Chapter Update 6/9/2025
Our first list was the top list at the I GT de Tomelloso held in Tomelloso Spain. This was a 5-round, 22 player event. Nymerio Stark (which may be the coolest name ever) of La Comunidad del Achillo went 4-0-1 with a Company of Hunters list. You can see Nymerio's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below.
Fast & Furious Jail
Sammael
Chaplain on Bike - Warlord
Chaplain on Bike
Chaplain on Bike
Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 super-chonky shooty boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Vindicator
Vindicator
Oh Nymerio, oh yeah, you're speaking my language with all those bikes! He didn't get too fancy with them, just paid minimum price to get 3 packages of 6 Outriders with a supporting character. That's not to say they're not effective. With the Chaplain on Bike attached, Outriders kind of become high-mobility Sternguard, generating Devastating Wounds with their bolt rifles. They don't have the Devastating Wound-per-points output of Sternguard, but it's not their primary purpose, and there are enough of them to make up the difference. Assuming he can put full squads on target, he should be able to generate 4 DWs per squad, which can be up to 12 DWs on the Oath target. That'll pick up most Vehicles or Monsters in the game all by itself. The Outriders also have decent chaff clearing if that's more important.
Of course the bigger show with Outriders is assault. The weakness Outriders have in the Fight phase is the lack of AP, but they compensate some with volume. On the charge, each Outrider Squad is generating 24 S5 AP -1 Damage 2 and 5 S7 AP -1 Damage 3 attacks, with +1 to Wound thanks to the Chaplain. It's a little weak into anything Toughness 10 or higher, but Nymerio has other tools to use against such units.
Each of those bricks is also 29 Wounds to chew through, which Nymerio makes harder for his opponents by having the Darkshroud to hover near the squads. He can reasonably keep 2 of them in the bubble of the Darkshroud without exposing it, and the 3rd squad can get the protection of the High-speed Focus strat, imposing -1 To Hit on an opponent's shooting for the phase. It would be nice if it was also -1 To Wound like Ride Hard Ride Fast from the Stormlance grants, but apparently GW wants Dark Angels players to play on Hard Mode all the time. Griping aside, I did a similar thing in the latest version of my Stormlance list, but I haven't gotten to play it yet because I tried the new detachment at the RTT I attended on Saturday.
In addition to the three bricks of Outriders, Nymerio also included Sammael and 6 Black Knights for some high-mobility plasma goodness. Now, conventional wisdom has it that a Ravenwing Command Squad gives superior return for points than Sammael, particularly in a detachment that already gives Mounted units the ability to Advance and Fall Back and do whatever the heck they want. He gives more value in a detachment that doesn't hand that out with the detachment rule. That said, there are advantages to having him instead of the RWCS. For one thing, his plasma cannon has twice the reach of a Black Knight's plasma talon, so you can set him up at the back of the squad and have an easier time managing to get the whole squad's firepower on target than you would with a RWCS. Also, he's got better offensive output in the Fight phase than the Ravenwing Champion does, with higher-strength, better AP attacks and Sustained Hits 2. He's an awesome looking model too. Clearly, he worked for Nymerio.
The rest of Nymerio's list, besides one squad of Infiltrators to mind his backfield objective and the aforementioned Darkshroud, are shooting units, which is what I'd expect to see in a Company of Hunters. Specifically, he's got the 3 Dev Cents, 2 Hammerstrikes, and 2 Vindicators. That's a lot of firepower to deal with the things the bikes may have trouble with. Hammerstrikes are high-speed platforms with a pile of Strength 9 shooting that can strip cover from targets, which sets up targets for the Vindicators and Dev Cents to knock down. Vindicators are, of course, a strong data sheet we're all familiar with. It occurs to me the Darkshroud probably supports the Vindicators rather than the bikes, as you'd get a better return on the points that way.
