(Kill The Alien, Before It Can Speak It's Lies!)
Overview :
The Deathwatch are one of the Chambers Millitant of the Imperial Inquisition, that is to say they are one of the major millitary forces bound by ancient oaths of allegience to answers the Inquisition's calls for millitary aid. The Deathwatch are specifically the Chamber Millitant of the Ordo Xenos, the Alien Hunters, and specialise in combatting the Alien in all it's myriad forms, from the technologically advanced forces of the Tau and savage hordes of Orks, to the relentless hunger of the Tyranids and the perfidious schemes of the Eldar.
Much like the Grey Knights, the Deathwatch are a chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, however whilst the Grey Knights are a chapter into and of themselves, recruiting, training and equipping their warriors as they see fit, the Deathwatch are actually made up of warriors seconded from other Space Marine chapters that have pledged to support the Deathwatch. Space wolves fight alongside Dark Angels, Minotaurs alongside Ultramarines, all putting their differences and ancient grudges aside in service to the Emperor and Imperium.
Less bound by doctrine and tradition than the rest of the Imperium and the Adeptus Astartes, the Deathwatch put combat effectiveness and lethality above almost all other considerations. They usually fight in squad-sized Kill Teams, each composed of the most appropriate specialists for that mission, each equipped in a manner that best complements their abilities rather than adhering to the strictures of the Codex Astartes. Likewise their equipment is of the highest quality, with their armouries containing everything from suits of advanced MK VIII Power Armour and Tactical Dreadnought suits, to a wide array of specialised bolt rounds and the lethally effective Corvus Blackstar dropships.
Basically, the Deathwatch are awesome.
Fluff :
I've given a brief overview of the Deathwatch, who they are, and what they do above. Beyond this however the Games Workshop canon had little information in regards to them until the release of the Deathwatch RPG by Fantasy Flight games back in 2010 and more recently the release of Deathwatch : Overkill earlier this year. Before this they were limited to a single Chapter Approved article, and a handful of short stories and mentions in the fluff in relation to the Tyranids, Necrons and other alien threats.The Deathwatch Codex takes the information from these sources and elaborates on it to an excent, as well as containing the usual handful of short stories, vignettes and the like.
The book begins with an introduction to the Deathwatch, who they are, and what they do, more or less mirroring the overview I have above but in somewhat greater detail. This is followed by a two page spread on their equipment, including their armour and the specialised bolter rounds they make use of. One little nugget of fluff that I quite like in this section is that it's mentioned that the Deathwatch do fear the "Sin of Innovation" in the same manner as the Adeptus Mechanicus, and that they are constantly reassessing, fine tuning and modifying their geat to make it ever more lethal to the foes they face. I like this, it ties into their "Black Ops Astartes" aesthetic and it's nice to see at least one Imperial faction with a grain of common sense...
Next up we've a map of the Imperium with a number of Deathwatch Watch Fortresses and Watch Stations marked upon it followed by examples of Deathwatch heraldry and an overview of the structure of the Deathwatch and details of it's tactics and the roles typically filled by Astartes from it's different constituent chapters. I have to admit I rolled my eyes when looking at the list of Watch Fortresses, Fort Pykman watches over the Ghoul Stars eh? Oh dear... Next up are a few more pages of art and general information followed by a timeline, which has some pretty awesome events mentioned on it. My personal favourite being the Deathwatch luring an Eldar force into direct battle by the simple expedient of incinerating massive swathes of a Maiden World. Simple, but effective. It's also good to see that a fair few of the timeline events are chronicles of battles against foes that aren't the major Xenos races, with battles against Ur Ghul, Sslyth, Psychneuin, Hrud, Lacyrmole and more are mentioned therein.
Next up we've got the "Bestiary" section, that gives further information about the different units available in the codex. It starts with the Watch Master, who is the Deathwatch equivalent of a Chapter Master, with one of these venerable warriors being in charge of each major watch fortress. Whilst the fluff for the most part is what you'd expect, extolling their virtues of wisdom, tactical ability and strategic cunning, there is one little item which caused my interest to flare. That being that the Watch Masters are each armed with a Guardian Spear, the weapons used by the Adeptus Custodes, modified to use the specialised bolt ammunition favoured by the Deathwatch. That's...interesting, and not to me in a bad way. According to the book these spears were granted to them as a sign of the trust implicit in their role, and as a sign of their role as guardians of the Imperium, and to me at least that makes sense. Plus I really like spears in general.
