Dark Angels Update 10/12/2026: A New Meta

Greetings honored battle brethren, and welcome to the new meta! This was the weekend of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. The results were not what we've been accustomed to in the most recent months passed, but there were a few lists that rose above the pack for us to check out. 

The most successful list of the weekend belongs to Josh Swank, who went 4-1 and took 2nd out of 28 players at the Games4Life's 2-Day 40k GT! with a Darkflight Pursuit+Devastator Brethren+Ironstorm Spearhead (Purge) list. Let's check it out!

fast guns
Lion Dad - Warlord
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Impulsor
Impulsor
Eradicator Squad with melta rifles: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad with melta rifles: 3 chonky melta boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys
Land Raider Redeemer
Land Speeder
Land Speeder
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Scout Squad
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

I had to really read into the detachments on this one to figure out what Josh was doing with it. Darkflight's utility is pretty obvious. Ironstorm was a little trickier to parse the reasons for. The detachment rule is pretty good for all of shooting units (even the Eradicators while in their Impulsors), but two of the strats can only be played on the Redeemer, and with its main offense being a pair of Torrent weapons, one of the strats (an Ignores Modifiers strat) seems marginal on it. At first I thought Devastator Bros is just in the list to provide a second Devastator Doctrine turn and AoC, but I think it may provide more than that.

Here's what I'm thinking: Between the Redeemer and Lion Dad, Josh is trying to make opponents not want to come near the center of the table. Those units give him a couple good ways of killing opponent's units on their turn. That would make them have to try and shoot it out with Josh's list if their lists can do so. 

That's where the Impulsor+Eradicators and Vengeances come in. I suspect Josh has them move up as teams with one of each in company with each other. This forces opponents to make some difficult decisions. A lot of the good shooting platforms are Vehicles, so opponents aren't going to want to let those Eradicator-toting Impulsors get close. However, destroying an Impulsor with a Vengeance hanging next to it triggers the Vengeance's ability to shoot in the opponent's Shooting phase. Also, destroying the Impulsor isn't necessarily going to stop the Eradicators, who could disembark behind a wall or something. Alternately, they can shoot at the Vengeances, but they may scam opponents' shooting with their Invulnerable Saves, or Cover, or the Wings of Shadow strat. Their shooting could just whiff, in which case they're arguably worse off than if they had managed to pop those Impulsors, and even if it doesn't, the Impulsors full of Eradicators are delivering their payloads into melta range. There's also the possibility Josh may be able to employ the Hail of Vengeance strat to let the Eradicators shoot out of sequence if a squad takes a loss or two. 

Most of the rest of the list are also shooting platforms, with a pair of Land Speeders and a Storm Speeder Thunderstrike. The Land Speeders can double as relatively cheap action monkeys if Josh needs them to be, but with a Scout Squad and a pair of Incursor squads he probably doesn't. Incursors don't need to shoot to provide their Shooting phase buff now, so they can point out targets for the rest of the list and do actions as needed. There's also the usual Intercessor squad to hold the backfield objective.

So, in summary, a lot of guns that move fast, get To Hit and To Wound rerolls, (mostly) Ignore Cover, with Lion Dad providing a melee threat to dissuade opponents from trying to get into melee with them. 

Josh had a strong 1st round, pounding Berzerker+Vessels (Purge) World Eaters 100-53. 2nd round he devastated Freeblade (Purge) Imperial Knights 99-37. 3rd round he crushed more Berzerkers+Vessels (Purge) World Eaters 98-36. 4th round he took an 83-96 loss to Kauyon+EPC (Recon) T'au.  He finished the event on a high note though, scoring a close 80-77 against Deathwatch Support+Dev Bros+Termie Storm Force (Purge) Imperial Fists. Well done Josh!

The next list we're looking at belongs to Justin Justin, who brought an Assault Brethren+Wrath of the Rock (T&H) list to The Hunt for the Red Ork-tober, where he went 3-1-1 and took 5th out of 32 players. Let's check out his list!

Dark Angels
Lion Dad - Warlord
Captain in Terminator Armour
    Attached: Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Captain in Terminator Armour
    Attached: Deathwing Terminator Squad: 5 awesome boltery-fisty boys
Azrael
    Attached: Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys
Ravenwing Command Squad
    Attached: Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Sammael
    Attached: Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

This is not what I'd call a real subtle list. Justin appears to have decided he's going to take a list that's almost entirely Toughness 6+ units with Invulnerable saves and -1 be Wounded by Strength 7+ weapons and make it everybody's problem. He's got a couple of fast moving units for an early-game threat, and Lion Dad with a pair of Terminator units led by Captains that let them reroll Charge rolls to hold whatever objectives are in the middle of the table, and Azrael with Inner Circle Companions to hold his natural expansion. He's got Transhuman Strategist from 4 characters; Lion Dad, the two Terminator Captains, and Sammy can all put themselves/their units in whatever Doctrine Justin wants to be in, Azrael can point at a unit (which can be his own) and shout "Be in such-and-such Doctrine!), he's got a strat can put an unit in whatever Doctrine he wants, he's got AoC, Lance on demand, Fights on Death, and can make a Mounted unit Mobile. He can pretty much make any of his units do whatever he wants them to do on any given turn. Oh, and he's got an Intercessor squad and a pair of Scout squads to do such tasks as are beneath the elites of the Deathwing and Ravenwing. 

