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Looking at the Kill Team and wondering if many Deathwatch Kill Teams have such a stereotyped roster?
Cassius the Matt Ward Ultramarine.
Gydrael the Plas/Sword Dark Angel.
Donatus the stalwart Ultramarine.
Redblade the boastful Space Wolf.
Setorax the assassin Ravenguard.
Branatar the pyro Salamander.
Delassio the flying vampire Blood Angel.
Natorian the vampire mage Blood Raven.
Sorrlock the flesh is weak Iron Hand.
Suberei the biker White Scar.
Grytt the big guns Imperial Fist.

Asking about both BL fluff and your own army narratives here - are they stereotyped, thrown together haphazardly, chosen or fatebound?

The characters in that Kill Team are deliberately chosen to be exemplars of their particular Chapters.

The Space Wolf / Dark Angel combination is likely to be popular as that adds intra-party friction. I don't know what other teams have been described in the FFG RPG, but there's an example of an Astral Claws Watch Captain (possibly post0dating the Badab War, but I'm not sure).

My Kill Team was chosen from what models and shoulder pads I had to hand.

Blood Ravens aren't vampire-y... They are more like bloody Magpies.

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:
Blood Ravens aren't vampire-y... They are more like bloody Magpies.

European or Australian?
I know about their heavy psyker ranks but I thought they were an Angels successor.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
The characters in that Kill Team are deliberately chosen to be exemplars of their particular Chapters.

The Space Wolf / Dark Angel combination is likely to be popular as that adds intra-party friction. I don't know what other teams have been described in the FFG RPG, but there's an example of an Astral Claws Watch Captain (possibly post0dating the Badab War, but I'm not sure).

My Kill Team was chosen from what models and shoulder pads I had to hand.

Oddly enough, mine too. More Blood Angels, Dark Angels and of course, Space Wolves than there really should be.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:
Blood Ravens aren't vampire-y... They are more like bloody Magpies.

European or Australian?
I know about their heavy psyker ranks but I thought they were an Angels successor.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
The characters in that Kill Team are deliberately chosen to be exemplars of their particular Chapters.

The Space Wolf / Dark Angel combination is likely to be popular as that adds intra-party friction. I don't know what other teams have been described in the FFG RPG, but there's an example of an Astral Claws Watch Captain (possibly post0dating the Badab War, but I'm not sure).

My Kill Team was chosen from what models and shoulder pads I had to hand.

Oddly enough, mine too. More Blood Angels, Dark Angels and of course, Space Wolves than there really should be.

They are Thousand Sons successors. Maybe...

I get that Deathwatch marines are supposed to be cliches....uh, I mean exemplars of their chapter's ideal or whatever, but getting some examples of the non-ideals on the tabletop would be nice too. There's gotta be at least one dude in the Salmander's going "yeah, I know fire and hitting stuff with hammers is fun and all, but did you know we have other weapons, right?" Like, have a guy who's mastered the missile launcher, or the lascannon, or uses a stalker bolter. Anything but another flamer or melta.

The Deathwatch novel by Steve Parker touches on this. The marines sent up to the deathwatch are typically outstanding individual marines but there's a variety of reasons they could be sent out. Perhaps a squad captain has noticed a battle brother overdue for promotion but chaffes with his sergeant, or favours close combat too much, or had some kind of censure in the past that they can't technically let him off on; offering him secondment to the deathwatch would afford him an opportunity the receive the honour he would need to advance with the added bonus to the chapter of all the legitimate experience he would gain in the process, ironing out his imperfections and returning with a wider breadth of experience and an appreciation for the bigger picture.

Killteam Talon has an Ultramarine who is exceptionally gifted at scout tactics and sniping, but believes he's omni-competent because of his over reliance on the codex; a 'short' Imperial Fist who has a knack for tech, vehicle operation, heavy weapons and ripping stuff apart with his bare hands; and a lamenter dreadnought who is always belligerent. They're lead by a Death Spectres librarian, his second in command is an exorcist who is only there to act as a soul-guard for him.

Exorcist? I've never come across that term in 40k before, it's strange because demonic possession is a thing.

Exorcists are a marine chapter.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Exorcists

 chromedog wrote:
Exorcists are a marine chapter.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Exorcists

Oh.
Never heard of them either.

Got mentioned as far back as late 3rd ed (connection with GK) in the DH codex, I think.

