Dark Angels Update 9/28/2026 (Really late!)

 

Greetings, honored battle brethren! First of all, let me apologize for this article taking so long to get to you. I had sort of a perfect storm of there being a LOT of Dark Angels players over the weekend of 9/26-9/27, the windows of opportunity I usually have for gathering the data and working on the article not happening this week, and preparing to attend an 8-round event myself the weekend of 10/10 (Battle for Salvation). So, this one is likely coming to you a week late.

When I said there were a lot of Dark Angels players over the weekend, I mean a LOT of Dark Angels players. It was the weekend of the London Grand Tournament, which drew 1051 players, 64 of whom were Dark Angels players. That's like twice as many as attended events the weekend prior. All told, there were 100 Dark Angels players who attended big 

The top Dark Angels list of the weekend, Jack Murphy's Company of Hunters + Darkflight Pursuit (Recon) list, went 8-1 and placed 4th out of those 1051 players at The London Grand Tournament - 40k Main Event (LGT 40k GT). Let's take a look at that list. 

Jack's list
Lion Dad - Warlord
Sammael
Ravenwing Command Squad: Recon Hunter
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Invader ATV: melta buggy
Land Speeder
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Nephilim Jetfighter
Nephilim Jetfighter
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

This list is almost identical to the one Zach Point took 4th place with at NOVA Open at the beginning of the month. The only difference I can see is that Zach's Nephilims had the Thundercowl Turbine upgrade and Jack's don't. I think he was obliged to make up a few points to preserve the core of the list.

This list's primary mode of offense is shooting, with a trio of Land Speeders Vengeance, a pair of Nephilim Jetfighters, and Storm Speeder Thunderstrike being the bulk of the shooting element. The profile for the plasma storm battery explains for itself why we see a trio of Land Speeders Vengeance in lists so often, with the Nightforged Battery upgrade making them considerably more reliable by allowing rerolls of the number of shots and Hazard rolls. You can pretty much batter down anything in the game with a trio of Vengeances, and the Thunderstrike helps them punch up into bigger targets as needed.

The Nephilim Jetfighters are another source of high-volume firepower. Each one basically puts out 13 Heavy Bolter shots, along with a pair of Strength 8 AP -2 Damage D6 Anti-fly 2+ missile shots for good measure. Their tall stands give them good line of sight over the table, often letting them engage targets that would be safe from other guns. Being Aircraft, a lot of enemy units can't really interact with them at all, and those that can have to get through their 5+ Invulnerable saves and their blanket -1 on To Wound rolls inflicted on them. Plus, they can be used to hamper opponents' ability to move along the side of the table, as opposing units can't end a Move in Engagement range of them, and can't Charge them unless they have Fly. 

There are also a couple of small Ravenwing Black Knight squads to act as skirmishing units. With potentially up to 9 plasma shots that can be followed up by 9 power weapon attacks, they shouldn't have much trouble picking up most small units. 

This list is obviously not without melee threats either. There's Sammy, the Ravenwing Command Squad, and the Outriders that can be across the table and killing something in the opponent's deployment zone Turn 1 if they're not careful, and Lion Dad is perfectly capable of killing practically anything he touches. One cheeky idea is to park him between the two Nephilims' bases, making it impossible for opponents to engage him unless they can shoot out one of the Nephilims first, which some armies are going to struggle with. 

This is a Recon disposition list, so it needs some utility units. Jack has a Scout Squad, a pair of Invader ATVs, and a Land Speeder. The Invaders likely sit on the home and natural expansion objectives long enough to sticky them with Hunter's Trail and then scurry off to score Secondaries. The Land Speeder can pretty much be wherever Jack needs it to be, either through having its inherent 14" move, or by being picked up with Rapid Reappraisal and Deep Striking to wherever he needs it.

Jack went undefeated for 8 rounds! 1st round he mulched VirVec Death Guard (T&H) 100-36. 2nd round he drubbed Bridgehead+Mechanised Militarum (Recon) 100-64. 3rd round he had a close 93-84 against Wrath Dark Angels (Priority). 4th round he humbled Huron's Marauding Chaos Marines 95-75. 5th round he smoked Mont'ka T'au (Priority) 100-47. 6th round he battered VotLW+CoC Chaos Marines (Disrupt) 96-72. 7th round he squeaked a victory over Lions Custodes (T&H) 79-77. 8th round he scored a comfortable 90-71 against more Lions Custodes (T&H). Orks is what finally brought Jack's reign of terror to an end, with him suffering a humbling 57-95 against Blitz+Dread+Wreckas (Purge). Congratulations on 4th place Jack! That is the 0.4% bracket!

Pretty much all of the lists that went at least X/1 over last weekend were CoH+Darkflight lists, and last week was the last hurrah for those lists, so as this article is already a week late, I'm just going to review the one list.

Honorable Mentions

Oh boy, are there a doozy of these!

The following players went at least X/1 at the London Grand Tournament with CoH+Darkflight lists.

Will B went 8-1 and took 9th place.

Christopher Irvine went 6-1 and took 19th place

Alex Fowler and Many CL went 4-0-1 and took 30th and 34th, respectively.

The following players went 4-1, in order of their placing: Jay Seebarun, Louis Ballington, Theo Hayat, Leo Bilton, Guillaume Dusaussois, Toby Bennett, Sam Johnson, Sjoerd Reiche, Matt Pocock, Alan Percival, Chris Kerswell, and Chris Ward.

Robert Michell went 3-1-1.

Nathan Sears went 4-1 with a Gladius list. 

Paul Neuburger went 4-1 with an ICTF+Lib Con list.

Michael Boyle went 4-1 with a Dark Age Arsenal+Darkflight+Librarius Conclave list.

Jose Belda went 5-0 and took 2nd out of 86 at the Grand Pitounerie 2 Open 40k de Loire Atlantique.

Hannes Hofericter went 5-1 and took 4th out of 77 at the Hanseatic Alliance Open 2026.

Paul Clifton went 3-1-1 and took 6th out of 34 at the STC 40K GT - September 2026 with a CoH+Int Con list.

Morten Rønning went 4-1 and took 8th out of 77 at Saimaa GT 2026.

Pietro Monari went 4-1 and took 2nd out of 40 at The GOLDEN CREW III.

Topher Pierce went 3-1-1 and took 12th out of 70 at the New York Open: 40k.

Jonathan Chavez-Gonzales went 3-1-1 and took 10th out of 55 at Battle Under the Zia Sun II.

Brethren, I salute you!

Statistics

As I previously mentioned, there were literally 100 Dark Angels players over the weekend of 9/26, who played 493 games and won 271 of them, scoring a 56% win rate, a whopping 27 X/0-X/1 results, and 5 podium finishes. 

The London GT accounts for 64 of those players, who between them scored a 59% win rate, 21 of the X/0-X1 results, and 2 podium finishes. 

Similarly, 64 players played CoH+Darkflight lists, scoring a 63% win rate, 22 X/0-X/1 results, and 5 podium finishes. CoH+Darkflight continued its reign of dominance right up to the end.

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. I expect we'll start to see new combos emerging from this weekend. We'll see what our brethren come up with. Until next week my brethren. May your games be fun and victorious. For the Lion!