Dark Angels Update 4/13/2026

 Greetings honored battle brethren! The event tempo picked up last weekend, which brings us some lists to talk about! A total of six lists went X/1 over the weekend. That number includes four Wrath lists, one Gladius list, and one Stormlance list.

We'll begin with the Gladius list, because it arguably was the best performing list of the weekend. Rules Lawyerz' Phillip French went 4-1 and took 2nd place in a field of 30 players at the April GT held at Gamer Geeks in Warrior, AL. You can see Phillip's list on Best Coast Pairings, and we'll check it out below.

Gladius no Lion needed
Azrael - Warlord
Captain: The Honour Vehement
Librarian: Fire Discipline
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Impulsor
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Repulsor
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike
Callidus Assassin

A couple things stand out about Phillip's list right away. The first is right on the label - no Lion Dad. However, he also didn't include any Deathwing Knights. It's wild to see a list that's not a Company of Hunters that doesn't include those two staples.

However, not having the big boys in his list let Phillip buy a lot of stuff. His list has a clear lean towards shooting, with a lot of good gun platforms. Those include a pair of Land Speeders Vengeance, a Thunderstrike, a Hammerstrike, a Repulsor, and a full squad of Sternguard Veterans. Phillip included a Librarian with Fire Discipline to attach to the Sternies to give them most of the benefits they'd get out of having Azrael attached to them. If you haven't noticed, Librarians synergize well with Sternies, granting a 4++ save and their Focused Smite power is good shooting attack with Devastating Wounds, and Fire Discipline gives the squad's shooting Sustained Hits 1. They aren't as good in the Fight Phase with a Librarian as they are with Azrael, but they're doubtless riding in the Repulsor, and Phillip is probably banking on the Repulsor's ability to let a nearby unit reactively embark when they're charged to keep them out of trouble. Also, the Incursors buff synergizes well with Sternguard, allowing Phillip to fish for 6's into the Oath target and be pretty sure he's not going to generate less total hits than if he'd let all the hits stand. 

For the other shooting platform, Vengeances need no explanation. The Thunderstrike can help them punch up into tougher targets. The Hammerstrike can strip cover from a key target and shoots a pile of Strength 9 Damage D6 shots. The Repulsor has a pretty respectable pile of guns attached to it, and even the Impulsor can throw a bucket of dice at chaff as required. The Impulsor also gives Phillip another box to play embarkation shenanigans with by playing Squad Tactics on a nearby unit.

Phillip's list will do most of its work in the Shooting phase, but he did include some punchy units to deal with assault threats. He's got the classic Inner Circle Companions with Azrael, and he also included a squad of Assault Intercessors with a Captain with The Honour Vehement, buffing his power fist Strength and Attacks characteristics. If he triggers the Captain's Finest Hour ability while his army is in Assault Doctrine, he's swinging 10 Strength 10 power fist attacks with Devastating Wounds, potentially rerolling all Wound rolls if they're fighting on an objective thanks to the Assault Intercessors. Nothing to hate about that. The Sternies can put in some work in the Fight phase as well if needs be, with 4 attacks each and a power fist wielding sergeant.

For utility work Phillip included the classic Intercessors+Combi-Lieutenant+Scouts trio, and also included an Invader ATV and a Callidus Assassin. 

Phillip would have had a hard time avoiding a mirror match at this event because he was one of 5 Dark Angels players. He drew a mirror 1st round, beating a Wrath list by a comfortable 67-51. 2nd round he crushed Berzerker World Eaters 95-50. 3rd round he took an 79-98 loss against a Salamanders Firestorm Assault Force of all things. 4th round he squeaked out a 76-72 win against Mont'ka T'au. Apparently practice makes perfect, because 5th round he massacred another T'au Mont'ka 95-53. Well done Phillip!

Our next list comes from among the four Wrath of the Rock lists that went X/1 over the weekend. On a percentile scale two of them scored roughly equally, so I'm picking the one from the biggest event of the weekend, The South-Coast 40k Super-Major held in Havant, England. Russell Amott of Big Marge's Brigadiers went 4-1 and placed 16th out of 251 players. Here's Russell's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below. 

South Coast Super Major
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Bladeguard Veteran Squad: 3 awesome swordy-boardy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
Vindicator

This is a little bit more of what we've come to expect from a competitive Dark Angels list. There's Lion Dad, Azrael, two units of Deathwing Knights, and a squad of Inner Circle Companions for Azrael to join. That's plenty of tough punchy goodness for opponents to try and deal with. 

For a shooting element, Russell has a single Land Speeder Vengeance and a pair of Vindicators. Having just one Vengeance is a little unusual, but they're certainly worth fielding solo, and it gives Russell a fast unit he can use to get an angle on something early in the game. It's also quite capable of popping most transports. The pair of Vindicators are certainly able to threaten virtually anything in the game with their casino cannons, and also at Toughness 11 with a 2+ save present a challenge for opponents to try and pick up with shooting. That lets Russell play some target priority games with opponents, sticking a Vindicator on the center objective with the Vengeance within 6" but not on the objective, and some of his punchy units behind cover in range to make Leonine Aggression or Heroic Intervention charges of anything that tries to charge them off the objective or out-OC them.

