Chapter Update: 10/13/2025
Our event winning list rose to the top at the Black Crow Gaming's Battle of the RAGNAR GT! OCT event, with 30 players playing 5 rounds. It was won by Alan Percival of Black Crow Gaming, who went 5-0 with his Wrath of the Rock list. You can see Alan's list on BCP, and we will discuss it below.
Ten thousand years ago, a Legion of Space Marines was cast into shame for a crime they did not commit. These warriors promptly disappeared into the deepest reaches of the galaxy. Today, still condemned by secrecy, they survive as Angels of Death. If you have a warzone… if no one else can help… and if you can find them… maybe you can call… the Dark Angels. (Excellent reference to the A-Team in the name!)
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: Tempered in Battle
Sammael
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
What we have here is a solid Wrath of the Rock list. For offensive potential it leans pretty heavily into punching things to death, and has all of the Dark Angels' best punchy units. The punching can start early with Sammael and the Outriders, who with Sammael's inherent ability to advance and charge can threaten to engage opponents first turn. While it's probably overreaching to go for that first turn charge, you can definitely stage him and go for the second turn charge. The Raven Sword is nothing to sneeze at, with 6 attacks hitting on 2's at Strength 7 AP -3 Damage 3 when charging with the Outriders, plus Sustained Hits 2. Have him pile into the Oath target and fish for 6's, and it's not unreasonable to expect him to hit with 10 or more attacks.
Sammy isn't the end of an opponent's problems, only the beginning. Next they have to worry about Lion Dad, with his sword Fealty having a Strike profile perfectly capable of bringing down the biggest targets in the game and massacring whole units at a time with the Sweep profile. To bring him down, an opponent has to get through his Toughness 9, 10 wound 2+/3++ profile with the Emperor's Shield giving him Wrathhuman Physiology (my little pet name for the WotR detachment rule) and No Hiding From The Watchers giving him and everything around him a 4+++ versus Mortals and Devs.. As if that's not enough, he can choose between uppy-downying or giving a melee buffing aura. He's got Lone Op whenever he's close to a friendly Infantry unit to make it difficult for opponent to shoot him off the table. And, just to really solidify his claim to the punching-king crown, he's got Fights First, so you can Heroic him into something that strayed a little too close and pick it up on your opponent's turn.
And then there's the Inner Circle Companions. A full squad of them can throw out a bucket of Strength 6 AP -2 Damage 2 attacks with Lethal Hits, or an even bigger bucket of Damage 1 attacks with Sustained Hits 2. ICCs are also quite capable of chewing through any target in the game, big or small. They don't have the best defensive profile, but their datasheet abilities do give them -1 to be hit when led by a Character and +1 to hit against a Character unit. They're staying power can be enhanced by choice of character to lead them.
Finally there are the Deathwing Knights, who both hit like a truck and are champions at staying on the table. Like the ICCs, they have buckets of Strength 6 AP -2 Damage 2 attacks. When equipped with Maces of Absolution as Alan's are, they have Anti-Monster/Anti-Vehicle 4+, so they can punch up into bigger targets. The Knight Master of the squad will generally be equipped with a Great Weapon of the Unforgiven, with roughly the same profile, but 5 attacks and Sustained Hits 1 and Devastating Wounds instead of Anti-anything. They have a 4-wound, 2+/4++ profile to chew through, and their datasheet ability reduces by 1 any damage that gets through their saves. Anything relying on Damage 2 attacks just hates trying to pick up Deathwing Knights. When they get Wrathhuman Physiology on top of it, DWKs are just ridiculously durable.
The downside to all of this melee beef is that Alan isn't packing a lot of shooting in his list, but he does have a little. He's got a solitary Ballistus Dreadnought to oblige opponents to avoid setting up units in the open at deployment and to give him something that can plausibly pop transports from a distance. Sammael has got decent shooting for his points, packing both a master crafted plasma cannon and a twin linked storm bolter. Also, he's got a squad of 5 Sternguard, who are primarily there to be a Captain caddy, but they do have Devastating Wound guns and can reroll Wound rolls against the Oath target, so they can generate respectable damage in the Shooting phase.
