Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Deathwatch (section)

==Wargear==
In addition to the standard Space Marine fare of Ranged and Melee weapons, the Deathwatch get access to some of the rarest and deadliest wargear the Imperium has to offer.
===Ranged Weapons===

*'''Assault Bolter:''' 18", Assault 3 S5 AP-1. Would be a really good gun on assault units. Unfortunately exclusive to Inceptors. That said, you can still perform effective hit and run attacks with it, aided by the Inceptors' ability to shoot after falling back.
*'''Auto Boltstorm Gauntlet:''' A 3-shot Auto Bolt Rifle with 6" less range. Dual-wielded by Aggressors.
*'''Boltgun:''' You know what a bolter is, but if you somehow forgot it's 24" Rapid Fire 1 S4 AP0 1 D. It no longer completely invalidates GEQ saves, but you won't ever care about that. As it's pointless to use the Bolter's basic profile. Since Deathwatch has access to Special Ammunition such as Kraken bolts and Vengeance rounds. You'll never have to use the base profile while playing Deathwatch, EVER! Seriously, don't do that.
**'''Bolt Carbine:''' An Assault 2 Bolter, exclusive to the Reiver Squad.
**'''Bolt Rifle:''' A Boltgun with 30" range and AP-1 making it more effective exclusive to Intercessors.
***'''Auto Bolt Rifle:''' The automatic version, an Assault 3 Bolter. Better than the Bolter and Bolt Rifle when not factoring in Stratagems or shooting at anything with armour. Combine with the Tactics to overwhelm your enemies with bolter fire up to 24 inches away!
***'''Stalker Bolt Rifle:''' Not a sniper rifle, lest it invalidates Scouts too. 36" Heavy 1 AP-2 and now D2(!) Bolt Rifle, to give far away targets more than just a poke. Turns Intercessors into something akin to Troop Sternguard.
**'''Stalker Pattern Boltgun:''' The special Deathwatch Boltguns, these bad boys are 1points each, sporting 30" Heavy 2 S4 AP-1 D1, but you'll always be using an improved Special Issue Ammo profile. Tragically, they lost the Sniper rule from 7th ed, but are still a dependable and versatile choice for a ranged unit. The extended range for your two shots will get you more mileage out of Special Issue Ammunition compared to standard Boltguns, but you need to hold still to make the best use of it. Changes to Heavy weapons in 8th do allow for you to move and shoot these with a -1 to-hit penalty, however.
**'''Combi-Weapon:''' Massively reworked, No longer Single Use, and can even be fired alongside the Bolter part now, at -1BS. But Combi-Flamers don't care for no BS. Available to Veterans, Terminators and non-Primaris Characters. Combi weapons are only 3p more expensive then their normal special weapon counterpart. And with the Special Ammunition the extra Bolter shots are really worth taking a combi weapon.
**'''Master Crafted Weapon:''' Variant of a Boltgun, Auto Bolt Rifle or Stalker Bolt Rifle, for your Captains. The Boltgun gets +1 damage and +1 AP, the others only get +1 damage.
**'''Guardian Spear:''' A Master Crafted Boltgun when shooting. [[Blood Ravens|Nicked]] from [[Adeptus Custodes|the bananas]].
