Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

HQ = Watch Captain Artemis

Troop

1 Veteran Sargent, stalker pattern bolt gun, storm shield, auspex
4 veterans 3 stalker pattern bolt guns, 2 stormshields 1 deathwatch fragcannon

1 Veteran Sargent, stalker pattern bolt gun, storm shield, auspex
4 veterans 3 stalker pattern bolt guns, 2 stormshields 1 deathwatch fragcannon
Elites

Vanguard veterans, 2 thunder hammers and stormshields, 3 dual lightin claws

Fast attack
4 bikers all base

Tell me what you think!

You can't give the Heavy Thunder Hammer Veterans Storm Shields.

First of all, I would try to take advantage of some of the formations in the Codex. The Blackspear Detachment is excellent, and although you do not have access to things like Objective Secured, as you would in a Combined Arms Detachment, the re-rolls and mobility you get could prove very useful.

Here's what I like about the list so far:

- Bikes. Twin-linked with special ammunition, these are awesome. Since you can take them in as little as units of 1 model, I would take advantage of that... I don't know what the sweet spot is, but perhaps 2 units of 2 in your case?

- Stalker pattern boltguns. These are tempting, and can be quite good, but keep in mind that they are still "heavy" weapons. Depending on how you deploy/bring on your models, you may be better off with regular boltguns at reduced range; especially if you're pairing them with other weapons of short -> 24" range (frag cannon, etc.)

- Watch Captain Artemis. What a cool model, and he's got that really awesome D bomb! Very fluffy, and probably the model that singlehandedly drove you to the army. You can make him work.


Ok, so now, how to adjust things...

First of all, I'd take the aforementioned detachment, or at least some formations. Artemis is your HQ, you need one killteam formation and one aux now to fill it out.

I would take a Corvus Blackstar. It provides a lot of horde control, which you'll need in the event that your army is purely Deathwatch, because of your low model count. They excel at killing high profile targets, and hordes... but you have to choose and not mix squads.

Don't overlook the Deathwatch Shotgun either. It's stock profile allows for some nice AP4 double-tapping... this is really good out of a pod (or deepstriking) and pairs well with the frag cannon IMO. They are also assault weapons, so you could pair up some melta bombs too to make that unit pretty versatile.

Also, a Venator Killteam is a good choice if you need to kill fast attack units (play against a lot of bikes, etc.) and with all bolters, it's a nice T5 special ammo unit. If you deepstrike it with this detachment, it's pretty cool.
Of course, the Furor Killteam is a staple, because you will ALWAYS fight troops... and Deathwatch are very good at killing most troops. My favorite Furor team make-up is one that ignores cover... so all templates. Shotguns, frag cannons, and a terminator with heavy flamer. It's brutal!

I would focus on some of the killteams, and trying to get more bodies and mobility on the table. Things like heavy thunderhammers, storm shields, etc. are all very expensive, and on an already small model count army must be taken in small batches, and on units with very specific reliable roles.

Try to think of some of the armies/units you may face... Scat Bikes for sure, Riptide, summoned demons, marines in rhinos/pods.. you have most of the tools to deal with a lot of these things, but you need to do it by using each unit to its fullest potential and optimizing their loadout accordingly. My general rule of thumb is... "How are they geared-up in the codex pictures/examples? Ok, that's exactly how I SHOULD NOT build them" haha I mean, when's the last time you saw all frag cannons and shotguns in a pod in the codex... all you see is power swords and plasma pistols lol!

Hope some of that helps!

Could you reccomes any lists I'm struggling to create my own

Added list suggestion below

Cheers dude

I have been struggling with making a good list of this as well.
The formations are helpful and give some variety.
Some things I noticed in the codex that may help:

With the normal veterans exchange the combat weapon with the shotgun.
That is an awesome weapon with the template, you have something for everything with the bolter and shotgun.
Gives you a great attack up-close and perform a charge (assault! weapon!)
Even receiving a charge would be deadly (for the enemy).
I can find no reason NOT to do this... it is just too good.

