Dark Angels Update 8/10/2026

 Greetings honored battle brethren! It was a much slower weekend than the last two, with less than half the players of the week before, but despite this Dark Angels players still made their presence felt! We had a number of lists do well, including 2 event winners, so let's check them out!

This first list actually appeared at two separate events, taking 1st out of 47 at Keelhaul Gaming First Contact held in Roebuck, SC; and 4th out of 135 at The Utah Cup 2026 - Warhammer 40K held in Farmington, UT. The two players, Luke Henderson and Treynor Wolfe respectively, aren't part of the same team, and the most direct route between the two cities is almost 2000 miles, so it seems unlikely these two stalwarts crossed paths. The most likely conclusion is that these fellows picked up the list from a shared 40K coach or it's a list that's been published by a 40K influencer or something, but it is possible they both came up with the same list independently. Just to be clear, I'm not throwing shade for netlisting, because it still takes great play to get the results these two fellows did. Regardless of what the explanation is, this list gave them both great results, so we want to take a look at it. 

Company of Hunters (Luke Henderson)

It's a curious thing that we have an empty space to express myself here in the name of my army list. I can literally put anything here.I can't come up with anything wistful to put here. And I can't come up with an original list either. (Treynor Wolfe, and I guess that confirms the netlisting theory)

Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
    Attached: Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Sammael
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Techmarine
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey 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
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb and suggest that one thing propping up Dark Angels win rates is trios of Land Speeders Vengeance with Nightforged Batteries. I see them so often in the lists I've been reviewing lately that I'm actively surprised when I don't. It's easy to see why. Vengeances are effective into any target in the game and downright amazing into any Infantry or Mounted target, and with the help of a Thunderstrike are even pretty good at punching up into Monsters and Vehicles. Keeping them moving around as a trio would provide opportunities to trigger their retributive shooting ability, letting them do some damage in the opponent's turn, which is always valuable. 

Of course, opponents will realize pretty rapidly what a threat the Vengeances are and move to counter them, so it's good to have something to get in their way and make opponents make difficult choices. That starts off with Sammy and his squad of bike-mounted disaster. Between the 9" Scout move provided by Recon Hunter and Sammy granting his unit the ability to go through walls, that package of melee misery is going to wind up in the opponent's grill Turn 1. And it can hit harder too now thanks to the change to Talon Strike.

Opponents who chew through Sammy's squad will then find themselves facing Lion Dad and a squad of Deathwing Knights. The changes to Death on the Wind give non-Ravenwing units much better charge reach than they used to have, so opponents will have to contend with these two packages of disaster much sooner than would otherwise be the case.

The list's disposition is Recon, so it's generally going to need to have units spread out across the table. To that end this list has a pair of Land Speeders, which are nice cheap, tough platforms with good firepower for the points. There's the Intercessor Squad to sit in the backfield and hold down the home objective, and generally just exist in that space, Azrael with a squad of Assault Intercessors to hold the natural expansion and skirmish with anything that slips past the big guns, and a Scout Squad to hold open Sammy's initial lane of advance and uppy-downy as needed.

I'm a little puzzled by the presence of the Techmarine, but he could have many functions. He might just be a cheap unit that can trigger Lion Dad's Lion Op. Alternately, he could be in the list to buff the Vengeances' shooting and maybe occasionally keep one in the game a turn longer. A third possibility is that he's a cheap single-base unit that can be stuck in Reserve and be hard to screen out if the list's pilot needs a unit to pop out in the opponent's backfield. Maybe his job changes depending on the matchup. 

Luke's event record was a nonstop ride on the win train! 1st round was his lowest-scoring game, but it was still a crushing 87-55 against Space Wolves (LoSaS; Sot Hunter; T&H). 2nd round he had a close 95-86 against Necrons (Cursed Legion; Skyshroud; Purge). 3rd round he delivered a 94-71 drubbing to Salamanders (Forgefather's; Lib Con; Priority).  4th round he 100-74 humbled Necrons (Hand; Hypercrypt; T&H).  5th round he ended big with a 100-40 massacre of Mont'ka T'au (Priority).

Treynor enjoyed a 5-0 event start. 1st round he battered Space Wolves (LoSaS; SotGW; T&H) 93-60. 2nd round he smashed Emperor's Children (PB; SoS; Disrupt) 98-39. 3rd round he drubbed Necrons (Can Court; T&H) 89-63. 4th round he had a close 89-77 against Death Guard (DLC; PoP; Priority). 5th round he again humbled Necrons (Cry Con; HotD; Priority) 89-64. Sadly he took the loss in the 6th round, 76-98 against Raven Guard (Shadowmark; Lib Con; Recon).

