Inquisitorial Regiment

[Frater Cornelius]

Is it possible for an Inquisitor to own a regiment, funded through Inquisitorial and/or Ecclesiarchal channels. Instead of borrowing one or going through his channels and wasting time while a world sinks into anarchy due to Xenos or Chaos, his MO is to deploy his own mechanized regiment, throw super-heavies at them and crush the enemy beneath righteous steel.

Tanks would wear non-standard colours, sports the seal of the Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy and the average soldier is better trained and equipped than in most regiments and due to the status the access to tech is not a problem as their orders for hardware usually skip the queue.

 

It would include mainly mechanized forces with a variety of super-heavy tanks, plenty of well equipped Veterans, militia (taking an example of the superb Italian Militia during the medieval times), enough Plasma to put a Tau Battle Suit Cadre to shame and with Yarrick as the Inquisitor in question.

 

Such a thing feasible in the fluff?

[WarriorFish]

Yes. My Guard regiment is owned by an Inquisitor as his private army, though they also operate on their own to the greater benefit of the Imperium.

 

Next question ;)

[Emicus]

Money talks, bullsh*HERESY*

 

None may question the Inquisition, they are the will of the Emperor made manifest and work tirelessly to root out His enemies. As long as they have the funds to maintain an army, any army, I can't see why an Inquisitor couldn't be rocking a Titan.

 

Money, life debt from a service to the Mechanicus, some powerful family extending their gratitude... You name it.

 

=Walk in His Light and fight in His Name and be forever blessed. Stray from His Glory and be damned=

[Frater Cornelius]

I agree. I just find it highly inefficient if an Inquisitor has to get an army to clean some place and then clean up the army because the regular guardsman is not trained for the jobs that the Inquisition needs to do. It just seems more efficient and pragmatic to have an own regiment of people who are specifically trained and equipped for the job and do not need to be sent off to camps, being mind-wiped or killed at the end of every mission.

[Ceddyn]

Maintaining a dedicated regiment brings problems and risks of its own.

 

It wouldd have to be monitored more closely than a regular regiment for signs of corruption.  After certain high risk missions they might have to be quarantained untill they are declared untainted. 

There would still be high attrition. Thanks to their better gear and training they'll be better at withstanding chaos or xenos influences, but they will probably find themselves in more dangerous situations.

 

I still think that some inquisitors do it though, but others won't bother with the extra hassle while the imperium already has mechanisms in place to ensure a steady stream of guardsmen. 

[Inso]

An inquisitor must view any army he leads as 'disposable'... just in case they see too much/experience too much. I think that is why they generally use established troops for large missions.

 

I can see a renegade Inquisitor having a standing army, just so he has his own strength at arms should the Inquisition send people to deal with him.

 

I think it would be OK but you may have to come up with some decent backstory to explain things.

 

Maybe your Inquisitor has been unlucky in the past with commandeered troops and has felt the need to put his own army together...

[Quneitra]

I can see it being a possibility (ex. D-99), and no doubt some of the more influential/wealthy ones do it.

 

Though, its terribly inefficient, and if you're trying to root out heretics or cultists, you're going to need a force more suited to counter-insurgency operations. A mechanized regiment is good at blowing stuff up that's out in the open, but against Chaos insurgents, a light infantry force or something like the storm troopers would be way more useful and less likely to get wrecked in urban combat.

 

Keep in mind that the Arbites already do this as part of their job, the PDF/local Guard depot exists for cheap bodies, and an Inquisitor generally has his own henchmen, so I don't see it happening that often. It might happen with the Xenos inquisitors more than any other branch because the alien threat is a generally external one, so the need for raw force is more pressing, but its simply easier in many ways just to grab a regiment or two from the local system and use them.

[M@verik115]

It is highly improbable, but not impossible. I see it at best they might have several squads of specialist troops, but an entire regiment is pushing it. Just the upkeep for something like that would be too tedious and inefficient. 

[Cap'm Heckus]

I could see an Inquisitor having a regiment made up entirely of penal legionaries or redemptionist fanatics. One is very disposable, the other is very loyal.

[WarriorFish]

The Inquisition is very much more than sneaky spies dealing with insurrection, heresy and xenos (and more). I recommend reading some of the Inquisition's stuff especially from their appearances in previous codicies.

An Inquisitor has mandate from the Emperor which gives them a lot of power, albeit power that has relative and practical limits for a variety of reasons. Does he commandeer a regiment and essentially never give it back? Or raise one himself for his own nefarious needs? The Inquisition fights more than daemons, such things are pretty uncommon and there are many Ordos tasked with different tasks. Maybe he needs some muscle for a task, or is desperately raising forces to protect a xenos incursion that nobody else believes is coming... Perhaps he just likes the power that comes with it or has grander plans in the works?

