Chapter Update: 10/6/2025
Appropriately enough, the best-performing list of the weekend was played at Las Vegas Open. LVO was attended by 552 players who played 6 rounds, and then the top 16 players played off against each other. Sadly, our LVO list didn't make it into that top bracket, but it did go 5-1 and take 31st place, which is an impressive achievement at an event of this size. The list was played by Joshua Hirschfeld of Mon'Keighing Around, and it was one of the Wrath of the Rock lists. Here's Joshua's list on BCP, and let's get to dissecting it below.
Jet 2 holiday
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Ravenwing Command Squad: Ancient Weapons
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Gladiator Lancer
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Outrider Squad: 6 choppy biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Suppressor Squad: 3 flying autocannon boys
We'll start our breakdown with Lion Dad. Since the most recent balance dataslate, it's a little unusual not to see him in a Dark Angels list. He's got conditional Lone Op, he's got a good defensive profile, he can buff nearby units, uppy-downy at will, has Fights First, and he hits like a truck. It's not unreasonable to at least hope for him to pick up a big Imperial Knight on the turn he charges it - maybe a little optimistic, but not delusionally so, and anything short of that isn't going to survive his charge.
Deathwing Knights are also a unit that almost always makes it into Dark Angels lists, with the exception of Company of Hunters lists. Deathwing Knights are hard hitting and highly durable units, made more so by being included in a Wrath list. They have the virtue of not typically needing a character to buff them, as their native defensive profile and damage output make it unnecessary, though it should be said that this is more true when squads are armed with maces rather than swords, as Maces have Anti-Armor and Anti-Vehicle 4+, which swords lack (they get an additional attack to compensate), so a Terminator Chaplain is often attached to sword Knights to give them +1 to Wound. Otherwise, the most typical reason to attach a character to them is to take advantage of a detachment having an enhancement that allows 1st turn Deep Strike or an uppy-downy ability. I've seen the Ancient in Terminator Armour attached to a Knight squad a few times too for the +1 OC. It's pretty typical for a list to have multiple Deathwing Knight squads, and you can do worse than starting your list out with three of them.
It's rare to see a list without Azrael in it too - even more rare than a list without Lion Dad. Azrael is a fantastic character, generating +1 CP in his Command Phase, granting his attached unit Sustained Hits 1 and a 4+ Invulnerable save, and he brings a once-per-game 4+ Feel No Pain against Mortal and Devastating Wounds that lasts for the phase it's triggered in. In addition to all that, he has a fantastic gun with Devastating Wounds and a good sword that likewise has Devastating Wounds. About the only downside to Azrael is I think he's the only named chapter master whose melee attack doesn't do at least 3 damage a swing.
This list includes Inner Circle Companions, who don't make it into every list, but it's not unusual to see them because they have such a good offensive profile. They're a unit that can both punch up into bigger targets (I've had them take down fresh big Knights on the charge) and mulch chaff as needed. They're hit harder but are more fragile than Deathwing Knights, but can ride in most transports and only take one space per model. In this list, Azrael is clearly attached to them, which triggers their -1 to be hit defensive rule and gives them an Invulnerable save, which is a major boost to their durability.
Any list is going to need a unit to sit on the backfield objective, units to score Secondary missions, and at least a token long-range shooting unit is a good idea. In this list, the Intercessors are the most likely backfield objective scoring unit. They have good OC and can handle minor skirmishing units, plus they can sticky the objective and come off it to help out late game after opponents have committed their reserves. Scouts are the usual go-to for Secondary scoring because they're inexpensive and can uppy-downy. With the recent nerf to the Ballistus Dreadnought, I think it's safe to say that Gladiator Lancers are going to be the go-to for long range fire support, as no one is going to be happy having that thing's Lancer laser destroyer pointed at their vehicles or monsters, and they can also throw a bucket of dice at chaff when the need arises.
That covers the most conventional units in the list. The Ravenwing Command Squad is the first of the less-conventional units. That doesn't make it a bad unit, just not one that makes it into every list. The Ravenwing Command Squad is fast and hard hitting, and a good candidate for the Ancient Weapons enhancement, which buffs the Champion's master crafted power sword. Joshua attached the Command Squad to a 6-strong squad of Outriders, which presents opponents with 36 regenerating Wounds to chew through, and OC 27 to try and shift off an objective. The total package is 305 points, but it's something he can use to pressure opponents early, and likely force them to spend a turn dealing with it before they can get out of their deployment zone.