After the Watch Masters we move onto the rest of the Deathwatch units, Watch Captains, Chaplains, Librarians, Veterans, Vanguard Veterans, Bikers, Terminators, Dreadnoughts and Transport Vehicles (Rhinos, Razorbacks and Land Raiders). These are all what you'd expect, with their fluff entries giving a bit more detail as to how they're utilised by the Deathwatch whilst emphasising their versatility and the lethal power of the weapons they can requisition from the extensive armouries of the Deathwatch. At the end of this section we have a new unit, in the form of the Corvus Blackstar, and it's pretty impressive. The Blackstar is a Deathwatch exclusive transport and gunship, which unlike a certain heavily armoured space potato actually looks like it's vaguely capable of flight. It's a sleek, low profile vehicle that I think looks damn cool as well as tying in well to the aesthetics of the Deathwatch, whilst it's variety of weapons leave it capable of fulfilling all manner of combat roles. Just like the warriors it carries it's an eminently adaptable vehicle.
The rest of the books fluff is dispersed through the Army List and Equipment sections, and for the most part it's more of what's come before, just giving a little more detail or a few more lines of information with regards to pieces of equipment and unit selection. Again there are some interesting bits and pieces scattered throughout, such as details on the archaic Clavis devices wielded by the Watch Masters and the dizzying array of armaments available ranging from mighty Heavy Thunder Hammers to eldritch Xenophase Swords adapted from Necrontyr technology.
The fluff throughout the book is solid, well written, and with plenty of interesting little tidbits that have both piqued my interest and set part of my brain pondering another Deathwatch game at some point, or at the very least taking some of the lesser used Xenos species and throwing them at my Inquisition and Penal Legion Dark Heresy groups.
Crunch :
Ok, so we know what the Deathwatch are, the next question is how do they perform on the table?
As you'd expect really, the Deathwatch are an elite, well equipped force intended for brutally effective precision strikes and their rules and army list reflect this. The Deathwatch are, in terms of points cost, expensive even by space marine standards, with their basic troops being the equivalent of Sternguard Veterans, and though they have plenty of options with regards to customisation these can quickly cause their points cost to rack up. They also have a rather limited roster of units to choose from, and with the exception of their basic Veteran squads no unit can contain more than 5 models. This leaves them VERY vulnerable to taking casualties, especially considering that even if you equip them with Storm Shields and the like (Yes, you can pretty much give every model in this army an invulnerable saving throw), they're no more resistant to massed small arms fire than any other Astartes.
Here's a quick overview of what units are in the codex. Many are almost identical to the standard Space Marine units, so I'll only go into detail with regards to the differences from the base Astartes codex.
HQ :
- Watch Master : A Chapter Master equivalent, armed with a Guardian Spear (which is essentially a Relic Blade with worse Strength, better AP, a built in bolter, and the ability to block one enemy attack per round) and equipped with Artificer Armour and an Iron Halo, as well as the "Clavis" which nerfs the BS, WS and I of nearby enemy vehicles. He can't really be customised in terms of weapon loadout but then he's a credible threat to anything short of walkers and monstrous creatures in combat. Give him a decent escort and he'll make mincemeat out of most other units.
- Watch Captain : A Space Marine Captain with Special Issue Ammunition and access to Deathwatch equipment.
- Chaplain : As above, save a Chaplain.
- Librarian : And again, save a Librarian.
- Terminators : Deathwatch Terminators come with Fearless as standard, and units start at One model with the ability to take up to four more. They're otherwise identical to standard terminators save for their weapon options, and by the Emperor what options they have. In addition to the usual option to take Lightning Claws, Storm Shields, Thunder Hammers and the like, ANY model in a Deathwatch Terminator Squad can take a heavy weapon and/or add an auxiliary Meltagun to their powerfist. Yes, you can have a 5 man terminator squad where every model is armed with an assault cannon.
- Dreadnought / Venerable Dreadnought : Save for losing a few weapon options (such as Autocannons and Heavy Bolters), these are identical to standard Space Marine Dreadnoughts and Venerable Dreadnoughts.
- Vanguard Veterans : Like the Terminators Vanguard Veterans start with one model, and can take up to four more. They're mostly identical to standard Vanguard Veterans save that they have Special Issue Ammunition for their bolt pistols and a few new weapon options. Any member of the squad can take an Inferno Pistol, a Hand Flamer, or the hilarious new Heavy Thunder Hammer. Because who doesn't love a Strength 10, AP 2, Concussive weapon that causes Instant Death on any to wound roll of a 6?