The Inquisition has unrivalled scope for working your own fluff in with often very little justification required at all ;) Visit the B&C's Inquisition section if you want to find out more :tu:

[Vel'Cona]

I think it could work as long as you sculpt the IG force to represent the Ordo they are supporting.  For example:

 

Ordo Malleus:  Perhaps mind-wiped penal legions or even something akin to servitors; they would have to be expendable in case they were compromised.  Alternatively, you could model these as the "house guard" of a Grey Knight company, perhaps failed aspirants or chapter serfs used as a reserve for broader operations (though you'd need to play Grey Knights too for this to make sense).

 

Ordo Hereticus:  As Cap'm Heckus said, a force of fanatic zealots would make perfect sense here.  Something like the PDF of a Monastery world for the Adepta Sororitas with plenty of priests and NO psykers!  You could even use Flagellants (from the old WHF Empire range) to represent Conscripts!

 

Ordo Xenos:  This is a tough one, but I think the best choice for an alien-hunting Inquisitor would be a personal retinue of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers.  Standard Guardsmen are harder to rationalize, though you could fall back on them being chapter serfs or the like for a Deathwatch contingent (once again requiring some ally work to make sense of).  In this case, you may want to go for the Milistarum Tempestus codex instead of IG, though!

[Frater Cornelius]

Well, in the end, it does not need to be an Inquisitor. I am content with any high status persona with close ties to the Ecclesiarchy that has the authority to around as he pleases and throw tanks at Heresy, because that is how you handle it. I saw a guy the other day doing loads of heresy, so I throw a Leman Russ at him. He did not do heresy ever again ;)

I know that I could just do an independent order who is BFF with the Ecclesiarchy and acting outside of the Imperial hierarchy, like Knights, but with enough influence to get control over Crusades and stuff. You know, political clout. I was hoping there would be an official rank within the Imperium that allows for that sort of character.

[SW1]

I was hoping there would be an official rank within the Imperium that allows for that sort of character.

Rogue Trader?

[librisrouge]

An inquisitor would not own a regiment, baring sick amounts of personal money and raising their own mercenary company, but they could have the Departmento Munitorium second one to their command for an indefinite duration (see: Elysian D-99.) Also, remember that Inquisitorial Stormtroopers are a thing, despite GW trying to ignore them as best they can. They specifically exist to give the inquisition ready access to elite, capable, yet disposable manpower when combat is the name of the game. Codex: MT is perfect for representing this.

[GreenScorpion]

Is it possible for an Inquisitor to own a regiment, funded through Inquisitorial and/or Ecclesiarchal channels. Instead of borrowing one or going through his channels and wasting time while a world sinks into anarchy due to Xenos or Chaos, his MO is to deploy his own mechanized regiment, throw super-heavies at them and crush the enemy beneath righteous steel.

Tanks would wear non-standard colours, sports the seal of the Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy and the average soldier is better trained and equipped than in most regiments and due to the status the access to tech is not a problem as their orders for hardware usually skip the queue.

 

It would include mainly mechanized forces with a variety of super-heavy tanks, plenty of well equipped Veterans, militia (taking an example of the superb Italian Militia during the medieval times), enough Plasma to put a Tau Battle Suit Cadre to shame and with Yarrick as the Inquisitor in question.

 

Such a thing feasible in the fluff?

A full scale regiment like regular AM would be unlikely to exist (although regiments vary greatly in size). An Inquisitor could lead the remnants of a previously recruited regiment with some degree of veterancy (and obviously significant casualties in most cases) or recruit a regiment-like army from either religious fanatics (if the inquisitor is strongly linked to the eclesiarchy) or from locally conscripted people. Keep in mind though most inquisitors avoid building sizeable forces through direct conscription because it is something that can easily be detected by the enemies of the inquisition and disrupted (insertion of spies, sabotage of training efforts...). Obviously an inquisitor would usually prefer to make such a large force by adding small numbers of elements to it by a tightly controlled recruitment program.

Most inquisitors would have the influence to get the vehicles and the weapons, it is the men to operate them that may be hard to obtain and oversee to avoid corruption.

 

Something like a previously existent regiment under the control of the inquisitor or a mercenary army serving under the inquisitor would fit what you had in mind and help to explain how such force was assembled.

