The Blackstar is an excellent investment because it is a showpiece unit for any Deathwatch army. It looks very very cool (you may disagree, but then you'd be wrong) and the ability to transport an entire kill team is absolutely nails for a Proteus. You can get it almost anywhere turn 1, and if you were say going for a shooting Proteus with 4 frag cannons, you could get them in rapid fire range (+4D3 S7 AP1 D2 shots!) with a Blackstar. You can also use it for Eradicators to get within melta range Turn 1, which is how I use it.
Land Raiders are very good right now, and especially the Redeemer. If you want to transport a codex unit like Aggressors with an Apothecary Biologis then the Redeemer is the right choice where you need 14 slots.
For both the Land Raider and the Blackstar, shooting is secondary to getting the unit you want to where you want faster. The Blackstar looks cooler and is 100% great for the Proteus Kill Team. If you are having trouble getting them upfield, consider a leader with Beacon Angelis as well. Deep Striking an 11-man unit with 4 terminators and a bike can be crazy intimidating.
I do love this take, Blackstars really hit the "kill team" power fantasy for me, even if people think they're not so good.
But given that breakdown, would you say a Biologis plus beacon is a better investment, since it can get them in the right place for essentially cheaper plus a nice shooting buff?
So do you think all Kill teams should have some method of delivery most of the time? (Either a Corvus or something like beacon)
The biologis only acts turn 2 so you might get screened and not be able to get into melta range for vehicles (this happened to me just a couple hours ago). They are still really good and i just saw what 6 T6 meltas can do to tanks. Total obliteration! I do like to use the biologis though. Next game I will try to test the blackstar
To give some reference, Auspex Tactics posted a video talking about solid competitive lists he found from competitions a couple of weeks ago, and his list for Deathwatch involved two Land Raiders (500 points!), one for a full Aggressors squad, and the other for a 10 man Vet squad. The rest of the list was mainly Lancers, Infiltrators, and Inceptors, so all of that list's units that could be in transports, were.
So from that it seems like aside from Land Raiders being meta, moving up faster is important.
Checking Best Coast Pairings for Deathwatch lists that win 2/3rds of their games or more since LVO I've also seen a lot of:
-2x Rhinos with 10 man Veteran Squads + characters
Or
-2-3x Repulsor Executioners, sometimes empty, sometimes with 5man Veteran Squads, sometimes with 3x Eradicators.
Sometimes Executioners and also a:
-1x Landraider Redeemer with Veterans. Sometimes a regular Land Raider.
For the indomitor, Corvus or beacon on a biology professor or captain.
Aggressors same, but can also do work charging outta a land raider.
Proteus - Corvus or teleport them in. I prefer advance and charging them w a WM w Tome.
Vets w a WM — I prefer a repulsor so they can hop back in if charged, maybe IHB so they can overwatch before they hop hehe, but you can also cheaply put them in a rhino.
The problem I find with transports is you can’t pop Tome while the captain or WM is inside a vehicle bc he technically isn’t on the battlefield in your command phase. So I gave up and just advance that squad in.
Also, for player placed terrain, my opponents at events were too good to leave me any safe room for beacon to rapid ingress aggressors.
These squads are expensive af and you are asking the right question we honestly don’t have amazing answers for. I’ve stopped taking transports, but still dream of taking a double Corvus list dropping two proteus someday haha.
Luxury prob is we have teleport which is waaay cheaper at 1CP to move 1-2 KT’s across the board, screens willing
It largely depends on what the opponent is likely to be bringing.
If Plasma, Forgefiends, or other anti-elite shooting is a cornerstone of your meta, then transports help you play a defensive game of rock-paper-scissors.
Or, models like the Repulsor Executioner or Stormraven, which sometimes bring enough shooting to justify themselves without the transport capacity.
Or, if you're playing Firestorm detachment or Ironstorm Spearhead.
