No PA for Deathwatch yet, let's look at another DW army!

[Lifeafter]

I took this 2,000 points to a tournament this weekend.  Pretty pleased with how they played and how they look.  I didn't quite finish all my edge highlights, but I got them close enough! There's so much hatred for Xenos on this board. It's just a bundle of blind fury and anger that they exist. 

Edited February 18, 2020 by Lifeafter

[Mr4Minutes]

Looking pretty and intimidating.

 

What was your general strategy with the list?

[Lifeafter]

Gun line with Dreadnoughts and three 5 man squads with stalker boltguns and a missile launcher. Use drp pod, teleportariunm strat, beacon Angelis, and teleport homer to move around. Claim objectives, get in opponents deployment zone, kill units, survive with stormshields. Dreadnoughts could not stay alive, but the 10 man stormbolter squads did work. So much output. I bear a three riptide list but got destroyed by an imperial fist gunline that seized on me. Last game against necrons went poorly due to dice. Librarian perilled three times, charges were failed, couldn't finish off squads.

 

Honestly, I might add in more melee into the squads. I also had two stormshields in the stalker bolt guns and found those useful.

[HorrOwl]

That's a nice army/ 

It would be interesting to see a list and read tournament report  afterward :)

[Lifeafter]

Sure, happy to share. 2,000 points, the list was:

 

Librarian with force sword/stormbolter

Watchmaster

2x smash captain

Terminator captain with stormbolter/relic blade

Malleus inquisitor with cast two/deny two and combiplasma

 

3x 5 man vet squads with 4 stalker bolt guns/storm shields and a missile launcher

 

7 man vet squad, 3 combiplasma/storm shield, 3 stormbolter/storm shield, sgt with stormbolter powerfist

 

10 man vet squad, 7 stormbolter/storm shield, terminator with stormbolter/power sword, biker with homer, sgt with stormbolter/power sword

 

10 man vet squad, 4 stormbolter/storm shield, 4 frag cannon, terminator with stormbolter/power sword, sgt with stormbolter/storm shield

 

3x dreadnaught with twin lascannon/missile launcher

 

Drop pod

 

Plan was I gunlined with Dreadnoughts and stalker bolt guns/ml squads. Use drop pod, teleportarium, teleportation homer, beacon Angelis to get around board.

 

Drop pod held 7 man squad, librarian, watchmaster, and inquisitor. Ten man squad with bike started in teleportarium. Others ten man squad started somewhere deep in my deployment zone. Terminator captain started in reserve. One smash captain was War Lord. Lord of hidden knowledge and tome of ectoclades. He started near Dreadnoughts. Other smash captain starts on board or in the sky.

 

Librarian had beacon Angelis, wm had osseus key because I expected to see a lot of dreadnoughts. Turn one, drop in drop pod, beacon the frag cannon squad over to it. Turn 2 arrive with other ten man squad and terminator captain.

Edited February 20, 2020 by Lifeafter

[infyrana]

Nice, I like all the vets with Stalker Patterns, that's a lot of storm shields though, what ones did you model with?

[Lifeafter]

This army is a massive amount of kit bashing and conversions from 12 years ago.  The storm shields are vanguard shields and dw kit shields. I also have one storm shield from an old school dark angels kit.

 

I built a DW themed SM army in 2008 to take to Adepticon. At the time you could buy sprues and bits from the GW website. I bought a ton of stuff for iron hands, blood angels, dark angels, imperial fists, ultra marines, and choas space marines.  II then took an 11 year break from the game.

 

Last year I got back into warhammer, and DW had their own codex! A lot had changed, including bolters no longer being viable and storm bolter storm shields being the hotness. So I began the long process of converting my army to new bases and new weapons.  Converting by bolters to stalker bolters was really easy. Between ebay, DW kits, and trading at the local game store I was able to convert 12 of my bolters in stalker pattern boltguns.  I then did A LOT of surgery on my guys to convert the rest to storm shield/stormbolter guys. 

 

The dreadnoughts are also conversions from the Assault on Black Reach kit from 12+ years ago.  It came with a multi-melta/claw. I ebayed the lascannons and chopped up the right handed multimelta to turn it into a ML.  I used the typhoon missile launcher upgrade from the oldschool DA upgrade kit.  

 

Here's some of what I started with in 2008:

 

 

The army we took to Adepticon in 2008. I still have the vindicators. I wish they were in our codex. 

 

 

Here's a WIP picture I took of some of the converted, I hadn't finished basing or drilling out barrels. In this photo though, you can see the old school pads on the various marines and the chaos marine head. You can also see the conversion I did on the old pedro cantor model. I had to use a dremel for that one.  And in the back left is that dark angel storm shield.  I'm not with my army right now, so I'm having to use whatever pictures I happen to have. I can take more closeups later. 

