Chapter Review 3/2/2026
The obvious place to start is with the event winning list. That list is a Company of Hunters, played by Rule Lawyerz' Phillip French. Phillip beat out 23 other competitors at Game Knight Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament held in Jasper, IN. Here's Phillip's list on BCP. We'll review it below.
D Angels dark wings
Chaplain on Bike
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Ravenwing Command Squad: Warlord
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
It's weird to see a Dark Angels list without Lion Dad or Azrael, isn't it? If you're going to see a Dark Angels list without either of the the top leaders, it's going to be a Company of Hunters list. Either or both of them can be good to have in a CoH, but the detachment rule doesn't do anything for Lion Dad, and the strats of the detachment aren't so exciting that Azrael's CP generation is a necessity.
The Company of Hunters detachment rule is going to make a CoH list tend to lean into shooting and into Mounted units, because it grants everything Advance/Fall Back + Shoot, and Mounted units Advance/Fall Back + Shoot and Charge. That gives the CoH player's units unparalleled freedom to act.
Phillip built a fast, balanced list that I think leans a little into the Fight phase, but still has a respectable amount of shooting. Three Ravenwing Command Squads and a full Ravenwing Black Knight squad can deliver up to 54 plasma shots if they can all get within 9" of targets, and in addition to that Phillip included a pair of Land Speeders Vengeance, a pair of Invader ATVs with multimeltas, a Hammerstrike with a plethora of melta and melta near-equivalent shots, and a Thunderstrike with a trio of AP -3 D6+1 Damage shots. All that shooting is going to pick up a lot of things. Als, the Hammerstrike and Thunderstrike between them can, respectively, strip Cover from a target for the Shooting phase and give shooting into a target +1 to Wound for a phase. Plasma shooting likes having those buffs to work with.
Phillip's units that do work in the Fight phase are his trio of Ravenwing Command Squads, his Bike Chaplain, his three Outrider Squads, and his Ravenwing Knight squad. With his four command elements and four Mounted units, Phillip has some ability to tailor his list to his opponent on the fly. Ravenwing Command Squads are going to pair very well with Outrider Squads, giving the Champion 6 Damage 3 attacks on the charge, with the rest of the squad slinging 18 Damage 2 attacks. One thing I'm not sure of is if Phillip is attaching the Chaplain to the third Outrider squad and the third Command Squad to the Black Knights, or the other way around. The case for the Chaplain attached to the Outriders is that makes a relatively cheap unit that can sally out and pick up forward-deployed units pretty handily. The Chaplain's Litany of Hate ability (+1 to Wound in the Fight phase) pairs better with Outriders than with Black Knights. The counter-argument is that the Chaplain's Catechism of Fire ability (unit's guns have Devastating Wounds against a target within 12") is going to do more for the unit with better guns, and that is Black Knights by far.
For utility work, Phillip has the usual Combi-Lieutenant+Intercessors+Scouts trio. He's also got a squad of Incursors, which do double duty, also effectively providing a second Oath-equivalent ability to his army's shooting into a target they point at. The Invaders are handy utility units as well, and Phillip even sprang for a Callidus Assassin, who is the mistress of uppy-downy Secondary scoring.
In the 1st round of the event, Phillip got off to a solid start with a comfortable 80-68 win against Gate Warden Knights. 2nd round he had a close 77-67 win against Grizzletarum. 3rd round he squeaked out an 84-82 win against a Space Marine (Salamanders) Firestorm. 4th round he scored his most convincing win, crushing an Ork War Horde 97-55. He clinched it with a close 5th round 92-86 against Hearthband Votann. Congratulations on your win Phillip!
For my second list to review, I had a pile of Wrath of the Rock lists to choose from. By far the best performing though belongs to Making Saves' Tanner Floyd, who took 3rd place out of 113 players at the Scorched Earth Open 2026 - 40K Fundraiser GT held in Phoenix, AZ. You can see Tanner's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below.
Me: Mom, can I play competitive Space Marines?
Mom: We have competitive Space Marines at home.