Joshua included a couple squads of Eradicators, which we don't always see, but there's nothing wrong with them. They give him another option for picking up Monsters and Vehicles besides having units run up and punch them, and they're a good unit to play Relics of the Dark Age on, buffing their melta weapons to Strength 11, which gets them past a lot of breakpoints. My guess is Joshua usually puts one or both squads in Reserve, because by doing so he should usually be able to get at least one round of shooting out of them, and one round is typically enough to pick up something important from his opponent's list.
Finally, there's a Suppressor Squad. No one will hold it against you if you don't know what they do because they're hard to find and so rarely get used, but they are essentially flying Phobos Marines with autocannons. They can only be taken in squads of 3, and their guns aren't super exciting - 3 shots hitting on 4's at Strength 8 AP -1 Damage 3 each. Their Suppression Fire rule subtracts 1 from the To Hit rolls of a unit they've hit with one or more of their shots that lasts through the opponent's turn. None of that is bad per se, but they are prone to dying to a stiff breeze. I imagine their main virtue is that they are a cheap unit with a small footprint with Deep Strike. I think the only cheaper unit with Deep Strike in the codex is the Phobos Lieutenant. Relics of the Dark Age would get their guns to Strength 10, which is past some important breakpoints, and they do have a 12" move so they can scoot around pretty fast once they hit the table, but if your opponent pays any attention to them at all, they're likely to evaporate.
Joshua started off LVO with a bang, crushing Shadow Chaos Daemons 99-51. 2nd round he took a crushing 28-89 defeat against Faith Adepta Sororitas. 3rd round he rallied to score a fairly close 81-68 against Skittari Admech. 4th round he went a comfortable 70-52 against Invasion Fleet Nids. 5th round he drubbed Starshatter Necrons 93-59. He ended his LVO run with a solid 94-80 against Shield Host Custodes. Unfortunately Joshua missed making it into the shadow round by at least 61 points, but a 5-1 run at LVO is exceptional by anyone's standards. Way to go Joshua!
Before we move on from LVO, I'm going to give honorable mentions to Joseph Rexer of SF40k and Nicholas "Ordice" Henry of Four Foot Four Flip Flops, both of whom went 4-2 with Wrath lists. Here's Joseph's list and Nicholas' list on BCP for you to check out on your own time if you are so inclined. Well done, honored battle brethren!
Our next best performing list was played at the Albany Borealis GT, a 5-round, 39 player event held in Albany, New York. Christopher Drazan of Steamed Hammers went 4-1 with a Wrath list and took 2nd place. You can see Christopher's list on BCP. Let's examine it here.
Burp derp
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain: Ancient Weapons
Librarian
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Devastator Squad: 3 lascannon boys, one multimelta boy, and a power fist boy
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying plasma boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying plasma boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Invader ATV: gatling cannon buggy
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
Well, this list is certainly different. Typically a Wrath of the Rock list is built around Deathwing Knights with the idea of leveraging Leonine Aggression to threaten lala-charges during the opponent's turn. This list really seems to be built around leveraging Relics of the Dark Age to increase the strength of a unit's guns by 2 every turn. Eradicators can be taken to Strength 11 and plasma Inceptors can be taken to Strength 10, which will get either unit past a lot of breakpoints, plus both of them natively reroll Wound rolls, so even taking them to the point where they'd be wounding on 4's instead of 5's is going to be a big net increase in their damage output.
Then there's the Devastator Squad, which is a Firstborn unit that don't see much play because they only have 2 wounds each, and once they start taking damage they're losing heavy weapons fast. That said, they are the cheapest lascannon platform we currently have, and if Christopher needs to (say, if he needs to shoot a Knight Castellan or something like that), he can bump them to Strength 14 to be wounding on 3's. Also, once per game they can flip a To Hit roll to a 6, which means they're likely to be reliable the turn you unmask them at least.
Then there's the unit of Sternguard, who are shooty in a different way. They function by generating mass Devastating Wounds in the Shooting phase, but their datasheet ability to reroll Wound rolls against the Oath target functions in the Fight phase too. Between that and the squad members having 4 attacks each (including the sergeant's power fist) makes them quite good in assault, especially paired with a good fighting character.
