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Hey there boyz!

I'm going up against a Deathwatch player soon and I've never fought that army before, I need some advice.
I've been told that every model in his army has a template weapon (No charging dat boss!) and that most of his army has a 36 inch range (Zog! Get behind sumfink!)

Now what tends to be a good tactic to deploy?

I usually rock in with a 'Battlewagon Blitz!' and do one of two things... against close combat armies I arm em all with killkannons and throw 5 s7 ap3 templates out on turn one, with a tonne of shoota boyz firing over the side.

Against shooty armies I drop the killkannons, zoom em forward as fast as I can and pile out 100 boyz with Pk nobz and clean up.

Would this work against the DeathWatch?

Get out and thump em! list (1.5k)




Bring up da tanks, boom boom boom! list (1.5k)

I haven't played against or with Deathwatch but I have seen them on the table and they are a very low model count army with for the most part a 3+ armor save. Yes the have fancy expensive guns that they stole from the sternguard but I think you could still roll up on them make them roll so many dice they'll fail enough 3+ saves. I know they have some nasty flamer weapons but I don't think they all have them.

I'd just run as many boys as humanly possible. They're not that fast once they're out of that cool looking plane. Worried about flamers? send in a disposable unit first followed by the mob...

The big thing for deathwatch is that they are very strong anti-infantry force with widespread special ammo and their frag cannons giving them the versatility against bigger stuff like vehicles. Like necron99 mentioned, however, they are only marines at the end of the day and die as easily against mass fire or attacks. Not every unit is going to be packing frag cannons so should try picking them off first. Also, for the first list, if you go mass boyz, I highly suggest getting more Pain Boyz since hellfire rounds will chew them out really fast. So in the first list, you could probably take a unit of Mega Nobz out to add some Painboyz in the boyz units.

The second list is too weak IMO, since 10 man boyz squads, even in killkannon battlewagon lists, are too anemic to make the most of them being gunboats and if the transport is popped, very likely to fail morale/pinning due to lack of numbers and Nob support. I would suggest trying out a unit of flash gitz since they can make the most of the scout move and have a 50% chance of ignoring marine armour with a sizable amount of dakka. I would also avoid putting so many points into dakkajets since reserves are too fickle without a comms relay and their damage output isn't amazing against marines. It'd probably be better to invest in tankbustas in trukks to give you some ranged answers to transports and they can kill MEQ units also in a pinch thanks to AP3. Consider Mek Gunz as well since Kustom Mega Kannons and Lobbas do a more lot more consistent damage than Lootas do.

Charging is literally the worst thing you can do against Deathwatch, more so than Dark angels and Tau.

As written, they can take a shotgun in addition to their Bolter. That's not much until you realize it has a Template profile. Add that to potential wounds from the Frag Cannon or Heavy Bolter Flamer and it can wipe out several dudes in one go.

Absolutely avoid all-out charging them. Wall of Death will kill you all dead. Then again don't try to out-gunline them either. You won't get any cover saves to special issue ammo.

I would go with the battlewagon list. Pure Deathwatch will have almost no answer to AV14 and the massed kilkannons should mulch just about anything but Land Raiders and flyers. Just bubble wrap them or back em up to buildings/board edge so he doesn't get melta shots on rear armour out of a drop pod.

I also like Grimskul's suggestion of FlashGitz. That's just the kind of mass firepower you want against such a low model count.

I'd also try to take a Big Mek but that's because I want to put one in almost any list I make. Either KFF or SAG could be fun. I had a SAG fielded against my DW last week and it vaporized a combat squad with one shot. Needless to say it was taken out the very next turn, but that's because he deployed it pretty far up so I was in range more quickly than I would have expected.

Anyway, as a player of both armies that's really about all I can offer.

Good Luck!

I have played against and as deathwatch and I find the best way to beat them is with volume of fire. Every loss they take STINGS. Also you CAN assault them, but you have to be smart about that assault. Deffkoptas would make amazing choices for eating overwatch so that your meganobz or boyz could get in and swamp them. However avoid charging if you can as its more something you CAN do rather then SHOULD do.

I would opt to run a shooty ork list comprised of healthy smatterings of armor and transports. A simple ork trukk packing some tankbustas x3 would work wonders at destroying deathwatch dudes and transports. Walkers will also do very well at drawing their attention. If you get some Kanz to threaten them they will put their expensive and deadly as hell shooting into those poor fellas instead of your horde of boyz with s4 shooting.

If they go big on alpha strike (lots of pods) feel free to leave important stuff in reserve, but keep enough msu units on the table to not be tabled and lose t1.

So go shooty (lots of shooty) and maybe even bring some kill kannons. Also remember the No Escape rule is a thing so if your trukks get near his templates kiss your squad goodbye.

Play the range game, counter deploy and swam him with weight of dice. 3+ saves will crumble and each time he loses a dude its a BIG deal.