The festive season is a time for coming together with friends and family, and what embodies that more than Space Marines from all the different Chapters putting aside their differences and teaming up to kick the rear parts of the nearest xenos? The Black Spear Task Force returns – and they’re bringing a full, tournament-legal Index with freshly recategorised kill teams.
From their hidden bases in orbiting watch fortresses, the Deathwatch dispatch carefully selected operatives to hunt down and exterminate alien presences wherever they may be found. Each of these post-human warriors is a veteran of countless battles, tithed by their original Chapter to undertake the Long Vigil and guard against alien incursion.
The Black Spear Task Force has been a popular Index, and the Advent Detachments gave us a perfect opportunity to bring it back – updating it for the new edition.
The Mission Tactics Detachment rule allows Deathwatch players to adapt to almost any foe, be they enemy hordes, giants of war or high-priority targets.
Stratagems like Site-to-site Teleportation return, making the Deathwatch one of the most mobile Space Marine forces, able to react and reposition to enemy movements. Specialist ammunition is now more accessible to use on a wider variety of units, and players can explore the new units presented here as well as all the units they can access from Codex: Space Marines.
The most substantial changes are to the revamped Kill Teams. Fortis, Indomitor and Spectrus teams have been significantly reworked, joined by the new Talonstrike Kill Team. They have been reorganised to focus on the various armour types. Fortis focuses on Tacticus variants, seamlessly merging a variety of close-support roles and deadly firepower. Indomitor focuses on the heavier Gravis variants, while Spectrus focuses on the Phobos variants, specialising in battlefield control and enemy destabilisation. Finally Talonstrike focuses on the Jump Pack variants, crushing their prey in sudden assaults.
Tomorrow, we’ll return with a one-two punch of Imperial might: the Adeptus Custodes and the Officio Assassinorum, who definitely don’t stop at leaving coal in your stocking.