Sorry if this is a stupid questions, but I am new to DW and just trying to determine the ideal and the standard size for a Kill-Team. I have seen 5 as the minimum, but Final Sanction had 4 pre-gens (not including the 2 they added later online). Want to determine if there should be any NPC members of the Kill-Team. Thanks!

~ Alemander

when we play we have between three and five. Our primary group has five. Devastator, Tactical, Librarian, Techmarine & Apothecary. our tertiary group is made up of. Tactical, Techmarine & Apothecary. the latter group has a few problems with firepower at times but it just makes us plan encounters better, we ambush a lot more. In both cases the Apothecary is a NPC, without one we'd be dog-meat.

In Death Watch the Kill Team send will be exactly the right size for the job. No need to send 8 Marines, if 3 can do the job.

My Kill-Team consist of 4 Players (Tactical, Assault, Libarian, Apothekary). Generell I think the size of the group depends on what you will and can handel as GM. Too much player results in less rollplaying, to fee player in reduced fire power. My advice would be to use 3-5 players. 2 are not enough for many situations, are to much (at least for me).

The Codex-standard orgizational unit for Space Marines is 5-10 per squad, but, since any given Deathwatch Watch Fortress will have access to far fewer Marines than a true Chapter, it makes sense that they may have to 'make due' with fewer individuals in a squad. In other words, the GM has free reign to scale missions to the number of PCs available.

I have 9 total players in my campaign, ranging from one guy who has never missed a session (because we play at his house!), to a guy who has only made it to one game because of conflicts with his work schedual. Typically only about half of the players make it to any given game, so I assume that the Killteam (code-name: Blackthorn) consists of 9 total Marines (one short of a full squad due to recent losses suffered by the Watch Station). For missions, the Killteam is usually devided into two squads (Alpha and Beta), each sent to search separate areas; the group consisting of the players who made it to that partucular game are the ones who encounter the objective for that session, while the other group turns up a dead end.

I have four players consisting of an Apothecary/Chaplain, Techmarine/Forge Master, Assault Marine/Tempest Blade and a Tactical Marine.

I could easily handle another player, or one fewer. The Deathwatch have an incredibly non-codex chapter organisation which makes it easy to justify variable squad sizes. Kill-teams are sent on missions suitable for their size and talents, exactly what missions are suitable is up to their Watch Captain (read GM).

In play I find that whilst the Assault Marine dominates combat he's all but useless elsewhere. The Techmarine and Apothecary, and to a lesser extent the Tactical Marine, are the most generally useful characters due to their wide selection of skills and talents. Getting through Ark of Lost Souls would have certainly been much harder without them.

The Deathwatch are a Chamber Militant, thus they are NOT like a Codex Chapter as far as organization nor numbers. As far as the question posed by the OP, Generally 5-8 Marines from the BL paperbacks and shorts. Depends really on the group and what the GM can handle.