The Inquisition in Kill Team

[Ioldanach]

Standard Rules can be seen here (Downloads section, Wargaming Downloads category)

Unchained Rules will be available soon.

 

The Inquisition is an integral element of the game setting. The heyday of the Inquisition came during the days of Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition when the Inquisition game and the WH40K codices, Codex: Daemonhunters and Codex: Witch Hunters were published. Those were followed by the Dark Heresy RPG from Fantasy Flight Games. Support for the Inquisition has dropped off over the years, with the Inquisition now clinging on to existence with a set of rules that were published in a recent issue of White Dwarf Magazine. Many players have lamented the lack of the Inquisition in the Kill Team game, represented only by official rules for Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. The Kill Team game seems like the perfect place for the Inquisition, small unit battles conducted at the squad level - the perfect kind of place for the shadowy battles in which the Inquisition often participates (both against the enemies of the Imperium as well as the factionalized in-fighting that takes place among the various agents of the Inquisition). So back in February a small group began working on some rules for using the forces of the Inquisition in Kill Team.

 

We started by taking the WH40K rules from White Dwarf Magazine and converting them to the Kill Team format. Shortly into the process we decided that we were going to create two sets of rules. The essential version, that which we call the "Standard" version, is pretty tame. During development we quickly realized that there was a wealth of lore about the Inquisition, with lots of rich opportunities for creativity and personalization. So our initial development shifted from the Standard version to what we call the "Unchained" version. This version draws on the full scope of the Inquisition as it has appeared in lore and the rules, to include various miniatures that Games Workshop has produced over the years (both in 28mm and 54mm). This version became quite expansive. Once we'd locked the unchained version down, we used it as the basis for the standard rules, stripping out anything we thought was too far beyond the pale for what might be considered acceptable by conservative players, trying to get the standard version down to something close to what we think GW might eventually give us for the Inquisition in Kill team. Where the unchained version was expansive and covered back through 1st edition, the standard version only looks back through 3rd edition in a limited fashion, and it doesn't allow for quite as much from the Inquisitor and Dark Heresy games. I'm pretty sure that it's still far more than GW will give us if/when they give us official rules for using the Inquisition in Kill Team.

 

One design element that bears discussion is the throne agents. Assuming Gregor Eisenhorn stands as an example of how GW might represent inquisitors in Kill Team, players won't be able to use inquisitors unless they are using the rules from the Commanders expansion. So we wanted a way for players to use their "inquisitors" in normal games of Kill Team. To this end, we looked at the various acolytes that serve inquisitors, especially those senior acolytes that are being prepared for possible elevation to the rank of inquisitor. One term for these acolytes that many players are familiar with is "interrogator" (which is referenced in the recent White Dwarf Magazine article). After lengthy discussion on various titles, we settled on "throne agent" from the Dark Heresy game. These characters are watered down versions of inquisitors - they lack the full scope of weapons/wargear that the inquisitors can take, but have slightly more options than other acolytes can take. Like the inquisitors, these throne agents can also be used with other IMPERIUM factions - for example, and Ordo Xenos inquisitor might dispatch her trusty throne agent to accompany a Deathwatch kill team in an operation.

 

Another design element that bears discussion is the chambers militant. As recent discussion shows, GW has steered away from the old concept of the chambers militant, but there still appears to be some relationship between the ordos of the Inquisition and various military forces of the Imperium. We've preserved the "chambers militant" language, but aren't asserting the old relationship. In essence, using a certain ordo allows the corresponding "chamber militant" to be represented in an Inquisition kill team (e.g., an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor might include a Grey Knight in his retinue). Otherwise, Inquisitors are always able to draw upon generic Space Marines and Inquisitorial Storm Troopers (which are just Militarum Tempestus in rules terms). We wanted the Inquisition kill teams to focus on the inquisitors' retinues, though, and not the chambers militant, so we've limited the number of CHAMBER MILITANT models that can be included in a kill team. Players that want to make more extensive use of the chambers militant are able to include their inquisitors and throne agents in the appropriate kill teams (e.g., you can take an Ordo Malleus throne agent with a Grey Knights kill team).

 

We've confined ourselves to the three Ordos Majoris in these standard rules - Ordo Hereticus, Ordo Malleus, Ordo Xenos. More ordos are included in the unchained rules.

 

Ultimately, we hope that you are able to use these in friendly games of Kill Team; and we are open to feedback for correcting errors and improving these rules.