Dark Angels Update 7/27/2026

 

Greetings battle brethren! I have the honor of relating to you the Dark Angels news of the weekend. I'm pleased to report good news, with 10 X/0-X/1 results, 7 podium finishes, and an event win! I can't remember the last time Dark Angels have had such an impact on the meta! I guess we'd better enjoy it while we can. We weren't the biggest bully of the meta, but we were the best-performing Space Marine army by a fair bit.

I apologize for this one being out so late. The tardiness is due partially to me not having as much time to collect data and compose early in the week as I expected to have, the task being more complicated than it used to be due to the new detachment system, and one problem that's nice to have, the greater volume and variety of Dark Angels lists that are doing well!

Our event winning list did not come from a dinky little event, but rather Battle of the East held in Bury St Edmunds, England (English town names are weird!). The event champion was Josh Roberts, who piloted a Company of Hunters+Darflight Pursuit list (Recon dispo) to a straight-100's, 6-0 finish, beating out 95 other players! Here's Josh's list on BCP. Let's check it out below. 

Dark Angels - Battle of the East
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
    Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Sammael
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Land Speeder
Land Speeder
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Judging from the points prices of things, Josh was able to take advantage of the recent dataslate changes in his list. Hence the presence of Lion Dad in the list, and both Sammael and the Ravenwing Command Squad attached to the Outrider squad. The change to the Death on the Wind strat now makes the Company of Hunters more friendly to a non-Mounted punchy unit, as they have access to Advance+Charge now. Talon Strike is also now better for punchy units, as it grants Lance in the Fight phase. That can help Sammy's or Azrael's squad punch up into tougher targets when Josh needs them to. The Ravenwing Command Squad has the Recon Hunter enhancement, so between the 9" Scout move, Sammy letting the unit go through walls, a 12" Move, Advance+Charge with + 1 to both rolls, the Outrider buff, and Lance, that unit can come across the table Turn 1 and take down a chonky unit a careless opponent has left a little too far forward.

Josh's list doesn't lack for ways to shoot things to death though. The firebase is a trio of Land Speeders Vengeance with the ever-useful Nightforged Battery, giving their plasma storm batteries much more consistent output. He can put those unaided into virtually any target in the game with a reasonable expectation of good performance, but he also included a Storm Speeder Thunderstrike to give them +1 to Wound against a target that they might ordinarily wound on 5's against. With that and Twin-linked, they're going to put pain on anything in the game.

Josh also included a pair of Land Speeders in his list, which certainly have respectable firepower as well, but playing Reconnaissance he needs a good selection of utility units, and Land Speeders are useful in that they can fulfill both roles as needed. They're fast, have Fly and Deep Strike, and are reasonably tough for their points.

Josh does have a respectable amount of utility units he can task to scoring duties to free up the Land Speeders though. He's got Intercessors to hold his backfield objective and generally exist in that table quarter, a pair of Scout Squads, and a small squad of Ravenwing Black Knights. Again, the Black Knights are likely a dual-purpose unit, because their own shooting is not inconsiderable, and they can put some hurt on light units or damaged vehicles or monsters in the Fight phase. 

I also want to make a special point to mention the Ravenwing Darkshroud, which is a value-add in an army like this. For starters it's only 70 points, and has all the virtues as a utility unit the Land Speeders have, with the addition of having a 5++ Invulnerable save. Additionally, it's got its Benefit of Cover-providing aura, which it generates just by existing in a space, so it can do actions if Josh needs it to. It's important to note that this aura stacks with the High-speed Focus stratagem. Cover reduces incoming attack's Ballistic Skill, while High-speed Focus nerfs Hit rolls, and can be played on any Ravenwing unit.

Josh enjoyed a nonstop ride on the win train! 1st round he murdered Necrons (Canoptek Court; T&H) 100-30. 2nd round he massacred Adeptus Custodes (Lions, MoM;T&H) 100-32. 3rd round he brutalized T'au (Ret Cad; Purge) 100-44. 4th round he drubbed Aeldari (Armored Warhost; Windrider Host; Recon; played by Mani Cheema!) 100-54. 5th round he destroyed Necrons (Awakened Dynasty; T&H) 100-30. 6th round he showed those arrogant Custodes (Lions; MoM; T&H) who the real lions of the Emperor are, devastating them 100-47. Perfect record! Congratulations Josh!

Man. We are so getting nerfed.

For our second list, we have a demonstration that Wrath of the Rock still has legs. Our doctor of Dark Angels awesomeness, Kyle McCord, took his Wrath of the Rock list (Priority dispo), went 5-0-1, and took 2nd out of 135 players at the Northern Maelstrom 2026 Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament held in Medina, MN.

Northern Maelstrom 2026 had a lot of Dark Angels-playing All-Stars, as in addition to Kyle, it was also attended by James Walsh and Alex Vian, both of whom put in admirable performances.

