Chapter Update: 6/30/2025
We'll do the logical thing and start with the event winner. Jofonz Blow of RBBR took 1st place with his Company of Hunters lists at Bigfoot GT, a 5-round, 22 player event held in Medford, OR. You can see Jofonz' list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
We are the Shadow Riders, born of night,
We ride for the Emperor, wielders of might.
Not for glory, nor for fame,
In shadows deep, we etch His name.
Our path is unseen, our strike is swift,
Through veils of darkness, our engines lift.
No trace we leave, no sign remains,
Only silence, where darkness reigns.
The road is long, the battle rough,
But with my brothers, we are enough.
Through shadow alone, our spirits soar,
Together we ride, our engines roar. (No kidding, this nice bit of poetry is the list name)
Ravenwing Command Squad - Warlord Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter Ravenwing Command Squad: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Gladiator Lancer Gladiator Lancer Gladiator Lancer Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys Invader ATV: melta buggy Invader ATV: melta buggy Invader ATV: melta buggy Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Hot damn, that is a pile of bikes! I suspect a lot of opponents would take a look at this from across the table and not be quite sure how to deal with it. It's going to be in your face from the first turn, with enough bikes that Jofonz can send waves of them to keep opponents locked up in or near their deployment zone, with the Infiltrators to sit on the backfield objective and keep opponents from coming in behind his stuff, and the Gladiators able to provide long-range fire support and engage things that the Mounted units would struggle with.
The army permits Jofonz to tailor his list somewhat to what he may be facing, by virtue of the fact that he can decide who the Ravenwing Command Squads attach to at the beginning of each game. So, if he's going into a list with a lot of 3-wound Infantry, he might attach his Command Squads to Outrider Squads to give his Champions 3-damage swings on the charge. If he's going into a lot of 2-wound Infantry, and/or Knights or something like that, he might attach his Command Squads to max out on plasma talon shots or corvus hammer (aka Black Knight combat weapon) swings.
It's unusual to not see Azrael in a Dark Angels list, but you don't make the Company of Hunters your detachment for the stratagems. Similarly, the usual utility units like Scouts or Jump Pack Intercessors are notable by their absence, but Jofonz has the Invader ATVs for such tasks. They're Toughness 5, 8 wound platforms with a 12" Move characteristic, and can be uppy-downyed with Rapid Reappraisal, so they'll certainly do for that purpose. I am a little surprised Jofonz doesn't have at least one Scout Squad to keep a lane of advance from being screened out by opponents with a lot of forward deploying nonsense, but he could always Rapid Reappraisal something off the board on his first turn and possibly have it come in that same turn if his opponent goes second in the round.
Jofonz rode the win train all the way to 1st place. 1st round he drubbed Hammer Militarum 100-60. 2nd round was a pretty close game, 93-81 against Noble Lance Knights. 3rd round he manhandled a Thousand Sons Changehost list 95-57. 4th round he hammered a Lords of Dread Chaos Knights list 98-56. 5th round he had his closest game, 85-80, against, appropriately enough, a Space Wolves Stormlance list - near to the last hurrah for that style of Space Wolf list. Congratulations Jofonz!
Our next list was played at 2.Sinsheimer Gt Canes Belli, a 5-round, 48 player event held in Sinsheim Germany. Jan Reisenauer of Team Wasserturm went 5-0 with a Company of Hunters list to take 2nd place! Way to go Jan! You can see Jan's list on BCP. Our discussion of it is below.
Jan's list
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky las-missile boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky las-missile boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Vindicator
Vindicator
Vindicator
This list is kind of a polar opposite to Jofonz, with just the two combined RWCS+Outrider Squads. My guess is their job is to put opponents in jail for a turn or two while the rest of Jan's list blasts them off the board. He's bringing plenty of list-blasting potential to the board, between the two squads of Centurion Devastators and three Vindicators. It's perilous for an opponent to close with Jan's firebase thanks to Lion Dad and Azrael hanging out with them. That said, they're also not going to be the easiest thing to pick up with shooting either, being high-toughness 2+ save units.
Centurion Devastators are appearing in top lists often enough to make me wish I had some. I didn't like the models when they were released, but they're far from the goofiest looking thing in the Space Marine range now. I just wish I had some confidence they'll make it into the 11th edition codex.
