Dark Angels Update 6/15/2026

 

Hello honored battle brethren! Another weekend has passed, and while the community still seems to be mostly holding its breath for the release of the new edition, there were still some events held, even some quite big ones. Still, the number of overall players was down, so we don't have as big a sample size to work with. We've still got a couple lists to look at though.

The first is Keegan Watters' Stormlance list, with which he went 4-1 and took 10th out of 66 players at Fal-Con 2026: Fly Harder. You can see Keegan's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.

LEROY JONSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Librarian: Feinting Withdrawal
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Sammael
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Land Speeder Vengeance
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys

I find Keegan's list to be a little unconventional, in that he seems to have eschewed the usual mass Deathwing Knight approach for something a little more MSU and shooty. He's got a full squad of Sternguard Veterans, with the Librarian with Feinting Withdrawal to attach to them. Ordinarily one might like to attach Azrael to Sternguard, but a Librarian is a good alternative. He provides the 4++ as well as Azrael does, and his Focused Smite attack has good synergy with Sternguard. Plus, the Stormlance's only Fall Back and Shoot mechanism is the Feinting Withdrawal enhancement, so it makes sense to not use an Epic Hero with them in this detachment. 

Further shooting elements include the Land Speeder Vengeance, the two ATVs, and the two squads of Incursors. The ATVs might instead be action monkeys as they're cheap and fast, but I'm sure Keegan at least occasionally puts their multi meltas to use. The Vengeance of course is a good source of Damage 3 shooting, and the bespoke purpose of Incursors is to buff shooting, though they can also skirmish pretty well in their own right.

Keegan didn't stint on punchy units though. He's got Lion Dad, one squad of Deathwing Knights, a pair of Jump Intercessor squads, a squad of Assault Intercessors to join Azrael, and Sammael with a squad of Outriders to attach to. Sammael is arguably our second-best combat character after Lion Dad, and when paired with Outriders is clearly second only to the Primarch. With 6 attacks at Strength 7 AP -3 Damage 3 Sustained Hits 2 after a charge, he can really do a lot of damage, particularly with potentially auto-Advance 9" and Lance from Stormlance strats (though that does take 3 CP to do both). It's always nice to see him put to good use. As for Azrael, it may seem a little unglamorous to attach him to lowly Assault Intercessors, but that's a package that can do some work, particularly skirmishing on objectives. And, of course Lion Dad, the Deathwing Knights, and the Jump Intercessors require no explanation.

Our man Keegan had a strong 1st round, rofl-stomping Steel Hammer Militarum 94-42. He prevailed in the 2nd round with a tight 90-87 game against Conceited Emperor's Children. 3rd round he gave up a punishing 46-100 loss against Berserker World Eaters. 4th round he bounced back to crush Freeblade Imperial Knights 91-31. He ended strong with a comfortable 80-62 win against Grizzletarum in the 5th round. Well done Keegan!

I could swear Keegan posted about his tournament experience in one of the Dark Angels Facebook groups I'm part of, but danged if I can find the post to link to it.

The other list I'd like to look at in this post is Joshua Hirschfeld's Wrath of the Rock list, which he took to the Atlantic City Open 2026 - Warhammer 40k Champs, went 5-2 with, and placed 14th out of 89 players. It's not an X/1 result, but winning 5 games at one event is a noteworthy achievement nonetheless. You can see Joshua's list on BCP. We'll check it out below. 

Lictor? I hardly knew er!
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Ancient Weapons
Lieutenant
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Lion Dad, Azrael, and the pair of Deathwing Knight squads are fairly typical to see in a Wrath of the Rock list. We don't usually see the swordy Knights because they practically demand the inclusion of the Terminator Chaplain to enable them to punch up in a way that macey Knights can do on their own, but the Chaplain does also give them the ability to tank Mortal Wounds outside Lion Dad's aura, plus he makes a good character to give Ancient Weapons to. For utility work, Joshua doesn't have the Combi-Lieutenant as we so often see, but he does have the Intercessor Squad to hold his backfield objective, and a pair of Scout Squads.

Joshua also included a robust shooting element. There's the pair of Vengeances, plus a Thunderstrike, plus a small squad of Eradicators that make a handy troubleshooter squad to stick in Strategic Reserve and have come out when a vehicle or monster needs some melta to the face. Interestingly, he also has the full 10 man Hellblaster Squad. Hellblasters aren't as well regarded as some other options we could take for a variety of reasons, but it's hard to argue that they don't have good Shooting damage output, especially when paired with Azrael and a Lieutenant, giving them both Lethal and Sustained Hits. They make a pretty obvious target for Relics of the Dark Age, and if necessary Joshua can tag their target with the Thunderstrike too for that sweet +1 To Wound buff. Having used them back in my Firestorm days, I can tell you they're not bad in the Fight Phase either, between Azrael's Sword of Secrets, the Lieutenant's power fist, and everyone getting both Sustained and Lethal Hits. 

Joshua had a strong 1st round, beating the stuffing out of Mechanised Assault Miltarum 100-37. 2nd round he scored a respectable 90-72 against Assimilation Swarm Tyranids. 3rd round was his first loss, 82-96 against Invasion Fleet Tyranids. 4th round he took a bruising loss, 54-100 against Armored Speartip Space Wolves. 5th round he shook off the negative waves and prevailed with a close 71-61 against Grizzletarum. 6th round he scored a solid 79-61 against a Deathwatch player who didn't submit a list (chances are it was a Black Spear Task Force). Then in the 7th round, he pulled ahead in a tight 82-72 game against Kult of Speed Orks. Good show Joshua!

Honorable Mentions

Peter Killam went 4-2 and took 9th out of 28 players at the Warhammer 40K at Summer Smash in ON, Canada with his Wrath of the Rock list.

Peter, I commend you!

Statistics

The number of events over the weekend was low, and a lot of the events that were held weren't anywhere near full capacity. I guess a lot of people just want to start playing 11th edition. Nonetheless, there were 22 diehards who represented the legion chapter at events. Unfortunately, out of the 119 games they played, they only won 53 of them, for a pretty underwhelming 45% (rounded up) win rate. There was only the one X/1 result that Keegan brought in, and no podium placings or event wins.

Wrath of the Rock continues to be the most popular detachment by far with 17 players who, sadly, scored a dismal 42% win rate.

Ironstorm had 2 players who scored a 50% win rate.

Gladius had 1 player who scored a 60% win rate

Stormlance had 2 players who also had a 50% win rate. One of those players was Keegan with his X/1 result.

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. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that 11th edition will be a good one for Dark Angels. May your games be fun and victorious! For the Lion!