When building a list, it's important to have utility units, because you don't want to tie up a 250 point Deathwing Knight unit doing an action to score Cleanse when they could be busting face instead. One unit to always include is something to sit on your backfield objective, because you want to score primary points for it and keep your opponent off it. Alan is using an Infiltrator Squad for that purpose. They have the advantage of a 12" zone of opponents'-units-can't-deploy-here, which is a pretty significant chunk a deployment zone when strung out properly. He's got a unit of Scouts, which can deploy forward to prevent opponents from hemming your units into your deployment zone, and then uppy-downy to score Secondaries. The Combi-Lieutenant is a handy Secondary-scoring unit as well, with Lone Op and a built-in reactive move. Finally there's the Jump Intercessors, who are handy to keep in Reserve against suddenly needing a unit in a particular location to score a Secondary, and then are handy fast skirmishers that can do impact Mortals when they charge.
Characters are a big chunk of what makes a list work. Synergies between characters and units are important to consider when building a list. Alan has some good ones built into his. I already talked about Sammael and the Outriders. Azrael could be attached to both the Inner Circle Companions or the Sternguard and either of those pairings are good, but in this case it's clear his assignment is the ICCs. He provides a highly important buff to their durability with his unit-wide 4+ Invulnerable save, and boosts their offense by conferring Sustained Hits 1. Whenever you can swing attacks that have both Sustained and Lethal Hits, your inner child squeals with glee. That leaves the Captain being attached to the Sternguard. You could attach a Captain to ICCs, but the Captain doesn't buff the ICCs much, nor do the ICCs buff the Captain, whereas Sternguard buff the Captain by providing To Wound rerolls in the Fight phase, which a Captain really likes when he triggers his Finest Hour ability for extra attacks and Devastating Wounds. You can get a similar effect with Assault Intercessors for less points, but only get the full Wound rerolls against opponents on objectives, whereas with Sternguard you can pick anything on the table and likely pick it up - especially when the Captain has Ancient Weapons for extra Strength, AP, and Damage.
Alan rode the win train all the way to the last stop! 1st round he had a pretty close game - 85-75 against the new Shadowmark Talon Raven Guard detachment. 2nd round he crushed an Aeldari Warhost 95-55. 3rd round was a close, low scoring 63-53 against Warpbane Grey Knights. 4th round he brutalized an Ultramarines Vanguard 97-30. 5th round he ended with a crushing 95-54 against Dêlve Votann. Congratulations on the win Alan!
Our next list comes from Glasshammer GT - October, a 5-round, 32-player event held in St.George's, England. Peter Czerwinski went 3-1-1 with his Wrath of the Rock list and took 4th place. You can see Peter's list on BCP. Let's see what we can learn from it.
Peter's list
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain in Gravis Armour: Ancient Weapons
Captain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Chaplain in Terminator Armour
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
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 swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Suppressor Squad: 3 flying autocannon boys
You can see similarities between Alan's list and Peter's right away. Lion Dad, Azrael, the Combi-Lieutenant, Deathwing Knights, Jump Intercessors, Scouts, and Sternguard are all units shared by both lists. Peter went with two units of Jump Intercessors, because they are a very useful unit, and it's often handy to have something with Fly in your list. Azrael in this case is being paired with the Sternguard. Azrael and Sternguard are the Reeses' Peanut Butter Cup of 40K character/unit combinations - two great tastes that go great together. Azrael is basically what a Sternguard wants to be when they grow up. His gun combines all the best features of a both Sternguard gun options and a plasma gun, including both Devastating Wounds and Anti-Infantry 4+, plus the Sword of Secrets has Devastating Wounds too. Azrael benefits greatly from the Sternguard's rerolling Wound rolls against the Oath target, and the Sternies benefit from the 4++ save and Sustained Hits 1 Azrael confers.
One difference between the lists is that Peter's Deathwing Knights are swordy boys instead of macey boys. The advantage of fielding macey boys is that they generally don't need character support, whereas swordy boys can need character support to punch up into bigger things. They do have more attacks than macey boys though, so if you're going to field a character anyway, you can do worse than going with a Terminator Chaplain to give them +1 To Wound, which Peter did with one of his squads. That Chaplain has Deathwing Assault too, for that first turn Deep Strike. I'm a little surprised the other character isn't a Chaplain as well. Peter went with a Captain instead. The Captain with his relic fist is a little better in combat than the Chaplain, but I don't think he's as beneficial to the squad as the Chaplain, though he does offer both a discounted strat a round and a free reroll on Charge rolls, so that's not nothing.
