Soon taking on Deathwatch

Next week I've got a game set against 2000pts of Deathwatch.

The player is somewhat decent, so I thought I'd see what advice you people might have.
What are the units you would use?
What are the tactics you might employ?

I'm fairly sure he's bringing a Blackstar, so I thought I might take the opportunity to put my new Vengeance Weapons Batteries on the field (with AA guns).

Further tips?

I can only guess because I never played against them but I'd assume go full MSU. They have some kind of flamer gun that is deadly for us so spread out and don't stay in your transports. That's all I can say.
Keep us updated and good luck!

Ya, they will be a hard match-up.

He will DS a bunch of pods, with 5 man tactical squads, who have a cheesy heavy flamer, who also shoots 2 lascannon shots at 24 inches if he wants instead. All for about 150 pts (if I recall correctly).

Get ready for a bunch of drop pods, with brutal special weapons. The only good thing is that they are still marines with their flimsy 3+, and cost a fair amount.

I would recommend raider spam, and keep the dissies.

5 man base with Drop Pod is close to 150. Loaded with a couple ofl special & heavy weapons is closer to 200.

The danger is that couple of special & heavy weapons are strong S5 or S6 Templates.

So essentially, few elite models but high short range shooting damage output.

Scapel Squadron and full reserve deployment?
That way half his pods come down anf have nothin to shoot at, and when your reserves arrive you boost past his guys who are now on foot with nothin to do, or overwhelm the individual squads (which are hopefully 5 man) with splinter fire/dissie etc.

I'm not entirely sure if that'll work, but those Deathwatch weapons are to be avoided

The Deathwatch drop, from pods or the formation free DS, is freaking lethal.

Castle up or don't be there (reserves) when MOST of it hits.

Then slaughter them one unit at a time with classic DE speed, MSU and BETA strike.

Hmm. Excellent advice.
It seems to distill down to "Castles, and don't be there". I think I can work with that.
Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.

If you are using fortifications, also put down Barricades, Tank Traps or Tanglewire. His Drop Pods will not Mishap but it will still interfere with him trying to land close. Also, Wracks have a chance of surviving the Template hits as they are T5 and will still get their FnP. Otherwise, you can also try to screen with Khymera.

Please let us know how it goes, I would love to hear your thoughts post-game.

If they're actually just landing marines on the table then sounds like if you just take tons of kabalites in transports and deep strike in, they're in for a bad time. A 55p transport that kills 2 expensive marines per turn just by itself is pretty good. Venoms too will be equally bad for them if they're not hiding in metal boxes. Doesn't sound too bad even if they are packing heavy weapons.

So, the battle happened.

Report here: http://www.thedarkcity.net/t14566-2000pts-vs-deathwatch-skyhammer-and-custodes#168737

Thanks for the report squid!

What book are those batteries from and are they allies? They have potential!

Well done on the BETA strike.
You seemed to burn a lot of points and firepower trying to kill the flier and the invisible unit.
Next time just ignore them and concentrate on what you can kill. This always works for me when confronting units that DE struggle to damage.

Also reavers' HOW is probably our most effective tool vs invisibility. There's plenty of fat in that list you could trim for some more reavers and MSU.

Cheers mate.

Vengeance Weapons Batteries are Fortifications, and come from Stronghold Assault (probably going to be in new Planetary Assault supplement). As long as you take a Detachment which allows a Fortification (like a CAD) you can take them.

Yeah, I did burn a lot going for the Invisible Unit and that Fyer. And the Custodes. The trouble was, after my successful strike, that was all he had left!!

Reavers may have to be an option next. Maybe.