Watch Fortress Tactics

[Mobius0288]

So having watched all these codexes drop with their specialization rules, would the current ones even benefit us? I realize we've talked about this a couple of times and imagined what are dream ones would be... but we're starting to see patterns. Some tactics are repeating, meaning DW may not get the tactics they need to make them super great like we want. It's not the intention to create a complaining thread...

 

Do you guys think some of the existing tactics would make DW stronger? Playing off 7th edition, we had Furor, Malleus, Purgatus and Venator tactics.

 

Some of the existing ones off the top of my head from other armies:

- In the shooting phase, -1 to hit (varying requirements....greater then 12", etc.)

- advance and shoot w/o penalties

- Always have cover benefit/when standing

- Certain rapid fire weapons are assault types (bolters in our case for an equivalent?)

- Reroll hit rolls of 1 (new necron one)

- Reroll failed hits/wounds in a particular phase (not like we have Lts)

 

I guess the long shot here is maybe this kind of discussion/feedback could reach its way to the Games Workshop developers. Any thoughts brothers from the Watch?

[Moostick]

Our issues go far deeper than not having Chapter Tactics; that's a very small thing in the grand scheme of problems with DW. We likely won't get any of the existing SM ones, but Raven Guard and Jormungandr are clear winners.

 

That being said, allegedly our codex has been completed for many months now and they're just sitting on it. This means any assessments made now won't be valid once our codex is released until we playtest that.

[dicebod]

Looking at the old 7th ed dex, it looks like each of the watch fortresses specializes against a certain xeno threat; I could see that being implemented as like a supplementary benefit of a fortress tactic, i.e. Talasa Prime - no penalty to heavy weapons and reroll 1s when fighting Tyranids, or something like that.

 

What's more likely to me though is that we won't get any special tactics (see the GK/Custodes codices) because the release will be too small.

[robofish7591]

Honestly, I would rather see something more akin to our mission tactics from last edition.  Although, a lot more varied rules rather than just rerolls against specific things.  It would be cool to be able to choose a tactic at the beginning of the game that would fit with the opponent and mission.

 

They could be things like -1 to be hit outside of 12 inches, and they fluff it as the deathwatch focus on evading fire because tau bring lots of long ranged weapons, advance and fire rapid fire at -1 and assault weapons with no penalty because they have experience chasing down quick eldar, or a bonus to overwatch because facing orks they know they need to shoot them before they reach combat.

 

Maybe if you take a watch master you are able to change tactics once per game or something.  Some kind of throwback to our 7th ed mission tactics would be cool in my opinion.

[Boyadventurer]

I agree we'll likely end up like the BA/DA/GK etc codexes: one main special rule that "defines" DW. rather than breaking it into more nuanced tactics. Are there really any established identities to the watch fortresses?

 

I hope the majority of any "targeting <XENOS>" abilities/buffs are in the form of strategems and not our main special rule. That said, DW codex has the potential for TONS of cool strategems (both <XENOS> specific, and stuff like Lion and the Wolf).

[Moostick]

I'm leaning heavily towards a lazy approach in which they just make SIA our chapter tactic, but they also place a <only this list of units/weapons get it> type of restriction on it, similar to what we have now.

[Duke Danse Macabre]

As much as I would like to see mission tactics back so we can buff ourselves to face the for at hand I doubt we will see it's return this edition and we are much more likely as others have said to see a one force warlord trait more than likely geared to only xenos.

If we are lucky it will let us hard counter nids and or is, it is highly likely we will struggle against forces of chaos and the imperium in general.

 

Personally though I'm much more concerned over our huge lack of options in our force and would hope to gain something to help plug the gap and fix little issues like special issue ammunition not being able to be used by all models and maybe even some anti xenos tank rounds and repurposed xenos tech.

 

A guy cam dream right?

[Inquisitor Red]

Sense Deathwatch is the Xenos version of Grey Knights I'd imagine we'd get something similar to our silver brethren. That being we get general stratagems but they get boosted when targeted against Xenos.

[Mobius0288]

Our issues go far deeper than not having Chapter Tactics; that's a very small thing in the grand scheme of problems with DW.

Completely agree. So far we haven't seen any drastic changes from factions as they transitioned from Index to Codex, at least as far as army mechanics. This stuff may be all we get. Unfortunately I think the last couple big tournaments are what drove this feedback. It's really hard to tell if emailing GW, posting on their FB or just general discussion even reaches to Devs. Even an acknowledgement would be nice :)

 

 

What's more likely to me though is that we won't get any special tactics (see the GK/Custodes codices) because the release will be too small.

We had a pretty beefy codex in 7th though. Lots of lore :) The thing with GK is they were already fairly strong, they were given a new type of unit and gained some army wide battleforge rules. Custodes, though relatively new this edition, gained a bunch unit options and some army wide rules to buff their weakness (psychic mortal wounds).

 

We could still get that same treatment - reduced point cost, reducing kill team requirements, etc. Ultimately that's what moostick is getting at. Maybe they won't make core changes and we'll just stuck being a semi-effective allied force even though our dream is to be our own army.

 

I also agree with you that I hope we can become more effective against the current xenos armies, especially the mass number of Tyranids :-P

 

 

 Are there really any established identities to the watch fortresses?

In lore, each watch fortress should have the capability to train each of the 4 tactics. I don't imagine they would tie each watch fortress to specific types of kill teams... unless they change it up in the new codex.