Lists of the Week: 3/3/2025
Hello battle brethren! It was a busy weekend of events, and some Dark Angels lists rose to the upper ranks in the process. I, your trusty self-appointed chronicler, am here to bring them to your attention and walk you through them. We have quite a few lists to get through, so let's get started!
We have an event winner, so I'll start with that. Simon Darre went 4-0-1 with a Gladius Task Force to take the top spot at Warhammer 40K Midtcon Spring 2025 held in Viborg, Denmark, a 5-round, 34 player event. You can see Simon's list on BCP and below.
https://youtube.com/shorts/11GNdYVZebk?si=zV-Nu54VQck3WyLX Azrael - Warlord Captain in Gravis Armor: Artificer Armour 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 swordy boys Incursor Squad: 5 spotty choppy bolter boys Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys Ballistus Dreadnought Ballistus Dreadnought Vindicator Vindicator
This list is looking pretty conventional, with a few interesting choices. The first is the Gravis Captain, who unless I'm missing something is running solo. I keep looking at Simon's list for a squad for him to join, and I'm just not seeing one. His Refuse To Yield ability that halves the damage he takes does make him fairly durable, and giving him Artificer Armour for the 2+ save and 5+++ Feel No Pain would make him fairly challenging to pick up. I suspect Simon uses him as a tech piece, putting him in Strategic Reserve and having him pop out and cause a real problem for his opponent. Most backfield objective holders would not be able to handle this guy solo, and being a single model would be hard to screen out from being in plausible charge range of backfield objective holders. Even if Simon doesn't make that Charge roll, opponents would be obliged to have something pretty legit turn around to deal with him, or just accept losing their backfield objective. It's spicy, I like it.
Speaking of spicy - Sternguard Veterans! It looks like enthusiasm for them is growing. They're only 20 points more than a squad of Inner Circle Companions, and they solve problems that ICCs don't. It's nice to have something that can throw out a pile of Devastating Wounds, and they're a very solid unit to put Azrael in.
Between three units of Deathwing Knights, 2 Ballisti, 2 Vindicators, and the Arty Armour Gravis Captain, Simon is putting a lot of 2+ saves on the table for opponents to have to grind through. The only models in the list that don't have 2+ saves are the Combi-Lieutenant, the Intercessors, Incursors, and the Sternies. I've been tempted to play an entirely 2+ save list for the lulz, but it's not entirely practical. This is probably as close as one can get without sacrificing too much utility to the theme.
Notable by their absence are the typical utility units - Infiltrators and Scouts specifically. Simon was clearly able to make do with his Intercessors, Incursors, Combi-Lieutenant, and if I guessed right the Gravis Captain. The Intercessors probably mind the backfield objective until opponents have committed their Reserve units, with the others running around, scoring Secondaries, and causing mischief as appropriate.
Simon had a close game in the 1st round, but pulled off a 74-68 win against Aeldari. 2nd round he crushed Ultramarines 96-27. 3rd round he bodied Chaos Daemons 95-53. 4th round he had an 89-89 draw against Custodes. 5th round he ended strong with a bruising 100-57 win against World Eaters.
The biggest event of the weekend was the The MANCHESTER 40k SUPER-MAJOR, a 5-round, 328 player event held in Urmston, England. Christopher Langton of Mind Goblins went 4-1 with his Gladius Task Force, taking 29th place. You can see Christopher's list on BCP and below.
da maybe?? Azrael - Warlord Judiciar: The Honour Vehement Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys 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 Now there's the archetypical DA Gladius! It substituting the Repulsor full of Harmacist-led Eradicators for a pair of Ballisti and a Vindicator, but it's got Azrael with Assault Intercessors, ICCs with a Judiciar, three squads of DWKs, the Jump Intercessors, the Infiltrators, and the Scouts. There are no clever innovations in this list, just good, solid Dark Angels and Space Marine good stuff in a well-rounded list. It's kind of nice to see that the classic setup can still do well.
Christopher started strong with a very convincing 99-58 win against T'au Empire in the 1st round. 2nd round he had a convincing 100-73 win against Imperial Knights. 3rd round he took his loss, 68-90 against Chaos Knights. 4th round he bounced back with a crushing 89-35 win against Grey Knights. 5th round he squeaked out a 79-78 win against Death Guard.
