Chapter Update: 11/24/2025

Hello honored battle brethren! It was an eventful weekend, with a solid pack of Dark Angels players and a number of lists that did quite well. The Stormlance had a particularly good weekend, with two of the best performing lists, including a event winner, and at a pretty big event to boot! It is my privilege to bring these lists to your attention, so without further ado, let's get to it!

To begin with the top list of the weekend, let's look at the Stormlance list played by Scott Blegen of Advanced Warfare 40K, who went 5-0 and took the top spot at the RenegadeOpen2025 - 40K GT, a 5-round, 97 player event held in Minneapolis, MN. You can see Scott's list on BCP. We'll take a look at it below. 

Dark Angels - Original List…
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Ravenwing Command Squad: Feinting Withdrawal
Ravenwing Command Squad: Hunter's Instincts
Sammael
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Inner Circle Companions: 3 spooky awesome swordy boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys

I have to admit, this was not what I was expecting from a Stormlance list. Typically, the Stormlance lists I've seen have been heavy on the Deathwing Knights and maybe having a token Mounted unit, often Sammy with 3 Outriders. Scott has no Deathwing Knights and he certainly has more than a token Mounted contingent in his list, with not only Sammy and 3 Outriders, but a pair of Ravenwing Command Squads to attach to two full Ravenwing Knight squads. 

If you've been following my blog for a while, you're doubtless aware I really like Ravenwing Knights. They move fast and hit hard in both the Shooting and Fight phases. They pay for that by having kind of an unfortunate defensive profile, with 3 wounds and only a 5+ Invulnerable save, but if you can leverage their strengths they do good work.

For using massed Ravenwing, the Stormlance isn't as obvious a detachment as the Company of Hunters, as Shooting is an important activation for Ravenwing Black Knights, and the detachment rule doesn't grant Shooting after Advancing. However, the detachment can work for a judicious amount of Ravenwing supported by other elements like Scott's list here. One of the Command Squads has Hunter's Instincts, allowing it and the unit to which it's attached to come out of Reserves Turn 1. From my experience using the similar Enhancement in the Company of Hunters, this isn't so much to try and get the unit in the opponent's backfield, but to Rapid Ingress it Turn 1 where it can be gotten within Rapid Fire range of its plasma talons in the subsequent Dark Angels' player's turn. This has the dual advantages of wrong-footing opponents by having 300 points of plasma bike brick pop into play in a position they weren't prepared to deal with it and ease the difficulty of moving multiple large bike bricks up the table.

For the other plasma bike brick, it can be gotten into position with an Advance Move (using Full Throttle for an auto 9" advance if the CP is available), and then be made eligible to shoot with the Blitzing Fusillade stratagem. 

Meanwhile, Sammy's unit can exploit the Shock Assault Stratagem. It can be useful for the Black Knights too, particularly if Scott wants them to pick up a unit that isn't a Vehicle or Monster, but they don't need it to punch up into those bigger targets, whereas it can help Sammy punch up into them.

The point I'm making is that the combination of the Stormlance's detachment rule, enhancements, and stratagem suite do a good job to support the use of two of the Ravenwing Knight plasma bike bricks, plus Sammy and his three Outriders, but more bikes than that will offer diminishing returns on the investment,  because unlike, say, Thunderwolf Cavalry, it's important for Black Knights to be able to shoot, and there's only so much you can do to keep them shooting in the Stormlance. 

Supporting the Ravenwing, Scott has Lion Dad, who is both a fantastic melee beatstick and a source of buffs for the Ravenwing elements. In particular, No Hiding From The Watchers can save members of the squads from failed Hazardous rolls, and they don't mind reroll 1's in the Fight phase either. With his Mist-Wreathed Shadow Realms ability, Scott can pick him up and Deep Strike him where his little Watcher buddies can save Ravenwing Knights from overheats, then potentially make a long-bomb charge if the dice feel like cooperating. 

