Chapter Review 2/23/2026

 Greetings honored battle brethren! Event play certainly picked back up over the weekend, with two big events and a number of smaller ones. It was a good weekend for Dark Angels, with two event wins and another 3 X/1 results! We'll take a look at the top three lists of the weekend. 

The top list of the week is Midwest Monstars' Kyle McCord's Wrath of the Rock list, with which he took first place at the 2026 Big Beef Beatdown, going 5-0 and prevailing over 71 other players. You can see Kyle's list on BCP. We'll break it down below.

Knights of the Relentless 🦁
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy 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
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys

Kyle is giving us a solid example of a Wrath of the Rock list with a variety of tools he can use to address the problems his opponents present. Opponents who want to get up close will have to contend with Lion Dad and a pair of Deathwing Knight squads, and Azrael and the Sternguard aren't going to do them any good either. The Deathwing Knights and Sternguard give Kyle three units he can use Leonine Aggression with, which gives him pretty good board control on his opponent's turn. 

Keeping a distance isn't a sure way to avoid having units get picked up either. Kyle has two units of Cent Devs and a Vengeance to reach out across the board with. Sternguard Veterans are also primarily a shooting unit, though best used at short range. The Cent Devs are pretty oath-agnostic, especially if they target a unit shot at by the Incursors, giving them +1 To Hit, which with their datasheet ability to reroll 1's against any unit on the table effectively gives them full rerolls to hit. Kyle can keep a squad of Deathwing Knights in Reserve to Deep Strike if he's facing an opponent likely to try and avoid getting close for as long as possible, and Lion Dad can uppy-downy his way into an opponent's face as well.

There's the usual trio of Intercessors, Scouts, and the Combi-Lieutenant for holding down objectives and scoring Secondaries. The Incursors and Jump Intercessors can help with that too, or skirmish with trading pieces as needed.

As mentioned, Kyle's list has a variety of resources to apply to tabletop problems. He's got some D6+1 damage units, Lion Dad is a Damage 4 unit, the Vengeance provides Damage 3, and the Deathwing Knights and Lion Dad sling plenty of Damage 2. For units that have a lot of layered defensive abilities, he's got the Sternguard with Azrael leading them to riddle those units with Devastating Wounds.  Between that and some impact Mortals from the Jump Intercessors, Grenades, and maybe a Tank Shock from the Vengeance, he's got some options to Mortal/Dev out annoying units. I'm inclined to think the Sternguard made the cut specifically to help deal with C'Tan.

Also, and this is a minor point, but players like Kyle don't make it to the top by missing any tricks, it occurs to me that having the Vengeance in the list also gives opponents a means to score Bring It Down without having to throw everything at Lion Dad, which is a form of protection for Lion Dad.

1st round Kyle smashed Phoenician Emperor's Children 100-30.  2nd round he drubbed Infernal Lance Chaos Knights 94-64.  3rd round he stuffed Invasion Fleet Tyranids 97-69. 4th round he scored a comfortable 78-60 against Contagion Death Guard. 5th round he squeaked out a 77-73 against Talons Death Guard. Congratulations on the win Kyle!

Our other event-winning list is Black Crow Gaming's Welsh hero Toby Bennett, who took 1st out of 34 players at Black Crow Gaming VS 6++ - Battle of The Ragnar. You can see Toby's list on BCP. We'll check it out below. 

DILF returns to business
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain in Gravis Armour: Articifer Armour

Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Vindicator
Vindicator

Toby's list is similar to Kyle's in a lot of ways. He's got the balance between assault and shooting for damage output, and also the distribution of types of damage. He opted for Vindicators instead of Centurion Devastators. Vindicators are better in some ways and worse in others. He's got two Vengeances instead of one, which makes it more likely he'll be able to trigger their datasheet ability. He added a Thunderstrike to buff his shooting's ability to wound instead of Incursors to buff the To Hit rolls. He has Assault Intercessors for Azrael to join instead of Sternguard, which is a little less spicy, but the points he saved he put into a Gravis Captain with Artificer Armour as a trading piece, which is an obnoxious little piece of tech for opponents to pick up.

The Gladius also gives a different set of detachment tools to work with that supports a more balanced style of play without being keyworded to any specific unit type. When he needs a little extra juice for shooting or for assault, he can get it from the Gladius strats.

Toby had a strong 1st start, drubbing Grizzletarum 92-60. 2nd round he scored a comfortable 66-48 against Berserker World Eaters. 3rd round he scored a solid 90-70 against Cursed Legion Necrons. 4th round he scored a solid 88-69 against another Grizzletarum list. 5th round he secured the win with an 88-71 win against Grand Coven Thousand Sons. Congratulations Toby!

The last list I'm going to go over in this entry was the best-scoring Dark Angels list at the Manchester 40k Super-Major, the second biggest event of the weekend at 296 players. Manchester Hive Wargaming's Alex Buckler went 4-1 and took 47th place. You can see Alex's list on BCP. We'll take a look at it below. 

