Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Deathwatch(7E)/Kill Team

Why Play Deathwatch

• This is XCOM, in 40k. Get 6 Veterans, kit them for 100 points, and go smash the enemies of man.

• Access to some sweet toys no one else has. (SUCK IT DARK ANGEL!)

• You can have any Chapter you want, so long as you move their badge to the left shoulder and paint their armor black.

• One of the easiest paint jobs out there. Even a palsy stricken chimp could pull it of.

• Increadably cheap (by Games Workshop standards). One Box of Deathwatch veterans and you are good to go.

• Combi. Heavy bolters. Heavy Flamers.

• Giant Two-Handed Thunder Hammers.

• Handheld fragstorm cannons.

Weapon Analysis

The Deathwatch weapons racks contain a bunch of fancy gizmos for killing Xenos.

Ranged

-Bolt weapons (minus heavy bolter) all benefit from Deathwatch special issue ammunition. This includes storm bolters, which causes much hilarity.

-Sergeants can take combimelta or combiplasma guns, which add some extra AP dakka to their arsenal.

-Deathwatch shotgun: Has three profiles; a bad flamer, a wound reroller, and one with extra AP and damage. It is an assault weapon, so fast attack is the way to go with this one.

-Infernus heavy bolter: A heavy bolter and a heavy flamer rolled into one. It's super good, but unfortunately useless because its alternative is...

-The Fragstorm cannon: Can be a strength six 2d6 AP-1 flamer or a strength 9 AP-3 2 damage handheld lascannon. This thing rips through squishy and tough units alike, being a constant threat no matter its relative board position. Oh, and it's an assault weapon. For some reason.

Melee

-Power sword: All veterans get these stock with bolters. AP-3 and user strength, it's the ol' reliable of the deathwatch armory.

-Power Maul: Only AP-1, but the user gets +2 to strength while using it, making it the bane of squishy kill teams everywhere.

-Heavy thunder hammer: Exactly what it sounds like. Does a D6 damage as opposed to a flat 3, making it humorously capable of doing less damage than a normal thunder hammer.

-Xenophase blade: Only usable by the watch sergeant, it's a power sword that forces the people it's hitting to reroll their successful invulnerable saves. Genestealers and Harlequins hate it.

Unit Analysis

Troops

• Veterans:

Honestly these guys are probably going to be your entire Kill team. A mildly kitted out Veteran Squad can easily pop the 100 point limit in Kill Team.

A veteran squad consists of 5 veterans one of which can be upgraded into a Watch Sergeant, and another which can be upgraded into a Black Shield.

• Intercessors:

Can be useful, but only because of Deathwatch special ammunition. Load auto bolters with AP-2 for a fast and deadly MEQ killer, or a stalker

pattern bolt rifle with long range ammunition for a 42 inch AP-3 kill shot.

• Reivers:

Pretty much pointless when regular deathwatch veterans all get power swords and bolters for 3 points less.

Elites

• Vanguard Veterans:

Expensive (double the cost of a normal marine) but with storm shields and thunder hammers baseline, these guys make a high-risk high-reward sideboarder.

• Terminators

Terminators are expensive and fragile for their cost, coming with a 2+ armor save and 5+ invuln baseline, but can be improved with the Deathwatch's armory. Storm bolters gain the benefit of special ammunition, and while 4 shots hitting on 3's, wounding on 4's and having AP-2 is pretty lethal, they do become more expensive when given to the deathwatch. A terminator with a storm shield and a thunder hammer will run you between one third and a full half a kill teams price, so you need to rely on RNG for the invuln saves, lest you lose most of your team to one well timed plasma overcharge.

Captains and Chaplains in terminator armor are legal in commanders, and give the deathwatch a nice alternative to the inordinately expensive Watch Master.

Commanders

• Watch Master

As previously mentioned, this guy is one of the most expensive commanders in the game. For that hefty 125 point base price however, you get some pretty impressive pieces of kit. Firstly, he gets a Custodes guardian spear for free, 6 wounds, 2+ WS and BS, and a 4+ invuln. To top that off, for two command points he allows any ally within 6 inches to re-roll any failed attack roll for the rest of the turn. That may sound expensive, until you realize he can also be a command point generator, effectively neutering the price. Yikes.

• All the other ones

Deathwatch can also take most of the other space marine commanders, though they don't have any major changes other than deathwatch ammunition.

Tactics

Army variants

How to make your friends never player with you again:

Member one: Deathwatch watch sergeant with xenophase blade and combi-plasma gun

Member two: Deathwatch gunner with fragstorm cannon.

Member three: Deathwatch gunner with fragstorm cannon.

Member four: Deathwatch gunner with fragstorm cannon.

Member five: Deathwatch gunner with fragstorm cannon.

This puts you just above 100 points and well below 125. It's stupid, no fun, will make all your friends hate you, and is effectively guaranteed to win the game.

What to buy

Buying the Deathwatch Kill Team box will give you literally everything you need to build a kill team. The rest is really up to you. You have the option of Intercessors or Reivers if you want to run Primaris over veterans.