Anyway, here's Kyle's list on BCP. We'll check it out below.

Knights of the Noble 🦁
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
    Attached: Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
Ravenwing Command Squad: Ancient Weapons
    Attached: Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Inner Circle Companions: 3 spooky awesome swordy boys
Land Speeder
Land Speeder
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Priority Assets primary missions, broadly speaking, incentivize you to hold the center objective and do actions on it (pushing the button, as it were). Kyle's list makes a very convincing argument that the center objective is his and his opponent ought not to get near it. For starters, there's Lion Dad and the two units of Deathwing Knights. Anything that gets within charging range of those units is apt to wind up dead. Any unit that charges one of them is apt to wind up fighting all three, with Kyle playing Heroic Intervention and Leonine Aggression to get the other two units in punching range. Opponents can't try and out-OC Kyle on the center either, as the aforementioned strats will let his units charge anything that's too close whether it charged or not. 

If anything especially tough comes forward, Kyle has Azrael and the Sternguard, likely lurking behind the center objective, ready to riddle anything that touches it with their magic Dev wound bullets. Nor can opponents be overly-secure that standing back and shooting is going to avail them. There's the obvious problem of chewing through all those 2+ saves and 4++ and 3++ Invulnerable saves and the Knights' -1 Damage with all of them having Wrathuman Physiology. Kyle also has arguments to employ against long-range shooting. The Thunderstrike and Land Speeders all have Deep Strike, and the Speeders can be dropped within melta range, which makes any shot that wounds especially impactful. There's also the Ravenwing Knights and Command Squad, which though not a full 9-man brick can still sling a good 18 plasma shots at anything they can get close to, potentially at Strength 10 thanks to Relics of the Dark Age, and then charge with a bunch of Dev wound melee attacks with Anti-Big Thing 4+, plus the Champion has Damage 3 attacks thanks to Ancient Weapons. 

For utility units, Kyle has two Scout Squads, an Outrider Squad, and an Incursor Squad.  Kyle's backfield objective holder might be the Outriders, as they're now cheaper than Intercessors, have higher Toughness and more Wounds, and if needed can probably dart to the center objective to push the button if Kyle needs them to. One of Kyle's Scout Squads is probably his designated primary button-pusher, with the second Scout squad likely uppy-downying to score Secondaries as needed. The Incursors likely are in the list to compensate for Cover into any target Kyle wants to put the Sternies into, but as they're likely near the center might go push buttons too.

1st round Kyle scored a solid 100-80 against Chaos Space Marines (PBZ; Priority). 2nd round he humbled Genestealer Cult (Bio Brood; Xeno Masses; Recon) 100-75. 3rd round he scored a close 99-91 against Adepta Sororitas (Hallowed Martyrs; Priority). 4th round he schooled fellow Dark Angels hotshot James Walsh (CoH; Darkflight; Disrupt) 100-78. 5th round he drubbed Iron Hands (Bastion; Lib Con; T&H) 99-79. Then in the 6th round he had a 95-95 tie against the 3rd place-taking Orks list (Freebooter; MD!; T&H). He only missed taking 1st place by 4 battle points. Way to go Kyle!

The last list I'm going to review in this article belongs to Samppa Orhanen, who took his Inner Circle Task Force+Librarius Conclave (Priority dispo) list to WH40k Ropecon GT 2026 held in Helsinki, Finland, where he went 4-0-1 and took 4th out of 92 players. Here's Samppa's list on BCP. Let's check it out below. 

I fell for Innes's psyops Azrael Lieutenant     Attached: Intercessor Squad: 10 bolter boys Librarian in Terminator Armour: Temporal Corridor     Attached: Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys Librarian in Terminator Armour: Celerity     Attached: Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Librarian     Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Librarian: Fusillade     Attached: Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Invader ATV: melta buggy Land Speeder Land Speeder Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

This is another Priority list, so the goal with it is to control the home, expansion, and middle objectives and do actions on the middle objective. It doesn't get the durability boost from Wrath, but that can be approximated by being in Telekinesis discipline with Lib Con, reducing the strength of incoming shooting by 1 - which can potentially make incoming shooting have lower Strength than the target Toughness. Also, most of Samppa's units will likely get +1 to Wound against anything stepping onto an objective thanks to the ICTF detachment rule. That's the vast majority of Samppa's list.

I discussed Innes' list, which this is an almost complete copy of, in last week's Dark Angels Update, so I don't feel like I have to repeat myself too much in this article. Also, Innes Wilson was kind enough to sit down and be interviewed by our man Alan Percival of the Lion's Den/Black Crow Gaming on YouTube, which I highly encourage you to watch. 