One thing that Nymerio lacks in his list are utility units to score secondaries. I'm inclined to wonder if maybe that's the actual role of the Hammerstrikes. They're only 35 points more than a squad of Jump Intercessors, move faster, and are tougher to pick up. The Darkshroud could be doing actions too, as it's utility to the list is in its passive buff bubble, so giving up its shooting isn't a major sacrifice. The other thought I had is that maytbe Nymerio played Fixed Secondaries. Engage on all Fronts would be pretty reliable for him, and then he'd probably also usually have a unit in position for Establish Locus. It might sometimes be the Darkshroud scoring it in the center, but he'd probably have little trouble getting at least some points from it every turn.
This event used WTC scoring. In case you're not familiar, it's a 0-20 scale with 10-10 being a tie and every point difference in score representing a 5-point difference in battle points. 1st round Nymerio started strong, scoring 20-0 against Liberator Blood Angels. 2nd round he tied 10-10 with Combined Arms Militarum. 3rd round he crushed Champions of Contagion Death Guard 19-1. 4th round he scored a comfortable 14-6 against Seer Council Aeldari. 5th round he got Aeldari again, this time the boogeyman of the meta before the dataslate, Devoted of Ynnead, and scored the same comfortable 14-6 for an undefeated run! Way to go Nymerio!
The next list I'd like to discuss was played at The Bristol 40K Super Major, a 5-round, 429 player event. Michael Spencer went 4-1 with a Gladius Task Force and took 68th place. You can see Michael's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
COMBAT PATROL?! LOL
Azrael - Warlord
Captain in Gravis Armour: The Honour Vehement
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Aggressor Squad: 3 chonky flamey fisty boys
Bladeguard Veteran Squad: 3 awesome swordy-boardy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Terminator Squad: 5 awesome chonky bolter-fisty boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Ballistus Dreadnought
Gladiator Lancer
This Gladius list is a little unconventional. For starters, we don't usually see more than 1 squad of Intercessors, and Michael brought 3. My going theory is that Michael sends them out onto the midfield objectives 1st turn, obliges his opponents to deal with them, then smashes whatever stuck its head out to do so. Alternately, they might act in concert with the Deathwing squads, with 1 squad of Intercessor and 1 squad of Terminators going onto each midfield objective. The Terminators are there to be the muscle and the Intercessors are there to provide the OC. It would only have saved Michael 15 points total to use Terminator Ancients in all 3 squads instead of the Intercessor Squads, and that extra 15 points buys a lot of chaff-chewing firepower and objective-stickying, so I think I can't find fault with that reasoning.
I'm also surprised to see a squad of normal Deathwing Terminators, as they don't have near the staying power of Deathwing Knights. Maybe Michael was limited by the models he owns, and doesn't yet have (or doesn't want) that 3rd squad of DWKs. I kind of like the Deathwing-Intercessor pairing, so I might have cut the 3-man Bladeguard Squad to upgrade the DWTs to a 3rd squad of DWKs if it was my list, but Michael put on a good showing with what he brought.
Speaking of such things, yeah there's the little squad of Bladeguard and a little squad of Aggressors. I figure maybe Michael finds them handy as skirmishing pieces he can put in Strategic Reserve and have them pop out in inconvenient places. It also occurred to me the flamestorm Aggressors may be a little anti-Aeldari/Drukhari tech. The Aggressors also give him a delivery vehicle for the Gravis Captain, for whom The Honour Vehement is a little extra-efficient because he has 2 weapons that benefit from it. I dunno though, combined the points for those guys would more than buy another Lancer. I know which I'd rather have.
Michael has a fairly robust shooting element, with a Ballistus, a Gladiator Lancer, and a Hellblaster squad. I always love to see me some Hellblasters. I'd have been over the moon if Michael had also included a Lieutenant to attach to them along with Azrael. I loved me the Sustained+Lethals combo the two characters provided, and having both The Sword of Secrets and a power fist attached to the squad made them a not-inconsiderable melee threat as well.