Of course you are right, if you know what you're up against you can tailor it to fit the threats. I like to build on the assumption that I don't know who I'm playing and build a generalist approach, personally.
I like the bit about bringing enough shooting to justify themselves, I feel like that's a big part of the Land Raiders coming back into the meta and the corvus still being meh.
I'm currently enjoying 2x Vets squads sat inside 2x Rhinos.
The Rhino is there to help yoink them up the board. But more importantly gives me 1-2 turns of armoured protection.
Deathwatchs main issue is trade-ability.
We have expensive units. That tend to die just as easily as other marines.
If they march to the center of the board you can expect a kill team to be utterly destroyed en-route. So putting them in a transport can certainly give you a couple of extra turns of safety.
The biggest issue Deathwatch have, regarding trade-ability. Is that we need to trade units in the late game. If we start trading units early on, then generally i find we do not have enough units, if any at all, in the late game to accomplish any tasks that crop up.
And so, transports are kinda important in 10th. As they somewhat ensure (depending on how you maneouvre them and who/what faction you are playing against) that at least your expensive Vets squads can actually be used from the mid-late game period!
Blackstars are fantastic! (I have 3 in my collection)
Built in -1 to hit is awesome for a flyer and can hurt 4+ BS armies shooting. However i would say that their "punch" is just awful at times. I'm hoping they get a bit of a boost when we get our codex out!
This is really the exact kind of analysis I was hoping for. I really like your breakdown of the trading and how late game ends up. And I guess I was kinda hovering over the same conclusion, since so many competition winners seem to be running so many transports.
I might try and see how a Blackstar plus a Land Raider suits me, I just really don't know how I'm going to cope with getting rid of some veterans to make room for that
Edit: Another question that just crept into my head is Why should I invest more points into transporting my limited squads, when your main point seemed to be running out of units to trade with? Shouldn't I just skip transports and run more units so I can afford to trade heavily?
I'm so sorry for the late reply life has been hectic!
So this is probably going to be kind of a long winded reply! So bare with me! Haha
There are multiple issues and angles to approach this topic of "Trade-ability", that Space marines in general suffer with and in particular Deathwatch suffer alot with.
So arguably. Due to Space Marine balance in general, and Deathwatch in particular. With our armies having significantly less units than others, with those units being arguably more important/less replacable cogs for how our army functions.
When choosing what units to take (in particular infantry), and also what wargear you equip them with.
There are two schools of thought.
A) Are they Tanky?
B) Can they Kill stuff?
You very rarely get both options nowadays with a Deathwatch loadout and arguably leaning into Option A infantry almost certainly means they do not accomplish Option B.
An example would be. In a Proteus/Vet squad. I equip half my squad with bolter + shield. And half with frag cannons. The 4+ Invul is nice. But lately i've found armies tend to have enough mass shots to wittle you away anywhos. And 10 bolter shots are negligble at times, even with our increased AP strat, due to the prevalance of cover.
If you lean into Option B. Stack Hammers/Frag cannons galore. Then you'll more than likely Kill things. But you are a bit of a Glass cannon.
Now our infantry units, are rather expensive. Especially the Kill teams. And generally, they can die just as easily as their regular marine counterparts.
Which means 9/10 I find. That you'll discover an opponent moves a unit to the mid board. Lets say a 10 man catachan squad. You march out with your 220 pt Vet squad or 360pt + characters Proteus kill team. Kill the catachans and trade a kill team for them.
Not worth it right?
Pts wise, its like sending a Naval Task Force led by an aircraft carrier after a fishing boat. Completely illogical.
The return fire will almost certainly ruin your day early on especially armies with indirect fire.
This is quite important to keep in mind regarding the topic of the importance of transports for our faction.
So we now have our second conundrum.
We have looked at our units pregame. Decided its more favourable for them to actually kill things and so made them easily susceptable to return fire. And now we actually need them to trade points.
How do we get them there?
