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I hope there are more people like me who see Deathwatch as a potential fun and worth the time-investment board game.
I am familiar with the rules and have played the first mission with a friend.
I am looking for some insight concerning tactics for this game.
For example: if there are some marines who are better than others, who to take in each mission, is it generally best to move slowly and try to clean the board or rush forward etc...
For the cult player, thoughts on lurking, when are where to deploy most powerful models, how to choose gambit cards, possible combos etc..

Thanks in advance!

I know a no-no. Giving the Terminator's teleporter to the guy on the bike seems like a good idea. Until you read the fine print, and discover the Terminator teleports to the same zone as the bike. There are VERY few zones which can accommodate both.

When playing Deathwatch:
Choose your team wisely... If you need to be fast get the power pack guys, biker and space wolf, if you need to be hard hitting take Cassius, Imperial fist guy or termie
Weapons with a 3+ area special rule are great
Beware of the patriarch and the purestrains... and stay out of the magus combat range
Focus your fire in the most threatening foes
Heal yourself whenever possible


When playing genestealer cult:
Running instead of attacking is a great tactic to block and overwhelm your enemy
Keep your hard hitting badies (patriarch&purestrains) safe
If you wound a marine focus yor atttacks on him before he has the chance to heal himself


At least this kind of works for me...

Anyway, this is a fun game, and I think it's better to play 2-3 fast missions at a faster pace than just 1 mission being uber tactical.... Then again I like charging with IG just for the sake of it

We've been working through the campaign, and it seems like maybe things are stacked against the Marines?
1 = DW win
2-4 = GSC wins (4 on turn 2!)

Last couple games, I've been running the GSC, and splitting dudes off to clog and pin the DW to brutal effect.

I know for sure Scenario One is for fun (well, for learning the game). And, for giving the Marines a false sense of hope. Two and Three are nightmarish.

Marines die a death of a thousand cuts. Especially isolated Marines. They need to stick together, and choose targets wisely. It's standard military tactics: local superiority, concentrated firepower. And, keep moving. Because the Cult has unlimited reinforcements. Marines are on the clock. And, must ALWAYS play for the mission. Keep eyes on the prize. All of which is easier said that done. Killing Xenos is fun, right up to losing the game.

Genestealer Cult attacks like hyenas fighting lions. Pick a straggler or an isolated Marine and wear him down. The right Gambits at the right time can be sweet! The Powers of the Magus and Primus are situational, which means use them to best effect when the opportunity presents itself. Nothing in the Cult is NOT expendable. But, waste not, want not. Oh, and remember, this is a game that is built around "impossible odds." A lot of failures, and a very few successes. You succeed via statistics. If you take enough shots, you will statistically get "lucky" often enough to succeed. In other words, the one-in-a-million shot is NOT a lucky shot, if you take a million shots. It's an average shot.

Stats-wise, it seems the GSC just wants to get lucky, whereas the DW can't afford to be unlucky.

Also, there seems to be a lot of metagaming required of the DW player to win various scenarios.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
it seems the GSC just wants to get lucky.

GSC is up all night to get lucky!

Forgive me, because some of these guys I don't keep track of their names.

Cassius is a pretty good character. He is one of two characters with armor save of 2+ and he gets to roll multiple dice at assault range. His special ability to allow marines on the same board section as him to reroll 1s for assault range attacks is particularly potent when combined with the Lightning Claw Guy, but is useful all around.

The Terminator is potent. He has that sweet 2+ armor save. He also gets two attacks each phase, one with his flamer and the other with his fist/melta. The flamer makes him good at dealing with swarms, while the fist/melta at assault range makes him a Magus/Primus/Aberrant slayer. The only drawback is his movement of 1. His teleporter is super handy, and there are different strategies for who should carry it. Never give it to Motorcycle Dude as it will be a complete waste there. My preferred options are: Cassius because he has a strong chance to survive long enough for the porter to be useful, Redblade (Mohawk chainsword dude) because of his high situational mobility, or one of the two jump pack guys Lightning Claw Guy or Jumpy Chainsword Guy for their mobility. He's excellent for blocking off narrow areas.

