Starting an INQ28 warband

[Lestat]

I'm looking at starting my own INQ28 warband and am looking for some advice on a couple of points.

I intend to model the warband around a PA Inquisitor at the height of his career and his own personal army. I would like to include a couple of Deathwatch Marines in the warband and intend to truescale them (mainly because the =I= will be in PA as well). I have heard recent mention of Blackshield Deathwatch ans was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction on some fluff for these Marines.

Is it also feasible to have the different characters in a warband represented by a squad of hardened Veteran Guardsmen? For example, could the gunslinger be represented by a Guardsman with twin laspistols?

I know Guardsmen are not strictly allowed on B&C, but they will be part of the =I= warband. Apologies to the mods if I've made a faux pas - i'll correct the post if need be.

[Kaled100]

I'm guessing you haven't played Inquisitor before. The FAQs here might be of use to you;

Inquisitor Overview

Creating Characters

Designing Scenarios and Campaigns

 

Power armoured Inquisitors, Astartes and squads of Guardsmen are not really suitable player characters. Such things are really suited for the front-lines of a warzone rather than the secret battle for the Emperor's soul. You could use marines and the like in Inquisitor if you like - but they're somewhat overpowered and don't make for the most fun games - they push the rules to their limits, and the rules don't work so well with those types of characters. The best player characters (in terms of ones that are most fun) are humans armed with things like lasguns, shotguns etc, and powerful weapons such as bolters and power swords are best kept to a minimum.

 

Inquisitor is your chance to explore the universe away from the front-lines - why waste the opportunity by choosing archetypes straight from a 40k codex when instead you can have anyone from the entire Imperium or beyond?

 

If you've read all that and still want a power armoured Inquisitor accompanied by Astartes then that's up to you - you should play the game however you want, but I thought it worth warning you that such things are not really in the spirit of the game, don't work too well with the rules, and most veterans would say there's more fun to be had with more moderate player characters.

[Lestat]

Thanks for the reply. As you correctly surmised, I am relatively new to Inquisitor. Those FAQs will be of great use to me - they'll hopefully iron out any problems I might have.

I'm not looking at using the Guardsmen as strictly Guardsmen though - just as a visual tie-in for the warband as a whole. Thats why I wish to represent differing character classes as Guard veterans - more like black-ops specialists. Would it be better to restrict the Guard vets to one or two in a warband?

[Kaled100]

I'm not looking at using the Guardsmen as strictly Guardsmen though - just as a visual tie-in for the warband as a whole. Thats why I wish to represent differing character classes as Guard veterans - more like black-ops specialists.

You could do that, but whether they're actually Guardsmen or a team of mercenaries, you've still got a single archetype warband which is something I'd advise against as their background and look is going to be pretty similar. New players often want a warband that's all soldiers or all Arbites - but such a warband is never going to be as interesting as one that has an Inquisitor, Arbites and Savant, or a Tech-Priest, Servitor and Calculus-Logi, or a Rogue Trader, Navigator and Ship's Officer, or so on.

 

I did the same thing when I started; I built a team of mercenaries to go with my Inquisitor Kaled character but quickly realised that I'd built a warband who didn't really utilise the full potential of the game, all looked the same and were not much fun to play, so went back and built a new warband with an Administratum adept, ex-Navy Warrant Officer, ex-IG operative and Naval Stormtrooper. This warband was much more fun as it gave me far more options and the characters had much more diverse backgrounds, but were still thematically linked - and it game me chance to build completely different models.

 

Would it be better to restrict the Guard vets to one or two in a warband

Inquisitor is not a straight combat game, so making a warband of all soldiers rather defeats the object. A savant or scribe can have as much of a place in a game of Inquisitor as a desperado or mercenary. By including as wide a variety or archetypes as possible you open up far more options for scenarios and campaigns. I'd suggest you ignore the archetypes in the back of the book and just make up characters from all across the Imperium - you can worry about their stats once you have figured out who they are and where they're from.

