Here are all the new Deathwatch Warhammer 40k rules for Stratagems, Doctrines, and Litanies that are coming in White Dwarf issues 453 for May!

Posted publically by Miniwars.eu, we’ve got a few snapshots of the rules coming to the Deathwatch as part of their Psychic Awakening support.

If you’ve been wanting to see where these guys fell on the spectrum of power after GW’s rules boost, sit back, relax, and join us as we break down what’s just been revealed.

New Deathwatch 40k Rules: Canticles, Doctrines & Stratagems

So it looks like GW used this opportunity to print their rules as part of a new release to give the players a physical copy of the latest rules. They’ve actually had the rules like Bolter Discipline, Shock Assault, etc. for months now as part of a past FAQ that was available for download from GW.

GW Also printed a combat doctrine sheet. However, the way it’s worded this was all printed before the big Marine FAQ. It says you “CAN” change your Doctrine if you want to. But this will also probably get FAQ’d and updated with the correct wording “MUST”.

Finally, the Deathwatch got the generic Chaplain litany table. While it would’ve been cool to see a xenos-hating litany appear here, from what we can tell, the Deathwatch are just going to act more like generic Marines with some saucy ammo choices.

Deathwatch Gain Staple Marine Stratagems

Word of warning: We’ve talked in great detail what kind of support the Deathwatch would be getting and it looks like we were right. GW pretty much printed the rules that they already gave them months ago in a physical book for us to have as well as gave them the generic Marine overhaul with Stratagems. They also have potentially a few pre-FAQ mistakes as well.

Some of the most-used Stratagems out of the Marine codex came to the Deathwatch. The 1CP Hero of the Chapter will probably be seeing a ton of play. However, there’s been something really interesting to note here…

The Deathwatch have access to Stratagems like Duty Eternal (which uses the old wording) as well as Adaptive Strategy, which was outright deleted from the Stratagem list altogether in the huge Space Marine FAQ that knocked the Astartes down a peg.

Snapshot of changes from Marine FAQ

With this being spotted, it looks like we’ll be getting an FAQ very soon after the magazine’s release.

While it might not have been the fully hyped release wave like all the other factions before them, free rules are always welcome. Plus, Deathwatch players don’t have to drop the $40+ on a hardback book for these rules, which is a silver lining.

Overall, the Deathwatch didn’t really get a whole lot. Although, a rules buff from GW is never a bad thing.

What do you think about the Deathwatch’s latest rules overhaul for Psychic Awakening? Would you have rather gotten your own book?

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