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So I'm doing some background for character's in my army and I was just wondering what is a typical term of service for the Deathwatch?

Aside from there being several different - and partially conflicting - versions of the Deathwatch by now, there does not seem to be a suggested "typical term" in any of them. From how the various books make it sound, it might be several years or even a few decades, yet some - such as GW's Captain Artemis - appear to be permanently seconded to the Ordo Xenos.

You are quite at liberty to just make something up.

It'd be based on how the individual and the inquisitor in charge of that deathwatch team worked together anyway, so even if terms were set, they'd only be set very very loosely.

Having just read the Deathwatch novel and listened to Mission: Purge I can tell you that it would appear that the Deathwatch operate out of several bases (in the novel, an ancient xenos orbital station) and that, as already mentioned there appears to be no fixed term. However some members are permanentmy attached to the Deathwatch and known as Black Shields iirc. In the audio drama the Black Shield character's parent chapter is unknown to the other Deathwatch kill team members.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In the novel the Black Shields retrain new Deathwatch, generally to use stealth tactics they might not have used in their parent Chapter and seem to 'run' the Deathwatch.

I got the impression from the novel that the Deathwatch perform their own anti-xenos missions with very close ties to the Inquisition and were not quite as subordinate to it as they seemed to be when the Deathwatch was a new idea.

This relationship only properly exists once a kill-team is assigned to an Inquisitor.

Gogsnik wrote:I got the impression from the novel that the Deathwatch perform their own anti-xenos missions with very close ties to the Inquisition and were not quite as subordinate to it as they seemed to be when the Deathwatch was a new idea.

That's the "several versions" I was referring to. By now there is quite a lot of contradictory fluff out there, from GW's Deathwatch (small elite kill-teams subordinated to an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos) all the way to FFG's "Chapter" variant (completely independent, with their own starships and tank pools), and anything in between.

As is the case with 40k and its treatment of fluff, neither source overrides the other, creating this "controversy" whenever it comes to discussing such details.

 Gogsnik wrote:
Having just read the Deathwatch novel and listened to Mission: Purge I can tell you that it would appear that the Deathwatch operate out of several bases (in the novel, an ancient xenos orbital station) and that, as already mentioned there appears to be no fixed term. However some members are permanentmy attached to the Deathwatch and known as Black Shields iirc. In the audio drama the Black Shield character's parent chapter is unknown to the other Deathwatch kill team members.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In the novel the Black Shields retrain new Deathwatch, generally to use stealth tactics they might not have used in their parent Chapter and seem to 'run' the Deathwatch.

I got the impression from the novel that the Deathwatch perform their own anti-xenos missions with very close ties to the Inquisition and were not quite as subordinate to it as they seemed to be when the Deathwatch was a new idea.

This relationship only properly exists once a kill-team is assigned to an Inquisitor.

Not having read the Deathwatch novel, it's good to see them pulling the image of the Deathwatch more from the FFG sources as that gives those sources more credibility. In my opinion, sources that get referenced more often and more recently are the ones that should be given more precedence, but that's just me.

As to the question at hand, when a marine is assigned to the Deathwatch, and to a squad he is given a specific overall mission. When this mission is completed, his tour of duty is complete. However, the mission may be extremely vague or specific, leading to tours varying from a few years to centuries.

 Lynata wrote:

Gogsnik wrote:I got the impression from the novel that the Deathwatch perform their own anti-xenos missions with very close ties to the Inquisition and were not quite as subordinate to it as they seemed to be when the Deathwatch was a new idea.

That's the "several versions" I was referring to. By now there is quite a lot of contradictory fluff out there, from GW's Deathwatch (small elite kill-teams subordinated to an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos) all the way to FFG's "Chapter" variant (completely independent, with their own starships and tank pools), and anything in between.

As is the case with 40k and its treatment of fluff, neither source overrides the other, creating this "controversy" whenever it comes to discussing such details.

The chapter variant is actually one of the BL DeathWatch ideas. It is either in Inquistor War trilogy or the Eishorn Trilogy.