Chapter Update 9/1/2025
We'll start at La Voz Open 2025, a 5-round, 146 player event held in Lugo, Spain. David Sagüés went 3-1-1 with his Wrath of the Rock list, scoring 29th place. You can see David's list on BCP. We'll analyze it below.
Ángeles Oscuros LVO
Azrael - Warlord
Captain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Judiciar: Ancient Weapons
Ravenwing Command Squad: Lord of the Ravenwing
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
I like this list. David has eschewed some of the usual choices we've seen in Wrath lists, specifically Lion Dad and any kind of long range shooting units, like Ballisti or Lancers. Instead he's gone with 3 units of Deathwing Knights, which is hard to go too far wrong with. He's included a Captain to attach to one of the squads, giving him the Deathwing Assault enhancement so he can drop a unit of DWKs in his opponent's grill 1st turn. Personally, I'd have included a Chaplain instead to help the swordy boys punch up, but the upsides to David's choice are discounted strats (if he can keep the Captain alive) and he can attach him to whichever squad would be most advantageous given the matchup, rather than having an automatic choice.
For a Fights First choice, David has the Inner Circle Companions with the Ancient Weapons Judiciar. I personally think they're a better choice for a Leonine Aggression threat because they have the Deathwing keyword, whereas Lion Dad does not (which is ridiculous but nobody asked me). They're a little cheaper too, and they have a higher damage ceiling.
This list doesn't have any long range shooting, but it does have a couple significant shooting threats. The first is the Sternguard, doubtless led by Azrael. Ideally you want them within 12" of their target, but they can pretty reliably pick things up within that envelope, and then you can have them charge something to good effect too. Then there's the Ravenwing Knights (plus the Command Squad), who have a 12" Move and 18" range on the plasma talons. Ideally you'd want them within 9" for Rapid Fire, but even if you can't, very few opponents are going to be happy to have that unit open up on one of their units. They do make a nice unit to use the Relics strat on, and they also have a pretty good activation in the Fight phase if you can get them there.
David's utility units are Intercessors, Infiltrators, and a pair of Scout Squads. These are all solid choices. I think the Infiltrators probably come forward with the Deathwing Knights to zone out 6" Deep Strike shenanigans, with the Intercessors minding the backfield objective, and Scouts doing uppy-downy scoring work.
1st round David got off to a good start with a comfortable 62-39 against Ascension Genestealer Cult. 2nd round he had an 85-85 draw against Kauyon T'au. 3rd round he had a close 90-79 against MortHam Death Guard. 4th round he took a crushing 32-95 loss against MortHam Death Guard. He bounced back for a 5th round 78-52 win against Martyrs Sororitas. Well done David!
The other list to make the cut was played by Lennert Janssens of No Opinion, whose Wrath of the Rock list went 3-1-1 at the Belgian Open WH40K, scoring 19th out of 64 players. You can see Lennert's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
Crypta Leonum
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: Tempered in Battle
Sammael
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Impulsor
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
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
We've got Lion Dad back in this list, with a Combi-Lieutenant for him to stand next to and trigger his Lone Op. You have to be careful with Lion Dad, but just his presence on the table can be very intimidating for opponents. The opportunity cost for having him is that Lennert could only afford 2 Deathwing Knight squads, but he has enough other melee threats in the list to make up for it.
Said melee threats consist of Sammy with the Outriders, and the two squads of Sternies with Azrael and the Ancient Weapons Captain attached. Shooting output wise, there's not much difference between one squad of 10 Sternguard and two squads of 5. Lennert misses out on a few Sustained Hits, but the flipside is he gets discounted strats, plus full rerolls on his go turn with the Ancient Weapons Captain.
Lennert's other shooting threat is the Eradicator Squad. Personally I might have divided this up into two units of 3 and have them pop out of Reserves on subsequent turns, playing the Relics strat on them as appropriate, but the upside of the squad of 6 is that you get more bang out of playing Relics on them.
Lennert's utility units are the Intercessors, the Scout Squad, the Combi-Lieutenant, and the Impulsor. The Impulsor does have a primary job, which is doubtless toting the Captain and his Sternies up the field, but once they've gotten out, Lennert can task it to doing Secondary work.
This event used WTC scoring. 1st round Lennert squeezed out an 11-9 win against Webway Aeldari. 2nd round he took his loss, 8-12 against Aspect Host Aeldari. 3rd round he had his draw, 10-10 against Ascension Genestealer Cult. 4th round he handed Cybernetica Admech a 15-5 drubbing. 6th round was a close 12-8 win against Martyrs Sororitas. Good job Lennert!
Statistics
As you can imagine from a weekend that produced only two X/1 results (and pretty marginal ones at that), it was not a good weekend for Dark Angels. We had 23 players who collectively played 138 games and won 54 of them, for a dismal 42% win rate. We only had 2 X/1 results and no event wins. Our X-Rep score is 0.67, which is pretty bad. Our highest rank at NOVA Open was 66th, and that list only played 6 out of 9 games. The highest ranked Dark Angels list that played all 9 games took 99th place.
Our 11-week win percentage is an underwhelming 45%, with a total of 54 X-results. For sake of comparison, Imperial Knights had 159 X-results and Death Guard had 210 over the same period.
The most played detachment was again Wrath of the Rock, with 17 players who scored only a 41% win rate and both X-results.
The Gladius was tried by 3 players who scored a 37% win rate
The Stormlance was tried by two players who scored a 41% win rate
One player used a Librarius Conclave and managed a 67% win rate. That hero singlehandedly brought the overall win percentage up a point.
One last interesting tidbit was that there was an unusual number of ties over the weekend. I counted 7 overall. Usually there's only a handful.
Factions to Watch Out For
There wasn't such an obvious meta bully this weekend. Death Guard were still the most numerous faction by a lot, but their win rates and X-Rep scores were down to much more reasonable levels. Ditto Imperial Knights - large player base, reasonable performance numbers.
My pick for the weekend's most threatening looking faction is Necrons. They had 48 players, a 55% win rate, 10 X-results, and an X-Rep of 1.6, which is pretty high. The most menacing detachment was the Starshatter Arsenal, with 22 players, a 61% win rate, 6 of those X-results, and an X-Rep of 2.1. Necrons didn't have any event wins though.
Aeldari were the other pretty big faction of the weekend, with 63 players, a 50% win rate, 9 X-results, 4 event wins, and an X-Rep of 1.1. The detachment to be most aware of is the Aspect Host, with 27 players, 5 of the X-results, 2 event wins, and an X-rep of 1.4.
Thousand Sons and Genestealer Cults also had some pretty impressive numbers over the weekend, but their player bases are kind of low. You might not see these armies in your local meta. If you do though, they'd be well worth your time to bone up on. If you do, concentrate on Grand Coven for TSons and Host of Ascension for GSC. Those were the most played and most successful detachments for each faction.
That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. I'd like to thank Meta Monday for their work compiling statistics from the weekend. I encourage you to check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crow Gaming over on YouTube for some fun and informative content. As always, I hope you enjoy my work, and that it helps you on your quest to be ever-victorious. For The Lion!
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