Friday, November 15, 2013

Codex Inquisition: What is It


Codex Inquisition is now out, and I will be honest, I am just now sitting down to read through it in detail. I will have lots out on it shortly, but in the meantime, Zion over on talk wargaming has by far what I would consider one of the better reviews I have read on it this evening.


Note from Natfka: there was a large delay in the articles lined up for the day, as some time to take care of a personal issue was needed. So expect a very loaded weekend of news and rumors.

Here is a link and a portion of the article. (A huge thanks to Zion for doing this article)

http://www.talkwargaming.com/2013/11/review-codex-inquisition.html

Allies

One of the big questions was how the allies rules where going to work. Well...they're different. Rather than try to explain let me quote the codex here:
I
NCLUDING INQUISITORS IN YOUR ARMY
When you choose an army, Inquisitors may be taken as a primary detachment or as a special form of allied detachment known as an Inquisitorial detachment.

If you take Inquisitors as a primary detachment, use the Inquisitorial detachment Force Organisation chart instead of the primary detachment Force Organisation chart. Alternatively, an army may include an Inquisitorial detachment in addition to any other detachments. Other detachments, such as allied detachments, additional primary detachments and fortifications can be taken normally. So, for example, you could field an army with an Imperial Guard primary detachment, an allied detachment of Space Marines, and an Inquisitorial detachment.

The Inquisitorial detachment Force Organisation chart has boxes corresponding to different battlefield roles. Each black box is a choice you must take in order to include this detachment as part of your army, whilst each grey box is a unit you can include as part of this detachment.


If you take the Inquisitorial detachment as your primary detachment, then Inquisitorial Henchmen Warbands are scoring units.


The Inquisitorial detachment works as follows: you are required to take 1 HQ and then you have the option of taking a 2nd HQ and up to 3 Elites choices. Yes, you can have an army of a lone Inquisitor if you so wish. 

Anyone else getting a feeling of déjà vu regarding some rumors last year that we'd be getting books like this? 

Of course the book has its own allies chart.
Battle Brothers: Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Grey Knights, Imperial Guard, Inquisition, Adepta Sororitas, Space Marines and Space Wolves
Allies of Convience: Eldar, and Tau. 
Desperate Allies: Dark Eldar 
Come the Apocalypse: Ork (sorry Orks, no Inquisitorial led Freebootaz), Tyranids, Necrons, Chaos Marines, and Chaos Daemons .


One noteworthy thing to mention if you didn't notice it: the book lets you ally Inquisition to Inquisition. Guess it's so you can show two Inquisitional forces working together. Though because of their rules only the Warbands of your primary detachment count as scoring. 


Warlord Charts

This has a neat trick actually:

If your army includes an Inquisitorial detachment, you can nominate one Inquisitor (including Inquisitor Coteaz or Inquisitor Karamazov) to be your army’s Warlord, instead of a character from your primary detachment. When generating Warlord Traits, an Inquisitor Warlord can roll on the appropriate table below instead of on one of the Warlord Traits tables in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

To add to that, there are Warlord traits tables for Ordos Hereticus, Xenos and Malleus. I'm not going to give them all up, but I do think there is some pretty nifty stuff in here. As far as Warlord Traits tables I rather dig these.


Oh, and I don't think I saw a single one of them that causes Fear.


Wargear

So many toys. I think someone had fun writing this section and seeing what they could cram in. I will admit that I got excited seeing all these toys. It was wonderful seeing all the options in the book (both on regular models and on their vehicles). I'm not going into every profile here, but I am going to list all the stuff that's in each section because it has to be seen to be believed.

Ranged Weapons: 

Assault Cannon, Autogun, Bolt pistol, Boltgun, Combi-weapons, Condemnor Boltgun, Conversion Beamer, Flamer, Flamestorm Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, Hellfire, Hellstrike Missiles, Hot-shot Lasgun, Hurricane Bolter, Inferno Pistol, Incinerator, Lascannon, Laspistol, Meltagun, Multi-laser, Multi-melta, Multiple Rocket Pod, Needle Pistol, Orbital Strike Relay (with three firing profiles), Plasma Cannon, Plasmagun, Plasma Pistol, Psycannon, Shotgun, Storm Bolter.

