Dark Angels Update 8/24/2026

 Greetings honored battle brethren! It is my pleasure to bring you the news of the weekend's GT's! It was a slower weekend than the previous one, with about half as many players, but that was still a pretty respectable amount, with many of them doing well and bringing honor to the legion chapter! We'll look at a sampling of those lists and see what we can learn from them. 

The top list of the week belongs to Chris Irvine, who brought a Company of Hunters + Darkflight Pursuit list (Recon dispo) to the Surrey Primarchs GW Golden Ticket Event held in Smallfield, England, where he went 5-0 and took 1st out of 66 players! Let's check out his list!

What I wasn’t allowed to play at WTC https://imgflip.com/i/ayv8oa
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 swordy 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

This has emerged as the meta list for Dark Angels players ambitious to score well at events, with it popping up over and over again. It's easy to see why, as it's got speed, punching power, shooting power, and board presence. The speed comes from being based primarily around Ravenwing units, with a total of 6 Land Speeders of various types, plus Sammy and his unit. However, now the Company of Hunters also has a strat that will allow a non-Ravenwing unit to Charge after making an Advance move, so a unit like Lion Dad or the Deathwing Knights can have a longer reach than opponents might be comfortable with.

The punching power of the list comes in waves, starting with Sammy and his squad. His unit can connect with 12 Strength 6+ AP -2/-3 Damage 3 attacks, 6 AP -2 Damage 2 Devastating Wounds attacks, and 12 Strength 5 AP -1 Damage 2 attacks, with Lance on tap for a CP if they need it. That package of disaster can potentially cross 40" (counting its Scout move) going straight through terrain to get at what its player wants dead. Then the opponent has to deal with 31 Toughness 5 wounds that can regenerate before they even get out of their deployment zone. While they're dealing with that, they've got Lion Dad and the squad of Deathwing Knights coming up on them too, and they are famously good at punching things to death. It appears sword Knights are the preference here - again, having Lance on tap makes them preferable to maces because they get more attacks and can punch up into tougher targets with a CP. Finally, there's Azrael with the squad of Assault Intercessors, whose job is probably to stick close to home and engage pesky units that may slip into the backfield via Deep Strike, coming out of Reserve on the board edge, or just being fast and not big enough to rate engaging with a more important asset. They'll do a pretty good job picking up skirmishing units, and will be a little more difficult to remove thanks to Azrael granting the squad a 4++.

The heart of the list's shooting power is the trio of Land Speeders Vengeance, whose plasma storm battery is a significant threat to anything in the game, as you can see from its profile on the right. Upgrading the Vengeances with Nightforged Batteries makes them more reliable, allowing the owning player to reroll the number of shots and Hazard rolls, making bad rolls considerably less likely. The list has a Storm Speeder Thunderstrike to help the Vengeances punch up into tougher targets, and it's got a trio of AP -3 Damage D6+1 shots of its own, so it may soften up tougher targets even as it buffs the Vengeances' shooting into them. Lastly there's the pair of Land Speeders, who can shoot and scoot, popping their Stormfury missiles into things, then ducking behind terrain and existing in spaces to score Recon primary. All of this shooting has Ignores Cover, courtesy of the Darkflight detachment rule.

For utility units, the list has Intercessors, Scouts, and the Techmarine. Intercessors sit on the backfield objective, Scouts hold open a lane of advance for Sammy's unit and then score Secondaries if they manage to avoid too much heat, and I'm told the Techmarine holds the expansion objective, being granted Lone Op by proximity to a shooting-n-scooting Land Speeder. 

Chris' nonstop ride on the win train began with a 99-49 mauling of Chaos Daemons (LoE; Warptide; Priority) in the 1st round. 2nd round he prevailed in the mirror match against a very similar (but not identical) CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list by a close 84-79. 3rd round he delivered an 100-47 mulching to Orks (Freebooter; MD!; T&H). 4th game he pounded TSons (GC; Priority) 100-56. 5th round he obliterated Emperor's Children (CoC; Priority) 100-0, which makes me want to know what the fuck happened! Did his opponent get DQed? Was he playing an unpainted army? How did he make a top table and not score any points at all? Regardless, it was a resounding streak for Chris, with the only game even remotely close being against a fellow Dark Angels player. Congratulations on the win Chris!

The second list we're going to look at belongs to Adam Green, who took an Unforgiven Task Force+Darkflight Pursuit list (T&H dispo) to Edmonton Wargaming Open 2026 held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, went 4-1, and placed 5th out of 74 players. Let's check out his list. 

