So I have lately been really hung-up on creating a Deathwatch “counts-as” army. I’ve got 30+ Sanguinary Guard torso just sitting around (used wings and robed bodies for my DIY Chapters all SG army) and 25ish Deathwatch shoulder pads and bolters. I figure this with the more knightly heads available either thru MaxMini.eu or from various plastic champion models would make for a really stand out force. I might have to pick up another pack but that would be it. So I’ve been extremely taken with the idea and come to the conclusion that there are only 3 “counts-as” lists that I think would be appropriate and worth playing. Of the three, two really stand out as fun and different-ish from my standard armies. I’ll go into those in a second.
First thing I want to make clear is that this is a highly thematic list but I am going to try to build a very solid tourney list with it. Basically, this is the kind of list that wins “softer” events because even though it’s nasty it looks hella good and is “fluffy”. Plus it’s different which draws attention as well. Most people don’t mind being smacked by pretty and different. It will also be an army for large national events as those are the places to truly stand out J
So now into the overall army build ideas and I’ll explain any individual army conversions in their spot:
The first, and least appealing option for me, is a Pedro based Sternguard army. The scouts could easily be inquisitor inducted troops so there are your 2 troop units and you could use storms if you were inclined to. But basically you pay a boat load for some decent jack of all trade units and then try and fill the list in with other stuff like Dreads/Speeders and some heavy support vehicles (though I don’t like this option from a fluff perspective). The reason I don’t like this is even though the Sternguard make awesome stand-in’s for Deathwatch the rest of the list doesn’t fit it nearly as well. It takes some heavy adjusting to get the theme right and even then it’s a less than stellar army in the current environment. The only conversion issues would be with the scouts and finding a way to make them look more like grizzled Inquisitor house troops instead of SM scouts.
The second is a Noise Marine based Chaos Army. 2 lash “librarians”, termies/chosen/dreads, noise marines, oblits/havocs with rhinos with FW Inquisitor Hatches could make an awesome themed army. Sonic Blasters make great representations (in my opinion) of the special ammo that Deathwatch tend to carry. The idea is pretty cool I think with Oblits being tech-marines w/heavy weapons attached to their lower servo-harness arms. Everything else kinda fits the pre-set mold but I think it would look quite good overall.
The third and last one is probably the most competitive of the bunch and actually pretty easy to make a “counts-as” out. You probably guessed it by now…..Logan Wolfguard Army!!!!! That’s right. It could be a Logan-wing foot army or a mounted force. Basically give all the WG stormbolters to represent the ammo and you’re on your way. Logan, 2 “Librarians”, dreadnoughts, WG squads, maybe speeders and long fangs. It fits the competitive nitch nicely and would look pretty sweet but I’m just not sold on them as I already have a SW army and it’s quite nasty.
I’ll be posting up a few armies lists at 1,850 and 2k since most of the major events out there this year fall into those two categories over the next week or so. I was just wondering what you guys think of the idea? I’m going to start building them in my limited free time so I’ll blog the progress but what are yall’s thoughts on the codex to use and the idea overall?
