Inquisitorial outfitting and retinues

[Validar]

Hail and well met.

I know there should be older threats about this, but I could not find them with search. So,the obvious questions:

 

What should I gear my inquisitor with?

what sort of retinue should he have?

Why?

How do I do it? (hints for good/easy/cool conversions or such)

 

I should say I am using deamon hunters as allies in my space marine force for now, however, I would have no problems with using a witch hunter inquisitor as I am getting both codices.

 

If you could line up a few cookie cutter combinations, explain what you use yourself and why or simply give some advice to a new inquisitor play it will all be much appriciated.

 

On a slightly different subject, do anyone know where this model is from?

[Justicar Valius]

DH inquisitor loadout:

 

1. The Deepstrike defence: Inquisitor, 2 mystics, multi melta servitor, rhino with extra armour and smoke launchers (or a rhino stolen from your marines)

2. The devestator squad: Inquisitor with psycanonn, 1/2 mystics, 2/1 sages, 2 heavy bolter servitors, plasma cannon servitor. Please note you can make this an inquisitor lord and include both 2 sages and 2 mystics and you can also add sanctuary to make Daemon players cry "cheese!"

 

Converting I can't help you on and this site probably can't unless someone got an inquisitor in power armour (which it must be in to be stuck in the hall of honour or WIP)

 

I personally would only consider no.1 in a marine force.

[Inquisitor Fox]

There's no rules about conversion help for our army books being disallowed.. please refer to + Inquisitorial Mandate - Forum Rules + stickied up at the top of this forum if you have any questions. Essentially it says anything in our army books themselves is perfectly fine, any of the Inducted IG stuffs stays in OI, and the only Guard stuff to discuss is whats on the lists in the DH and WH codices.

 

In terms of advice, allow me to copy/paste this private message between myself and another new player from another board about utilizing retinues.

 

Alright, I'll start by saying that technically speaking my own Inquisitor Lady and Retinue is NOT min/maxed by any means. It's a bit of a cross between fluffy and effective, but most importantly is composted of models I like the look of and have found to be reasonably effective on the tabletop. I have a few other ideas for conversions that I will most likely do at some point to add to the retinue and swap out some of the other models, particularly among my acolytes, as I work on rounding out more fluff for my Inquisitor and crew. There are lots of things I Could do to make it more effective, like changing weapons on the Inquisitor, cutting out a lot of wargear and the like. I play for mostly fun though so I haven't worried about it. The advice I give will be more for doing the min/maxing, then I'll go into my retinue at the end.

 

Survivability for an Inquisitor is harder than say, a Space Marine, but there are several tricks which help render them hard to touch. First, there is the Retinue rule in the BRB, which makes them an untargetable squad upgrade as long as their retinue is alive, since their retinue is a bodyguard. Second, the fact that they can have power armor and a rosarius (WH) gives them a 3+/4+ armor save. Yes, a DH Inquisitor can have a 2+/4+ but they don't have chiurgeons. Chirugeons allow the Inquisitor to ignore the first unsaved wound suffered each round, if you have 2 or more it even ignores an Instant Death wound. Spiffy! Also an Inquisitor can allocate any wound inflicted on the Inquisitor to an Acolyte instead before any saves are attempted. You are limited to one wound per acolyte allocated in this fashion. Crusader henchmen (a WH unique bit) come with a 4+ invulnerable save which is also useful in terms of wound allocation. What this boils down to is I almost always have my Inquisitor and 1 to 4 or so members of the retinue alive at the end of the game, often without any wounds on the Inquisitor.

 

Psychic powers give several options for an Inquisitor geared towards close combat. I would look at Hammerhand, His Will Be Done, and Scourging. Personally I go with His Will Be Done and Scourging.