Alex's list
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Judiciar
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
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 swordy boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Reiver Squad: 5 edgy choppy boys
Repulsor Executioner with heavy laser destroyer
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys

Alex's list bears some broad similarities to the two event winning lists we've already looked at. Like the other lists, he's got Lion Dad, Azrael, a pair of Deathwing Knight squads, a Jump Intercessor Squad, and the usual Intercessors-Scouts-Combi Lieutenant trio. Like Kyle, Alex included 10 Sternguard Veterans to attach Azrael to, giving him a significant ranged Devastating Wounds threat which is also a pretty good melee unit.

The choices unique to Alex's list are the Repulsor Executioner, the Inner Circle Companions with the Judiciar, and the Reiver Squad. The RepEx is a big Toughness 12 block of firepower. It's main gun is the heavy laser destroyer, which can potentially put up to 20 wounds on a single target, but it's got an enormous variety of other guns as well that are mostly good for chewing chaff, but no opponent will be confident exposing a small or squishy unit to the torrent of dice that thing can throw at them.

Inner Circle Companions led by a Judiciar doesn't need a lot of explanation. It's a hard hitting melee unit with Fights First. I think it likely that the choice of the RepEx as long-range fire support was made with these guys in mind, because the RepEx has enough transport capacity to carry them, and if they're within 3" of the RepEx, then Alex can use the Squad Tactics strat to hop them into the RepEx if an opponent's unit gets within 9" of them in the Movement phase, potentially protecting them from being shot at.

I actually had to look up what Reivers do because I've seen them in so rarely in the lists I've covered. They are interesting. I think their main utility is in their Terror Troops ability, subtracting OC from units within 3" of them. They also cause any units in Engagement range of them to make a Battle-shock test at -1 at the beginning of the Fight phase, which could occasionally be useful. They have the Scouts ability, but they can also be given grav chutes to get Deep Strike, and Alex has done so, so I imagine they're generally being held in Reserve until Alex needs to score a positional Secondary.  Interestingly, Reivers also have a lot of Precision attacks, both ranged and melee. They're not amazing: AP -1 bolt pistol shots and AP -1 combat knives attacks - but they would let the squad potentially pick up some squishy character a squad may be counting on for part of its functionality, like a Sororitas Hospitalar out of a squad of Sacresancts. The fact that they can do all these things for the same points cost as a squad of Intercessors has me thinking we ought to consider them a little more often. I just wish their helmets didn't look so derpy.

Alex got off to a good 1st round by crushing Haloscreed Mechanicus 94-43. 2nd round he scored a close 88-78 against Dread Mob Orks. 3rd round he drubbed Shield Host Custodes 80-55. 4th round he took a punishing 35-86 loss against Liberator Blood Angels. He bounced back in the 5th round for a 90-79 win against Hallowed Martyrs Sororitas. Well done Alex!

Honorable Mentions

Steelbros' Alex Hunter went 5-2 and placed 63rd out of 415 players at the Cherokee Open 2026 - 40k Champs event with his Wrath of the Rock list.

Glenn Duncan of Eastern Fringe went 4-1 and placed 10th out of 60 players at the Geekfest  - Winter War - Warhammer 40K GT with his Wrath of the Rock list. Glenn's list is interesting in that he did not take Lion Dad, but he had 20 Sternguard with Azrael and a Librarian each leading a 10-man squad of them. I'm inclined to think this was an effort to tech against C'Tan spam lists. 

Derek Hecker went 4-1 and placed 7th out of 46 players at Battle For The Couch 2 with his Wrath of the Rock list. 

Brethren, I salute you!

Statistics

It was a busy weekend with two big events. Dark Angels were represented by 58 players who played 316 games and won 160 of them, earning a 51% win rate. We had 5 X/0-X/1 results and 2 event wins. 

Wrath of the Rock was overwhelmingly the most played detachment, with 38 players who scored a 47% win rate, 3 X-results, and 1 event win.

Gladius was next-most played with 11 players who scored a 62% win rate, 2 X-results, and our other event win.

Two players played the Company of Hunters and scored a 66% win rate.

Two players played Ironstorm lists, scoring a 50% win rate

One player gave the Lion's Blade a try, scoring a 50% win rate

One player ran an Orbital Assault Force, scoring a 60% win rate.

One player used a Firestorm list, scoring a 40% win rate

One player used an Unforgiving Task Force, scoring a 40% win rate

Finally, one player didn't post a list. He scored only a 25% win rate.

That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you this week. Be sure to check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crow Gaming on YouTube for Dark Angels content created by real enthusiasts for the legion chapter. It's good to be back! I'm looking forward to a new year, both for putting my skills to the test and bringing you the news of our beloved army. As always, I hope you find my work enjoyable and informative. May we all strive ever for glorious victory! For The Lion!