Peter's list doesn't have much in the way of long range shooting, but he does have a pair of Eradicator Squads. Eradicators are a short range solution to Monster and Vehicle problems, packing melta with full rerolls on To Hit, To Wound, and Damage rolls against those targets. At only Strength 9, they'll generally be relying on those rerolls to get sufficient wounds through to do damage, but in a Wrath list they make a prime candidate for the Relics of the Dark Age strat. Going from Strength 9 to Strength 11 gets them past a lot of break points. My preferred way of using Eradicator squads is to stick them in Reserve and have them come into play when I can get them to bear on the targets I want them to eliminate. If they can be Rapid Ingressed where they won't be shot or charged, that's even better. In the unlikely event an opponent doesn't have much in the way of Monsters or Vehicles that I need slagged, they can always be used to score either Primary or Secondary points, and they are Toughness 6 with 3 wounds, so maybe they can tie up a unit of chaff infantry or something like that.
The sharp-eyed among you have probably seen the Gravis Captain with Ancient Weapons. This guy can be attached to an Eradicator squad, but chances are Peter is running him solo. He doesn't have Lone Op, but what he does have is a 4++ save and a datasheet ability that halves all damage that gets through his saves. He also has two melee weapons which both benefit from Ancient Weapons, so he's swinging 8 Damage 3 attacks that hit on 2+. He's kind of a mini-Lion Dad that can pick up most elite Infantry squads, and can even punch up pretty well.
Peter's backfield unit is an Intercessor Squad instead of an Infiltrator Squad. Intercessors don't screen out nearly as much territory as Infiltrators do, but they do sticky objectives and have a lot more offensive output, so when opponents have committed their Reserves that they might have otherwise dropped on Peter's backfield objective, they can come out and help clean up little skirmishing units, or maybe take that last wound off bigger units.
In addition to the two squads of Jump Intercessors, Peter has a squad of Suppressors. We don't see these guys very often, partially because I don't think Games Workshop ever released an individual kit for them, and because they're not well thought of for either their offense or their defense. The squad consists of three Phobos bodies with a 12" move and Fly, and they have Accelerator Autocannons, which sound cool but are essentially Strength 8 heavy bolters without Sustained Hits. The squad's main virtue is that it has Deep Strike and it only costs 75 points, making it, I think, the second-cheapest unit with Deep Strike in the codex (the cheapest being the Phobos Lieutenant at 55 points). Peter is probably also less tempted to use them offensively than he is his Jump Intercessors, so they become a useful cheap fast scoring unit.
Glasshammer GT - October used WTC scoring. As a reminder, that is a 0-20 spread, with 10-10 being a draw, and every point of deviation past 10, higher or lower, representing a 5 point difference in battle point score.
Peter started strong, crushing Haloscreed Mechanicus 18-2 in the 1st round. 2nd round he had a 10-10 draw against Renegade Chaos Marines. 3rd round he brutalized Valourstrike Knights 20-0. 4th round he took a 7-13 loss against Champions of Faith Sororitas. He bounced back for a 5th round win, drubbing Shadow Legion Daemons 18-2. Well done Peter!
Our next two lists come from I GTerreta, a 5-round, 30 player event held in Guardamar del Segura, Spain. They both went 3-1-1, placed 4th and 5th, and their tie was against each other in the final round. The 4th place list was played by Sergio Benlloch of Dreadnought, and it was a Wrath of the Rock list. You can see Sergio's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below.
La Ira del otro calvo de Fast and Furius
Lion Dad - Warlord
Captain: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: Tempered in Battle
Impulsor
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
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Scout Squad
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Vindicator
Vindicator
This is a pretty conventional list, with the glaring exception that it lacks Azrael. Most players would take Azrael over the Ancient Weapons Captain, but you wouldn't want to put Azrael in an Impulsor because then you don't get the bonus CP he generates - which I think is silly, but that's how the rules work. You can get by without Azrael, you just have to be disciplined about immediately pitching Secondaries you can't score the turn you draw them, or Secondaries you'll score less than 3 points on.