Well done gentlemen! Congratulations on your event results!

The other winning list belongs to Xavier Barrera, whose CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list went 5-0 and took 1st out of 44 at BLACKSTONE GT 2 held in Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico. I'm going to do a short breakdown of Xavier's list because it's very similar to the first list.

Josh Roberts played with this list, John Lennon is going to play with this list, and I’d be an idiot not to play it before it gets nerfed. 
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 Darkshround
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

So you can see the big difference here is that Xavier did without the Deathwing Knights and instead went with Azrael and Inner Circle Companions as his big Infantry melee threat. There are some minor differences in utility units, and Xavier included a Darkshroud. The Darkshroud would be good just as a fast-moving utility unit for 70 points, but it also generates its protective aura, potentially being part of imposing a total -2 to opponent's shooting at a Ravenwing target, along with the High-speed Focus strat. 

Xavier got the event off to  baller start with a crushing 100-17 against AdMech (Erad Co; Purge). 2nd round he massacred Chaos Daemons (BL, CoC; Purge) 100-50. 3rd round he smashed Necrons (CL; SS; Purge) 100-34. 4th round he had the mirror match, triumphing over a competing CoH+Darkshroud (Recon) Dark Angels list 100-55. 5th round Xavier ended the event with a comfortable 100-82 against Blood Angels (Stormlance, VH; T&H). Straight 100's! Woohoo! Congratulations on the win Xavier!

The 2nd place list at BLACKSTONE GT 2 was also a Dark Angels CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list belonging to Luis Humberto Casillas Franco. You're probably not surprised about the detachment selection, but I guarantee you will be surprised by what's in the list.

Fly like an eagle Sammael Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter     Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Ravenwing Command Squad: Master of Manoeuvre     Attached: Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Land Speeder Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys Land Speeder Land Speeder Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery  Nephilim Jetfighter (Avenger mega bolter) Nephilim Jetfighter (Avenger mega bolter) Storm Speeder Thunderstrike Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Nephilim Jetfighters? That wasn't on my bingo card!

This list made me have a serious think about how Nephilims could be put to competitive use. My initial thought is that they'd be pretty good at killing Intercessor-equivalent bodies. They crank out 13 Str 5 AP -2 Damage 2 shots with Sustained Hits 1, plus a couple of D6 Damage Strength 8 AP -2 Anti-Fly 2+ shots, so they'd both be good at chewing through masses of infantry, but in the mirror match would also be a not-inconsiderable threat to our Vengeances and Speeders. They're Toughness 8 with 11 Wounds, a 5++, and an uncondititional -1 to be Wounded, so taking them down would requite consequential resources that opponents might not want to devote to something that can't hold objectives or do actions. 

Then I got to wondering if they could be used to hamper opponents' Movement phase, so I had a look at the Aircraft rules. Unfortunately Aircraft can only make Ingress moves and the Nephilim doesn't have Deep Strike, so it can only come into play along the table edge. Also, opposing units can pass through Aircraft, but I believe they still can't end a move on an Aircraft's base or in Engagement range of one, so they could potentially be used to gum up a board edge and oblige opponents to go around them. Assuming they're set up on opposite sides of the table, a pair of Nephilims can potentially block a third of the width of the table (going across the long way) assuming you put something behind them to prevent opponents from just crossing the base. That obliges opponents to shoot at them or go around them.

Other than that, I'm a little surprised Sammy isn't attached to the big brick of plasma bikes, because he'd give the unit Ignores Cover, but you can't argue with the results Luis got from his choices.

1st round Luis scored a respectable 95-78 against Equatorial Freebooter Orks (T&H). That game must have been hilarious for Luis, because the only things in the list that could reasonably be expected to take down the Nephilims were a pair of Dakkarigs that Luis could have taken out with his Vengeances. The whole rest of the Ork list was punchy units that would not be able to touch an Aircraft. Anyway, 2nd round he got a comfortable 93-80 against Votann (Hearthband; Priority). 3rd round he drubbed Salamanders (Forgefathers'; Lib Con; Priority) 99-73. 4th round he took his loss against Xavier's CoH+Darkflight list 55-100. 5th round he bounced back scoring a close 95-84 against Space Wolves (LoSaS; SotGW; T&H). Well done Luis!