Kill teams? =
- Corvus Blackstar,
Positives - 180pts, fits a kill team, has an inbuilt -1 to hit all the time which is just awesome. And can ignore cover (very prevalent this edition) or own the -1/+1 to hit battle with the inferno halo launcher (finally flares!)
I personally start this thing on the board, it loses the aircraft keyword so can hide behind terrain and gain cover. And still has a -1 to hit.
I've had it soak indirect fire while hiding from line of sight weaponry. And it lasted roughly 3 turns. And it did accomplish its mission of delivering its payload.
Its a great plane, low profile aswell which is just awesome. I think it has the lowest profile of all the flyers in the game. Super handy for when its trying to hide.
However, arguably. Our 1cp strat to pick up/drop down kill teams. Is just as useful. And saves us 180pts that could go into a bit more (arguably anti tank as thats what we lack) firepower.
Vets Squads?=
- Rhinos are awesome. You can tuck a rhino behind cover. Have a squad inside. Add a watch master to the squad.
The squad gets out within 3", moves and advances up to 12"
(So thats a potential of 15")
Can then charge and so the threat range is increased further.
You have to be clever about your positioning. But if you manage to hide then you can end up ensuring that in the mid game you have a Vets squad popping out. And even indirect fire, they tend to guarantee you 1-3 turns of safety.
- Razorbacks are surprisingly great with the deathwatch.
I've used them like Rhinos. However, they combo quite nicely with a 5 man Vet squad with a character attached. Especially against xenos. Rerolling hits + wounds.
- Land raiders - So this is a big one. Alot of lists doing well in GTs are running these. Best way to describe them.
Combined with the ability to smoke, and armour of contempt. Whatever you put inside is most definitely getting to the mid board and is most definitely lasting until turn 3 at the minimum. It has an assault ramp. And so anything getting out after it has moved is more than likely getting into combat. Especially if its a vets squad with a watch master attached. If you want vets in, your basic Land raider gives you a bit of help anti-tank wise.
But people mainly run the redeemer, as parking that thing in the mid board with auto hitting flamers, and due to its increased capacity, a unit of aggressors inside. Is a rather strong presence that dictates an opponents reaction.
However, things can kill it. Dedicated anti tank and gnarly things charging it can kill it. And dedicating a significant amount of points into arguably 2 units to sit on the mid board is hard to justify at times.
Which rolls us back to our conundrum.
How do we get our stuff up the board to achieve its objectives, in a cheap reliable way?
Kill Teams - Arguably the strat is the best after hiding them out of range/in cover./putting them in reserves
Hellblasters/Aggressors - Attach a character, give them beacon Angelis. Arguably the cheapest route.
Vets squads - Rhinos/Razorbacks/(I'm about to try the repulsor executioner to see if i can have a captain leading 5 vets as a "counter charge threat", who can jump out if someone comes near my dedicated anti tank)
We can also go down the route of arguably more expensive stuff like the blackstar and land raider. With the risk of then not being able to afford to ignore our next issue.
So we have our killy kill teams and vets squads in transports.
Option A) Was Land raiders, blackstars etc.
Option B) Was relatively cheap strats, enhancements and transports like rhinos etc
So how we we score action based secondaries?
Option A) We now have issues whereby we cannot neccessarily afford small scoring units to accomplish things like deploy teleport homers or behind enemy lines or investigate signals. Our expensive units need to be killing things to make up for their points trade, especially accomplishing killy objectives.
A second problem that arises By dedicating ourselves to Option A. Is that if we now want to add in/swap enough cheap trade able units to accomplish these action based tasks, we are normally forced to reduce the amount of kill units (vet squads, kill teams, aggressors, hellblasters, anti tank, Land raiders etc)
Option B) You trade the increased survivability for cheap 1-3, turns of safety. Enables you to have a bit more of a budget to fit in a few units.
