Chapter Update: 10/27/2025
I don't know why I felt compelled to lay it on thick, I just did. Anyway, I'm here to tell you about the lists that did well over the weekend. It was a pretty diverse spread. The detachments that successful lists used included Wrath of the Rock, Stormlance, Gladius, and an Ironstorm even popped back up in the ratings. I'm going to review the top four lists, and then list the honorable mentions. Without further ado, let's look at these lists!
Our top list this week is a Wrath of the Rock list, played by Tanner Hebert of Rose City Ruffians at Dicing Death IV, a 5-round, 45 player event held in Portland, OR. Tanner went 5-0 and took 2nd place, only missing out on being the winner by Strength of Schedule. Here's Tanner's list on BCP. We'll check it out below.
schoolofthehouseofthewrathoftherock
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Judiciar
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Ravenwing Command Squad: Lord of the Ravenwing
Ravenwing Command Squad: Ancient Weapons
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Ministorum Priest
Tanner started his list off with a solid core of conventional good Dark Angels choices. Starting with Lion Dad, he is an all-around solid choice. He hits like a truck, he has Fights First, he's reasonably durable, he provides buffing auras, and he can move around the table ridiculously well. You can't go too far wrong including the Primarch in your list in the current state of the game.
Backing up Lion Dad, we've got a pair of Deathwing Knight squads. It's not unfair to state that Deathwing Knights are one of the most durable units in the game, and are a contender for the most durable when in a Wrath detachment. They are also a hard-hitting melee unit that generally don't need either character or Oath support, with a pile of attacks hitting on 2's with good strength and damage. It's a little unusual to see a squad with swords instead of maces, because maces are better for punching up in to Monsters and Vehicles, but swords have more attacks, so are better into everything else.
There's also a squad of Inner Circle Companions, who we don't see as often because their contribution can seem redundant when one also has Lion Dad and Deathwing Knights in the list. They are a very hard-hitting melee unit, with both a strike and sweep profile. They can both punch up into Big Things and sweep through chaff. It's not unusual to see them paired with a Judiciar for Fights First, but there are diminishing returns to having multiple Fights First units in a list. Inner Circle Companions are also considerably squishier than Deathwing Knights, having a 3-Wound profile that can be picked up by single shots of a distressingly large array of weapons. They do make a hell of a Heroic Intervention / Leonine Aggression threat though. They're more Oath-dependent that Deathwing Knights too, though if they're attacking into a Character unit they will get +1 To Hit.
Azrael, of course, winds up in almost every Dark Angels list, with good reason. He's a good all-arounder when it comes to shooting, melee, buffs, and durability. He generates bonus CP in his player's Command Phase, grants his squad a 4++ and Sustained Hits 1, has a gun that has the best aspects of a Sternguard Bolt Rifle, Combi-weapon, and Plasma Gun, and a sword that will deny almost all Armor Saves and has Devastating Wounds. The only thing a little disappointing about him is that his melee attacks are only Damage 2. In this list he's paired with the squad of 5 Sternguard, which provides good synergies going both ways. The only thing better that attaching him to 5 Sternguard Veterans is attaching him to 10 Sternguard Veterans, and there's an argument to be made for the smaller squad - largely, that he becomes a lower-priority target for opponents.
Tanner's list is a little light on utility units, packing only the Combi-Lieutenant, a single Scout Squad, and the Ministorum Priest. The Combi-Lieutenant and Scouts are good at bopping around the table scoring Secondaries, and judging from the points Tanner didn't seem to struggle with scoring. The Ministorum Priest is not a typical choice by any stretch. I don't think there's any secret tech here. He's just cheap - 40 points to be precise. I imagine his only job is to mind Tanner's backfield objective until an opponent drops something into his backfield out of Reserve. With a 4++ and only 3 wounds, it's not going to take much to pick him up, though he does have a cute Super Saiyan mode like an Astartes Captain, only with a much less impressive melee weapon.
The most unusual thing about Tanner's list to me is the pair of Ravenwing Command Squads and the two bike units he has to attach them to. They're not the most typical things to include, and when they do appear, there's usually not so many of them. Ravenwing Command Squads are decently durable, with three 4-Wound bodies at Toughness 5 with 3+/5++ saves. The Champion provides + 1 to Advance and Charge rolls and free Heroic Intervention, the Apothecary brings back a slain bike in the friendly Command Phase, and the Ancient has 4 wounds, so he can eat two failed Hazardous checks and be brought back by the Apothecary. And oh yeah, when he's alive he gives +1 OC to every member of the squad.