Jan's list is a little light on utility units, with just the two squads of Scouts. He doesn't even have a dedicated backfield objective holder, unless it's either Azrael and the Sternguard or one of the squads of Scouts. Either way, that unit isn't being used to its best potential. Hard to argue with a 5-0 result though.
This event used WTC scoring, which is pretty typical for events held in Europe. As a reminder, it's scored on a 0-20 range, with 10-10 being a tie, and every point of deviation from that being a difference of 5 in battle points score.
1st round Jan had a tight 11-9 win against Awakened Dynasty Necrons. 2nd round he scored a convincing 15-5 win against an Ultramarines Gladius. 3rd round he scored a similarly solid 15-5 win against Veterans of the Long War Chaos Marines. 4th round he handed Rubricae Phalanx Thousand Sons a 17-3 drubbing. He ended strong in the 5th round, crushing Virulent Vectorium Death Guard with an allied Chaos Knight Despoiler 20-0. Well done Jan!
Our next list was played at the biggest event of the weekend, the Glasshammer Major in Nottingham England, 5 rounds and 114 players of British 40K. Our man Toby Bennett of Black Crow Gaming went 4-1 with a Wrath of the Rock list and took 9th place, which is a very respectable result. You can see Toby's list on BCP. Discussion of it is below.
DILF's Wrath
Azrael - Warlord
Captain: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Sammael
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
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 boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Vanguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome flying choppy boys
Callidus Assassin
If Toby's list doesn't wind up being the template for the ideal Wrath of the Rock list, it's probably pretty close to it. Right out of the gate, I think you want three Deathwing Knight squads in the list to leverage the detachment rule as much as possible. You want at least a little long range shooting to keep opponents from being too confident deploying in the open, and the Ballistus provides that. From there his only consequential shooting are his Sternguard squads.
I raised an eyebrow at having two squads of 5 Sternguard instead of one squad of 10 so the whole squad can enjoy Azrael's 4++ and Sustained Hits 1, but the flipside is that he's undoubtedly attaching his Captain to one of those squads. That lets him set up a go turn where he's got two units that have rerolling Devastating Wounds, and assuming Azrael's unit picks up an Oath target, the Captain's unit can designate his opponent the new Oath target at a discount. Plus, the Incursors can help up the output of the Sternguard Squads with a +1 To Hit, and with a 24" range it's not going to be too hard to put both of them into the same target.
It's nice to see Sammy in a competitive list. He just has the 3 Outriders to hang out with, so you'd want to use him carefully, but he can bomb around the table and be a pain for opponents, picking up tech pieces or depleted units.
Toby has Intercessors to mind his backfield objective. For utility units, he's got the Combi-Lieutenant, a squad of Scouts, and the Callidus Assassin. The Callidus is a mild point of criticism. She's got undoubted utility, but she's squishy compared to a Scout Squad, and I never found her offensive output to be enough to justify how much more fragile she is than a Scout Squad. Still, Toby's the guy went 4-1 at a major, so he certainly knows what he's doing.
WTC scoring appears again, go figure. Toby started strong, crushing a Space Marine Vanguard 20-0. 2nd round he took a 5-15 drubbing from a Death Guard Virulent Vectorium list (again with an allied Knight Despoiler) He avenged himself against the stinki bois in the 3rd round, crushing a Death Guard Tallyman Summoners list 20-0. 4th round he similarly wrecked an Ultramarines Gladius 20-0. In the 5th round, he ended with a comfortable 14-6 win against Starshatter Necrons. Well done Toby!
Toby isn't the only guy in the world who can do well with a Wrath of the Rock list. Brodie Atkinson of HOMECARE & 40K took one to the BrewHammer GT 7, a 5-round, 46 player event held in Scotland. He went 4-1 with it and placed 4th! Capital! You can see Brodie's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below.
Brodie's list (Give your lists clever names, guys!)
