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I was reading the ultramarines omnibus and in the 2nd book there was a squad of deathwatch.I have never come across them before.I gathered they are marines skilled at fighting xenos
Are they a militant arm of the ordo xenos,like the grey knights of the ordo malleus?
They seem to retain the marking of their chapter so its not a chapter like the grey knights?
Also the captain of the ultramarines said he served in the deathwatch so can marines just leave when they feel like it?
Wher can i get more info on them?
Any info would be great thanks

Deathwatch are the chamber militant of the Ordo Xenos.
They are a chapter comprised of marines from many different chapters.
Some are called up, some are sent (sometimes as punishment) and other volunteer.
They serve as kill-teams, acquiring artifacts or killing xenos leaders or capturing specimens.
They are equipped with some of the best stuff the Inquisition can give them. This includes prototypes and also adapted xenos weaponry.
They are also incredibly awesome.
Marines can leave when they want but usually they will stay for a while and return when it is convenient for the Inquisition or if their chapter has suffered heavy losses.

"Deathguard"? If you are referring to the Deathwatch (which I assume you do, as per your thread's title), then yes, they are essentially Marines skilled at fighting xenos.

They are the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos, much like the Grey Knights do it for the Malleus and Sisters Militant for the Hereticus.
In essence, it is not a real "Chapter" by itself but rather a coalition of usually Codex-adhering Chapters sworn to send their best men to serve a tour of duty in the Deathwatch, where they receive special equipment from the Inquisition's armouries (parts of which they get to keep as a reward for their service when they return to their Chapter). Said Deathwatch, organized into small ad-hoc "Kill Teams", operates under the aegis of the Inquisition (as can be seen on their heraldry), sometimes accompanying an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, other times being all on their own, yet other times you may even have a Deathwatch Marine as a team leader for "normal human" Ordo Xenos operatives. Usually it is seen as a great honour to be selected to serve a term in the Deathwatch.

White Dwarf and the 2003(?) Chapter Approved book had articles on the Deathwatch; you may be able to find something on the internets about it.

The board and card game company Fantasy Flight Games has also produced an entire licensed roleplaying game focused on the Deathwatch, although they do deviate from a lot of fluff that has been established by Games Workshop themselves (they are a Chapter of their own in there complete with own armouries and fleets, much larger, don't care which Chapters their recruits come from, operate independently from the Inquisition, etc).

[edit] Dammit, too slow.

They do sound very interesting.
So could I run a squad of deathwatch counting as pagk in my grey knights army if a had an ordo xenos inquisitor in the list?

Rocky1 wrote:They do sound very interesting.
So could I run a squad of deathwatch counting as pagk in my grey knights army if a had an ordo xenos inquisitor in the list?

Yeah pretty much...
All of the GK stuff could be replicated with technology...

A friend of mine decided to make up a unit of Deathwatch Sternguard Veterans for his army, they turned out quite well. There are Deathwatch pieces you could order from GW which included heads, shoulderpads and bolters.

Rocky1 wrote:They do sound very interesting.
So could I run a squad of deathwatch counting as pagk in my grey knights army if a had an ordo xenos inquisitor in the list?

Back when I briefly had Grey Knights, I planned to use Deathwatch Marines as Warrior Acolytes in Power Armour with Bolters for my Xenos Inquisitor, and SOB as the same for a Hereticus Inquisitor.

Sturmtruppen wrote:

Back when I briefly had Grey Knights, I planned to use Deathwatch Marines as Warrior Acolytes in Power Armour with Bolters for my Xenos Inquisitor, and SOB as the same for a Hereticus Inquisitor.

They are marines are they not?so they would be strength and toughness 4.I like the sisters idea though.

Rocky1 wrote:

Sturmtruppen wrote:

Back when I briefly had Grey Knights, I planned to use Deathwatch Marines as Warrior Acolytes in Power Armour with Bolters for my Xenos Inquisitor, and SOB as the same for a Hereticus Inquisitor.

They are marines are they not?so they would be strength and toughness 4.I like the sisters idea though.

With the current GK codex (I presume Sturmtruppen used the old one for some reason) it would be fine (probably a better idea) to use regular GK and call them Deathwatch marines.
Justsay they are using a type of bolter with a faster rate of fire.

Deathwatch Kill-Team members are best represented with Sternguard Veterans.

As Sterngaurd are practically a "copy-paste" of the Kill-Teams from the White Dwarf article.

A small research on Grey Knights actually yielded a bit of Deathwatch fluff I can link here without being slapped with the copyright bat.

