Dark Angels Update 7/6/2026
Greetings honored battle brethren! It was quite a sweltering 4th of July weekend for a lot of us here in the United States, and as you can imagine, a weekend with a major national holiday didn't see a lot of 40K events in our country. However, the rest of the world picked up the slack, so we have some lists to talk about. I'm excited to cover both an event-winning list and one that took 3rd place at another event. In addition to that, no less than three lists went 4-1 at The Birmingham 40K Super Major. So, without further ado, let's take a look at some of these exciting lists!
Our event winning list was played by Dream Telgarin, who took a Company of Hunters+Darkflight Pursuit list with the Disruption disposition to SOLO KHAN 2026 Охота на Зотова held in Казахстан, prevailing over 22 other players to take the top spot. You can see Dream's list on BCP. We'll discuss it below.
Fly me to the moon
Sammael - Warlord
Attached unit: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
Attached unit: Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre
Attached unit: Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Inceptor Squad: 3 flying chonky plasma boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Land Speeder
Land Speeder
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
The Company of Hunters plus Darkflight Pursuit build looks like it's emerging as an early favorite in the new edition. It's easy to see why - Fast Gun Good, and this build is a powerful combo that gets the most out of our fast shooting platforms. Plus it gives Mounted units unparalleled freedom to act, being able to both Shoot and Charge after either Advancing or Falling Back.
Dream certainly brought a lot of fast gun to the party. For starters, there's the two 9-man Ravenwing Knight bricks and all the plasma they bring to the table. They are a not-inconsiderable melee threat into the right kinds of units too, being able to pile Devastating Wounds onto a Monster or Vehicle when they charge. Then there's the trio of Land Speeders Vengeance, with each one having the Nightforged Battery upgrade, greatly improving their output reliability and sustainability. Dream supplements them with a pair of Land Speeders, that can either play shoot-and-scoot games or act as high-mobility utility units as needed, and finally there's a Storm Speeder Thunderstrike to help his shooting punch up into tougher targets, and its own output is not bad. Though not a Ravenwing unit, Dream also included a small plasma Inceptor squad as a Deep Strike threat, and its output is similar to a Vengeance's.
To support his shooting, Dream included a pair of Incursor squads. This a bit of tech I started using in my own list in the end months of 10th edition. I wasn't happy with the performance of my plasma bike bricks when I couldn't put it into the Oath target, so I included an Incursor squad to get a second Oath-equivalent effect. I found it helps a lot, and clearly it worked for Dream at this event.
For a melee threat into the kinds of targets that the Black Knights wouldn't be so good into, Dream included Sammael with a small unit of Outriders, giving him some high-mobility Damage 3 melee attacks that can bounce from unit to unit as needed.
For utility units, Dream is using a Combi-Lieutenant and a pair of Scout Squads. One of these three must be his backfield objective holder, leaving the other two to forward-deploy and hold open lanes of advance for his bike bricks. I've found that to be super-important, especially if you want to Rapid Ingress the reserve bike brick in a good staging place for your following turn.
I don't really feel like I know enough about Disposition matchups to comment much about them at this point in the edition. I know from the podcasts I've listened to that Disruption isn't as well regarded as an all-around Disposition as Take & Hold or Purge The Foe are. However, Art of War Down Under opined that Disruption has the best game into Purge, and Purge seems to be the most popular Disposition, so going with Disruption seems like a good way to have an advantage against the majority of lists.
This is not exactly a criticism of Dream's list, but I have an observation I'd like to make. I am somewhat tempted to attach Sammael to a Black Knight unit and start that unit in Reserve. My reasoning is that Master of Manouevre is considerably less good when it doesn't allow a Turn 1 Rapid Ingress, so I feel like I could live without it, and attaching Sammael to Black Knights gives that unit Ignores Cover in the CoH+Darkflight list. I'm not sure it's worth the opportunity cost, but it's worth considering at least.