 

Three characters is a good size for a warband - you can have more and swap them in and out for each game, but three characters per player and no more than about ten models on the table (including NPCs) is the optimal size for a game. With a three man warband I usually suggest a leader (such as an Inquisitor, Rogue Trader or Magos), a combat focused character such as a Guardsman, desperado or death cultist, and finally a less combat-oriented character like a savant, pilot, pysker or priest (they don't have to be helpless, just focused on a skill that's something other than killing people).

 

Also, and it may be obvious but you'd be surprised how often people fail to realise it - just because your Inquisitor might wear power armour when fighting on the front-lines, that's not necessarily what he wears the rest of the time. For example, I have two models of Inquisitor Kaled - the first is of him in uniform as if he were leading a killteam, the second is him working undercover, and one day I may make a third, one of him wearing power armour as if he was walking into a warzone. The last model probably won't see much (if any) game time, but of the two I have built the one working undercover is more fun to play as he can't just go charging in and requires more thought and tactics in order to survive and achieve his objectives.

 

Hope that helps...

 

- Dave

[Lestat]

Well thats certainly food for thought. Might have to go back to the drawing board and see what I can come up with.

I like the idea of an Inquisitor, Psyker and =I= Storm Trooper as a warband with the possibility of an Arco Flagellant as well. I think this will cover most bases for the warband.

Are your models of Kaled heroic scale or Inquisitor scale? The undercover one reminds me of Gunfight at the OK Corral for some reason.

[Kaled100]

They're 54mm - the uniformed version of Kaled was the first 54mm model I built and since then I've built over 80 more 54mm models. I also have a 28mm version of Kaled.

 

Funny you say that about the undercover version - he's based on a model of Wyatt Earp!

 

Which brings me to another point - if you're thinking of playing at 28mm because you don't think there's a wide enough range of 54mm models then you couldn't be more wrong. There are loads of great models out there that can easily be 40k-ified and will fit right into the game.

[Lestat]

I am thinking of playing at 28mm purely because of cost - I can build a warband in heroic scale for the cost of one Inquisitor scale model.

I've seen plenty of sites which produce 54mm scale models, but at this moment in time, I can't really afford the outlay for those wondeful models. INQ28 provides a cheaper alternative - mainly because I have a fairly extensive bitz box.

[Kaled100]

A few more points on 54mm and then I'll leave you to 28mm. Firstly, ifyou shop around on eBay and are prepared to clean up old models you can often get 54mm GW models very cheaply - even for as little as £5 if you're lucky. Secondly, the heroic proportions of the 28mm models means that a lot of bits work really well at 54mm so you can still use a lot of stuff in your bits box. Thirdly, the imposing proportions of most 28mm terrain means almost all of it works really well with 54mm models so you don't need to build all new terrain. And finally, if you don't already have people to play against, I can put you in touch with other players but they mostly play 54mm - and any events we run, such as the Inquisitor Grand Tournament are played at 54mm.

 

That's not to say there's anything wrong with 28mm - look at Molotov's Inq28 Blog and you'll see a prime example of it done very well indeed (http://inq28.blogspot.com/2011/01/continuing-mission.html) - but there are good reasons to play at the larger scale, not least because it emphasises the different nature of the game and means people cannot just plonk down a few models from their 40k army and claim they're a warband whether they're suitable for the game or not.

 

Anyway, that's enough of that. If you have more questions let me know.

[Lestat]

I understand what you are saying and see all the pros you are pointing out, but for now I'll stick with INQ28 until I am confident enough with the game. I'm not ruling out 54mm either - hopefully in the future I will have my own 54mm scale warband to game with once I've got a few games under my belt and understand the mechanics.

 

Thanks for all the help and advice.

[Firenze]

I play INQ28, and with a marine captain. However, Im trying to develop an entourage of men and women he uses for diplomacy.

 

However, I am also thinking of doing a SAS/SBS undercover style squad in the hives. Maybe use a few catachan parts...

[Kaled100]

What about an Astartes warband made up of Chapter Serfs sent on some secret mission by your Marine Captain. You could have the faithful and trusted serf, maybe a servitor made from a failed aspirant, perhaps a neophyte assigned to protect the team, etc.