This is a pre-dataslate list, so going forward it would require some changes. The Fusillade enhancement no longer grants Anti-Big Thing 5+, so it's value to Sternguard is diminished considerably. It can still give Sustained Hits, but I'm not sure it's worth the points in this context. I think there's some play in an Unforgiven Task Force (20 Hellblasters, one squad with a Fusillade Libby, the other with Azrael and a Lieutenant), but not in the ICTF. I'm not quite sure what the answer is - possibly just dropping the enhancement. Librarians and Sternguard synergize pretty well without it, with Focused Smite benefiting from the Sternguard rule and Sternguard benefiting from the 4++ the Librarian gives. They'll still do solid Dev Wounds into anything that steps onto the midfield objective, they're just not going to finish off a Great Unclean One all by their ownselves. Maybe you spend those points on another enhancement - Prescience seems spicy, granting the attached unit a reactive move.

Alternately, maybe something that can fulfill the same role in a different way - possibly Eradicators, or maybe Hellblasters with another Deathwing character attached. Unfortunately, with Azrael busy doing something else, the list of characters that can confer Deathwing to a Tacticus unit is pretty underwhelming - Asmodai, Ezekial, and Lazarus. None of them really do anything for a shooting unit, and Hellblasters would only get the +1 to Wound from the detachment rule if they have a character conferring Deathwing, and Azrael is already spoken for. 

 WTC scoring alert! 0-20 range, 10-10 is a tie, every point of difference represents a difference of 5 battle points.

Samppa got off to a solid start with a 1st round 13-7 win against Space Wolves (Saga of the Beastslayer; Lib Con; Purge).  2nd round was a close 12-8 against Tyranids (Sub Assault; Disruption). 3rd round was a 10-10 draw against Custodes (Lions; MoM; Purge).  4th round was a 17-3 thrashing of Necrons (Hand of the Dynasty; Pan Woe; T&H). 5th round was a close 11-9 against Custodes (Lions; Silent Hunters; Disrupt).  Undefeated, woohoo! Good show Samppa!

Honorable Mentions

Daniel Lister went 5-0 with a Company of Hunters+Dark Age Arsenal list (Recon dispo) and took 2nd out of 46 players at the Tactical Chilli Championship 2026.

Janak Morar went 4-1 with a CoH+Darkflight list (Recon dispo) and took 3rd out of 23 players at Winter Clash 2026. 

Matt Whitaker went 4-1 with an Unforgiven Task Force+Lib Con list (T&H dispo) and took 3rd out of 25 players at Rearguard Renegades Summer Open July '26.

Peter Killam went 5-1 with a Wrath of the Rock list (Priority dispo) and took 7th out of 73 players at Chimera Gaming Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament - July 2026. 

Jay Seebarun went 4-1 with an ICTF+Lib Con list (Priority dispo) and took 2nd out of 32 players at The 2026 Summer Swordwind GT.

James Walsh went 5-1 with a CoH+Darkflight list (Disrupt dispo) and took 8th out of 135 players at Northern Maelstrom 2026 Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament

Shaun Sharp went 4-1 with an Ironstorm+Darkflight list (T&H dispo) and took 7th out of 80 players at BOISE CUP 40k 2026.

Brethren, I salute you!

Statistics

It was a robust weekend for the First Legion chapter! We had 36 Dark Angels players play 184 games and win 103 of them, scoring an impressive 57% win rate! 10 of those players went X/0-X/1, with 7 podium placings and 1 event win!

The most popular and most successful detachment combination was the Company of Hunters combined with Darkflight Pursuit, with 10 players who scored a 65% win rate, 3 X-results, 2 podium finishes, one of which was the event win. 8 players used the Recon dispo, with the other 2 using Disruption.

The Inner Circle Task Force plus Librarius Conclave combination (Priority dispo) was the second-most popular, with 7 players who also scored a 65% win rate and brought home 2 X-results that were also podium finishes. 

After that, Wrath of the Rock (Priority) had 4 players, a 54% win rate, 2 X-results, and 1 podium finish.

The Unforgiven Task Force had 5 players. Three paired it with Darkflight, and one each with Interrogator Conclave and Librarius Conclave. 

Our other detachments only saw a smattering of play. 

Only 5 players total relied completely on generic Space Marine detachments. 4 of those players used the Lib Con paired with another 2-point detachment (2 Anvil Siege Forces, 1 Ironstorm, 1 Vanguard). The last one was a Gladius.

What to Watch Out For

The single biggest bully of the meta was Orks. Orks had 5 event wins, 2 second place finishes, and 7 third place finishes. That totaled one top  3 Ork finish in 2 out of every 3 events. The most popular single detachment was the Freebooter Krew, appearing in 5 top three lists, paired with More Dakka! 3 times and Equatorial Horde 2 times. Have a plan for dealing with Orks.

The second most successful army in the meta was us, Dark Angels. Beware the mirror match. 

That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you. 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. Until next week my brethren. May your games be fun and victorious. For the Lion!