Astra Militarium and Deathwatch

[Delta.Skies]

Im thinking of using IG in my deathwatch, fits my lore since my deathwatch company is strictly under an inquisitor. Just wondering does anybody else use IG detachments in their deathwatch. From all battle reports on youtube all ive seen is pure Deathwatch armies, but i know that is an uphill battle. Thinking they would be mostly used in bigger games / if i need screens.

 

Mind you I havent played an 8th edition game yet, im just coming back, and then back in the day because I lived in the Atlanta region it was very hard to find places to play when i was 13 or so.

[Mobius0288]

I'm also interested in anyone's experiences. I have some tempestus to put together still but I originally planned a small augmentation of astra militarum.

 

On paper, Astra is a solid choice to pair with DW because you can get an easy Battalion built up for the cost of a decent DW kill team. I imagine there's a way to do it just right, and be a pretty strong list. The best parts DW could enjoy from Astra would be things like...

- Cheap troops for obj camping and easy CPs

- Tempestus for some Alpha strike potential / flanking

- Sentinels for lascannon poking

- Heavy weapon squads

- Artillery pieces

 

Other people may have other preferences but that's what comes to mind for my army. Even a couple chimeras loaded up with troops would be a great distraction over losing are expensive kill teams, or even to support our kill teams.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Keeping the detachment minimum I had planned to do an ordo xenos inquisition and guard task force to my deathwatch.

This was going to be 3 squads of scions, with scion hq with rod of command, all scion squads with 4 plasma and single hot Las and 1 inquisitor.

Work a out as roughly 300 points, 3 cp and some great alpha strike potential.

[xenomortis]

I run a detachment of scions alongside my Deathwatch. I usually run:

 

Tempestor prime (command rod)

 

Command squad (3 melta guns and a vox caster)

 

Scion squad (Sgt plasma pistol / chainsword, 2 plasma guns, vox caster)

 

Taurox prime

 

That comes in at 300 - 350 points.

 

I have a second plasma squad plus an anti infantry squad with 2 hot shot volleyguns that don't see as much as table time.

 

I use the melta squad to deep strike and remove something heavy and the plasma squad to either deep strike onto an objective or remove some heavy infantry / light armour. The taurox is brilliant at removing hordes. If taken with the gatling cannon, storm bolter and 2 volley guns you get 32 S4 shots at 12" at BS 3+ for 116 points...

[Delta.Skies]

Keeping the detachment minimum I had planned to do an ordo xenos inquisition and guard task force to my deathwatch.

This was going to be 3 squads of scions, with scion hq with rod of command, all scion squads with 4 plasma and single hot Las and 1 inquisitor.

Work a out as roughly 300 points, 3 cp and some great alpha strike potential.

 

 

I run a detachment of scions alongside my Deathwatch. I usually run:

 

Tempestor prime (command rod)

 

Command squad (3 melta guns and a vox caster)

 

Scion squad (Sgt plasma pistol / chainsword, 2 plasma guns, vox caster)

 

Taurox prime

 

That comes in at 300 - 350 points.

 

I have a second plasma squad plus an anti infantry squad with 2 hot shot volleyguns that don't see as much as table time.

 

I use the melta squad to deep strike and remove something heavy and the plasma squad to either deep strike onto an objective or remove some heavy infantry / light armour. The taurox is brilliant at removing hordes. If taken with the gatling cannon, storm bolter and 2 volley guns you get 32 S4 shots at 12" at BS 3+ for 116 points...

 

I was thinking of running conscripts / infantry squad as screens, let my deathwatch do the dirty work ( will be adding aggressors and maybe a termie unit in there) two squads of kill teams w/ frag cannons, watch master, librarian, and a inquisitor to back up my screens for their leadership. But this is all in theory till I build another list. 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Conscripts are not as good as regular infantry these days, you need more to support them such as commisars, they are the same points with worse stats and no special gear options.

