Editing Deathwatch (section)

== So, where's their Codex? ==
[[image:Cautious approach by diegogisbertllorens-d5p1452.jpg|right|thumb|200px|No danger here, just a bunch of old ruins. Sure to be a lot of loot for the Deathwatch in there, don'tcha think?]]
The earliest rules for Deathwatch were in a 3rd-edition [[Chapter Approved]] entry in 2001 with rules to take one single Kill Team in any generic Imperial force, followed by a whole lot of nothing, and then a 6th-edition [[Apocalypse]] formation in the Damnos book, where two Sternguard Squads and a Captain would get Preferred Enemy (one Xenos codex) and an additional special ammunition profile called Aniphase Rounds (AP4, forces Necrons to re-roll successful Reanimation Protocols). From here their representation would slowly accelerate...

In 2016 the game [[Deathwatch: Overkill]] was released. While not a full army, it did give a small set of special units using the packaged models, each of which was based on the hero of a story written by [[Black Library]] and led by a younger, un-nommed [[Ortan Cassius]]. Each model has their own Chapter Tactics (or equivalent thereof), but don't officially have it, so they can fit in any other Marine army without complaint. A good majority of the units also have Sternguard ammo, making them far more useful than their Damnos forebears.

Then, in August 2016 a full Codex went up for pre-order alongside a new game called "Death Masque" which featured new models for the Eldar (Xenos filth!), Harlequins, and official Deathwatch sprues with Deathwatch Veterans, Deathwatch Vanguard veterans, and an upgrade sprue to make your own Deathwatch units. There are also "new" (essentially the same thing but with a few "I"s to glue on) vehicles for them such as the Deathwatch land raider and Deathwatch transport/razorback. However, they do get one genuinely unique vehicle in the form of the [[Corvus Blackstar]], an airborne transport that carries a decent amount of firepower, as befitting the Deathwatch.

One of the great things about the Deathwatch is that the kill team kits provide a lot of goodies for kit-bashing some of your other Space Marine armies. Some of the items available are listed below:

Lots of chapter specific pauldrons. You only get one per chapter for every five-man kit, but they can be useful if you want a nicer-looking pauldron for a single character (especially if GW doesn't sell transfer sheets or upgrade sprues for said chapter):
*[[Ultramarines]]
*[[Dark Angels]]
*[[Blood Angels]]
*[[Space Wolves]]
*[[Raven Guard]]
*[[Salamanders]]
*[[Imperial Fists]]
*[[White Scars]]
*[[Iron Hands]]
*[[Crimson Fists]] (Technically it's the Imperial Fists pauldron, but the shape's identical)
*[[Hawk Lords]]/[[Knights of the Raven]] (Using the Raven Guard pauldron)
*[[Flesh Tearers]]
*[[Raptors (Chapter)|Raptors]]/[[Mentors |Mentors]]/[[White Consuls]]/[[Black Consuls]]
*[[Taurans]] (you can also use it for Minotaurs)
*[[Black Templars]]
*[[Mortifactors]] (only available on Captain Artemis' model in Death Masque)
*[[Blood Ravens]] (only available from Jensus' model in Kill Team Cassius)
*[[Howling Griffons]]
*[[Novamarines]]/[[Sons of Medusa]]
*[[Silver Skulls]]
*[[Blackshield]] (represented as a pauldron with scratch marks and chains, if you have more than one guy with this, make your own otherwise they look to similar)

You can also give the Deathwatch pauldron to your regular space marine veterans to show their service, to give your characters more flavor.

Unique weapons:
*[[Astartes Assault Shotgun|Shotguns for full-size Astartes, not just scouts]]
*[[Infernus Heavy Bolter]]
*Storm Shields similar to the one used by [[Hector Rex]]
*[[Powerfist|Melta Powerfists]]
*[[Power Weapon#Heavy Thunderhammer|Heavy Thunderhammer]]
*Infantry-portable [[Frag Cannon]]s
*[[C'tan Phase Weapons#Imperium|Xenophase Blades]]
*[[Power Weapon#Guardian Spear|Guardian Spears]] (The only source for the weapon outside of the Adeptus Custodes)

Their 8th Edition Codex shows that Primaris Marines will be [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/05/02/2nd-may-codex-deathwatch-building-primaris-kill-teams/ included in the army list]. Then...they got little more than token support. When the Space Marines got their SECOND codex (Cue "Gee, Billy" memes), the Deathwatch were shunted into the role of the red-headed stepchild of the lot. While the other chapters (barring the Grey Knights, who never went Primaris) got access to all the fancy new vanguard stuff, all the Deathwatch got was one tank. When [[Psychic Awakening]] rolled around in 2019 and 2020, they didn't even get a role in any of the books, just a token nod to keep them barely up to snuff in an article of White Dwarf alongside the Harlequins.

<s>Needless to say, the hopes of keeping the Deathwatch anywhere near competitive in 9th Edition are minimal at best.</s> Due to forgeworld [[Derp|not nerfing twin volkite dreadnoughts and Deathwatch librarians giving units 5+++ FNP saves]], Deathwatch are actually, by the numbers, the best space marine army as of August 2021.

That said, they did recently get a Codex supplement [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkSDQzSyiG0 announced]. How much this will level the playing field though remains to be seen, but at the very least, this will give them access to the entire armory.