Going down the page on Meta Monday's page, our next list was played at the Leoben 40K Spring Sprint Singles - Alpine Cup, a 5-round, 64-player event held in Leoben, Austria. Conrad Schmuck of WARHEIMER went 4-0-1 with his Gladius and took 3rd. You can see Conrad's list on BCP and below.
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Azrael
Judiciar - Warlord
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Techmarine
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
Vindicator
Vindicator
This is also a pretty conventional Dark Angels Gladius. I raise an eyebrow at making the Judiciar the Warlord, but Conrad must have had a reason. Perhaps he considered the Judiciar a little safer than Azrael while he's in the squad of ICCs. It's also interesting to see the Techmarine in the list, but with three Vindicators in the list, I definitely see why one would be inclined to include one. When I was running triple Vindicators in my Company of Hunters list, I included a Techmarine. He didn't actually restore wounds to a Vindicator that often, but he also can give one +1 to Hit in the Shooting phase, and that's not a bad buff to have on a Vindicator.
Again, not an innovative list, but as Conrad demonstrates, it works!
This event used WTC scoring, which as a reminder is a 0-20 scale where both players' scores are represented in the 20-point spread, with each point being a 5 battle point difference. So, 20-0 is an overwhelming victory (by at least 50 points), 10-10 is a draw, 0-20 is a crushing defeat.
1st round Conrad drubbed Chaos Knights 17-3. 2nd round he had a 10-10 draw against Tyranids. 3rd round he squeaked out a tight 11-9 win against T'au Empire. 4th round he scored a close 12-8 against Tyranids. 5th round he got a solid 14-6 win against Ultramarines.
Our next list comes from the East Anglian Grand Tournament 2025 March held in England, a 5-round, 36 player event. Some rando named Toby Bennett of Black Crow Gaming went 4-1 to place 3rd with his Stormlance Task Force. You can see Toby's list on BCP and below.
DILF Delivery Azrael - Warlord Ravenwing Command Squad Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter 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 Incursor Squad: 5 spotty choppy bolter boys Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Like with our last two Gladius lists, Toby isn't trying to do anything too out-of-left-field with his list. He's been refining his Stormlance for a while, and has a lot of reps with it. He starts with Azrael, like you do, and in this case Azrael could join either the Intercessors or the Assault Intercessors - honestly, a case could be made for either, and it's nice to have options. Plus, having more than one token Battleline unit is an advantage in some missions.
There's the three squads of Deathwing Knights, who really like Advance+Charge. Toby went with a chonky unit of Bikes, a Ravenwing Command Squad attached to a unit of 6 Outriders. That'll be a pain for opponents to pick up, because every Bike has 4 wounds and the Apothecary will be bringing back a lost bike a round. This unit gives Toby a means to exploit all the spicy Mounted-keyworded strats the detachment has, and it will leave a mark when it lands a charge.
Toby isn't entirely relying on punching things to death. He included a trio of Ballisti for some long-range punch. I think this is a solid addition, because it's good to have something that can pop transports so his choppy units can charge the crunchy contents. Ballisti make a nice unit to send out onto midfield objectives early too, because they're relatively inexpensive and admirably durable for the points.
Toby started strong with a convincing 1st round 91-56 against Drukhari. 2nd round he crushed a Genestealer Cult list 100-43. 3rd round he squeaked out a 65-63 win against Drukhari. 4th round he scored a convincing 87-59 against Orks. 5th round I think he was playing for 1st place, but took a 3-point 84-87 loss against Aeldari.
The last list we're looking at this week took 3rd place at the CAGBASH XVIII 40k Event in Hamilton, OH, a 5-round, 30 player event. Sam Shafer of Gem Wargaming went 4-1 with his Stormlance Task Force. You can see Sam's list on BCP and below.
Rizzen Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Lieutenant with Combi-weapon 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 stay-off-my-lawn boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
This list is pretty similar to Toby's list in that it's an assault list with some shooting to pop transports and generally keep opponents honest. One big difference is that where Toby spent 300 points on a big brick of bikes, Sam spent those points on Lion Dad. One can argue back and forth on which is a better use of points. I do like seeing Lion Dad in lists that place well, and used carefully can be quite an asset. As is usually the case, Sam also included a Combi-Lieutenant to activate Lion Dad's Lion Op, plus all the other utility the Combi-Lieutenant provides.