 

Everything to do looking atb your list is to point it up and look at what your missing.

In my personal opinion you have anti horde but not a large amount of anti armour or the ability to move quickly so I would see what cam be done there in terms of transports.and weapon options for them.

[Delta.Skies]

Conscripts are not as good as regular infantry these days, you need more to support them such as commisars, they are the same points with worse stats and no special gear options.

 

Everything to do looking atb your list is to point it up and look at what your missing.

In my personal opinion you have anti horde but not a large amount of anti armour or the ability to move quickly so I would see what cam be done there in terms of transports.and weapon options for them.

yea, i just didnt throw that in there at the point of time. my formula would be 40% anti tank / heavy 40% anti infantry 20% speed / capturing objectives. the focus of Astra was the 20% considering how much i could fit in there as 20% if i was to do a 2000 pt army.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

2 kitted out anti tank corvus would fill outvallot of heavy, give your troops cover plus give much needed speed atva total cost of 534 points.

Load out hurricane bolter, 2 Storm Strike Missile launchers, twin lascannon and auspex.

Would also let your inquisitor dude along with the kill teams.

Let's you manage two cool teams with terminator and character support with frag cannons.

[Captain Boyle]

I ran a Deathwatch and Astra Militarum force against a Dark Angels force last night playing Contact Lost, Hammer and Anvil deployment. Ended up barely scraping a win with a cheeky linebreaker making it 8-7 at the end of turn 4. One more turn and I probably would have been tabled.

 

DW were poaded up in a Blackstar and a pair of Razorbacks, ready to scream up the board and claim objectives or do as much damage as possible, depending on the game type. AM mostly sat back, held my deployment zone and provided long range fire support. I struggled to control the board but did manage to blunt or cripple a lot of his units. Lost nearly all the Deathwatch, just my librarian and two kill team members left hiding in his deployment zone, Astra Militarum took a pounding but were mostly saved by their superior Vostryan range.

 

He had built an army with limited mobility, mostly expecting to use his reroll from not moving to just blast away my units who had to move into his field of fire. Mobility was really limited to one drop pod, a Rhino and some Ravenwing. The Rhino was destroyed on turn 1 and the Ravenwing bikers were blasted off the board by turn 2 by the Mortar Crew and a salvo from the Punisher, leaving only a pair of land speeders to zip around. If he had been a bit more mobile, I think that he would have been able to generate more objectives and would have won.

 

Top moment has to be when he dropped a drop pod with a devastator squad bearing four multimeltas, a Lieutenant and a Company Master onto my back line next to my battle tank. Two multi meltas missed, then the other two failed to wound. Not only failed every charge to get the tank into combat but the tank also get a few good hits in overwatch and then promptly blew the devastators up on my turn.

 

 

DW

 

Librarian with Force Axe, Might of Heroes and Null Zone

Watchmaster with Beacon Angelis

Kill Team with Sergeant, three bolter and chainswords, frag cannon, terminator with power fist and assault cannon, vanguard veteran with bolt pistol and thunderhammer

All in a Corvus Blackstar

 

Two Kill Teams with Bolters and Chainswords and one Frag Cannon in a Lascannon Razorback

 

AM

 

Company Commander

Lord Commissar

 

Three Infantry Squads with Vox Caster

 

Heavy Weapons Team with three mortars

Heavy Weapons Team with two autocannons and a lascannon

Leman Russ Squadron, two battle tanks with trackguards, one punisher with track guards

[Delta.Skies]

I ran a Deathwatch and Astra Militarum force against a Dark Angels force last night playing Contact Lost, Hammer and Anvil deployment. Ended up barely scraping a win with a cheeky linebreaker making it 8-7 at the end of turn 4. One more turn and I probably would have been tabled.