This list has a lot of shooting power, but it can do work in the Fight phase too. Lion Dad can pretty much pick up anything he touches in the Fight phase, and Christopher is also rocking a squad of Inner Circle Companions, a squad of Assault Intercessors, and as previously mentioned the Sternguard can punch face pretty well too. All three of those units will likely have characters attached to them, but we'll get to that later. It should be noted that the Inner Circle Companions and Sternguard natively have the Deathwing keyword, so can make lala-charges when needed.
For utility units, Christopher has the Intercessors for backfield objective duty, two Scout Squads, the ATV, and a Ravenwing Darkshroud. The Darkshroud gives a 6" aura of Stealth and Cover, and it does so just by existing in a space, so it can perform actions while doing it.
I'm legit not sure what units Christopher is using to take midfield objectives, because nothing in the list is especially durable, and a significant amount of the list consists of short ranged shooting units. I suppose the Devastators might get moved up on to the expansion objective, on the theory that the rest of the list is moving up and giving opponents sufficient problems to make shooting at them a low priority, which Christopher can further disincentivize by having the Darkshroud near them. There's also the Invader, and the Intercessors could come out and take over after having stickied the backfield objective.
In addition to Lion Dad, Christopher has Azrael, a Captain with Ancient Weapons, and a Librarian. He's also potentially got five units he can attach them to - the Sternguard, ICCs, Assault Intercessors, Intercessors, and the Devastator Squad. At first glance, the obvious assignments would seem to be Azrael with the Sternguard, the Librarian with the ICCs, and the Captain with the Assault Intercessors. A Captain with a power fist and Ancient Weapons can use his Finest Hour ability and swing 8 Strength 10 AP -3 Damage 3 attacks with Devastating Wounds on his go-turn, rerolling all Wound rolls against an opposing unit on an objective thanks to the Assault Intercessors' datasheet ability, and that's the Reeses Peanut Butter Cup of pain. Azrael synergizes really well with the Sternguard, and the Librarian provides the Inner Circle Companions the 4+ invulnerable save, plus activates their defensive datasheet ability, so those are the obvious assignments for the characters.
That said, there would be reasons to do otherwise. For starters, Christopher might want the Librarian with the Sternguard. He gives the 4++ save like Azrael, and while he doesn't provide Sustained Hits, his Focused Smite attack has D6 shots with D3 Damage and Devastating Wounds, which would synergize nicely with the Sternguard's shooting and their datasheet ability. Plus, if Christopher wants to put the Sternguard in Reserve, that would allow him to keep Azrael on the table generating CP. Then, the likely assignment is Azrael with the ICCs. However, attaching Azrael to the Assault Intercessors would give a third unit the Deathwing keyword, making another unit eligible to lala-charge. Attaching the Captain to the ICCs doesn't provide any synergistic advantage to either the Captain or the ICCs, but his Finest Hour ability does pair nicely with the Sternguard's datasheet ability, so there's at least a case to be made for assigning the Captain to the Sternguard and Azrael to the Assault Intercessors - or the Intercessors, if you're playing against a wacky all-infantry Militarum list or something like that (such a list won LVO by the way). Finally, the Librarian can join the Devastators, which might be the thing to do in order to confer a 4++ to them, if you're up against a list with a lot of long-range shooting. I'm not saying that's a great option, but it is an option, and it may occasionally be the thing to do.
Christopher started the event strong, in the 1st round handing Starshatter Necrons their metallic tucuses 100-57. 2nd round he demolished Berserker World Eaters 100-39. 3rd round he took a crushing 52-96 loss against Retaliation T'au. 4th round he had a comfortable 84-70 against Angelic Inheritors Blood Angels. 5th round he won a tight 95-89 against Hammer Militarum. Well done Christopher!
Our next list is a Stormlance, which Phil Str (that's how his name appears on BCP) went 4-1 with, placing 2nd out of 30 at I. Würfelgötter Royal Rumble XXL Gelsenkirchen in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. You can see Phil's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
Löwenstärke
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Ravenwing Command Squad: Hunter's Instincts
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying bolter boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
From the perspective of unit choice, this Stormlance list looks like it could be played as a Wrath of the Rock list without having to change anything. The Stormlance brings a very different set of tools to the game than Wrath of the Rock. Whereas Wrath is all about making our units absurdly durable, Stormlance is about getting them in our oppoonent's grills as fast as possible. The detachment rule allowing everything to Advance and Charge and Fall Back and Charge all the time suits Lion Dad, Deathwing Knights, and Inner Circle Companions right down to the ground. They all hit like a truck, so making them faster trucks is obviously beneficial.
