# Deathwatch RPG: First Impressions



## Sephyr (Jan 18, 2010)

My copy of Deathwatch just arrived in the mail and I have been poring over it since. It's a nice bit of work and I look forward to playing it, as does my group. However, there are some impressions I feel like sharing, and getting some input on from others who may have read or played it also.

- *Chapters*: The fluff and mechanics are nicely fleshed out, but is it me or is the flexibility of the Ultramarines just vastly superior overall? You get to pick where your +5 bonuses go and their abilities are a league above the rest.

- *Specialties*: Again a good job overall. Extra points for making the Tecmarine actually look interesting and effective! As far as balance is concerned, though, I have to wonder: the assault marine seems quite underpowered to start with. Perhaps because the bolt weapons just kick so much ass (see below), or because the volume of attacks is so low when starting and all the talents that would address that are quite distant, rank-wise, he seems like a liability in a low-ranking game; low volume of attacks, short range, average damage, jump pack sends him away from the rest of the kill team where he'll be at risk and also harming the rest of the team's ballistic rolls! In comparison, the Devastator rolls out poised to shred hordes and daemon princes alike as long as he can keep away.

- *Gear*: As stated previously, bolt weapons are amazing. Solid damage, good ROF and range, lots of ammo options. Flamers and melta are great in their roles. However, melee weapons...lack a bit. The basic chainsword is fine; the Power sword is a letdown, gaining only a couple of points in penetration and damage. Lightning Claws are great, and Thunder Hammers lack the raw absurd power of the old Power Fist but gain a cool stunning effect. The Fists really should become Unbalanced on Terminator suits rather than Unwieldly, though. 

Plasma weapons also seems distinctly unimpressive, with great penetration but surprisingly average damage and a lackluster ROF. Their charged shots only partially make up for the odd stats.

Overall, my main concern is that melee just isn't that good. A friend of mine said that its main usefulness is keeping enemies far from the shooters (the traditional 'tank' role), but that really doesn't feel right. Even building an assault marine able to use the basic loadout (chainsword and bolt pistol) requires two different talents you will not get out of the gate, leaving you with one, maybe two attacks a round for a good portion of your career. Meanwhile, your pal with the Heavy Bolter can just get a couple of upgrades and thin hordes and elites with withering volume of fire, and even nuke the Big Bads almost by himself; rolling so many dice, he will be triggering the Righteous Fury rule constantly for impressive damage totals. 


Can anyone's experience confirm or deny this? Thanks in advance.


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## komanko (May 16, 2010)

I actually downloaded a PDF of the book because I have no money for it and its very expensive here. Heck, I dont even think we have Deathwatch here XD Anyway I read some parts of it and in comparison to Dark Heresy its much better. It feels like more time have been put into it, its easier to understand and new players can catch the point with ease. The book itself is more fleshed out, the ideas which were used in Dark Heresy are used in Deathwatch but in their full potential. The information in the book its nicely written and while reading you can always enjoy the drawings which I find really good. Also the fluff part is really nice, it makes it seem more official then things on lexicanum are 

Edit: I did not get really into mechanics so I can confirm or deny what you just said, just gave you a piece of my mind on the book.


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## World Eater (Aug 31, 2008)

Hail,

I can see where you are coming from. But remember one important thing, this is an RPG. It involves a GM (games master). If that's your role in your playing group, you can balance the gap a bit between your shooters and close combat specialists. For example, ammo: make actual ammo limited, if the Devastator marine is trigger happy, by the 2/3rds of the mission drop in some surprise critters when he has only 40 rounds left in his backpack. Chainswords don't run out of bolt rounds.
Another way to control shooters, place the Kill-Team in tunnels, tight corridors etc. for some missions. Have genestealers pop in from ceiling vents, floor hatches, etc. (see the movie 'Aliens' for a great visual on this).
Thirdly, encourage the other skill sets. Kill-Teams are supposed to be bad ass in combat, but use a lot of secondary or tertiary objectives of deciphering information and other non-combat skill related checks. My players love to dump all points into combat talents to the exclusion of all other things, so in combat they rule, but they lose a bunch of points from a lot of the other objectives.

Hope this helps,

BFTBG!!