Then there's Azrael. Unlike the Company of Hunters, the Stormlance has really good stratagems, which is no doubt why Scott chose it. Having Azrael to generate CP instead of just getting the 1 CP per turn like a peasant really helps keep the Stormlance train rolling. Scott chose to pair him with a small unit of 3 Inner Circle Companions, so he's probably keeping him safely tucked away till late game before having him come out and pick up weakened squads.

For long ranged fire support, Scott chose a pair of Gladiator Lancers. In my opinion, in a list like this, the most important job for long range fire support is to pop transports so the Ravenwing Knight bricks can light up what's inside with plasma. Lancers will do this very well, and can engage gun tanks or similar targets as needed, but the important thing is getting units out of transports for the Ravenwing to kill. 

The rest of the list is utility units - Intercessors for the backfield objective, the Combi-Lieutenant for all the reasons he's good, and a pair of Jump Intercessor squads. They can be used to score Secondaries, skirmish with opponents' utility units, throw some impact Mortals around, and be standing where Lion Dad needs them to be standing to activate his Lion Op ability. 

It's a really solid list. I like it a lot. It's nice to see a list that uses Ravenwing Knights to go all the way!

Nonstop ride on the win train! 1st round Scott scored a comfortable 82-68 against Inheritors Blood Angels. 2nd round he drubbed Hypercrypt Necrons 74-48.  3rd round he humbled Warhost Aeldari 81-61. 4th round he scored a close 83-74 against Warpbane Grey Knights.  5th round he squeaked out an 82-80 against Aspect Host Aeldari. 1st place! Congratulations Scott!

Our next list is also a bike-heavy Stormlance! This one was played by Tim Nordin of Draknästet SK at Fantasia Fanatic XLVIII 40K in Umeå, Sweden, a 5-round, 114 player event. Our man Tim went 4-1 and placed 4th. You can see Tim's list on BCP. Let's take a look at it below. 

Wings of Purpouse
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Ravenwing Command Squad: Hunter's Instincts
Ravenwing Command Squad
Ravenwing Command Squad
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Scott's list was a balanced list with a healthy contingent of Ravenwing units. Tim's list is more of a skew list, with the amount of bikes it's got in it. He's got three full Ravenwing Knight units, with three Ravenwing Command Squads to pair them with. However, he's also got a couple of Outrider Squads, and he might pair one or two of his RWCSes with them, depending on if that would be advantageous in his matchup. If not, the Outriders can serve a similar purpose to Scott's Jump Intercessors, being better in some ways and worse in others. Tim doesn't have any long-distance can opener units, but a squad of Black Knights should be able to pop most transports with their plasma talons. Plus, there's the Invader to help with that, though it probably is mostly intended to be a utility unit. 

Tim included a Darkshroud in his list. I don't tend to be bullish on the Darkshroud, but it can serve as a utility unit, and Tim might use it to push opponents to shoot at a unit he wants them to shoot at, so he can then play Ride Hard, Ride Fast on them, debuffing their shooting with penalties both To Hit and To Wound. Lion Dad is in this list too, and fills the same functions. Azrael must be joining the Intercessors, who might go around gunning down utility units, with the Infiltrators sitting on the backfield objective. Tim's also got a unit of Scouts, who can hold open a lane of advance for Tim's bikes at deployment, and then do uppy-downy scoring shenanigans. Finally, there's the Combi-Lieutenant, doing his thing. 

WTC scoring incoming! 0-20 scale, 10-10 is a tie on Battle Points, every point of deviation represents a 5-point difference in Battle Points score.

Tim got the event off to a mighty start, crushing Valourstrike Imperial Knights 20-0. He took his loss in the 2nd round, a bruising 4-16 against Infernal Chaos Knights. He bounced back from that to deliver another 20-0 spanking to Spearpoint White Scars (do you even bike bro?). Apparently Tim wanted to beat on all the new Space Marine detachments, because 4th round he drubbed Shadowmark Raven Guard  17-3. He ended strong, with a 5th round humbling of Haloscreed Mechanicus 18-2. Good job Tim!