Other units we haven't seen in a list yet today are the Darkshroud and the pair of Vindicators. The Darkshroud is a floating 6" bubble of Stealth and Benefit of Cover. I'm dubious about the return we get for spending 100 points on that thing. Ignores Cover, Ignores Modifiers, and rerolls To Hit are abilities that are common as dirt, which negate the primary benefit the Darkshroud provides. That said, it's also a Toughness 8, 10-wound platform with OC 3, Fly, and a 5++ save. An argument can be made that it's a utility unit that happens to also provide a durability buff to nearby units. It generates its aura just by existing in a space, so it can do actions when they can score Secondaries. Also, I think some units get more out of the durability buff than others. Specifically, high-toughness, 2+ save units are the best units to put in a Darkshroud's bubble, because the weapons that can affect such targets are likely low rate-of-fire and high damage, so one of those shots missing or being saved against when it wouldn't ordinarily have been is a much more dramatic effect than making a heavy bolter shot miss an Intercessor.
I suspect Sergio would agree with me about what to protect with a Darkshroud, because he has a pair of Vindicators in his list. Vindicators are not exactly what you'd call long-range fire support, as their Demolisher Cannon (aka the Casino Cannon) only has a 24" range, but that's enough to reach to at least the majority of no-man's-land, and what it lacks in range, it makes up for with punch: D6+3 shots, Strength 14 AP -3 D6 Damage Blast. Anybody who has a Demolisher Cannon pointed at one of their units is going to cringe a little when its owner rolls for his number of shots. Vindis will generally also have a Hunter-Killer missile, which is essentially a 1-shot Demolisher Cannon shot that hits on a 2+ and has a 48" range, and a storm bolter for chip shooting into nearby chaff. You can't protect a unit from a Vindi's shooting by getting in Engagement range either, because its datasheet rule says it doesn't care - it can lay Demolisher smackdown on units in Engagement range with it and doesn't suffer To Hit penalties for being in Engagement range.
Vindicators are one of the toughest units available to us too: Toughness 11, 11 wounds, and a 2+ save all say opponents have to commit some real effort into picking them up. The biggest downside to them is that they're kind of slow, with only a 9" movement. However, you can always play Tactical Mastery to give one Advance+Shoot+Charge. The Charge part may not seem too consequential, but at Toughness 11 they do deliver a pretty good Tank Shock attack. Also, Vindicators are a good unit to stick in Reserve, because they don't have to come out particularly close to their target to bring the pain to it.
The Impulsor deserves a mention. It's a transport that can carry 7 models and move 12", which isn't a bad delivery vehicle for the Sternguard and their Ancient Weapons Captain. It can throw a bucket of dice at chaff, between the pair of Fragstorm Grenade Launchers and the Ironhail Heavy Stubber Sergio equipped his with. He gave it the Shield Dome too, giving it a 5++ save, which is pretty much always the way to go when you use these things. Entertaingly, it has Firing Deck 6 too, so the Sternies can shoot out of it while embarked.
The rest of the list consists of pretty conventional good choices we've discussed previously.
Sergio's list really performed in his 1st round, brutalizing an Aeldari Aspect Host 100-27. 2nd round he inflicted a not-much-less-punishing 93-35 against MortHam Death Guard. 3rd round he squeaked out a 73-70 win against Scintillating Chaos Daemons. 4th round Death Guard (VirVec this time) came back for revenge, and inflicted a tight 76-80 loss. 5th round Sergio faced the next list we're going to discuss, and tied 69-69. Well done Sergio!
Sergio's 5th round opponent, Tudor Nicolae Matieu of La Orden de la Santa Pinta, brought a Gladius Strike Force, also going 3-1-1 and scoring 5th place. You can see Tudor's list on BCP. Let's discuss it below.
Lion's Wrath
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
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
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
Vindicator
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
It's been a while since we've seen a Gladius rise to prominence, so it bears revisiting. The Gladius brings a much different set of tools to the table than Wrath of the Rock does. It's a lot more of an all-purpose detachment, with both a detachment rule and stratagems that support a balanced approach. You can skew with a Gladius, but then one might ask why you don't choose a different detachment that supports the skew better.
