Deathwatch from SM codex

[swiftmus]

Hi,

 

I was wondering how fluffy it would be to paint my Space Marine army in the colours of the Deathwatch.

Would they ever operate in large enough numbers for an army of them to be viable? Also, and this is probably my most important question, what vehicles do the Deathwatch use? Landspeeders? Dreadnoughts? What about Terminators?

 

Help from those who know their fluff will be greatly appreciated :P

[Prathios]

Granted there is little enough fluff on the Death watch I don't believe they use Dreads, Preds, or LR's. They work in small kill teams of covert stealth cleanup crews. They are the elite of the elite and should likely make Sterngaurd look soft. Making a whole army of them is... not fluffy. I can't see any reason they would ever assemble im more numbers than a handful of squads say... 15 marines max. And again I've never read of them using vehicles because they usually try to stay quiet while they do their dirty work.

[Empty Bolter Clip]

I kind of Agree with Prathios on this one, however I think there is an alternative... which I have toyed around with for awhile.

 

Prathios is correct, I have never heard of them using vehicles and they do prefer small teams. My idea involved using scouts representing ISTs as your main/scoring units, and for fluff I allied in an Inquisitor. I then used Sternguard to represent the Deathwatch team(s). With this method, you could probably get away with a limited number (1 or 2) of Landraiders as long as you do them up as Inquisitorial Landraiders.... I threw my IL into it just to be safe fluffwise.

 

The problem you will face will be in the anti-tank department. I think an Ordo Xenos army can be done, it just requires some creative thinking/army building to make it fluffy!

 

 

Empty Bolter Clip

[Machine God]

You can field an army of them. If you read the rules you can convert HQ, Vets and Troops to DW Veterans, however it's not a cheap thing to do at +10 pts per model. I know as I did it in 4th Ed.

 

Cheers

[swiftmus]

Thanks for the input guys :P

 

I think I'll stick to my custom chapter then which has close ties to the =I=, I could make some Sternguard and paint them as Deathwatch etc.

Eventually I want an allied Inquisitor and maybe an Assassin in my army.

[treadhead]

So you want to field a full army of deathwatch eh ?

 

I share the feeling, so much so i made (still wip) my own codex

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...p;#entry2022494

 

Just decided to say what the heck and do what i wanted to do from the first time i saw the deathwatch kill team in that (number?) white dwarf

ie make a whole army of them with some outlandish conversons :)

 

Now for those who say the deathwatch are just kill teams or veterans for other units according to the sacred "fluff", I ask you to consider this question.

 

How would you put an ordo xenos force together ?

 

Sure you could go the inquisition, adeptus mechanicus and inquisitorial storm troopers route, keeping the kill teams as elites (sternies) or hq (old pdf) choices, but wouldn't it be more fun to field the full majesty of a deathwatch crusade ?

 

 

Back on topic

Fluff, schmuff if you want to paint your army as deathwatch then go for it.

 

As for people objecting if you're using the regular codex rules for the force at a tournament or store game it should be ok, assuming you don't end up playing a fluff/rules nazi :)

[Karitas]

If I wanted to make a legal and fluffy Deathwath force, I'd use the Daemonhunters codex, Grey knight rules. and maybe throw in a =][= of the ordo xenos too :)

[Aeternus_90]

You could also just make a Kantor led sternguard heavy army, with maybe devestators as a heavy support option, plus whatever vehicles you have. Avoiding probably techmarines and dreadnoughts and i think it would be a rather fluffy army, small, and still fitting your theme without being completely unplayable

[Kaled100]

Although the Deathwatch normally work in fairly small kill-teams, there are larger deployments - such as the sixty Astartes of the Deathwatch that deployed with Eisenhorn and co. on 56-Izar.

[swiftmus]

More great input, thanks guys :)

The reason I asked about Dreadnoughts etc is because I have one (AoBR) and I'd like to use what I have.

I'll keep thinking about the idea anyway :D

[Prathios]

Although the Deathwatch normally work in fairly small kill-teams, there are larger deployments - such as the sixty Astartes of the Deathwatch that deployed with Eisenhorn and co. on 56-Izar.

 

I remember doing a double take at that. Can you imagine having to face off against an opponent who brough sixty space marines who are all essentially company champions? Outside of Grey Knights it doesn't get any scarier for the enemies of man.

[rusty1109]

I wonder what the chances are of a marines chapter being wiped out while he was serving in the deathwatch? And then if he was mortally wounded in a sufficiently glourious way that he warranted being interred in a dreadnought, the inquisition would surely requisition one from somewhere so the brother could continue his service.

