Using Codex: Deathwatch to represent your First Company

[IVIilitarus]

I'm ecstatic about Codex: Deathwatch and here's another reason why. I'm going to use this post to explain why the Deathwatch can beautifully represent a Codex Astartes compliant chapter's First Company and outline my own plan for it.

Deathwatch and Veterans

Codex: Deathwatch was designed to perfectly represent an army with the following characteristics:

1. Elite composition

2. Non-standard force organisation

3. Advanced or exotic wargear

4. Flexible, mobile warfare

These characteristics exemplify the First Company of a Codex Astartes compliant chapter. For those not in the know, a Chapter is organised as 10 companies of approximately 100 fighting marines each. If a Chapter is codex compliant, then their First Company contains only veterans and has all the most advanced wargear and Terminator armour. Sternguard Veterans, Vanguard Veterans, Honour Guard, Venerable Dreadnoughts and Terminators are the traditional composition of the First Company. They also have support vehicles such as Land Raiders like everyone else.

First Companies are often also where otherwise codex compliant chapters do something unique. The First Company is often used to emphasise a chapter's theme. The Dark Angels First and Second Companies are the Ravenwing and Deathwing. The Iron Hands First Clan Company features their remaining Morlock Terminators etc.

Even if your chapter is 100% Codex Compliant and does not feature special formations or units, the First Company will consist of Space Marine veterans with the best access to exotic wargear and who will have the most choice on how they equip and fight.

The Deathwatch Codex has this in spades. Deathwatch Formations are mainly kill teams featuring a mixed unit. You don't have to mix very much though. A squad of Veterans is always required. If they require a Terminator unit, remember that Deathwatch can take Terminators in units starting at 1 model. A squad of 9 Veterans led by 1 Terminator is completely normal.

Deathwatch also have an incredible amount of space for customising wargear. You can take any number of Terminator heavy weapons, 4 heavy weapons for Veterans, special wargear like Deathwatch Shotguns and Stalker-Pattern Bolters. You can kit out a team the way YOU want it, paint them the way YOU want to and have them represent the highly well-equipped and trained First Company. Who fight in close-knit mixed units, perhaps.  

In addition to this, the Deathwatch version of chapter tactics, Mission Tactics are flexible and nicely represent the capacity for a small, elite team to adapt to changing needs on the battlefield.

The best part is preliminary opinions on Codex: Deathwatch is that as an army, they are fairly powerful. They have good, but not overly complicated special rules and bonuses. They have interesting, powerful, pricey wargear. They have lots of variety. They are of course, a perfect allied force - all of their formations were designed to be low model count, but highly customisable letting you tailor a clutch of allies the way YOU want to.

If you're like me and the Deathwatch colour scheme doesn't do it for you or you hate the idea of painting pauldrons for 8 different chapters, then this might be your way to representing a fluffy, Deathwatch-like force on the field.

My Homebrew Fluff

I will now illustrate the above idea with my own fluff for my homebrew chapter's First Company.

My Iron Panthers are structured as a very well equipped chapter who specialise in shock assault and siege warfare (defence and offence). The chapter is equipped with a prodigious number of vehicles, some unusual and rare wargear and works for the most part. Basically all of this is to justify my outrageous love of big tanks and strange conversions Land Raider Athena anyone?

I had one issue and that was filling the First Company. I didn't know how to make my Veteran Company stand out compared to the rest and was dabbling with things like... an entirely Terminator armour equipped First Company (in line with the siege theme) or an all drop pod-equipped Sternguard company. And other silly ideas.

Codex: Deathwatch and now I can represent the kind of force I really want:

The Iron Panthers First Company, designed at the Pilum Company are the flexible, elite shock assault component for the rest of the Iron Panthers. Where the rest of the Chapter consists of vehicle squadrons, mechanised infantry and artillery, Pilum Company consists of veterans equipped for hard, rapid assault. They are named for an archaic form of javelin. So named because Pilum Company is not a force to be thrown about lightly, but they should be hurled at the enemy with tremendous force. Pilum Company veterans enter the battle at its hardest point first and leave last. They are assigned to the most dangerous environments or any battlefield role the rest of their lumbering comrades in tanks can't fulfill: making initial breaches into Fortresses, landing site security, decapitation strikes, battlefield reconnaissance, artillery spotting etc.

The that end, they are given full reign over the chapter's esoteric wargear stores and permitted to equip themselves as they wish, for the mission at hand.

They also have at their call drop pods, fast ground transports (Rhinos and Razorbacks), heavy ground transports (Land Raiders), heavy air transports (Thunderhawks) and fast air transports (Corvus Blackstars). With access to such a large variety of transports, they can tailor their insertion the way they like. Land Raider Athenas and Redeemers to crack open fortresses and assault cities. Drop pods for decapitation and pinpoint assaults. Corvus Blackstars for reconnaissance, point insertion and fire support. As befits the finest of their chapter, they have every option at hand to do their duty.