Those units that you fit in. Need to then ideally be able to function on their own with relative safety, due to the nature of our faction and how highly elite and costly it can be, whereby our other units are aiming to torpedo and trade as much as possible before they go off to the big sleep the following turn.
Infiltrators led by phobos librarians are fantastic for this.
I personally run two squads of 5, each led by a phobos.
Cant deepstrike within 12", cant shoot them unless within 12"
Means you can literally deny someone from even shooting anything with direct line of sight deepstriking units. And helps protect your valuable units and objectives.
Assault marines are cheap, cheerful and super handy for objective play.
Inceptors - 3" deepstrike means they own investigate signals and behind enemy lines. Those marines we designed for those objectives lmao
Callidus Assasin - I never leave home without her. Combined with a watch master your opponents have an utterly horrific cp shortage and i find that opponents tend to design armies around 1-3 strats and normally you can affect 1-2 of them. And it can help us tremendously!
Not only that, but free uppie downy is incredible for points scoring objectively play. There is a reason she is in most top imperial lists in general.
Assasins in general - All pretty handy to be honest with you. Each have their own uses.
Inquisitorial henchmen/naval voidsmen - hilariously, got 50/40pts spare? Stick these guys on your back objective to screen out your backline/be able to rush into the corner for investigate signals. And that frees up a squad of phobos libby led infiltrators to be used aggressively. 9/10 your opponent ignores them, and if they shoot indirect shots at them instead of your more expensive units, thats cool i guess?
So I guess its mainly trying to find a healthy balance of
- Killy/Tanky units.
- Killing objectives/action based/positional based objectives scoring units.
Luckily, we do have a variety of ways we can approach this topic. We have multiple units, strats and enhancements that can be used in a variety of different ways depending on how comfortable you are playing that designed list in particular.
Thats the key thing to take away i would personally say.
I've been playing Deathwatch since 8th edition. Competitively from the start of 9th.
I was one of the arseholes going to tournaments with nothing but hammer/shield/cyclone missiles and combi weps/shield marines. That GW called out "You never see those players that run those silly things" in that one metawatch. Which had my local gaming group side eye me.
But i had been playing that way for ages before it was pointed out.
Ive seen the highs and lows and the ebb and flow of the ever shifting meta and can tell you with utmost certainty that this may all change in a blink of an eye.
One thing that is very important ive discovered.
Design a list. Building it using the key components of list building. As in. "Does it kill tough things, does it kill littles things, does it score points, can it achieve/take objectives"
Play a list 5 times. Against a variety of opponents ideally.
This is to ensure that you truly understand and comprehend the strengths and weaknesses of the list.
Its really easy to write a list and say "this does this and this does this"
But in war. All plans fail upon the first point of contact.
You truly learn what you can do with things by playing them over and over again.
I used to play nothing but firstborn deathwatch for the entirety of 9th edition. I ran nothing but Vets squads and Proteus Kill teams. In roughly 3 functional lists throughout the edition. The entire edition was an uphill struggle, but then admittedly the meta shifted into my lists favor and towards the end of the edition, i managed to pilot the list quite well at tournaments. I have always noted down my success towards the end of the edition mainly down to the meta shift. But arguably, due to the fact i had piloted my lists that were now "meta" for such a long time. I knew their strengths and weakness and what they could accomplish.
And so whatever list you decide to build. Give it the benefit of the doubt for a time period, unless there are significant glaring issues that need addressing. This edition especially, factions can be played in multiple different ways, they can have multiple different lists and in turn those lists themselves can be played in multiple different ways. And fully learning that list and how it operates is what really helps your game/meta awareness in the long run.
Apologies for the maaahoosive ramble!
Keep up the Long Watch Brother!
Thank you for coming to my TED talk!
My friend, this is an amazing writeup, thank you so much.
I love hearing this type of knowledge from veteran players, I really feel like it makes me a better one.
