Check out the top three Deathwatch 40k army lists from LVO, as they look to be getting new rules in the May issue of White Dwarf soon!
2020’s LVO brought in nearly one-thousand different players to roll dice. Now, we’ll be looking specifically at some Deathwatch lists that didn’t do too bad. Keep in mind that even if someone places in the top 300, they’re still doing better than over half of the players overall.
Top 3 Deathwatch 40k Army Lists Right Now: Meta Watch
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can look back at the event as if we were there ourselves.
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Las Vegas Open 2020- Coverage
UPDATE: In case you didn’t know, Aggressors are exempt from the Special Issue Ammunition rule for the Deathwatch. Despite almost every list using them, they’re mainly or the wounds soak as well as decent firing platform.
408th Place: Kevin Mackey- Deathwatch
So most Deathwatch lists look fairly similar to the regular Space Marine configuration with one exception. For the most part, they spam bolter fire to benefit the most from special ammunition. There’s not really a better way to spam S4 fire than to bring two squads of Aggressors with boltstorm gauntlents (even though they don’t get special ammunition). These dudes can unleash a hailtstorm of fire and get to shoot twice if they stand still. 
Moving on beyond the Aggressors, a Veteran squad with storm bolters dropped onto the table (again, to unload special ammo) as well as storm shields for extra tankiness. A squad with six 3++ invuln save to chew through is nothing to underestimate. These guys were loaded into a Drop Pod and could hit the table turn one just about anywhere.
To add a little high strength anti-armor fire support to the list, three Repulsor Executioners were also taken. At 330 pts a piece, this armor column ate up half of the list’s points. Once you realize that you can take three tanks on top of two Aggressor squads and a reactive Veteran squad in a drop pod, you can really see the secret power that lies within the Deathwatch…..Turning ordinary units into swiss army knives and making relatively slower units much more mobile thanks to deepstriking stratagems.
132nd Place: Scott LaFountain- Deathwatch
Jumping way up to 132nd place, we’ve got Scott LaFountain’s list. A Battalion was taken with two squads of Aggressors like before. However, instead of the Repulsor Executioners, he spammed mixed squads of Intercessors and Hellblasters.
And when we say “spammed Hellblasters” we really mean SPAM. While this list lacked any kind of high toughness, it made up for it in sheer amounts of bodies that could still drop a tank with the snap of some fingers.
Finishing up the list, some Intercessors with Stalkers hit the table (probably to help kill enemy Primaris spam lists) as well as one more mixed squad of Hellblasters and Intercessors. The great thing about those mixed squads was that the cheaper Intercessors served as obligatory wounds. That’s something that all the other Astartes don’t really have access to.
76th Place: Anthony D’Amore- Deathwatch
This list is almost identical to the list from above. This might go to show how powerful overall player skill/ potential opponent matchups can really sway where you land on the leaderboard. Anway, bringing mixed squads of Hellblasters and Intercessors to the list, he was able to pump out high-strength plasma fire with surprisingly chunky squads.
To really double-down on special ammo spam, he also brought two squads of Aggresssors that probably parked their butts in the middle of the board on an objective and refused to come up off of it.
More Hellblasters were also brought as well as a Watch Captain with two lightning claws and a jump pack (Definitely a sweet alternative to a Smash Captain).
Topping it all off just like before, two Intercessors with Stalker rifles were brought to obliterate Primaris using hellfire rounds on already-strong -2 AP shots. Another mixed squad of Hellblasters and Intercessors was taken to really help in the “target saturation” department. Awesome job!
After looking at these lists, it looks like Deathwatch players really know what’s good. All three had very similar choices that made it into the list.
Everything We Know So Far: New 40k Deathwatch Rules
So with the Deathwatch rules on the way in the next White Dwarf, do you think we could see competitive Deathwatch Army lists change? How do you have your 2,000 pt army set up?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