Redblade (Mohawk Chainsword Dude) is a very simple but effective character. His three dice at assault range with Rend make him very potent there, and he can have a single die all the way out to maximum range. He has the option for blast fire, and while this isn't very effective for him, it is still an option. His special ability is the prize, where he gets to run and then attack. This allows him to be in optimal position nearly every time. Redblade is direct, just have him wade in and start slashing. But he can also be a decent sniper. He's your best skirmisher by far.

Motorcycle Dude is one of the better characters in the game. He's good at all ranges, and has multiple dice at assault and combat range. The problem is that he doesn't have Rend. His blast attack makes up for it somewhat. His high mobility is sometimes tricky to use, and his unremarkable jump range (assault) is the big hindrance here. Another drawback is that he often has to be the only guy in the zone. But the silver lining is that he can be placed at ambush points and block spawns all by himself. His special ability of revealing an ambush during the movement phase can help you prevent the Genestealer player from dropping some nasty spawns in the middle of your formation. He's a strong all arounder, capable of mob control and some anti-boss. He's pretty good at killing Purestrain Genestealers since he rolls a lot of dice.

Mister Double Shot /The Other Ultramarine is another solid but unremarkable character. He has excellent hit numbers and all range ability. He has a little bit of blast ability, but like Mohawk Chainsword Dude it's not terribly effective. His main draw is that he can attack twice at all ranges and usually hits on a 2+. He's good at picking stuff off. When in the center of the board he can shoot at nearly everything. Use him after your blast characters have done their part to clean up any stragglers which the blasts have missed. He's the best sniper in the game.

Frag Cannon Dude is a strong character. He is the second best blast character in the game (after the Terminator). His ability to use blast with low target numbers at up to maximum range is extremely powerful. His direct single target ability seems impressive with multiple dice, but his high target numbers and lack of cleave or rend make him far less effective than you'd think. His ability to reroll 1s at combat and max range is helpful but not as powerful as you'd expect either. He's best laying down blasts at big ranges against packed zones of genestealer hybrids. His other weakness is he needs to stay away from the frontline. He sucks as soon as he has to use his assault range attacks. He's pretty good at killing Purestrain Genestealers because of the dice he can chuck at them.

Jumpy Chainsword Guy is pretty useful, but with a very unreliable special ability. As a jumpy guy, he can move 3 zones or jump combat range. The usefulness of his jump is going to depend on how you handle that movement type in your game, but the 3 zone movement is pretty good. Combat wise he merely has 2 dice at assault range with rend, which is effective but not outstanding. He also has a blast ability up to combat range in the form of a flamer, and this is very useful. In fact, his flamer is more useful than his chainsword attack. The catch is that he has the Blood Rage special ability. If he rolls doubles when attacking with his chainsword, he loses his flamer attack and his chainsword attack becomes 4 dice for the rest of the game. With the flamer at his default he is more effective than the chainsword, but if you can get the Blood Rage to trigger then he will be a blender in combat. Do you gamble that your number will come up? Pre-Blood Rage he's a clear second tier character which typically gets used for mop up. Post Blood Rage he would be good for crowd control and anti-boss. I've only gotten him to Rage once, and he immediately died, so in my games he is usally a janitor to help with an odd flamer blast or clean up when others don't quite get rid of everything.

Lighting Claw Guy is a close combat only character. Mobility wise, he is the same as Jumpy Chainsword Guy. Attack wise, he is an assault character with 2 dice on 2+. He lacks rend, but he does have cleave. Keep him on the same board as Cassius and the Magus and Primus cannot survive him. He has a special ability where he cannot be targeted outside of Combat range, but it's mostly useless. Keep him in reserve until a Magus or Primus is on the board and use him to kill the 4th gen scum. He's also pretty handy to pick off Aberrants.

