Deathwatch Structure and Organisation

[Inquisitor Trinity]

Hello everyone!

 

Lately I’ve been trying to figure out the structure and organisation of the Deathwatch. You might have seen a previous topic that I've written on the subject. This time I thought I would actually write it in detail. To start with here is the latest Watch Fortress structure chart, it’s from the 8^th edition codex though, we didn’t get one in the 9^th edition supplement. Hopefully we will in the next one!

 

 

And below is my proposed structure in detail based on all the available information I have gleaned from the lore, codex’s and internet research.

 

Deathwatch

There are an unknown number of Watch Fortresses, at least 34 have been named. Assuming there are say, 50. Each fortress is roughly 260 at max strength including all marines which would equate to 13000  across the galaxy. Given that there are supposedly 1000 chapters (perhaps 1105 with the Ultima founding) I’d put the rough Deathwatch tithe number for each chapter at 10 marines (about 1% of a chapter, I can’t see them giving up more than that) so lets say that’s 11050 seconded marines. Even with the blackshields and marines that are permanently seconded to the watch there’s still are fair deficit of somewhere between 40 and 20 for each fortress. It’s probable that most if not all fortresses are understrength.

 

Watch Fortress

Watch Commander

-          Watch Master

 

Inquisitorial Representative

-          1 Inquisitor and Retinue

 

Strategium

-          6 Chaplains (including 1 master of sanctity and 1 Reclusiarch)

-          6 Librarians (including 1 Chief Librarian and Librarians of varying ranks)

-          6 Apothecaries (including 1 Chief Apothecary)

-          Fortress Ancient (Banner Bearer)

-          Bladeguard Ancient (Relic Bearer)

-          Fortress Champion

 

Armoury

-          6 Techmarines (Including 1 Master of the Forge)

-          5-10 Tech-Adepts (Pilots/Drivers etc)

-          5 Dreadnought Sarcophagi (types vary widely from Leviathans to modern though each chassis would have all potential weapon configurations)

-          Mechanicus delegation (varying numbers of tech priests, adepts, engineseers and skitarii to service the chapters arms, armour, facilities, bionics and vehicles)

-          Various Servitors

-          25 Drop Pods

-          25 Rhinos

-          10 Razorbacks

-          10 Repulsors

-          5 Repulosor Executioners

-          5 Impulsors

-          25 Land Speeders (Various types)

-          20 Storm Speeders (Various types)

-          10 Invictor Tactical Warsuits

-          25 Land Raiders (Various types)

-          20 Predators/ Vindicators/ Whirlwinds/ Hunters/ Stalkers (Various types based on the rhino chassis)

-          10 Gladiators (Various types)

-          5 Astraeus’

-          20 Corvus Blackstars

-          5 Thunderhawks

-          5 Storm Raven Gunships

-          2 Overlords

-          5 Storm Eagles

-          10 Stormtalon Gunships

-          10 Stormhawk Interceptors

-          250 Mark 8 Power Armour Suits

-          250 Terminator Armour Suits (Various types)

-          200 Mark 10 Power Armour Suits (with options for all Gravis and Phobos standard configurations for each suit)

-          20 Centurion Warsuits (with options for any configuration for each suit)

-          250 Bikes

-          50 Attack Bikes

-          100 Outrider Bikes

-          25 Invader ATVs

-          Enough equipment of all standard production types for each marine to be able to be armed with any weapon or equipment e.g. 250 plasma guns, 250 chainswords, 250 jump packs etc

 

Navy

-          1 Battlebarge

-          5 Strike Cruisers

-          20 Frigates (various types)

-          5 Kill Ships

-          Various fighters and boarding vehicles

 

Watch Companies

-          5 Companies (Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus and Quintus)

 

Watch Company

-          1 Watch Captain

-          1 Lieutenant

-          4 Squads of 10 marines - Various types, all firstborn form into Proteus Kill Teams and Primaris form into either Indomitor, Spectrus or Fortis. Each marine will remain with their assigned kill team for the duration of their service barring promotion or return to their home chapter. Each kill team is undesignated outside of battle (other than by firstborn or primaris) and will be designated by the commander of that engagement (sergeant, captain, watchmaster etc) as necessary e.g. Venator, Furor Malleus etc. Each squad is further able to subdivide into combat squads or individual Kill-Marines as dictated by the command structure.

 

Support Staff

-          Various numbers of standard humans as menials, pilots, clerks etc

 

-  Explanatory Notes –

You might question the sheer volume of arms, armour and vehicles but just think about it. The deathwatch are the SWAT, the special forces, the green berets, SAS, Navy Seals etc. The absolute best of the best! Furthermore they are the swiss army knife of the marines, able to adapt to any situation or threat and arm themselves appropriately so it makes sense to have all the equipment to support that. And finally, the Deathwatch are backed and funded by the INQUISITION, those guys can get them anything they need. It’s one of the reasons they have such a monopoly on mark 8 armour. So they are pretty much the most well funded and supplied space marine force in the ENTIRE imperium. The only chapters to come close would be the grey knights (few in number and far more specialised) the Minotaurs (shady funding from the high lords) or the Red Hunters (Inquisition Controlled). Also consider how many vehicles and weapons a regular chapter has, loads, and a watch fortress is about a quarter or at least a 5^th of that strength. Take a look at the ultramarine structure below from the 8^th edition marine codex and see how much they got! If a regular chapter can get that much I see no reason why the Deathwatch wouldn’t be better supplied. I’ve included less primaris tech as the fortresses would already have been equipped with the full set of firstborn vehicles and equipment due to previously having 100% firstborn. However they have yet to need as large an amount of primaris equipment. You could argue maybe they should give some of the firstborn stuff away but that seems unlikely to happen.