It's not unusual to see a Ravenwing Command Squad in a Stormlance list. They give a lot of abilities to the unit they're attached to. It is somewhat unusual to see them attached to Ravenwing Black Knights. Black Knights aren't super-well thought of because they're expensive 3 wound models in a meta bursting with Damage 3 weapons. A more conventional choice would be to attach the Command Squad to Outriders, who are 4 wounds each and give the combined unit +1 Strength and Damage on the charge. That said, Ravenwing Knights have good activations in both the Shooting and Fight phases, whereas Outriders really only activate well in the Fight phase. The combined squad can potentially put out 27 supercharged plasma shots, and if Phil can manage to have them do it while close to Lion Dad, they get Feel No Pain rolls against any Mortal Wounds they make take from failing Hazardous rolls. On top of that, they have Anti-Monster/Vehicle 4+ on the charge, and eight of the nine bikers in the combined unit have the equivalent of power weapons with Devastating Wounds, and the Champion has 6 attacks with a master crafted power sword, so they can punch up into bigger targets. Giving them the Hunter's Instincts enhancement lets them come out of Reserve Turn 1, or if Phil waits till Turn 2 they can enter play in his opponent's deployment zone. The Champion also confers +1 to Charge rolls, so the unit can deliver a very potent alpha strike the turn they arrive. Then, afterwards, the Stormlance is loaded with stratagems that benefit Mounted units in particular that Phil can use on this unit.
Phil's nod to long range shooting is the Vindicator. It's not particularly long range, but the demolisher cannon, aka the casino cannon, sure is capable of doing some damage, particularly to Monsters and Vehicles, but no opponent is going to be happy having that thing pointed at their important units regardless of type. It's also a Toughness 11 2+ save chassis, so picking it up takes some work. The Blitzing Fusillade strat can give its guns Assault, which will help it move into firing position, and it can park on an objective and be a nuisance to remove. As an added cherry on top, it can freely shoot when Engaged, including using the Demolisher cannon on units its engaged with.
The list's utility units are the Jump Intercessors, Inceptors, Infiltrators, and Scouts. Infiltrators make a fantastic backfield objective unit, because they screen out a 12" radius around them from units entering play from Reserve by whatever means. That's often over half a typical deployment zone. It's handy to have a couple units with Deep Strike in a list, and that's the Jump Intercessors and Inceptors. They are also decent at picking up opponents' small skirmishing units, and the Inceptors have a 6" deep strike ability, giving them extra utility scoring Secondaries. Plus, they ought to pick up MSU units pretty well. Scouts, of course, are all kinds of handy.
WTC scoring incoming! 0-20 range, with a tie being 10-10, and every point more/less than 10 representing a difference in score of 5 battle points.
Phil had a gangbusters start, with a 1st round murderfacing of Haloscreed Mechanicus 20-0. 2nd round he drubbed Infernal Chaos Knights 15-5. 3rd round he spanked Tallyband Death Guard 19-1. 4th round he took a close 9-11 loss against Scintillating Chaos Daemons. He came back for a solid 14-6 against Aspect Aeldari. Good show Phil!
After that palate-cleansing Stormlance, we're back to Wrath lists. Our next list was played at the Denver Fight Club October Open 2025, a 6-round, 54-player event held in Westminster, CO. Vinicius Cabral went 5-1 with his Wrath of the Rock lists and placed 5th. Here's Vinicius' list on BCP. Let's see what we can learn from it.
Very cool DA
Azrael - Warlord
Ancient in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Captain in Gravis Armour: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 super-chonky las-missile boys
Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 super-chonky las-missile boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Desolation Squad: 5 steely-eyed missileman boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying bolter boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Right off the bat, Lion Dad is noticeable by his absence. We're certainly all enjoying being able to use him as a competitive choice, but dang he's a lot of points. He's literally a squad of Deathwing Knights and an Invader ATV in points. You can buy a lot for his points.
In this case Lion Dad's points appear to have bought most of two squads of Centurion Devastators. CentDevs are a Firstborn fire support unit that was introduced in 7th edition. 7th ed was a dumpster fire, but CentDevs have enjoyed a bit of a Renaissance in 10th edition, first being the hammer shooting brick in Vanguard lists, and now they pop up a lot in competitive Dark Angels lists. They're practically purpose-made for Wrath lists. For starters, they are Toughness 7 and 4 wounds with a 2+ save. That means that, in a Wrath list, weapons that wound them on better than a 4+ are vanishingly rare, they'll get a save against anything short of AP -5, and the majority of weapons will need at least 2 wounding hits to pick one up.