[Firenze]

Maybe, but I did just fall in love with the Catachan Command sprue.

 

I dont really want to stay playing astartes much in INQ. Reading you Librarium article, I think I may do my SAS lads. Mainly because if I chose the astartes story my captain would do the mission himself (that sort of guy).

[Kaled100]

Surely a marine captain should be leading his men into battle, not skulking around in the secret battle for the Emperor's soul? Maybe have him turn up for the end of campaign battle, called in by his serfs when he's most needed - but it'd be easy to say he was needed elsewhere hence why he'd sent trusted serfs who can move unnoticed through the populace rather than turning up himself and giving the game away.

 

As for a team of SAS-style troopers, see what I said earlier in the thread about single archetype warbands. Why not oneof these troopers accompanying an Inquisitor?

[Lestat]

However, I am also thinking of doing a SAS/SBS undercover style squad in the hives. Maybe use a few catachan parts...

 

 

Thats more or less what I was intending to do - but heavily based on a certain SAS squad from ITV's Ultimate Force. I've got a couple of good heads for Henno Garvie and was looking at using parts from FW's Cadian kits.

 

@Kaled: I have taken the first steps to owning a 54mm scale warband. I had a look on ebay and found Inquisitor Convenant going for £5. He's complete and even undercoated white. I'll use him as a basis for my own Inquisitor.

[Kaled100]

Cool, I look forwards to seeing him and I hope you enjoy working at the larger scale. If you want any advice about modelling at 54mm let me know, or if you want to meet a whole load of people who work at that scale then why not join us on the Conclave?

[Lestat]

I'm planning on removing his top-knot so that I can model a hood on him and mask the lower half of his face (a bit like Optimus Prime) in order to disguise his features - it is, after all, a secret war. I might keep the masked theme going on throughout the rest of the warband too.

 

Thanks for the invite to the Conclave. I will definately give it a visit.

[Firenze]

Aye, the top knot is a wee ugly.

 

I may add my Inquisitor Julius Ironclaw. He is the 'owner' of the regiment they are in, the 501st Inquisitorial Stormtroop. I am tempted by 54mm, but I'll need to talk round a few friends.

[Lestat]

Well I've just successfully won Inquisitor Covenant but at a slightly higher price than I wanted to pay originally. He still worked out cheaper then buying a brand new model.

Just got to wait for him to arrive now. He might get slightly delayed coming from Ireland - it is St Patricks day tomorrow after all!

[Lestat]

Well Convenant arrived in todays post and I hope to be working on him over the next couple of days. As you can see, he is more or less complete. I think he's only missing some sort of pendant thing thats hanging from his neck.

I plan on keeping the psycannon, sword and pistol and losing the backpack to my bitz box. The head will be converted so i can give him some sort of half mask and hood combo, also losing the topknot.

He's a very nice and well-sculpted model and I hope to do the conversions justice.

[Kaled100]

A collection of pictures of unassembled Inquisitor models can be found here;

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.c...Inquisitor_54mm

 

As you say, your model appears to only be missing the icons which are easy to replace with something from your bits bix.

[Lestat]

Thanks for the link Kaled. Thats going to prove more than helpful!

[red_starrise]

Back when I played =][= I ran a warband consisting of a Priest turned bounty hunter named Cole (just a first name), his trusty "sidekick" a cyborg who he shared a NIU w/ allowing them to work as one, an Arbites Judge & a pair of stormtroopers. The fluff behind my warband was that Cole became disillusioned w/ the cult of the Emperor & turned assassin/bounty hunter/merc. The Judge was hunting Cole for years to bring him to justice when he finally caught up to him on the fringe world of Tasix V where he & his enforcer assistant & Cole came under attack from a Genestealer cult. The enforcer was killed in the battle & if not for Inquisitor Calamedas & his squad of Stormtroopers intervening they would have been killed as well. The Inquisitor gave him an official pardon on the condition that he would work for him, applying his knowledge of criminal underworlds to help ferret out heretics. The Judge accompanies him to "keep an eye on him" due to not trusting him to keep to his word.