Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Deathwatch (section)

===Troops===
*'''Veterans:''' Sternguard Veterans as Troops. Veterans with the same basic wargear as Sternguard and universal Special-Issue Ammunition conferred by the Deathwatch. 22 points per model (same as Sternguard). Minimum squad of 5, maximum of 10. May take up to 4 heavy weapons. Any veteran may take a Heavy Thunder Hammer (lol S10 AP2) for 30 points. One may become a Black Shield for 15 points, and one may be upgraded to Watch Sergeant to access Xenophasing blades and the Special Equipment List. These are your very expensive, but very versatile Troops choice. For the same price of Sternguard, you can access a far more versatile selection of wargear to suit your short-ranged shooting needs. Treat them exactly as their statline and wargear list shows: Space Marine Veterans with fantastic short ranged shooting wargear veterans. This means enjoying the versatility and power of Deathwatch equipment, but also being mindful of only having 3+ armour saves (base) and none of the durability shenanigans like Iron Hands Chapter Tactics or easy invulnerable saves. They are powerful shock troops and pair well with your access to dedicated transports, but they are only as durable as Tactical Marines and can become VERY expensive targets.
**'''Black Shield:''' One (and only one) Veteran in the unit may be upgraded to a Black Shield, gaining WS5, the (Character) rule, and the special rule '''Atonement Through Honor''' which lets the Black Shield double his attacks (before any modifiers) while locked in combat that either outnumbers his unit, or a unit that  an Independent Character, Monstrous Creature, or Vehicle. Naturally, you can kit him out however you want, but it makes sense to give him some hardcore melee options and throw him into the thick of it with a small unit of melee Vets. With a pair of Lightning Claws that's 6 AP3 Shred attacks against enemy mooks on the charge. All at WS5. He's a blender! The Black Shield cannot take the Heavy Thunder Hammer as it does not count as a Veteran when choosing weapons.  This has been confirmed by the official FAQ
**You can take up to 4 heavy weapons. You can take dedicated transports (helloooo drop pods). You can take the shockingly powerful Frag-Cannon which fires at ASSAULT 2 (holy shit you can move and fire normally AND assault). One of the Frag-Cannon's profiles is 12", S9, AP2, Assault 2. This monster of a weapon clocks in at the same price of a lascannon. That is to say, you can have a squad of 5 of these veterans packing 4 Frag-Cannons in a drop pod. Use Drop Pod Assault and Inertial Guidance to land where you want, when you want. Disembark and put 8 lascannon shots into your target. Clever positioning of your drop pod and cover means your squad could even survive a full turn while the opponent now needs to maneuver to respond to the shitstorm developing in their lines.
**And you can give these in-your-face pseudo-Devastators Storm Shields too. 3++ Assault heavy weapons. Doing 1D3 (template weapons with multiple shots still do only 1d3 hits in Overwatch) S6 Rending Overwatch hits. From each gun. Also remember that Mission Tactics plus some Kill-teams and proper targeting allow you to have what amounts to close-range [[Cheese|~BS5 Tank/Monster Hunters Assault Lascannons]]. Truly Deathwatch has some godlike firepower at their disposal.
**See that Close Combat Weapon listed in their wargear? Seems useless without a pistol or a second CCW, doesn't it? Well, you can exchange it for a second boltgun, then replace it with a Special Weapon (but, by FAQ, shotgun and bolter are specifically forbidden as a combo). Or, take your boltgun and exchange it for a second Melee weapon. This works in the same way SM Biker upgrades work — they can exchange their bolt pistol for a chainsword, then replace it with a Special Weapon (otherwise they would be unable to take any specials). So you can have any combo you wish. Screw combi-weapons, just take a heavy flamer (!) or a meltagun for the same cost. 
**Be aware, when building a squad of Deathwatch Space Marine from the Kit, there are only one-handed Bolters. What that means is when you want to build your Vets with only Bolters you need to have some left arm-bits laying around. Or you can give every Veteran a Powersword for the left arm, but that would be crazy, right? RIGHT!?

*'''Squad Donatus (Overkill):''' All members have veteran stats, power armour, frag and krak grenades, special issue ammunition, and ATSKNF. They cover all their bases decently enough, but they suffer at any focused task between only a combi melta and frag cannon for heavy weapons and only a power sword and plasma pistol to fight anything MEQ and up in melee.
**'''Vael Donatus (Ultramarine):''' Squad leader purely because GW is still waving their massive blue boner for Ultramarines and is only equipped with a boltgun and has Precision Shots
**'''Drenn Redblade (Space Wolf):''' Rookie of the team, holding the rank of Blood Claw, but still has the statline of a veteran. Bolter, TWO close combat weapons, and counter-attack (3 attacks minimum, +1 whenever he's charging or being charged).
**'''Rodricus Grytt (Imperial Fist):''' Devastator sergeant, has the Frag Cannon troopers everywhere now enjoy.
**'''Ennox Sorrlock (Iron Hand):''' Moderately unremarkable, but at least his model has bionics the Hands are famed for, which come with FNP 6+ and a simple combi-melta.
**'''Zameon Gydrael (Dark Angel)'''
Company Champion, but doesn't lead the team due to the aforementioned Ultraboner. Comes with stubborn (which means he loses out on the BS2 Snap-Firing his chapter normally gets), a plasma pistol, and power sword.

*'''Squad Crull (Death Masque):''' No, not [[Crull|that one]]. This guy is a vet with Hatred, a xenophase blade, and a combi-melta. His team is composed of two swords and bolters, one stalker bolter, and one Infernus HB with Hellfire shells. Though not packing pistols harms their melee game a bit, everyone having ammo means they're an ideal force for eliminating enemies at range.