Deathwatch. Need some help

[gcsmith]

Heya Guys so Im wanting to enter the battle brothers tourney at my local store in february.
It requires you to buy either a battle force and commander for armies with battleforces or 4 boxes and a commander for armies without a battleforce.

Im wanting to go with deathwatch using the Grey knights rules.

Ive settled on the ordo xenos inquisitor special, but what 4 boxes Should I use. Simply asking cus (A) I want it to represent real deathwatch/ordo xenos and (B) dnt know too mcuh about them. and if competative would be a bonus.

[MaltonNecromancer]

Deathwatch are really nothing like the Grey Knights. They're basically regular Space Marines with access to more elite weapons.

You'd be better off using either the standard Space Marine codex, or the Space Wolf one.

Basic Deathwatch are essentially standard marines with better bolters, so I use them as Sternguard in my Deathwatch army - if you take Pedro Kantor, he turns them scoring, so if you field two scout squads as your minimum Troops choice, then three Sternguard squads from your Elites, you have the core of a solid Deathwatch force. I tend to make up the rest of the army from jump pack Vanguard, as well as Honour Guard - basically, nothing that's not elite; no standard Tacticals, no standard Assault, etc...

If I was using the GK codex, I think I'd use Terminators as my core Troop choice, then have the rest of the army made up of Honour Guard-style squads (to count as Purifiers) and some choice Heavy Bolter teams (to count as Purgation Squads). You could use Interceptors too quite easily - the Deathwatch certainly have access to esoteric equipment far more readily than their peers.

If I was buying boxes of models, I'd honestly buy a couple of standard tactical squads, and the Deathwatch conversion kits from GW (if you don't like converting), or else a whole bunch of Scout Bolt Pistols and Terminator Storm Bolters (to convert the boltguns).

Here's some of my Deathwatch to give you an idea of what I did:

[url]http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=16716[/url]

Realistically, the Deathwatch are a very expensive (in money) army to field, purely because you have to buy a huge number of highly expensive conversion bits.

[gcsmith]

One thing there is no FOC or points limits its use wats ever you get in battalion or the 4 boxes if your army doesnt have a battalion

[MaltonNecromancer]

I'd go for a standard Marine Battalion then. It's got almost everything you need to run a Deathwatch force. If you do the four boxes of Grey Knights, I'd just do four boxes of Terminators. I honestly don't think the Grey Knights and Deathwatch are comparable in any sense, beyond the fact they both wear power armour. Their weapons, tactics, and abilities are totally different. You could do Deathwatch as Marines, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Black Templars, or Dark Angels, but they just don't really work as Grey Knights.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Deathwatch is really a poor match for Grey Knights - Deathwatch fight with Bolters with Special Ammo and have few psykers. Grey Knights fight with Storm Bolters and Force Weapons and are all psykers. Space Marines with Pedro Kantor are the probably best fit for Deathwatch. If you're looking for a reason to do a Grey Knights counts-as, maybe do the Blood Ravens' first company? Fluffwise, they have several all-psyker squads and probably Librarian dreads, so they'd be a good fit.

[gcsmith]

Well The idea would be an ordo xenos army with deathwatch so Gk is best fit so I can get inquisitors as well. and the powers could be just advanced tech that the AH have access to.

[Dooley]

I think you are Grasping at straws here. Grey Knights are NOT Death Watch! If you want a Death watch army Go with the Space Marine Battle Force Box and a Librarian as a HQ choice. The original Death Watch (at least the first one I can remember had a Squad of Death Watch being lead by a Death Watch Librarian!) If you want the "Inquisitor Feel" Take an Iquisitor model and Use the Rules for a SM Libraian in Power Armor.

Also I dont think one would ever really see a DEATH WATCH ARMY! Death watch is more of an Elite Strike force. Maybe a Squad or two sent in to kill a Brood Lord/Hive Tyrant/ Warlock/Farseer/Etherial/Warboss but not an ENTIRE ARMY! Remember Death Watch is a special DUTY ASSIGNMENT for Space Marines not its own chapter. The Death Watch is made up of Space Maines from Various Chapters that server for a few Years and then are sent BACK to their parant chapter to pass on the skills they have learned in Xenos Purging to the Chapter.

[Dalleron]

You'd actually see a deathwatch army about as often as you'd see a GK army. Only, you'd probably not survive seeing a GK army if you are/were an Imperial peon.

Ruleswise a sternguard army does work better with vanilla marines as opposed to the grey ones. But in theory a GK based Deathwatch army could work. It doesn't make much sense to me that a Storm Bolter is assault while a regular bolter isn't, since a storm bolter amounts to 2 bolters shooting at once. But that's another debate. Using GK as deathwatch, you've just got special weapons for use as Deathwatch. The pyscher stuff is harder to explain I will admit. You would have to get creative in explaining that one.

[thecactusman17]

It's not that Grey Knights have the wrong weapons, it's that the defining trait has always been the fact that Deathwatch are all recruited from standard Marine chapters, something much harder to represent with Grey Knights. Deathwatch are standard Marines given new training, specialized ammo, but few if any new weapons. Standard Space Marines with Sternguard, Scoutes (which handily fill in for some of the more outsider-unfriendly chapters like Dark Angels who nominate such recruits to get them additional training without exposing chapter secrets), drop pod assaults and lots of poisoned shooting will represent an Ordo Xenos force handily. Again, give them a "Librarian in power armor" from the Inquisitor lineup and they function fine.

If you want Grey Knights codex, the only thing you can really do is henchmen. Grey Knights will be a really poor representation of Deathwatch Marines.

[gcsmith]

one of the abilities of the GK codex is henchman along side marines, and too me, the sternguard miss a key thing from the DW, moveable heavy bolter.

Pyschic powers could be explained as experimental wargear that can only be used in limited bursts