Chapter Update: 8/25/2025

Hello battle brethren! Another week has gone by, and I'm pleased to bring you news of the lists that did well over the weekend. We have five lists to look at, all of them Wrath of the Rock lists, plus an honorable mention to a Company of Hunters list that went 4-2. Without further ado, let's look at some lists!

The first list we're looking at was played by Kyle McCord of Midwest Monstars at The 40k Circuit Breaker - A Warhammer 40k GT, a 5-round, 32 player event held in Indianola, Indiana. Kyle's Wrath list went 4-0-1 and took 1st place! It's always a pleasure to see a Dark Angels list be an event winner. You' can see Kyle's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below. 

Angels of the Blazing Mace
Azrael - Warlord
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky las-missile boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky las-missile boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Vanguard Veterans with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys
Vanguard Veterans with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys
Vanguard Veterans with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys

Kyle's list is admirably simple. He decided that Azrael, Deathwing Knights, Centurion Devastators, and Vanguard Veterans are all good, and took a lot of them. Spamming effective units is a proven way to win games, both because the units are cost-effective and because it simplifies your decision making process.

If you're reading this, why one would take Deathwing Knights likely needs no explanation. I imagine Kyle took Vanguard Veterans instead of Jump Intercessors or Outriders because Van Vets have the Deathwing keyword, and so therefore have the larger lala-charge threat range when Kyle uses Leonine Aggression. 

Kyle's choice of Centurion Devastators shows the advantage of having a deep collection. A squad of 3 of them costs the same number of points as a Gladiator Lancer, but being Toughness 7 4-wound 2+ save Infantry are arguably tougher, can walk through walls, and can be targeted with the Relics of the Dark Age strat to boost their lascannons to Strength 14 and their Centurion missile launchers to Strength 11. Plus, with built-in To Hit rerolls on all their guns and their lascannons being twin linked, they pack more effective anti-big-thing firepower than a Lancer. With two of these units plus a full 6-man Eradicator Squad, Kyle had plenty of units to use the Relics strat on and was well prepared to face a Knights meta. 

The rest of Kyle's list was pretty simple. He's got Azrael to generate CP, and a unit of Sternguard to attach him to for a unit he can use for troubleshooting. With most of his list not really needing Oath, he can freely put Oath on whatever he wants Azrael's unit to hit. He's got a unit of Intercessors to mind his backfield objective, and a unit of Scouts and the Combi-Lieutenant to score Secondaries for him. Clearly it worked for him, as he took 1st place at his event. 

Kyle started the event strong with a respectable 91-65 win against Subterranean Nids. 2nd round he drubbed Pactbound Chaos Marines 78-46. 3rd round he bodied Vehemence Black Templars 94-55. 4th round he got a comfortable 80-65 against Hallowed Sororitas. In the 5th round he had that rarest of results, an 82-82 draw against VirVec Death Guard played by his teammate. Congratulations on the win Kyle!

Our next list comes from Geekfest - Summer Heat - Warhammer 40K GT, a 5-round, 42 player event held in Shearwater, Nova Scotia. Evan Sutherland of Halifax privateers went 4-1 with his Wrath of the Rock list and took 3rd place. Here's Evan's list on BCP. Let's check it out below.

write a witty title about this 40K list (I like the cut of your jib Evan!)
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Heavy Intercessor Squad: 5 chonky bolter boys
Heavy Intercessor Squad: 5 chonky bolter 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

For starters, there are a lot of the units we expect to see in a Wrath list. Lion Dad, Azrael, Deathwing Knights, Inner Circle Companions are all frequent contestants in our game. Azrael is presumably being paired with the Inner Circle Companions. The Captain could be attached to them, but he doesn't do much for the squad, and the squad doesn't do much for him, whereas Azrael buffs the ICCs and the Assault Intercessors buff the Captain, particularly on his go turn when he's triggering his Super Saiyan mode. 

