Deathwatch, The New Hotness

When I picked up an early copy of the Deathwatch role playing game at Games Day back in August I knew we would play it. I knew we would all make models for our characters and set aside time on our monthly gaming day for it. I did not know it would become the main event! During the slow time between summer and Christmas attendance has been sporadic at best during any of our gaming related fun times. Every few weeks enough of us would be around to try out the game here and there. The immediate response was always something like this, "HOLY CRAP! THAT WAS AWESOME!", or like this, " I JUST DID HOW MUCH DAMAGE!", or ," WE ARE THIS POWERFUL AT LEVEL ONE?!"

Having played more than our fair share of role playing games over the years we all found the game to be both unique and refreshing. It can be played as a space marine kill fest but there is also plenty of room for depth of storyline like you would expect from any well done role playing system. Did I mention how AWESOME space marines are at level one? Its very refreshing to be able to start a new character and not worry about getting killed off in the first combat you come across. Not that you are invincible, mind you. Space Marines can still drop dead rather quickly given the right circumstances as our first group quickly found out. (Genestealers are serious business when they get a crit to your head.)

On the flip side when your team works together using the squad mode abilities you can deal with overwhelming threats almost with ease. When we were surprised by a Lictor while moving to a new area we brought it down so fast the GM was shocked and gave it more HP for a few rounds just so he could at least get a few attacks off. Running the game takes serious adjustment in planning simply because your players are no longer weak nobodies. They are the champions of mankind! They are space marines!

A big bonus for tabletop 40k players is that you can use your models and terrain to really make battles come alive. Many times throughout the missions we would see the map of the area we entered and make an approximate recreation with whatever terrain was available. I'm one of those gamers who really enjoys seeing painted models bring a battlefield to life and it really made the game that much more enjoyable. Defrolla Dan showed up with an old deathwatch squad he nabbed form ebay which some people used but many of us are working on our own custom figures.

If you have yet to give deathwatch a try you should. They have a free starter mission with abridged rules available here.

Soon you too could be hot wiring a chimera and rocking it like this!


This wasn't even the epic finale.
Rune Priest Yimeron Ready to unleash his power.
This is my Blood Angel apothecary. He's got magnets!

7 comments:

  1. Racing that Chimera into the crater to save the Guardsmen was so epic, and THEN a Hive Tyrant slammed through the ruins to face us!

    Once everyone gets their models converted and painted up they won't have to use the 2 or 3 ebaybabys.

    Great game and like Palin says, build your scenes! Its so Epic!

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  2. After reading more HH novels, I am starting to warm up to this space marine rp stuff. I'm still a little more for the other two variants though.

    I love the scenes! Take more pics, these are great! Magnets are definitely a must if youre going to be swapping wargear. It reminds me of mordheim, which gets a bit out of hand if you play wysiwyg.

    Are there rules for eventual Terminator honors or dreadnought interment? Or does the Deathwatch just not have any of those resources..

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  3. There are rules for all the basic terminator armor variants in the core rule book. Supposedly one of the upcoming rules with have some dreadnought rules.

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  4. Honestly, why are you all playing with toy soldiers, when you could be playing it on an Xbox? I mean really, Halo CE is better than this. Though I can see the appeal of RPing, why not do it in a virtual world? Create the characters there, build your sets there, and viĆ³la. Sure, it may be more fun to paint and build entire armies and sets, as though you are a god, but at least creating it digitally you couldn't possibly lose the pieces, and would have a more realistic outcome. Like losing, for example. Losing humbles he who always wins. But in alll fairness, this sounds epicly cool. Would any of you know where I could find these figurines and other accessories?

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  5. I tried the original Halo for about 3 hours. The repetitive level design and cliche story got old pretty fast. Also in my 22 or so odd years of video gaming Ive had plenty of save files get corrupted. Then there is the realization that dawned upon me after having my first kid. In 10 years I could give my kid a memory card or I could give him something unique that I made my self. But enough of my video game rant.

    http://www.games-workshop.com/ Is the main site for all warhammer related goodness although there are many other online retailers that sell at a discount. If you are only looking to build a few models in epic poses you can get individual parts at sites such as http://www.thewarstore.com/ or http://www.spikeybits.com/

    The best way to see what is available would be to find your nearest local game store. The main GW site has a store finder on it. Besides being able to check out whats available you could get a demo game in and see lots of cool painted models.

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  6. i have only one question about the deathwatch RP can i create a Chaplin marine as a character. if so ^_^ awesome times

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  7. Yes you can! The new book, Rites of Battle has a Chaplain class upgrade among other things. If you get blown up well you can even become a dreadnought!

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