The majority of high-scoring lists of the weekend were Company of Hunters based, but there were a few that weren't. The next one gives us a glimpse of what we might pivot to if CoH becomes a 3 DP detachment. It belongs to Shaun Sharp, who took an Ironstorm+Darkflight list (T&H) and went 5-1 at The Utah Cup 2026 - Warhammer 40K, scoring 12th place out of 135 players. Let's check out his list.

Dreads are cooler than bikes (editorial comment: the fuck they are!)
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Ancient: Master of Machine War     Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys  Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys Land Speeder Land Speeder Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery Redemptor Dreadnought: macro plasma incinerator Redemptor Dreadnoguht: onslaught gatling cannon  Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

So if we wind up not able to combine Darkflight Pursuit with the Ravenwing detachment, pairing it with the Vehicle detachment is also an option. The detachment rule doesn't allow vehicles free Advance/Fall Back and Shoot, but the Master of Machine War enhancement lets a character pick one unit a turn to do so, and they often aren't going to need it that bad anyway. The detachment does let any unit of any type reroll one Hit, Wound, or Damage roll a turn, and it also has a pretty good retributive shooting strat (Power of the Machine Spirit) that can be played on Vehicles, and that's good to play on Vengeances because it requires the target being below Half-strength to trigger and Vengeances don't bracket.

The Ironstorm also has a couple of spicy strats that can be played on any Adeptus Astartes units. One is Unbowed Conviction, which allows a unit below Starting Strength ignore modifiers, which is a pretty big deal. There's also Mercy is Weakness, which grants an Adeptus Astartes unit Sustained Hits 1 in either the Shooting or the Fight phase against a target that is below Starting Strength, with Crit 5's if the unit using it is a Vehicle. I have to say, I've been kind of sleeping on this, because one thing I'm constantly disappointed by with my big plasma bike bricks is that all the 6's To Hit they generate don't do anything but hit. Now I want to put one in an Ironstorm to get Sustained Hits with their plasma talons! It does cost 2 CP, but dang!

Anyway, there's also some spice to be had with Lion Dad and a pair of Redemptors stomping into the middle of the board shouting "Come at me bro!" That's a pile of 2+ save close combat disaster opponents really shouldn't want to mix it up with. The Redemptors have a pile of guns bolted onto them too, so they'll help out with the shooting, possibly softening something up to use Mercy Is Weakness with a Vengeance against. He likely keeps at least one Techmarine nearby, because the Techmarine triggers Lion Dad's Lion Op, and the Redemptors trigger the Techmarine's Lone Op. 

Shaun had the misfortune of losing his first game, 71-97 against Necrons (Cryp Con; Hand; Priority). The eddies in the warp smoothed out for him after that though. 2nd round he pummeled Space Wolves LoS&S; SotGW; T&H) 100-65. 3rd round he wrecked Blood Angels (Headhunter; Vengeful' T&H) 100-50. 4th round he took his vengeance on Necrons (Aw Dy; T&H) 100-68.  5th round he scored a comfortable 93-72 against Tyranids (Ass Swarm; TotNQ; Priority). 6th round he ended with a decisive 87-67 against Orks (Freebooter; MD!; Disrupt).  Well done Shaun!

The last list I'm going to review belongs to Michael Sonsino, whose Inner Circle Task Force+Librarius Conclave (Priority) list went 4-1 and took 3rd out of 28 at 🔥Napalm Hobbies - 11th ED - SUMMER GT - 40K - ITC - ETC held in West Hordon, England. Let's check out his list.

Dark Angles (editorial comment: it hurts my soul to see Angles instead of Angels in the list name) Azrael Lieutenant     Attached: Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys Ezekial     Attached: Bladeguard Veteran Squad: 6 awesome swordy-boardy boys Librarian in Terminator Armour: Temporal Corridor     Attached: Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys Librarian: Celerity     Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Librarian: Prescience     Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Impulsor Impulsor Invader ATV Scout Squad Scout Squad

Michael made himself a very punchy ICTF list, with a squad of Deathwing Knights, two squads of Inner Circle Companions, and an squad of Bladeguard Veterans, which we don't see very often. The Deathwing Knights have a Terminator Librarian with Temporal Corridor, because why wouldn't you want DWKs that can uppy-downy?
It's interesting to see Ezekial in a competitive list. He's not the spiciest character we have, and he doesn't do as much for most units as either Azrael or generic Space Marine characters do. About the only unit he has good synergy with is Bladeguard Veterans, because they bring their own Invulnerable save with them, and they benefit from getting +1 to their number of attacks from his Book of Salvation. His ranged attacks have Precision. One of those is Mind Wipe, which is S6 AP -2 D6 Damage Devastating Wounds with its normal profile, and Anti-Character 4+ with its Hazardous profile, in case you need to do some damage to a Chaos Primarch or a C'tan with it. I also find it kind of amusing that his melee attacks have Anti-Chaos 2+, so you can run him right into a Chaos Knight and surprise the heck out of that sucker. He's not going to pick up even a Wardog by himself, but he will reliably wound. 