Azrael - Warlord
Judiciar: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Bladeguard Veteran Squad: 6 awesome swordy-boardy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys
Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Gladiator Lancer
There are some pretty broad similarities between this list and Toby's list - Azrael, Deathwing Knights, Ballistus Dreadnought, Sternguard, Vanguard Veterans, the Combi-Lieutenant, and Scouts. Brodie's list deviates from Toby's in a few ways. First, he only took two squads of DWKs. In place of the third, he ahs a Bladeguard Veteran Squad with an attached Ancient Weapons Judiciar. It fills a slightly different role from the DWK squad it's taking the place of - primarily, a Heroic Intervention threat. No one is going to be super-happy to have their units get in charge range of a Fights First Bladeguard squad led by a Jucidiar whose weapon is Strength 9 Damage 3 with Precision. I want to take a second to gush about the Ancient Weapons enhancement, because hoo boy it's a doozy. With Ancient Weapons, the Judiciar goes from being an enhancement to the squad to the point of the squad - the Bladeguard exist to deliver the Judiciar, and if they do anything else that's gravy. And most likely they will, because Bladeguard are not to be sneezed at.
Another difference of Brodie's list is he packs in a little more shooting, with a Gladiator Lancer supplementing the Ballistus, and a couple little squads of Eradicators to make vehicles and monsters have a very bad day. They make good units to put in Strat Reserve and have them pop out where needed. Even outside of melta range they're likely to peel quite a few wounds off any given vehicle, which can them finished off by any number of means. He also has the 10-man Sternguard Squad, doubtless led by Azrael, because being able to eliminate things by bypassing considerations like Toughness, Armor Saves, and Invulnerable Saves is an excellent tool to have in the kit.
For utility work, Brodie brought a Scout Squad, the Combi-Lientenant, and two squads of Vanguard Veterans. It's definitely nice to have units you can have Deep Strike into place for those positional Secondaries. He's got the Infiltrators for sitting on his backfield objective and to zone out at least half of a typical deployment zone.
Brodie eeked out a 1st round 88-84 win over Champions of Faith Sororitas. 2nd round he crushed Berserker Warband World Eaters 93-53. 3rd round he had another nail-biter, 84-82 against Noble Lance Knights. 4th round he took his loss, 83-96 against Blood Legion Chaos Daemons. He bounced back in the 5th round though, scoring a comfortable 91-72 against Warpmeld Thousand Sons.
We have one more list to talk about, which just squeaked in by close to the barest of margins, because it went 3-1-1 and two of the wins were by less than 10 points. This list was a Stormlance, played by Jindřich Čadík of Wargaming Club Hradec Kralove at the Tolaris Grand Tournament held in the Czech Republic, a 5-round, 71 player event. Jindřich took 11th place, showing that old dog still has some hunt. You can see Jindřich's list on BCP. Discussion is below.
Jindřich's list
Azrael - Warlord
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Ravenwing Command Squad
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
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 boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys
Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys
Callidus Assassin
This is a pretty conventional Dark Angels Stormlance list, leaning hard into punching as its method to destroy enemy units. It is the detachment's strength, but players will often include at least some shooting, if for no other reason than to pop transports so the assault units can get at their passengers, rather than having to wale on the transports with maces and power fists and letting the passengers get out in good order, ready to act next turn. One of Jindřich's shootiest units is his Scout Squad, which has a heavy bolter and a sniper rifle. I'm legit surprised by this. I've switched over to all pistol-knife Scouts, on the dual premises they are better skirmishers that way, and having a heavy weapon would occasionally motivate me to try and shoot with them rather than score Secondaries, which has never worked and led to me needlessly imperiling them. Then again, I have 40-odd assorted Scouts from back in the day when they were pewter, so I have a variety I can swap between when I need to.
The backbone of Jindřich's list are the 3 squads of DWKs and Azrael with the ICCs. There's not much those units won't be able to punch to death. They're backed up by a Ravenwing Command Squad attached to a big brick of Outriders The bike brick makes a handy unit to throw forward first turn, obliging the opponent to do something about it, and if that something is shooting playing Ride Hard, Ride Fast to debuff their shooting into that unit for the turn. It's a lot of wounds to chew through, wounds that will come back 4 per turn if the opponent doesn't at least pick up all the Outriders. Likely they'll only get that one chance, because by the next turn the Deathwing Knights and ICCs should be in position to mix it up with the opponent's units.