- Veterans : These guys are amazing, being the (un)holy fusion of a Sternguard Squad and a Company Command Squad. The basic five man squad are near identical to Sternguard, but they have the weapon and upgrade options of a Command Squad. Any model may take a Special Weapon (including a Deathwatch Shotgun with its own selection of special issue ammunition, or a Stalker Pattern Boltgun), Heavy Thunder Hammer or Storm Shield. Four (yes FOUR) models may take Heavy Weapons, ranging from the standard Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters to the amazing new Deathwatch Frag Cannon (an Assault Weapon which can either fire a pair of S 6 AP - Templates per turn, or a pair of S7 AP 3 shots that become S 9 AP 2 when fired at targets within 12") and Infernus Heavy Bolter (An Assault 3 Heavy Bolter with an underslung Heavy Flamer. Yup.). The Sergeant can take a Xenophase Sword, which is a power sword that forces creatures it wounds to re-roll succesful Invulnerable Saves, and one squad member can be upgraded to a Black Shield who doubles their number of attacks if locked in combat with an Independant Character, Monstrous Creature, Vehicle, or if outnumbered. These guys are amazingly versatile and can potentially deal with almost anything. However all of these upgrades come at a price and though it'd be tempting to have a veteran squad armed entirely with plasma guns and storm shields such a loadout would cost almost 500pts for a unit that's perfectly susceptible to being tarpitted or wiped out by massive amounts of Lasgun fire. Use them properly though, and make sure they're deployed in the right place at the right time, and you've a unit that can crack almost any target.
- Bikers : Deathwatch Bikers are another unit that start with one model, and can take up to four more. These are Space Marine bikers with a Veteran stat-line and Special Issue Ammunition for their twin linked bolters. Each model can take a power weapon, but unfortunately they have no other weapon upgrade options nor can you take a Deathwatch Attack Bike. They can however take Teleport Homers and with their statline and increased toughness they're great for skirmishing and picking on smaller units. The unit also has Split Fire, Skilled Rider and every model can take Melta Bombs, increasing both their manouverability and ability to threaten enemy vehicles / monstrous creatures.
- Corvus Blackstar* : The newest addition to the Imperium's vehicular arsenal, the Corvus Blackstar is a reasonably durable flier (with Armour 12 / 12 / 11 and 3 Hull Points) which comes with a Twin Linked Assault Cannon, four Stormstrike Missiles, and a Blackstar Cluster Launcher (which fires either a volley of 1D6 S 4, AP 4, Skyfire bombs, or a S 5, AP 4 Large Blast bomb that Ignores cover). It's an Assault Vehicle with a transport capacity of 12 and the ability to carry both Bikes and Jump Infantry. The Assault Cannons can be replaced with a Twin Linked Lascannon, the Stormstrike Missiles with a Blackstar Rocket Launcher (Firing either 1d6 S 6, AP 4 Skyfire shots, or a single S 4, AP 5, Large Blast that Ignores Cover), and it can take a Searchlight, Extra Armour, Locator Beacon, Hurricane Bolter, and either an Infernum Halo Launcher (which allows the Blackstar to re-roll failed cover saves when jinking) or an Auspex Array (which gives the Blackstar the Strafing Run special rule). It's a wonderfully versatile aerial toolbox, perfect both for deploying a Kill Team and for providing them with support fire once it's dropped them off. The model too looks really cool and I'm definitely getting one when I get around to doing some more modelling and painting.
- Drop Pod / Rhino / Razorback* :Your standard Dedicated Transports.
- Land Raider / Land Raider Crusader / Land Raider Redeemer : Same old Land Raider, same old schizophrenic awesomeness.
So, as I said, a fairly limited force selection, though all of it's components are highly customisable and if used carefully very dangerous. The Deathwatch also have a replacement for the standard Chapter Tactics, in the form of the Mission Tactics special rule which allows the commanding player to select one enemy unit type (HQ, Elite, Troops, Fast Attack or Heavy Support), against which all units in the army re-roll To Hit rolls of a one. This can be changed once per battle at the start of any turn after the first, or twice if the army contains a Watch Master. It's a useful little rule, that encourages you to systematically pick apart your opponents army, eliminating one threat before moving onto the next.
The Codex also contains the standard selection of Warlord Traits and Relics, all of which are nicely flavourful and all of which have their place in the army. I particularly love the Dominus Aegis, a tower shield which, if the bearer hasn't moved, grants their unit a 4+ invulnerable saving throw as they slam it into the ground and activate its built in force field generator. Beyond these relics (and the armaments I mentioned in the unit analysis above) the Deathwatch's armoury is identical to that of the Space Marines. One thing I do really like however is that the rules for Special Issue Ammunition have been broadened to apply not just to normal Bolters, but to Bolt Pistols and Stalker Pattern Bolters as well. If only they could also be used in Storm Bolters and Heavy Bolters... One day, one beautiful day... The Deathwatch Shotgun is also pretty cool, being capable of firing Cryptclearer Rounds (16", S4, AP -, Assault 2, Shred), Xenopurge Rounds (16", S 4, AP 4, Assault 2), and Wyrmsbreath Rounds (Templace, S 3, AP 6, Assault 1). Who wants to charge a squad where every member is armed with some sort of flame weapon?