Adam's list
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
    Attached: Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
Captain with Jump Pack: Weapons of the First Legion
    Attached: Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs: 5 awesome flying swordy boys
Librarian
    Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Sammael
    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
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

I find this list interesting for a couple of reasons. First, UTF and Darkflight is not the most obvious combination, as the two detachments don't have much synergy with each other. UTF has some strats that are potentially useful to the Darkflight units, including one that would grant Assault if Adam needs a little more movement to draw a bead on an important target, and another that could give a unit Lethal Hits (potentially with Crit 5's, but that can't be relied on), but it would make more sense to just combo the Darkflight units with the CoH and get most of those benefits from the detachment rule. 

The other reason I find this list interesting is that this is not necessarily the most obvious Take And Hold list. I'd expect to see Deathwing Knights, or at least Deathwing Terminators that can sit on objectives and be a pain to take off, but there's none of that here. Adam does have 3 units with good Invulnerable saves that can throw punches pretty well, but don't have that DWK resilience. That said, they do have some obvious advantages. Lion Dad can punch to death anything he touches, as can the ICCs, and the Sternguard with Azrael stand a pretty good chance of shooting most units to death all on their own as long as Adam is willing to task Oath to them. Adam can potentially surprise opponents counting on picking up his units with a charge by playing Unbreakable Lines for an unqualified -1 To Wound. He can combo that with AoC, because Unbreakable Lines is played in the Charge phase, while AoC would get played in the Fight phase

For fast melee threats, Adam has Sammy with a unit of 3 Outriders, plus a jump Captain with Van Vets. Sammy's unit is the only Advance+Charge threat in the list, as there's no other source of that in the list. The Captain+Van Vets are a respectable Deep Strike threat, and the Captain can punch up pretty hard. Weapons of the First Legion grants him +1 Attack, Strength, and Damage (potentially +2 if his unit is Battle-shocked), and he grants himself +1 Strength when he charges, so when he charges his thunder hammer is swinging at Strength 10 Damage 3, taking him past a lot of important break points. That unit is kind of a glass cannon, because he went with the master crafted power weapons instead of storm shields, but it can do a lot of damage when it connects

Most of the firepower in the list comes from the Darkflight units, which are identical to the previous list except for the absence of a Thunderstrike. Utility units are pretty much just the Intercessors and Scouts, but a Take and Hold list doesn't need to be all over the board the way a Recon list does.

1st round Adam proved he didn't have any trouble punching up with this list by thrashing Chaos Knights (Traitoris; Purge) 100-49. 2nd round he thrashed Custodes (Lions, MoM; T&H) 100-61. 3rd round he pummeled Emperor's Children (CoE; FH; Disrupt or Recon) 100-65. 4th round he took a 70-98 loss against Thousand Sons (RoR; Sek Co; SoC; Disrupt). He bounced back in the 5th round, trouncing another Custodes (Lions; MoM; T&H) list 100-53. Well done Adam!

The last list we're looking at this week belongs to Derek Hecker, who went 4-1  and took 2nd out of 23 players at ProSoul Open GT held in Ontario, Oregon with a Wrath of the Rock list (Priority dispo). Let's check out his list!

A: Prosoul GT 
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
    Attached: Sternguard Veteran Squad: 10 awesome bolter boys
Librarian
Lieutenant
    Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault
    Attached: Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Eradicator Squad: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad with Heavy Bolters: 3 chonky bolter boys
Gladiator Lancer
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

Wrath of the Rock seems like it's tailor-made for the Priority Assets disposition. Take Deathwing Knights, park them on the objective with the button, Leonine Aggression-charge into anything that tries to out-OC you on them, and camp your way to victory. Of course it's not as simple as that. Primary into Take & Hold works that way, but against another Priority list, the primary mission is Sabotage, which makes you need action monkeys, preferably action monkeys that can get into the opponent's territory. That probably says a bit about why Derek chose the units he did. He's got Intercessors to sit on his backfield objective, the Combi-Lieutenant, two squads of Scouts and an Outrider Squad. Plus, both squads of Eradicators and the Incursors could be employed as action monkeys in a pinch. I expect the bolter Eradicators are probably Derek's expansion objective holder anyway, so they can Sabotage while they're sitting there if there's not a pressing need to shoot anything. Of course, the Scouts, Outriders, and Combi-Lieutenant have all manner of ways to get around the board quickly as needed, making them good for taking Sabotage actions.

Sabotaging your way to victory is all well and good, but this is 40K, and your opponent's army still needs killing. Derek is relying on the classics to do this for him - Lion Dad, a unit of Deathwing Knights, a unit of Inner Circle Companions, Azrael-led Sternguard, and a Gladiator Lancer. These are all solid units, and everything but the Lancer has a good Invulnerable save and will be a little harder to kill than normal thanks to Wrath's detachment rule. I find it a little interesting that Derek decided to attach a Lieutenant to the ICCs, as he seems redundant, but he does grant Lethal Hits if Derek decides to use the ICCs' Sweep profile, he allows them to fall back and charge, and he is an extra power fist for smacking things in the face. 

