Can someone please explain what Inquisition actully means and what role it actully plays in 40K.

I swear I had it written don but I can't find it

The Emperor's Holy Inquisition is the galaxy-spanning organization tasked with protecting the Imperium from just about every enemy in existance. The Demonic, the Heretical, the alien, the general Malcontent, all are viewed as enemies of the Imperium, and thus are hunted mercilessly by His Inquisitors. The terms "Inquisition" and "Inquisitor" stem from the English word "inquisitiveness," and are a perfect description of the organisation's purpose - to discover and understand the threats to the Empire, thus facilitating their elimination. While the Space Marines are the Sword of the Emperor, and the Imperial Guard is the Shield of Humanity, the Inquisition is the brain of the Imperial defense organisation. Warmasters and Chapter Lords may lead crusades, but it is Inquisitors who draw the Imperium's attention to the present threats, and who have the final say on every matter. Even the lowliest Inquisitor has authority over every man save for the Emperor himself.

At present, the Greater Inquisition is divided into five Orders (Ordos), three greater and two lesser. They are as follows:

The Ordo Malleus - His Most Sacred Demonhunters, the warriors of the Ordo Malleus are charged with protecting the Imperium from the most dire of threats - Chaos. Their Chamber Militant is the 666th Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, the Grey Knights.

The Ordo Hereticus - His Fervent Witch Hunters, the Ordo Hereticus is charged with purging the galaxy of the heretic, the mutant, and the witch. While the operations of the Ordo Malleus tend to be more blunt and visible (blunt for the Inquisition, that is) the Witch Hunters tend to be far more covert and secretive, preferring to delve deep into the heretical underworld before pulling the heresy out by the roots. Their Chamber Militant is the Adepta Sororitas, the Sisters of Battle. They have powerful links with the Church Imperialis, and Ministrorium forces are not uncommon in Inquisitorial retinues.

The Ordo Xenos - The Silent Alien Hunters, these are the most shadowy of the Ordos Majoris. Charged with protecting the Empire from the xenos menace, the Ordo Xenos acts in many different ways. While the lines between puritan and radical are often clear in the other Ordos, this is not the case in the Ordo Xenos. While there are those within the Order who believe it is their duty to purge the xenos from the universe at all costs, most Inquisitors realize that some xeno may be friends of the Emperor. This sentiment is espcially true with regards to the Eldar and Kroot, both of whom occasionally aide the Imperium. As for the Orks and Tau... The Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos is the Deathwatch Chapter of the Space Marines, though they are rarely used.

The Ordo Sepulturum - First formed following Abbaddon's First Black Crusade, this Ordo Minoris is charged with investiagating mutations within humanity such as the Zombie Plague and Obliterator Virus. Nothing else is known.

The Ordo Sicarius - No Imperial Assassin may act without the consent of an Inquisitor from this Ordo, making them an extremely powerful force. They are charged with keeping an eye on the Officio Assassinorum, and ever since the reemergence of the Necrontyr, they have focused on the Callidus Temple with their expected fervor.

There is much debate about the presence of additional Ordos Minoris, but general consent is that if other Orders do exist, the foremost among them would be an Order decidated to irradicating the Necron plague. The fact that this already falls under the purview of the Ordos Xenos and Sicarius means that additional Orders are unlikely.

in game and codex terms only daemonhunters and witchhunters exist with ordos xeno comming shortly

Daemonhunters, grey knight marines , the best of the best , highly skilled , specialised in killing daemons , resistant to psykers, and fearless, inqusitors which can be farily combat orientated , with hard hitting but fragile retinues , inducted imperial guard, also some inquis go radical and use daemons bound into hosts to fight the enemy but the grey knights wont work with these grey knights have the best cc terminators in the game and generally lack anti tank fire pwoer

Witchhunters, sisters of battle one of the cheapest and toughest power armour and bolter armies, inquis simialr to daemohunters but more focused on psyker hunting

both has access to a range of assassins which some people find good i find over rated and unreliable or their points

Inquisitor wise, the Maleous gusy are much mroe combat orientated, with do-dads such as power fists and terminator armour. The Hereticus Inquisitors are more directed towards psykers, and the martial "bask-in-my-glory-while-I-smite-you" style of thins that is in the Malleous isn't present.