I expect Ezekial's squad and the Prescience Librarian's ICC squad ride in the Impulsors. That gives them a layer of protection and a staging point to launch their attacks from. Prescience gives that unit a reactive move when an opponent's unit moves within 8", so Michael probably keeps at least one Impulsor close to that unit so he can exploit that ability.

Michael doesn't have a lot of shooting in this list, but he does have one quality shooting unit: the Hellblasters led by Azrael and the Lieutenant. Ironically they have the same damage ceiling as a full squad of Intercessors would have, but they're more likely to wound and opponents are more likely to fail their saves. There are also the Impulsors. While they're not primarily in the list for their firepower, each one does have the ability to throw out a respectable bucket of chaff-clearing dice, and maybe commit the odd Crushing Impact attack.  

For utility units, Michael has the backfield Intercessor Squad, an Invader ATV, a pair of Scout Squads, and the Combi-Lieutenant. I hate to admit it, but the Combi-Lieutenant is probably a very smart unit to have in a Priority list. It needs a unit that can sit on an objective and push Battle Points button, and the Combi-Lieutenant stands a pretty good chance of being able to do that and go unmolested in the process while opponents are dealing with all the robed maniacs rushing at them with swords and maces. Again, the Impulsors can help with utility work too if they happen to be in the right place and survive opponents' efforts to open the cans of maniacs so they can deal with said maniacs.

Michael enjoyed a 4-0 event start, only dropping a loss to the event winner. 1st round he administered a 100-67 drubbing to Blood Angels (Stormlance; Venge; T&H). 2nd round he squeaked out a 75-74 win against Adeptus Custodes (Shield Host; Silent Hunters; Purge). 3rd round he scored a close 94-86 against Conceited Emperor's Children (sounds redundant; Priority). 4th round he dished out a 93-71 thumping to World Eaters (Brazen Engines; Possessed Slaughterband; Purge). As previously mentioned, his streak was ended by the event winner with a 52-100 loss to their Salamanders list (Forgefathers'; Lib Con; Priority). Well done Michael!

Honorable Mentions

Juanpe Tovar went 3-1-1 and took 11th out of 58 players with his Inner Circle Task Force + Librarius Conclave (Priority) list at SAW MUST GO ON II – Murcia – Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament held in Murcia, Spain. 

Juanpe, I salute you!

Statistics

It was a bit of a slower weekend than the previous ones, with 24 players who played 129 games and won 70 of them, earninga  55% win rate, 7 X/0-X/1 results, 5 podium results, and 2 event wins!

Company of Hunters+Darkflight Pursuit tied for most popular detachment combo with 7 players, and blew all the others away for scoring, with those 7 players racking up a 74% win rate, 4 of the podium placings and the 2 event wins.

Wrath tied with the Ravenwing combo for popularity with 7 players, but only scored a 41% win rate.

Inner Circle Task Force+Librarius Conclave was the only other combo that stood out with 4 players, a 55% win rate, 2 X-results, and 1 podium finish.

 With the numbers it's been generating over the last few weeks, I don't see how CoH+Darkflight avoids a nerf. I suspect the most likely change might be that CoH becomes a 3-DP detachment, which would make me kind of sad, but it might still be our strongest detachment option. If GW wants to be light-handed, they might change Darkflight's disposition to Disruption. Virtually all the CoH+Darkflight lists are Recon because it's easier to score, so changing Darkflight to Disruption might tone down the combo enough to allow it remain a playable option. I don't really see what else Darkflight pairs well with if it can't pair with CoH.

One thing that might influence GW to take a light-handed approach is that when you remove the CoH+Darkflight lists from the totals, the win rate for Dark Angels drops to 47%. That is within GW's acceptable range, but that's solidly C-tier, so if the nerf bat does land hard on our top combo, hopefully they'll buff some of the others to balance out the hit.

What to Watch Out For

Orks edged us out as the top faction, with 2 First Place finishes, 1 Second Place, and 1 Third place. One of their wins was the biggest event of the week, Utah Cup with 135 players.

We're in 2nd place, with the same number of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes as Orks.

After us came Emperor's Children, with one 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finish each.

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 the nerfing be gentle when it comes. For the Lion!