Well I have finally had a chance to really go through the codex and I have to say, despite it now being everything I was hoping for, there are some great bright spots to it that make this a great supplement to the IG army. After sleeping on it I have gotten over that assassins are not in here and have taken a hard look at what it does bring. First off as I mentioned in my first thoughts last night is that the inquisitor is all you have to take, and he can always be your warlord no matter what. And you really want him to be, because the warlord table for all the Ordos are fantastic, there is not a single bad choice, just ones that are a little less good. They all share the first three traits, which boil down to the SM chapter master orbital bombardment, warlord and unit can choose to pass or fail morale checks, roll two dice and choose which you want for reserves, outflank, mysterious objectives and terrain. In short awesome. Then you have three specific to each Ordos, Hereticus has preferred enemy(psykers), adamantium will, and infiltrators cannot set up with 24" of your warlord. Again awesome. Malleus has preferred enemy(Daemons), daemons suffer a -1 to invul save (min 6+) if within 12" and it is cumulative, and last is an extra warp charge(not mastery level) if psyker, or adamantium will if not. Xenos has preferred enemy to xenos races, 6+ invul and make one weapon +1 strength and rending, and Hatred. So in short no matter what you roll, awesome!
So one thing is that these warlord traits are almost all specific to just the warlord and his unit, only real army wide one is the roll two dice. That is nice but IG have astropaths, so that one is prob the least needed but it could be useful if you don't want reserves to come in. Otherwise they are all good and I would consider taking them over the BRB warlord traits. I would only take the BRB if you really are looking for army wide bonuses, otherwise take these, they are all good and can really add fluff and competitive play to your army. You want to hunt daemons, psykers, or aliens, you have great choices to do so.
Now the inquisitors themselves all have the same stat line, there only difference is in the wargear options. All can be upgraded to psyker mastery level 1 and take powers from inquisition or roll on divination, pyromancy, and telekinesis. So you can have a 55pt psyker with prescience, I know many out there are bringing rune priests or DA libbies to try and get the same power. Well if thats all you are looking for then here is you hands down best and cheapest option for that, plus you throw some awesome warlord traits into the bargain. Now I will talk more about rune priests another time, because they are another amazing choice but for far different reasons, just for prescience is under-utilizing them a little bit. Now each ordo does have specific wargear which will determine how you want to use them.
Malleus is the only one that can get an invul save, through termie armor. Plus he has access to all the really heavy hitting CC weapons, plus incinerators and other GK weapons. He is pretty much the same from the GK book, so if you are looking for a punchy guy to battle it out, he is prob your best bet. He has good access to anti-daemon and a little anti psyker weapons so if you are looking for a guy to shore up your blob that is trying to hold back DPs or greater daemons, he isn't a bad choice. Just note that none have eternal warrior, so one S6 and up attack and he goes splat, keep him out of challenges and use guardsmen to take the wounds. The hereticus has access to all the anti-psyker stuff like the condemner boltgun, psyocculum, null rod. So he can really be your anti psyker spoiler and throw a wrench in daemon and eldar players plans. The null rod is great especially if you don't have psykers, as the unit is cannot be affected by any psychic power, friendly or enemy, and has CC bonuses as well. This is great with a crusader band, as they will be very hard to remove with their invul and not having to worry about doom and other mean psychic powers. Now Xenos has access to all the cool weapons, conversion beamer, rad grenades, psychotropic, the poison talon, needle pistol, digital weapons, the plasma siphon. So you can really F up everyone that has plasma weapons(in BRB) within 12" of you, so that is really good but is a little situational. Seeing how common plasma is though it can def be a useful way of keeping those hard hitting shots away from your guardsmen.