 

DW were poaded up in a Blackstar and a pair of Razorbacks, ready to scream up the board and claim objectives or do as much damage as possible, depending on the game type. AM mostly sat back, held my deployment zone and provided long range fire support. I struggled to control the board but did manage to blunt or cripple a lot of his units. Lost nearly all the Deathwatch, just my librarian and two kill team members left hiding in his deployment zone, Astra Militarum took a pounding but were mostly saved by their superior Vostryan range.

 

He had built an army with limited mobility, mostly expecting to use his reroll from not moving to just blast away my units who had to move into his field of fire. Mobility was really limited to one drop pod, a Rhino and some Ravenwing. The Rhino was destroyed on turn 1 and the Ravenwing bikers were blasted off the board by turn 2 by the Mortar Crew and a salvo from the Punisher, leaving only a pair of land speeders to zip around. If he had been a bit more mobile, I think that he would have been able to generate more objectives and would have won.

 

Top moment has to be when he dropped a drop pod with a devastator squad bearing four multimeltas, a Lieutenant and a Company Master onto my back line next to my battle tank. Two multi meltas missed, then the other two failed to wound. Not only failed every charge to get the tank into combat but the tank also get a few good hits in overwatch and then promptly blew the devastators up on my turn.

 

 

DW

 

Librarian with Force Axe, Might of Heroes and Null Zone

Watchmaster with Beacon Angelis

Kill Team with Sergeant, three bolter and chainswords, frag cannon, terminator with power fist and assault cannon, vanguard veteran with bolt pistol and thunderhammer

All in a Corvus Blackstar

 

Two Kill Teams with Bolters and Chainswords and one Frag Cannon in a Lascannon Razorback

 

AM

 

Company Commander

Lord Commissar

 

Three Infantry Squads with Vox Caster

 

Heavy Weapons Team with three mortars

Heavy Weapons Team with two autocannons and a lascannon

Leman Russ Squadron, two battle tanks with trackguards, one punisher with track guards

Brought this over from the AM forum, to get a better opinion from guard players.

 

A Deathwatch Battalion, and im pushing for an IG Spearhead detachment with Leman Tanks. Just bought some scions on ebay that i would probably throw into the INQ vanguard detachment to keep an extra CP and not take away from IG buffs. run 2 squads of IG vets with grenade launchers maybe. and form gunlines. (debating about a tank commander or a commissar. Not sure still reading.

 

but with my Deathwatch im thinking 3 kill teams, 2 teams with 2 frags, one close combat loadout with watch master. a librarian. corvus. and im split tween a dread or aggressors. drop them in with a relic or reserve them.

 

My IQ Vanguard would be INQ + accolytes / scions are objective holders first / back up second. I wanted to throw in a basic corvus for him, acolytes and can aerial drop scions 

 

Im trying to fit an vindicare assassin in there as well

 

However these are all rough drafts, and still limited to just thoughts till the Deathwatch comes out. So all i can work on is the IG (2 squads of vets, 2 squads of scions) tanks later (trying to find decent ones on ebay)

 

I know this may well go over 2000 possibly, but 2000 was the baseline and work from there

[Mobius0288]

So what I'm seeing from you guys is that AM is best at giving us more cheap troops on the battlefield. Maybe a battalion of infantry, plus a couple heavy teams as a core AM detachment. Then we can sprinkle in some Deathwatch toys for aggressiveness.

 

I've tried to incorporate scions a little more then other AM stuff but I find that I don't need deep striking kill power from them because my DW do it better via drop pods or an angelic beacon. Maybe its just me.

[Delta.Skies]

I'm thinking about objective play. And adhering to 40% anti tank / heavy inf. 40% anti infantry then 20% speed / obj and I don't think its possible to do it with DW all alone. It can happen I'm just starting out. And would also need screens. So IG Screens and gun line. While my DW attacks from the sides. With scions and inq there for obj and backup

[Captain Boyle]

So what I'm seeing from you guys is that AM is best at giving us more cheap troops on the battlefield. Maybe a battalion of infantry, plus a couple heavy teams as a core AM detachment. Then we can sprinkle in some Deathwatch toys for aggressiveness.

