I don't know, maybe in Titanicus by Dan Abnett, I haven't read it.

I guess background wise they are one of the less well known groups that GW hasn't done much with yet - much like crone world eldar or Adeptus Custodes.

There is plenty of good stuff about the ad mech out there, its not as much in the forefront as the Marines are, but Skitarii rock. They are present in both the mechanicus and the second dark angels horus heresy books and they do give the DA's a run for their money and are scary as hell on top of that with multiple bladed arms ect and they could be done as a chapter easy.

Also the big Visions of Heresy artbook a ton of stuff about them.

Redemption Corps has a Skitarii commander in it for one of the missions with the stormtroopers and he was considered on par or better then the average stormtrooper. Which probably means that a pc Skitarii could hold their own in a deathwatch game. Give them some of the traits from ascension and let em roll. The ones in Soul Hunter gave the Black Legion hell as well. I would assume they would be heavy with mechadendrites and you might want to let them take one with a basic weapon on it instead of just a pistol or let them have a mounted on since most of their body would be metal. I played out a scenario which put a ascension deathcult assassin up against a first rank assault marine and she put the hurt on him pretty good. If you have someone who does not want to play a space marine for whatever reason did anyone consider using the ascension characters and making them ordo xenos? It would not be highly uncommon for Inquistion personel to be on misson with the chamber millitant of their ordo. There are some places a space marine will not fit.

Also you have to play to the strength of the character in question. Marines are walking tanks, assassins are one shot killers who strike once and disappear ect. In a tank vs tank fight sure the sniper will die, but what about if he gets to start at range, with a gun ect, suddenly when faced with say an executioner rifle round our astartes friend is not as tought.

A Vindicare Assassin is much more capable of hanging with Marines after purchasing Unnatural Toughness. Before that, they're paste as there is too much that he cannot Dodge (such as any melee attacks by a Horde).

HappyDaze said:

Except that a horde would fall under one of those GM option things that a Temple Assassin MIGHT be able to dodge.

Firstly, a Vindicere assassin can, as a general rule, dodge anything - part of the Temple Assassin rules.

Secondly, that horde's gotta actualy SPOT the Vindicere before it can shoot at her. Unlike the hulking idiots in the black powered armour, this is going to be very, very difficult - an opposed test vs Concealment +10 or +20, a stealth suit, and agility ridiculous. Didn't see her? That's a shame. Blam !

Turbo-penetrator rounds are very, very good things to have once elite and master foes start turning up. Let the astartes deal with crowd control, the Vindicere is there to take out her quarry and no-one else. Blam !

Skitarii - high ranking ones, anyway - are a good choice because they're the only thing that looks like a marine but isn't a marine. Sisters of battle may look superficially the same (in terms of armament) but they have no reason to have unnatural stats and - more importantly to me - no reason to be tooling around in a Deathwatch kill-team. There are plenty of inquisitorial types that can be on permanent attachment - death-cultists, vindicere, inquisitors, primaris psykers, etc - that fit the ordo xenos better.