Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex DeathWatch 1st Impressions
Goatboy here and I’m diving into the DeathWatch codex – overall it looks like a pretty interesting one!
I think it is a pretty unique update to a Marine army and feels different enough to warrant people playing it. I don’t think it has some of the sheer power some of the “mainstays” do – but I don’t think it is bad. There are some interesting ways to set up some “objective secured” units with different styles of Killteams. With that thought – let’s dig in.
Specialisms and Mission Tactics
The index release had a lot of the initial ingredients for the army in there. You have multiple ways to make Killteams, different types of units, and some overall interesting bits. This supplement gives you the rest of the goodies to make an interesting army. You get the warlord traits, some psychic bits, a plethora of stratagems, and even some Relics. All of that stuff is good and builds a way to make this army unique. I really like the Specialisms keyword system for this book as it truly lets you customize how you play.
The switch in how you control the Chapter Tactics is one of those cool little options that make this book unique. I love being able to choose a Doctrine as you need it as it allows you some customization as you need to. Are you thinking you won’t use any Assault options so if you burn one or two right away you can utilize Tactical and Devastator to some insane usage in the later rounds? There is a big shot at making a very fast Outrider army too so are you going to use a lot of troops busting outriders? Are you going to set up some heavy-hitting sniper options as well for the army? All of these things that allow tweaks to the doctrine stack are pretty dang cool and I applaud GW for making something unique and not insanely hard to keep track of during a game.
Let’s Talk Points & Stats
Another interesting bit is that they really went into the tank to tweak points per unit. Looking at how Thunder Hammers go to 12 points for a lot of the DeathWatch stuff is neat. It makes more sense as the basic trooper is a bit more expensive so having their options be a bit cheaper does help. They also went the route of specific types of Killteams costing points as they control what that unit “wishes Death on” ie reroll 1’s to wound against. I think most armies will see you doing the Troop option and it makes sense they would be the most expensive Killteam upgrade. I could see some use for some objective secured Eradicators hating on vehicles but will see.
There is something here with a massed Death Watch biker/Outrider army. The Veteran bikers got more wounds and with everyone having some neat options on top of being Objective secured it starts to get interesting. Right now the frustration is the overall lack of all the units being available as some of the Killteams need Heavy Intercessors as the initial “tax” for the unit. It’s ok as I am sure they will be here soon or in a few weeks but it is still frustrating. I hope the box set is 10 models as it would be great to get 2 “Troop” units if you needed for those fun little Patrol Detachments.
Disciplines, Blessings & Secondaries
I think the Xenopurge Discipline is pretty dang interesting overall. There are a few good Blessing and some awesome “f-u” options as well. The winners feel like the 5+ Feel No Pain for infantry/bikers and the +1 to hit in melee options. There is a funky one called Mantle of Shadow that lets you make a unit untargetable if it doesn’t produce any offense and is not within 12″ of the shooting unit. The Severance power seems neat as you can reduce a Character’s “Auras” by 3″ or turn them off if you beat their Leadership on your psychic check. That is a pretty cool power and you even throw a single mortal wound onto them in the process.
On the Secondary front – there are some that seem pretty doable. The gain of one VP for every Xenos unit you kill could be pretty amazing versus some of the Horde options. Purge the Enemy seems doable as you can select battlefield roles you know your opponent has that you can hit easily enough to get up to 15 points at the end of the game. Overall it really depends on what you are playing against – so you might just stick with the one heavily used Marine one and leave them for more “fluffy” games.
Stratagems & Relics
On the Stratagem front, they seem to have some good ones. I like the whole “pick” a doctrine for a unit for 1CP. That seems pretty good and handy. The 1CP Teleportarium power is going to be good too. I hear teleporting bikers might be cool to come from the sky doing dumb biker stuff. I like the add +1 attack when fighting a Xenos unit in the army. That seems pretty good and cheap at 1CP. Brotherhood of Veterans seems really interesting in that you can shut off your current “DeathWatch” chapter trait and get one from the other Chapters. I can see some insane combos with that especially with pre set up Kill teams to get the reroll 1’s to wound and other fun things. I know I keep talking about Bikers but there is something there – get some sweet Advance and Charge from the White Scars and go in hot and heavy as needed.
The Relics seem interesting. If you’re planning on keeping your models near each other the 6″ aura of 5+ invulnerable save seems pretty dang neat. I chuckled at The Thief of Secrets super sword that ignore invulnerable saves and is at a -4 AP. That seems pretty fun as it also hurts more when fighting against Xenos. The Beacon is back and you can do some fun teleport tricks which seems pretty good. Overall the Relics are ok – mixed that with some of the Marine ones and you get a nice bit of options to mess with. This is the same with the Warlord Traits. I think there are some powerful options from the main Marine book we will see – and as this army can set up a ton of their Killteams to generate Objectives secured for units that don’t normally have it you might end up using some more interesting ones.
Overall the book is pretty dang interesting with a lot of cool rules and options to play a pretty cheap army to build and paint up. I think trying to find all the shoulder pads would be an issue but I am sure you can look around or find some fun bits and pieces to make it work. If not they can just be another shade of marines.
Suffer not the Xenos to Live!