Now if you go the psyker route, don't take a power weapon, as you can upgrade your chain sword or bolt pistol for free to a force sword after you purchase the psyker upgrade, so that is nice. All can upgrade to power armor, adding a little durability though you will still be vulnerable to AP weapons. The really awesome upgrade though is the Servo skulls, you can take 3, and these are a must take if you take nothing else. First you can place them on the board anywhere outside your opponents deployment zone. He cannot scout or infiltrate within 12" of them(so sad white scars), and the other great part is that deep strike and blast weapons(friendly=battle bros) roll only 1 D6, OMG throw these guys in combination with 2 MoO and you can only scatter 2D6 max. For regular blast weapons, the max you could scatter is 3" at BS3, and only 2 at BS4, and that's rolling a 6 for scatter. Oh my oh my, barrage the shit out of everyone! The deep strike bonus is good too, only going 1D6 really helps you get down where you need to be, and if you are grav chuting in, it is almost like a beacon, though there is another unit in here that is better for that, but you can still reliably drop guys in. They do go away when an enemy model is within 6", so they are not invincible, but they can't be directly targeted. They are dirt cheap and the uses are endless, and after I get some use with them I will definitely be doing a tactica article on just these babies.
So that is about it when it comes to inquisitors, they can offer some great cheap support in psyker powers and in servo skulls. Which would run you only 63 points for that, giving you 3 skulls, a force weapon, and access to divination and the other two tables, and he's stubborn. Oh and warlord traits that are amazing. I mean fuck, take this guy, I'll throw him into your IG list if I have too. Then you can make him really beefy and give all sorts of weapons and gear to really fill some holes, depending on what you want or need, so what do you have to lose.
The relics are books and are all pretty cheap compared to other relics at 5, 15, and 20 points. I mean, can't complain there. I mean these guys are awesome on a budget, and I don't mean good for their points, I mean straight up awesome good. Now the books are not bad, the cheapest is the grimoire oTN, and all daemon special rule models suffer -5 to Ld, I, and WS (min 1) while in a challenge. So remember when I talked about the Malleus inquisitor in termie armor, now you can rape so daemons before they can even hurt you, and if you plan on doing that, this relic is a must at only 5. The others are good, the hereticus one is 15 and gives you scouts, split fire, counter attack, hatred and fear once per game (each) upon passing a Ld test, note you don't lose them if you don't pass. The Xenos one grants you a special rule for each xenos army you are fighting, this does stack with allies, so your fight Taudar, you now have split fire and furious charge. This one is the most expensive, but at 20 it really isn't that hard to fit in if you want it. So these really aren't must haves but if your inquisitor is in a blob squad, then you really can buff them up simply by existing. Not too shabby.
Now the henchmen are the other part of this codex. There are a lot of ways you can build these guys but I personally see only a few builds that are really useful to IG. First is you can build a relatively cheap munchy squad. Mix in crusaders and deathcult assassins, the crusaders have axes for any AP2 and the deathcult can deal with anything else. Deathcult technically say power weapons, not power swords, that will be FAQ'd if I could bet on it so don't start arming them up differently. But you give the crusaders axes, and to be honest this is way better choice since the deathcult have I6, why the hell are your going to waste such an amazing gift to IG. Oh hi Space Marines, yes I strike first, ignore your armor, and have a higher WS, and S4, so die. Then you have some nice 3+ invul saves from the crusaders to keep them in the fight and survive the remainders attacks back, then they hit with axes to finish them off. Since none are characters, they can't be challenged out either, they just have to take them all in the face. Priests have some nice powers, basically the new ones from the new sisters, so not bad at all. However though they are characters, so if you are not running your inquisitor with this unit, then they can end up being a hindrance, but if you are running him with them then take one or two as ablative challenge wounds for your inquisitor.
The other way I see these guys working well is in the Inquisitorial Storm Trooper format. I.e. take 10 acolytes and give them carapace and hot shot, note this is 5 points cheaper per model than IG storm troopers. You don't have BS 4 but oh darn. You can then take two monkey's to jack up your weapons and bring along their watch lascannons as well. The one you want is the extra 12" of range as that makes the hot shots effective up 28" and double tapping at14", which is really good, plus you have two lascannons or multimeltas or heavy flamers to throw around. Well that just blows doesn't it :). You could also have +1 to your armor or a 5+ invul, or have rending weapons, which is also great for hotshot as since you need 6s to wound most monstrous creatures, they will now ignore their armor at least. I have killed enough monstrous creatures with lasguns to see how good this could be. Then the last thing you can throw in their is a mystic. Why well because he is basically a locator beacon. And if your are running guys in valk/vendettas now you can bring them on and grav chute them right on top of this squad to support them and not scatter. Yeah that is pretty darn good, especially since you can throw IG Storm Troopers in their and have a super cool themed ST army dropping in to kill stuff.