Competitive Space Marines at home:
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 6 chonky melta boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Callidus Assassin
Tanner's list has the bones of a conventional competitive Wrath list. It's got a solid Deathwing punch with the two squads of Deathwing Knights and the Inner Circle Companions led by Azrael, and Lion Dad, though he doesn't have the Deathwing keyword for reasons none of us fathom, he is one of the premier melee threats in the game, and he can still Heroic Intervention into any enemy unit that ends a charge within 6" of him, which is a pretty significant problem for most opponents. He's also got the usual utility trio of Combi-Lieutenant+Intercessors+Scouts, and like Phillip he included a Callidus.
For shooting, Tanner's list has a pair of Vengeances, a Thunderstrike, and a squad of 6 Eradicators. One thing we really need shooting for is to pop transports so our punchy units can punch the things riding in them, and the Vengeances and Thunderstrike are adequate to that task. The Eradicators are not ideal for popping transports due to how short their range is, but what they will do is murder the bejeebers out of any Vehicle or Monster that gets close to them. They strike me in particular as anti-C'Tan tech, particularly in a Wrath list. C'Tan have to close within punching distance to really do their work, so Eradicators being slow and short ranged is not a liability for that work. The Relics of the Dark Age strat can buff their guns to Strength 11, making them wound on 4's with full Wound rerolls, and if Tanner really wants to make sure they kill one C'Tan in particular, he can Thunderstrike it for the +1 to Wound. That doesn't seem like it ought to be necessary, but sometimes players spike 4+ Invulnerable saves, so forcing them to roll more makes them less likely to succeed on all of them, and hypothetically Tanner only needs his opponent to fail 2 of them (though 3 would make it a much more sure thing).
Tanner got the event off to a decisive start, obliterating Forgefather Salamanders 100-23. 2nd round he buried a Blades of Ultramar list 95-29. 3rd round scored a comfortable 76-60 against Retaliation T'au. 4th round he squeaked out an 84-83 win againt Mont'Ka T'au. Apparently the T'au just kept on coming, and Tanner dropped a close 74-80 against another Retaliation T'au list. Not to be discouraged, Tanner ended the event off with a bang, crushing a White Scars Spearpoint 100-54 in the 6th round. Though not an event win, Tanner not only went 5-1, but also scored a 4-0 event start. Very well done Tanner!
For the last list reviewed for this article, I'd like to take a look at the one that Noah Lockard took to Houston, TX and played at Clutch City GT 2026, where he went 4-1 and placed 20th out of 133 players. Noah played an Ironstorm Spearhead, which you can see on BCP. We'll check it out below.
Lionstorm
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Gladiator Reaper
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought (heavy gat)
Redemptor Dreadnought (heavy gat)
Sternguard Veteran Squad
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Noah made some interesting choices for his list. It's not unusual to see an Ironstorm with Redemptor Dreadnoughts in it. What is unusual is for them to be carrying heavy onslaught gatling cannons as their main gun instead of macro plasma incinerators. To save you looking up the profile, the heavy gat is 12 shots Strength 6 Damage 1 Devastating Wounds. The main gun on the Gladiator Reaper is a twin linked heavy gat, and the secondary weapons on his Vengeances are assault cannons, which is 6 shots but otherwise the same profile. Noah clearly wanted to have a lot of Devastating Wounds potential in his list. I'm kind of surprised he didn't equip his Redemptors with the regular onslaught gatling cannon for their under-fist weapons, but he went with heavy flamers instead. Maybe he chose them because they make for reliable hits in Overwatch, but it feels like he missed a trick to me. He could have put an assault cannon on his Darkshroud too, but he probably doesn't want to have that thing showing itself where opponents can easily shoot it.
Between all the vehicle gats and the small squad of Sternies, Noah can pretty reliably pump out a lot of Devastating Wounds per turn, plus there's always the Tank Shock and Grenades strats. The Reaper and Redemptors can also throw a lot of dice at chaff if chaff needs clearing. To deal with heavy infantry, Noah also has a pair of Land Speeders Vengeance, which we're all familiar with, He didn't include any of what we could consider traditional anti-Big Thing shooting units, but he did include a Storm Speeder Thunderstrike to help everything else in the list punch up into those bigger targets, and a Vengeance with that Thunderstrike buff will usually do a pretty credible job of putting a dent in most vehicles.
