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Greetings, Dakkaites.

As the title suggests, I'm building a few squads and a couple of HQ's worth of Deathwatch marines for fun and to serve as allies for my Imperial Guard.

I'd like some opinions on how to arm the characters in the army, specifically the Sergeants, and the Deathwatch Captain I plan on building.

First, I plan on only having three sergeants or so for the entire army (three squads total) and I intend on the squads to all be shooting oriented.

Second, the Captain I would like to be more close combat oriented, while still being able to punch above his weight in shooting to a degree.

Here's how I plan on arming the squad Sergeants

Sergeant #1: Combimelta and Power Weapon (Sword) (Tactical squad w/ a Plasmagun in it, the Captain will typically attach to this squad)

Sergeant #2: Combimelta, Meltabombs and Chainsword (Tactical squad w/ a Plasmagun in it)

Sergeant #3: Combiplasma and Chainsword. (Sternguard squad w/ mostly bolters and a few combi-weapons sprinkled in, mostly plasma)

The Deathwatch captain, I plan on arming as follows:

Captain: Power Armor, Relic Blade, Plasma Pistol, Frag/Krak Grenades, and an Iron Halo. Might also put meltabombs on him as well, not sure. My main reason for arming him as this is that I want to take advantage of his slightly higher initiative while not spending the points on a burning blade (awesome, but makes him much more pricey vs. his current 130 point price) and also give him a means to help deal with a hard infantry target that may appear near him. No matter what, he'll likely be attached to a squad with at least one to two plasma weapons in it, so having the extra plasma shot isn't horrible. I thought about giving him a combiplasma, but I want him to be able to shoot prior to charging if need-be.

Anyone have any thoughts/critiques on this? I'm typically a Blood Angels player as far as marines go and am trying to do this as a side project while I wait on the new Blood Angles codex, so I want to be as efficient as I can be with the models I have, while still keeping the squads somewhat effective in shooting primarily, but also be able to have some extra teeth somewhere in case I need to get stuck in melee.

Thanks in advance for any feedback everyone.

Take it easy

-Red__Thirst-

For the captain, I'd go with an artificer armour, perhaps drop the meltabomb since he'll strike at Str6, which is rather decent for most vehicles, but a Meltabomb is always a good thing to have in a tight spot.

I run a Captain with a couple of 5 men scout squad, using Art. Armour, Relic Blade and a storm bolter; since he can't gain an extra attack with a pistol, might as well have a couple of shots at a decent range AND still be able to assault if need be.

Your squad upgrades appears to be a bit..all over the place; if you're aiming for a thematic, good job, but personally, I'd go with the same set-up for my Sgt; everyone with a melta bomb and/or with the same melee weapon (I'd go with a chainsword, since it is a 1 wound model, but that's me and since they are shooty oriented, no real need for a power weapon IMO)

Unless paired with a pistol/second ccw, that chainsword is useless. I'd keep the pistol in these cases, unless you're dead set on having them. You can still throw a grenade if you wish to assault if you do. You seem to have an unhealthy addiction to plasma, and are a bit odd with having a non complimentary cobiweapon. I would have one squad with plasma gun and combi plasma, and the other with meltagun and combimelta. I'll leave melee upgrades/melta bombs to taste, but would move the captain to the melta squad, as this is the unit with assault weaponry, so your points in plasma weaponry isn't wasted. Keeping in mind grenades are a thing, giving the captain a combi plasma is still viable and he can "shoot" before assaulting. Artificer armour is also very useful.

You could go for a real death watch feel and go unbound, (sadly this kind of mseeses up your IG)
and take 5-6 captains