Gimmicky, silly or fluffy Inquisition detachments

[Frostglaive]

Every so often I consider starting up an Inquisition force. Never really a full-sized army, more just a single detachment and that's it. Two problems arise with me whenever I consider this: first is sheer laziness (which I just need to get over and start this already). And second is Inquisition isn't (as far as I can tell) very competitive. And in a local meta where at least half of us (myself included) are pretty competitive, it almost doesn't seem like a good idea to run.

 

But I'm gonna do it anyway. Why? Because Rule of Cool and Rule of Fun.

 

I have a few ideas I want to try out in the near future (aka, when I get money to afford my plastic crack...). But I also want to hear yours as well. So here's what I'm thinking: Come up with an allied detachment (or two if needed) for an Inquisition force. Doesn't have to be competitive, tournament-worthy, or even all that viable. Just come up with something that YOU think would be fun to try and why.

 

One idea I had was a Vanguard detachment with an Inquisitor (named or otherwise) as warlord, a few Acolytes and a Jokaero all piled into a Land Raider Prometheus. Two Quad Heavy Bolters beefed up by a Jokaero pummeling infantry left and right, the Inquisitor being inside allowing for the CP benefit from the Prometheus to take effect, and Acolytes just to fill out the Vanguard and die for their glorious Inquisitor.

 

Another one I had would be for larger games. Run a battalion of Scions and a Supreme Command of Inquisitors. 3 Squads of Scions, 3 Tempestor Primes (or Primaris Psykers instead), 3 officers of the fleet, and 3 Psyker Inquisitors, all piled into a squadron of 3 Valkyries. Fly in fast, grav chute drop right into the enemy's face, Smite spam, Officers of the fleet beef up the Valkyries, then everyone opens fire right in front of the enemy. All the while your main force is marching up behind them. The idea was say the Scions were Arbites going in with the Inquisitors, Officers, and whatever leader I pick for them to purge some heretics.

 

What all ideas do you guys have?

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

The inquisition/Scions/Valkyries detachment sounds pretty cool and fun. It's also fluff-wise quite classic and should be decently competitive although a bit top-heavy that with a bit of trimming I think could become even more so.

 

A similar themed force might be some inquisitors and death watch in Corvus Blackstar(s).

 

Or I myself kind of fancy an auto-da-fe type detachment like you see in the Witchunters codex which would be Karamazov plus a bunch of crusaders, Arco flagellants, priests, and maybe even a few sisters.

[N1SB]

Just to participate in the brainstorming, these are very Rule of Cool and Rule of Fun concepts, and I am very flexible in how to actually represent them in-game.

 

Our old Dark Heresy roleplay party - 40k has a new tabletop RPG, Wrath & Glory, but before that we were playing Dark Heresy (with a mixture of Rogue Trader and Only War elements).  Would love to pay homage to that with a small detachment, perhaps even a Kill Team, or something.  Most of that gaming group don't play 40k, but are very familiar with the lore, so painting a miniature of their characters would be as much a treat for them as for me.

 

A "squad" of hologram decoys - this idea came from the Inquisitor: Martyr game.  There, I have a character who can activate temporary holographic dopplegangers that look just like her, move around as if they're attacking (using the same moves I would), but don't do actual damage.  Instead, they just draw enemies to attack them instead of me.  In the actual 40k tabletop, we often use a squad of cheap units as ablative wounds; this would be exactly like that.  I was thinking maybe an Inquisitor just surrounded by a squad that looks similar to her, but with some sort of glow like a hologram to represent this.

 

Just some thoughts.

[TURBULENCE]

My 2k ordo xenos task force is on a similar vein to this idea. A supreme command of Inquisitors, a guard battalion of scions and a few other goodies like Crusaders and such to act as the main Inquisitorial retinue, and a small patrol of deathwatch acting as support, coming in all packed into a black Star. I'm actually pretty happy with the list, while not super competitive, it should still hold its own for the narrative games my group plays, and is a great side project to do when the conversion ich hits me. The idea was to present it as a cohesive force, all but the Marines are the personal collected forces of my lady inqisitor. While they may have once come from various places, they've spent enough time together to become a proper team.

[Inquisitor Red]

I'm also crazy like you and love to play/collect Inquisition. I know the FAQ shuts this down so this isn't for competitive play but if you got a cool game group try and convince them of allowing you to take other factions as your troops. For example I run a small Patrol Detachment with Greyfax as an HQ along with a unit of Sisters of battle. Then rise repeat with all of the Inquisitors with their respective Ordos as bodyguards (Grey Knights, Deathwatch, & Sisters). Sense your running Inquisition no one will call you out for trying to play Imperial Soup, and it is fluffy as hell. 

[MARK0SIAN]

I can think of two fun builds that are very much on the fluff side but wouldn’t be competitive!

 

The first is a group of inquisitors/acolytes with a separate Grey Knights detachment. Very fluffy to have a Malleus Inquisitor (Maybe even Hector Rex) leading a Grey Knights force. You could keep it nice and small to deal with a threat that the rest of your army is not supposed to know about or perhaps when the battle is finished the rest of your army will be ‘thanked’ personally by the inquisitor and the Grey Knights ;)

 

The second option is an execution force like in the Heresy novel Nemesis. Have an inquisitor take a task force of various assassins and focus on some particular targets on the enemy force. That could be a lot of fun.