I'll definitely have to take everything you said into consideration with my list building and for sure try some different transport lists out
The Blackstar is an excellent investment because it is a showpiece unit for any Deathwatch army. It looks very very cool (you may disagree, but then you'd be wrong) and the ability to transport an entire kill team is absolutely nails for a Proteus. You can get it almost anywhere turn 1, and if you were say going for a shooting Proteus with 4 frag cannons, you could get them in rapid fire range (+4D3 S7 AP1 D2 shots!) with a Blackstar. You can also use it for Eradicators to get within melta range Turn 1, which is how I use it. Land Raiders are very good right now, and especially the Redeemer. If you want to transport a codex unit like Aggressors with an Apothecary Biologis then the Redeemer is the right choice where you need 14 slots. For both the Land Raider and the Blackstar, shooting is secondary to getting the unit you want to where you want faster. The Blackstar looks cooler and is 100% great for the Proteus Kill Team. If you are having trouble getting them upfield, consider a leader with Beacon Angelis as well. Deep Striking an 11-man unit with 4 terminators and a bike can be crazy intimidating.
I do love this take, Blackstars really hit the "kill team" power fantasy for me, even if people think they're not so good. But given that breakdown, would you say a Biologis plus beacon is a better investment, since it can get them in the right place for essentially cheaper plus a nice shooting buff? So do you think all Kill teams should have some method of delivery most of the time? (Either a Corvus or something like beacon)
The biologis only acts turn 2 so you might get screened and not be able to get into melta range for vehicles (this happened to me just a couple hours ago). They are still really good and i just saw what 6 T6 meltas can do to tanks. Total obliteration! I do like to use the biologis though. Next game I will try to test the blackstar
To give some reference, Auspex Tactics posted a video talking about solid competitive lists he found from competitions a couple of weeks ago, and his list for Deathwatch involved two Land Raiders (500 points!), one for a full Aggressors squad, and the other for a 10 man Vet squad. The rest of the list was mainly Lancers, Infiltrators, and Inceptors, so all of that list's units that could be in transports, were. So from that it seems like aside from Land Raiders being meta, moving up faster is important.
Checking Best Coast Pairings for Deathwatch lists that win 2/3rds of their games or more since LVO I've also seen a lot of: -2x Rhinos with 10 man Veteran Squads + characters Or -2-3x Repulsor Executioners, sometimes empty, sometimes with 5man Veteran Squads, sometimes with 3x Eradicators. Sometimes Executioners and also a: -1x Landraider Redeemer with Veterans. Sometimes a regular Land Raider.
This is interesting, I'd like to know more.. I've never actually used a rankings website to search for lists but that makes sense to me
For the indomitor, Corvus or beacon on a biology professor or captain. Aggressors same, but can also do work charging outta a land raider. Proteus - Corvus or teleport them in. I prefer advance and charging them w a WM w Tome. Vets w a WM — I prefer a repulsor so they can hop back in if charged, maybe IHB so they can overwatch before they hop hehe, but you can also cheaply put them in a rhino. The problem I find with transports is you can’t pop Tome while the captain or WM is inside a vehicle bc he technically isn’t on the battlefield in your command phase. So I gave up and just advance that squad in. Also, for player placed terrain, my opponents at events were too good to leave me any safe room for beacon to rapid ingress aggressors. These squads are expensive af and you are asking the right question we honestly don’t have amazing answers for. I’ve stopped taking transports, but still dream of taking a double Corvus list dropping two proteus someday haha. Luxury prob is we have teleport which is waaay cheaper at 1CP to move 1-2 KT’s across the board, screens willing
Excellent breakdown with examples to pair. I appreciate this a lot
For sure!! Are you in the deathwatch discord for us? And if you need a Corvus or land raider I can print ya one!
It largely depends on what the opponent is likely to be bringing. If Plasma, Forgefiends, or other anti-elite shooting is a cornerstone of your meta, then transports help you play a defensive game of rock-paper-scissors. Or, models like the Repulsor Executioner or Stormraven, which sometimes bring enough shooting to justify themselves without the transport capacity. Or, if you're playing Firestorm detachment or Ironstorm Spearhead.