Most of the heavy lifting that may need to be done in the Fight phase is going to get done by Lion Dad, but he's not necessarily fighting alone. The Redemptors are reasonably punchy and can pick up 3-wound models with single attacks, and Azrael with the Sternies is a fairly credible skirmishing unit. Even the Techmarines are not slouches in combat. Between their Omnissian power axe and servo-arm attacks, they stand pretty reasonable chances of picking up 5-man squads of chaff over the course of a couple Fight phases.
Like most players, Noah included the usual Combi-Lieutenant and Intercessors for utility work, but no Scouts. Instead, he's got the Ravenwing Darkshroud. The Darkshroud provides its value to the list just by existing in a space and generating its 6" aura of Stealth and Benefit of Cover, so it's free to do actions to score Secondaries if it can conveniently do so while being in position to provide its aura to the units Noah wants it to protect.
Sadly, Noah took his loss in the 1st round (46-89) against Talons Custodes. I think it was just a bad matchup for Noah. His opponent's list had three Venerable Land Raiders in it, which Noah's list was not well equipped to pick up. He didn't let a disappointing first round phase him though. 2nd round he massacred Conceited (Emperor's) Children 100-42. 3rd round he crushed Great Wolf Space Wolves 100-56. 4th round he drubbed Spearhead Imperial Knights 98-71. 5th round he humbled Gladius Utramarines 86-59. Well done Noah!
Honorable Mentions
Tanner wasn't the only player who did well with a Wrath of the Rock list over the weekend. Five more players went X/1 with Wrath lists. In no particular order:
Michael Basc and Nic Blunt each went 4-1 and placed 3rd and 4th respectively out of 24 players at GST presents: the Great Southern GT held in (I think) Seppings, Australia, which is about as southern as human civilization gets I suppose. You can see Michael's list here and Nic's list here on BCP. Michael's list is kind of wild. He included 2 squads of Heavy Intercessors and 3 squads of Deathwing Terminators, plus a Land Raider. You don't see a list like that place well very often.
Robert Kimpton went 3-1-1 and placed 11th out of 59 at That 6++ Grand Tournament: North 2026 held in Barnsley, England. Here's Robert's list on BCP.
Thors Ignerson went 4-1 and placed 19th out of 133 players at Clutch City GT 2026. He actually placed more highly than Noah, but I made an editorial decision to fully cover Noah's list because I'd already reviewed a Wrath list in the article. That said, Thors' list is definitely worth a look. That mad genius used a full 18 Inner Circle Companions in his list!
Last but by no means least, Joshua Hirschfeld went 5-1 and placed 6th out of 113 players at the Scorched Earth Open 2026 - 40K Fundraiser GT. Joshua was actually the highest-scoring Dark Angels player of the weekend after Phillip French and Tanner Floyd. Here's Joshua's list on BCP.
Brethren, I salute you!
Statistics
Dark Angels players performed well over the weekend. We had 31 players play 164 games and win 85 of them, earning a 52% win rate. We had 8 X/0-X/1 results and 1 event win.
Wrath of the Rock was played by 20 players, once again being the most heavily played detachment by a 2-1 margin over all the others combined. Wrath players scored a very solid 55% win rate and brought home 6 X-results.
Gladius was once again the second-most-played detachment, with 5 players, but compared to most weeks it underperformed. Gladius players scored only a 43% win rate.
Company of Hunters was played by 2 players, scoring a 70% win rate and bringing home the event win.
Irornstorm had 1 player who scored an 80% win rate and brought home an X-result.
Stormlance was played by only 1 player, who scored a 33% win rate and only played 3 games.
We had a pair of optimists, one each playing an Inner Circle Task Force and an Unforgiven Task Force. Sadly, those detachments performed about as well as we've come to expect, with the ICTF bringing its player a 40% win rate and the UTF a dismal 20% 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!
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