**'''Storm Bolter/Combi-Bolter:'''only 2 points non so cheap as chips Rapid Fire 2 Boltgun, available to Termies, Vets and vehicles. No longer an assault weapon, it's especially nasty at Rapid Fire range. Quite a bargain, even more so as they now have access to special ammo. A unit of 10 termies with storm bolters can put out 40 BS3+ S4 Ap0 D1 shots, or 20 BS3+ shots that either wound on 2s, have AP-2 but 6" less range, or have AP-1 with 6" more range when outside rapid fire range. When inside RF range (such as, I don't know, when you deepstrike the termies 9" away from a target), you put out the full 40 shots, and can use SIA. So, with a termie watch captain nearby, you would have 40 shots hitting on 3s, rerolling 1s, with S4 (or just wounding on 2s) AP-2 (or AP0 if you decide you'd like to pile on more wounds instead, such as against custodes). See that horde? Now you do, now you don't.
*'''Bolt Pistol:''' A bolter in pistol form, meaning you can fire it in melee. Just don't forget it's there. <s>Unlike other Marine codices, your Deathwatch units have to pay a point for it (bcuz SIA)</s> We don't have to pay a point for it anymore and you can't shoot Pistols alongside your other gun types. Either buy your units a melee loadout or <u>swap it out for a chainsword</u>.
**'''Heavy Bolt Pistol:''' More like ''Better'' Bolt Pistol, with AP-1. Exclusive to Reivers.
**'''Absolvor Bolt Pistol:''' Designed to give the Emperor's Mercy to Xenos and Battle Brother alike, it is the Hand Cannon of the Bolt Pistols, with 1 Heavy Bolter shot at 16". ''And it still benefits from SIA''. Load up those Vengeance rounds in close combat and watch your MEQ enemy weep.
**'''Reductor Pistol:''' Designed to remove geneseed from dead marines, or if your feeling motivated, punch a hole through a nobz' skull. A Bolt Pistol with 2 damage and -3 AP, but a pitiful range of 3".
*'''Deathwatch Shotgun:''' The Deathwatch Shotgun uses its own selection of special shells and slugs for your xenos-purging needs. Versatile and awesome-looking. Non only 1 pt and unlike the Storm bolter your marinelets can advance, which you'll need to do, since it's short to very-short range.
**'''Cryptclearer Round:''' 16" Assault 2 S4 AP0 D1. Re-roll failed wound rolls. ''Meh. You already reroll 1s, and Hellfire rounds wound on (rerollable) 2+''.
**'''Xenopurge Slug:''' 16" Assault 2 S4 AP-1 D1. If the target is within half range (8"), becomes D2. ''Useful ONLY against multiwound models (or with FNPs) in half range, aka melee distance. Otherwise use Kraken rounds''.
**'''Wyrmsbreath Shell:''' 7" Assault D6 S3 AP0 D1. Autohits. ''Essentially a weaker Flamer/up-gunned Hand Flamer, but MUCH more cost-effective, whilst still being relevant outside ultra-close range, due to its other ammo types''.
*'''Hand Flamer:''' 6" Pistol D6 S3 AP0 D1. Autohits. Only costs 1 point now. Put two of them on a vanguard veteran and go burn some xeno hordes.
*'''Inferno Pistol:''' 6" Pistol 1 S8 AP-4 D1d6 with the same "half range keeps best of 2 dice for Damage" the melta has. <s>Since this bad boy costs more than the actual Meltagun or Combi-Melta,</s> it actually costs 7 pts, so you could see it more like a big-guy-killing melee weapon that also happens to be a pistol, than an actual pistol. Point at nearest alien monstrosity and stare through the smoking hole that used to be their chest.
**'''Modeling Note:''' If you're converting or for whatever reason don't have one to hand, the barrel of a meltagun glued onto a grav pistol makes a pretty neat-looking counts-as.
*'''Plasma Pistol:''' Fairly effective against MEQs when fired normally, a TEQ-killer when supercharged, but Gets Hot! now risks outright killing the user. A high risk-high reward pistol, your Captain's rerolls reduce Gets Hot to a 1/36 chance. Good against everything, really, as plasma can even wound tanks.
*'''Plasma Exterminator:''' 18" Assault 3 Plasma Cannon. Good for killing Heavy Infantry.

