2k Deathwatch and characters

[BrotherAetherick]

Your first free relic comes from your warlord's faction. As long as you have access to extra relic strats you can use them. This is in the Death Guard FAQ:

 

Q: If my army is led by a Chaos Space Marines Warlord, and I have a Detachment of Death Guard, can I use the Gifts of Decay Death Guard Stratagem to include a Relic on a Death Guard Character? A: Yes. The only requirement to have access to Stratagems is that you have a Detachment of the appropriate Faction. If you have a Death Guard Detachment, you have access to their Stratagems.

[OgreOnAStick]

Thanks for the FAQ bit. That juicy morsel really should be printed to the general FAQ and not be hidden away in that of a single faction.

[vigitant]

Fairly certain that you may only take relics from your warlord's keyword pool. Unless you mean to acquire relics from other lists with the relic stratagem, which I'm not sure is kosher by RaI or RaW.

 

Using the relic strategem to acquire relics past the one your warlord faction gets for free is completely kosher, RAI and RAW.  (edit: didnt see the page 2.  thanks, Brother Aetherik, for the post.)

You do have to take a detachment completely from one faction to unlock their codex's strategems, though.  Though, oddly enough, once you unlock them all that matters is the rules text on the stratagem, which allows some shenanigans sometimes(some of the codex:SM stuff is target: keyword Astartes, like the psychic powers)(eldar and admech have used this to great effect to use strategems from different subfactions on different aspects of their army)

 

Also, you're underselling what Bjorn gets compared to Murderfang. The ranged heavy weapon makes him far more likely to earn back his points while trundling towards the enemy, T8 and 5+ FnP makes him harder to wound by one degree by S7 and S8 weapons (plasma/melta/krak missiles, thunder hammers) and +1 CP doubles the point per CP value of non-brigade/battalion detachments or in this case, negates the cost of L&W. He is also HQ so can be taken as a compulsory choice in most detachments, thus freeing points for other things. Rerolls, Trueclaw's AP and smoke launchers are just gravy. The only bad sides to him are his 3+ save and the unreliability of Trueclaw's d6 damage profile.

 

Oh and don't forget that SW characters get 6" Heroic intervention in pure detachments, it allows you to keep the unit tied down in melee if the even if they fall back assuming they have movement value of 6" or less, resulting in free movement for you. It can also be used to punish failed charges, especially if the armour of russ caddy is also within HI range.

 

Bjorn definitely has better stats than murderfang in all but # of attacks and dmg.  He also costs 40-64 points more, which is quite a lot.  Murderfangs # of attacks are also a huge portion of what is making him so deadly. 

 

As for terminators, personally, I tend to go full dakkanator (meltafist and cyclone) on them when they're embedded to veteran units. Although at times the meltafist does feel superfluous.

 

That feels like youre going to lose value either way you use it.  Either it sits and shoots on a 3+, or moves and loses a quarter of its shots.  it has range, doesnt want to move for shooting, but has to move to get into melta and fist range.  it has a 2+ armor, but that wont matter much since it's likely the last model to go at 88 pts.

 

In this army, the vets primary role is character screening, so it would be a lot of wasted points.  In other, more conventional armies, I'd suggest slimming down usually, but if you want to get fancy, cyclone ML/power sword with a unit you want to hang back isnt bad, and a forward unit with some storm bolter/meltafist termies and plenty of storm shield vets would be pretty decent.