Though nobody would admit it, Pilum Company tactics were inspired by those of the 1st Company of the Luna Wolves. An entirely Terminator equipped company, they were the Point of the Spear for their legion and were by and large, the first force into an area and were used to decapitate and open breaches in the enemy. Pilum Company diverges from this by also fulfilling any other battlefield role their brothers are lacking in. When the Iron Panthers need the finest marksmen and spotters, they call on their First Company, rather than novice scouts. When Iron Panthers need an installation removed, Pilum Company lands first. When the Iron Panthers need to crack a fortress open, Pilum Company Land Raiders lead the charge. They bring the so-needed flexibility and point strength that the rest of the chapter lacks.

Some examples of Pilum Company detachments:

Sharpshooters - A Furor Kill Team (re-roll to wound and penetrate against Troops) with 9 veterans and 1 Terminator. All veterans have Stalker-Pattern Boltguns. Terminator with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield. In fluff, they are deployed as battlefield observation and sharpshooters. They eliminate enemy infantry and coordinate the efforts of the rest of their brothers from vantage points.

In the game: 9 Veterans with Stalkers deliver 18 shots per shooting phase, averaging 11.88 hits before re-rolls from Mission Tactics. They deliver these shots with their choice of weapon profiles (either SX Sniper or Poison 2+). At 24", they have Gets Hot AP3 and average 6 wounds (before re-rolls) from Sniper. The Gets Hot is mitigated by their mission tactics which let them re-roll 1's. At 36", they average 6 wounds at AP 4. They can have Poison 2+ at 30" (re-rolling to wound/pen against Troops!) and can simply erase entire squads with the misfortune of standing in the open. They can average 6 wounds with Ignores Cover. You're more likely to get lucky glances on jinking Dark Eldar skimmers with the re-roll to wound, or you can just pulp the lightly armoured squads who think they're safe behind cover. The Terminator has a storm shield and just stands ahead of the rest of the squad and hopefully eats some of the incoming shooting attacks before falling. This formation is fun, fluffy and reasonably powerful. It can erase entire MEQ squads with above average rolling if they're in the open like idiots, or wipe out lighter infantry wholesale at medium distances.

Insertion Force - Dominatus Kill Team (re-roll to wound and penetrate against Elites) with 5 Veterans and 5 Vanguard Veterans in a Corvus Blackstar. Veterans carry Infernus Heavy Bolters or Frag Cannons. Vanguard Veterans carry whatever collection of power weapons you want. Fluff wise, they're a hunter-killer force who show up and om nom nom a deadly enemy unit, then continue sowing chaos in enemy lines.

They arrive in a Corvus Blackstar. The Corvus Blackstar goes into hover mode and vomits the troops on an Elite enemy at uncomfortably close range. Corvus Blackstar shoots stuff. Veterans with their fancy Deathwatch weapons can pump their insane new profiles into the enemy. Remember that the Deathwatch Heavy Weapons are Assault weapons. Vanguard Weapons fire pistols or something. When the Assault Phase comes around, the entire squad can assault due to the Blackstar being an Assault transport. They erase an enemy Elite unit and can switch tactics to get re-rolls of 1 to hit on any other force org selection.

These are only two examples of what I might do with these guys and are by no means even the best. These are just a couple ideas I had and I just wanted to share because I'm so excited.

 

And if you're a dirty, disgusting heretic who wants to have some fun before getting purged, you can also use the Codex to represent Chaos Space Marines who are actually THREATENING. What's your excuse for these strange wargear and strange profiles? DAEMONS OF COURSE. Your Infernus Heavy Bolter is just a heavy bolter possessed by an ANGRY DRAGON which is why it spits fire. Your squads are mixed because everyone just sort of picks up and uses whatever they can grab and they've never really heard of the Codex Astartes. Why do you get special-issue ammunition? Daemonic possession! Where did that Heavy Thunder Hammer come from? It's just a really large daemonically possessed thunder hammer that can only be shackled and used with two hands duh. Why do you have rare, Astartes-pattern aircraft? Uh. Daemonic possession! Where did you get those Land Raider Redeemers from? I dunno but Daemons were involved somehow. How did that Chaos Lord get a Custodes Guardian Spear? Uh. It's a regular power lance. But daemonically possessed. Duh. etc etc

What does everyone think?

[HenricusTyranicus]

One thing with the stalker bolt guns....consider using the ignore cover ammo on enemy bikers. With sniper weapons, 6's are ap2, and these ap2 shots would be ignoring jink saves. Plus they would ignore the bikes high toughness. Just a thought

I'm considering using some deathwatch rules to represent the remnants of a failed crusade, returned to the larger crusade with a 10th of their numbers in shame. Now the remnant seek absolution through death. Good fluff for deepstriking, semi-suicidal squads.

