Hey, everyone.
After getting up early, I managed to bag myself a ticket to the next Warhammer World campaign weekend event, The Tenebris System. I'm going to use it as an excuse to motivate myself to get my Deathwatch army assembled and painted.
As can be seen above, right from the beginning I've incorporated an Inquisitor into my Deathwatch army, and I intend to glue and paint him up for the campaign weekend. I recognise that it won't be a terribly effective unit, but it fits the narrative and campaign weekends are all about the narrative.
I intend to run him with a Force Staff, a Needle Pistol, and as a Psyker. I'm also considering having him ride in an Aquila Lander (that I originally bought for one of my Daemonhunter Inquisitors) as his personal transport. But I'm looking to see what the best bodyguards I can have for him that can ride alongside him. The campaign pack makes it clear that armies are built using Power Levels, so I'm looking for things that are better when using Power Levels than with points.
The Aquila Lander has a transport capacity of 7 Astra Militarum models (Ogryns and Heavy Weapons Teams counting as 2 models each), though, obviously, units with the Authority of the Inquisition can bypass the keyword limitation.
The obvious choice for a bodyguard unit is Inquisitorial Acolytes. They have the special rule that they can absorb wounds for a nearby Inquisitor. They also have a pretty wide range of options for weapons, meaning that I can kit them out pretty nicely. However, they're fairly costly in terms of Power Level for a full unit, and they're only Toughtness-3/Save-5+ which means that they'll die super easily. Despite their special rule to protect the Inquisitor, they seem like the squishiest option.
The next choice I thought of was Tempestus Scions. They're a little tougher than the Acolytes, having a 4+ save, and come with pretty decent weapons as standard, though can also be upgraded with other, also decent, weapons too. I can only take 5 of them (as the 6th would eat up an extra 2 Power Levels for a single model, which doesn't seem like a good idea) and they're not that much more survivable than the Acolytes.
Finally, I'm considering Crusaders from the Astra Militarum Codex. They have a 3++ which makes them the most survivable of the bunch, and can dish out a reasonable amount of damage in melee. On the downside, they have no ranged weapons.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what bodyguards I should use for my Inquisitor?