The last list we're going to look at this week is a Wrath of the Rock list, played by The Warhounds' Felipe Castello at GT Polar 2025 held in Curitiba, Brazil. Felipe went 4-1 and took 3rd out of 27. You can see Felipe's list on BCP. We'll take a look at it below. 

Felipe's list
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Ancient in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Captain in Gravis Armour: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying plasma boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Gladiator Lancer
Land Speeder Vengeance

Felipe's list is interesting to me. It starts off fairly conventionally, with Lion Dad, Azrael, two units of Deathwing Knights, and some Sternguard to hang out with Azrael. With that solid core established, it goes for a more varied approach than one might expect. After the Deathwing Knights, the only units that duplicate are the ATVs. 

Starting at the top, he's got the Terminator Ancient with Deathwing Assault. That gives a solid going-first opening move, allowing Felipe to plop a squad of Deathwing Knights and Lion Dad on his opponent's expansion objective and go "Come at me bro!"

For shooting, Felipe's got the Inceptor Squad, the two ATVs, a Gladiator Lancer, and a Land Speeder Vengeance. The Lancer is his primary can opener, forcibly debussing transport embarked squads so Felipe's other units can smash them. The Invaders can be put to that task too, though their primary job is more likely to be utility units to score Secondaries. The Vengeance and the Inceptors can deliver twin linked Damage 3 plasma, which nothing likes to be the target of, and with the Inceptors having a 6" Deep Strike rule and the Vengeance's inherent speed it will be hard for opponents to hide from them. Plus, they can punch up into bigger targets if Felipe needs them to. The Inceptors also make a nice target for Relics of the Dark Age.

Then there's the Gravis Captain with Ancient Weapons. This guy is kind of Lion Dad's Mini-Me. He's a nuisance to remove with his Gravis armour, invulnerable save, and datasheet rule, with the enhancement he hits like a truck with a ton of attacks. All of this is on a 40mm base, which is easy to hide and hard to screen out.

Felipe's utility units include Infiltrators for his backfield objective, the ever-useful Combi-Lieutenant, the aforementioned ATVs, and Incursors. The Incursors also buff Felipe's shooting, making it less dependent on Oath to be effective. 

I think we usually see lists with multiples of effective units, and that is a solid way to build a list, but diversity of units can be a strength as well. Felipe's list has a variety of tools he can use to address challenges he faces in his games, making it less likely he'll just have an outright bad matchup, and also giving his opponent more potential surprises to worry about. It certainly seem to to work for him at this event. 

Felipe started with a squeaked out 1st round 85-84 against Conceited (Emperor's) Children. 2nd round, he was edged out 77-78 by Brandfast Votann. 3rd round he scored a comfortable 76-57 against Mont'ka T'au. 4th round he brutalized Infernal Chaos Knights 88-16. 5th round he ended strong, crushing Berserker World Eaters 89-48. Way to go Felipe!

Honorable Mentions

Ross Donaldson went 3-1-1 at the Celtic Cup Grand Tournament 2025 held in Pollokshaws, Scotland. He placed 22nd out of 102 with his Wrath of the Rock list. Good show Ross!

Statistics

Over the weekend, there were 42 Dark Angels players who played 195 games, won 93 of htem, and tied 10 of them, for a win rate of almost exactly 50%. We had 4 X/0-X/1 results and 1 event win.

The most played detachment, by a ratio of almost 4 to 1, was the Wrath of the Rock, with 33 players who scored a 48% win rate. Two of the X-results came from Wrath lists.

The next most played detachment was the Stormlance, with 5 players, a 67% win rate, 2 X-results, and the event win. 

The Gladius was played by 2 players who scored a sad 28% win rate

The Company of Hunters was used by 1 player, who scored a 60% win rate.

The Ironstorm was played by 1 player who scored a 67% win rate, but only played 3 games.

That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. Be sure to check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crow Gaming on YouTube for quality Dark Angels content. As always, I hope you find my work entertaining and informative. May it help you strive to be ever victorious! For the Lion!