 

I've tried to incorporate scions a little more then other AM stuff but I find that I don't need deep striking kill power from them because my DW do it better via drop pods or an angelic beacon. Maybe its just me.

 

That's the basis of it. Deathwatch are too expensive to field in real numbers even if you keep them as barebones as possible and will suffer against general anti-marine tactics more than regular marines do due to our more expensive models. You can't really afford to leave a unit sat in your backfield, chilling on an objective and doing nothing. Seeing as most of our weapons have a range of about 24", you need to get up close and personal.

 

AM, in addition to cheap bodies, can also give us access to cheap long range firepower, freeing up our boys in black to focus on proper targets. Vostryan HWTs getting an extra 6" is nice and can get lascannons onto the table in good numbers and Cadians all get that sweet sweet reroll of 1s if they don't move. 

 

Personally, I feel Scions are a little close to Marines. Their inbuilt deepstrike is nice, but you can never deepstrike into rapid fire range for their basic guns. I only have one squad of them, and they usually stay in deepstrike until turn 3 where they drop into my enemies deployment zone to steal an objective or take some heat off my main force. Your mileage may vary, especially if a decent number are coming in.  

[Delta.Skies]

 

 

 

 

So what I'm seeing from you guys is that AM is best at giving us more cheap troops on the battlefield. Maybe a battalion of infantry, plus a couple heavy teams as a core AM detachment. Then we can sprinkle in some Deathwatch toys for aggressiveness.

 

I've tried to incorporate scions a little more then other AM stuff but I find that I don't need deep striking kill power from them because my DW do it better via drop pods or an angelic beacon. Maybe its just me.

That's the basis of it. Deathwatch are too expensive to field in real numbers even if you keep them as barebones as possible and will suffer against general anti-marine tactics more than regular marines do due to our more expensive models. You can't really afford to leave a unit sat in your backfield, chilling on an objective and doing nothing. Seeing as most of our weapons have a range of about 24", you need to get up close and personal.

 

AM, in addition to cheap bodies, can also give us access to cheap long range firepower, freeing up our boys in black to focus on proper targets. Vostryan HWTs getting an extra 6" is nice and can get lascannons onto the table in good numbers and Cadians all get that sweet sweet reroll of 1s if they don't move.

 

Personally, I feel Scions are a little close to Marines. Their inbuilt deepstrike is nice, but you can never deepstrike into rapid fire range for their basic guns. I only have one squad of them, and they usually stay in deepstrike until turn 3 where they drop into my enemies deployment zone to steal an objective or take some heat off my main force. Your mileage may vary, especially if a decent number are coming in.

Not to mention from what I'm reading and trying to accomplish, I can't throw them in a spear detachment and claim the storm trooper tactic. So deepstrike 2 squads of 5 for objectives and backup seems the way to go.

 

HOWEVER after reading JUST NOW it is stated that custom regiments may take any doctrine just as long as that regiment (ie Militarum Tempestus) isnt in that detachment.

 

Making my spearhead detachment with veterans capable of choosing the stormtroopers doctrine. Seems kind of janky, but the wording of it would make this legal

[Captain Boyle]

 

 

 

 

So what I'm seeing from you guys is that AM is best at giving us more cheap troops on the battlefield. Maybe a battalion of infantry, plus a couple heavy teams as a core AM detachment. Then we can sprinkle in some Deathwatch toys for aggressiveness.

 

I've tried to incorporate scions a little more then other AM stuff but I find that I don't need deep striking kill power from them because my DW do it better via drop pods or an angelic beacon. Maybe its just me.

That's the basis of it. Deathwatch are too expensive to field in real numbers even if you keep them as barebones as possible and will suffer against general anti-marine tactics more than regular marines do due to our more expensive models. You can't really afford to leave a unit sat in your backfield, chilling on an objective and doing nothing. Seeing as most of our weapons have a range of about 24", you need to get up close and personal.