The offensive output of the squad is pretty good. Each member of the squad has a plasma talon, which is basically an 18" range Rapid Fire 1 plasma gun, with the usual Strength 8 AP -3 Damage 2 supercharged profile. In melee, the Champion swings 6 attacks hitting on 2's with a master crafted power weapon, and the Apothecary and Ancient both have the standard Black Knight Combat Weapon, swinging 3 attacks each with a power weapon equivalent with Devastating Wounds.
Ravenwing Command Squads synergize well with the two units they can be attached to lead, and Tanner has one of each in his list. We'll start with the Outrider Squad. Outriders pair well with the RWCS because they also have 4 wounds, and their datasheet ability provides the whole unit's melee attacks +1 Strength and +1 Damage on turns when they charge. That bumps the Champion up to Strength 6 and Damage 3, which gets him past a couple of important break points, and the other two Command Squad boys get Strength 6 and Damage 2 on their Devastating Wounds weapons, which is pretty sweet.
Tanner also included a 6-strong Ravenwing Black Knight squad. Ravenwing Black Knights are a little squishier than their Command Squad compatriots, having only 3 wounds. That makes them distressingly easy to pick up to a large variety of weapons. However, they all have plasma talons and Black Knight Combat Weapons, giving them good activations in both the Shooting and Fight phases. Also, their datasheet ability gives their combat weapons Anti Monster/Vehicle 4+ on turns they charge, which means they can dish out a lot of Devastating Wounds to those targets.
Circling back around to the Command Squads, the Ravenwing Champion has the Character keyword, so he can be given Enhancements. One has Ancient Weapons, giving him base Strength 7 AP -3 Damage 3, and the other has Lord of the Ravenwing, giving his squad rerolls on Advance and Charge rolls. I'm legitimately not sure which unit Tanner attaches each Command Squad to. If I was running the list, my default choice would be to attach the Ancient Weapons Command Squad to the Ravenwing Knights and the Lord of the Ravenwing Command Squad to the Outriders, but arguments could be made either way, and it may be matchup dependent.
Regardless of which Command Squad is attached, the big brick of Ravenwing Knights is the most significant shooting threat in Tanner's army - it's almost the only one, really. It can dish out a lot of damage in the Shooting phase, and can be enhanced by the Relics of the Dark Age stratagem, bumping the supercharged profile to Strength 10, getting it past a lot of break points. The strat won't help the shooting into big Knights or Land Raider equivalent profiles, but will get them wounding on at least 4's into almost all other Big Things in the game, which is a good place to be.
Tanner's win train rolled nonstop to the end of the tournament! 1st round he drubbed Questoris Imperial Knights 88-55. 2nd round he crushed Subterranean Tyranids 92-54. 3rd round he buried Mont'ka T'au 95-48. 4th round he brutalized Berserker World Eaters 97-40. 5th round he wrapped up the winning by humbling Haloscreed Mechanicus 85-61. Congratulations Tanner!
The next-best performing list of the weekend was played at The Coventry 40K: 3-Day, which was an 8-round marathon of 40K with 191 players. Vanguard Tactics' Jay Seebarun went 6-2 and placed 10th with his Stormlance list. Strictly speaking, Jay didn't go X/1, but he went X/1 in the first 5 rounds, and his performance put him in a percentile for his event higher than anyone else's but Tanner's. You can see Jay's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
Dark Angels: storm
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Librarian in Phobos Armour
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship
Looking at this list, you wouldn't think the Stormlance is the most obvious detachment for it. This is clearly a shooting-primary list, and heavy on vehicles, so you'd think the Ironstorm or Company of Hunters would be more obvious choices for it. That said, there's a certain method to Jay's madness. I'll get to that shortly, but for context we should look at what these units do.
For starters, there's Lion Dad, Azrael, and the Inner Circle Companions. We've already discussed these guys. Azrael clearly joins the ICCs in this list, which means they don't get Fights First, but they do get the 4++ and Sustained Hits 1 Azrael confers. If you haven't had the experience, make a list where you have a unit that has both Sustained and Lethal Hits. Like, say, ICCs Strike profile when they're led by Azrael. You will like it.
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| From 39K |
Another unit enjoying a resurgence is the Redemptor Dreadnought. Redemptors come with a pile of guns, with a main gun that's almost always the Macro Plasma Incinerator, which is basically the same as the Plasma Storm Battery, just with AP -4 and not Twin-Linked. In addition to its big plasma boom stick and pile of other guns, the Redemptor punches pretty decently with its Redemptor Fist, is a Toughness 10 12-Wound 2+ save platform, and its datasheet ability reduces all damage done to it by 1.