Edit: Other tactics note. Replace one Vanguard veteran with a biker, but otherwise be the same. Use split fire to shoot one other unit. Then go ahead and charge the second unit, hopefully after obliterating the first with frag cannons and such.

[IVIilitarus]

One thing with the stalker bolt guns....consider using the ignore cover ammo on enemy bikers. With sniper weapons, 6's are ap2, and these ap2 shots would be ignoring jink saves. Plus they would ignore the bikes high toughness. Just a thought

I'm considering using some deathwatch rules to represent the remnants of a failed crusade, returned to the larger crusade with a 10th of their numbers in shame. Now the remnant seek absolution through death. Good fluff for deepstriking, semi-suicidal squads.

Edit: Other tactics note. Replace one Vanguard veteran with a biker, but otherwise be the same. Use split fire to shoot one other unit. Then go ahead and charge the second unit, hopefully after obliterating the first with frag cannons and such.

AWESOME. EVEN BETTER.

[HenricusTyranicus]

One thing with the stalker bolt guns....consider using the ignore cover ammo on enemy bikers. With sniper weapons, 6's are ap2, and these ap2 shots would be ignoring jink saves. Plus they would ignore the bikes high toughness. Just a thought

I'm considering using some deathwatch rules to represent the remnants of a failed crusade, returned to the larger crusade with a 10th of their numbers in shame. Now the remnant seek absolution through death. Good fluff for deepstriking, semi-suicidal squads.

Edit: Other tactics note. Replace one Vanguard veteran with a biker, but otherwise be the same. Use split fire to shoot one other unit. Then go ahead and charge the second unit, hopefully after obliterating the first with frag cannons and such.

AWESOME. EVEN BETTER.

Oops, one problem. Vanguard are bulky. If you take 5 you can't fit into a corvus.

[IVIilitarus]

One thing with the stalker bolt guns....consider using the ignore cover ammo on enemy bikers. With sniper weapons, 6's are ap2, and these ap2 shots would be ignoring jink saves. Plus they would ignore the bikes high toughness. Just a thought

I'm considering using some deathwatch rules to represent the remnants of a failed crusade, returned to the larger crusade with a 10th of their numbers in shame. Now the remnant seek absolution through death. Good fluff for deepstriking, semi-suicidal squads.

Edit: Other tactics note. Replace one Vanguard veteran with a biker, but otherwise be the same. Use split fire to shoot one other unit. Then go ahead and charge the second unit, hopefully after obliterating the first with frag cannons and such.

AWESOME. EVEN BETTER.

Oops, one problem. Vanguard are bulky. If you take 5 you can't fit into a corvus.

Crap, but aren't Jump Packs optional upgrades? Please say they are. :/

[Vel'Cona]

Nope. You have to take them. Sorry man.

[Race Bannon]

Really well thought out :tu:

 

Why not use C:DW for "kill teams" from a single Chapter regardless of Company?

[Brother Sefiel]

Greetings

 

C:DW is an example of coming full circle for me. Back in 4th edition I had a force of elite marines, with groovy special rules. As I found out more about the Deathwatch I decided that I wanted to give some guys the upgrades - special bolters, etc. However, I didn't want to buy the Deathwatch upgrade packs, as they were so expensive.

 

Eventually I came to the conclusion that I would use the Mechanicus shoulder pads to represent Deathwatch pads, while adding sights to all the upgraded bolters to show that they were Stalkers. What with the Admech theme I started adding in bionics, both in the rules and on the models. That they were in black red and gold _before_ I did so turned out to be stupendously coincidental!

 

So eventually I came up with some background as to why there were all these guys with experimental bolters with cog pads among a load of bionic dudes - they were a company-strength formation chosen from those sent to Mars for techmarine training. Not wishing to waste all that killing potential, the Fabricator-General arranged for them to be utilised in other ways - so they specialised in unusual weapons, securing ancient technology, etc, etc.

 

When the rules for Iron Hands were released, of course, I jumped on them. And kept on converting more and more guys...

 

I now have plenty of marines with the cog pads. This morning I rebuilt some so that no fewer than 25 of the force can be fielded as DW kill teams.

 

It feels pretty good to finally have rules that really reflect what I wanted to do all those years ago!

[Slips]

If you want a CC unit without Jump Packs, regular DW vets do the job just as well and you can upgrade one to be a Blackshield who can put out a bunch of attacks.

[crazyterran]

Does the Corvus have an exception to carry jump infantry? I don't recall. I'm sure it does, but it's a good thing to check...

[Slips]

Yes, the Corvus can transport Jump Infantry and Bikes counting as 2 and 3 slots respectively with 12 transport capacity.