Finally the book contains a selection of Formations and an alternate army selection method in the Black Spear Strike Force. I'm mostly going to gloss over this as I've never been a fan of them, and honestly think that the standard Force Organisation Chart is the best way to deal with army selection, but still there are a few bits and pieces I'm a fan of, such as the fact that all non-vehicles in a Black Spear Strike Force gain Deep Strike, and the ability to create Kill Teams. Kill Teams are a single Veteran unit, backed up by Terminators, Bikers, Vanguard Veterans and Librarians, all of which are formed into a single squad on the battlefield. Whilst this does have some major mobility issues it allows them to share their special rules, with Terminators granting the squad Fearless, Bikes Split Fire and Vanguard Veterans Heroic Intervention. It's a nice concept, though I think it could have been refined a little more.
On that subject, we've finally come to my handful of issues with the codexes rules, all of which can (I think) be easily fixed with a couple of house rules. These are that despite their presence in the RPG and Fluff, a Deathwatch army cannot contain any Apothecaries or Techmarines. Secondly that Bikes and Vanguard Veterans that are part of a Kill Team must stay within the normal Coherency limits of a unit, and the Kill Team may only embark into a transport that all of its members can fit into.This massively limits their manouverability, especially as a Kill Team may not split up using the Combat Squads special rule.
- Deathwatch Apothecary / Techmarine : A Veteran Squad may upgrade one model to an Apothecary and one model to a Techmarine. In both cases this costs 30ts, with the Apothecary gaining a Narthecium (Codex Space Marines p.195) in addition to their normal equipment, while the Techmarine gains a Servo Arm (Codex Space Marines p.193) and the Blessing of the Omnissiah (Codex Space Marines p.132) special rule.
- Dispersed Deployment : This House Rule states that when a unit embarks on a transport any Jump Infantry and Bikes may remain outside, so long as they move with the transport and maintain Coherency with the vehicle itself. Furthermore Jump Infantry and Bikes increase their coherency distance to 4".
Art :
I don't have a lot to say about the art in the Codex (and as a sidenote I'm merging my thoughts on the models I've seen into this section), as overall it's very solid without any John Blanche or the awful artist (who's name I'm not aware of) who has been providing static, wierdly proportioned pieces for the last few codices. Indeed I'd say the books illustrations are some of the best art I've seen in a codex in some time, though I admit I may be a little biased due to my own love of the Deathwatch. There is one strange choice though, that being that for the most part the art for the DEATHWATCH codex portrays members of the DEATHWATCH, the double page spread on pages 8-9 instead depicts...an Ultramarine. Not a Deathwatch Ultramarine, just your average Smurf charging a Tyranid Warrior with a knife, as the Codex Dictates.
Bloody Ultramarines.
The one section I really dislike in terms of art direction is the heraldry / colour scheme guide that starts on page 46. Since the Necron Codex the new Codices have dedicated a good dozen pages to these awful, copypasted images of the appropriate army depicted in a variety of different colour schemes. I'd personally rather have either more painted models, or a smaller number of detailed images in the style of Osprey's millitary books, a style that Forge World have made use of in a fair few of their publications. I know it's another way of showing heraldry, unit insignia, alternate colour schemes and the like, but it's just so damn UGLY.
As for the models, they're absolutely lovely. Almost to a man they're equipped with MK VIII armour which just looks really cool, and the plastics are both crisp and detailed, with the new weapons and wargear all looking really amazing. My only issue is the design being used for the Stalker Pattern Boltgun, which does NOT look like a sniper rifle at all, looking more like an ugly little bolt carbine. It's something that I'd definitely convert to look more like a proper sniper weapon. That however is my only model issue, and I'm definitely going to be grabbing some models when I next get around to modelling / painting. In fact I was planning to pick up Death Masque, only for Element Games to run out of copies before I could order mine. Very sad.
Conclusion :
So, my final thoughts. Though I honestly think that Games Workshop would have been better served to re-release one of the older Codices in need of an update (Chaos Space Marines and Tyranids spring immediately to mind), or to provide a proper codex for a faction in desperate need of one (The Sisters of Battle and Inquisition), I can't be displeased with this one. As I've repeatedly mentioned I'm a big fan of the Deathwatch, and the quality of the codex and models alike definitely does them justice. They're a great looking army that looks like they'd be a lot of fun to play, and I'd definitely advise anyone with an Imperial army to pick up the book and see what the Deathwatch can do for them in the form of an ally contingent, or even a single Kill Team formation.
Seriously though GW, come on, we NEED a new Sisters Codex.
Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael
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