Chapter Update: 8/4/2025

Hello battle brethren! It was a weekend with less events than the previous one, but there are still some noteworthy results to discuss. One of our august company went undefeated at a 6-round event, and we had a number of other good results, so let's take a look at the lists that did well, both to celebrate the accomplishments of our brethren and to see what we can learn from their lists.

Our undefeated player is James Walsh of Coors Light Saedith, who went 5-0-1 to take 2nd place at ECDC Present: The Big Sky Open 2025, a 6-round, 71 player event held in Great Falls, Montana. You can see James' list on BCP.  We'll discuss it below.

Dark Angels - Still D Tier
Ravenwing Command Squad: Warlord
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre 
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Ballistus Dreadnought
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky grav-missile shooty boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky grav-missile shooty boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 chonky grav-missile shooty boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike

Once again, James is displaying the benefit of having a deep collection, being able to leverage those Centurion Devastators in what is likely the twilight of their time as part of the Space Marine range. They are a ferocious shooting platform with their own built-in rerolls. They're also a difficult unit to pick up, being Toughness 7 and 4 wounds with a 2+ save. One would think the twin lascannon would be a more conventional pick, but the grav cannons doubtless serve James well against the Knight lists he no doubt plays into with some frequency, and mass 3-damage shooting is going to be good into a lot of targets besides just Monsters and Vehicles. Besides, he's also got the Ballisti and the Hammerstrikes to put into anything grav cannons might we weak into. 

The Ballistus Dreadnoughts as his other main shooting platform give James firepower to put into the few things the CentDevs are weak into. Like the CentDevs, they also bring their own To Hit rerolls to the table, freeing James to put Oath on something he's going to hit with his Hammerstrikes or his bikes. Between the CentDevs and the Ballisti, James' list is also a bit of a stat-check for opponents, as they present them a lot of high-toughness 2+ save platforms to try and shoot through. Getting at them with assault units is probably tricky to say the least, as James can screen them with his bikes and his Hammerstrikes. 

Speaking of the Hammerstrikes, I think they're the best value of the Storm Speeder platforms. They can put out a frightening amount of Strength 9 high damage shooting, and can pick a unit they hit with an attack to strip Cover from. That's doutbless handy to James' grav-packing Cents in particular, as the big downside to grav cannons is low AP. Stripping Cover keeps opponents from getting their full saves against the grav cannons. Plus, they're fast, they have Fly, and they're big enough to be a nuisance to get around, so they can block approaches to James' firebase.

To go forth and cause mayhem, James chose 3 Ravenwing Command Squads with 3 Outrider Squads to attach them to. They make a pretty good fast assault package, with a lot of decent-to-good attacks on the charge, and of course they are free to act however James needs them to as long as they're on the table. Advance, Fall Back, shoot, charge, they can do it all, all the time in this detachment. The only thing they may be constrained from doing is actions, and James has other units for that. 

For utility units, James has 2 squads of Scouts and the ATV. Scouts are valuable to keep lanes of advance open at the beginning of the game, and then can do uppy-downy scoring shenanigans. I suspect the ATV is James' backfield objective minder. It's cheaper than even Assault Intercessors, it'll be reasonably hard to pick up, and if it's advantageous to do so James has the option of stickying the objective with Hunter's Trail and uppying the ATV with Rapid Reappraisal.

If you're wondering about the lack of Azrael, it's because the Company of Hunter's stratagems are kind of lackluster. The strength of the list is its very spicy detachment rule. Azrael would be nice to have, but not vital.

1st round James crushed Warpbane Grey Knights 97-35. 2nd round he predictably slaughtered Dread Chaos Knights 100-38. 3rd round he inflicted a bruising 95-55 against Imperial Knights. 4th round was his 80-80 draw against Grand Cover Thousand Sons. 5th round he murdered Reaper's Wager Drukhari 100-51.  In the 6th round he faced Reaper's Wager Drukhari again, this time only winning by a modest 9 point margin, 80-71. Woohoo! Undefeated! Well done James!

Joining James in the top brackets, we have four lists that went X/1. The first of these we'll look at was played at the Kent Major 2025, a 6-round, 108 player event held in England (presumably in Kent). Matt Barney of Team Hivemind went  4-1-1 and took 10th place with his Wrath of the Rock list. Here's Matt's list on BCP. Let's take a look at this thing. 