Another interesting choice is the Desolation Squad. I'm not going to as much about these guys. It's unusual to see them because they're not so well thought of. On paper, it seems like their offense ought to at least be decent. Everyone in the squad can take either a Superfrag rocket launcher or a Superkrak rocket launcher. Broadly speaking, those profiles do what their names suggest. The sergeant can replace his Super-whatsits with a Vengor Launcher, which is D6 Blast Strength 7 AP -1 Damage 2 with a 48" range. On top of that, every member of the squad has a Castellan launcher (36" D3 Blast Indirect Strenth 4 Damage 1). That's a fair bit of Indirect fire, and the squad can muster some direct fire shooting as well. They seem like they'd be good candidates for the Relics strat too.
The problems with Desolation Squads are numerous. For starters, they're 200 points for five Intercessor bodies. Most opponents will find them trivial to pick up once they're exposed. Second, their Super-whatsits launchers hit on 4+ with Heavy, hypothetically hitting on 3's if they Remain Stationary, but they'll never survive in the open to do that. Additionally, their datasheet rule requires them to Remain Stationary, so they may as well not have one. They can only be taken in squads of 5, limiting the benefit of buffs played on them. Finally, when you put them in your list, you have to decide whether they are equipped with Superfrag or Superkrak rockets, unlike every other Space Marine missile platform ever that let you choose between them whenever you shot with them. All in all, I think the 200 points they cost could be better spent. If you really want Indirect in your army list, you're better off taking a Whirlwind. I think those are seriously overcosted too at 190 points, but it has the virtue of also being able to be your backfield objective holder, which will save you the points of a unit dedicated to doing only that. Also, using a Whirlwind in that fashion would prevent opponents from being able to freely cycle Bring It Down when they draw it in a list like this.
Then there's the Eradicators. We already discussed those. Eradicators good.
This lists contingent of face-punchers are the Gravis Captain with Ancient Weapons, the two units of Deathwing Knights and the Inner Circle Companions squad. That's pretty respectable face-punching by anyone's measurement. The Ancient Weapons Gravis Captain is like a mini Lion-Dad, swinging 7 Damage 3 attacks. He doesn't have Lone Op, but he does halve any damage he takes, so is a nuisance to pick up, and easier to hide than Lion Dad. The ICCs are enhanced by having Azrael join them. Having both Sustained and Lethal Hits is a tasty combo to have. The Ancient in Terminator Armour with Deathwing Assault gives Vinicius a strong Turn 1 play when he has to go first, which not a lot of armies have.
For utility units, Vinicius has the Combi-Lieutenant with Tempered in Battle (cause you might as well spend those last 10 points on something), an Intercessor Squad, bolter Inceptors, and an Infiltrator Squad. Again, noticeable by their absence are Scouts. I'm inferring that the Intercessors are the backfield objective holders, because when you have Deathwing Knights with a Deathwing Assault character, you want to forward-deploy something to hold open a spot for them to go if you go first. Afterwards, they can hamper opponents trying to have units come in from Reserve anywhere near the important parts of Vinicius' army. The Inceptors give him a unit that can Deep Strike into his opponent's backfield unless his opponent is very careful about screening them out. The Combi-Lieutenant is just a handy little bastard to have running around doing actions, and it's nice to have that reroll 1's To Wound on an objective.
Vinicius got his event off to a good start with a 1st round drubbing of Berserker World Eaters 90-64. 2nd round he wound up against Berserker Eaters again, and once again stuffed them, 70-31. 3rd round was a close 78-71 against Needgaârd Votann. 4th round he took a 66-77 loss against War Horde Orks. He came back for a comfortable 69-56 win against Starshatter Necrons. 6th round he squeaked out a 79-77 win against Banishers Grey Knights. Good job Vinicius!
Our last list of the week was played at Michigan GT 40k Champs, a 5-round, 133 player event held in Lansing, MI. Foster Weiss brough a Wrath of the Rock list, went 4-1, and wound up in 19th place. Here's Foster's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
Brian told me to, so be mad at him
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 swordy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
This is about as straightforward as a Wrath of the Rock list gets. It really is hard to go too far wrong starting with 3 units of Deathwing Knights and Lion Dad, and with Inner Circle Companions led by Azrael to boot, there aren't a lot of lists that will do well getting in close with this one.
