In today’s Warhammer 40k Flashback, we’re hopping into the cat tub time machine and checking out the roots of the Deathwatch!
They first came out in Chapter Approved. The rules are circa 2002 and originally Deathwatch was just a couple of pages. They complied a lot of snippets from issues of White Dwarf and stuffed them all into the Chapter Approved, becoming the second edition of the book in the 2000’s and the third installment overall.
I thought it would be dope seeing only the best of different chapters represented in my army. Turned out, this bit of propaganda wasn’t enough to sway me into playing the forces of the Deathwatch.
I ended up making a Black Templar army, which, for all intents and purposes was my first real army. I ran chaos in 2nd edition, but unfortunately it wasn’t what anyone would consider a real army. Things were different back then…
Anyway, these guys counted as an HQ choice, and you could upgrade anyone! HQ, Veteran, Captain or Deathwatch for only 5 points a dude, that was sweet! It was also a steal because they got access to a lot of sweet wargear. It even gave them access to True Grit which was super cool.
These pages also go into a bit of the fluff. They where created to fight the Tyranids, but they limited enlistment to only the Ultramarines, Lamenters, and Scythes of the Emperor.
You’ll notice the stat lines aren’t nearly as awesome as they are now, which is to be expected. The heavy bolters profile is also different, it was assault 3 and it could do some work.
This was cool to see the rules on how to field the deathwatch back in the day. In general I’d recommend anyone interested in Warhammer 40k Classic to grab a Chapter Approved off Ebay.
To get the full rundown of deathwatch, a peek at some of the other amazing bits in this Chapter Approved book and some great snippets of history that I didn’t include in the article, check out the video below!
Deathwatch’s First Rules – 2003
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About the Author: Felix Fimbres