DA - Wrath v03
Azrael - Warlord
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Sammael
Ballistus Dreadnought
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Predator Annihilator
Predator Annihilator
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 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
Callidus Assassin

Matt is a mean person. I say this because he went with the full 15 Deathwing Knights in his list. That tells me he wants to watch the light go out of his opponents' eyes as they struggle to chew through fifteen 4-wound models with 2+/4++, -1 to Wound, and -1 Damage. Why are you so mean Matt?

Obviously I'm kidding, but the durability of Deathwing Knights in a Wrath list is no joke. Matt decided to lean into it, as opposed to settling for 10 DWKs, and supplementing them with Lion Dad, or a Judiciar and ICCs for some Fights First.

For some long-ranged firepower, Matt went with a Ballistus and a pair of Predator Annihilators. The Predators are a little cheaper than a Ballistus, and better into T10+ targets, which I'm certain helps when Matt faces Knights of either stripe. Against that, they're not quite as tough, but opponents are going to have to throw everything they've got into trying to pick up his Deathwing Knights, so that probably doesn't matter as much. Matt has to use Oath to get them To Hit rerolls, but his DWKs largely don't need Oath, so there's not much reason not to, and assuming they convert, getting to reroll Damage rolls will make them consistent damage dealers. 

Also a prominent unit choice in Matt's list are his two squads of Vanguard Vets. At 95 points a squad, it's pretty hard to go wrong with them. Being able to give them storm shields makes them much more durable than Jump Intercessors, and they'll do more damage in the Fight phase too. 

To go over Matt's other units, he's got Sternguard for Azrael to join, and Outriders for Sammy to join. Outriders make a nice delivery vehicle and buff provider for Sammy. When his Sustained Hits 2 pops off and he's got that Outrider buff to AP and damage, he can really cut a swath through elite infantry.  Finally, he's got the Combi-Lieutenant, one squad of Scouts, and the Callidus Assassin. I'm guessing Matt has either the Scouts or Combi-Lieutenant mind his backfield objective - probably the Combi-Lieutenant, if only because he can't be targeted with Indirect, and he can scuttle away if an opponent somehow gets a unit close, potentially denying a Charge move onto the objective. Scouts and the Callidus can do uppy-downy Secondary scoring, plus the Callidus has that Vect aura to mess with opponents' stratagem usage. 

Matt not only went X/1, but he also won his first four games. 4-0 event starts is a metric covered by Stat-check.com, and we aren't getting too many of those at the moment. 

Matt started strong with a 1st round 92-77 against Berserker World Eaters. 2nd round he solidly beat Dread Chaos Knightsn 90-61.  3rd round he squeaked out a 77-73 win against VirVec Death Guard. 4th round he improved his margin against VirVec DG, 81-60. 5th round he scored a 74-74 draw against Infernal Lance Chaos Knights. 6th round was his loss, a heartbreaking 71-72 against Imperial Knights. Well fought Matt!

The next list I'd like to take a look at is Karl Dowling's Wrath of the Rock list, which he used to place 5th at Loch ' n Load GT2, a 5-round, 36 player event held in North Kessock, Scotland. You can see Karl's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below. 

lnl2
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Judiciar: Ancient Weapons
Techmarine
Bladeguard Veteran Squad: 6 awesome swordy-boardy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Desolation Squad: 5 missile boys
Infernus Squad: 5 flamey boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator

This is an interesting and eclectic mix of units. There are the ones we expect to see: Lion Dad, Azrael, Deathwing Knights, Inner Circle Companions, even Bladeguard are not that unusual to see in a list. Then there's the Techmarine, the Desolators, and the Inferni. Instead of taking multiples of consistent performers, Karl gave himself a variety of tools, and there is something to be said for that approach. I think the Desolators and the Inferni are in the list to give Karl a couple of good units to use Relics of the Dark Age on. Bumping the Inferni's pyerblasters to Strength 7, or the Desolators' various guns to Strength 6, 9, and 12 as appropriate will certainly come in handy at times. 