For fire support, Foster went with a pair of Gladiator Lancers, which are always a solid choice. It's main gun, the Lancer laser destroyer, between its profile and the Lancer's datasheet ability, can be relied upon to pick up virtually any 12-wounds or less Vehicle or Monster that doesn't have an Invulnerable save, and they can throw a bucket of dice at chaff if chaff need buckets of dice thrown at them.
That didn't leave Foster a ton of points to spend on anything else, so what he's got for utility units are the two units of Jump Intercessors, the Combi-Lieutenant, and the Scouts. I suspect the Combi-Lieutenant is probably the primary backfield objective holder. He's not screening out much, but on the upside he's virtually immune to Indirect if his opponent happens to have some. That leaves the Scouts free to uppy-downy for Secondary scoring, and the Jump Intercessors can Deep Strike into positions where Foster needs a unit to score a Secondary that the Scouts can't quite reach. Plus, it's often handy to have at least a unit or two with Fly.
Foster started his event strong with a 1st round 77-59 against Valourstrike Imperial Knights. 2nd round he faced a mirror match, going 82-67 against another Wrath Dark Angels list. 3rd round he took his loss, 75-82 against Subterranean Tyranids. 4th round he had a tight 75-70 win against an Ultramarines Vanguard. 5th round he scored a comfortable 86-71 against Canoptek Necrons. Well done Foster!
Statistics
It was a pretty big weekend, with 48 Dark Angels players who played 247 games and won 119 of them, for an underwhelming 48% win rate. 15 of those players played at LVO, playing 84 games and winning 37 of them, for a disappointing 44% win rate. Dark Angels players scored 5 X/1 results, but no event wins.
The most played detachment by a stretch was Wrath of the Rock, with 34 players who scored a 50% win rate. Wrath lists accounted for 4 of the X/1 results.
Gladius was the next-most played, but also the lowest scoring detachment, with 9 players who scored a 38% win rate.
Stormlance was played by 3 players who scored a 60% win rate and took home the last of those X/1 results.
Two players used the Company of Hunters, scoring a 60% win rate.
Finally, one player used a Vanguard Spearhead, scoring a 40% win rate.
Factions To Watch Out For
According to Stat-check.com, since the balance dataslate dropped, the three most problematic factions are Adeptus Mechanicus, Aeldari, and Adeptus Sororitas.
Adeptus Mechanicus are bringing in a 58% win rate and a whopping 2.79 Overrep. Overrep is a measure of how likely a faction is to appear in the top 5 at an event. A score of 1 indicates that it appears as often as it should stastically given its player base. A 2.79 means Mechanicus lists are making event podiums three times as often as they should. Fortunately, Mechanicus only represnets about 3% of the player base, so you might not have to play them if you're lucky. The top detachments are Skitarii Hunter Cohort and Haloscreed Battle Clade. The Skitarii Hunter Cohort appears to have an Overrep of 4.46, which is bonkers.
Aeldari alsy have a 58% win rate, and have a similarly problematic 2.76 Overrep. Aeldari players make up 6% of the player population though, so you're far less likely to dodge them. The two most popular detachments are Aspect Host and Warhost, with Overreps of 2.59 and 4.34 respectively.
Finally, Adeptus Sororitas has a 56% win rate and a 1.62 Overrep, which is not as mind-boggling but still problematically high. Champions of Faith and Bringers of Flame are both cracking the 2 threshold on Overrep though. Sisters players are only 3% of the player base, so your local meta might not have many.
That's what I have for you, my esteemed battle brethren. Check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crown Gaming on YouTube for more Dark Angels centric content. I hope you find my work enjoyable and informative. May it help you in your quest to be ever-victorious. For The Lion!
I'm going to discontinue doing a weekly Factions To Watch Out For segment of the blog because Meta Monday has been my source of data for what armies are the top performers on a week-by-week basis. That leaves me with Stat-check.com, which is an excellent resource, but is better for longer trends than snapshots of a weekend's performance. I'll try out Factions To Watch Out For as a monthly stand-alone article. If people like it, I'll continue doing it.
That is what I have for you today my honored battle brethren. Be sure to check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crow Gaming over on YouTube. I hope you find my work fun and informative. May you always strive to be ever-victorious. For The Lion!
This is so good, thanks for the effort put into this.
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