It's interesting to see Heavy Intercessors, and not just one, but two squads. They are Toughness 6 3-Wound Infantry with OC 2. They can help put OC on the expansion and midfield objective and be reasonably hard to shift, particularly when opponents have to worry about Lion Dad, Deathwing Knights, and Inner Circle Companions getting in their grill. 

For his shooting element, Evan picked a pair of Vindicators, which are an interesting choice. They're not super-long-ranged, but no opponent is going to be happy about having a pair of casino cannons lining up on their stuff. Also, the range on at least one of them can be extended with Tactical Mastery, which also allows a Charge after advancing. Vindicators may not do much in the Fight phase, but they can dish out a pretty mean Tank Shock. They're also high toughness models with a 2+ save, so will be a nuisance to pick up. And, with their main guns being Strength 14 in the first place, they're wounding anything in the game on a 3+, and since Evan can't play the Relics strat on them anyway, he removes a temptation to spend CP on something his list isn't really designed for anyway. 

For utility units, Evan has the usual Scout Squad and Combi-Lieutenant. I suspect the Combi-Lieutenant is Evan's primary backfield objective holder, so his Heavy Intercessors can go out onto midfield objectives and force opponents to make challenging target priority decisions. 

For his game performance, Evan got off to a strong start in the 1st round, stuffing Awakened Necrons 86-42. 2nd round he scored a respectable 73-53 against Daemonkin World Eaters. 3rd round he had a tight 69-64 against Flyblown Death Guard. 4th round he drubbed Ascension Genestealer Cult 89-58. Unfortionately he had a 5th round 72-89 loss against Gladius Black Templars (which was the event-winning list). However, that does mean he went 4-0 in the first 4 rounds, which is a metric Stat-check.com tracks. Well done Evan!

Our next list comes from the Hammer of Wrath GT held in Cypress, California, a 5-round, 39 player event. David Labovitch of 2 Hour Lunch went 4-1 with his Wrath list and took 4th place. Here's David's list on BCP. Let's discuss it below.

Wrathful assault
Azrael - Warlord
Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Impulsor
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy 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
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Incursor Squad: 5 shooting-buffy boys
Infernus Squad: 5 burny boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys

Well, no Lion Dad or ICCs in this list. Instead it's got three squads of Deathwing Knights, one of which has swords. That's clearly the squad the Terminator Chaplain gets attached to, with Deathwing Assault for a Turn 1 Deep Strike. Sword Knights with the Chaplain will wound most things the same as or better than mace Knights with more attacks, so that's not a package opponents will be happy to take delivery of. Three units of Deathwing Knights, plus Azrael with the Sternguard, are more than enough punchy units to present a serious Fight phase threat. 

David doesn't have any long range shooting in this list, but his short range shooting is formidable. He's got three units of 3 Eradicators, plus a full squad of 10 Sternguard for Azrael to join. Eradicators will do a number on any Monster or Vehicle they get close to, and are a good target for Relics if David needs to put them into a big target. I suspect he puts two units in Reserves and has one unit huddle behind a wall near mid-board, because opponents are going to have to approach that center objective sometime. They present a good Overwatch threat too if the appropriate units move within 18" of them.

The Infernus Squad is an interesting choice. I suspect they ride in the Impulsor, but I might be wrong about that, because a case could be made for the Incursors. I suppose they grant a fairly intimidating Overwatch threat to light infantry, and David might have them to clear chaff for units coming out of Reserves. It would be a nuisance to have his Eradicators not be able to come in where he wants them because some Cultists were hanging out near the edge of the table. I'm not sure it's how I would have allocated those points, but David did go 4-1, so he seems to know what he's about. Maybe his meta has a lot of Genestealer Cult players.

Speaking of Incursors - another interesting choice. I think the purpose for them is clearer to me. Their main job is probably buffing the Sternguard's shooting. With Azrael attached, if David has the Sternguard shoot at a target the Incursors have lit up for them, he can fish for those Sustained Hits 6's secure in the knowledge that he's not going to miss out on many non-Sustained hits by doing so. The Incursors can also stand in a space to score positional Secondaries, have that Haywire mine, and are decently choppy against chaff in the Fight phase.