===Special Weapons===

*'''Flamer:''' An Assault D6 S4 AP- weapon with 8" range which automatically passes rolls to hit. A classic anti-horde option, now they number of hits is independent of the number of enemies — 20 bunched Guardsmen suffer the same number of hits as 2 terminators: 3.5. Meh, at least it's cheap. Can't overwatch against charges starting more than 8" away, but those aren't reliable anyway, so a flamer is still good in those cases. Don't bother trying to hit airborne units, as they're too tough and armoured.
**'''Flamestorm Gauntlet:''' A Power Fist with Co-axial Flamer. Dual-wielded by Aggressors.
*'''Grav-Gun:''' 18" Rapid Fire 1 S5 AP-3 D1, upgrading to D1d3 if the target has a 3+ save or better. No longer a plasma-killer, and while it costs a bit more, has a shorter range, and is less likely to wound things with high Toughness, it can reliably reliably (and safely) kill heavy multi-wound infantry (like Primaris) while no longer being useless against smaller models.
*'''Meltagun:''' 12" Assault 1 S8 AP-4 D1d6, becoming best of two 1d6 Damage at half range. Good against anything with lots of wounds, be they Vehicles, Monsters or even Heavy Infantry. At 12" range Supercharged plasma is better (but riskier) however, and this gun is more expensive, so you really should try and get to half range. While you can advance to close the gap, it is convenient that the unit's other weapons are assault weapons as well. You can't deepstrike closer than 9", however.
**'''Auxiliary Meltagun:''' Remember how that one Salamanders guy in Overkill has a meltagun on his Powerfist? Yeah, well now every Terminator can have it including the Terminator Watch Captain! 
***'''Modelling Note:''' Branatar is the only model in the range that has it, so unless you have extra Chainfists and Meltaguns lying around, replacing either arm on Branatar model is very easy, or just get Inferno Pistol, cut off the grip, glue to power fist, done, they are very cheap on bits sites since no one was buying them before. Another way to model these auxiliary weapons is to grab the unused melta bits from your Devastator Centurions and attach them to your power fists.
*'''Plasma Gun:''' You know what a Plasma gun is too, but for reference it's 24", Rapid Fire 1, S7/8 AP-3 1/2 D. As much of an all-rounder as the marine wielding it.
**'''Plasma Incinerator:''' A Primaris Plasma Gun, because Cawl wanted to make marine guns' as insecure as their wielders. Better 30" range lets it not only rapid fire from further away, but outrange enemies. Better AP-4 makes them a menace even for tanks.
***'''Assault Plasma Incinerator:''' Lighter 24" Assault 2 Str 6/7 version of the Standard Plasma Incinerator. Easier to make it cost effective, as it shoots double than the Standard version from 16"-24", still wounding most infantry on a 3+. The supercharge is still good D2, it just doesn't wound enemies on a 2+.
***'''Heavy Plasma Incinerator:''' The other end of the spectrum. 36" Heavy 1 Str 8/9 lets you wound infantry on a 2+ without having to supercharge, and makes it effective against tanks, enjoying great range. Which you should keep, because it's not Rapid Fire like the other variants. More cost effective against vehicles than against infantry, but it does the job nicely.

===Melee Weapons===

*'''Heavy Thunder Hammer:''' An enormous two-handed Thunder Hammer built for smashing in Xenos heads, this 18 point melee weapon hits at a staggering SX2, AP-3, D6(!) Damage. Further, Wound rolls of 6 automatically cause 6 Damage. It has the same -1 to-hit penalty of a regular Thunder Hammer, so make sure you've got a source of re-rolls to make every swing count (cause hitting 50% of the time ins't good enough). Taking a melee weapon that costs more than the marine who's carrying it isn't always a great choice, but multiple lascannon-strength melee attacks boosted by Mission Tactics can lay low even the biggest of xeno monsters (or enemy vehicles and characters). Be wary of overkill and choose your targets wisely - if you're killing enemies with 3 wounds or less, the regular Thunder Hammer is cheaper at 16 points and does a consistent 3 Damage, but if you fancy ghetto stomping a carnifex, here is your weapon of choice. Notably, the Heavy Thunder Hammer replaces both weapons and can only be taken by standard Deathwatch Veterans and Vanguard Veterans. 
**With a Doctrine Stratagem active, the damage boost occurs on a 5+ due to adding 1 to the wound rolls.
*'''Guardian Spear:''' Only available to the Watchmaster, this Custodes weapon is essentially a Master-Crafted Bolter combined with a Relic Blade. S+1, AP-3, D3 Damage provides a nice balance between S, AP, and damage for good mileage against most targets. 
*'''Xenophase Blade:''' Literally jacking Necron Phase Swords, it's a Power Sword that forces successful invuln saves to be re-rolled. A 1-point upgrade over the standard power sword, it's not a bad choice at all, particularly when facing enemies who fall back on invuln saves against your AP -3 blade. Vet Sergeants and Watch Captains can take this.
*'''Power Weapons:''' Sword is S user AP-3, Axe is S user+1 AP-2 and Maul is S user+2 AP-1. None give extra attacks. Bear in mind that Doctrine stratagem can give +1 to wound and mission tactics gives reroll ones to wound, but we don't have bonus to AP. As such the sword should be preferred in almost all cases where you need a one handed melee weapon.
**'''Power Sword:'''
**'''Power Axe:'''
**'''Power Maul:'''
**'''Power Fist:'''
*'''Thunder Hammer:''' Regular thunder hammer. Compared to the heavy version, it trades one handedness for a fixed damage of 3. Perfectly reasonable against things with 3 or less wounds, especially as it allows you to also grab a combi-something to go with it.
*'''Chainsword:''' Free, but does give +1A at Suser AP0. Reasonable backup for a shooty unit rather than something to give a melee unit.
*'''Lightning Claw:''' Rerolling wounds overlaps with mission tactics, so don't use against your current mission tactics target. Doctrine helps though, going from rerollable 4+ (75%) to rerollable 3+ (88.8%) against many targets, but thunder hammers may need that buff more. Hitting things with T8+ is suboptimal but you'll still get 30.5% wound rate, so can do something in a pinch.  Benefits greatly from reroll to hit, e.g. pair with a captain, chaplain,  or watch master. Bog standard vets have access to these, so you can get 32 attacks with reroll to wound and -2AP out of a troops slot, perfect for murdering hordes.

