Dark Angels Update 4/7/2026

 Greetings honored battle brethren! It was a slow weekend for events, what with the Easter holiday and all. There were a few though, for those of us lucky enough to be near them and able to squeeze them in, so we do have a few lists to talk about.

Our top list of the week was run by Black Crow Gaming's Rules Lawyer, Alan Percival. Alan went 4-1 and took 4th out of 30 players at Peterborough Slam! - Inspired GT held in Hampton, England (I think Hampton is a suburb of Peterborough, judging from Google Maps). You can see Alan's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below. 

The rock’s complaint department
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Captain in Gravis Armour: Ancient Weapons
Sammael
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Ballistus Dreadnought
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Reiver Squad: 5 spooky knifey boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Alan's Wrath list is pretty conventional, with some unique innovations. To go over the conventional stuff, he's got the usual Lion Dad, two units of Deathwing Knights, and Azrael leading Inner Circle Companions, which is not an unusual placement for him. He paid the points premium to have Infiltrators sit on his backfield objective, and has the usual squad of Scouts to be the forward speedbump, plus a squad of Jump Intercessors for skirmishing and scoring Secondaries. For long range fire support, he has just the one Ballistus, which makes me a little twitchy, but really he just needs it to pop transports, which it should do just fine. He's got plenty of things that can punch to death more significant tanks. He does also have a small squad of Eradicators, which he can either put in Reserve or just have it work its way up the table, but if he gets that close, it can punch up, especially with the Relics strat.

One unit Alan frequently uses in his Wrath lists is the Outriders with Sammael attached. He uses this unit to have a second Advance+Charge threat in his list. This is not just me making educated guesses, he mentions it in his videos. The upside is that Sammael synergizes really well with Outriders. Their datasheet rule conferring +1 Strength and Damage on the charge boosts the Raven Sword to Strength 7 Damage 3, which are some pretty significant break points. The Raven Sword has Sustained Hits 2 as well, so it can pop off and really do a lot of damage. Unfortunately, other than Advance+Shoot+Charge, Sammael doesn't really give much back to the Outriders, so they pretty much just represent a delivery system for Sammy. 

Also providing some Damage 3 melee is the Gravis Captain with Ancient Weapons. Alan could attach this guy to his Eradicators, but the only argument for doing so would be to be able to play Relics for free, because the Eradicators' datasheet rule barely benefits the Grav Cap (though it does grant rerolls to his boltstorm gauntlet, which can be funny), and the Grav Cap's datasheet ability doesn't do anything while he's attached to a unit unless he happens to get hit with Precision weapons. At Toughness 6 with a 4++ and halving damage he takes from failed saves, he's a nuisance to pick up, and he's swinging 7 AP -3 Damage 3 attacks, which stands a pretty good chance of picking up most small units and might even do for some tanks. Alan might be keeping him on the table to have a way to play Inescapable Justice (extra Oath) for a discount, but I'm inclined to think he probably starts him in Reserve, because completely screening out a single 40mm base would be a nuisance.

Finally, there's the unit of Reivers, who on the surface seem like an oddball choice, but Alan explains his reasoning for them in this video here. The short version is that they're an 80 point unit with a wacky profusion of rules. They have Deep Strike, Scouts, they debuff OC, they cause units in Engagement range to test for Battle-shock at -1, they ignore vertical distances in the Movement phase, and if you take the pistol-knife loadout all their attacks have Precision. Alan explains in the video how Reivers can get around units avoiding being Engaged by being 1" away from a wall by jumping onto the next floor up and getting into Engagement vertically, which is a fun trick if you can pull it off. Me, I'm a little more intrigued by all their attacks having Precision. There are some Character+Unit combos that rely on fairly squishy characters to make their attached units obnoxiously durable, such as Techomancer+Wraiths or Hospitaller+Sacronsants. You can deal with them by charging them with a Character and playing Epic Challenge to get the character first, but you could also charge them with Reivers+Something Else and have the Reivers activate first to snipe out the support character. Technomancers have 4 Wounds and a 4+ save, so it's not unreasonable to expect Reivers to Ides of March them out of the fight (especially if they put a wound or two on him with their pistols first), and then you can activate, say, Deathwing Knights and the Wraiths don't have that pesky 5+++ anymore. So, Reivers. Worth thinking about. I just wish they weren't so goofy looking.

Alan's 1st round was into Vanguard Tyranids, which he drubbed 90-54. 2nd round he humbled Hallowed Martyrs Sororitas 95-63. 3rd round he took a bruising 53-77 loss into Retaliation Cadre T'au. 4th round he rallied to batter Berserker World Eaters 78-51. In the final round, he squeaked out an 85-82 win against Starshatter Necrons. Way to go Alan!

The other list we're going to look at today is a Wrath of the Rock list played by El Tío Sam (translation: The Uncle Sam), with which he went 4-1 and took 4th out of 23 players at 1º Iberian Open La Oficina Wargames held in Cartagena, Spain. You can see Sam's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.

El Némesis de Husa Lord Sex
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy 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
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying bolter boys
Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Sam's list is very no-frills. He's just got solid units that perform reliably without relying on too many clever tricks or rules interactions. He's got a tough core of hard-hitting melee units with Lion Dad, the two units of Deathwing Knights, and the Inner Circle Companions with Azrael attached to them. For long range shooting he's got a pair of Centurion Devastator squads, who can do some real damage from a distance and with 4 Wounds at Toughness 7 with a 2+ save can be a real nuisance to pick up. For trading pieces and scoring Secondaries he's got a trio of Jump Intercessor squads and an Inceptor Squad. The Inceptor Squad may have been a bit of an indulgence, but on the other hand it does make opponents worry about screening out a 6" Deep Strike zone. That leaves just a pair of Scout Squads, one of which must be his backfield objective holder, with the other getting deployed forward to prevent opponents from hemming him in with forward deployers. 

Sam's 1st round game was pretty close, 53-41 into a Blade of Ultramar (with holy shit 18 Victrix Guard and 2 each of Ballisti and Vindys). 2nd round he took a 51-86 pummeling against Rapid Evisceration Emperor's Children. 3rd round he eked out an 81-78 win against Spearhead Imperial Knights. 4th round was also quite close, 80-75 against Liberator Blood Angels. 5th round he ended strong, crushing Mont'ka T'au 97-46. Well done Sam!

Honorable Mentions

August Hiekkamäki went 4-2 and took 16th out of 62 players at Gothcon 40k Open held in Gothenburg, Sweden with his Stormlance Task Force. 

August, I salute you!

Statistics

Ain't hardly any statistics to talk about this week. Five players played Dark Angels lists at GTs with 20+ attendees and between them scored a 57% win rate and 2 X/1 results. Four of those players played Wrath lists and the last played a Stormlance.

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!