Inquisition: without sisters nor grey brothers

[roon]

Hello all,

 

I was fooling around with the idea of starting an Inquisitorial force. An Inquisitor with retinue, Deathwatch marines, assassins (an eversor with deathcult) and Stormtroopers were what I had in mind.

The reason for using these models and no sisters nor Grey Knights is because the models don't appeal to me. My idea was to field the options above, as fluff-wise I really like that. But I would like to know if it has any chance to survive on the 40K battlefield, or that adding Sisters or Grey Knights is inevidable.

 

I'd like to hear your advice :woot:

[Mal]

So you want Ordo Xenos instead of Ordo Hereticus or Orde Malleus.

 

Its no different doing it this way than using C:SM with IST allies. You'll have plenty of arbites/IST to go with the marines, if used right, it could be quite effective.

[Grand Master Tyrak]

You might want to search out tactics on IG forums for armies with the Grenadier Doctrine - the tactics will be almost identical.

[Eddie Orlock]

I've done it, but not as a primary army.

 

My version worked decently in smaller games where its extreem construction distorted senarios and made the game interesting. Sadly, my radical host revolved around the old chapter approved Zealots article, and is thus of dubious legality in fifth edition. The deathwatch article is in a shamefully similar state of disrepair.

 

The 'army' consisted of an Inquisitor Lord with Storm Bolter and a retinue of three grenade launcher henchment with power armour wound absorbing acolytes to taste. Compulsory troops were ususally two squads of storm troopers, one with shotguns and grenade launchers, the other was hellguns and plasmatastic. The vast bulk of the rest of the army was in twenty strong mobs of cultists with full evicerator loadouts. A jerk move that could be pulled in fifth would be to buy a demagouge with power armour, for twenty points it considerably stiffens the unit against small unit small arms fire. The list had over a hundred models in a thousand points. Beyond this threshold it's power was dilluted as it started having to take special sauce and not just more bodies. I have ran a Land Raider for the Inquisitor, allied terminator deamon hunter with psycannon, various assasins, and arco flagellants to varying degrees of success.

 

On the table it plays like an inferior version of Orks, the grenade launcher units roving around like shoota boyz, jumping on objective. While the assault mobs charged forward head long into assaults, with four evicerators you can carve up almost anything, and the cultist moral rule made sticking into the fight easy, it's arguably better than the current ork version.

 

I never would have set out to build that army, one of the few things purpose made were the arcos as an excuse to buy the cool models. The bulk was left-overs from previous projects, Necromunda gangs, GorkaMorka diggas, selection of Imperial Agents left over from my second ed collection. I loved it as an excuse to drag all those old figures off the shelf for a few final hurrahs.

 

Over all, I had about a 40% win rate with it, when I'm ordinarily 60-70% with my Marines or Guard, but for a variety of reasons I found the games a lot of fun. I think Nostalgia was a factor in that.

 

Bottom line, this isn't an army to build if you're out to try and win games, but it is a fantastic excuse to collect virtually any cool human figure in the entire citadel range. I used it as an excuse to aquire a mordheim frenzied mob. I get lots of compliments on how cool they look as I shovel them into the dead piles.

[number6]

Depending on how much non-Deathwatch (i.e., non-power armoured) units you want to employ, you have several options.

 

* Build a Marine base army with Inquisitorial allies. I recommend Pedro Kantor has the compulsory HQ so that Sternguard units -- which are almost identical to the old Deathwatch Kill team unit rules ... only much better! -- can count as scoring units. Bring in an Inquisitor Lord and 2 units of ISTs, perhaps even assassins or some daemonhosts, and you've got some Inquisitorial spice.

 

* Build an IG base army with Inquisitorial allies. You won't get any Deathwatch in here, but you'll have a very unique army. Few people who ally in Inquisitorial units forgo the Chambers Militant.

 

* Build an Inquisition army with Marine inductees. Just follow the basic rules in either the DH or the WH codex and count any Marines you bring in as Deathwatch marines. They won't have any fancy wargear or special issue ammunition, but that doesn't mean that they aren't or can't e Deathwatch. We know almost nothing about that Ordo Militant, so you can fluff it and model those Marine units however it seems most fitting.

 

* Build an Inquisition army with IG inductees. Another army without any Deathwatch, and like I said earlier, unusual to entirely forgo the Chambers Militant. I actually saw such an army, themed as "radical Malleus" at Adepticon this past spring and it was very impressive. Not sure how well it played, but it looked amazing!

[Aidoneus]

Like Number6, I recommend using allies to beef up your force a bit. How much, and in what direction (allying Inq into another base, or inducting into a inq base) depends on how inquisitorial you want it to feel. I know rules-wise your can call anything pure inquisitorial, but to me it always feels more so if you use DH or WH as the base, and induct/ally IG/spacies into that army. That being said, your list will almost certainly be more powerful if you start with spacies or IG, due to the expanded choices available to you in those codices.

