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Hey folks,
So I've been thinking about Deathwatch recently, and I was trying to come up with some simple and extra rule that might help them stay competitive with the new stuff being introduced. Now, personally, I enjoy it when factions have something simple and iconic that helps to make them stand out and builds "character". To an extent, Deathwatch already has this with its various buffs and ridiculously customizable troops... but I wanted to add something even better on top.

So here is my proposal: Deathwatch units in close combat may fire any of their ranged weapons as if they were pistols.

My logic is that Deathwatch is an elite group, with a very special-forces vibe and a lot of awesome ranged options. Being able to keep their cool and fire in the midst of melee would really help them both stand out and up their damage output considerably. Obviously there is also a good chance that they would become overpowered with such a rule, so maybe some point changes or other tweaks may be in order (maybe like a -1 to hit or something?).

What's your thoughts?

From my limited dw know wots dont kill teams have an option to take a model that lets them fall back and shoot ?

a strat to use magic bullets with bolter discipline would be nice mind

Not a DW player, so this might be nonsense, but I have two concerns:

1.) While DW are extra impressive even by marine standards, it would seem odd to me that no other marines are considered skillful enough to shoot a rifle while in close combat. Surely sternguard or grey knights would be handy enough with a bolt weapon to have the same trick?

2.) Doesn't this kind of devalue the DW melee options? If you go all bolters, you functionally have a weapon that is highly effective both at a range and after the enemy charges you. Sure, you'd be a bit less effective in the first fight phase after you got charged, but then your shooting phase would be coming right up.

Your suggestion doesn't really strike me as OP. I'm just not sure it really screams "Death Watch" to me.

Pure armies get to reroll 1s to wound vs any FOC type BAM done.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Pure armies get to reroll 1s to wound vs any FOC type BAM done.

Pretty much just makes the current Mission Tactics worthless then.

To the OP, no, that would be so overpowered. Frag Cannon as a pistol?

I would have preferred a rule similar to Drukhari patrols that would increase CPs based on kill team patrols. Of course, knowing what we know regarding 9th and changes to CP generation, that might not have been beneficial. It's hard to know how best to improve the faction without knowing how it will interact with 9th edition.

maybe something similar to Callidus assassin. If opponent does not have Imperial, Chaos or Unaligned keyword, Deathwatch player at start of Battle round, enacts the rule. Enemy Strats cost an additional 1CP to use on a 4+, and fail if do not have enough CPs to enact the strat. Once per battle only. Something to do with knowledge of the alien, etc.

Anyway, as we know, they got buggerall, but I look forward to seeing how they will run in 9th.

 bullyboy wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Pure armies get to reroll 1s to wound vs any FOC type BAM done.

Pretty much just makes the current Mission Tactics worthless then.

To the OP, no, that would be so overpowered. Frag Cannon as a pistol?

I would have preferred a rule similar to Drukhari patrols that would increase CPs based on kill team patrols. Of course, knowing what we know regarding 9th and changes to CP generation, that might not have been beneficial. It's hard to know how best to improve the faction without knowing how it will interact with 9th edition.

maybe something similar to Callidus assassin. If opponent does not have Imperial, Chaos or Unaligned keyword, Deathwatch player at start of Battle round, enacts the rule. Enemy Strats cost an additional 1CP to use on a 4+, and fail if do not have enough CPs to enact the strat. Once per battle only. Something to do with knowledge of the alien, etc.

Anyway, as we know, they got buggerall, but I look forward to seeing how they will run in 9th.

That's precisely the point. You get a souped up Mission Tactics instead if you go pure. Hardly broken considering all the other garbage everyone else got.

 bullyboy wrote:

I would have preferred a rule similar to Drukhari patrols that would increase CPs based on kill team patrols. Of course, knowing what we know regarding 9th and changes to CP generation, that might not have been beneficial. It's hard to know how best to improve the faction without knowing how it will interact with 9th edition.

I like where your head's at, but yeah, hard to nail down specifics when we know very little about what changes 9th edition is bringing.

 bullyboy wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Pure armies get to reroll 1s to wound vs any FOC type BAM done.

Pretty much just makes the current Mission Tactics worthless then.

To the OP, no, that would be so overpowered. Frag Cannon as a pistol?

I would have preferred a rule similar to Drukhari patrols that would increase CPs based on kill team patrols. Of course, knowing what we know regarding 9th and changes to CP generation, that might not have been beneficial. It's hard to know how best to improve the faction without knowing how it will interact with 9th edition.

maybe something similar to Callidus assassin. If opponent does not have Imperial, Chaos or Unaligned keyword, Deathwatch player at start of Battle round, enacts the rule. Enemy Strats cost an additional 1CP to use on a 4+, and fail if do not have enough CPs to enact the strat. Once per battle only. Something to do with knowledge of the alien, etc.

Anyway, as we know, they got buggerall, but I look forward to seeing how they will run in 9th.

They got all the standard marine doctirine buffs onto what was already the most powerful marine faction pre codex 2.0
Which GW overshoot so hard it's seen nothing but nerf's and still posts top 3 lists from 1 supliment, just because your not marines2.0 overpowered doesn't make you in need of more power.

Hmmm...

So maybe letting them fire everything in CC is a bit too powerful... what about if they could fire their bolters, shotguns, and maybe a few other things in CC?

Maybe make it a special rule that listed all the weapons that actually get to be fired as a pistol (perhaps even giving us a reason to bring the deathwatch shotgun!)