The bikes are awesome for one main rule: "split-fire".
Those irritating 1-2 man units they can peg-off while the main squad can focus on other things.
With the special ammo you could even pop the odd vehicle if opportunity presents itself.
Take a poke-shot at those irritating marker-light guys or that big bug with a ton of wounds.

The terminators with the missile launchers give a nice punch to add to your squads, fire at big strong stuff or tons of little hordes: it works for them all.
Takes a page from the SWs for mixed troops/termies which is helpful in this case.
Too bad they get no special... anything really.

The two new heavy weapons are great either way for "on the move" foot troops.
I am tempted to lean on the frag cannon for drop-pod or Rhino drive-by shooting.

I am unsure where I would use the jump troops rule for removing the penalty for a "disordered charge" but it would be useful if you kit-out that squad as a melee death-star.

The big hammers look very neat but only used on squishy power armor guys.
I am so tempted to hand those to a black shield guy but the points cost get to be enormous.
Most of this army benefits from long-range help, melee specialists (in quantity) seems like a waste of points.

Librarians are looking pretty good, fairly inexpensive guy you can assign to allies.

The new aircraft I cannot see it being helpful as troop transport unless starting on a landing pad: it will take too long to deploy passengers and could get blasted when hovering.
Fantastic anti-aircraft and "bomber" which rather surprised me.

The extra formation bonuses for wounding and to-hit is nothing to sneeze at but just seems like a weaker Imperial Fist special rule.

It is like a weird army of Sternguard with some Space Wolves rules thrown in for fun.

I have gone "all-in" with this army but cannot help thinking they are a great supporting allies army but little else.
I am going to paint up an Imperial Knight like a giant Deathwatch member (Black Templar on other plate), it just has to be done.
If one of those behemoths came knocking on their door, who is going to say no?

Well, it's certainly not easy to build a list at this point level lol... Deathwatch models get very expensive, very quickly.. Unfortunately, I was not able to build something under 1000 that really packed much of a punch.


Black Spear Strike Force

(Cmd.) Watch Captain Artemis

(Aux.) Corvus Dropship Wing
Covus Blackstar - blackstar rocket launcher, assault cannon

(Core) Furor Kill Team
Terminator - heavy flamer, power fist
Veteran (5) - shotgun x3, frag cannon x2

(Core) Purgatus Kill Team
Librarian - level 1, roll on divination
Terminator - cyclone missile launcher, power fist
Veteran (5) - stalker boltgun x5

(Core) Venator Kill Team
Bikes (2) - melta bombs x2
Veteran (5) - bolters x4, frag cannon x1


The only thing that stinks about this, is you're waiting til turn 2 and hoping everything comes in from reserves, deepstriking. If so, it will be a nice punch. If not... meh. Yeah I dunno. Solo Deathwatch army is really hard to make. I guess you could try all pods or something?

Turn 1, you get the Purgatus Kill Team in ruins somewhere and setup for sniping the enemy HQ's unit (remember, it's also fearless, and depending on what you roll for the libby, could have a nice cover or invuln save, or ignore cover, etc... all good options and difficult to remove). The other units are pretty self explanatory... The bikes and bolters unit deepstrike to pepper jetbikes/bikes with 2+ poison rounds and possibly splitfire the frag cannon (use the normal bodies to die off, eventually giving you a majority T5 unit towards the end... so they get stronger as they die lol pretty funny); the Furor Kill Team targets troops on an objective, in cover, because everything in that unit can ignore cover (artemis may be good here too); the corvus can carry something if you need it to, but otherwise serves as mobile horde control (it does a really really good job at this, and I find the auspex array isn't too necessary b/c of the templates you're using); Artemis can join whatever.. or ride in the blackstar. Any unit

it's a fun list, and has very focused units.. hopefully that helps a bit, although I know it's not quite 850 points. They're just so darn expensive!!

Cheers dude it's hard but I wanted to try it anyway, probably just go with my Dark Eldar the army I play best with