We've got some WTC scoring incoming! As a reminder, it's a 0-20 scale, with 10-10 being a tie, and every point of deviation from 10 being a plus or minus 5 Battle Point difference in score.
Dream seems to have gotten a by 1st round, having been granted a score of 11 with no opponent listed. 2nd round he massacred Cursed Legion+Skyshroud Spearhead Necrons (Purge) 20-0. 3rd round he had a 10-10 tie against Saga of the Great Wolf+Librarius Conclave Space Wolves (Recon). 4th round he crushed Living Miracle+Ironstorm Black Templars (Purge) 20-0. 5th round he drubbed Cavalcade of Chaos+Plague Legion Daemons 16-4 (T&H). Congratulations on the win Dream!
Our second list this week comes from Rally Point Open - Coshocton GT held in West Lafayette, OH. It started on Friday so the participants could finish the event and still catch some fireworks. Anyway, Mikel Giles took a three-fer list, Dark Age Arsenal+Interrogation Conclave+Subversion Assets, choosing Priority Assets as his disposition despite having Purge The Foe available from the Interrogation Conclave. He went 4-1 and placed 3rd out of 24 players. You can see Mikel's list on BCP. Let's check out what he brought.
Dark Blasters
Azrael - Warlord
Apothecary: Petition of Stability
Attached: Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Chaplain: Limitless Zeal
Attached: Bladeguard Veterans: 5 awesome swordy-boardy boys
Chaplain: Petition of Stability
Apothecary
Attached: Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Gladiator Lancer
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying bolter boys
Inceptor Squad: 3 chonky flying bolter boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Vindicator
Vindicator
Callidus Assassin: uppy-downy stabby girl
I have to admit, I'm somewhat puzzled by this list. Some of its considerations are perfectly clear. The Dark Age Arsenal detachment is all about boosting plasma firepower, and Mikel is running two full units of Hellblasters, so that's clear. The Interrogation Conclave doesn't seem like the most obvious match on the surface, but it does mess with opponent's Leadership, which can be clutch when they have to make Battle-shock tests, and that detachment does have a strat that gives Precision to a Chaplain's unit's shooting (Exacting Punishment). The application with a Hellblaster squad should be obvious. The Subversion Assets detachment lets one sidle Phobos/Scout units up next to enemy units and add +3" to their Detection Range, which I totally get. I just find it a little strange that he only included 2 such units in his list, one of which he probably has to task to sitting on his backfield objective most of the time. I'd have maybe included a squad or two of Incursors to give their buffs and exploit the Sub-Sets detachment rule a little more.
The heart of the list are the two Hellblaster bricks, both with Apothecaries, one with Azrael, the other with a Chaplain. We've wanted Hellblasters and Apothecaries to pair well since Hellblasters were introduced, and as things currently stand the Apothecary only needs to revive 2 Hellblasters to justify his points. I'm still not sure they're worth the opportunity cost of not having Lieutenants instead - especially pairing them with the Interrogation Conclave, because Lieutenants would do more for the units in the Fight phase than Apothecaries do, not to mention the Lethal Hits buff.
I'm also not sure I'd have picked Petition of Stability as the enhancement for the Hellblasters. It's fine, giving them a 30" range, but I think I can count on one hand the number of times I'd wished Hellblasters had another 6" of range. Entreaty of Perpetual Ardour, letting their Snap Shooting hit on 5's, would make them a significant Overwatch threat (especially Azrael's unit), and Inescapble Interrogation from the IntCon detachment would give the unit Ignores Cover.
I also think Mikel may have missed a trick by not assigning Asmodai to the Bladeguard. Admittedly the regular Chaplain grants them +1 To Wound and Limitless Zeal gives them +1 to Charge rolls, but Asmodai makes units within 6" test for Battle-shock at the start of the Fight phase, and then the IntCon detachment rule makes enemy units within 6" test for Battle-shock after a Chaplain unit destroys an enemy unit, which with the Bladeguard would be later in the Fight phase. Also, when Asmodai's ability triggers, it imposes -1 to the test, which stacks with the IntCon's detachment rule which imposes -1 to enemy units' Leadership. Plus he'd make the squad Oath-independent.
