Chapter Update: 12/8/2025

Greetings, honored battle brethren! Event numbers picked up this past weekend, which resulted in a lot more of our brethren hitting events. We had a number of players get good results, including one event win! It is my genuine pleasure to bring these players and their lists to your attention. 

The obvious place to start is with the event winning list, which was played by Kit Smith Hanna at Iron Cage: Winter Whammy, a 5-round, 54 player event held in Bedford, Texas. Kit defeated all comers with his Ironstorm Spearhead! You can see Kit's list on BCP. We'll analyze it below.

Ironstorm is Dead, Long Live Ironstorm
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain in Gravis Armour: The Flesh Is Weak
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Master of Machine War
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Redemptor Dreadnought
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Kit is back up to his old tricks, winning events with a Dark Angels Ironstorm. However, unlike in 2023, his current Ironstorm list contain a lot more Dark Angels units than Azrael and a Darkshroud. For starters, he brought Lion Dad. Lion Dad is an interesting choice, because the Ironstorm doesn't do a lot to help him (though he can benefit from the detachment rule). However, he does a lot for the list. He can mitigate the damage caused by failed Hazardous rolls, which Kit is going to be making frequently with all the plasma he's packing. Plus, he makes quite a potent counter-assault threat, in case opponents think they can shut down Kit's list by running up and touching hulls. Anything that Lion Dad heroics into isn't likely to last the subsequent Fight phase. 

Azrael is in the list as well. The Ironstorm is a CP-thirsty detachment, so he'll always be a key piece of a DA-Ironstorm list. I hazard to guess Kit attaches him to the Assault Intercessors, keeps him in the backfield, and uses him to pick up any little tech units his opponents may try to drop back there for Behind Enemy Lines or Establish Locus. 

There's the expected pair of Techmarines. Master of Machine War lets the Techie pick a Vehicle within 6" of him in the Command Phase to get to Shoot after making an Advance or Fall Back move. Adept of the Omnissiah lets the Techie blank the damage from an attack on a Vehicle within 6" once per battle round. Plus, Techies can heal wounds off nearby vehicles, buff their attacks, get extra attacks if a vehicle within 12" of them gets destroyed, and get Lone Op while within 3" of a Vehicle. They also happen to each have one Damage 3 attack per Fight phase - their Servo Arm attack - which is hard to get from Space Marine Infantry outside of Epic Heroes.

For an amusing bit of tech, Kit included a Gravis Captain with The Flesh Is Weak, giving him a 4+ Feel No Pain. I imagine Kit holds this guy in Reserve till Turn 3, then pops him into his opponents' backfield and gives them fits trying to remove him. It's hard to screen out a lone 40mm base, and no one is going to remove a Toughness 6, 4++ save model with halves damage and FNP 4+ with casual effort. 

To bring the pain, Kit has a trio of Land Speeder Vengeances and a pair of Redemptor Dreadnoughts. The Vengeance is a fast and reasonably tough platform, but the big show with it is the plasma storm battery, delivering D6+1 shots with Blast and Twin-linked, at Strength 8 AP -2 Damage 2 normal profile and Strength 9 AP -3 Damage 3 supercharge profile. No opponent is going to be happy having that thing line up to shoot their units, regardless of what they are. That and their very reasonable 120 point cost is why they're popping up in lists with some frequency. They also have a handy retributive shooting ability they can trigger the first time something near one dies in the opponent's Shooting phase, plus the Power of the Machine Spirit strat can allow one damaged by enemy shooting to shoot back at what hurt it. Kit can probably manage a couple of turns per game of Vengeances shooting back at opponents twice in their own Shooting phases. You can see why he brought 3 of them.

Backing up the Vengeances is a pair of Redemptor Dreadnoughts. Kit opted for the macro plasma incinerator for their main gun, which is very similar in profile to the plasma storm battery - it lacks Twin-linked, but gets one better AP. Redemptors also have a pile of other guns, mostly for chaff-chewing, and can punch decently well in the Fight phase. They are very solidly durable, with Toughness 10, 2+ save, and -1 Damage, and have a respectable OC 4. I imagine Kit sticks them on his expansion and the midfield objective with the Darkshroud hovering between them and Lion Dad nearby to Heroic into anything charging them that poses a serious threat to them. It would be quite possible to have both of them touching those objectives and  be within 6" of the Techmarine that can blank one damage roll per battle round.

Emperor's sake. Why aren't we all playing this list?

The last offensive piece in Kit's list is a Storm Speeder Thunderstrike. The Thunderstrike is seriously overpriced, but it's an important piece of tech in this list, because without it, its shooting would be weak into anything Toughness 10+, and shooting is its main form of offense. Kit can have Lion Dad and the Redemptors run forward and smash things if he has to, but would probably like to soften up the incoming fire at least a little bit before he does so, and having all his Damage 3 plasma wound on 4's instead of 5's will help his shooting punch up into those targets. 