 

For the specialists like chaplains I went with 1 per watch company, same for dreadnoughts. By comparison a regular chapter would have more of each but there are a few things that the deathwatch don’t need to be responsible for e.g. apothecaries creating new marines. So they wouldn’t need as many of each

 

I also have 5-10 marines listed as “tech-adepts” which I made up to justify not having to include the pilots of the vehicles in the kill teams. That’s not saying that the kill team members can’t work the vehicles! Of course they can, any marine can drive a rhino. But the Tech-Adepts are more specialised and can work any of the vehicles as necessary. You would think the 5-10 is low due to the amount of vehicles but there are some crew roles that regular humans can fill or be temporarily assisted by a regular kill team marine. I see each company having the option to take a couple of “Tech-Adepts” with them on engagements as it’s unlikely that they would need too many vehicles for each engagement. The reason they have so many vehicles is both in case they need them and so that they can spread them throughout the fleet, fortress and stations so no matter where they are they have a decent selection of a bunch of vehicles. I’ve only listed 1 lieutenant as 2 seems excessive when they’re handling max 40 marines compared to the 100 regular chapters deal with.

 

There’s also a few units that don’t currently fit into the watch structure that are left a little bit behind because they aren’t part of any kill team:

-          Veteran Intercessors (pretty ironic given all the firstborn are veterans. I’d count any deathwatch intercessor as a veteran and I fully expect a multipart kit to be the centrepiece of the next deathwatch release.

-          Bladeguard Veterans (possibly an honour guard? Otherwise they should really have been in either the fortis or indomitor kill teams)

-          Company Veterans (It’s strange we can use these, I figure as you can have almost the same loadout as a deathwatch veteran squad you could use the rules interchangeably)

-          Judiciar (I count these as taking up a chaplain slot)

-          Relic, Assault and Terminator Squads. (We have deathwatch terminators that can do way more, why do we still have access to these)

-          Suppressors (These seem to be largely forgotten by GW and are one of the few not to have a multipart kit, I’d say they’d go in Indomitor or Spectrus kill teams)

-          Desolation Squads (Coming soon! I expect them to be an option for the Fortis Kill team)

-          Deathwatch Keepers (from the Deathwatch RPG, I’d say it’s unclear where they sit as Watchmasters now have the Clavis . Bladeguard seem likely to be good primaris comparisons)

 

See Ultramarines structure below for reference

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Onyx Warpainter
Typo

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Great to see someone putting allot of thought and planning into their fortress layout. I’m largely the same and though time consuming is very satisfying.

 

The old force layout for deathwatch needs to be taken with many pinches of salt.

problem is that though DW companies are half strength Demi companies in nature due to being elite and multiple watch fortress across the imperium each with their own master is that the force didn’t account for Primaris and as they can’t mix squad need to be kept separate for easy organisation purposes.

 

I eventually settled on 8 companies, 4 of each with each company having 50 marines including 30 troop, Captain, champion, banner and 2 Lieutenant plus 5 keepers which are either company command squad or Bladeguard in Primaris companies for 60 total.

 

I understand the view DW are meant to have all the toys and access to all types of vehicle pretty much with few exceptions like the nephilim jet fighter, etc. That said I think you may of gotten a little shopping happy with your armour.

You don’t need more transports than your force needs to carry all their troops, what I find helps is splitting up the companies to who has what and working out what they need before tallying, yes you will have plenty of main line battle tanks but you don’t need 25 rhinos, 10 Razorbacks and 25 landraiders. That’s 550 marines transported without any air support.

Also terminator suits are still rare and should be kept in lower numbers, most chapters can’t field a company so 100+ is more than enough.

 

With bikes give thought to if your marines are going to be able to just jump on a bike from their vet squad or into a centurion suit, if not you have more than 1000 marines and as DW are meant to be below chapter strength to make up for their multiple Demi chapters may be a little much. Same with pilots, most tanks need 2 or 3, with speeders and flyers you have about 300+ marines as crew, that’s not including the keepers who typically command the star ships, act as guards and are responsible for retrieval of their battle brothers after a fight. I know you give the breakdown later on for companies but it’s not entirely clear which are crewing what and what’s firstborn etc. It may be worth trying to put them into their individual builds as their will be some differentiation.

 

One thing I have noticed as well is your power armour being very old mark.

now this is fine for lore reasons and if you just love it but I wanted to point out that DW use more advance power armour which is MK8 errant armour, some chose to wear their old armour of course but that’s the norm.

 

Its really cool seeing you take into account the local Ordo Xenos Inquisitor as well, maybe even a kill marine in his retinue. ;)

I wanted to suggest if interested a rogue trader as well, many DW kill marines travel by passage on traders ships and other avenues so could be cool.

 

I mention Keepers allot but because DW are not true chapters they don’t have a full reclusim or librarus and many other things so those duties typically fall to the keepers.

There’s a youtuber called grimdarknarriator who does a great series on DW I suggest checking out.

 

Apothcaries are huge to DW as if they fail to recover fallen brother geneseed for return the chapters tend to withhold applicants. I understand 2 Lieutenants feels like overkill for a small company, I excused this as not every one of mine has their out librarian or chaplain.

 

The difference with watchmasters and keepers are keepers remove their clavis before battle, due to this and the keepers doings all the super secret odd jobs they sit well as honour guard command and Bladeguard squads.

Im almost finished my first full company, kept getting distracted by painting other bits and pieces of the force but I’ll update my Plog soon, if you want I’ll post the company break down and fortress structure ive used, don’t want to post without asking as it’s a huge bit of text.