Greetings Deathwatch fans!

This week, I am pleased to present the third Space Marine Chapter for the Deathwatch RPG: The Dark Angels . Enjoy!

Dark Angels? Check.

A page worth of common background . The only tiny nugget of new information was the mention of "Chapter specific advance tables".

Okay, Dark Angels are in alongside the Ultramarines and Space Wolves.

So that's three of the First Founding, with chapter specific advance tables...

Well at least the Space Wolves are in...

Spacewolves who're on record as being reluctant to work with ANY inquisitors cos of their geneseed issues...

Oh, wait, so're the Blood Angels.

And now the "we're gonna run off cos we think we saw someone we knew" brigade.

Neat.

But yes, i'll likely still buy it

Well Velvetears,

It seems that the SM are a dis-functional lot when it comes to co-operation doesn't it?

I guess what is needed is say someone like Brother-Sergeant Caias from the Ultramarines to put some family values into the kill-team..

I think if they can set aside differences long enough to wage war in larger engagements (against the Black Crusades , during Imperial Crusades , fighting something like the Necron World Engine ) I think they can set aside their differences to work in the Deathwatch. Part of their service is not just to aid the Inquisition, nor to learn new things. Part of it is also to show off the strengths of your chapter to others (unofficially). Personal dislikes will more often than not be cast aside for the success of the mission.

DW K-T with a Dark Angel and a Space Wolf should NOT involve them coming to blows during a mission. Now, during downtime between missions the two may square off often in "training" to prove who is the better warrior. Or they may very well avoid each other as much as possible. Least likely, they actually form a bond of friendship with each other, or at least grudging respect for each other.

I'm just loving the potential RP that this sort of stuff can lead to.

-=Brother Praetus=-

This is brilliant. My favourite Space Marine chapter is in the game. FFG, I love you.

Though from what i recall of numerous novels, its often the "problem brother" who's sent off to the DW team.

You know the sort, Brother Bjorn Bjornson who keeps puppies with bows in their manes, Brother Vlad Vladson who never drinks.. Brother Septic Bellybuttonus who's adherance to the Codex is exemplary, if only he wasnt nice to the humans so much, Brother Cadfael McRunsfast who just always seems to be looking off to one side in the Group Picts and waving at some one..

From the novels you get the distinct impression that its the "Great but not quite really Us 100% in some undefinable manner.." kind of people get dispatched when the call of "send us some people NOW" from the DW higher ups..

Gawd, how this is not a surprise. If they can get past Black Templars/Imp Fists and Blood Angels, I might hold my breath for the 6th chapters.

Why do i get the feeling that no matter who FFG picks for there magic 6 marine chapters there will be riots & lynching because there (insert favorite obscure marine chapter) won't be included.....

miles1739 said:

So true. I believe that people have the right to complain, but some people do get carried away. It's just a game.

Sammail said:

So, why do you htink those three are the next? Are you psychic? lol, Sorry, just teasing but really we don't know anything till they tell us. There is art of an Iron Hand in the description page. Around where it talks about the Assult Marine stuff. He is clearly an Iron Hand. So that removes one of those three if the last chapter is the FFG special.

TCBC Freak said:

Uh, what? The guy with the bog-standard bionics is suddenly an Iron Hand?

Well, hopefully the rules for Marines of different chapters will be sufficiently transparent in their construction that the fans can develop good house-rules for whatever their favorite chapter might happen to be. If there's a lot of rules-cruft then it'd be difficult, but if the number and type of modifiers etc. is relatively standardized, then the work might be easy.

Kanluwen said:

It's not the bionics that stand out as far as I'm concerned, but the color of his hand and shoulder plate. Though I definitely think it's a bit of stretch to pencil the Iron Hands into the roster just yet.

Atheosis said:

Agreed, that was my point in the first place; art does not equal in game. Which I know you got my point Atheosis; we've agreed on that point in other treads. Though I do think they'd be a intresting idea to have because that then gives you the option of not having a Tech-Marines and still having a Marine who knows more than the rest of the team about Tech-stuff. Not saying the Iron Hands will be or even should be included but that'd certainly be some justification for them.