Sam decided to forgo any kind of Mounted unit in the list, but it's been well demonstrated that the Stormlance's detachment rule and reactive move strat is more than enough to justify playing it. In addition to Lion Dad, Sam has the three units of DWKs, and a unit of ICCs for Azrael to join, which is always spicy.
Sam's shooting comes from a pair of Gladiator Lancers, which can both throw out some big shots downrange to pop big targets, and also a bucket of dice to clear chaff. Sam included the usual Infiltrators and Scouts for zoning out his backfield objective and uppy-downy Secondary scoring.
Sam started off with a fairly tight 1st round 78-69 win against Chaos Marines. 2nd round he crushed Aeldari 90-39. 3rd round he squeaked out a 75-74 win against Chaos Daemons. 4rd round he buried Orks 99-60. Like Toby, Sam played Aeldari for 1st place, but like Toby lost to them, 66-90 in the 5th round.
Statistics
Dark Angels overall had a 49% win rate for the weekend, and a 9-week win rate of 47%. 28 players played 141 games and won 69 of them. We had 5 lists go X/0-X/1 and 1 event winner.
The most-played and highest win percentage detachment is the Stormlance, with 11 players and a 56% win rate, with a 54% 9-week rate. 2 of the X/1 lists were Stormlance lists.
The second most played detachment was the Gladius, with 10 players who scored a 45% win rate. It has a 9-week 46% win rate. That said, it scored 3 of the X/0-X/1 results and our 1 event win.
Two players played Vanguard lists and scored a 55% win rate. The Vanguard's 9-week win rate is 47%
1 player each played the Company of Hunters and the Firestorm Assault Force. Both of them got 40% win rates. The CoH's 9-week rate is 60%, whereas the FAF's is 33%
2 players played the Inner Circle Task Force and got a 38% win rate. According to the Meta Monday chart, the ICTF got a X/1 result, but that must be a typo because the 2 players between them only won 3 games. The 9-week win rate is 32%
One optimist played a Lion's Blade, but was not rewarded for his optimism, scoring only a 33% win rate. The 9-week win rate is 31%
What the numbers show is that, as a faction, we're doing okay, or at least we did this week. Not counting Imperial Agents, there are 8 factions above us on the Meta Monday chart and 17 below us. Our win percentage is definitely being propped up by the Stormlance, which edged out the Gladius for the most played detachment this week. We're not winning a ton of events, but we won 1 this week, and none of the factions won more than 2. We're not getting as many X/0-X/1 results as some factions, but we're doing a lot better than some as well. The one thing that doesn't feel great about our rankings is that, with the possible exception of the Company of Hunters, all of our detachments are trash. The Codex: Space Marines detachments have consistently been more competitive than ours. The CoH may be an exception but it's hard to tell, because hardly anyone plays it, so on the occasions some hotshot does well with it, it spikes the numbers.
Factions to Be Aware Of
I have been discussing the top factions on a week-by-week basis, but I feel like that's not the best use of our time. For instance, the top faction this week is Imperial Agents (57%), but only 4 people played them, and the stars aligned for a couple of them to go 4-1. Instead I'm going to discuss the factions and when relevant detachments that are getting played a lot, so you know what to study up on so you know how to play into them.
I'm going to start off by sort of lumping Chaos Knights and Imperial Knights together. They don't play precisely the same way, but in broad strokes both are armies of big stompy death machines, and they're fairly popular armies, so if you go to a GT your chances of running into one are fairly high. Also, both factions had a 52% win rate, got 7 X/0-X/1 results, and Chaos Knights won 1 event.
The Slaaneshi detachment for Chaos Daemons, Legion of Excess, scored a 67% win rate, 7 X/0-X/1 results, and 1 event win. Without the Legion of Excess, the Chaos Daemons overall win rate would drop to below 50%.
With their new release, Aeldari are the elephant in the room. Collectively the have a 52% win rate, 20 X/0-X/1 results, and 2 event wins. the Devoted of Ynnead detachment has a 59% win rate, 10 of those X/0-X/1 results, and 1 of the event wins. The Warhost detachment has 5 of the X/0-X/1 results and the other event win. The last 5 X/0-X/1 results were scored by the Aspect Host, which has a 49% win rate.
Finally, I'm going to call out the Astra Militarum Bridgehead Strike detachment, that scored a 56% win rate and 8 X/0-X/1 results.
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