Justin had an exiting 1st round, with a close 94-92 win against Medusa's+TSF (Purge) Iron Hands. 2nd round he drubbed Cybenetica+Eradication Mechanicus (Purge) 96-64. 3rd round he crushed Lions Custodes (T&H) 98-58. 4th round he scored a 100-100 tie against Kauyon+EPC (Priority) T'au. 5th round he suffered a close 85-87 loss against Forgefather's+Ass Bros Salamanders. Well done Justin!

The last list I'm going to review belongs to Danny McDevitt, who took a Wrath+Tactical Brethren (Prioirty) list to BZU 40K 2026, where he went 4-1 and took 6th out of 49 players. Let's check his list out!

DA Problems require DA Solutions
Lion Dad - Warlord
Sammael
Ravenwing Command Squad
    Attached: Outrider Squad
Lieutenant in Phobos Armour: Laurels of Vigilance
    Attached: Reiver Squad: 5 spooky edgy boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boy
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boy
Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boy
Impulsor
Impusor
Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Eradicator Squad with heavy bolters: 3 chonky bolter boys
Eradicator Squad with heavy bolters: 3 chonky bolter boys
Eradicator Squad with melta rifles: 3 chonky melta boys
Eradicator Squad with melta rifles: 3 chonky melta boys

This is a weird one I'm having trouble wrapping my head around. My guess is that Danny's main play is to stick Intercessors on objectives and hold the Reivers with the attached Phobos Libby in Reserve to Rapid Ingress them via Deep Strike in position to Heroic Intervention into a unit assaulting an Intercessor Squad on whichever objective he needs the button pushed on, which he gets to do at a discount courtesy of the Laurels of Vigilance enhancement. The Reivers reduce the OC of the attacking unit just by standing next to them, making it pretty likely the Intercessors succeed in button-pushing on a key turn. 

I think Danny's main strategy is board control, but he does have some tools to make things difficult for his opponent's unit. There's Sammy's unit for an early-game charge, which is more potent now than it used to be thanks to the glow-up to Outriders. He's got Lion Dad and a squad of Deathwing Knights to stand in the center of the table and own it, and he's got a pair of each type of Eradicator to destroy big things or clear crowds, whichever he needs doing. The melta Eradicators probably go in the Impulsors because they need to get close to do their jobs. Danny can pull transport shell game shenanigans with the reactive move from the Tac Bros detachment. 

Danny had a great 1st round, mauling Argent+Banishers (Priority) Grey Knights 99-34. 2nd round he got edged out 81-83 against Houndpack+Warpack Chaos Knights (Recon). 3rd round he bounced back, massacring Subterranean Tyranids 94-37. 4th round he paired into Wrath+Darkflight (T&H) Dark Angels and hammered them 100-31. He finished the event by drubbing another Subterranean Tyranids list 100-63. Well done Danny!

Honorable Mentions

Laust Sørensen went 3-1-1 and took 5th out of 31 players at Roskilde Tabletop Gathering - 40k GT with his CoH+Darkflight (Recon) list. I opted not to review it as it represents the last hurrah of the now-dead meta. 

Jason Chang was the top Dark Angels player at Battle For Salvation, the biggest event of the weekend. He went 5-3 and took 23rd out of 131 players with an Ass Bros+Darkflight+Stormlance (Recon) list. 

Mykola Lukashenko was the top Dark Angels player at the Denver 40K Fight Club Oct. Open ‘26, going 4-2 and scoring 12th out of 106 players with an Ass Bros+Darkflight+Ironstorm list. 

Brethren, I salute you!

Statistics

It was a reasonably busy weekend for the legion chapter, with 47 players who played 213 games and won 91 of them, for a 43% win rate. Five of those players were playing previous meta lists. With those taken out, the win rate dropped to 42%, which is pretty bad, but everyone is trying out new things for the first time. Some of those players may have been like me and playing their list for the first time ever Saturday morning. We had 3 X/0-X/1 results and 1 podium finish.

The most popular single detachment was Wrath of the Rock, with 26 players who scored a dismal 40% win rate. Wrath players did pick up 2 of our X-results though.

The most popular single-DP detachment was Assault Brethren, with 20 players using it. The most popular combo was Wrath+Assault Bros, with 9 players using it. 

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. We're all of us feeling our ways forward into the new meta, so hopefully we can cook up some good lists. Until next week my brethren. May your games be fun and victorious. For the Lion!