 Battlegrinder wrote:
I get that Deathwatch marines are supposed to be cliches....uh, I mean exemplars of their chapter's ideal or whatever, but getting some examples of the non-ideals on the tabletop would be nice too. There's gotta be at least one dude in the Salmander's going "yeah, I know fire and hitting stuff with hammers is fun and all, but did you know we have other weapons, right?" Like, have a guy who's mastered the missile launcher, or the lascannon, or uses a stalker bolter. Anything but another flamer or melta.

It seems like everyome in the Salamanders is a master smith with a flamethrower, except in actual Salamander armies where it's only about 7%. It was really nice when the Baden war Salamanders Captain was a master duelist equipped with a sword, and not some flame + hammer guy. However, it is still very unusual to see a raven guard character without a jump pack and probable lightning claws. It's a bit too bad, but this is branding. There ought to be multiple bolter and recon marines, and from successor chapters. Oh well.

Forge World do one with a thunder hammer. Although he does have a jump pack.

The first deathwatch team sent to Ghosar in the backstory to the Overkill game includes a Novamarine, a Howling Griffon, a Flesh Tearer and a Crimson Fist.

For those interested, they made rules for those guys- in order:
stalker bolter
shotgun
power sword/bolter
infernus
also- White consuls: maul/shield

pelicaniforce wrote:

 Battlegrinder wrote:
I get that Deathwatch marines are supposed to be cliches....uh, I mean exemplars of their chapter's ideal or whatever, but getting some examples of the non-ideals on the tabletop would be nice too. There's gotta be at least one dude in the Salmander's going "yeah, I know fire and hitting stuff with hammers is fun and all, but did you know we have other weapons, right?" Like, have a guy who's mastered the missile launcher, or the lascannon, or uses a stalker bolter. Anything but another flamer or melta.

It seems like everyome in the Salamanders is a master smith with a flamethrower, except in actual Salamander armies where it's only about 7%. It was really nice when the Baden war Salamanders Captain was a master duelist equipped with a sword, and not some flame + hammer guy. However, it is still very unusual to see a raven guard character without a jump pack and probable lightning claws. It's a bit too bad, but this is branding. There ought to be multiple bolter and recon marines, and from successor chapters. Oh well.

It's hard not to fall into it as well - I was looking through my Deathwatch stuff and realised three out of my six jumping claw dudes are Raven Guard, the other three are a Blood Angel, a Space Wolf and an Ultramarine.
Thankfully the Bikers only have one Dark Angel and one White Scar - the Scar is the one from Kill Team Cassius.

What's stereotyped is having so many first founding chapters in one Kill-Team. Realistically, you'd only have one, maybe two first founding marines in a Kill-Team, with the rest being later founding.

jareddm wrote:
What's stereotyped is having so many first founding chapters in one Kill-Team. Realistically, you'd only have one, maybe two first founding marines in a Kill-Team, with the rest being later founding.

This bugs me now that you've pointed it out.

Never even thought of that. Well spotted.

Indeed. It's not out of the norm to have marines doing what they specialize in, and you'd probably only bring marines into the deathwatch that actually specialize (if the DW had a choice at least). The first founding part is the weird part there, most kill teams would not have that mix, but then again just about every single kill team would have a different mix given how many chapters are around.

Think you guys are overthinking it-- they're just most of the high-profile/iconic chapters.

They could've picked something obscure like the Mantis Warriors and maybe even gotten people a little interested in something like that, but I think it was largely a combination of the iconic ones and drawing in people who have a favorite (major) chapter.

Think about the only big one that isn't primarily FW's domain that's been left out is Black Templars.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:
Blood Ravens aren't vampire-y... They are more like bloody Magpies.

European or Australian?

 Battlegrinder wrote:
I get that Deathwatch marines are supposed to be cliches....uh, I mean exemplars of their chapter's ideal or whatever, but getting some examples of the non-ideals on the tabletop would be nice too. There's gotta be at least one dude in the Salmander's going "yeah, I know fire and hitting stuff with hammers is fun and all, but did you know we have other weapons, right?" Like, have a guy who's mastered the missile launcher, or the lascannon, or uses a stalker bolter. Anything but another flamer or melta.

That's the way GW has gone. Resulting in stupid all bike white scar army when core of white scars is actually tac marines in rhino's...

Well, chapters have favourings and talents. All White Scars are expected to perfect their biking, jump packs are heavily favoured in Raven Guard and Blood Angels, flame and hammers in Sallies. If a Captain has a taste, he probably trains his troops in the same fashion.