I'm also going to note that while I listed the Terminator Chaplain as attached to the Deathwing Knights, that's not actually how they appear in Derek's list. I assumed he is because he went with sword Knights, but it's possible that Derek is running him solo just to have an inexpensive unit with a small footprint that can Deep Strike Turn 1. I thought him not being listed as attached to the Knights was an oversight, but he listed Azrael, the Librarian, and the Lieutenant as attached to units, so it's a little weird he'd just forget with the Chaplain.

Derek got off to a solid start, drubbing Custodes (SH; MoM; T&H) 100-80 in the 1st round. 2nd round he pummeled Tyranids (Van On; Am Pre; Recon) 89-61. 3rd round he crushed Necrons (Cu Le; Sky Sp; Purge) 100-48. 4th round he prevailed in a close 91-83 against Ultramarines (BoU; Priority). 5th round was his loss, a tight 90-93 against T'au (EPC; Kauyon; Priority). Well done Derek!

Honorable Mentions

Louis Ballington went 4-1 with his CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list at Surrey Primarchs GW Golden Ticket Event and took 5th out of 66 players.

Michael Power went 4-1 with his CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list at South East Siege III: Revenge of the Anhrathe and took 4th out of 40 players.

Bryce Watson went 4-1 with his CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list at 22 & 23 August 2026 - OWN's Breaking Point GT at DZ Comics and took 7th out of 45 players.

Jorgan Goulet went 4-1 with his CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list at Edmonton Wargaming Open 2026 and took 4th out of 74 players. I want to acknowledge that Jorgan placed higher than Adam Green. I reviewed Adam's list instead because I'd already reviewed a CoH+Darkflight list.

Christopher Pole went 4-1 with his CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list at Edmonton Wargaming Open 2026 and placed 6th out of 74 players. Yes, Dark Angels players placed 4th, 5th, and 6th at this event!

Daniel Twitty went 4-1 with his CoH+Dark Age Arsenal (Priority) list at Soda City Slam 40k GT and placed 3rd out of 27 players. It appears Daniel opted for the Dark Age Arsenal detachment specifically to get the Priority Assets disposition, because there wasn't that much plasma in his list.

Mark Solomkin went 4-1 with his ICTF+Lib Con (Priority) list at Warhammer 40K GT Onslaught 2026 and placed 4th out of 20 players. 

Ben Stafford went 3-1-1 with his Wrath of the Rock (Priority) list at Summer Fun GT at Born to Game and placed 5th out of 22 players.

Brethren, I salute you!

Statistics

It was a slower weekend than the one before, with about half as many Dark Angels players, but still a good one for the legion chapter. We had 38 players play 186 games and win 102 of them, for a 56% win rate. There were 11 X/0-X/1 results, 7 podium finishes, and 1 event win.

If you strip out the Company of Hunters + Darkflight lists, the numbers are still pretty good: 22 players, a 54% win rate, 6 X-results, and 4 podium finishes. It's a pretty good time to be a Dark Angels player.

Company of Hunters + Darkflight Pursuit (Recon) was again the most common detachment combo, with 16 players who scored a 59% win rate, 5 X-results, 3 podium finishes, and the 1 event win.

Wrath of the Rock was the next most popular detachment, with 9 players, a 53% win rate, 3 X-results, and 2 podium finishes.

Inner Circle Task Force + Librarius Conclave only had 5 players, but they did pretty well, with a 57% win rate and 1 X-result/podium finish

The Balance Dataslate

It appears the nerf landed on us pretty lightly. I thought Company of Hunters might go up to 3 DP, or that Darkflight would get assigned the Disruption disposition, and/or that we'd get pretty steep points increases on our most popular units. None of that materialized. Sammy went up 10 points, and the Recon Hunter enhancement from CoH went up 10 points, but those are the only things affecting our most prominent meta build. Oh yeah, the 3rd unit of Ravenwing Knights will now cost you an extra 10 points, but I haven't been seeing Ravenwing Knights played a lot. Command Squads sure, but not the regular Knights. 

For some reason, the Librarian in Terminator Armour went up 10 points - apparently GW thought that ICTF+Lib Con was still a meta powerhouse. And Land Raider Redeemers went up 10 points, with the 3rd unit going up an additional 10 points on top of that. Thank goodness GW addressed that Dark Angels Triple Redeemer list! That'll teach you filthy meta chasers!

It's not all points nerfs. Lion Dad's All Secrets Revealed (aka Forestwalk) ability got restored to him being able to go into Strategic Reserve in our Command Phase. That's much more useful than having wait till the end of the other guy's turn. 

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!