 

In my own experience, having a transport for the Inquisitor and retinue is key, particularly for an assault oriented retinue, as otherwise toughness 3 with a majority of 4+ or 5+ saves can be a little squishy. Personally I go the full monty and purchase a Land Raider. Why? Because the WH FAQ undedicates the Land Raider letting it carry anyone, it's AV14 all around, and comes with two twin-linked lascannons, which is a heck of a boost to anti-armor capabilities for the Witch Hunters. It's transport, protection, intimidation, and anti-armor all in one. The fact I blinged it out with Forge World bits and now it looks cool is just a bonus.

 

In terms of a melee retinue there are two major approaches: Power weapon spam, or monster-hunting. Both center around the following henchmen: 3 acolytes, 3 warriors, 2+ chiurgeons, 1+ familiar. The familiar is really there just for the inherent +1 initiative. The two chiurgeons are fairly critical in terms of wound prevention and keeping your Inquisitor alive, along with the acolytes. The warriors are some of your main offensive punch, they will either be crusaders or combat servitors depending.

 

For power weapon spam the acolytes need to be armed with power weapons. This leaves an few points per acolyte for wargear, often carapace armor or some combination of grenades. Note it is really easy to differentiate acolytes to help abuse the wound allocation system. The warriors will be crusaders. This gives you 18 power weapon attacks on the charge, half of which are at WS4. The warriors come with frag and krak grenades, and a 4+/4+ save. Add this onto the power weapon attacks from the Inquisitor and you're looking at a lot of potential pain.

 

Monster-hunting relies on acolytes armed with mancatchers, which some points per acolyte in wargear (just enough for power armor). The key here is in eliminating the attacks of monstrous creatures or independant characters to render them mostly harmless. Warriors should be combat servitors as they get power fists instead of power weapons, although they're WS3 instead of 4 and have less attacks.

 

My own retinue list is currently as follows:

 

Inquisitor Lord w/ Bolter stake-crossbow, force weapon, auspex, digital weapons, frag grenades, hexagrammic wards, melta bombs, psycannon bolts, psychic hood, psyocculum, rosarius, His Will Be Done, Scourging

2 Acolytes with shotgun, bolt pistol, carapace armor, frag grenades, krak grenades

Sage

2 Crusaders

Combat Servitor

Familiar

2 Chirurgeons

 

Land Raider with extra armor, hunter-killer missile, pintle mounted storm bolter, searchlight, smoke launchers

 

The Familiar and Sage exist for their permanent stat ups and the fact that they are easy throwaway henchmen. They do not need to be alive to affect the abilities of my retinue. The chiurgeons keep the Inquisitor alive. The acolytes I mostly went for look of the model and the fact they can shoot the shotguns out of the Land Raider on an assault. Fluffwise I have an ex-arbites and an ex-guardsmen.. so I haven't messed with them too much. My own retinue is perfectly sized to fit in a Land Raider.

 

If I take an Instant Death weapon shot I assign the first wound to the Inquisitor.. she has her 4+ ward save, and if she flubs it the chiurgeons nullify the wound. If my disposable sage or familiar are still present they get the second and third insta-gib shots, followed by crusaders (4+ invuln again). Small arms fire is kind of shuffled around to whomever is deemed disposable at the time. Between careful wound allocation and the Land Raider, the retinue tends to be pretty survivable.

 

The benefit to an Inquisitor and retinue is, in my opinion, that it is an under-dog unit that people consistantly underestimate and disregard as a threat. Pairing this unit up with say, Seraphim or Arco-flagellants is a mincemeat combo that people won't see coming. I've tended to have people regard my Seraphim as more of a threat and ignore the retinue, to their regret.

 

That and it's fun going the road less traveled, and not having a pure Sisters list. On that note, I would heartily recommend to your new player that he induct an Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon. Given the new rules and Codex, he can get dirt cheap guardsmen to swell the low numbers of the Inquisition, as well as Heavy Weapon Squads to give him much needed anti-tank firepower. I recommend autocannons, lascannons or missile launchers. I would leave out heavy weapons in the guardsmen squads... just a special weapon if anything.

 

Let me know if this was helpful or if you have any more questions!