Personally I chose the Heereticus over the Malleous because I like their fluff better. The Malleous are the Crusading Knight style appproach, whiel the Hereticus are much more insideus and dark, hunting out mutants, traitors, psykers and those damn heretics.

thats very true but in my area few enemy armies use psykers mind you few use daemons either lol !
some great figures in both ranges and i use the witchhunter crusader henchmen as acoyltes with power shields for my Daemonhunter inquisitor

On another point if you want to go for fluff on them and stuff, you could just turn your history books to the time of the Spanish Inquisition, that should give you the general feel of them, the original head of the Spanish Inquisition was even called Torqumada (sp?), that's how much GW stole from the history books :rolleyes:

When you look into it, most GW 40K fluff is based on something in history. The most blatant is the Black Templars, as they are simply the Crusades with Boltguns, power swords and Land Raider Crusaders.

the GW make no secret they look to history and why not? past symbolism is powerful

want blatant? comissisars in imperial guard even look like the unifrom of some soviet comissiisars and have almost exactly the same role !

who cares its the game we know and love :D

Another facet of the Inquisition, which I think is most delicious, is using that awesome power for evil, and not good! Fielding a radical Inquisitor (and Inquisitor that has turned against the Emperor for certain reasons.) All that wonderful power used against the crusading Space Marines, Imperial Guard and even other Inquisitors. All in the name of knowledge and power, that is supposedly forbiden.

radical inquis are not nesscearily evil many just use the weapons of the enemy against the enemy and have not and would never turn to evil

Yeah, those radical inquisitors are for the most part very much loyal to the Emperor, it's just they have a different view on how to best fight chaos.

On the note of GW flogging off history, i already new that very much, it's even more evident in the fantasy game, i was just pointing out that if he wanted to make up some fluff or something to look at the Spanish Inquisition... although i do think that they at least could come up with their own names.

And yes Black Templars was very obvious, although moreso to me because i study the crusades outta pure interest, and my favourite knightly order is the Knights Templar, so i saw a great many floggings off :D

Vallalans (sp?) Russians in WW2
Catachans are the Vietnam Kong and Japanese vs. Autralians in WW2
Steel Legion are the tank fighting in the desserts of Africa
Death Korps are likely a take off of who knows what.

I think that it actually adds to the game having History take offs. We get an education while playing, and in History class I can always relate things back to Warhammer :P

All due respect to the veterans and soldiers of those wars

Cal

I don't know about you guys but I always see the Ork race as terriorists

as kinda of funny and random as that is, I think I'm gonna set this thread back on topic. I can see it becoming political.

So, what more is there to say about the Inquisition.

Nothing, but thanks for your help clearing the topic up

Death Korps are WWI Germans.

When I said GW base their stuff on history, I wans't having a go at them for it. I honestly don't care that much, and in reality its a good thing as it can greatly help you to understand a number of fluff issues in 40K.

Back on topic.

Ordo Malleus: Think paladins in WoW. Shiny, holy & 'I will kick your ass while being totally cheap and broken'. Well, thats my opinion. I know others will disagree though.

Ordo Hereticus: Think dark, gothic, brutal, cold, hunters in all effect. Much more secretive. That's why i like them more. Come to think of them, that's why I use them. They aren't any where near as black and white as the Daemon Hunters either. It's all shades of grey. You don't know what's 'evil' and what's 'good'

That's all i have to say on the matter. Hope i helped.

-FA

'I will kick your ass while being totally cheap and broken'

certainly grey knights can kick ass but broken or cheap?

Many do consider the Grey Knights broken, be that for being insanely strong, or the fact that many see them as impracticle and are purely a display army, not that playable

they are far from insanely strong lacking most options normal marines have
their points cost is high and banshees for example will do a lot of damage as would harlequins

i have a V large pure GK army, they do require a lot of skill to play and are far from uber powerful mainly because you pay points for powers vs daemons which you rarely face but they are also far from broken

GK dont get
assault cannons
devastator squads (their equivlent can only have flamers or psycannons)
landspeeders
Rhinos
Predators
libriains
chaplins (this makes no sense at all)
Bikes
jump infantry
techmarines
drop pods
whirlwinds

when i said insanely strong i meant their basic troops and such, and grey knight terminators are easily the best there are, wasn't really talking about points cost as i don't know what they are (although i know it is through the roof). Although the assassins are a huge pain in the ass, that one that takes that drug to look the same and appears anywhere on the battlefield gave my rangers and pathfinders some real trouble

for all their special abilities, you got to admit they do have to drop a lot from the usual SM army. They also cost quite I bit, or so I have heard. Their small numbers hurt them, and I crushed them at Conflict this year with my Necrons.

