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Greetings all,

I'm considering merging back into 40K, and I like the Death Watch Space Marine models.

Based on web store description, and their packaging however, are they intended primarily for Kill Team
or can you field them as a full army faction in and of themselves?
I'd certainly like to collect at least 1,000 points. Their range seems rather limited.

Any advice?

You can absolutely run a full Deathwatch army.

They are somewhat confusing in that aspect. Their basic unit is called a 'kill team' but that is your basic squad.

There is also a gamemode called kill team, as you can see this is where it gets confusing.

Either way, they can very well be run at 1,000 points and I believe that is one of the point levels where they excel.

Thanks gents. The "kill team" = basic squad helps.

I bought the new revised Kill Team box with the rule book a while ago, so I may explore these guys. We'll see -- but thanks for getting me started. Cheers.

They're a bit weird if you try and play large games, but they work very well at 1k and below.

'Kill-team' the game mode is named after 'kill-team' the Deathwatch precision-attack unit. You should be able to play 'kill-team' the game mode with one five-man Veteran box if you stretch it a bit, though a second or a Vanguard Veteran or Bike squad will probably be better at it. A 1,000pt list isn't likely to be more than 30-40 models (including ICs and vehicles).

A few quick tips for getting started:

1. Never, ever build regular Deathwatch Veterans with power weapons. For the cost of two power swords stuck on existing models you could add an entire Vanguard Veteran with a power sword to your list. Everyone's already expensive enough.

2. The Deathwatch upgrade sprue stuck in with the vehicles, bikes, Terminators, and Vanguard has 12 power-armoured and 2 Terminator shoulder pads on it, special mention to the Terminator box since it's got three of them (someone decided that'd be preferable to designing a frame with enough Terminator shoulder pads). I strongly recommend at least looking at getting extra Marines from other sources and sticking spare shoulder pads on them; you'll care a lot more about your bolter Marines than other SM books, so you'll probably be able to find more than enough very cheaply.

3. The army is built two ways: a CAD wherein the Bikes, Terminators, and Vanguard Veterans are separate units of 1-5 models, and the Black Spear Strike Force wherein they're stapled onto Veteran squads in formations that define them as one squad that can't split up. There are a lot of advantages to both approaches (the CAD gets units that actually get to go 12" a turn, the Black Spear force gets Deep Strike on everyone and to-wound rerolls), if you end up doing the Black Spear approach there's a lot of profit to knowing that the Jump Infantry type confers Bulky (not Very Bulky) and that Jump Infantry and Terminators are both allowed in Drop Pods and Land Raiders if necessary.

4. The Deathwatch is almost a bit cheesy in Kill-Team (the game mode); every model has good range, is accurate, is good at killing everything, there are only three FOC slots to pick for Mission Tactics so you'll frequently be rerolling against everything, and you can put an Assault heavy bolter in a Rhino for maximum keep-away trolling (and "I'm killing you whilst hiding outside of your range" is about as close to the definition of "unfun" as you'll ever get). If your meta isn't particularly competitive you'll probably end up mixing in melee elements to keep things working.

5. Every model is a very effective generalist, but even so you'll probably find picking your specialized tools is a challenge. List-building may be almost more important than it is for a more 'normal' army, you don't have a lot of different units but you've got infinite variety in how you configure them. Magnetize or proxy different weapons, practice, learn your matchups, figure out what tools you use a lot and which you don't. The Deathwatch is a scalpel, not a hammer; there isn't a lot of room for cavalier aggression at your model count so you've got to know what your opponent's stuff does.

6. Don't panic. The only way I've got to describe the learning curve is by going way too far into the analogy; some armies have a wide rocky cliff with a few narrow passages where a single misstep means certain doom, but the Deathwatch learning curve is more like a tall and gently-sloped maze that only gets wider the further along it you go. You don't have to follow preestablished tracks to progress, you can wander off into the weeds and while you may hit dead ends now and again you may just end up with a completely functional and effective Deathwatch army that nobody else has ever run before. The options are many, the possibilities are many, and exploring is a lot of fun.