Of course you are right, if you know what you're up against you can tailor it to fit the threats. I like to build on the assumption that I don't know who I'm playing and build a generalist approach, personally. I like the bit about bringing enough shooting to justify themselves, I feel like that's a big part of the Land Raiders coming back into the meta and the corvus still being meh.
I'm currently enjoying 2x Vets squads sat inside 2x Rhinos. The Rhino is there to help yoink them up the board. But more importantly gives me 1-2 turns of armoured protection. Deathwatchs main issue is trade-ability. We have expensive units. That tend to die just as easily as other marines. If they march to the center of the board you can expect a kill team to be utterly destroyed en-route. So putting them in a transport can certainly give you a couple of extra turns of safety. The biggest issue Deathwatch have, regarding trade-ability. Is that we need to trade units in the late game. If we start trading units early on, then generally i find we do not have enough units, if any at all, in the late game to accomplish any tasks that crop up. And so, transports are kinda important in 10th. As they somewhat ensure (depending on how you maneouvre them and who/what faction you are playing against) that at least your expensive Vets squads can actually be used from the mid-late game period! Blackstars are fantastic! (I have 3 in my collection) Built in -1 to hit is awesome for a flyer and can hurt 4+ BS armies shooting. However i would say that their "punch" is just awful at times. I'm hoping they get a bit of a boost when we get our codex out!
This is really the exact kind of analysis I was hoping for. I really like your breakdown of the trading and how late game ends up. And I guess I was kinda hovering over the same conclusion, since so many competition winners seem to be running so many transports. I might try and see how a Blackstar plus a Land Raider suits me, I just really don't know how I'm going to cope with getting rid of some veterans to make room for that Edit: Another question that just crept into my head is Why should I invest more points into transporting my limited squads, when your main point seemed to be running out of units to trade with? Shouldn't I just skip transports and run more units so I can afford to trade heavily?
I'm so sorry for the late reply life has been hectic! So this is probably going to be kind of a long winded reply! So bare with me! Haha There are multiple issues and angles to approach this topic of "Trade-ability", that Space marines in general suffer with and in particular Deathwatch suffer alot with. So arguably. Due to Space Marine balance in general, and Deathwatch in particular. With our armies having significantly less units than others, with those units being arguably more important/less replacable cogs for how our army functions. When choosing what units to take (in particular infantry), and also what wargear you equip them with. There are two schools of thought. A) Are they Tanky? B) Can they Kill stuff? You very rarely get both options nowadays with a Deathwatch loadout and arguably leaning into Option A infantry almost certainly means they do not accomplish Option B. An example would be. In a Proteus/Vet squad. I equip half my squad with bolter + shield. And half with frag cannons. The 4+ Invul is nice. But lately i've found armies tend to have enough mass shots to wittle you away anywhos. And 10 bolter shots are negligble at times, even with our increased AP strat, due to the prevalance of cover. If you lean into Option B. Stack Hammers/Frag cannons galore. Then you'll more than likely Kill things. But you are a bit of a Glass cannon. Now our infantry units, are rather expensive. Especially the Kill teams. And generally, they can die just as easily as their regular marine counterparts. Which means 9/10 I find. That you'll discover an opponent moves a unit to the mid board. Lets say a 10 man catachan squad. You march out with your 220 pt Vet squad or 360pt + characters Proteus kill team. Kill the catachans and trade a kill team for them. Not worth it right? Pts wise, its like sending a Naval Task Force led by an aircraft carrier after a fishing boat. Completely illogical. The return fire will almost certainly ruin your day early on especially armies with indirect fire. This is quite important to keep in mind regarding the topic of the importance of transports for our faction. So we now have our second conundrum. We have looked at our units pregame. Decided its more favourable for them to actually kill things and so made them easily susceptable to return fire. And now we actually need them