 

Either way inquisitors can do almost everything they desire and with acolytes positioned in the right places of the Imperial command structure things can get done if it is desired.

[Father Mehman]

In the name of the Emperor, be blessed (pretty cool words right before a Bishop orders his lackeys to kill someone, right?).

 

Anyway, after that random thought, here's my thinking: can it be done- an Inquisitor owning his own regiment of Imperial Guard? Absolutely. As the Lord Commissar has said, Inquisitors come in all shapes and sizes. Some Inquisitors favour clandestine operations, others like to go it alone, some are in control of whole sectors, and everything in between, ladies and gentlemen. How soon we forget the Radical Eisenhorn got his start running a circuit court on backwater planets, people coming to him for such things as who inherits a grox when their father dies. I think we all know what he has done to better the Imperium-at-large and from such humble beginnings. We should all be so lucky!

 

Think of blessed Coteaz, in His name may he never fall. He has a spy network that runs the entire sector and can call upon support from every planet under his control. Who dares doubt an Inquisitor can command a simple Mechanized Regiment with him as the example? Now, again, this is not the usual, I must confess. The average Inquisitor, if there is one, has access to the very best the Inquisition has to offer. Manpower, firepower, research, and the most important of them all: knowledge. Just as every Inquisitor is different, so is every battlefield and skirmish zone.

 

Say, for example, we have a band of vile Slaaneshi cultists operating on a war-torn planet. Would it be wise to decipher their location and send in an Iron Fist Squad or two to root them out? No, you fool! You decipher their location and then send in a crack-team of expert to eradicate them from the Emperor's own galaxy whilst sending those infernally brightly coloured troops to engage the enemy troops, your motives hidden. Would you send that same team of experts to battle the vile Eldar raiders, their numbers unending? No! You send in the glorious Guardsmen you happen to have at your disposal to do the fighting whilst you plunder the rich archaeotech of the planet's assassinated Planetary Governor's familial mansion. Work smarter, not harder, you dolts.

 

So, what is the answer then? You can't be right or wrong, but you can be incorrect.

[Frater Cornelius]

Good thoughts there, bud. Cheers ;)

 

One thing though. I never had a full sized regiment in mind. Just something that can tip the balance in a warzone. If participating in a major battle or prolonged siege, they would have the support of whatever force is present (now also under their Command for the duration of the battle, naturally) but when it comes hard on hard, they are capable of Blitzkrieg operations, acting as Vanguard or similar.

 

Having said all that, it does not have to be an Inquisitor. That was just an example. I am perfectly content with any person who has the authority to act outside of the Imperial hierarchy (by virtue of being awesome or not belonging to it in the first place), has strong ties to the Ecclesiarchy and enough political clout to take control of Crusades, Regiments or other forces in a warzone.

 

In the end, this all ties to the holy order (homebrew fluff) that is operating from a Cardinal World, which used to be a Knight House, but reformed a bit after they lost a big part of their forces during the Reign of Blood and Vandire got punched in the nut sack.

So, I suppose I could leave them as somewhat of an unusual Knight House, given that they operate outside of the Imperium anyway, but have plenty of cash, influence and clout nonetheless given that many predate the Imperium and got high status and plenty of shooty toys. With ties to the AdMech and the Ecclesiarchy at their back, they might as well spend the time punching the enemies of Man, doing Crusades, protecting Pilgrims and holy sites.

 

However, it feels a bit off to say that it is a Knight House after their reform and merger with the about to be disbanded Frateris Templar (the took them under their wing to bolster their numbers and allow them continues service) and with less Knights than armoured vehicles at their disposal. Hence me exploring other options. But then again, they are outside of the official hierarchy anyway and got status. Who cares what they do with their stuff, especially given the aforementioned connections and purpose.

[Master Antaeus]

I don't think an inquisitor would set out to get himself an army, but he might second one and be quite fond of its effectiveness.  Also, it's easier to justify mind-wiping rank and file troops than risking highly trained servants of the imperium.  Who knows?  Maybe by the time the inquisitor had a huge regiment and attrition, mind-wiping and corruption killed all but what you field.  Maybe he's been building a regiment in secret made of hardened veterans who look at the horrors of the galaxy and go "Meh.  Anover daemonic incursion.  Oi, mate, pass the sacra, it's gonna be a long day."

[Frater Cornelius]

Maybe he's been building a regiment in secret made of hardened veterans who look at the horrors of the galaxy and go "Meh.  Anover daemonic incursion.  Oi, mate, pass the sacra, it's gonna be a long day."

 

This line made my day. Chapeau, good sir :D