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Deathwatch Veterans come with a bolter, that they may trade in for two other weapons. This means that (for no additional cost) you can have bolter and chainsword, or Bolter and Bolt pistol. Since it's a free option I'm going to be taking it, but which is better?

The Bolt pistol has access to special issue ammunition, but you all ready have that on your bolter, so it would only make a difference in close combat anyway. Wounding on a 2+ is nice, but on the other hand, it won't make a difference on the turn you charge, or on any enemy turn. The Chainsword on the other hand gives an additional attack every player turn, but without any AP.

First off, if your trading in your bolter you get a pistol and a chainsword so theres no need to pick between them.

Secondly, deathwatch have such a plethora of options theres no real reason to take the pistol and chainsword when you could take a melta gun or plasma gun instead.


with an army like deathwatch, were each marine is a special snowflake, you don't give them cheap gear. You kit them out and take some cheap guardsmen allies to screen them.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
First off, if your trading in your bolter you get a pistol and a chainsword so theres no need to pick between them.

Secondly, deathwatch have such a plethora of options theres no real reason to take the pistol and chainsword when you could take a melta gun or plasma gun instead.


with an army like deathwatch, were each marine is a special snowflake, you don't give them cheap gear. You kit them out and take some cheap guardsmen allies to screen them.

Actually, with Deathwatch, if you trade in your bolter you have a HUGE variety of what you can take. I want the bolter for the ability to wound any target on a 2+ at 24 inches. That's pretty good. The fact that you can trade a bolter in for a different bolter plus another weapon is just a nice freebee. I just want to know which is better, pistol or chainsword.

and it should be readily clear that a bolt pistol will be better almost all the time.

The only time a chainsword will outperform one will be if your charging into touchness 3 models without a good armor save frequently, which deathwatch shouldn't be doing more than once or twice per game.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
and it should be readily clear that a bolt pistol will be better almost all the time.

The only time a chainsword will outperform one will be if your charging into touchness 3 models without a good armor save frequently, which deathwatch shouldn't be doing more than once or twice per game.

You were only shooting with the Bolter though and charging. So that's two turns of the Chainsword actually doing something.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
and it should be readily clear that a bolt pistol will be better almost all the time.

The only time a chainsword will outperform one will be if your charging into touchness 3 models without a good armor save frequently, which deathwatch shouldn't be doing more than once or twice per game.

That's just the thing, it's not readily apparent. If I'm shooting and charging, the pistol does nothing additional (I have a bolter for that). If it's the enemy's turn, the pistol does nothing. It is quite useful during an on-going melee, every-other player turn.

The chainsword has much less "wow factor", but on the other hand will be advantageous every time I'm locked in combat.

The question is does a bolt pistol's quality outweigh the chainsword's quantity?

If the models your going up againgst are Toughness 5 or higher then, the polt pistol will be better.

Well, I crunched the math on all possible combinations of pistol rounds and chainsword. Assuming the Chainsword gets used twice as often as the pistol, here are the results:

The Pistol is better at higher toughness and at 2+ save enemies

The Chainsword is best for low to mid-save enemies with a toughness of 4 or lower.

However, there seems to be some flip-flop back and forth in some areas where statistics are very close for each.

Marines are equally killed by both

Plague marines are better killed with bolt pistol

Tau are best killed by chainsword

Guard are best killed by Bolt pistol

Ork boys are best killed by Chainsword

Cultists are best killed by Chainsword.


Overall, I'd say the bolt pistol is better, with one thing to remember. In order to get the best use out of the Bolt pistol you need to remember what round to use at what time. Chainswords are more user friendly.