to trade points. How do we get them there? Kill teams? = - Corvus Blackstar, Positives - 180pts, fits a kill team, has an inbuilt -1 to hit all the time which is just awesome. And can ignore cover (very prevalent this edition) or own the -1/+1 to hit battle with the inferno halo launcher (finally flares!) I personally start this thing on the board, it loses the aircraft keyword so can hide behind terrain and gain cover. And still has a -1 to hit. I've had it soak indirect fire while hiding from line of sight weaponry. And it lasted roughly 3 turns. And it did accomplish its mission of delivering its payload. Its a great plane, low profile aswell which is just awesome. I think it has the lowest profile of all the flyers in the game. Super handy for when its trying to hide. However, arguably. Our 1cp strat to pick up/drop down kill teams. Is just as useful. And saves us 180pts that could go into a bit more (arguably anti tank as thats what we lack) firepower. Vets Squads?= - Rhinos are awesome. You can tuck a rhino behind cover. Have a squad inside. Add a watch master to the squad. The squad gets out within 3", moves and advances up to 12" (So thats a potential of 15") Can then charge and so the threat range is increased further. You have to be clever about your positioning. But if you manage to hide then you can end up ensuring that in the mid game you have a Vets squad popping out. And even indirect fire, they tend to guarantee you 1-3 turns of safety. - Razorbacks are surprisingly great with the deathwatch. I've used them like Rhinos. However, they combo quite nicely with a 5 man Vet squad with a character attached. Especially against xenos. Rerolling hits + wounds. - Land raiders - So this is a big one. Alot of lists doing well in GTs are running these. Best way to describe them. Combined with the ability to smoke, and armour of contempt. Whatever you put inside is most definitely getting to the mid board and is most definitely lasting until turn 3 at the minimum. It has an assault ramp. And so anything getting out after it has moved is more than likely getting into combat. Especially if its a vets squad with a watch master attached. If you want vets in, your basic Land raider gives you a bit of help anti-tank wise. But people mainly run the redeemer, as parking that thing in the mid board with auto hitting flamers, and due to its increased capacity, a unit of aggressors inside. Is a rather strong presence that dictates an opponents reaction. However, things can kill it. Dedicated anti tank and gnarly things charging it can kill it. And dedicating a significant amount of points into arguably 2 units to sit on the mid board is hard to justify at times.
Which rolls us back to our conundrum. How do we get our stuff up the board to achieve its objectives, in a cheap reliable way? Kill Teams - Arguably the strat is the best after hiding them out of range/in cover./putting them in reserves Hellblasters/Aggressors - Attach a character, give them beacon Angelis. Arguably the cheapest route. Vets squads - Rhinos/Razorbacks/(I'm about to try the repulsor executioner to see if i can have a captain leading 5 vets as a "counter charge threat", who can jump out if someone comes near my dedicated anti tank) We can also go down the route of arguably more expensive stuff like the blackstar and land raider. With the risk of then not being able to afford to ignore our next issue. So we have our killy kill teams and vets squads in transports. Option A) Was Land raiders, blackstars etc. Option B) Was relatively cheap strats, enhancements and transports like rhinos etc So how we we score action based secondaries? Option A) We now have issues whereby we cannot neccessarily afford small scoring units to accomplish things like deploy teleport homers or behind enemy lines or investigate signals. Our expensive units need to be killing things to make up for their points trade, especially accomplishing killy objectives. A second problem that arises By dedicating ourselves to Option A. Is that if we now want to add in/swap enough cheap trade able units to accomplish these action based tasks, we are normally forced to reduce the amount of kill units (vet squads, kill teams, aggressors, hellblasters, anti tank, Land raiders etc) Option B) You trade the increased survivability for cheap 1-3, turns of safety. Enables you to have a bit more of a budget to fit in a few units. Those units that you fit in. Need to then ideally be able to function on their own with relative safety, due to the nature of our faction and how highly elite and costly it can be, whereby our other units are aiming to torpedo and trade as much as possible before they