Chapter Update 9/8/2025
The obvious thing to do is start with the event winning list, so that's what we're doing. That list was played at the 2025 Eagle Rock Open, a 5-round, 27 player event held in Rexburg Idaho. The list was played by James Walsh, whose Company of Hunters list is the terror of potato country. Here's James' list on BCP. Discussion is below.
DA - Ravenwing
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master Crafted Weapon - 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 extra-chonky grav-missile boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 extra-chonky grav-missile boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 extra-chonky grav-missile boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
James' list looks pretty similar to the last time we looked at it. He's got 3 Ravenwing Command Squad+Outrider squads to go forth and jail his opponents, three Ballisti and three squads of Cent Devs to blast them to bits at range, a pair of Hammerstrikes to strip cover and help with the blasting-to-bits, and a squad of Scouts and a couple of ATVs for utility work.
The combined RWCS+Outrider squads are a nuisance for opponents to deal with, because each package is 24 wounds with 18 OC that can grow back bikes if opponents don't wipe it out entirely. To make matters worse, James has access to a -1 To Hit strat, though I imagine he's not using that too much, as without Azrael generating CP he's got to be pretty conservative about how he spends it. Those combined squads are not to be underestimated in either the Shooting or the Fight phase as well, as each is packing a potential 9 plasma shots, a pile of 2-damage melee attacks, and some 3-damage melee attacks.
Centurion Devastators have been a pretty popular unit all edition, starting with being the build-around unit in the Vanguard detachment, and now we see them pretty frequently in Company of Hunters and Wrath of the Rock detachments. They certainly like being in a Company of Hunters, because being able to advance and shoot practically doubles their movement on average, and with their Toughness 7, 4 wounds, and 2+ saves are challenging to pick up. It's interesting that James is using grav cannons instead of lascannons for their main guns, but they do make sense in the Knights meta, and the successful Death Guard builds have been pretty vehicle-heavy as well. Plus, damage-3 guns are always going to be useful. Cent Devs also have a handy datasheeet ability that gives them their own built-in To Hit rerolls. They only downsides to them are relatively short range and low AP.
The Cent Devs' AP problem is mitigated by the Hammerstrikes, ensuring that opponents won't be able to take their normal saves due to cover. Plus, the Hamerstrikes are slinging a pile of Strength 9 multi-damage shots themselves, so no opponent is going to be happy to have them line up shots on their stuff. It is also occasionally handy to have units with Fly that can just hop over intervening enemy units to score Secondaries or flip objectives.
James also has the trio of Ballisti as shooting platforms. Ballisti are adequate for the price. They have decent anti-armor shooting, a handy blast profile if they need to clear chaff, are OC 4, and with 12 Toughness 10 2+ save wounds are not going to be trivial to pick up. They also have their own built in To Hit rerolls, and between them and the Cent Devs, opponents face a bit of a stat check, because James is bringing a lot of 2+ saves to the party.
James seems a little light on the utility units, with only the one Scout Squad and two ATVs. I'm almost certain the Scouts are not his backfield objective minders, because he's going to want them to hold open a lane of advance for his bike brick with the Recon Hunter-provided Scout move. That leaves an ATV as a backfield objective minder. James does have the option of stickying the objective with Hunter's Trail, and then when his opponent has committed anything he might drop on the backfield objective, he can uppy the ATV with Rapid Reappraisal and have it pop onto the board wherever would be advantageous to do so.
I'd bet a dollar most of James' CP expenditure is on Rapid Reappraisal and Grenades.
It's great when you can ride the win train all the way to the last stop like James! 1st round he scored a relatively close 100-87 against a Black Templar Gladius. 2nd round he drubbed an Aeldari Aspect Host 70-39. 3rd round he went head to head against a brethren whose lists we see frequently here, Shaun Sharp, with his Wrath list. As James was the event winner, you know how that turned out -84-75, which is a pretty close game. 4th round he spanked that most redundantly named of armies, Berserker World Eaters, 94-58. 5th round he squeaked out an 84-83 win against Oathband Votann. Congratulations James!
Next we're looking at a list that appeared at the Italian Grand Tournament - Road to Atlanta, a 5-round, 62 player event held in Pavia, Italy. Jacopo Gamba of Kobra Team went 4-1 and took 9th place with his Wrath of the Rock list. Here's Jacopo's list on BCP. Discussion follows below.