There's a pretty typical spread of utility units. No Scouts, but there's the Combi-Lieutenant, Intercessors for backfield objective holding, the Jump Intercessors, and the Darkshroud. The Jump Intercessors are doubly handy because Kit can drop them in where he might want Lion Dad to have Lion Op if he decides to have him forestwalk to another part of the table. I include the Darkshroud as a utility unit because it generates its protective field just by existing in a space, so it can be used to do actions without interrupting that utility, and it's apt to be near the center of the table most of the time. Plus it's got a 14" move and Fly, so it can go where Kit wants it pretty convincingly. 

The abundance of plasma blast in the list works well with the stratagem suite the Ironstorm has. There's the aforementioned Power of the Machine Spirit, giving good retributive shooting to a vehicle damaged by an attack. Unbowed Conviction is an Ignores Modifiers strat for pesky units that have defensive buffs up, and there's the really spicy Mercy is Weakness, for 2 CP giving a target unit's shooting Sustained Hits 1 and Crits 5+ (to a Vehicle) if the target is below its starting strength. You can see why you'd want Azrael in this list.

All aboard for a nonstop ride on the win train! Kit trounced Spectacle of Spite Drukhari 100-47 in the 1st round. 2nd round he mangled Warpbane Grey Knights 91-43. 3rd round he crushed Questoris Companions Imperial Knights 100-40. 4th round he drubbed Wrath Dark Angels 96-66. 5th round he humbled Subterranean Tyranids 89-47. Congratulations Kit!

Objectively, the next-best scoring Dark Angels list from the weekend is also an Ironstorm Spearhead. This was played by Dan Richards of Vanguardians of the Galaxy at Bristol Crusaders GT, a 5-round, 46 player event held in Bristol, England. Dan also went undefeated, going 4-0-1 and taking 2nd place. You can check out Dan's list in its entirety on BCP. We'll discuss it below.

ironwing Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Techmarine: Adept of the Onmissiah Techmarine: Master of Machine War Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Land Speeder Vengeance Land Speeder Vengeance Land Speeder Vengeance Redemptor Dreadnought Redemptor Dreadnought Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys Storm Speeder Thunderstrike Vindicator

Dan's list is very similar to Kit's. The main difference is that he did not include the ridiculously durable Gravis Captain, the Jump Intercessors, or the Darkshroud. Instead, he's got a Vindicator, which gives him something that on its own can potentially spike damage sufficiently hard to kill anything in the game. Plus, it's very durable at Toughness 11, 11 wounds and a 2+ save, and it doesn't really care if Dan's opponent tags it with something. It'll shoot the same either way. He also went with Sternies to join with Azrael, giving him a source of Devastating Wounds, which can be handy when something's on its last wounds but the opponent insists on spiking on his saves. 

Dan had an odd 1st round, tying 30-30 with a Soulforged Chaos Marines, which is kind of the Chaos equivalent of the Ironstorm. With Cypher, no less!. Ties are unusual, and that's a really low score. I just wonder how that happened the way it did. Anyway, 2nd round Dan drubbed a Space Wolf Stormlance 83-57. 3rd round he edged out Aspect Host Aeldari 59-53. 4th round he crushed Wrath Dark Angels 99-45. 5th round ended the event with a fairly close 92-80 win against Awakened Necrons. Well done Dan!

The next list we're looking at was played at Feliz Exterminatus IV, a 6-round, 98-player event held in Saint Robert, MO.  Midwest Monstars' Kyle McCord went 5-1 with his Wrath of the Rock list and took 6th place. Here's Kyle's list on BCP. We'll take a look at it below. 

Indomitable Angels of the 🦁 Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael 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 Invader ATV: melta buggy Land Speeder Vengeance Land Speeder Vengeance Sternguard Veteran Squad: 5 awesome bolter boys Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys  Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying choppy boys 

Kyle tweaked his list a bit from the one he took 8th place with at the World Championship. He dropped the Storm Speeder Hammerstrike and a unit of Van Vets. In their place, there's the pair of Land Speeder Vengeances. Between them and the Centurion Devastator squads, he has shooting solutions to most problems he might encounter on a table, and with the speed of the Vengeances, opponents can't be confident they can sit in or near their deployment zone, which gives them difficult decisions to make. Pulling further back is a losing proposition, but going forward exposes them to the Centurion Devastators blistering shooting and puts them in reach of Lion Dad and the punchy Deathwing Knights. 

We've talked about the other units in Kyle's list a lot, and if you're reading this chances are you're already pretty familiar with them. Just to touch on them briefly, Lion Dad kills anything he touches and hands out useful buffs. Deathwing Knights are hard as nails and hit like a truck against most targets. Centurion Devastators are probably the best long-ranged shooting platform Space Marines have. Vanguard Veterans are only 5 points more than Jump Intercessors, can have storm shields for the 4++, and have the Deathwing keyword giving them a 6" Leonine Aggression range. 

1st round Kyle drubbed another Dark Angels Wrath list 94-60. 2nd round he scored a comfortable 89-75 against Biosanctic Genestealer Cult. 3rd round he tuned up Shield Host Custodes 82-34. 4th round he scored a solid 88-75 against Haloscreed Mechanicus. 5th round he took a close 75-87 loss against War Horde Orks. He bounced back for a tight 82-76 win against Combined Arms Militarum. Good show Kyle!