Apparently Jay likes platforms with Damage 3 guns, because he's got another one in his list. In this case, it's the Stormraven Gunship. It has a pair of StormStrike Missile Launchers, which are Strength 10 AP -2 Damage 3, and Jay selected the Twin Heavy Plasma Cannon as one of the weapons on his (the other being a Twin Multi-Melta), which has a D3 shot Strength 8 AP -3 Damage 3 Hazardous Twin-Linked Blast Supercharge profile. In addition to having a pile of guns, the Stormraven has a 20+" Move profile, reduces incoming damage by 1 like the Redemptor, and can be a Transport for a squad of up to 12 Astartes Infantry and a Dreadnought.
For utility units, Jay has the Phobos Librarian, the Infiltrator Squad, the Invader ATV, and a Ravenwing Darkshroud. The Darkshroud is a flying 6" bubble of Stealth and Benefit of Cover, which I don't rate very highly, but in a Stormlance you also have access to the Ride Hard, Ride Fast stratagem, which gives opponents' shooting -1 To Hit and To Wound against a target with either the Mounted or Fly Vehicle keywords. As you've seen, Jay's list is full of Fly Vehicles. This lets Jay mess with his opponents' target priority and resource allocation decisions. It also just has to exist in a space to generate its bubble, so Jay can use it to do actions to score Secondaries without losing the benefit of it.
Everyone knows about Infiltrators' 12" bubble of Stay Off My Lawn. Attaching a Phobos Librarian to the unit prevents opponents from shooting at the squad from outside of 12". This can screen out a ton of board. I did the math in my head - figure 5 x 1.25" for the bases, plus 10" for the 2" separation between, plus 12" from the figures on the ends, is an area roughly 37" x 25". It kind of makes me think Jay plonks that unit on his natural expansion objective and just obliges opponents to come within easy charge ranges of Lion Dad and the Azrael-ICC package. That would leave the Invader ATV minding the backfield objective. From experience, it can be positioned to screen out the backfield objective's corner and still control the objective. Between the ATV and the Infiltrators, there wouldn't be much space in the backfield opponents could place units coming out of Reserves.
Jay's list doesn't use the full suite of stratagems provided by the Stormlance, but can make use out of most of them. Ride Hard, Ride Fast can debuff shooting into any of his Speeders or his Stormraven, Blitzing Fusillade will let a unit Advance and Shoot, which can give them that extra bit of movement to get an angle or claim an objective, and Full Throttle will let him auto-advance 6" with one of his Speeders or the Stormraven. There aren't too many units in his list that can use Wind Swift Evasion for the reactive move, but it would let him move the Infiltrators, the ICCs, or the ATV if something gets within 9" of them.
Jay's record at the event is impressive. 1st round he crushed Invasion Fleet Tyranids 98-47. 2nd round he drubbed Green Tide Orks 91-64. 3rd round he humbled Gladius Templars 69-44. 4th round he took his first loss, a tight 63-66 against Hallowed Martyrs Sororitas. 5th round he scored a comfortable 91-78 against Inheritors Blood Angels. 5th round he stuffed another Invasion Fleet Nids list 96-63. Apparently the Nids just wouldn't lose gracefully and kept coming at him, finally inflicting another close 78-82 loss with the Subterranean Assault. Jay ended the event with a win, a respectable 95-80 against Wrath Dark Angels. Very impressive record Jay! If this event had used WTC scoring, Jay would have had an undefeated run!
Our next list is a throwback to earlier in the edition when the Ironstorm Spearhead was the most successful competitive build for Dark Angels. We have a name from that time too - Tundra Tactics' Kit Smith Hanna, who used to be the Dark Angels Ironstorm guy. He's been playing less cool armies for a while, but he decided to breathe new life into the old detachment, going 4-1 with it at RCM: Night of the Wolf in Longview, TX and scored 2nd out of 32 players. You can see Kit's list on BCP. Now let's analyze like it's 2023 and check out this Ironstorm.