As far as I'm concerned the only rules we need for what concerns chapters is how their gene-seed works. Traditions and differences from the Codex structure are just something you decide before hand, we really don't need rules for that, it's the gene-seed that makes the difference. If we are given first founding chapters we have all we need to run any chapter we might think off.

We have 4 chapters already: Ultramarines, Space Wolfs, Dark Angels and Blood Angels, if we add to this Imperial Fist (or Black Templar since they are the don't have mutations from the original gene-seed) and Raven Guard or White Scars we have all the material we need to make any chapter we want.

I'm calling this 6 chapters out for the fact that Iron Hands and Salamander have practicaly no successor chapters and Raven Guard and White Scars have very limited numbers of successors.

Lucius Valerius said:

That isn't particularly accurate. You're thinking of second founding successors. It remains completely unknown how many successors those Chapters have in total. The Raven Guard are the only one with serious geneseed flaws. The rest have stable, healthy geneseed for founding new chapters.

TCBC Freak said:

Frankly?

I don't see Iron Hands as being divergent or interesting enough to work. The "Flesh is weak, strength in steel" bit is neat...but ehhhhhhh. If they want to include a "tech-savvy normal Marine", I'd say a Veteran Scout Sergeant/Captain would be far more interesting, especially given some Chapters that use full Brothers as Scout-Captains/Sergeants have their scout companies heavily trained in insurgency/guerilla warfare where those skills would be useful.

As for the art, I said in another thread that the silver hand/shoulderplate bit and then jumping immediately to "IRON HAND WOO!" is ridiculous. There's artwork of a Dark Angel and a Blood Angel both with their left arms+shoulderplates in silver. It's possible that the silver is done on the right for that art in question due to the fact that he has a bionic left, or it's also possibly a trick of perception and the lighting source.

Atheosis said:

The only instance of the Raven Guard having serious flaws comes from when their Primach was screwing around with cloning shortly after/during the Horus Heresy. And he made sure to destroy those Abominations before he vanished.

Kanluwen said:

Actually, the Iron Hands are one of the most codex-divergent Chapters...

Kanluwen said:

Actually the Raven Guard are documented to have various geneseed mutations which lead to pale white skin, jet black eyes and hair, and a very slow recruitment rate. Said mutations are actually derived from the Corax's genetic experiments.

"Actually, the Iron Hands are one of the most codex-divergent Chapters.."

Do explain. All I can think of is the fact that they're rather dickish towards the general populations of the Imperium, still maintain their "Clans"/Companies and remove limbs for bionic replacements.

In the grand scheme of things...that's not really that divergent.

"Actually the Raven Guard are documented to have various geneseed mutations which lead to pale white skin, jet black eyes and hair, and a very slow recruitment rate. Said mutations are actually derived from the Corax's genetic experiments"

The mutations you mentioned were in play prior to the genetic experiments, as far as I remember. The Salamanders have similar mutations that led to coal black skin, a higher resistance to heat, etc. and they're still considered pretty stable.

But the "Abominations" were the result of Corax doing all kinds of wacky crap trying to replenish their numbers after the Dropsite Massacres.

Kanluwen said:

The Iron Hands have neither Chaplains nor Techmarines, but instead have Iron Fathers who fulfill both roles. They are organized into Clan Companies that operate independently. They do not have a veteran company, a scout company, or reserve companies. Instead each Clan Company has its own units of veterans, specialists, and scouts. They likewise generally do not field full squads of Terminators, outfitting their veteran squad leaders with such armor instead. So yeah, they're about as un-Codex as they come. The bionics, "Flesh is Weak", and AdMech ties are all just gravy. In all honesty, the Iron Hands are probably the biggest waste of good SM material that I can think of in 40k (the other being the Raven Guard). They're a very distinctive and interesting Chapter that has consistently sat on the back burner for pretty much ever.

As far as Raven Guard mutations go, refer to this: wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Raven_Guard

TONS of Astartes Chapters have organs that no longer work. The Ultramarines are, as far as I know, the only ones that have all of their organs still functional. That doesn't hold water for me as evidence of mutations in the Raven Guard.

Those abominations that they used for attacking the Iron Warriors' fortress are supposedly the ones that Corax made via his experimentation with cloning following the Dropsite Massacres, which Corax destroyed/took with him alongside of his research when he vanished.