 

I recommend using DH over WH for 2 reasons. First, your inquisitor(s) can take a psycannon, which is a very handy weapon to have around. Second, you have access to Daemonhosts. These guys can actually be pretty handy, and are ALWAYS a blast to play with, or against. I play mostly GK, so I never get to use them, but my spacies friend loves allying-in a radical DH inquisitor and 3 'hosts, and games with those units are some of the most fun I've ever played.

 

One thing to keep in mind, you can use both Ordos and either IG or spacies through the allies system. If you start with IG or spacies, you can take allies from both inquisitorial codices, which means 1 HQ (because 1 of your 2 must be from the base list), 2 E, 4 T, and 2 FA aliies (not that either list has FA units that aren't from the chambers militant). Conversely, if you start with either WH or DH, you can ally-in the other Ordo along with whatever inducted guard or allied spacies you take.

 

Between the choices of IG vs. Space Marines, that's really up to you. I'm used to thinking of these things from the point of view of a Grey Knight player, so I don't really consider other marines that much. But for you, you could probably make a decent list with either set of allies. Whatever fits your playstyle and/or your fluff.

[Inquisitor Fox]

Well, I haven't completely gone without chambers militant, but I've done games with only 1 or 2 sisters choices, so that's pretty close ;) It CAN work.. you just have to really change your mindset and love those guardsmen!

 

I primarily use a WH (Hereticus) Inquisitor with Land Raider (as an assault unit, with crusaders and chiurgeons.. much better than a Malleus assault unit) for close combat and anti-tank. I use Inquisitorial Stormtroopers/Grenadiers/IG Stormies (depending on where I put doctrines and things) usually at least 3 squads of them in the without Ordos Militant lists, primarily with grenade launchers or meltaguns.

 

I would recommend doing an IG Parent list in this instance... the guards weakpoint is moral, and having a guard HQ choice allows for better upgrades (vox-casters, commissars, etc) than an Inducted Imperial Guard Platoon does. You COULD do it just from the Inquisition book, but then you loose access to things like Heavy Weapons Teams. Granted you could just use Inducted IG Platoons, Sentinels, and your single Leman Russ fairly effectively :)

 

It fits my personal army fluff well (it's an Inquisitor Lord, her IG Colonel brother, and her commandeered/assisted/borrowed/lent forces of a few Space Marines, some Sisters, and some Grey Knights zooming around the galaxy in a Battle Cruiser kicking butt), and it's incredibly fun to play. It plays remarkably similar to a Cadian Stormtrooper heavy army... the Land Raider helps a lot, adding a Leman Russ to it would take care of most of your anti-armor needs, combined with a few Stormtrooper with meltagun squads. You have a LOT of troops to claim objectives, and a couple fast things (Sentinels) to add mobility. Mobility is really where you will lose out with this army, but you don't really need it that much. If you're very concerned, take Inducted Armored Fist squads (10 guardsmen with Chimera), mount your Inquisitorial Storm Troopers in Rhinos or Chimeras, and off you go. That adds a lot of middle strength/range firepower in the form of heavy bolters and multi-lasers.

 

You'll play more like a guard army with cool toys (Assassins, Inquisitors, etc) than like Space Marines, but it's a riot, and effective if you adjust your playstyle to suit the units at your disposal. Play like a canny IG general, not a superhuman Space Marine and you'll do fine. I know it works for me :)

[roon]

Thanks for the realy helpfull replies guys! I'm waiting for my Witchhunters codex I boght from a friend of mine, and then I can seriously decide which way I can and want to go. This information you've given me is really great.

 

Thanks!

[Marid]

Would you consider using Exorcists in your list? You don't actually have to have any SOB to field them. You could model them more like something an Arbites army would have. I'm slowly building up the models I would need to field an arbites-like list from time to time. I'm thinking of 1,000-point games myself. The core of my force will be something like:

 

WH INQ lord w/ combi-plasma

3x vet w/ plasma guns or HBs

3x acolytes w/ bolters and carapace armor

1x medic (maybe two)

(all modeled with Necromunda Enforcers)

mounted in (undecided)

 

10x IST w/ 2xplasma in Rhino

10x IST w/ 2xplasma in Rhino

 

Exorcist

 

That's somewhere around 700 points. Very much a work in progress. I'm thinking of allying in some SM scouts as snipers (and as more troops). An assassin would go in nicely too (a master sniper, perhaps?). An allied dreadnought would be an Ed-209. A squad of Necromunda Enforcer cybermastifs could be nice arcos. Nice dogs! Be good!

 

Anyway, you get the idea. :)

[Grand Master Tyrak]

Marid Posted Today, 07:52 AM

Would you consider using Exorcists in your list? You don't actually have to have any SOB to field them. You could model them more like something an Arbites army would have.

 

Check out the Black Maria tanks in the BellofLost Souls.com Arbites mini-dex. The models they've used for them could easily use the Exorcist rules.