Pavia - 6 e 7 settembre
Azrael - Warlord
Lieutenant in Phobos Armour
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Ravenwing Command Squad: Ancient Weapons
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Predator Annihilator
Predator Annihilator
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Allied Unit: Canis Rex
This list is interesting, because it's a fairly solid Wrath list, and then all of a sudden it's got an expensive major Knight attached. I suppose Canis is kind of taking the place of Lion Dad in this list, because he's only 100 points more than Lion Dad, and arguably a much better use of points, with both very solid ranged and melee output, and harder to pick up. One could either plonk Canis on the expansion objective and send the rest of the army out to wreak havoc, or send him to the middle of the board to dominate the center of the table. I'm leaning towards the latter, because Canis' high-intensity las impulsor profile only has a 34" range. Plus, with a Damage 3 Sweep and a Damage 9 Strike on Freedom's Hand, you'd probably want that smashing enemy units as often as possible.
As for the rest of the list, you could really do worse than copy-pasting it and adding 400 points of stuff. Jacopo has a lot of the usual units in this list - Deathwing Knights, Azrael and Sternguard, Combi-Lieutenant, Scouts.
Jacopo doesn't have an obvious backfield objective minder. It could be the Phobos Lieutenant, and that's probably the most likely choice, but on the other hand that guy is a 55 point model with Deep Strike, so you might like to keep him in Reserve to score positional Secondaries. He'd be great to have waiting for Recover Assets or Establish Locus. The Combi-Lieutenant could get that job. He can't be targeted with Indirect unless it manages to get within 12" of him, so that would be advantageous in certain matchups. Plus, if something gets close enough to him, he can boogy away, which may mean giving up the points, but could potentially deny an opposing unit a charge onto the objective. Could be the Scouts - they can be positioned to screen out a fair bit of backfield, plus they can be uppied if holding the backfield objective doesn't really matter. Could even be the Outriders, because they could probably handle light skirmishers on their own, and can burn rubber off the objective if holding it doesn't matter.
For his long-range shooting, Jacopo went with a pair of Predator Annihilators, which is a good choice. They're a better choice for shooting at vehicles, so one is more likely to, say, pop a transport than a Ballistus is. They have the downside of being a little easier to pick up than the Ballistus, plus the Ballistus has that handy blast profile on his missile launcher for picking up chaff. I suppose Jacopo felt like he didn't need that, what with Canis having a much better chaff-clearing blast attack with the low-intensity las-impulsor profile. Plus, the Predators are a smidge cheaper than the Ballisti would have been.
It makes me happy to see the Ravenwing Command Squad, with Ancient Weapons for the Champion. Jacopo included both a full Ravenwing Black Knight squad and the previously mentioned Outrider Squad, giving him some ability to select who he pairs the Command Squad to, so he can pair to maximum advantage. Pairing them with the Outriders gives the Champion Damage 4 on the charge, which will certainly come in handy against many armies. That said, the full 9-strong Ravenwing Knight brick is a good high-output unit with solid activations in both the Shooting and Fight phases, and is a good target for the Relics strat. Plus, the Champion getting Anti-Big-Thing 4+ on his Damage 3 sword really helps him punch up. I've been using that unit in the most recent iteration of my Wrath list. They are a little vulnerable to all the Damage 3 weapons that have proliferated into the meta. I mitigate this by starting them in Reserves and then Rapid Ingressing them onto the table when I know where I'll need them. I'd imagine Jacopo does the same thing.
Jacopo started strong, crushing an Ultramarines Gladius 1st round, 100-51. 2nd round he took a bruising 30-63 loss against a T'au Kroot Hunting Pack. 3rd round he bounced back to squeak out an 85-84 win against an Ultramarines Gladius. 4th round he handily prevailed against Combined Arms Militarum 92-65. 5th round he ended strong, drubbing Seer Council Aeldari 100-62. Well done Jacopo!
Our last list for this article was played at Bedburger Scheunenkloppen, a 5-round, 46 player event held in Bedburger, Germany. Andy Jespersen of SiSu - Siegen Sustained went 3-1-1 with his Stormlance list and took 9th place. You can see Andy's list on BCP, and we'll take a look at it below.
Dark Storm Bikes IV
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Ravenwing Command Squad: Feinting Withdrawal
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Predator Annihilator
Predator Annihilator
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
This looks like a pretty serviceable Stormlance list to me. You can never go too far wrong starting off with three squads of Deathwing Knights, who do like to be in a Stormlance so they can Advance and Charge. They have Lion Dad coming with them, who can serve as a Heroic Intervention threat, or you can use his new ability to uppy-downy and the Combi-Lieutenant's ability to Infiltrate to position him such that opponents have to close with him to deal with him, putting their best units precariously within charge range of all of Andy's Deathwing Knights.