Michael started off with a 1st round 58-46 win against Renegade Raiders Chaos Marines - that score is so low I wonder if they played all 5 rounds. 2nd round 2nd round he scored a close 81-72 win against Invasion Fleet Nids. 3rd round he took a 69-84 loss against Morty's Hammer Death Guard. He bounced back in the 4th round, squeaking out a 69-68 win against VV Death Guard. 5th round he ended strong with a 92-80 win against yet another Death Guard player, this one also playing the Virulent Vectorum detachment. I guess he all that practice playing into Death Guard the last couple games paid off the last round.
I'm going to give an honorable mention to Josh Swank of One Thicc Coat, who went 5-2 and scored 22nd out of 106 with a Gladius Task Force at the 40K Lorecast Major with Brad Chester and Brian Horton, a 7-round, 106 player event. You can see Josh's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
DA Gladius
Azrael - Warlord
Lieutenant: Fire Discipline
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
The Gladius is the old reliable of detachments, and until such time as we have a bespoke detachment that does more for our bespoke units (wishful thinking, I'd imagine), it'll continue to be the most commonly successful detachment. Josh's is pretty conventional. The only thing I find mildly surprising is the Lieutenant with Fire Discipline to attach to the Hellblaster Squad instead of a Judiciar to attach to the Inner Circle Companions. You'd also think one would get more use out of the Hellblasters when they're attached to Azrael for the 4++ save. That said, there is a logic to not. They do kill more things faster when they die in the opponent's turn, presumably shooting something that has yet to shoot instead of what just shot at them. A smart player should be able to get one good activation out of them before they start taking enemy fire, and then they'll degrade the opponent almost as fast as the opponent degrades them. But of course you already know all this, it's just interesting to see.
You'd think a 5-2 showing would turn up in the X-statistics, but Josh's losses came early. In the 1st round, he took a 55-93 drubbing against an Aeldari Warhost. He bounced back to bury an Ultramarines Gladius 98-27. 3rd round he suffered a rough 68-100 loss against War Horde Orks. From then on, it's all wins - a crushing 90-37 against Oathband Votann in the 4rd round. 5th round was a close 89-78 win against Ynnead Aeldari. 6th round was a tight 72-68 win against Final Day Genestealer Cult, and in the 7th round he drubbed Ynnead Aeldari 93-53.
Statistics
It was a better weekend for Dark Angels than we've had in a while, but still not exactly a good one. We had 30 players who scored a 45% win rate, which is still 7th from the bottom. We're attributed 3 X/0-X/1 results, but I could only find 2, and I went through all the BCP event listings I could find. We did have the 1 event win, but it was admittedly at a tiny event. The RTT I was at on Saturday had more players than the GT de Tomelloso.
I can't give you the detachment breakdown because, as if this writing, that information is not available on Meta Monday. What I can tell you from looking through the BCP entries is that the Wrath of the Rock detachment was barely used. I expect it released too late for the list submission deadlines of the weekend's events. We'll have to wait till next weekend to see some results with it.
I would like to make clear that I'm not throwing shade at Meta Monday. It was a huge weekend, with a 400 player event and four other 100 player events, plus the usual spread of mid-sized and small events. I gotta make a point to support them on Patreon, and if I may be so bold, there's worse things the rest of you could support.
Factions/Detachments to Watch Out For
Looks like Death Guard are the current boogeyman of the meta. 88 players used Death Guard over the weekend, bringing in a high-but-reasonable sounding 53% win rate. However, they had 19 X-results and 4 event wins, which is nuts.
Aeldari continue to be a good way to get good results, with 67 players who scored another reasonable-sounding 50% win rate, but took 16 X-results. No event wins this weekend though.
Imperial Knights continue to be something to be prepared to face, with 62 players who scored a 54% win rate and took 10 X-results and 2 event wins.
Necrons, Custodes, and Thousand Sons all had 50+% win rates and took in 10+ X-results. Necrons and Custodes both had over 50 players over the weekend, and Thousand Sons had 39.
I'd like to thank Meta Monday for their weekly statistics collection. I couldn't do what I do here without them doing that work.
That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. Check out Dank List Wargaming for content like this in a video format. I hope you find the information I bring to you fun and informative. May you be ever victorious in all your 40K games. For The Lion!
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