Chapter Update: 6/16/2025

 Hello battle brethren! Sorry this came out so late. I have no excuse for the tardiness, I've just been slothful about getting to the blog article this week. To be fair, there wasn't much for me to be excited about, as it was a bad weekend for the First Legion. A Dark Angels list did win one small event, and one list did respectably well at Warhammer Open Edmonton, but for the most part the results have been pretty disappointing. 

Our event winner was played at the Saltire Warhammer 40k Open Two, a 5-round, 12 player event held in Scotland. Stat Check's Innes Wilson went 5-0 to take 1st place with a Wrath of the Rock list. You can see Innes' list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below.

why u fucking lion
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inceptor Squad: 6 flying chonky plasma boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys

The Wrath of the Rock detachment is too new for there to be a an accepted template for what is and isn't the ideal build for it, which is leaving us all trying out our favorite stuff to see what sticks. That said, it is hard to go too far wrong by starting off  with three squads of Deathwing Knights and Azrael. We've also got new and improved Lion Dad, a small unit of Sternguard, a Captain with the Ancient Weapons enhancement, and a fairly typical collection of Combi-Lieutenant, Scouts, Intercessors and Assault Intercessors. Azrael and the Captain probably attach to the Sternguard and the Assault Intercessors respectively and go and skirmish, and can generate some Devastating Wounds.

The list is mostly an assault list, with the one concession to shooting being the Inceptor Squad. Relics of the Dark Age can take their supercharged shooting from Strength 8 to Sttrength 10, and even their normal mode shooting to Strength 9. Those are some pretty significant break points, particularly with their shooting being Twin Linked and baby Knights dropping to Toughness 9.

It's nice to see Lion Dad in a winning list. I suspect the trick to getting success out of him is to play cagey with him. The ability to pick him up and Deep Strike him is a potent ability, but one will want to put  him where opponents will have trouble bringing enough shooting to bear on him to overwhelm his defenses. That's likely to limit his charging potential, so you may need to hold him in Reserves for a turn to be able to Rapid Ingress him on the opponent's turn, so you can be sure your opponent can't just shoot him off the table and you can be reasonably assured to be able to put him into something big enough to pick up to make his inclusion worthwhile. He definitely seemed to work for Innes.

Innes rode the win train all the way to the end of the track! 1st round he drubbed Hammer of the Emperor Militarum 91-52. 2nd round he scored a comfortable 76-60 against Berserker World Eaters. 3rd round he stuffed Shatterstar Necrons 87-53. 4th round he crushed Mortarion's Hammer Death Guard 84-30. 5th round he ended strong, spanking Warpbane Grey Knights 87-45.

The other list we're going to look at was played at the Warhammer 40,000 GT - Warhammer Open Edmonton, an 8-round, 257 player event, easily the biggest event of the weekend. Adrian Nicola of GTA40k went 5-3 and took 40th place with a Gladius Task Force, making him the highest-placing Dark Angels player at the event. You can see Adrian's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below. 

Lion is BACK
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Infiltrator Squad
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys

This is a pretty conventional Dark Angels Gladius list, with the only thing I'd have raised an eyebrow at in the past would be the inclusion of Lion Dad. He was a pretty decent unit before the Balance Dataslate, but a third squad of Deathwing Knights or a squad of Inner Circle Companions would have been a more conventional approach. Now Lion Dad can uppy-downy like a Callidus Assassin, which presents some unique challenges for opponents. 

Adrian's list leans a little more into shooting than punching, with three Gladiator Lancers and a full squad of Sternguard versus two squads of Deathwing Knights and Lion Dad, though we should remember that Sternguard also punch pretty well in addition to being a good shooting unit. For utility units, Adrian has the Combi-Lieutenant, a Scout Squad, and an ATV (which I suspect would be a Scout Squad if Adrian could have afforded 10 more points), and the Jump Intercessors. The Infiltrators are the obvious backfield objective minders.

Adrian started strong, drubbing an Ultramarines Vanguard 89-50 in the 1st round. 2nd round he scored a comfortable 76-57 against Shadow Legion Daemons. 3rd round he squeaked out an 84-83 win against Combined Arms Militarum. 4th round he took a 67-94 loss against Shatterstar Necrons. 5th round he bounced back with a tight 85-82 win against Noble Lance Knights. I guess he honed his game against Knights with that game in the previous round, because 6th round he crushed another Knights list 97-35. Unfortunately that's where he peaked. 7th round he took a 67-80 loss against Liberator Blood Angels, and 8th round he took a 61-79 loss against Oathbound Votann.

Statistics

Despite the new detachment and buffs to Lion Dad, Dark Angels had a dismal weekend, with 32 players scoring a 39% win rate, though we did have that one small event win. We were 4th from the bottom, ahead of only Black Templars, Deathwatch, and Imperial Agents.

The Wrath of the Rock detachment was the most played of the weekend with 20 players. It was also the winningest, which is sad because it earned players only a 42% win rate. As discussed above, it was the detachment that scored a win.

The Gladius Task Force came in second in both metrics, with 8 players wo took in a 39% win rate.

The next most played was the Stormlance Task Force, with 3 players who scored an abysmal 17% win rate.

One player took a Company of Hunters list, scoring a 29% win rate.

I think it's safe to say the Wrath of the Rock detachment is not an auto-win button. It was its debut weekend, so it may be a while before we figure it out and start getting good results with it. That said, it seems to me that other armies have had detachments that get strong results right out of the gate. I hope the Wrath of the Rock detachment isn't another misfired effort on GW's part to give us a bespoke detachment that can hold its head above water.

Sadly, it definitely appears that being a committed Dark Angels player is playing 40K on Hard Mode.

Factions/Detachments to Watch Out For

Death Guard remain the biggest bullies of the meta, with 77 players taking in a 54% win rate, along with a whopping 18 X-results and 5 event wins. The most played detachment was the Virulent Vectorium, with 44 players getting 13 of those X-results and 4 of the wins.

Thousand Sons are back, with 56 players scoring a 56% win rate, taking in 12 X-results and 2 event wins. The most played detachment was the Grand Coven, with 32 players who scored a 59% win rate and took in 9 of the X-results and both event wins.

Necrons never really went anywhere apparently. They had 65 players who scored a 55% win rate, 13 X-results, and 1 event win. The Starshatter Arsenal detachment was the most played with 28 players getting a 58% win rate and 7 of those X-results. Not far behind it was the Awakened Dynasty detachment, 25 players scoring a 52% win rate, 4 of the X-results, and the event win.

Adeptus Custodes continue to be contenders, with 53 players scoring a 55% win rate and 8 X-results. The most played detachment was Lions of The Emperor, with 37 players who scored a 55% win rate and 6 of the X-results.

Imperial Knights remain a faction one has to have a plan for, with 43 players (all of whom played the Noble Lance detachment) who scored a 55% win rate, 8 X-results, and 2 event wins.

That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. Check out Dank List Wargaming for their new video, and as always I hope you find my work fun and informative. Strive constantly for glorious victory. For The Lion!