 

AM, in addition to cheap bodies, can also give us access to cheap long range firepower, freeing up our boys in black to focus on proper targets. Vostryan HWTs getting an extra 6" is nice and can get lascannons onto the table in good numbers and Cadians all get that sweet sweet reroll of 1s if they don't move.

 

Personally, I feel Scions are a little close to Marines. Their inbuilt deepstrike is nice, but you can never deepstrike into rapid fire range for their basic guns. I only have one squad of them, and they usually stay in deepstrike until turn 3 where they drop into my enemies deployment zone to steal an objective or take some heat off my main force. Your mileage may vary, especially if a decent number are coming in.

Not to mention from what I'm reading and trying to accomplish, I can't throw them in a spear detachment and claim the storm trooper tactic. So deepstrike 2 squads of 5 for objectives and backup seems the way to go.

 

HOWEVER after reading JUST NOW it is stated that custom regiments may take any doctrine just as long as that regiment (ie Militarum Tempestus) isnt in that detachment.

 

Making my spearhead detachment with veterans capable of choosing the stormtroopers doctrine. Seems kind of janky, but the wording of it would make this legal

 

I think that would work, but you can't then take your Scions in that detachment and get the storm troopers doctrine on them as they would technically not be in a Militarum Tempestus regiment. You may be better off Running a Deathwatch Batallion, Astra Militarum Spearhead and a Tempestus Patrol or auxilary detachment

[Delta.Skies]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what I'm seeing from you guys is that AM is best at giving us more cheap troops on the battlefield. Maybe a battalion of infantry, plus a couple heavy teams as a core AM detachment. Then we can sprinkle in some Deathwatch toys for aggressiveness.

 

I've tried to incorporate scions a little more then other AM stuff but I find that I don't need deep striking kill power from them because my DW do it better via drop pods or an angelic beacon. Maybe its just me.

That's the basis of it. Deathwatch are too expensive to field in real numbers even if you keep them as barebones as possible and will suffer against general anti-marine tactics more than regular marines do due to our more expensive models. You can't really afford to leave a unit sat in your backfield, chilling on an objective and doing nothing. Seeing as most of our weapons have a range of about 24", you need to get up close and personal.

 

AM, in addition to cheap bodies, can also give us access to cheap long range firepower, freeing up our boys in black to focus on proper targets. Vostryan HWTs getting an extra 6" is nice and can get lascannons onto the table in good numbers and Cadians all get that sweet sweet reroll of 1s if they don't move.

 

Personally, I feel Scions are a little close to Marines. Their inbuilt deepstrike is nice, but you can never deepstrike into rapid fire range for their basic guns. I only have one squad of them, and they usually stay in deepstrike until turn 3 where they drop into my enemies deployment zone to steal an objective or take some heat off my main force. Your mileage may vary, especially if a decent number are coming in.

Not to mention from what I'm reading and trying to accomplish, I can't throw them in a spear detachment and claim the storm trooper tactic. So deepstrike 2 squads of 5 for objectives and backup seems the way to go.

 

HOWEVER after reading JUST NOW it is stated that custom regiments may take any doctrine just as long as that regiment (ie Militarum Tempestus) isnt in that detachment.

 

Making my spearhead detachment with veterans capable of choosing the stormtroopers doctrine. Seems kind of janky, but the wording of it would make this legal

I think that would work, but you can't then take your Scions in that detachment and get the storm troopers doctrine on them as they would technically not be in a Militarum Tempestus regiment. You may be better off Running a Deathwatch Batallion, Astra Militarum Spearhead and a Tempestus Patrol or auxilary detachment

Oh I know, gave up trying to fit them in. So I threw them into the inq. Vanguard detachment. Would be nice since they'll be coming in by turn 3 for objectives.