Death Watch 5th Ed Games rules.

[Killrathi]

Hey BC please be gentle, its late i've worked hard (you have no idea how much fanboy fungasms i had to sift through to get this far) all on an iphone at horrible download speeds ... plus its my first serious post.

 

A long time ago (in a galaxy far far away) i bought a rather cool set of deathwatch marines, they were awesome... expensive horribly over pointed for what was (back then) just an upgunned and under pimped command squad. then the world changed... someone threw out 3rd edition warhammer 40k and with it there went my beloved deathwatch.

 

Ok so i've raided shall we say 'less reputable sources' and some 'other reputable sources' (read: every other forum on the internet) for ideas. Some were pretty good, some were pretty lame some... well long beards have mere stuble compaired to those rules/idea/suggestions/sheer sillyness. So without much further rambling i present to you Mine and Gingers attempt at Deathwatch Marines in all their inquisitorial glory. Best bit is... its for 5th Edition

 

http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2287296/de...40-pm-268k?da=y

 

any and all CONSTRUCTIVE criticism would be greatly appreciated.

 

Killrathi

[number6]

Sorry about the temporary investigation. But all has been deemed "A-OK". Proceed with the dissemination and examination! :o

[Gentlemanloser]

You might want to update some of the Weapons/Ammo to their current equivalents.

 

So the Metal Storm, Inferno bolts and Kraken Bolts become the standard Sternguard Ammo, and the M.40 bolter could be the same as Telions Bolter (without Telions ability to choose his target).

[Brother_Fatiswon]

couple of things:

1) all death watch marines would be vets, so you need to add +1 to the attack stat, and maybe bump the Ld.

2)Death watch of old, for the heavy bolter had rules that granted, what is currently covered by the USR relentless. Ie. being able to move and fire a heavy weapon.

^those are both old fluff/rule based stuff.

Personally, the only things in think you would need to do, to the 5th edition of the Space marine Codex: to make a workable, and playable Death Watch codex(homegrown edition): would be two things:

1)have stern guard special ammo work in ALL bolter weapons: pistols,guns,heavy,storm...

2)limit troop selection to Vanguard,Sternguard and honorguard. Like in a Dark angel's death wing, shift Stern guard to Troops on the FOC, Honor guards, to Elites, and of course remove the need for the Chapter master to unlock them. Leave Vanguard in Fast, but maybe give them the option to take bikes.

 

all that being said... i like what you have so fart some more and have fun with it.

this is my current codex legal: Death watch task force: just food for thought.

Calgar in PA + ten Honor guard with one thunder hammer, chapter banner, one relic blade

Tiggie or supa dupa Espi libby in TDA

ten Stern guards with PF+Heavy flamer+x9 combi weapons

Tech marine with Power weapon and servo harness

DH elite =][= in PA +war gear to taste*

3 Sm five man scout squads*

3 SM Land speeder storms *

2 Thunder fire cannons+ techmarines

1 FW death storm droppod with assault cannons

4 drop pods.

*Scouts are painted as IST Air Cav, with the same color and marking as the DH elite =][=

so two death watch kill teams, one shooty, one choppy, IST/=][= presence (fluffy) and Tech marine/Hero support.

IMHO this is the best current build using the current rule set, and it's a blast to play as well.

edit: i still use/have the '03 paper DH codex, so i can still take a =][= with tiggie. if, i ever have to drop one or the other, i'll drop the =][= and use Tiggie to "count as" a =][= Lord instead. oOoOooO fluffy.

[Oiad]

So Captains only get a 3/4 armour save? :P

 

:P

 

In agreement with many of the previous posters' comments, especially with regards to referencing C:SM.

[Killrathi]

@ Gentlemanloser:

 

The M40 is shorter ranged than telion's for two reasons 1) you can have several of them in one squad so its a bit of a trade off. 2) it's keeping the deathwatch down to mid/short ranged force. They also don't have the rule that allows them to pick out their target like telion. The targets player gets to remove casualties as normal. Addmitedly i did typo that particular part of the pdf and will fix it when i do a Deathwatch ver 2 (was late and i could barely see when i finally finished it)

 

@Brother Fatiswon

 

Re: Vets. There is an option to upgrade any/all deathwatch to veterans, the reasoning for this is two fold, firstly not all deathwatch marines are veterans, sure some might have had a lot of experience and fighting orks and nothing else so their expertise would be in that area however they may only have been in service for a short while (well for a marine). Secondly we did use the original 'chapter approved' version as a guideline for our version of the rules.