All that said, Mikel went 4-1 with this list, so it clearly worked for him.
Running a list like Mikel's, you really want some units that can crack transports, so the Hellblasters and Bladeguard can get at their contents instead of banging on the boxes. To that end, he included a Gladiator Lancer and a pair of Vindicators. The Lancer isn't as well thought of as a Ballistus Dreadnought, but it does also include a lot of chaff-chewing firepower that the list otherwise lacks, and Vindicators can potentially pick up anything with their casino cannos. He also included a couple of Inceptor squads as a Deep Strike threat. It seems like he'd have chosen plasma Inceptors, but he went with the assault bolters. I think their main purpose is to spritz away small utility units, and they can certainly do that. Finally, he's got a Callidus Assassin for uppy-downy scoring purposes.
Mikel had a good 1st round with a comfortable 92-73 win against Chaos Knights (Iconoclast Fiefdom+Traitoris Lance, Take and Hold). 2nd round he scored a solid 88-72 against Leagues of Votann (Hearthband, Priority Assets). 3rd round he took a bruising 82-100 loss against War Horde Orkes (Take and Hold). 4th round he bounced back with a robust 90-71 against Chaos Daemons (Plague Legion+Warptide). 5th round he handed out a 96-73 drubbing against Berzerker World Eaters (Purge, natch). Well done Mikel!
The last list I'm going to review comes to us from the Birmingham 40K Super Major held in Birmingham, England. Three Dark Angels lists went 4-1 at Birmingham, and I'm actually not reviewing the top Dark Angels list. That list is interesting, and I'll provide a link to it in the Honorable Mentions, but the list I am reviewing really caught my attention. The list was composed and played by Jay Seebarun, and he chose to pair a Firestorm Assault Force with a Librarius Conclave with the Purge the Foe dispo. You can see Jay's list on BCP. Let's dig into it below.
Azrael - Warlord
Apothecary: Champion of Humanity
Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Librarian in Terminator Armour: Celerity
Attached: Deathwing Knights: 5 aweome chonky macey boys
Librarian: Temporal Corridor
Attached: Infernus Squad: 10 burny boys
Librarian: Fusillade
Attached: Sternguard Veterans: 10 awesome bolter boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 stay-off-my-lawn boys
Land Raider
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Stormraven Gunship
I am unreasonably excited about this list! Jay has made some character and unit combos that have the potential to really sing. Starting at the top, Azrael with ICCs needs no explanation. I like the addition of Apothecary. There's an argument to be made for a Lieutenant instead, but it's not as strong as it was in 10th edition because you don't need to Fall Back with the unit to not get punched first in an ongoing combat on your turn, and bringing members of the squad back is spicy. Plus, adding Champions of Humanity prevents opponents from messing with their Hit rolls or reducing damage with any clever tricks, which is very important for a unit with Damage 2 weapons.
Next, we've got the Terminator Librarian with Celerity paired with a squad of Deathwing Knights, giving them the ability to Charge after Advancing and potentially after Falling Back. Plus, the Termi Librarian grants them Sustained Hits, which is always fun.
After that we've got the Librarian with Temporal Corridor paired with the Infernus Marines. That lets them go into Reserve from the table and potentially gives them Deep Strike. Uppy-downy with a full 10-man unit with potentially Strength 6 pyreblasters seems good.