The lack of a librarian and Chaplain is probably made up in the Inquisitor.

I thought they could take rhino's, or is that just the Inquisitor?

Cal

just the inqusitor can take rhinos and inq stormtroopers who also loose options from the normal stormies

a pure grey knight army wont contain an inquis who are no where near as good as a marine librarian

points cost is huge a basic grey knight costs more than a warp spider aspect warrior and will get chopped pretty quick by a harlequin or by banshees as in cc they will go first

also in a basic GK unit no weapons other than storm bolters and polearm and psycannon and flamer so no plasma guns, melta guns etc

dont get me wrong i like GK but far from the most powerful thing in the game

Yes, well I get sisters of battle. So no offence, but shut up. :P Storm Boltrs, and Nemesis Force Weapons on a BASIC troop?!!? WYF, I mean really. Hitting at str 6 and I 4 is not fair. About the only thing that can beat GK in cc IS Banshees and Harlequins.

-FA

actually the basic troops don't get nemisis force weapons, they're still strenght 6, but they're not force weapons :)

S6 and I4 with a 3+ save and the Grey Knight special rules is all well and good, but remember, you're paying the better part of 30 points to field each one. They need to be used tactfully and carefully, which is not an easy thing to learn. Powerful? Extremely so. Overpowered? No way, their weaknesses (lack of mobility and numbers, mainly) are significant.

"Nemesis Force Weapon" is the generic name for a Grey Knight's psychic combat weapon. Each one is psychically charged, that's what makes them so powerful, i.e., S6. As the psyker-knight increases in skill and power, his weapon in turn becomes more potent, thus the Power and Force Weapon capabilities of the Justicars, Brother-Captains and Grand Masters. It's a matter of the psychic skill of the bearer, not the actual weapon itself.

sethtus is right on target
one thing to bear in mind is that the one army grey knights do well against is eldar
mainly because they lack ap3 weapons whihc hampers them vs marines and necrons etc, but do have weapon which ignore invunerbale saves so keep your harles away from any psy cannons and incinerators
Also the avatar counts as a daemon so many of the special powers work against it
and finally Grey knights are very resistant to psykers so limit the effect of doom, mind war etc although i did loose a brother captain to mind war in one game
they will slaughter scorpions but banshees are effective against them
star cannons kick ass as most grey knights are on foot and mega points and the starcannons quickly get their points back, as do reapers

so when facing the emperors best
Dont take farseers or if you do focus on stuff to enhance your own not attack
dont take scorps
star cannons are king
leave most brightlance at home it is rare you will face much armour
they fear the reaper

Hardrainfalling is right on target :lol:

There's nothing I enjoy more than listening to Eldar and Nid Players boast about the awesomeness of their Zoanthropes, Synapse Creatures, Farseers and Avatars. Chaos Players know to shut up, because their units are called Demons, and if they can't understand that Demonhunters will be good against Demons, they shouldn't be playing 40k.

(hmm... I just re-read that, and I sound like a complete jerk. Please don't anyone take it personally)

Farseers who try to use their powers on a Grey Knight (or for that matter, any Inquisitorial) army are doomed to fail, because Inquisitorial units are designed to counter them. For all intents and purposes, each Grey Knight has a low-powered Psychic Hood, which is bad for the Farseer's powers. Witch Hunters will shoot at him, hit on 3s or better, then wound on 2s (with the right weapons, but what Ordo Hereticus agent would pass up a Bolter-Stake Crossbow? Seriously, it could be a Heavy 1, Range 2", S1 Ap- weapon and people would still take it for the kick-a$$ name and model alone!). And then they'll force more wounds in the other phases.

Avatars are Demons, so Grand Masters and Brother Captians will wisely re-roll all failed hits and wounds against them (well, providing that they pass their Ld10 Psychic Test). With a S6 Force Weapon, that could be nasty, as he will would, and your Avatar dies on a 2D6 roll between 3 and 10 (2/3 chance). The Avatar will also incur leadership penalties, and the power Sanctuary will work against him, as will the Grimoire of True Names (halves his weapon skill! Plus re-rolls! Oi!). Obviously, some extremely potent combos.