The last list I'm going to review was played at the December Grand Tournament at GG presented by Warhound Tournaments , a 5-round, 40-player event held in Lehi, Utah. Double Dutch Rudder's Jordan Gledhill went 4-1 and took 4th place with his Company of Hunters list, which gladdens my Ravenwing-black heart. Here's Jordan's list on BCP. We'll take a look at it below. 

Speedy Dangles Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter Ravenwing Command Squad: Mounted Strategist Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Ballistus Dreadnought Ballistus Dreadnought Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 super-chonky las-missile boys Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 super-chonky las-missile boys Invader ATV: melta buggy Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Storm Speeder Hammerstrike Storm Speeder Hammerstrike Vindicator

In my observation, there are two ways to play the Company of Hunters. One way is to lean into big bricks of Ravenwing Black Knights and exploit the dual facts that they have good activations in both the Shooting and Fight phases, and the detachment rule gives them the greatest degree of freedom to act any unit in the game enjoys. The other way is to fill it with good shooting units, using some RWCS-Outrider bricks to screen and hamper your opponent. Both of those approaches can work. Jordan went with the latter. 

The combined RWCS-Outrider bricks have 24 wounds, move 12" with +1 to Advance and Charge rolls, OC 3 each with the Ancient in play, regrows a lost bike a round, free Heroic Intervention, 6-9 plasma shots, 6 twin-linked bolt rifle shots, 6 master crafted power weapon attacks, 6 power weapon attacks with Devastating Wounds, 12 Astartes chainsword attacks, and +1 Strength and Damage in melee on turns in which they make a Charge move. Recon Hunter gives one a Scouts 9" move, Mounted Strategist lets one reroll Advance and Charge rolls, and Master of Manoeuvre lets count the Battle Round as one higher for purposes of coming out of Strategic Reserve. Even with them having to go around terrain rather than through it, opponents are going to have to work hard to avoid them and chewing through them is not a trivial exercise.

Anything coming out into the open to deal with the Ravenwing bikes is stepping into some pretty withering firepower. Both Ballistus Dreadnoughts and Centurion Devastators are high-toughness units with high-quality shooting and packing their own To Hit rerolls from their datasheet abilities. The Vindicator, as mentioned before, is also very durable and has a high damage ceiling with its demolisher cannon (aka the casino cannon). Also, I think the fact that all of them have 2+ saves was a consideration in their selections.

Then there are the Hammerstrikes, which if you don't have Vengeances are the next-best thing. The Storm Speeder Hammerstrike is as fast as a Vengeance, shoots 5 Strength 9 D6 Damage attack (3 with Melta 2), and strips cover from a unit hit by its shooting, which it can do with its little D3 damage shot. They also have Deep Strike, which can be handy and synergizes nicely with the detachment's Rapid Reappraisal stratagem, allowing Jordan to put one in Reserve from anywhere on the table. 

The rest of the list are utility units. I suspect Jordan is using one of his units of Scouts to hold his backfield objective, though he could sticky it with the ATV using the Hunter's Trail strat. The other has the important job of holding open a lane of advance for Jordan's bike unit with Scout. The ATV and the Combi-Lieutenant have their usual jobs. 

1st round Jordan faced Wrath Dark Angels and prevailed 81-51. 2nd round he drubbed Questoris Imperial Knights 82-55. 3rd round he got hammered by Berserker World Eaters 15-100. 4th round he took it out on Subterranean Tyranids, crushing them 96-24. 5th round he scored a comfortable 91-75 win against Reaper's Drukhari. Well done Jordan!

Honorable Mentions

Mike Spencer went 4-1 and took placed 34th out of 273 at the Leicester 40K Super Major held in Leicester, England with his Wrath of the Rock list. 

Joe Shaw of Death Korps of Queen's Road also went 4-1 at the Leicester 40K Super Major, placing 39th out of 273 with his Wrath of the Rock list. 

Erik Brody of The TOs went 4-1 and placed 9th out of 54 at Iron Cage: Winter Whammy with his Wrath of the Rock list. Also the name of Erik's list is great.

Honored brethren, I salute you!

Statistics

It was a good weekend for the legion chapter. 42 players played 207 games, winning 97 and tying 11 for a 50% win rate. There were 7 X/0-X/1 results and 1 event win. 

Once again the most played detachment by a 3-1 margin compared to all the other detachments combined, Wrath of the Rock had 31 players who netted a 45% win rate and 4 of the X-results.

The most successful detachment of the weekend was the Ironstorm, whose 2 players literally went undefeated for a 90% win rate, 2 X-results, and the event win. 

The Company of Hunters was played by 2 players who scored an 80% win rate between them and brought in that last X-result. Oddly, the other CoH player went 3-1 and apparently dropped without playing the last round of their event, which is too bad because maybe he'd have brought in another X-result. 

The Stormlance did fine but not great, with 2 players and a 60% win rate. 

The Gladius did okay, with 4 players and a 50% win rate. 

One optimist played an Inner Circle Task Force and scored only a 30% win rate. 

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 some Dark Angels-centric video content. As always, I hope you find my work enjoyable and informative. May it help you in your quest to be ever-victorious. For The Lion!