Hood Dude has cleave and rend, but he only gets two attack dice at close range. He's not good at crowd control, but he's very close to being as good as Lightning Claw guy at anti-boss. Most of the time you'll use him as a somewhat crummy sniper, but when Primuses/Maguses/Familiars/Aberrants/pistol hybrids are around they are pretty much doomed against him. His special ability to stay in play through the second Deathwatch phase when killed means he almost always can take down a Magus or Primus before he croaks.

Librarian Guy isn't too great. How good he is will depend on you rolling good for his special ability at the start of each turn, because that way he gets multiple attacks. So, don't forget that roll! After all the others, he's just kind of blah. He's just a sub-par mop up/sniper character. He's a good guy to put on point and take the first hit. In other words, he's a pawn to protect your more important guys.

Cyborg Dude is another weak character, who relies on a finicky special ability. IIRC, he has a cleave attack which makes him good for dealing with Aberrants or not dealing with too much hassle from pistol hybrids. He's just another mop up/sniper character. However, he has a bit more useful special ability than the Librarian, particularly in his role of being a protecting pawn. Cyborg Dude gets a save AFTER his armor save. He is the only marine character to get a save against Cleave attacks. It's a 5+, but it's something. It makes him the only character who has any kind of chance to escape from Purestrain Genestealers or the Patriarch unscathed. It's a slim to none chance, but a chance nonetheless.

In terms of general strategy, any of the Genestealer units with Cleave should be your absolute first targets. If it's a choice between killing 10 hybrids or 1 Purestrain Genestealer, kill the Genestealer. When they have cleave, you don't get a saving throw. When they have multiple attack dice and cleave, you are dead. When confronted by Purestrain Genestealers, Aberrants with Picks, or Mining Lasers do not suffer the Xenos to live. Devote all of your attention to making them dead, because if you don't you will lose a marine.

How effective jumping is depends on how you rule it. The book says you measure from your model to the destination and that's it. However, another section says during movement you can shift your dudes within a zone for free without counting as movement. So the house rule is, can you shift your guy before and after jumping or not? I recommend allowing the shift, because the later missions become flatly impossible if it's literally from untouched base starting position and no shifting after the jump is completed.

If any of your marines are wounded on second attack phase, it's a good rule of thumb to heal them. Healing them means they won't run the risk of immediate death if they have to jump in your next movement phase. Plus, you're going to get to attack with them again before the Genestealer player attacks anyway.

Fighting the Patriarch is total luck. Use the motorcycle dude to foil his spawn, or try to keep a jump between him and your marines. If you have to fight him, all you can do is try to get the most dice possible against him and hope for the best (because cleave doesn't work and his save rivals yours). As soon as the Patriarch gets within assault range of your marines, at least one will die. He is the absolute most dangerous thing to you and must be killed as soon as possible.

Similarly, do everything you can to prevent familiars in the zone with the Magus. It will not end well for you.

Nice write-up.

Me, I really dislike the Terminator, because he's slow AF, and most of the game is about moving. If he could Run & Shoot, he'd be acceptable for total M3 each turn.

The Dark Angel is awful. His power is weak, and he's not a powerhouse without it.

Metal Foot is similarly unimpressive. If I'm in a position where I'm needing his power, it's not good.

The Librarian, Space Wolf, Lightning Claw, BA JP and double-tap guys are all good.

The Genestealer card game has some really mean gambits. The 2+ no-save Gambit is awesome. As is the ability to put a card of dudes anywhere. That's fantastic to pin SMs down.

And the other side, the Genestealer Cult.

I haven't played the Genestealer side, but there are a few thoughts I have about playing them from fighting against them.

Move your guys. Even one surviving hybrid can lock down a whole tile of marines. Also try to spread your guys out. As a marine, I love seeing 5 autogun hybrids on a tile within flamer range.

You want numbers on the board. If there's a choice between a powerful unit and numbers, in the early game go with numbers. You are trying to create a situation where the marine player can't clear the board. If even a single hybrid survives the marines' two attack phases, you have made progress that round. Your goal is to keep your numbers on the board growing. Every turn you should have a few more guys than the last turn. The lone exception is the Patriarch. If you can spawn him early and keep him alive, then you've won.