Supporting the core of the list is an assortment of Jump Intercessor, Van-Vets, and Incursors, that can go hold objectives, score Secondaries, or skirmish with opposing tech pieces as needed. There's also the obligatory Intercessor Squad to sit on the backfield objective, and a squad of Scouts, a Callidus Assassin, and the Combi-Lieutenant for utility work. I am going to raise an eyebrow at the Incursors, who are usually included in a list to buff shooting, but this list barely has any shooting to speak of. They do make a decent skirmishing unit with their combat knives, but it's not like Space Marines lack for decent skirmishing units. Maybe ,Jindřich just likes them, or maybe he's operating within some fairly tight model restrictions.
This event used WTC scoring. Jindřich had his highest score in the 1st round, going 18-2 against Votann Oathband. 2nd round he squeaked out an 11-9 win against another Dark Angels Stormlance. 3rd round was his 10-10 draw against Virulent Vectorium Death Guard. 4th round was his 8-12 loss against Renegade Raiders Chaos Marines. 5th round he ended with a win, 11-9 against an Aeldari Warhost. Good show Jindřich!
I'm not going to do a full list review for this one, but in the course of my research I stumbled across one Dark Angels Wrath list that scored a 100-100 tie against a Blood Angels Liberator list. It was played by Dalton Rupert at The PNW Warlord's TACOMA OPEN PREP GT. Dalton went 2-2-1, with his last game being the tie, and I did a double take when I saw that 100 was blue on BCP. I'm inclined to wonder if he and his opponent realized that game was going that way at the bottom of Turn 3 and just decided to make sure it happened. No shade either way, it's just such a wild result to see. Ties are unusual enough, but a 100-100 tie blows my mind.
Statistics
Scoring lists notwithstanding, it was another bad weekend for Dark Angels overall. 42 players played 208 games and won 82 of them, for a dismal 39% win rate. We had 5 X/0-X/1 results and 1 event win. We were 4th from the bottom, beating out only Space Wolves, T'au, and Imperial Agents, who really aren't a standalone faction.
The most played detachment by a long way was the Wrath of the Rock, with 29 players who only managed a 37% win rate. 2 of the X-results were Wrath lists. More players played Wrath lists than all the other detachments combined.
Tied for second most played detachment was the Gladius, with 5 players scoring a dreadful 32% win rate.
The Stormlance was the other detachment tied for second most played, with 5 players who managed a less-bad-but-still-bad 42% win rate.
One nostalgic person played an Ironstorm and went 1-4 for a 20% win rate.
And then there was the Company of Hunters, which raked in a 100% win rate! That will happen when only 2 people play it and they both go 5-0.
Factions/Detachments To Watch Out For
The big three factions that jumped out at me from the Meta Monday data are Imperial Knights, Death Guard, and Chaos Knights.
Imperial Knights had 80 players who scored a 55% win rate, 4 event wins, and 20 X-results. That last statistic is nuts, because it means 1 in 4 Knight players came within 1 game placing at the top of their events. Knights are still an Index faction and everyone played the Index detachment.
Death Guard had 101 players who scored a 53% win rate, but took in a whopping 22 X-results and 7 event wins. The two most played and most successful detachments were with Virulent Vectorium, with 48 players, a 53% win rate, 8 X-results and 2 event wins; and Mortarion's Hammer, with 26 players who took a 51% win rate, 7 X-results, and 4 event wins.
Chaos Knights were also unreasonably winny. 53 players scored a 54% win rate, 13 X-results, and 2 event wins. The vast majority of those high-scoring lists were from the Lords of Dread detachment, with 21 players scoring a 68% win rate, 9 X-results, and the 2 event wins.
Feels like Games Workshop may have buffed both the Knights factions just a little too much.
That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. I'd like to thank Meta Monday for their statistical collection and analysis. I did my own data collection for the Dark Angels detachments, but I used their figures for discussion of other factions. Check out Dank List Wargaming on YouTube for this kind of Dark Angels-focused content in video format, and Black Crow Gaming for more general 40K informative videos - but still with a fair bit of DA-specific content. I hope you find my work fun and informative and that it helps you improve your performance. May we all strive to be ever victorious. For The Lion!
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