It's a good idea for a list to have at least some long-range shooting. In Andy's case he's got a pair of Predator Annihilators. These are a good tool to have to de-mech units in transports, and put some damage on bigger tougher targets so Andy's punchy units can finish them off.
Games Workshop seems to have intended the Stormlance to be for Mounted units, and Andy did include one - technically two I suppose, with a Ravenwing Command Squad and an Outrider Squad to attach it to. This can let Andy slow down opponents from getting into mid-board by bombing that thing forward and obliging opponents to deal with it before they get to the Deathwing Knights. Alternately, it's a rapid reaction unit Andy can use to shore up trouble spots as they develop. For some reason he gave the Champion Feinting Withdrawal, granting shooting after falling back. I imagine this was a case of having 10 points left to spend and not much to spend them on.
Azrael has a small squad of Sternguard to pair with. This gives Andy some ability to throw some Devastating Wounds out, and can go inflict pain in the Fight phase where some pain is needed.
Andy doesn't have much for utility units, just the Combi-Lieutenant, a squad of Scouts, and a squad of Infiltrators. This can be enough if they're husbanded carefully. The Infiltrators can mind the backfield objective and screen out a good chunk of the backfield, while the Combi-Lieutenant can be used to score Secondaries in no man's land, and the Scouts can uppy-downy to be where Andy needs them to be.
WTC scoring incoming! Andy actually had an inconclusive start, with a 1st round 10-10 against Grand Coven Thousand Sons. 2nd round he drubbed Bringers of Flame Sororitas 16-4. 3rd round he crushed Plague Legion Daemons 18-2. 4th round he took a 7-13 loss against Banishers Grey Knights. He bounced back for a comfortable 13-7 win against Starshatter Necrons. Good show Andy!
Statistics
Our statistics are a bit of a mixed bag. We had 26 players who played events with at least 20 players, playing 137 games and winning 68 of them, for a win rate just shy of 51%. We had 3 X-results and 1 event win. Our X-Rep score for the weekend is 0.77, which is under average by a fair margin.
The most played detachment was, again, Wrath of the Rock, with 15 players who scored only a 46% win rate, and picked up only one X-result.
Next most played was the Gladius, with 5 players and a 53% win rate.
The Stormlance had 3 players, a 57% win rate, and one X-result, albeit a marginal one. X/1 is still X/1 though.
Finally, the Company of Hunters had 2 players, a 73% win rate, and the event win (which is also an X-result).
Factions to Watch Out For
Aeldari are back in the top tier, with 56 players, a 55% win rate, 13 X-results, 3 event wins, and an X-Rep score of 1.57, which is quite high. The Aspect Host raked in most of that success with a 56% win rate, 8 of the X-results, and 2 of the event wins.
It would probably be worth boning up on what Space Wolves can do. They had 31 players who scored a 54% win rate, 9 X-results, 1 event win, getting an X-Rep score of 1.96, which means they're getting X-results at almost twice the rate of the overall average. The Stormlance had an 80% win rate, 3 of those X-results, one of which was the event win, but only had 4 players. Saga of the Beastslayer had 17 playters, a 49% win rate, and 4 of the X-results. The other 2 X-results were generated with the Gladius.
I'm going to mention Genestealer Cult. It's not a popular faction, with just 25 players, nor is its overall win rate unreasonable (53%), but they picked up 8 X-results (including an event win), which gives them an X-rep score of 2.16! If you have a Genestealer Cult player in your meta, bone up on what they do. Concentrate on Host of Ascension, which had 17 of the players, a 58% win rate, and 6 of the X-results.
Finally I'll mention Death Guard, who overall aren't too unreasonable, it's just that they're the most popular faction by a wide margin, with 66 players. They got a 51% win rate and 11 X-results, making their X-Rep 1.13, which is a little high. This weekend the VirVec detachment was the most played and most successful by far, with 34 players racking up a 56% win rate, 8 of the X-results, and an X-Rep of 1.59, which I'd argue is high enough to be problematic.
That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you this week. Be sure to check out Black Crow Gaming and Dank List Wargaming for Dark Angels content on YouTube. DLW in particular had an interview with Kyle McCord that's worth listening to, so put that on while you're assembling or painting. As always, I hope you find my work fun and informative. May it help you strive towards being ever-victorious. For The Lion!
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