It’s been a hot minute since I last did a hobby post on here. Lately the groups have travelling to various events, and only really posting about the ones we’ve either ran or attended. But there’s a New Year coming along, and within the first few weeks of 2025 we’ll be at Throne of Skulls. And I want to redo my Dark Angels from the ground up. So, let’s dig into this.

Rebuilding from the Start

Where Did it Begin?

Originally, back when Book 6: Retribution was released, I was building a Dark Angels force around the Ironwing Protocol Rite of War. At the time it was a simple way of working; I had lots of Tactical marines from the various kits that came with the Calth set, as well as some Dreadnoughts and a few choice items from Forgeworld. The Ironwing Protocol had a couple of restrictions, but the biggest was that half the units in your army had to be vehicles, specifically Tanks. You wanted a Tactical squad; you needed to take a Tank. You wanted a Contemptor Dreadnought; you needed to take a tank to balance the slot used. And considering most Tanks were either Dedicated Transports or were sitting in the Heavy Support slot, it made building up the army a bit more difficult. The meant you ended up with some interesting setups like (a very rough rendition of an early list I played):

• Praetor
• Command Rhino
• Destroyers with a Land Raider
• Multiple Tactical Squads in Rhinos
• Multiple Dreadnoughts
• Whirldwind Scorpius
• Single Sicaran Omega.

And this list had its own challenges, ignoring that we didn’t have the Lion or Inner Circle Knights Cenobium to be able to do the standard Primarch Deathball of the edition. You’d end up in a bit of a car-park, all the tanks jostling to get past each other and being stuck. Especially if any of them were ever immobilised, which is still a common problem even now.

Where Is it Going?

Back to the beginning, though that wasn’t the original plan. Originally, I’d wanted to build into the current Deathwing Rite of War. The one that adds an Objective Marker to the middle of the game that gives you opponent free VP if you don’t control it. It’s a fun idea, and would have used the new Despoiler kit a lot as I’d have built a melee heavy army for it. But stock concerns and time not being on my side meant I’ve had to pivot back to a revision of the Ironwing. In comes the Steel Fist of the Legion.

The Steel Fist

First let us take a look at the list that I’m playing for the opening months of 2025:

# HQ 
Knight-Captain Savuriel [150pts]:  
Ironwing, Marshal of the Crown  
Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer, Combi-Bolter  
Cataphractii Command Squad [220Pts]: Ironwing  
1x Cataphractii Standard Bearer w/Melee Weapon: Legion Standard, Thunder Hammer  
3x Cataphractii Chosen: Thunder Hammer, Combi-Bolter  
Land Raider Proteus Carrier [250pts]: Ironwing  
2x Sponson Mounted Gravis Lascannon, Twin-linked Lascannon, Magna Combi-Weapon - Plasma Gun, Searchlights  

Epistolary Kadiel [125Pts]:   
Deathwing, Esoterist (Psychic Discipline: Anathemata)  
Psychic Hood, Chainsword. Force Sword, Meltabombs, Artificer Armour 

# Elites   
Apothecarion Detachment [210Pts]:  
3x Apothecary [70Pts]: Ironwing  
3x Bolt Pistol, Calibanite Warblade, Artificer Armour  

Herald of Twilight: Kratos Squadron [430Pts]:   
Ironwing  
Kratos Battlecannon (AP Shells, Flashburn Shells, HE Shells), 2x Lascannon Sponsons, 2x Hull Mounted Heavy Bolters  
Dozer Blade, Flare Shield, Searchlights  
Decurion Locus (Nuncio-Vox)  

# Heavy Support 
Sword of Caliban: Sicaran Venator Squadron [215Pts]:   
Ironwing  
Neutron Beam Laser, Smoke Launchers, Heavy Bolter, 2x Lascannons Sponsons, Searchlights  
 
# Troops 
Despoiler Squad Vargas [165pts]:  
Ironwing  
Sergeant: Bolt Pistol, Calibanite Warblade, Artificer Armour, Meltabombs  
2x Despoiler: Bolt Pistol, Power Sword  
1x Despoiler: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Legion Vexilla  
1x Despoiler: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Nuncio-Vox  
5x Despoilers: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword  
Land Raider Proteus Carrier [250pts]: Ironwing  
2x Sponson Mounted Gravis Lascannon, Twin-linked Lascannon, Magna Combi-Weapon - Plasma Gun, Searchlights  

Despoiler Squad Anahel [165pts]:  
Ironwing  
Sergeant: Bolt Pistol, Calibanite Warblade, Artificer Armour, Meltabombs  
2x Despoiler: Bolt Pistol, Power Sword  
1x Despoiler: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Legion Vexilla  
1x Despoiler: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Nuncio-Vox  
5x Despoilers: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword  
Land Raider Proteus Carrier [250pts]: Ironwing  
2x Sponson Mounted Gravis Lascannon, Twin-linked Lascannon, Magna Combi-Weapon - Plasma Gun, Searchlights  

Tactical Squad Elias [165pts]:   
Ironwing  
Sergeant: Chain Bayonet, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Power Fist, Artificer Armour  
7x Legionary: Chain Bayonet, Bolt Pistol, Bolter  
1x Legionary: Chain Bayonet, Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Legion Vexilla  
1x Legionary: Chain Bayonet, Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-Vox  
Rhino Transport [70Pts]: Ironwing  
Smoke Launchers, Twin-linked Bolter, Multi-Melta, Searchlights

Vengeance of the Lion: Predator Squadron [315Pts]:   
Ironwing  
2x Executioner Plasma Destroyer, 2x Heavy Bolters, Magna Combi-Weapon - Plasma Gun   
Dozer Blade, Searchlights  
[2980]

Three Land Raiders, Two Plasma Predators, One Kratos, One Sicaran, One Rhino. And enough bodies to fill them out with. It wasn’t intentional that I’d end up meeting the same restrictions as the 1st Edition’s Ironwing Rite of War, and yet I have done. From the few pictures I’ve shared here it’s not all finished and ready for the tabletop either.

How Does It Play?

It depends. The list itself has only had the one game so far, on a terrain heavy board that meant I couldn’t bring the various amounts of Plasma and Blast Template death to bear on big blocks of Blackshield infantry. In theory we want to opt for Night Fighting to protect our tanks by inflicting the -1 BS on enemy shooting. Augury Scanners and our own Searchlights mean we’re not really getting the benefits of the maximum range penalty, but in an edition where people will favour the Lascannon so much that extra -1 to be hit goes a long way. It has enough big gun shooting, between the Land Raiders and the Venator, to put some serious damage on anything Knight sized¹. The big risk however is being immobilised. There are no Techmarines to attacks treads back onto tanks, and getting blocked inside a deployment zone is a huge risk with this kind of skew list.

What Needs to be Done?

Most of this list is painted, weathered, based and varnished. The small list to finish include:

• The Kratos
• Both Predators²
• 10 Tactical Marines
• Rhino
• Savuriel himself

These should be completed over the next month, and with the Christmas break coming up there should be a reasonable amount of quiet time to be able to just sit and paint. Next update after the pre-Christmas game. And a guide on how I do the Martian Dust style bases.