World Eater


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## Ultra1 (Mar 10, 2011)

i can agree that combat is grossly underpowered. i've recently started playing deathwatch and thought it would be fun to play a blood angel assault marine. he's arguably the weakest person on the team. i watch our librarian hit with 4d10 during a close combat attack when i only hit with 1, and the same librarian can dish out a 7d10 psychic ranged attack. our heavy marine routinely destroys a chaos marine a turn, but when i charge it takes minimum 2 turns for me to take him down (and i have 4 attacks on a turn i didn't charge; only because i've taken 3 upgrades to get there btw). so yes melee in deathwatch is way under powered. i also agree with your plasma weapon comment. i used to run around with a plasma pistol because i thought they'd be awesome (hadn't read the stat), but they aren't very powerful either. i'd much rather save the requisition and keep my bolt pistol, which is what i'm doing now.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Is the fluff part alone worth paying for? I wont be playing it, so I wonder if it would still be worth it?


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

This is probably the best 40k book that FFG has put out so far. Fluff is excellent, well worth the purchase alone I think. I've sat down and flipped through the book a few times and found myself ending up reading it for an hour or two.

The mechanics in Deathwatch are probably the high point of the 40k RPG range right now. The power curve from Dark Heresy through Rogue Trader to Deathwatch is so exponential it's almost quadratic. That having been said, the OP hit on some great points;

1) Melee does feel a little underpowered, especially for the effort it takes to get into melee range. Not only does it take valuable turns, but it's dangerous at low levels against Elites and HQs, which is where the Assault Marine should really shine. The Devastator class is pretty overpowered at early levels, too, so any group that includes these two classes will have issues.

2) I didn't like how the Ultramarines got to choose where their bonuses went, either. In all other mechanics, they're made to look like the ideal leaders of Deathwatch teams, so their bonuses should be in Willpower, Intelligence or Fellowship IMHO. Also, it smells like Matt Ward.

3) Plasma weapons. I feel they are represented pretty well, actually. The pistol rolls about 13 damage on average with 8 penetration and a flask of 12 shots. That's not too shabby for a sidearm, to say nothing of the rifle or cannon. The only issue I have is that the cannon is only slightly more powerful than a heavy bolter, and takes a hell of a lot longer to reload.

4) Melee weapons are underwhelming. There's almost no reason to upgrade from a chainsword to a powersword, given the requisition cost. One could make the argument that a Space Marine's tripled Strength bonus makes up for the lackluster damage of these weapons, but on average a ranged weapon of equal requisition cost is going to be a better investment. Also, given that most of the HQ enemies can literally rip your face off in melee, standing back with an absurdly powerful Melta gun seems like a much better idea than charging in with a powerfist.

Overall, I love this book. It's basically Dark Heresy written by Dan Abnet, directed by Micheal Bay with a soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. 10/10 k:


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## daemons_of_chaos_666 (Jan 26, 2011)

I think Deathwatch is a fantastic roleplay game. Especially with what happened this time. my Friend plays a Blood angels Psyker and he got Perils of the Warp and acidentaly summoned a Daemon Prince. This was only about half an hour after we landed on the planet. We still apparently have to fight a Hive Tyrant, a Warrior Brood and Lictors. This is AFTER one of our men was killed and 2 others only have to get sneezed on before they die. My guy on the other hand is fine. i was handeling the Gant horde comming for us and didnt get touched by the Daemon Prince. 
Only reason i didnt join in with the Prince is because i was given orders to destroy the horde and my orders where never changed lol


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## crowhaven (Apr 3, 2011)

i play as a black tempalars assult marien and im level 3 my freind on the other hand is a devestator lv1 2nd mission, we came up agains a hive tyrant and he shot it and took of half the wounds them i chared and only did 9 with a power sword


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## Ultra1 (Mar 10, 2011)

two words for you my friend "Thunder Hammer". I also play an assault marine and had a very hard time killing anything with my power axe. But now i'm slicing (or should i say smashing) through a warrior every round. Last mission I was completely surrounded by a Lichtor, 2 ravenors and 2 gene stealers and killed them all. The stun ability for the THammer is amazing. i have since picked one up as signature wargear so i never leave home without it.


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## Luisjoey (Dec 3, 2010)

I´ve been master and i found that space marines (specially shooting) are too strongh against any horde opposition, you have to combine strong hitters, heavy weapons, etc. 

Anything not space marine is easey to kill

the true grit makes them very powerfull and tough to kill... they could sustain 4 or 5 critics before being really damaged.


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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

The latter levels of the Assault Marine make it shine to a degree when you can pick up the talents. If all you do is open field combat though it is gonna lack compared to the rest of the team unloading with their weapons. Plasma weapons have a nice punch against single target mobs but lack against hordes. Overall my group of RPG players find it a nice once in a while one shot diversion to play. It is a very hack and slash oriented system and we would rather do DH if we want to be more rp'ish.


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