 

Re Relentless: This was considered, and rejected because giving this to the squad we felt would make them a little overpowered for their points cost. (you already get a lot over standard marines for their cost) The trade off for their ability to move and fire is a reduction in range, a mere 18 inches instead of the usual 36. This was inspired by the way the previous edition ork bikers big shootas worked. Unstable firing platform = reduced range.

 

@oiad:

 

Re Captain: It should read as 3+ armour save and a 4+ invulnerable exactly the same as a codex issue captain. My bad for doing it in a 4th ed style. Or if you read some other forums a way i've seen it done is 3+/4++.

[Chengar Qordath]

The Inquisitor seems really overpriced for what they're capable of. 80 points for a two-wound T3 model with no wargear, no special rules, and no invulnerable save? And if you try to build the Inquisitor as a psyker, the Librarian gets far superior performance and costs less than an equivalently-built Inquisitor. I can not see a single reason anyone would ever chose to add an Inquisitor to their kill-team.

[Oiad]

@oiad:

 

Re Captain: It should read as 3+ armour save and a 4+ invulnerable exactly the same as a codex issue captain. My bad for doing it in a 4th ed style. Or if you read some other forums a way i've seen it done is 3+/4++.

That's okay, I knew what you meant. It's just my way of letting ya know there are some parts (other than the rules) that may need rectifying, which you're obviously aware of. :P

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

A few things:

1. Why does the librarian have a lower WS?

2. I would give them Sternguard ammo.

3. As far as I know, according to the fluff, all deathwatch members are hand-pocked veterans.

4. I would say give them relentless and raise the cost a bit.

 

Otherwise, I think this really good and I hope to use it in the future.

[Myxx]

I don't recall them being volunteers per se. I'll have to dig up my old chapter approved articles and some of the other fluff, but I thought all loyalist chapters were required to second some of their members.

[Oiad]

Chapters specifically prep a selection of marines to go onto secondment with the Ordo Xenos as far as I'm aware. Those who show great tactical finesse and ability against alien races tend to be selected for such roles.

 

With regards to Chapter Master Ignis Domus' comments (amongst others), I agree that they should all be veterans. Just give them the Sternguard profile. However, I don't feel they should get Relentless or even Counter-attack straight off the bat. Even if they were enforced using a 'Chapter Tactics' style ability it would seem off. Combat Squads seems much more appropriate and could possibly be emphasised to fit their battle methods.* However you could include those USRa as optional abilties for (say) 25pts for a whole squad. The excuse behind this being that these squads have learnt those tactics through previous battle experience together, kinda like having the 'Battle Forged Heroes' bestowed on the squad. Preferred Enemy is the exception and makes sense as a default ability.

 

* I've been trying to figure out how to represent the small, kill-team squad sizes of Deathwatch. I like the idea you had that they have to be 5 or 10 men squads, nothing inbetween. One of these ideas involved having combat squads forced upon a ten man squads. The whole squad can still share dedicated transport (as well as droppods, as normal) - they just split up whenever they disembark. It's not very flexible and some may complain but thematically it fits.

[Maxium_Borusa]

A few things:

1. Why does the librarian have a lower WS?

2. I would give them Sternguard ammo.

3. As far as I know, according to the fluff, all deathwatch members are hand-pocked veterans.

4. I would say give them relentless and raise the cost a bit.

 

Otherwise, I think this really good and I hope to use it in the future.

 

1 The WS was a oversite on our part most of this was written at times when we didnt have a codex to hand to refer to.

 

2 We were trying to stay away from just making them Sternguard. We were trying to keep them unique and something different as some fun.

 

3 According to the last set of Chapter Approved rules that we used as a basis "Deathwatch Kill team members are volunteers from Space Marine Chapters that rigidly adhere to the Codex Astartes." ( extract from the Workshop rule set) hence why we left them as Standard marines plus Veterans but with bonus's to repersent specialist training.

 

4 Why? If you can give me a valid reason (fluff and rules wise) we'll take it under consideration.

 

Please remember this is just a first draft and hence us asking for your constructive criticism (that and pointing out obvious typo's/mistakes Libby's weapon skill being an obvious one)

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

I would at least give them hellfire rounds since those were specifically designed to kill tyranids. I'll get back to you on the relentless thing. I don't have access to my books right now.