First Deathwatch Experience (as allies)

[Runefyre]

So, I finally got to try out my DW for the first time. Needless to say, I was very impressed.

 

 

Don't have any pics, unfortunately. The game was a little hurried as I had other things to do in the evening. it was a 3v2 4500 points vs 3000 points (chaos/daemons vs imperium w/warhound).

 

Here's what I brought (DW anyway):

 

Aquila kill-team:

-Librarian (ML2, tome of ectoclades)

-Veteran squad (3 frag cannons, 2 meltaguns, xenophase blade on the sarge)

-drop pod

 

T1 they dropped down and stripped a nurgle knight down to 3 hull points (I inflicted 9 HP of damage, but he was REALLY good at his ion shield rolls). The damage output is quite spectacular. Librarian cast electroshock and killed 3 plaguebearers.

 

In our opponents turn I lost two frag cannons from LC's from a land raider. They got charged by the knight.

My iron hand melta-gunner managed to blow the knight to kingdom come in a single shot! ( penetrated hit, rolled a 3 for additional hullpoints lost). Everybody but the sergeant was killed in the ensuing titanic explosion. BUT, my opponents HoN, GOU, and 9 plaguebearers were sent screaming back to the warp with them. Very satisfying.

 

The sergeant went on to murder a depleted unit of Plaguebearers with his xenophase blade (love those things). Then he got unceremoniously killed by a cultist autogun. Welp.

 

My biggest takeaways are that Frag Cannons are really a thing (I'm sure you knew that already lol), and that these kill-teams are insanely fragile for how expensive they are.

 

But they sure made a helluva distraction for my opponents.

 

I look forward to fielding two kill-teams with my SW's and Skitarii in a 2000 point grudge match against my FLGS. He's the most brilliant guard player you'll ever meet. Hope to take some pics of that battle.

 

Edited October 11, 2016 by Runefyre

[Prot]

That's very cool. I'm glad you had an awesome experience with them!

 

Yes, they hit hard in the Alpha, and they take it pretty hard as well in response to that as well. You'll find people will eventually just wait out your alpha, knowing full well your squads are going to be super expensive, and without survivability. I've been staggering my alpha strikes now to mitigate that issue. The problem is model count.

 

It sounds like you had a really fun game though. Taking out a Knight is always cool... but to be certain, did you kill it with overwatch as it was rushing your Kill team for assault?

[Runefyre]

That's very cool. I'm glad you had an awesome experience with them!

 

Yes, they hit hard in the Alpha, and they take it pretty hard as well in response to that as well. You'll find people will eventually just wait out your alpha, knowing full well your squads are going to be super expensive, and without survivability. I've been staggering my alpha strikes now to mitigate that issue. The problem is model count.

 

It sounds like you had a really fun game though. Taking out a Knight is always cool... but to be certain, did you kill it with overwatch as it was rushing your Kill team for assault?

Yeah, it was a very lucky 6 that got the knight as he declared his charge.

[Prot]

Nice. lol You gotta love that kind of Knight destruction. It's funny to me how that never could have happened to a Stormsurge, thus proving my point we're much better at killing off Astartes type stuff than Xenos.

 

That's an awesome heroic moment though. That's the sort of thing you bring up to your buddy over and over. ;)
 

[L30n1d4s]

I had my first game with Deathwatch allies the other day... I took an Aquila Kill Team with 5 Veterans (Bolter and Meltagun), Watch Sergeant (Bolter, Meltagun, and Auspex), and two DW Terminators (both with Melta PFs), all loaded into a Drop Pod.

 

The team arrived turn 2 (along with my Ultramarine Skyhammer Annihilation Force) and between massed Grav, the Aquila Kill Team's melta, and some good PF punches by one of the DW Terminators when the team was charged by a Renegade Knight, I managed to kill two Renegade Knights (and a whole bunch of other stuff, both friendly and enemy, when the Knights blew up).

 

Overall, I was actually pretty impressed with the Aquila Kill Team, especially with its ability to provide massed melta right on target and because, with the Terminators tanking up front, it was able to absorb a surprising amount of damage.

[Prot]

I think actually at this point the most efficient kill team is one with just a single Termie added on with Melta Fist.

 

If points allow then continue to tweak, but intestingly enough you didn't take Frag? Didn't need it? What if instead of melta on the squad you took a single Frag Cannon? Would you have missed Armour Bane? Would you have went after a different target because of the increased flexibility?

 

just curious.... and thanks for the feedback guys. :)

 

Got a game coming up and I'm going mostly CAD for these past few games and I've seen my own evolving DW Kill teams too.

[Vel'Cona]

My biggest takeaways are that Frag Cannons are really a thing (I'm sure you knew that already lol), and that these kill-teams are insanely fragile for how expensive they are.

But they sure made a helluva distraction for my opponents.

Frag Cannons are the bright shining star in the somewhat marred image of the DW codex. And the fragility I think surprises many players (both playing as DW and opposing!). I've had many opponents almost give up on turn 1 just to be stunned when my army melts 2 turns later.

As Allies though, I think the overt threat, cool armour and shiny toys make DW supreme diversion units for the overarching battle plan, and I think they'll do far better in this role. I'm certainly looking forward to sliding mine in alongside my IG or AdMech!

[ONDIG]

Wondering how well DW would serve in a support role instead of Murder/Suicide squad?Keeping unit small and deploying in cover between Regular forces and the enemy to draw fire instead of A striking w/ them may lend them a little more survivability.

[appiah4]

Wondering how well DW would serve in a support role instead of Murder/Suicide squad?Keeping unit small and deploying in cover between Regular forces and the enemy to draw fire instead of A striking w/ them may lend them a little more survivability.

As an allied detachmet a small veteran squad with just boltguns and a librarian with prescience on an objective make a very good support unit I feel.