 

 

 

 

[infyrana]

Thank you for the update and info!  Aye you've done what I did with my original marines from 3rd ed, except that you've actually had reason to finish and use your army, mine is forever changing over the editions and currently totally box-bound until I find something to do with it.  Yeah I remember well the bits purchasing from GW direct, I have had a LOT of bits purchased that way, ebay's been my current source for the extra stalker/frags/shields I own.  I was very curious over acquiring more stormshields (DW ones got expensive) and how you had them on your stalker guys, but those in the bottom picture at the front appear to be void of shields.  I have a few spare DA shield arms somewhere, so these might be very characterful thank you!  Sadly I never bought the newer vanguard kit for the hammer and shields (already own so many assault marines it's not worth it), the ones I do have will end up being re-made into smash captains etc.

 

Funny I got into DW 'fairly' recently too with the new DW kit and Corvus model - it's great to see people using the army without primaris.  Would be great to see your ML arm conversion!  I'm still toying with my spare dreads and the bits I bought ML's and Chaplain conversions, but have been distracted with the L&T so far this year.

 

I'm sure many of us would appreciate any further army pictures you might have :)

[Lifeafter]

I brought six loose storm shields and literally wedged them on the bases of the stalkers if my opponent cared about wysiwyg. Most don't. You can see one of the shields on the rim next to the drop pod. I might put some on a string and hang them on back packs if my opponent cares!

 

I love the stalkers, but they die. The stormbolters are where it's at.

[infyrana]

I brought six loose storm shields and literally wedged them on the bases of the stalkers if my opponent cared about wysiwyg. Most don't. You can see one of the shields on the rim next to the drop pod. I might put some on a string and hang them on back packs if my opponent cares!

 

I love the stalkers, but they die. The stormbolters are where it's at.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking to do - I have some of the old metal coffin door shields I wanted to plant on my 30k DG Assault Marines into the ground to 'pseudo' act as storm shields but worried people wouldn't like it, so ended up buying some resin round shields and was thinking to hook them over the marines with a tiny chain piece.  Glad to hear I'm not barmy alone in these ideas! :D

 

I have the SB's ready from all sorts of sources, but the stalker rifles look good on the marines though :)

[Lifeafter]

 

I brought six loose storm shields and literally wedged them on the bases of the stalkers if my opponent cared about wysiwyg. Most don't. You can see one of the shields on the rim next to the drop pod. I might put some on a string and hang them on back packs if my opponent cares!

 

I love the stalkers, but they die. The stormbolters are where it's at.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking to do - I have some of the old metal coffin door shields I wanted to plant on my 30k DG Assault Marines into the ground to 'pseudo' act as storm shields but worried people wouldn't like it, so ended up buying some resin round shields and was thinking to hook them over the marines with a tiny chain piece.  Glad to hear I'm not barmy alone in these ideas!

 

I have the SB's ready from all sorts of sources, but the stalker rifles look good on the marines though

 

 

Lol, go for it.  

 

Here's a shot of my Dreadnought conversion. I chopped up the multimelta barrel off and flipped it upside down. I then glued a typhoon launcher head to it. I greenstuffed the gap and transition. I'm not winning any sculpting awards, but it worked. 

 

 

I'll post more pictures soon. Too tired to type more tonight. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Dreadnought. The missile launcher conversion is imaginatively done.

[Lifeafter]

Good job on the Dreadnought. The missile launcher conversion is imaginatively done.

 

Thanks! I worked with what I had on hand. There are a lot of old models in this army. 

 

I wrote a post at dakkadakka.com that goes over my whole process. You can see it here if you're interested: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/785737.page

[Prot]

Great job Lifeafter, and welcome back to the hobby. 
 

it looks like you went about 50/50 win loss if I’m following you correctly. 

I love the old school work you’ve done. It reminds me of my original stuff, but I’ve sold 2 large DW armies and my third (current one) has a lot of Primaris. If I remember my old DW correctly there was enough metal in it that you could stuff it into a sock and rob a bank with it. 

So is your recent return to 40k the reason you have no Primaris? Or is there a tactical reason?
 

beating a Trip Tide list is no small task. What would you change experiencing the meta it is today? 
 

I look at your list and I think to myself.... I can’t play that. I have lots of models but I can’t make that list. It’s one of the things that drives me crazy about Deathwatch.  While the unit choices are narrow, the make up of those squads feels infinite. 
 

I like the Stormbolters too with a healthy dose of shields but they really lack punch with basic cover. This in part got me using a large Boltrifle squad and some of the stalker rifle Primaris. 
 

I love the dreads. I made the mistake of using a Repulsor but really the dreads are just a better deal and can use Wisdom. I pair them with missile launcher squads and cross my fingers against mechanized lists. 
 

did you like the Libby? I’ve considered pulling mine ( I typically use Greyfax). 
 

thanks for sharing your experience with us. 

[infyrana]

Excellent post over on Dakka, thank you for the link!  It's great to see this sort of story as many of us have had similar experiences when changing from one edition to the next rejigging load outs etc.  It's definitely one of the best reasons for magnets, even if they are fiddly!

 

Great idea for the Dread ML, I wondered how people were using the typhoon launcher!  I probably have an old arm somewhere I can reuse for such ideas :)

[Lifeafter]

Great job Lifeafter, and welcome back to the hobby. 

 

it looks like you went about 50/50 win loss if I’m following you correctly. 