===Heavy Weapons===

Kill Teams can grab up to 4 of these weapons in a single squad ('''Note:''' due to a further change to the April 2019 FAQ, these options, as with the Heavy Thunder Hammer, replace both weapons, so now we can't take Storm Shields with them anymore):

*'''Deathwatch Frag Cannon:''' Giant. Beltfed. Shotguns. Sporting 2 firing modes and coming in at a costly 20 points, the Frag Cannon is still an incredible weapon option for the Deathwatch. Frag rounds act like double Heavy Flamers with 8" Assault 2D6 S6 AP-1 D1, autohitting. The solid shell rounds hit at 24" Assault 2 S7 AP-2 D2, but get stronger at close range, dealing S9 AP-3 D2 hits at 12" or less. Whether it's providing brutal Overwatch, shredding infantry, or mulching terminators and other multi-wound models, the Frag Cannon gets the job done. Special mention to the deep strike potential for solid shells.
**The Frag profile is strictly better than taking two heavy flamers (if you could do so), at 4 points cheaper and +1S, and will completely outperform the Infernus Heavy Bolter against anything in 8".
**The Shell profile is going to behave a lot like a two shot lascannon up close that deals 2 damage instead of 3.5, with some important differences when shooting exotic defenses like Quantum Shields or Serpent Shields.
***Due to its cost, this profile will usually underperform a meltagun at the same range, although obviously it can shoot out to 24" if it has to; you should be regarding this weapon as a seriously up-gunned Twin Heavy Flamer, rather than a lascannon or meltagun variant.
*'''Heavy Bolter:''' 36" Heavy 3 S5 AP-1. Good against hordes at long range due to its high number of attacks, and still useful against lighter vehicles. It's most efficient against hordes with bad/no save, or things that rely primarily on a weak invulnerable save, like daemons. Good cheap way to throw out mortal wounds with hellfire shells
*'''Heavy Flamer:''' A Flamer with S+1 and AP-1. More effective against armored targets than its smaller brother (and for GEQ a AP-1 is already a 50% reduction on saves), but cannot be fired after advancing because it's finally Heavy in this edition.
*'''Infernus Heavy Bolter:''' [[Awesome|A combi Heavy Bolter/Heavy Flamer.]] Costs 14 points and can be fired together like other combi-weapons, imposing a -1 to-hit penalty which the auto-hitting Heavy Flamer component gives precisely 0 shits about. Bear in mind that if you're shooting on the move, the Heavy Bolter already has a -1 to-hit penalty. The frag cannon is 6 points more, but simply does the job far better
*'''Missile Launcher:''' Can fire either Frag Missiles that act like D6 Bolter shots, or a Krak Missile with S8 AP-2 D6 D. Not quite as good as a Heavy Bolter or a Lascannon in regards to dealing with infantry and vehicles (respectively), but still pretty good at both of those roles. This weapon is usually avoided by other armies, but the deathwatch mix and match their squads and field less marines so the missile launcher's versatility becomes more desirable.