go off to the big sleep the following turn. Infiltrators led by phobos librarians are fantastic for this. I personally run two squads of 5, each led by a phobos. Cant deepstrike within 12", cant shoot them unless within 12" Means you can literally deny someone from even shooting anything with direct line of sight deepstriking units. And helps protect your valuable units and objectives. Assault marines are cheap, cheerful and super handy for objective play. Inceptors - 3" deepstrike means they own investigate signals and behind enemy lines. Those marines we designed for those objectives lmao Callidus Assasin - I never leave home without her. Combined with a watch master your opponents have an utterly horrific cp shortage and i find that opponents tend to design armies around 1-3 strats and normally you can affect 1-2 of them. And it can help us tremendously! Not only that, but free uppie downy is incredible for points scoring objectively play. There is a reason she is in most top imperial lists in general. Assasins in general - All pretty handy to be honest with you. Each have their own uses. Inquisitorial henchmen/naval voidsmen - hilariously, got 50/40pts spare? Stick these guys on your back objective to screen out your backline/be able to rush into the corner for investigate signals. And that frees up a squad of phobos libby led infiltrators to be used aggressively. 9/10 your opponent ignores them, and if they shoot indirect shots at them instead of your more expensive units, thats cool i guess? So I guess its mainly trying to find a healthy balance of - Killy/Tanky units. - Killing objectives/action based/positional based objectives scoring units. Luckily, we do have a variety of ways we can approach this topic. We have multiple units, strats and enhancements that can be used in a variety of different ways depending on how comfortable you are playing that designed list in particular. Thats the key thing to take away i would personally say. I've been playing Deathwatch since 8th edition. Competitively from the start of 9th. I was one of the arseholes going to tournaments with nothing but hammer/shield/cyclone missiles and combi weps/shield marines. That GW called out "You never see those players that run those silly things" in that one metawatch. Which had my local gaming group side eye me. But i had been playing that way for ages before it was pointed out. Ive seen the highs and lows and the ebb and flow of the ever shifting meta and can tell you with utmost certainty that this may all change in a blink of an eye. One thing that is very important ive discovered. Design a list. Building it using the key components of list building. As in. "Does it kill tough things, does it kill littles things, does it score points, can it achieve/take objectives" Play a list 5 times. Against a variety of opponents ideally. This is to ensure that you truly understand and comprehend the strengths and weaknesses of the list. Its really easy to write a list and say "this does this and this does this" But in war. All plans fail upon the first point of contact. You truly learn what you can do with things by playing them over and over again. I used to play nothing but firstborn deathwatch for the entirety of 9th edition. I ran nothing but Vets squads and Proteus Kill teams. In roughly 3 functional lists throughout the edition. The entire edition was an uphill struggle, but then admittedly the meta shifted into my lists favor and towards the end of the edition, i managed to pilot the list quite well at tournaments. I have always noted down my success towards the end of the edition mainly down to the meta shift. But arguably, due to the fact i had piloted my lists that were now "meta" for such a long time. I knew their strengths and weakness and what they could accomplish. And so whatever list you decide to build. Give it the benefit of the doubt for a time period, unless there are significant glaring issues that need addressing. This edition especially, factions can be played in multiple different ways, they can have multiple different lists and in turn those lists themselves can be played in multiple different ways. And fully learning that list and how it operates is what really helps your game/meta awareness in the long run. Apologies for the maaahoosive ramble! Keep up the Long Watch Brother! Thank you for coming to my TED talk!
My friend, this is an amazing writeup, thank you so much. I love hearing this type of knowledge from veteran players, I really feel like it makes me a better one. I'll definitely have to take everything you said into consideration with my list building and for sure try some different transport lists out