor Squads. One doubtless sits in the backfield minding the home objective while the other moves out and stickies midfield objectives.
Not only did Raul go 4-1, but he won his first 4 games, so he was in contention to place 1st or 2nd. 1st round he crushed Astra Militarum 100-36. 2nd round he got a solid 89-72 against Orks. 3rd round went 84-71 against Chaos Marines. 4th round he went 85-78 against Adeptus Mechanicus. His loss in the 5th round was against Aeldari, 48-84
I wondered if Raul's placing was a fluke, with him dodging the meta's boogeymen detachments till the final round. I cannot state that is the case with confidence, however, because he faced three of the boogeyman detachments, Militarum Bridgehead Strike, Orks Taktical Brigade, and Ynnead Aeldari, and prevailed over the first two. That said, the Militarum and Ork players were not top tier, with the Miltarum player going 1-4 and the Ork player going 2-2 and evidently dropping prior to the final round. So, while Raul did face more than his share of the tougher detachments, they weren't piloted by players who could get the best out of them. I don't want to take anything away from Raul's accomplishment though, because he took and off-meta list and made it work well for him, and that is impressive by anyone's standard.
Our last list for this week was played at Skövde Battleforge III, a 5-round, 32 player event. Simon Olsson went 4-1 with his Gladius Task Force and took 3rd place. You can see Simon's list on BCP and below.
A lion does not concern himself with the opinions of the sheep (Yeah! Great name!)
Lion Dad Azrael Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Intercessor Squad Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Ballistus Dreadnought Ballistus Dreadnought Ballistus Dreadnought Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
This is another pretty conventional Gladius list. It's a little unusual to see Lion Dad, but not terribly so, and he does solve problems a third squad of Deathwing Knights wouldn't solve. Once again, Azrael gets to lead the ICCs instead of languishing in the backfield generating CP. The three Ballisti provide some long-range punch, and there are the Combi-Lieutenant, Intercessors, Infiltrators, Jump Intercessors, and Scouts to handle their various and sundry secondary tasks while the big boys kill the opposing army.
This is another list that used WTC scoring. 1st round Simon won 12-8 against T'au Empire. 2nd round he crushed Ultramarines 20-0. 3rd round he scored a comfortable 13-7 against Tyranids. 4th round he took his loss, getting crushed 0-20 against Imperial Knights. 5th round he scored a respectable 12-8 against Ultramarines, ending strong with Lion Dad prevailing over Rowboat.
Statistics
Dark Angels had a 47% win rate over the weekend. 27 players played 127 games and won 60 of them. We have an 11-week win rate of 46%. I expect with the new meta created by the just-released Balance Dataslate the clock will get reset on the extended-period win rate. We had no event wins. According to Meta Monday we had 4 X/1 results, but darned if I could find more than 3.
The Unforgiven Task Force had the highest win rate at 60%, with 3 players winning 9 of their 15 games. Raul was responsible for 4 of those wins.
The Stormlance Task Force had the 2nd highest win rate and 2nd highest number of players, with 8 players getting a 54% win rate.
The Gladius Task Force was the most played with 13 players, , a 46% win rate, and 2 (or 3 according to MM) X/1 results.
One optimist played the Lion's Blade and went 1-4.
Finally, I played a Company of Hunters at The Portal Spring GT in Manchester CT and I went 1-4 with it. 3 of my 4 losses were by less than 5 points. That said, I think I'm about ready to try the Stormlance. I've got a Librarius list I'm inclined to try as well.
Factions To Watch Out For
The big boys came on strong over the weekend. Imperial Knights topped the meta with 29 players scoring a 63% win rate, 11 X/0-X/1 results and 2 event wins.
Chaos Knights came in 3rd with 23 players getting a 55% win rate, 9 X/0-X/1 results and 1 event win.
Between those two sit Aeldari, with 77players scoring a 56% overall win rate and 23 X/0-X/1 results, though no event wins. Windrider host had 3 players score a 71% win rate and 2 X/0-X/1 results. Devoted of Ynnead had 38 players get a 64% win rate and 15 X/0-X/1 results.
I think the boogeyman of the upcoming meta is going to be the Orks More Dakka! detachment. Games Workshop nerfed the Taktikal Brigade detachment, but I think Ork players will be able to port over their lists to the More Dakka! detachment unchanged, though they might tweak them to include Ghazgkull and a unit of Meganobz because of the strat that lets them select a unit to be in the Waagh every turn. 10 players were able to use the MD detachment over the weekend, and they got a 60% win rate, 4 X/0-X/1 results, and 1 event win. I will be unsurprised to see MD Orks putting up ridiculous numbers this weekend.
That, battle brethren, is what I have for you. If you like content like this, I recommend Dank List Wargaming over on YouTube, and you can Follow me to keep up with my work. May your games over the weekend be glorious victories. For the Lion!
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