The usual utility units are present: Intercessors, Combi-Lieutenant, Scouts. The Impulsor can also be tasked to utility work once the Infernus burny boys are out indulging in their productive pyromania. 

David had a strong start in the 1st round with a solid 94-67 against Kroot Hunting Pack T'au Empire (and I was skeptical about the Infernus Marines!). 2nd round he scored a convincing 95-67 against Imperial Knights. 3rd round he dished out a 97-65 drubbing against Banishers Grey Knights. 4th round he took a punishing 55-94 loss against MortHam Death Guard. He bounced back though for a solid 93-78 win against Stormlance Dark Angels, coincidentally keeping that list out of this blog entry, as it went 3-2. Good show David!

Our fourth list for this week was played at Second City Games 40K GT August, a 5-round, 27 player event held in Chicago, Illinois. James Tilley of Rising Tide Games went 4-1 with his Wrath list and took 3rd place. Here's James' list on BCP. Discussion follows below. 

The innerest circle v2
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain in Gravis Armour: Ancient Weapons
Librarian
Librarian
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Aggressor Squad: 3 chonky flamey fisty boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys

Obviously the most remarkable thing we're looking at here is the pair of Inner Circle Companion squads. Most lists use one squad, but James went with 12 of the spooky boys. That gives the list not only a lot of -1 to Wound, but also rather a lot of -1 To Hit. He paid for the extra ICCs by only having one squad of Deathwing Knights, but it seems to have worked for him.

James invested in a pair of bog-standard Librarians to attach to the ICCs. They don't add much to the squads beyond the 4+ Invulnerable save, but that's a pretty big add, and ICCs don't really need a lot of extra help punching up into things. There's also a consideration that I'll get into shortly.

James doesn't have a lot of shooting in this list. The squad of Sternguard Veterans is most of his shooting, and it does most of its work through Devastating Wounds. Azrael is the obvious choice to attach to the Sternguard. That said, I recently messed with a similar setup to James' list, but with just one ICC squad and one Librarian, with the idea that I could opt to attach a Librarian to the Sternguard if I want them to start in Strategic Reserve. The reason for this consideration was the Knights matchup. I could have the Sternguard pop out of reserve within Rapid Fire range of a Knight I wanted to make go away without either sacrificing them having an Invulnerable save or Azrael being on the table generating Command Points. In that case, I'd attach Azrael to the ICCs. Also, a Librarian's Focused Smite Attack is D6 shots with D3 Damage and Devastating Wounds, so he has good synergy with Sternguard as well as Azrael. 

Also interesting to see are the pair of small Ravenwing Knight squads and the Gravis Captain and the small squad of Aggressors. I see the Aggressors mostly as a delivery vehicle for the Ancient Weapons Gravis Captain, but they're not a bad little unit on their own. Their flamestorm gauntlets can clear some chaff, and they have some twin linked power fist attacks to bash things with. The Black Knights are also a unit with the potential to punch up a little bit, between a bunch of plasma shots and their Black Knight combat weapons.

James started the list out with a bang, crushing Ascension Stealer Cult 100-50 in the 1st round. 2nd round he took a rough 36-70 loss against Martyrs Sororitas. 3rd round he bounced back with a 90-46 drubbing of Subterranean Nids. 4th round he similarly brutalized Warhost Aeldari 95-55. He ended the event brutalizing Liberator Blood Angels 99-22. Good job James!

For our last list this week, let's look at ClumsyOrcStudios' Matt Stratton's Wrath list, which went 4-1 with and placed 7th at EG Grand Slam 40k GT 2025 Aug 23rd/24th, a 5-round, 44-player event held in Stockport, England. You can see Matt's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below. 