Finally, we've got the Librarian with Fusillade paired with a unit of 10 Sternguard. That's the combo that grants the Sternies' shooting Anti-Monster/Anti-Vehicle 5+ and potentially Sustained Hits. It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that unit to top-to-bottom virtually any Monster or Vehicle in the game in one activation. Average math into an Oath target within Rapid Fire range with Pyromancy active for Sustained Hits has the squad generating 17 Devastating Wounds, not counting whatever the Librarian generates from Focused Smite. Plus they might pop a Grenade into their target before opening up. A Knight Castellan may survive that, but not much else would. I expect Jay is using the Stormraven as a delivery vehicle for this unit, so he can delete his opponent's most important asset Turn 1. If he's lucky, the Stormraven might be able to pick up a second target in the process. If not, Jay's opponents are going to be obliged to deal with these two threats before they get far out of their deployment zones.
I'm always excited to see a Land Raider in a list that performed well. I've been playing since 3rd edition, and in all that time I really wanted Land Raiders to be good, but they haven't really managed to approach that until fairly recently. The Land Raider has some nice long-range firepower that should at least keep opponents honest during deployment, and should be capable of popping transports so Jay's other units can murder their contents. I expect the Infernus squad generally rides in the Land Raider, as one would think Jay generally wants Azrael on the table to generate CP, and went to all the trouble to give the Deathwing Knights an enhancement that lets them Advance and Charge.
Playing with the Purge dispo, Jay probably doesn't need utility units as much as other dispos might require, but he does have a few. He's got the Intercessors to hold and sticky his backfield objective, Infiltrators to zone out his third of the board, and the Darkshroud for whatever else he might need a unit to do. We might want to start thinking of the Darkshroud as a fast action monkey that happens to make things around it harder to hit with shooting. At 80 points, it's as much as we used to pay for an Outrider Squad, can go faster, and has Fly. Jay probably uses it to make his Land Raider a little harder to kill until it's done its job, then has it do actions if he needs to, or just sit in a space for a positional Secondary.
Just one more note - the Firestorm has some spicy stratagems. I don't want to spent too much time on them here because you can look them up yourself, but I did want to acknowledge the fact.
Sadly Jay took his loss 1st round, bouncing off Blood Angels (Rage-cursed Onslaught, Purge) 54-100. 2nd round he flipped the script into the Chaos Blood Angels, going 100-54 against World Eaters (Berserker Warband, Purge). 3rd round he scored a solid 87-71 against Leages of Votann (Mercenary Oathband+Farseekers, T&H). 4th round he massacred Imperial Knights (Gate Warden Lance+Throne-bonded Outriders, Priority) 98-30. 5th round he squeaked out an 80-79 win against VirVec Death Guard (T&H). Well done Jay!
Honorable Mentions
James McGlough went 4-1 with his Company of Hunters+Darkflight Pursuit list (Recon dispo) at The Birmingham 40K Super Major and scored 12th out of 198 players. Here's James' list on BCP. By all means check it out, it's interesting.
I feel like the CoH+Darkflight list is going to be prevalent enough early in the edition to rate some sort of nickname. What do you guys think of Company of Pursuit, or CoP for short?
Paul Clifton also went 4-1 at Birmingham, this time pairing up the Company of Hunters and the Interrogation Conclave (Purge dispo) and placing 28th. Here's Paul's list on BCP. Spoiler alert: it's 67 bikes!
Statistics
It was a light weekend with only the one event in the United States, but it was a good one for Dark Angels. 17 players played 81 games and won 44 of the, scoring a 55% win rate! Even better, out of that we had 5 X/0-X/1 results, 2 podium finishes and 1 event win!
There was quite a spread of detachment use among those 17 players. The Company of Hunters was the most popular by a nose, with 6 lists using it.
Dark Age Arsenal, Darkflight Pursuit and Interrogator Conclave tied for second most popular, being in 5 lists each.
The most popular total combination was the Company of Hunters+Darkflight Pursuit, being used in 4 lists.
Here's the table of detachments and dispositions used over the weekend.
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. I'm attending a GT myself this weekend, the Ironweld: Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament up in Wakefield, MA. Wish me luck! May all our games be fun and victorious. For the Lion!
Comments
Post a Comment