===Other Wargear===
*'''Storm Shield:''' Gives you a 3+ Invulnerable save. Can be taken by everyone except Terminator Captains and Terminator Librarians. As of Chapter Approved 2018, Deathwatch marines no longer pay a 15 points for these; they pay the standard [[Awesome|2 for vanilla units and 10 for Characters]]. It will keep characters alive and annoy the crap out of your opponents, but you may be better served by keeping it simple and loading up on more marines.
**When your opponent tries to kill you IRL for making your army stupidly survivable, [[Troll|remind him that you only did it to try and make his life simpler, as now he doesn't need to worry about the AP modifiers of his weapons]]
*'''Deathwatch Teleport Homer:''' This exceptionally-useful piece of tech allows a unit to teleport to a pre-determined location during the movement phase instead of moving normally (even if they're locked in combat). During deployment, the homer is placed anywhere in your deployment zone. If an enemy model comes within 9" of the homer it is destroyed. During your movement phase, a unit which contains a Deathwatch Terminator can teleport to the homer, setting up within 6" of it, after which the homer is destroyed. The wording allows for units to share teleport homers as well - you don't have to move your unit to the particular homer they placed. Use it to rescue ranged units from melee units or simply re-position a Kill Team.  
*'''Combat Shield:''' A cheap 5+ invuln save. Unlike the Storm Shield it doesn't replace anything, so you can keep your guns with it.

===Relics===
*'''Beacon Angelis''': Once per battle, at the end of your movement phase, you can teleport a {{W40kKeyword|Deathwatch Infantry}} or {{W40kKeyword|Biker}} unit from any point on the battlefield or from reserve to within 6" of the bearer and more than 9" from enemy models. 
**With the addition of Litanies of Battle, a Chaplain with an active litany can be beaconed over to our deep strikers.

*'''Tome of Ectoclades''': At the start of each turn, pick a Mission Tactic. Anyone within 6" of the bearer may use that Mission Tactic instead of the one currently affecting the army. <s>Of course, this means a unit needs to have a Mission Tactic to begin with, so vehicles aren't affected</s> ''Your weapons already give you flexibility, now so do your Mission Tactics''.
** Note that in the recent FAQ (v1.4, 29/05/2019), the Tome is capable of giving the Mission Tactic to a {{W40kKeyword|Deathwatch}} unit that does not have the Mission Tactics rule (Either because it is a unit that does not have the rule, or because it is not in a battleforged detachment). Enjoy giving it to your Vehicles! (Page 3, first item)
*'''Banebolts of Eryxia:''' +1 damage to a ranged weapon shooting special ammunition, and each wound roll of 6+ made for any special ammunition causes one extra mortal wound in addition to the normal damage. Cannot be combined with the warlord trait "Castellan of the Black Vault".
**Mighty on Storm Bolters, which can net you up to 8 damage at close range and have more chances to do those MW. And since they happen on a 6'''+''', the Doctrine Stratagems will trigger MW on a 5+. 
**Put on a primaris captain with MC stalker boltrifle and hellfire up, point at a carnifex, and enjoy hitting on a 2 rerolling 1s, wounding on 2+, ap -2, D3 (D4) shots. 
**Master-crafted Bolters and MC Auto-Bolt Rifles will also deal whopping 3 damage a shot (though it's best to point them at the bigger stuff as to not waste damage), which enable Vengeance rounds threaten medium vehicles. That way someone else can use Tempest Shells.
** If the Beta Bolter rules go through, this will be terrifying on a stormbolter terminator captain.
*** They went through. It IS terrifying.
*** Thanks to the FAQ, can't choose Bolter Discipline and Special Ammo at the same time. Not as terrifying, but still a threat.
*'''Dominus Aegis:''' A buffed storm shield. If the bearer does not move, all friendly Deathwatch models within 6" gain a 5+ invulnerable save. ''Good for any of your ranged units, but excellent for Primaris, who fit double the wounds in the same space and have better range (so they need to move less)''.
*'''The Osseus Key:''' Watch Master only. Enemy vehicles get -1 to hit if they are within 9" of him (so, not on deepstriking). Additionally, each time he fights, he can make an additional attack with the Key against a vehicle within 1", and if he hits, he causes d3 mortal wounds. Essentially, a souped up Clavis that doesn't need CP to activate.
*'''Thief of Secrets:''' 2D Power Sword that re-rolls failed to wound rolls against an alien race of your choice (Tau, Tyranids, Orks, Necrons, or Aeldari) picked at the beginning of the game.