Rock on
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Apothecary: Tempered in Battle
Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Ancient Weapons
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
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying plasma boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying plasma boys

The first thing about this list that stuck out for me is the pair of Terminator Chaplains. Their presence made me really expect a pair of sword Deathwing Knight squads, but they have maces instead. That leads me to think they may be a provision for the Death Guard matchup, because going into Death Guard you can expect to have to deal with Toughness 7 Deathshroud Terminators. That said, if you're going to attach Chaplains to your DWK squads, you'd think you'd want sword Knights, because the only thing you wouldn't be wounding on 4's with that package would be Toughness 12 targets, which are pretty rare. Limitations in Matt's collection may be at play as well. Just because it might be better to have the sword Knights doesn't mean Matt can instantly conjure them up fully assembled and painted.

Matt's list has a lot of the units we've come to expect in a Wrath list - Lion Dad, Azrael, Deathwing Knights, Intercessors for minding that backfield objective. He's got a lot of jump pack units for a Dark Angels list, with two squads of Jump Intercessors and two squads of Inceptors. These are his utility units, with the Inceptors doing double-duty as shooting units as needed. Between them, the squad of Eradicators, and the Hellblasters, Matt is well-supplied with shooting units to use the Relics strat on. 

The Apothecary is an interesting choice. We don't see them very often because it's challenging to make them worth the investment. Matt would have to have him revive three Hellblasters to make him worth his points, and between opponents' shooting and their propensity to kill themselves with their own weapons, luck would have to be with you for them to survive three rounds of opponents trying to make them go away. Lion Dad's aura of Feel No Pain versus Mortals would help with that, but for a number of reasons I think a Lieutenant would be a better investment. 

Matt had a strong 1st round, drubbing Ascension Stealer Cult 99-64. 2nd round he manhandled a Chaos Daemons Incursion 91-52.  Chaos Daemons came back for more in the 3rd round, and this time the Plague Legion handed Matt a brutal 28-99 defeat. 4th round he bounced back, winning a mirror match with a comfortable 83-68. 5th round he ended the event with a solid 79-65 against Renegade Chaos Marines. Good show Matt!

I'm not going to do the full list analysis because this one falls outside of the parameters I use, but I'd like to give an honorable mention to our brethren James Walsh of Coors Light Saedath, who went 4-2 with his Company of Hunters list and placed 15th out of 109 at the Utah Cup '25 - Warhammer 40K event. Feel free to check out James' list on BCP. Good show James!

Statistics

Over the weekend 25 players played Dark Angels lists at GTs or bigger events, playing 123 games and winning 56 of them for a 46% win rate, which is pretty lackluster. We had 4 X-results and 1 event win, giving us an X-Rep score of 1.25, which is a little over average. 

The most played detachment was, again, the Wrath of the Rock, with all of the high performing lists using this detachment. It was used by 21 players who scored an underwhelming 43% win rate.

Three players used the Stormlance, netting a 53% win rate, but no high-scoring lists.

Our man James Walsh was the only player using the Company of Hunters. Going 4-2 netted him a 67% win rate.

Factions to Watch Out For

Imperial Knights are the biggest bully of the meta at the moment, with 47 players who scored a 55% win rate. They racked up 14 X-results, 1 event win, and an X-Rep score of 2.06, which means they were more than twice as likely to score an X-result than the overall game average. It looks like the points hikes for them hadn't taken effect yet for the events of the weekend. We'll have to see how they do next weekend.

Death Guard were still a rash on the top rankings, with 59 players, a 52% win rate, 13 X-results, 4 event wins, and an X-Rep score of 1.52. As usual, the VirVec and MortHam detachments split most of the player base and X-results, but two of the event wins were had with the Champions of Contagion detachment.

Custodes and Aeldari both had over 30 players and X-Rep scores above 1.6. Lions of the Emperor was the most played Custodes detachment by far, with 24 players using it to take 6 of the 7 X-results. As for Aeldari, most players used either the Warhost or Aspect Host, with 6 of the 8 X-results coming from one of those detachments.

That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. Be sure to check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crow Gaming over on YouTube for videos created by more of our honorable brethren. I hope you enjoyed this article and that it helps you achieve glorious victory in your games. For The Lion!