 

Like I said though, they’re not very competitive, particularly the Grey Knights one as they’re pretty low tier in terms of their codex.

[Frostglaive]

I don't know, my group's got one Grey Knight player and he does pretty nasty work with them. Granted, he's also a major power gamer but still. I do like the idea of having an excuse to run Hector Rex with some Grey Knights.

 

And while I would love to have an Inquisitor being the HQ for a group of Death Watch or something similar, my group is all trying to stay adherent to the rules as much as we can (even in this case where most of them wouldn't care if I did this). I'll go for the barebones Inq Vanguard or Supreme Command if I have to.

 

Even with the restrictions against us, there's just so many awesome ideas we could do! I wanna do them all! But Wallet may die in the process so I should probably refrain, at least to a degree.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

If you/your group wants to be sticklers for the rules, Inquisition vangaurd can be done fairly easily. 1 Inquisitor and 3x 1-man Acolyte units. Done.

[Exilyth]

Probably not very usefull and probably below the points required to use three detachments, but extremely fluffy and might be an interesting force to play in some "the enemy infiltrated a bunch of assasins into our base" type of scenario.

 

 

"the imperial high command holds a staff meeting"

• Inquisition supreme command detachment: Various inquisitors with a squad of acolyte bodyguards
• Astra Militarum vanguard detachment: Company Commander and Lord Commisar accompanied by all the regimental advisors and a squad of bodyguards (scions or veterans).
• Adeptus Mechanicus patrol detachment: Techpriest Dominus accompanied by skitarii escort.

If it was an especially important meeting, you could even throw in (or swap for):

• Adeptus Ministorum vanguard detachment: A canoness accompanied by a sister dialogus, imagifier and hospitaler and a squad of whatever sisters use as elite troops.
• Adeptus Astartes supreme command detachment: 3 captains and a squad of veterans, painted to be from 3 different chapters. (Alternatively: Captain, Chaplain and Librarian)

[justicarius6]

Another one I had would be for larger games. Run a battalion of Scions and a Supreme Command of Inquisitors. 3 Squads of Scions, 3 Tempestor Primes (or Primaris Psykers instead), 3 officers of the fleet, and 3 Psyker Inquisitors, all piled into a squadron of 3 Valkyries. Fly in fast, grav chute drop right into the enemy's face, Smite spam, Officers of the fleet beef up the Valkyries, then everyone opens fire right in front of the enemy. All the while your main force is marching up behind them. The idea was say the Scions were Arbites going in with the Inquisitors, Officers, and whatever leader I pick for them to purge some heretics.

 

What all ideas do you guys have?

I made a list based around this concept but fitting a lot more plasma into the mix by utilising acolytes.

 

3 Valkyries in a Catachan Airwing (re-rolls for the rocket pods)

 

A Catachan battalion with 3 squads of scions (plasma pistols and 2 x plasma guns), a tempestor prime, a command tank executioner and Sgt. Harker and 3 Officers of the Fleet (Tank and Harker as backfield units)

 

A vanguard detachment with Hector Rex, Eisenhorn and 3 squads of Acolytes with full plasma.

 

Against Chaos with the full re-rolls the acolytes get I think this force could be pretty devastating and also a complete blast to play as those 3 Valkyries roll in, dump the inquistion, and officers of the fleet right into the fray followed next turn by the scion reserves dropping where needed to help out or secure objectives.

[Charlo]

 

Probably not very usefull and probably below the points required to use three detachments, but extremely fluffy and might be an interesting force to play in some "the enemy infiltrated a bunch of assasins into our base" type of scenario.

 

 

"the imperial high command holds a staff meeting"

• Inquisition supreme command detachment: Various inquisitors with a squad of acolyte bodyguards
• Astra Militarum vanguard detachment: Company Commander and Lord Commisar accompanied by all the regimental advisors and a squad of bodyguards (scions or veterans).
• Adeptus Mechanicus patrol detachment: Techpriest Dominus accompanied by skitarii escort.

If it was an especially important meeting, you could even throw in (or swap for):

• Adeptus Ministorum vanguard detachment: A canoness accompanied by a sister dialogus, imagifier and hospitaler and a squad of whatever sisters use as elite troops.
• Adeptus Astartes supreme command detachment: 3 captains and a squad of veterans, painted to be from 3 different chapters. (Alternatively: Captain, Chaplain and Librarian)

 

Not to mention Trajaan Valoris is on the council now, so excuse for some Golden Boys too.

[bkde]

Sup Command with all the named Inquisitors:

Coteaz, Eisenhorn (+Cherubael), Greyfax and Karamazov.

 

Really want to shoot for Lols run a Vanguard full of Legion of the Damned and another Vanguard full of assassins.

 

Name of the list is "CP's are for Heretics and Xenos"

[Harrowmaster]

Sup Command with all the named Inquisitors:

Coteaz, Eisenhorn (+Cherubael), Greyfax and Karamazov.

 

Really want to shoot for Lols run a Vanguard full of Legion of the Damned and another Vanguard full of assassins.

 

Name of the list is "CP's are for Heretics and Xenos"

 

What about Lok and Rex? Can't leave them out

[Margulix]

I'm thinking about trying vanguard detachment - Inqusitor and 3x3 plasma acolytes named "expendables" riding in corvus blackstar. Kinda squad fr suicide mission.