Melee Weapons:

Arco-Flails, Chainsword, Close Combat Weapons, Daemon Blade, Eviscerator, Force Weapons, Nemesis Daemon Hammer, Null Rod, Power Fist, Power Weapons, Scythian Venom Talon, Thunder Hammer, Servo-Arm.

Special Issue Wargear:

Defense Orbs, Digital Weapons, Empyrean Brain Mines, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Melta bombs, Psybolt Ammunition, Psychotroke Grenades, Psyk-Out Grenades, Psyocculum, Rad Grenades, Rosarius, Servo-Skulls, Storm Shield, Ulumeathi Plasma Syphon.

Armour:

Artificer Armour, Terminator Armour, Power Armour, Carapace Armour, Flak Armour.

Vehicle Equipment:

Frag Assault Launchers, Dozer blade, extra armour, hunter-killer missile, searchlight, smoke launchers, Psyflame Ammunition, Truesilver Armour

Psychic Powers (yes they have a codex specific list):

Hammerhand, Sanctuary, Dark Excommunication, Psychic Communion, Psychic Barrage.


Relics

There are only 3 Relics here, and each is a book. Apparently the Inquisition likes to do some reading. 


Liber Heresius: A book that lets you take a leadership test at the start of any turn to give the Inquisitor and his unit one of the following special rules: Scouts (you roll the test after deployment but before the first turn), Split-Fire, Counter-attack, Fear, Hatred. Each rule may only be used once, but you can use each rule assuming you pass enough Leadership tests to do so.

Grimoire of True Names: If the bearer of this relic is fighting a Daemon in a challenge the Daemon suffers a -5 penalty to WS/I/and Ld (to a minimum of 1).

Tome of Vethric: Depending on which Xenos army your opponent is fielding (this includes allies) the bearer of this relic gains certain special rules (so if they have more than one Xeno army, like Tau/Eldar you gain two rules): Dark Eldar (Night Vision), Eldar (Split Fire), Orks (Counter-Attack), Necrons (Tank Hunter), Tau (Furious Charge), Tyranids (Monster Hunter).

HQ

Real quick I'm going to rundown who you actually to choose from and then give my thoughts on them:

Inquisitor Corteaz
Inquisitor Karamazov
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor
Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor

For those wondering, no, the named characters haven't changed. They're identical to the Grey Knights codex options except for the Warlord traits that have been pre-assigned to them.

So the good news: The generic Inquisitors start at the low, lowLOW price of 25 points. Each. Which is good because here's the bad news: the only one who can purchase an Invulnerable sae is the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor who can take Terminator armour. 

Not quite what I was hoping to see either. I think GW missed the boat just a little here. Well good thing they're cheap because those upgrades will add up and frankly I don't think I would want to spend a lot on an Inquisitor who has no Invul save. Stay away from anything that can hit you with S6 if you can help it too or POP goes the Inquisitor (well save for Karamazov, because he's kind of awesome like that).


Elite

Have you seen the Inquisitorial Warband from the Grey Knights codex? No? Alright, let me give you a run-down of what you can put in one: Acolyte, Arco-flaggellant, Crusader, Daemonhost, Death Cult Assassin, Jokaero Weaponsmith, Ministorum Priest (yes, he's just as awesome as he is in the Adepta Sororitas book), Mystic, Psyker, and Servitors (who have to test for Mind-lock if there isn't an Inquisitor in the unit).

Just like the Grey Knights codex you can have anywhere from 3 to 12 models in the squad of any combination you wish. And no, the Priest in this book is not an Independent Character, but he is a regular one.

Honestly the Warband isn't a bad option and can add a number of different things to a codex depending on what you field.


Dedicated Transports

Rhinos, Razorbacks, Chimeras, Valkyrie, Land Raider, Land Raider Crusader, Land Raider Redeemer.

So that's the good news, now for the bad. Because the book allies to other books there isn't any sharing of these options with books like the Adepta Sororitas or Guard (so no filling your Land Raider full of Ogryns Guard players, sorry!).

On the flip side, because this book has it's own Death Cult Assasins, Priests and Crusaders (though Arco-flagellants can be an option if you're trying to go cheap) you can fill a Land Raider full of them, and ram it into your enemy's lines with some rather manic glee now. So there are options there if you so desire.