There are a few nasty gambits which I hate to see.

The first is the one that heals a unit. When this is played on the Patriarch, it is utterly demoralizing from the marine side. It is so hard to hurt the Patriarch and to see that effort erased and the Patriarch still get a turn is really painful.

The second is the one that lets all ambushes move on the same turn placed. This one can be extremely dangerous with the right ambushes played.

Another one that hurts is the gambit that lets a killed unit return to the board. This is a card for the Patriarch or Purestrain Genestealer to use.

Of course, one of the nastiest is the one that makes it so all units on a tile require 6+ to be hit.

Without examining the cards, I imagine all these nasty gambits are on the Genestealer player's more powerful units. Without the big boys, it's not worth playing the card, and playing it as an ambush means you have to wait for it to come up in the deck again.

I think the trick is deploying the big bads as early in the game as possible and as far from the marines as possible, then churning the deck until the desired gambits come up again.

In terms of who to target on, go for the guys with blast and rend. The Terminator and the Frag Cannon guy can easily wipe out two whole ambush zones a phase. Jumpy Chainsword Guy is also pretty good at clearing zones, and Redblade can also do his share. Pick someone and lay fire into them until they're dead. If you're on the last mission though, your priorities slightly change. On the last mission you want to slaughter any marine with multiple dice at assault range.

Spawn autopistol hybrids near the marines. Spawn autogun hybrids further away. If you need something to distract, use pick armed Aberrants or Purestrain Genestealers as the marine player cannot ignore them. Your to hit numbers suck, so you need lots of bodies to roll lots of dice. Remember that spreading your fire before killing a marine is just wasting your time as the marine player will merely heal.

In most of the scenarios, the marines have to move. If you can prevent a marine from moving forward, or better yet prevent him from jumping, then your guy has done his job even if he dies in the first combat phase.

Really interesting write up here. I haven't had a chance to play yet. Young baby and all that. But I had expected it to be a one way street for the marines but glad that it sound quite tactical.
How effective is the mining laser for the gsc?

We played through the entire campaign at my old FLGS a few months back. First 3-4 missions were essentially the DW's to lose in our case. After that it was roller coaster to the basement for the marines. The final mission is extremely insane with the marines starting wounded and the patriarch being untouchable at range while psychic lightning bolts can rain down on the marines.

We had a lot of fun but it seemed like both side had a couple/three missions they owned outright.

I find the Mining Laser to be a great distraction, whereas the Purestrain kills dudes outright.

Mining Laser is like nearly all the GSC's weapons, it hardly ever hits. However, unlike the others, when it does hit it's automatically damage.

I think the first 5 missions are overwhelmingly weighted in favor of the Deathwatch player. I did lose one of those missions (one with a long hallway), but I felt that was because my dice started rolling unbelievably bad rather than any bias of the scenario.

Mission 6 is a very good one. If you're only going to play one mission, it's the one to go with.

Mission 7 seems OK, but the GSC player has to drop a marine very early for it to be a balanced mission.

Mission 8 is ludicrously weighted in favor the the Deathwatch player. If the GSC player doesn't have good draws the first turn, you might as well go ahead and say the Deathwatch player won.

Mission 9 is surprisingly easy for the Deathwatch player. It is a nail biter, but it seems a bit weighted to the Deathwatch player by default.

Keep in mind that my notes here are all based on playing the missions without the campaign rules in force. I'm sure that using the campaign rules will help a bit by distracting the Deathwatch player with the long game.

For us, the missions went:
1 - DW easy win
2 - GSC tough win
3 - GSC easy
4 - GSC trivial win on turn 2!

If course, we were playing with the campaign rules, so the DW for 2 can't be in 1, and the DW for 4 can't be in 2. Also the campaign bonuses (GSC got bonus card in 3 & 4).