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1320030_Inq_Rulebook_part_2.pdf

Scroll to "Deathwatch Battle Brother Artemis" in the "Characters" -> "Adeptus Astartes" section.
Yeah, yeah, it's not much. But hey.

If you are interested in using Deathwatch in your army there is an upgrade kit here. Bolters, shoulder pads & helms. They're in metal but...well, if you're just doing a squad it's a nice way to make them stand out with the silver shoulder pad & arm, not to mention the bolters with their shot selectors, each tiny magazine holding several specialised bolt rounds as well as the ones carried in the main magazine. Just a thought.

Isn't it almost certain that GW will also go the FFG way with this fluff? Probably with a Codex: Deathwatch release at some point (which you know would do really well!)... maybe as the 'new' army to kick 6th Ed off (as DE were for 3rd Ed)?

They wouldn't have let a licensee mess with their IP to that magnitude without approval (and FFG's fluff is considered official);

Having done so, they wouldn't want to risk FFG's wrath by releasing something from the Studio that goes, 'Nah, everything in the FFG Deathwatch major franchise is complete BS, lol!' (GW doing particularly well from its royalties payments, and FFG being no legal pushover that can be easily stomped by GW Legal);

Already laid the groundwork with GKs now being the whole Inquisition's Chamber Militant; and distancing the SoB from the Inquisition in the WD minidex (in the same way that DW can now be independent).

Soz if this has already been discussed to death, but I haven't seen any posts about this anywhere.

tsz52 wrote:They wouldn't have let a licensee mess with their IP to that magnitude without approval (and FFG's fluff is considered official)

They constantly allow Black Library authors to "get away" with all sorts of stuff, so why not? All that FFG has is a license to work with the franchise. They do not "own" it, and if GW doesn't want to follow their ideas they are in no position to be forced doing so.
As Gav Thorpe already said about BL novels, "if an author has a bit of a wobbly moment, there’s no pressure to feel that it has to be accepted into the worldview promulgated by the codexes and army books."

Actually, unless Kurgan (from the Bolter & Chainsword group who got to playtest GW and actually have a chat with the designers) was lying, they were explicitly told that FFG's RPG "wasn't canonical unless GW said so".

Don't get me wrong - of course we may still see a major "retcon" of the setting, it's just that I have yet to see it happen. And considering in how many small yet critical things they differ...
Starting with the two "classes" of weapons.

tsz52 wrote:Already laid the groundwork with GKs now being the whole Inquisition's Chamber Militant; and distancing the SoB from the Inquisition in the WD minidex (in the same way that DW can now be independent).

... I actually didn't catch the bit about the GK's now being in service to the Inquisition as a whole, so thanks for making me check up!
Interesting thread on B&C on the subject: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=226872

As for the Sisters of Battle, they always used to be "independent" (well, under command of the Ecclesiarch), so the WD minidex didn't really change anything. However, I too am curious now what this means for their Nephilim alliance with the Ordo Hereticus, as this wasn't even hinted at. Of course, it is worth noting that FFG's RPG still has them as a Chamber Militant, so regardless of whether the DW and SoB are still operating as per their established role or not, the RPGs are out of synch with the newest GW material either way.

Still, it may be too soon to draw conclusions for the Deathwatch. It is quite possible that they continue to exist alongside the GKs, and I honestly don't think it would make sense for the Inquisition to condone a Space Marine Chapter not under their explicit control to possess a huge fleet of Exterminatus-equipped, servitor-controlled droneships that cannot even be traced or detected by any of the Ordos. Where would they even get this sort of stuff from?

I'll admit that my belief is largely founded in my biased hope, for I do consider a number of FFG's writings to have "raped" the setting, to employ a nerdrage term.
For the moment, at least I still have Merrett's introductory speech in the DW book to cling to, where he mentions that the FFG team has pursued a number of "different ideas" than the guys at GW.

That being said, it may even be possible that GW has removed the Deathwatch from the setting - seeing as it is the only organization not mentioned at all in the 5E rulebook. Both the Grey Knights as well as the Sisters of Battle have an entry in the "Defenders of the Imperium" article of the book whilst the Deathwatch remain absent.
I've also taken a brief glance at the 5E Space Marine Codex, and there too only the Grey Knights are ever mentioned as a special case. Coincidence or part of a wider development?
I have to say, I would kind of miss the Deathwatch as the Ordo Xenos' Chamber Militant. The basic idea was cool - though I would rather see them removed than become completely independent.

tsz52 wrote:Soz if this has already been discussed to death, but I haven't seen any posts about this anywhere.

I don't think it actually has, so it may be high time this stuff is discussed.