I love the old school work you’ve done. It reminds me of my original stuff, but I’ve sold 2 large DW armies and my third (current one) has a lot of Primaris. If I remember my old DW correctly there was enough metal in it that you could stuff it into a sock and rob a bank with it. 

So is your recent return to 40k the reason you have no Primaris? Or is there a tactical reason?

 

beating a Trip Tide list is no small task. What would you change experiencing the meta it is today? 

 

I look at your list and I think to myself.... I can’t play that. I have lots of models but I can’t make that list. It’s one of the things that drives me crazy about Deathwatch.  While the unit choices are narrow, the make up of those squads feels infinite. 

 

I like the Stormbolters too with a healthy dose of shields but they really lack punch with basic cover. This in part got me using a large Boltrifle squad and some of the stalker rifle Primaris. 

 

I love the dreads. I made the mistake of using a Repulsor but really the dreads are just a better deal and can use Wisdom. I pair them with missile launcher squads and cross my fingers against mechanized lists. 

 

did you like the Libby? I’ve considered pulling mine ( I typically use Greyfax). 

 

thanks for sharing your experience with us. 

 

Thanks for your comments! I'm glad to be back.  Deathwatch have SOOO many customization options. It's a blessing and a curse.  

 

I chose the veterans because those are the models I have.  I actually have 5 fully painted primaris, they're just typically the first thing I cut for points. You can see them in front of the dreads in my whole collection photo at the top of my post on Dakka. That being said, I think that I still prefer veterans over primaris. However, than could change if we get access to vanguard units or if the Primaris models learn how to pick up a storm shield. 

 

I've had a lot of success with quantity of fire. SIA, especially hellfire rounds, are primarily what make DW special.  Stormbolters deliver 4 of these each at close range.  With the teleportarium strategy, beacon angelis, and drop pods, these squads can appear anywhere on the board to deliver their payload. 

 

From an offensive standpoint:

40 shots of Hellfire is going to cause on average around 7.5 unsaved wounds on T4 3+. If you have a mission tactic for what you're shooting at, increase it to 7.8.  A Chapter Master nearby, and mission tactics can get this average over 10. If you need to shoot something in cover, the strategems for +1 to wound can put this number similarly high with the reroll aura.  If you're close enough for -2 AP rounds, you can actually get 12 wounds on average from the squad of 40.  The Bolt Rifles and Auto Bolt Rifles can't equal this output. From a damage standpoint, Stalker Bolt Rifles can actually do better.  They can average around 6 unsaved wounds, but that results in 12 damage. So against multi-wound targets, I guess Stalker Bolt Rifles are better. 

 

My biggest problem with primaris is that though they're multi-wound, they don't have an invul save. The amount of AP -1, -2, and -3 out there is absurd. I like storm shields because they give the units a chance to survive against absurd AP. Marines die, and it's annoying.  I've found though that the storm shields make them a tough nut to crack. 

 

The other thing that DW have is the angels of death rule. They already had an extra attack in combat because of veteran, but now they get another one on the charge or when charge. This means that to take advantage of their damage potential, you need to not only shoot with them, you need to fight with them.  I've equipped my sgts with power weapons, and the terminators have them. I think I'm going to add black shields with power weapons too to each of my squads. 

 

I like the librarians for the buffs he gives and the plus 1 deny. I think Veil of Time is important because I'm trying to charge with units I deep strike with. Might of heroes is also nice to put on a chapter master or captain.   I also think bringing an inquisitor is worth it. Terrify is amazing and some of the other powers can be helpful.  I'm particularly worried about grey knights since they just got buffed. My army can't survive a ton of mortal wounds. The extra denies may be necessary. The other inquisition thing I'm testing and have modeled is drop podding Eisenhorn with melta/plasma acolytes, a jokero, and a DW character turn 1. Beacon over a 10 man squad, and keep the inquisition units slightly back. With the psychic veil (I forget the name, but it makes Ordos Xenos units untargetable unless they're the closes unit and can only charge if within 8). This can be a nice untargetable squad. I played one game with them.  

 

The army is still fragile, so I'm going to be experimenting with transports my next few games to try to keep units alive if I don't get first time. Maybe give more mobility.  I'm going to try a list with both the land raider and dreadnoughts to see if it can draw fire/deliver some units to the middle before it dies. I'm also wondering if it would be worth give a captain the shield relic to give a 5+ invul to give the dreadnoughts more survivability. Cover just doesn't provide the protection it used to.  

 

Excellent post over on Dakka, thank you for the link!  It's great to see this sort of story as many of us have had similar experiences when changing from one edition to the next rejigging load outs etc.  It's definitely one of the best reasons for magnets, even if they are fiddly!

 

Great idea for the Dread ML, I wondered how people were using the typhoon launcher!  I probably have an old arm somewhere I can reuse for such ideas

 

Thanks! I love customizing models. I made a ton of combi-meltas back in the day. I need to get into magnets. I just use superglue, I NEVER use plastic glue. Pop it off, file it down, glue something else on! Especially since Deathwatch are painted black, you can hide ridges and scars really easily!