Russell has a solid spread of utility units to trade and score points with. Since Games Workshop has saved us from the scourge of the Combi-weapon Lieutenant meta with a 20% points bump, Russell has opted for two squads of Scouts instead of just one, plus the usual Intercessors to hold the backfield objective. Plus, he has a 3-man squad of Bladeguard and a Jump Intercessor squad. The Bladeguard are likely unreasonably difficult to pick up for the points with Wrathhuman Physiology and a 4++ save, and Jump Intercessors provide a handy Deep Strike threat opponents have to be concerned about. 

Russell had a strong 1st round, pummeling Green Tide Orks 100-59. 2nd round he crushed Ragey Blood Angels 98-57. 3rd round he took a 55-92 beating against Cursed Legion Necrons. 4th round he bounced back to drub Avernii Iron Hands 84-47. 5th round he ended with a solid 93-76 against a Blade of Ultramarines. Good show Russell!

The third list we're looking at today was played by Derek Hecker at the 21st Legion Wargaming Presents: Battle to End Alzheimer's 2026 40K hosted by Away Games held in Dover, Delaware. There, Derek Hecker of Boltermore Gaming went 5-1 and took 6th out of 98 players. You can see Derek's list on BCP. We'll check it out below. 

BEA
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
Lieutenant
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy 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
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

I find Derek's list interesting because it's got the bones of a typical Wrath list (Lion Dad and two units of DWKs), but leans a little harder into shooting than is typical. A lot of lists don't include a good unit to use Relics of the Dark Age on, but Derek's has three - the Hellblasters and two squads of Eradicators.  He built some buffing options into his list as well, including a squad of Incursors and a Thunderstrike. Again, the Incursors are there to allow Derek to fish for 6's with his big shooting threat, in this case the Hellblasters for those sweet sweet Lethal+Sustained hits. He has a lot of good options for picking up units in the Shooting phase. The only downside is relatively short range. 

Derek's list doesn't lack for Fight phase punch either, with Lion Dad and two units of DWKs. One of the squads has swords, and is certainly the one the Terminator Chaplain is being attached to. It lets Derek be aggressive on the 1st turn, dropping Lion Dad and a unit of DWKs on their natural expansion. That just leaves one unit of DWKs to control melee threats in the midboard, but the Hellblasters aren't bad in this regard either. Or more accurately, Azrael and a Lieutenant with a power fist aren't bad so long as they have so much as one Hellblaster left to keep them together as a unit and get the Lethal+Sustained Hits.

Derek's utility units are his Intercessors, Scouts, Jump Intercessors, and Invader ATV. The Intercessors are his backfield objective holder, with the other units moving around the board scoring Secondaries as needed. The Jump Intercessors also give Derek an option for giving Lion Dad Lone Op somewhere past the midboard if he needs it.

Derek had a strong 1st round, drubbing Death Lord's Chosen Death Guard 100-63. 2nd round he had a close 77-64 against Pactbound Chaos Marines. 3rd round he squeaked out a 71-70 against Legion of Excess Chaos Daemons. 4th round he scored a tight 81-72 against GrizzleTarum. 5th round he scored a low-scoring 56-42 against Lions Custodes. At a 5-round event that performance would have earned him 1st or 2nd place, but this was a 6 round event, and unfortunately he lost the final round 80-92 against a Blade of Ultramar that, despite being supposedly "generic" Space Marines and thus deserving of Super-Oath, literally had as many chapter-unique units in it as Derek's did. I'm not salty about that at all. 

Honorable Mentions

Joker 🃏of Wargames Adictos went 4-1 with a 4-0 event start at the Open Iberian Barcelona 2026 and took 11th place out of 142 players with his Wrath of the Rock list. 

Thomas Gallagher of Crossfire Gaming Club went 4-1 and took 11th out of 79 at the Battle for GreenHollow Singles held in Glasgow, Scotland with his Wrath of the Rock list.

Jason Chang went 4-1 and took 30th place out of 98 players at the 21st Legion Wargaming Presents: Battle to End Alzheimer's 2026 40K hosted by Away Games held in Dover, Delaware with his Wrath of the Rock list.

Rowan Naveau of ACT 40K went 4-1 and took 11th out of 65 players at ANZAC Cup 2026 held in Campbell, Australia with his Stormlance Task Force list.

Brethren, I salute you!

Statistics

The numbers were back up from the week before. Over the weekend 43 players played Dark Angels at GTs and bigger events. They played 212 games and won 109 of them, earning a respectable 51% win rate and 6 X/1 results, but no event wins.

Wrath of the Rock was twice as popular as all the other detachments combined, with 30 players who scored a quite good 54% win rate and 4 X/1 results.

Gladius was the next most played with 6 players, a 52% win rate, and 1 X/1 result.

2 players played the Stormlance, scoring a 70% win rate and 1 X/1 result.

2 players used this new Ceramite Sentinels detachment and scored a 50% win rate

Sadly, only 1 player used the Company of Hunters, regretfully only scoring a 20% win rate.

1 player used the Lion's Blade Task Force, and scored only a 20% win rate

1 player used the Unforgiven Task Force, and this poor optimist got a 0% 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!