Deathwatch is about using each Marine to his best. It would be silly not to give the White Scar, who has been training as a biker his whole career even if he's a devastator or whatever, a bike and let him use his superior skill with it to advantage. Likewise, most Marines probably pick gear they feel best with. Sallies heavily favour fire so the Sally would pick Flamers. THe IF, who'se chapter focuses on heavy firepower (simplified stereotype version), would pick up a big gun, and the Raven Guard would pick gear that Shrike and many others, including his Primarch, liked, and was likely trained heavily in during his career.

 Deadshot wrote:
Well, chapters have favourings and talents. All White Scars are expected to perfect their biking, jump packs are heavily favoured in Raven Guard and Blood Angels, flame and hammers in Sallies. If a Captain has a taste, he probably trains his troops in the same fashion.

Deathwatch is about using each Marine to his best. It would be silly not to give the White Scar, who has been training as a biker his whole career even if he's a devastator or whatever, a bike and let him use his superior skill with it to advantage. Likewise, most Marines probably pick gear they feel best with. Sallies heavily favour fire so the Sally would pick Flamers. THe IF, who'se chapter focuses on heavy firepower (simplified stereotype version), would pick up a big gun, and the Raven Guard would pick gear that Shrike and many others, including his Primarch, liked, and was likely trained heavily in during his career.

The issue being you're still assuming they're all like that, when they're not. Sure, salamanders like fire and hitting stuff with hammers, but that means they might have, like, 1 or 2 more guys per squad with one of those vs a normal chapter, and everyone else is just another dude with a bolter. Ditto fists (and really, if you want a chapter focused on heavy firepower you're looking for Star Phantoms), and Ravens, sure they have more guys like that than the norm, but not all of them are like that. And yet for some reason that's all we get in the death watch kits.

 Russell's teapot wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:
Blood Ravens aren't vampire-y... They are more like bloody Magpies.

European or Australian?

Since I don't see him hoarding shiny stuff I'm going to assume swooping like Aussie Magpies..

 Battlegrinder wrote:
The issue being you're still assuming they're all like that, when they're not. Sure, salamanders like fire and hitting stuff with hammers, but that means they might have, like, 1 or 2 more guys per squad with one of those vs a normal chapter, and everyone else is just another dude with a bolter. Ditto fists (and really, if you want a chapter focused on heavy firepower you're looking for Star Phantoms), and Ravens, sure they have more guys like that than the norm, but not all of them are like that. And yet for some reason that's all we get in the death watch kits.

The reason is Fluff and to give DW some character.

The Charter for Deathwatch is that every Spacemarine Chapter must provide One of their best to do a Tour of Duty, as a member of the Deathwatch, learn more about Xenos threats so that once their tour is over (presuming they survive) they can return to their chapter and pass on this acquired knowledge. Now in Stories about Spacemarines, generally all the main characters that are considered the best of their chapter normally embody that chapters stereotype. So why would it be different here?

GodDamUser wrote:

 Battlegrinder wrote:
The issue being you're still assuming they're all like that, when they're not. Sure, salamanders like fire and hitting stuff with hammers, but that means they might have, like, 1 or 2 more guys per squad with one of those vs a normal chapter, and everyone else is just another dude with a bolter. Ditto fists (and really, if you want a chapter focused on heavy firepower you're looking for Star Phantoms), and Ravens, sure they have more guys like that than the norm, but not all of them are like that. And yet for some reason that's all we get in the death watch kits.

The reason is Fluff and to give DW some character.

The Charter for Deathwatch is that every Spacemarine Chapter must provide One of their best to do a Tour of Duty, as a member of the Deathwatch, learn more about Xenos threats so that once their tour is over (presuming they survive) they can return to their chapter and pass on this acquired knowledge. Now in Stories about Spacemarines, generally all the main characters that are considered the best of their chapter normally embody that chapters stereotype. So why would it be different here?

How many Thunderwolves do the Deathwatch have?
How many Sanguine Priests?
Biker Priests?
Ravenwing Speeders?

I know I shouldn't get fluff and tabletop crossed but the best isn't always the stereotype.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:


How many Thunderwolves do the Deathwatch have?
How many Sanguine Priests?
Biker Priests?
Ravenwing Speeders?

I know I shouldn't get fluff and tabletop crossed but the best isn't always the stereotype.

At least one
Quite a few
Yes
And yes.

Not every Watch Fortress will have everything but the Deathwatch supplements show that with such long relationships with so many chapters, the Deathwatch is capable of acquiring even extremely chapter specific particulars.

That said, I get the point you're making regarding sending the best vs sending the codex stereotype.

Argument aside, I've never seen references to any of these - got any Deathwatch reading recommendations?

For this stuff? The FFG Deathwatch RPG supplements. There are rules for each of these, each with example situations of when they'd be available for the Deathwatch.