Tudor has the spread of the usual, conventional list choices, though only bringing one unit of Deathwing Knights. The punchy units can benefit from Assault Doctrine, giving them Advance+Charge, Tactical Doctrine, giving them Fall Back+Charge (and shooting too if it's relevant) and from Honour the Chapter (Lance and improved AP while in Assault Doctrine), Only in Death Does Duty End (guaranteed Fights On Death), and Squad Tactics (D6 reactive move - 6" while in Tactical Doctrine).
For shooting, Tudor brought a pair of Vindicators and a pair of Whirlwinds. We've already discussed the Vindicators, but we don't see Whirlwinds too often. The reason for that is that they're hella expensive: 190 points a pop. They're paying a premium for the privilege of having Indirect Fire, which I get, because it's hard to interact with a unit with Indirect, which can be not-fun to play into. Our Whirlwinds are hardly the worst offenders in that regard (cough*SororitasExorcist*cough), but suffer from GW's policy of discouraging Indirect.
That said, there's a case to be made for the Whirlwind, and I think Tudor is doing what I would do with them. Specifically, if I was handed a list with Whirlwinds in it, I'd use them to attack opponents' backfield objective holders. Everybody usually has a pretty weedy unit hold their backfield objective, because we don't want to spend too many points on it, and for an opponent to park a unit on our backfield objective, they either have to go through our whole army first, or they have to pull Reserves shenanigans that we can usually take preventative measures against. The Whirlwind Vengeance Launcher has a 72" range, D6+3 Blast, Strength 8 AP -2 Damage 2. That'll do a pretty good job on any backfield objective holder, and they can do it while securing Tudor's backfield objective. The primary downside is the Indirect penalty, reducing the To Hit rolls to 4+ and granting Cover, but this can be mitigated by placing Oath on that backfield objective holder, and using the Storm of Fire strat to give Ignores Cover, and improved AP when in Devastator doctrine.
With two Whirlwinds in the list, Tudor can task the first shot to that backfield objective holder without spending CP to enhance it and see if he picks up the unit with that first shot, which he well might. If he does, he can save the CP and use his second Whirlwind shot to try and pick up another of his opponent's utility units. If not, the second shot goes in with Storm of Fire if it needs it.
This presents opponents with a problem. If the assigned backfield objective minder gets blown off the table, they've got to assign something else to doing that. However, that just lets Tudor lather-rinse-repeat if his opponents try putting another cheap unit there. Plus, he can hold his Jump Intercessors in Reserve till Turn 3, threatening to drop them down on that objective if nothing is sitting on it. If he concentrates on picking up other cheap utility units in the early game, then he can force his opponent to task a more expensive unit to minding that objective, which can take it out of play for doing damage, or at least limit its options.
I suppose it shows that I've put some thought into this. I just can't quite bring myself to pay the points for a Whirlwind, so I'm excited to see that someone else has done well with it.
Anyway, between the two Whirlwinds and two Vindicators, Tudor obliges his opponents to come out and stop him from blasting their armies off the table, which will tend to draw them close for Lion Dad, Azrael and the ICCs, and the Deathwing Knights to come out and mulch. It's not a pretty picture for most opponents.
The plan served Tudor well enough to score him 5th place. He won his 1st round against an Iron Hands Gladius, but it was an unusually low-scoring game - 39-24 - which prompted me to really look at the opponent's list. It was wacky - two Techmarines, three of each of the Redemptor-chassis Dreadnoughts, and 3 Invictor Warsuits. I'd have liked to seen that game, or at least read a blow-by blow of it. Anyway, 2nd round Tudor took a bruising 58-89 loss against VirVec Death Guard. 3rd round he drubbed Champions of Faith Sororitas 69-38. 4th round was his highest-scoring game, a 98-60 smackdown of Liberator Blood Angels. Then 5th round he had that 69-69 draw against Sergio's Wrath list (I speculate Sergio probably held his backfield objective with his Combi-Lieutenant in that one). Well done Tudor!
The last list I'm going to cover today was played at Call to Arms 40K Event Hosted by Away Games, a 5-round, 62 player event held in Williamsburg Virginia. Charles Lund brought a Gladius Task Force, went 4-1, and took 9th place. You can see Charles' list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below.
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
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 point-out-shooting-targets boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
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