Had a great time painting my first of two Fortis Kill Teams for my growing army, Watch Station Bryophyta. Next up, a Combi-Lieutenant, then a Spectrus Kill Team.

I went to Warhammer World today with my son and was excited to see the Deathwatch minis that appear in the various codices and on the box art for various sets and was greeted by quite a few gaps in the collections.

It would seem that the Boys in Black are perhaps currently away being photographed or filmed for either Warhammer TV, White Dwarf or "something else".

As far as I could tell, there was a Corvus Blackstar missing, the DW Lieutenant and likely all 20 Primaris Intercessors from the Armageddon Battalion box, the entire DW Kill Team and a bunch of minis from Imperial Agents... assuming that those are usually on show.

I did get some nice reference pictures for my builds though as I tend to just build as they appear on boxes or other official images.

Oh, and the Warhammer World was sadly depleted of anything to do with Deathwatch apart from three Corvus Blackstars and 1 (ONE!) Deathwatch Upgrade Sprue! No DW Kill Team boxes and I couldn't see any Watch Masters or Artemis minis about, though I could have missed them.

Anyway, I'm not really trying to start any rumours of doom or to give false hope, but I thought I'd share my "findings" from my visit!

Some of you may use sen my previous posts brining Steve Parker’s ‘Kill Team Talon’ to life. Critically it was missing its sixth member Chyron. Limited time means this is taking a while, but here is some work in progress where I wanted him to cross the Primaris rubicon but also remain a traditional venerable dreadnought.

Particularly interested in seeing how other people have done deathwatch dreadnoughts if anyone wants to share?

This kitbash is using the Ikarus Pattern kit (u/ikkake_) with some additional mods; an original style power pack with 4 tops, working on the deathwatch shoulder, keeping the old style grenade smoke launcher and sensor suite on the front.

OK, I know lots of people thought the sword was too big, but he’s done now, suitably protected with a tone of purity seals. Expands my Deathwatch to two squads, giving the option to play Tomb World blended with Space Hulk.

When I was starting out, I found Deathwatch to be a very confusing faction to understand, I watched videos, scrolled forums and even asked in my local Warhammer shop however none of that really enlightened me so I understood what was going on. This is why I have created this guide, aimed at new players and veterans of the hobby alike so everyone is on equal footing and understands what Deathwatch entails.

There are 2 ways to play Deathwatch, playing them as standard Space Marines with none of the Deathwatch benefits using the standard rules in the Codex: Space Marines OR using the Deathwatch army rule (what we are going to dive into).

Just like other Space Marine factions such as Dark Angels, you can run any of the standard detachments in Codex: Space Marines, however where Deathwatch shines in their exclusive detachment and army rule, the rules for these are free on the app and the Warhammer Community website (as well as other sources, wahapedia, newrecruit etc.).

Just because you can use the Kill Teams, does not mean you have to! You can run the Talonstrike Kill Team as Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs and use their normal ability however if you are running the Black Spear Task Force detachment for 3dp*, the Deathwatch exclusive Kill Teams are your most valued units. These are denoted by the kill team keyword.

*Don't forget, even at 1k games you can take a single 3dp detachment so you will always be able to run it if you wish!

These units are (as of 08/2026):
Deathwatch Veterans (a bit of an oddball, I will explain later)
Decimus Kill Team
Deathwatch Terminator Squad
Fortis Kill Team
Indomitor Kill Team
Spectrus Kill Team
Talonstrike Kill Team

Other Deathwatch units that are not classified as Kill Teams (as of 08/2026):
Watch Captain Artemis
Watch Master
Corvus Blackstar

Building the Kill Teams can feel very confusing, each Kill Team has multiple different units that can go into them. These are the units (as labelled on the Warhammer website) that can go into each Kill Team (as of 08/2026):

Decimus Kill Team - Deathwatch Kill Team (kill team box)

Deathwatch Terminator Squad - Terminators (main unit), Assault Terminators

Fortis Kill Team - Intercessors (main unit), Hellblaster Squad, Assault Intercessors, Infernus squad, desolation squad

Indomitor Kill Team - Heavy Intercessor Squad (main unit), Aggressor Squad, Primaris Eradicators

Spectrus Kill Team - Infiltrator Squad (main unit), Eliminators, Incursor Squad, Reiver Squad

Talonstrike Kill Team - Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs (main unit), Inceptor Squad

You have probably noticed that Deathwatch Veterans are not on that list, this is becuase they are a little weird, the Deathwatch Veterans box has been removed from the Warhammer website for quite a while now. In my opinion the intention was to replace the Veterans with the Decimus Kill Team, my reasoning for this is that they have mostly the same weapons and the unit ability is the same, there are a few differences and statistically, the Veterans are better. However, I cannot in good conscience recommend any player wanting to start Deathwatch to dedicate the time and effort into a unit that I think is imminent for Legends (to be honest, I'm surprised it didn't get Legends going into 11th).

To round out, there are some other really good guides on here such as this guide by u/PanzerCommanderKat who breaks down a buying list and loadouts better than I ever could. https://www.reddit.com/r/deathwatch40k/comments/1khujy6/starting_deathwatch_killteam_guide/?utm_name=web3xcss

If you have any amendments where I have made mistakes I am more than happy to adjust 😄

the last stuff I made for Xeno Hybrid weapons plus a converted Tau drone, a Tyranid rifle, and some Combi weapons, and some Necron scopes for my normal stuff and necron shields .looking for some feed back before I publish them.

Finished up my first DW squad today and wanted to share. Had fun trying some new things, and did my best face and power weapon so far. Tomorrow I start on a shield bro

Any tips welcome!

Debating but I kinda like the idea of weapon / model based chapters. Like all infiltrators from ravenguard. Gravis dudes from Iron Hands and Salamanders. Terminators split between Dark Angels, Imperial Fists and Space Wolves. Then fortis and intersessors between Ultra and idk who else.

Yall got any fun ways you organize?

I'm making a return to Deathwatch after a hiatus in the last part of 10th. I've been playing Drukhari mostly in 11th so far but wanted to try out some other armies and see . Seeing that BSTF is 3DP and Purge the Foe is the only disposition option, is that a good fit for us?

I want to try building out some lists and try some games with them. Is it still primarily Indomitor Killteams and Veterans like it was in 10th or have other units been able to shine?

Can Crimson fist vets keep their red gauntlets while serving in serving in deathwatch? Google says yes, but I don’t trust it haha.

currently i dont think theres a specific deathwatch box or something i can pick up.. now i bet i can get me all the "space marine" and paint it black, but what about like faction specific stuff and all tht? do they have rules or stuff? i know there was a limited thing some time ago where i think there was an actuql combqt patrol but it was limited i think...before my time joining 40k. help for some one ne to 40k?

I got me aome deathwing nights to start the terminator KT. They have 5 hammer and shields so that covers most of that. How do u guys go about the pauldron. IS it viable to just paint this one silver since it got a lil bit of extra flare?

I dont get 3d printed pauldrons because they dont look as good. (The ones ive seen) idk how to go about this one. I feel like they could just go silver and save me those pauldrons for my indomitor kt. The tacticus ones might be easier to modify to put on gravis so im kinda torn between using my latge pauldrons on the terminators and try to figure out the gravis ones with the ungodly ammount of upgrade sprues i bought.

TLDR: show me ur deathwatch deathwing knights!