Then there's the Techmarine. I wouldn't think a single Vindicator would rate a Techmarine for support, but he does buff its shooting and gets Lone Op while in proximity to it, and then Lion Dad can get Lone Op while in proximity to the Techmarine. The Techmarine also has one of the few flat Damage 3 melee attacks in Codex: Space Marines. Actually, now that I think if it, it would be funny to give Ancient Weapons to the Techmarine, giving him a Damage 3 Omnissian power axe and Damage 4 servo arm attack. I suppose the Darkshroud is also in the list to support the Vindicator, and likely Lion Dad when someething is close enough to shoot him. It still seems like a lot of support for one Vindicator - two, sure, but one? Karl could have had a second Vindicator for the cost of that Desolator Squad and gotten some points back in the exchange. I'd argue the Vindicator gives better value than the Desolators, but Karl did go 4-1 with this list.

It's odd that Karl only took one unit of Deathwing Knights, but between that one unit, the Inner Circle Companions, the Bladeguard, and Lion Dad, he certainly doesn't lack for melee threats. I figure the Ancient Weapons Judiciar gets attached to the Bladeguard and Azrael to the Inner Circle Companions. That spreads the 4+ Invulnerable Saves around, and the Bladeguards' Swords of the Chapter ability benefits the Judiciar when its active. It makes the squad need Oath less too. 

1st round Karl started strong with a comfortable 92-63 against Conceited Emperor's Children. 2nd round he managed a modest 76-62 against Champions of Contagion Death Guard. 3rd round he suffered a bruising 58-95 against a Space Wolves Gladius. Conceited Emperor's Children must be popular in Scotland, and Karl improved with practice into them, crushing another such list 97-33. 5th round Karl ended with a squeaked out 61-56 against Berserker World Eaters. Good job stuffing those heretics Karl!

Our fourth list was played at the One Thicc Grand Tournament at Motor City Gaming event held in Detroit, Michigan, a 5-round, 54 player event. Josh Swantk of One Thicc Coat went 4-1 and placed 7th with his Wrath of the Rock list. You can find Josh's list on BCP, and we'll check it out below. 

Wrath
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
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
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy

Apparently, like Matt, Josh is also a mean person, because he also went with three squads of Deathwing Knights. Maybe he's meaner, because he also included Lion Dad! It's hard to argue with those units, but it is over half his points, so he had to be pretty discerning with the rest of his list. 

Most of the rest of his list is pretty conventional. There's the pair of Ballisti for a long-range shooting threat, the Combi-Lieutenant, Infiltrators to mind the backfield objective, an ATV and Jump Intercessors to score secondaries. Josh may have preferred Van Vets, but couldn't afford the extra 5 points, and Jump Intercessors do have those impact Mortals they can do.

To me the most interesting thing is the Hellblasters Squad. I do love me Azrael and some Hellblasters, and they give Josh a pretty solid unit to use the Relics strat on, but their are issues with the unit too. They are apt to degrading themselves as you use them, though maybe Josh is using Lion Dad to mitigate that with his FNP vs Mortals aura. They're also only 2-wound models with no damage mitigation beyond the detachment rule and Azzy's Invulnerable save. Also, being inherently Strength 8 when overcharged means Relics takes them up to Strength 10, which does not improve their ability to wound big Knights, which is what I'm currently more concerned about going into. I suppose Josh has that pretty well covered with three squads of macey DWKs and Lion Dad. He just has to run them up and punch them to death.

Josh had a rocky start, with a low-scoring 38-48 loss against Pactbound Chaos Marines. Those scores are so low, I'm inclined to wonder if they played all 5 rounds or clocked out. Anyway, Josh regrouped though, squeaking out an 86-84 win against Ultramarines Gladius. 3rd round he scored a comfortable 83-54 against War Horde Orks. 4th round he scored a similarly comfortable 86-61 against an Ultramarines Ironstorm. He ended strong with a 5th round 78-64 against Imperial Knights, proving he's got that matchup handled. Well done Josh!

Our last list of note from the weekend was played at Nightwolf's Major 40K Solo Tournament, a 5-round, 30 player event held in Quebec, Canada. Kevin Bonneau of Quebec Segmentum went 3-1-1 with his Wrath of the Rock list. I briefly debated whether or not to include it, but it is an X/1 result, so that settled my doubts. You can see Kevin's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below. 