Now there are other guys in there and if you are going to run your inquisitor in any of these war bands, you need a priest to at least accept that challenge that you don't want to get in. They are great buffer's too. The sky is really the limit, all of the units are well priced and most are worth taking. Arco-flagellents and psykers are the exception, Arco's have no armor and have FnP, but are only T3 so any S6 weapon are higher will ignore that so these guys really are not worth it when compared to crusaders and death cult. The psykers aren't bad, but Psyker Battle Squads are better and that is the end of it right there, you have the better version of these guys already, the only psyker you need is the inquisitor. The rest are good and can make some good combos. If you want a cheap CC unit you can make a surprisingly beefy and durable unit to go around cutting stuff up. And their are more than a few ways to make a shooty unit. You could for example bring an Ordo Xenos in Power armor with a conversion beamer with a few jokaero and acolytes with power armor and boltguns. That would be one tough shooty unit that could deal some death. Esp with prescience and the jokaero bonusing your gear up, so you can really have a lot of ways to play them. I really like that idea actually, that's a nice unit that can sit in the backfield and hunt a lot of units as they come towards you, and anything over 42" away is going to be scared as hell of that conversion beamer.
Now the transport section is nothing too special. You can take valkyries(not vendettas) as dedicated transports, so not a bad option, other wise if you are familiar with SM and IG transports, that is what you can bring, note IG units can't hitch a ride in them so choose them wisely. All the landraiders, rhino's razorbacks, and pretty much all the GK vehicle upgrades. These aren't bad, and if you run an armor heavy IG army, an Inquisitor with min 3 acolytes unlocks a land raider, and is the cheapest ally way to get a land raider into your list. A great way to have a big AV14 mobile LoS bunker to hide your other vehicles behind, and you can have the heavy armor keep pace with your Chimeras and other vehicles. This can make up for Leman russes main weakness in that they can only move 6". So you can have a big scary land raider run straight at your enemies face, and soak up and block shots for your Chimera's moving up.
Otherwise there really isn't much special to mention on the transports. If you really want to start spending points on this detachment, then you really can. Other wise I would caution you going to crazy, as you are going to lose your points in other areas. What you should do is find ways to fill the holes in your list and shore up the areas you have trouble dealing with. The great thing is that this codex really does a great job of complementing the IG in all of its glory. You run infantry, no prob the inquisitor and his buddies can bring plenty of goodies. You run armor, well now you can add some fast moving AV14 to the mix. You go air, well you can bring in some extra valkyries if you need the support. You have a lot of storm trooper models lying around. You can use them now!!
This codex really is good. Could there have been more to make it truly top tier, sure thing. But for IG it has they stuff that you need to give you the critical edge. Cheap divination, servo skulls, specialist wargear for psykers and daemons, and flexible shooting and good CC unit options. Also pseudo beacons with mystics, which are a bigger deal than you would think, but they can work really well with any deep striking formation.
And last but not least, you can make such wonderful fluffy creations! You want a deathwatch/xenos hunter "army" IG, allied with SM, and Inquisition. You can take a Tac squad and church them up, plus a sternguard, with some IG vets in carapace armor in vendettas and then your inquisitor flying around in a valk and hey you can throw some other goodies in there as well. This works for every one, you can pair them with sisters or sororitas or whatever they are called now, or GK if you want to bring a bunch of henchmen but don't want coteaz, or you could just bring them on their own. Granted they will not do amazing on their own but hey its your call.
In my opinion, Inquisition and IG are PB & J, they just go together. I know my earlier post was full of grumbles, and I really wish I could bring assassins from this book, but can't have everything I guess. The battles are going to be on hold till next weekend prob as I still have to figure out how I'm throwing them into my current army list.
Hope you all are having a good weekend gaming.
GG
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