Ironstorm is Dead, Long Live Ironstorm Azrael - Warlord Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: The Flesh is Weak Techmarine: Master of the Machine War Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys Land Speeder Vengeance Land Speeder Vengeance Land Speeder Vengeance Ravenwing Darkshroud Redemptor Dreadnought Redemptor Dreadnought Redemptor Dreadnought Storm Speeder Hammerstrike Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
There's a lot of overlap between Jay's and Kit's unit choices. Like Jay, Kit made a heavy investment in Land Speeders Vengeance and Redemptor Dreadnoughts. He's even got the Thunderstrike to help his Strength 9 plasma punch up into Big Things, and the Darkshroud for its floating debuff-enemy-shooting bubble. It should be noted while I'm skeptical about how much good the Darkshroud actually does, I think it does the most good for high-Toughness 2+ save platforms, because the guns opponents will put into those are low-shot, high-damage, so every miss that would have hit or save that would have otherwise failed counts for a lot more.
Kit included a Storm Speeder Hammerstrike into the mix, which I think is the best of the three Storm Speeders. It spits out five Strength 9 Damage D6 shots (3 of them having Melta 2), one more Strength 9 Damage D3 shots, and strips cover from a unit hit by one of it's shots. It's on the same high-speed, surprisingly durable platform as the Thunderstrike, and it costs a very reasonable 125 points. You could do worse than including these in your lists.
For character support, Kit has Azrael, a Combi-Lieutenant with The Flesh is Weak to bump his Feel No Pain to a 4+, and two Techmarines. One has Master of Machine War, which allows Kit to designate a vehicle that can shoot after an Advance or Fall Back move. The other ahs Adept of the Omnissiah, which allows Kit to blank the damage from a failed Save. And, of course, the Techmarines can restore D3 lost wounds to a vehicle within 3", and grant that vehicle +1 To Hit on its attacks for the round.
Kit has a bit more of an investment in utility units too. He's got an Assault Intercessor Squad, whose job is likely to hang with Azrael and be a counter-assault threat. There's a standard Intercessor Squad, who I'm dead certain are the backfield objective holders, a Scout Squad for uppy-downy Secondary work, and Vanguard Veteran Squad, whose job is probably to hang out in Reserve till Kit needs a unit to score a positional Secondary.
We haven't seen an Ironstorm in a while, so I figure it's worth reviewing the stratagems. There's Ancient Fury, which buffs a Dreadnought's Move, Toughness, Leadership, and OC for the round and gives it +1 to all its attacks. If Kit has his Techmarines minding a Redemptor each, that means he can have all his Redemptors hit on 2's all the time. Vengeful Animus auto-triggers Deadly Demise when a Vehicle is destroyed, which is cute, and can potentially cause a lot of damage. Unbowed Conviction is an Ignores Modifiers strat, which is always helpful to a shooting-primary army. Mercy is Weakness grants Sustained Hits 1 against an enemy unit below its Starting Strength, with Crit 5's if the attacking model is a Vehicle. Then there's Power of the Machine Spirit, which is a retributive shooting strat that can be used by a vehicle that gets reduced blow its Starting Strength by an attack. Plus, there's AoC. This is a nice suite of strats to work with.
Kit's 1st round started the event with a bang, demolishing Conceited Emperor's Children 90-34. 2nd round he crushed War Horde Orks 100-57. 3rd round he drubbed a Raven Guard Ironstorm 99-63. 4th round was his loss, a fairly close 70-81 against Haloscreed Mechanicus. In the 5th round he bounced back to smash VirVec Death Guard 93-44. Well done Kit!
Our last list is actually taking us back to THE COVENTRY 40K : 3-Day, where Patrick Carroll of Bristol Crusaders went 6-2 and placed 15th out of 191 players. Patrick also went old school, but this time used a Gladius detachment. You can see Patrick's list on BCP. We'll get retro below.
some like one way, some like another, let's just do all of it?! Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Judiciar: The Honour Vehement Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon Sammael Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Invader ATV: melta buggy Land Speeder Vengeance Land Speeder Vengeance Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
We've talked about all of these units in previous lists, except for the Jump Intercessors and Sammael. The Jump Intercessors are basically a utility unit, relatively inexpensive at 90 points, and they have Deep Strike. They can be saved in Reserve to score a positional Secondary (or jump on an unattended Objective), or they can be used to give Lion Dad his Lion Op after he Forestwalks somewhere. Plus they're fast, have fly, swing a lot of attacks, and do impact Mortals. All in all, a valuable unit to have in a list.
We don't see Sammael as frequently as Azrael or Lion Dad, which is a shame because he's really cool. At 115 points, he doesn't compare favorably to a Ravenwing Command Squad, because he doesn't bring nearly as much utility, nor is he as resilient. That isn't to say he doesn't have his good points though.
For starters, he is very well armed with both guns and a good close combat attack. His jetbike carries a twin storm bolter and a master crafted plasma cannon. Not too many characters are packing a gun with Strength 8 AP -3 Damage 2 D3 Blast. Try and remember to shoot his guns at targets while they're big enough to grant bonus Blast shots.