Rules Keep Ultramarines Organized; Lions Keep Enemies Dead (best list name of the week!)
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Librarian: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
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
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

We've already discussed a lot of the units in this list, so I'm mostly just going to gloss over them. Two units of Deathwing Knights seems to be the norm for a Wrath list, and Lion Dad rarely fails to appear in one. The Combi-Lieutenant, Infiltrators, Scouts, and Invader are all in there for the usual reasons. 

One point of interest for me is the use of Gladiator Lancers for long-range shooting instead of Ballisti. I think one can safely say that Lancers present a more serious threat to larger targets than Ballisti do, between their laser destroyers being more potent weapon than what Ballisti pack and their datasheet ability making those shots more likely to convert and spike damage, Plus, Gladiators have a whole bucket of dice they can throw at chaff, and that's often useful. The downsides are that Gladiators are more expensive, and don't have that 2+ save, so I'd be less inclined to put them on objectives as a trading piece. I'm not saying their inclusion is wrong, just that Kevin probably had different priorities than the players of our other lists.

The other interesting inclusion is a second unit of Inner Circle Companions, and a Librarian to attach to them so they get their datasheet rules and a 4+ Invulnerable save. It's a little unconventional because of how popular a Judiciar is to attach to ICCs, but Kevin does have Lion Dad in his list, and having more than one Fights First unit in a list can run into a diminishing returns problem. Giving him Ancient Weapons bumps his melee output from marginal to decent, and given that he's attached to ICCs, his melee output probably won't be a critical concern most of the time. 

On a related note, I have one unit of ICCs and a unit of 10 Sternguard in my current list. I'm attaching a Judiciar to the ICCs and Azzy to the Sternguard, but I've been toying with the idea of swapping out the Judi for a Librarian. My reasoning is that I might like to be able to have the Librarian lead the Sternguard into Knight matchups, so I can stick the Sternies in Reserve and have them pop out in Rapid Fire range of a big Knight. That way I don't lose Azzy's CP generation by sticking the Sternies in Reserve, and while the Librarian doesn't give Sustained Hits, his Focused Smite attack is a Devastating Wounds ranged attack, and would synergize nicely with Sternguard's datasheet ability. Seeing Azrael and the Librarian made me think of that.

Anyway, The Nightwolf's Major used WTC scoring - so 10-10 is a tie, 20-0 is you've blown your opponent out, 0-20 you've been blown out, and so on. As it happens, Kevin got a 1st round tie against Shield Host Custodes. 2nd round he drubbed Starshatter Necrons 16-4. 3rd round he stuffed Oathband Votann 18-2. 4th round he similarly bodied another Oathband Votann list 17-3. Sadly, his loss came in the 5th round, a fairly close 8-12 against Taktikal Orks. Well done Kevin!

Statistics

It was a borderline good weekend for Dark Angels. We had 29 players who played 137 games and won 65 of them, for a 47% win rate, which isn't great, but it's okay. We didn't have any event wins, but we did get 5 X-results. Our X-Rep score is 1.2, which is above the overall average.

We only played 4 detachments over the weekend. At a rate of more than double all the others combined, we've got the Wrath of the Rock, with 20 players scoring a 47% win rate and 4 X-results.

Three players played the Company of Hunters, scoring a 67% win rate and picking up an X-result.

Three players played the Gladius, scoring a 47% win rate.

One poor sinner played a Vanguard, and went 0-5.

Factions/Statistics to Watch Out For

Death Guard topped the meta last weekend, with 78 players scoring a 58% win rate, picking up 19 X-results and 4 event wins. They got an X-Rep score of 1.7. Once again, Mortarion's Hammer and Virulent Vectorium between them split the majority of players, X-results, and event wins. Death Guard are toxic to the meta and are overdue to get reigned in.

Imperial Knights came next, with 47 players who scored a 56% win rate and 12 X-results, with an X-Rep score of 1.8.

Thousand Sons had a pretty respectable 35 players, who scored a 50% win rate, 6 X-results, and 1 event win. Their X-Rep score was 1.2.

Chaos Knights had 55 players, scored a 49% win rate, 7 X-results, and 2 event wins. They have an X-Rep score of 0.9, which isn't too unreasonable. Infernal Lance was the most popular and successful detachment, with 28 players, a 53% win rate, 5 X-results, and the 2 event wins. Lords of Dread had 22 players, a 47% win rate, and 2 X-results.

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. I hope you enjoy my work and find it helpful. May you strive ever for glorious victory. For The Lion!