7. Purge Xenos. Have fun.

Rake your post went above and beyond to help me out. It is appreciated, thank you.

 Shrapnelsmile wrote:
Rake your post went above and beyond to help me out. It is appreciated, thank you.

Glad I could. Let us know if you have any further questions.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
)if you end up doing the Black Spear approach there's a lot of profit to knowing that the Jump Infantry type confers Bulky (not Very Bulky) and that Jump Infantry and Terminators are both allowed in Drop Pods and Land Raiders if necessary.

I missed this, where are they allowed?
the BRB states the Jump Inf & Terminators can't be placed onto a drop pod unless explicitly allowed, for example the Corvus Blackstar does allow it under 'Transport Capacity'.

It would be a houserule if you are putting Jump Infantry into a Drop Pod

I've just decided to start the Deathwatch with my return to 40k, and i'm curious to how people have found using Stalker Boltguns. Due to them being Heavy 2 i'm struggling to figure how to best fit them into a Kill Team, as I don't foresee my Deathwatch often camping down to make proper use of them.

Also wondering, on a non-army building side, anyone got any suggestions for transfers to use for marking Kill Teams/Company etc? Those stylised numbers that they use.

saint0z wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
)if you end up doing the Black Spear approach there's a lot of profit to knowing that the Jump Infantry type confers Bulky (not Very Bulky) and that Jump Infantry and Terminators are both allowed in Drop Pods and Land Raiders if necessary.

I missed this, where are they allowed?
the BRB states the Jump Inf & Terminators can't be placed onto a drop pod unless explicitly allowed, for example the Corvus Blackstar does allow it under 'Transport Capacity'.

It would be a houserule if you are putting Jump Infantry into a Drop Pod

I remember the part about jump infantry, but nothing on terminators. To my knowledge its 100% legal to put terminators in a drop pod because they are infantry.

I put a squad of 5 Stalker Boltgun Marines alongside a pair of Bikers so they can have Split-Fire. I will primarily be using the Ignores Cover Ammo or the Long Range Ammo, depending on the target.

Stalker bolters are a godsend. They are useful to snipe any models carrying weapons that might ignore your marines saves (Melta guns, plasma guns, etc etc). Since deathwatch are such an elite army it is incredibly important that your marines survive, and stalker bolters let you pick and choose, and possible endanger, a lot of models on the board. A unit of five with either a bike or a librarian is awesome, the librarian can roll of a few different disciplines to help support the squad (Divination and Geokinesis come to mind), and bikes giving split fire is always useful.

Deathwatch want a combination of aggressive units and shooty units, Deathwatch can potentially have a lot of mobility using the Black Spear Strike force, but after the initial drop, they are incredibly static. So shooting to support the units that get dropped in the thick of it is very important.

Have fun ridding the galaxy of filthy xenos!

~Mikey

Yea, I love Stalker Bolters and what they can potentially do just wasn't sure how best to use them, so small squadron of kick ass bolter snipers it is! So, on my return to 40k I have the rulebook and DW Codex, but the Rulebook seems to be missing some Psychic.. my fantasy player side wants to say lores but I guess that's not the right word? Anyway, where does one have to go to find out what's in the Fulmination, Geokinesis, Librarius and Technomancy psyker powers?

GenRifDrake wrote:
Yea, I love Stalker Bolters and what they can potentially do just wasn't sure how best to use them, so small squadron of kick ass bolter snipers it is! So, on my return to 40k I have the rulebook and DW Codex, but the Rulebook seems to be missing some Psychic.. my fantasy player side wants to say lores but I guess that's not the right word? Anyway, where does one have to go to find out what's in the Fulmination, Geokinesis, Librarius and Technomancy psyker powers?

Angels of death supplement has them in them and I am like 99% sure you can buy just the cards for them on the GW site.