His shooting is cute, but his melee is strong. He carries the Raven Sword, which is Strength 6 AP -3 Damage 2 Sustained Hits 2. That's on his sword, mind you, not an ability he gets when he's leading a unit, so he gets it all the time. As you can imagine, with an attack like that, he really likes being attached to an Outrider Squad, so he can get bonus Damage on the charge. Oath his target, fish for 6's, and laugh hysterically as his Outrider escort is left with nothing to do.
His datasheet abilities are thematically appropriate, and are okay. Grand Master of the Ravenwing grants Advance+Shoot+Charge when he's leading a unit, which is the big reason to take him instead of a Ravenwing Command Squad, because not all detachments have a way to grant that ability, and while the Gladius does, it's only for 1 round without spending resources on it, so it's nice to have Sammael just give it to his unit. He does also grant +1 to Advance and Charge rolls if the unit would already be eligible to Shoot and Charge after an Advance move, but Ravenwing Command Squads give that out all the time.
His other ability, Cut Off Their Escape, forces non-Big Thing units Falling Back from his unit take Desperate Escape tests, subtracting 1 from the roll if they're Battle-shocked. That can mess with opponents' plans, and possibly cost them models.
Between the two abilities, Sammael and 3 Outriders make a nice little harassment unit to send out and disrupt opponents' plans. They stand a pretty good chance of picking up a lot of models, and have enough wounds to be a nuisance to remove.
Patrick started strong with a solid 1st round 69-47 against Infernal Chaos Knights. 2nd round he took a 56-66 loss against Realspace Drukhari. 3rd round he got his other loss out of the way, Oathband Votann squeaking it out against him 85-86. Then Patrick commenced a 5-round winning streak. 4th round he crushed VirVec Death Guard 94-43. 5th round he smashed Invasion Fleet Tyranids 100-42. 6th round he humbled Pactbound Chaos Marines 96-33. 7th round he had a close 89-77 against the new hotness, Shadowmark Raven Guard. 8th round he wrapped it up with a tight 72-67 against Haloscreed Mechanicus. Well done Patrick!
I'd like to review every list that does well over the weekend, but happily there are too many for this to be practical. So, I'd like to give honorable mentions to the players whose lists I'd like to review if I had the time. In no particular order, these include:
Piotr Czewinski who went 5-3 at THE COVENTRY 40K : 3-Day with his Wrath of the Rock list
Apostolis Malkikiosis who went 4-1 at Volos GrailFest 2025 and took 5th out of 26 with his Wrath of the Rock list
Lewis Hersman, who went 4-1 (and had a 4-0 event start) at RCM: Night of the Wolf and placed just behind his Tundra Tactics teammate Kit Smith Hanna, taking 3rd out of 32 with his Wrath of the Rock list
Finally, Jeremey Newswander of Disciples of Chaos who went 4-2 and placed 7th out of 34 at KnightFall: The Tracy Crusade GT with his Wrath of the Rock list.
Matt Pocock of team Flatcaps and Flakcannons, who went 5-3 at THE COVENTRY 40K : 3-Day and took 38th place with his Gladius list.
Well done, esteemed battle brethren!
Statistics
It was a bit of a mixed bag for the Dark Angels. 43 players played 251 games and won 117 of them, for a total win percentage of 48%, which is kind of mediocre. We didn't have any event wins, but we did have 4 players go X/0-X/1, including one undefeated run. Plus two Dark Angels players went 6-2 at an 8-round event, and that's not nothing.
Wrath of the Rock was the most played detachment, with 25 players, more than double the players of all the other ones combined. Wrath players only scored a 40% win rate, but took in 3 of the X-results.
Gladius seems to be making a bit of a comeback, with 8 players and a 52% win rate. No X-results, but a Gladius list was one of the ones that went 6-2 at The Coventry 40K 3-Day.
Stormlance had 5 players who scored a 57% win rate, and also had a player go 6-w at the Coventry 40K 3-Day.
Company of Hunters had a bad weekend, with 3 players and a 42% win rate.
Someone played a Firestorm at The Coventry 3-Day and went 3-4-1 for a 43% win rate.
Finally there was Kit Smith Hanna's performance with the Ironstorm, getting the last X-result and an 80% win rate.
That, esteemed battle brethren, is what I have for you this week. Check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crow Gaming over on YouTube for more Dark Angels goodness. Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope it was fun and informative. May my work help you be ever-victorious. For the Lion!
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