[jeffersonian000]

I've been allying my GK's to my Marines for awhile now, treating the Marines as a "counts as" Deathwatch strike team. The Marines I use are my Legion of the Damned army (from 2nd Ed) which is painted black with steel bones and pale gold flames; they look like Deathwatch from a distance, only with even more gothic touches to their armour. When I do this, I always take a SM Librarian as the parent HQ to represent a Deathwatch Codicer and two full Tactical Marine squads as the actual Deathwatch strike team. Sometimes I'll ally in a canoness and some Battle Sisters and/or Seraphim for a "Chambers Militant" army of all three military arms of the Inquisition.

 

As to Deathwatch and vehicles, I recall something about Deathwatch having Razorbacks and Rhinos that could deep strike; however, that may just be my memory slipping as LotD also had the ability to deep strike their Rhinos, Razorbacks, and Dreadnoughts since the entire army could only enter play via deep striking.

 

SJ

[Inquisitor Agrippa]

Personally I think the size of force used is based on the size of force required. If the Inquisition thinks they need several Death Watch you'll get them bringing in the 60 or so that Eisenhorn had, or you can end up with just one as in that second 13th Legion Book.

 

Mind you, that single marine was basically a god.

[Loyalist]

An Ordo Xenos Codex is rumored to be in the pipeline but a long way off. I'd expect it to have units of Deathwatch as the equivalent of Grey Knights in the Daemonhunter Codex.

 

I was attracted to the Deathwatch after seeing the rules for fielding a Kill Team in any Imperial Army on the GW website, and reading a Black Library DW novel. After building one Kill Team I decided there was no reason not to make an entire DW Space Marine army using Codex SM rules instead of the special Kill Team ones.

 

I was also building a Witch Hunters army (without any Sisters of Battle) and planned to add its Inquisition Lord and Retinue in a Land Raider and 2 Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Squads or Squads of Adeptus Arbites (Necromunda figs.) as allies to the DW force.

 

As of last month the Deathwatch army consisted of: Captain and Command Squad, Chaplain and Librarian figs., 5 Tactical Squads, 1 Sternguard Vet. Squad, 1 Vanguard Vet. Squad, 1 Devastator Squad, and 2 Terminator Squads. Vehicles and transports include Drop Pods, a DW Land Raider, Rhinos, Razorbacks, and Whirlwinds, and 3 Land Speeders. Pretty much a standard SM army except for the colour scheme and no Dreadnoughts.

 

It seemed sensible that there would be no Dreadnoughts in the DW, but there could be anything else because the fluff indicates they have access to the best equipment available, even Xenos weaponry/technology. I thought that if there are enough DW marines to man orbitting fortresses, also mentioned in the fluff, a dire emergency involing a Xenos attack could result in a large DW force being assembled in response. Even so it didn't feel right that there were so many types of unit, especially vehicles.

 

A solution was found last month when I discovered the Red Hunters Chapter, allied to the Inquisition and using the Inquisition symbol on their shoulder pad insignia. I decided to convert part of the DW force to Red Hunters and field both together.

 

First I had to duplicate the RH symbol. If lots of Micro-Sol is used the smaller white skulls on the IG vehicle transfer sheets are a good fit to SM shoulder pads. I'm looking for an Inquisition 'I' small enough to fit on the skull (the smallest Witch Hunter ones are just a bit too long) and may have to draw them. I suppose I could say this is the Red Hunters Chaper in early alliance with the Inquisition and has not yet added the 'I' to their chapter insignia. Anyway, with the skulls readily available I've started converting the DW army to a mixed force of Deathwatch and Red Hunters.

 

The HQ Command Squad will have a mixture of DW and RH figures (RH: Apothecary, 1 veteran and Company Champion), each chapter will have a Chaplain and there will be a single DW Librarian figure. I added a 6th Tactical Squad which is Red Hunters, then converted one of the 5 DW Tactical Squads to RH and 2 of the 4 remaining to 2nd and 3rd Sternguard Vet. Squads. Those are the best fit to the DW Kill Team fluff with their special ammo rules.

 

Aside from dedicated transports for the DW (Drop Pods and Rhinos) most vehicles are being converted to Red Hunters Chapter, including all Heavy Support (tanks and Devastator Squad), and 2 of 3 Land Speeders. The small Vanguard Vet. Squad is also being converted to Red Hunters.

 

To me this combination of chapters seems a little more fluffy than an all DW army, and is still very much an Inquisition related force.