Your best best against the Inquisition? Probabaly Banshees and Guardians. And tanks, we lack anti-armor. Unless we induct some...

Just remember... Deep Striking Storm Bolters are bad for fragile things like Eldar.

One last point, Inquisitors are probably far better than Chaplins or Librarians for one simple reason - they let you induct troops and take Assassins. The Inquisition is the most flexable army in the entire 40k Universe because of that fact. You truly never know what you will face.

all very true and want a really nasty example?
I have a 2000pt inquistorial army which contains
x3 landraiders
x2 landraider crusaders
x1 landraider prometheus (this is an eldar nightmare with 4 twin linked hv bolters instead of las cannons )
x1 chimera with autocannon turret

nothing is inducted all inquis or grey knight stuff
and by the way certain upgrades can protect the GK dreads against psyhic powers as well !

Just wondering what Grey Knight Inquisitors are like.

Those of you who have read Daemonhost will be aware of my Radical Inquisitor Lucien. I want him to see the battle field one day, but I'd want him to be really agressive in battle. The kind of guy who could charge into a squad guardians or Dire Avengers and hack 'em to pieces. I'd also like him to be psychicaly powerful as well.

I know a model like this would be highly expensive, but I was wondering if its possible using the Inquisitor Lord stats and rules? Keep in mind the advantages his retinue would give him. I plan thus far to give him a psychic hood, power armour and a Nemesis Force Weapon.

Cal

I personally find Inquisitors to be woefully underpowered in the combat arena, unless they're fighting Demons. But then, I'm comparing them to the Grey Knight Grand Master, so it's all about perspective...

By the way, have I told you that I absolutely love your fiction works?

You'll want to go with a DH Inquisitor Lord, as his armory and retinue is a tad more focused on combat. Although, you won't be able to access Crusaders, only Combat Servitors & Veterans. Then again, Witch Hunters have no access to Demonhosts. Since I don't know which you'd prefer (though it's most likely Demonhosts), I'll assume a general (either Ordo) Inquisitor.

You want power armor, which is good, because it's basic. Psychic hood is easy, but Inquisitors can't have Nemesis Force Weapons. That's a Grey Knight only thing. You can take a normal force weapon, though, and I recommend it. If you take a warrior and familiar, you'll be looking at a basic 3 attacks at WS5 and I5. Granted, it's at a measley S3, but still, it won't get any better without a power fist or eviscerator. Plus, Combat Servitors will add their Power Fist attacks, and your acolytes can soak up some wounds. If you want to include his apprentice, I'd recommend taking another Elite-Level Inquisitor and attaching him to your Lord's retinue. It's just more fitting.

As for Psychic powers, you should take at least one familiar, perhaps more just to add some wounds, which means you can take two psychic powers. Scourging is a nice, juicy psychic missile, which I almost always include (unless you want to give him a shooting weapon, as he can only shoot or psychic-kill things). Holocaust is another good one, as it lets you plop down a large template worth of S5 hits at I1. Hammerhand would be good as well, giving you two CC weapons and doubling your strength, while retaining your I5.

I would go with Hammerhand and Holocaust, personally. You can only use one each turn, but you'll never be in combat where both would truly be needed. Use Hammerhand when facing elite infantry (but single-wound still) to overcome their high toughness and armor. Holocaust will finish off a squad of Guardians, Gaunts, Guard, Scouts, Orks, and other light-medium infantry without trouble. it also works great against MEQs, since it's a good chance they'll be within the blast radius, and quite frankly, S5 hurts everybody. Finally, you save the Force Weapon for the big nasties, Farseers (without Seer Councils, though, as they'll rip your retinue apart), Ork Mechs, Guard Commanders, Tyranids, etc.

He will never be able to swing it with the likes of a Chapter Master, Necron Lord or Hive Tyrant (heck, he'll struggle against Warriors), but against light-medium troops, Inquisitors rock. Leave the bigger things to the tanks. :P

yes inqs are a bit underpowered what really kills them is low STr even with a thunder hammer or power fist (daemon hammers rock IF you are fighting daemons
henchmen add to stats and acolytes are disposable wounds
one trick is x3 daemon hunter acolytes with storm shields they take hits for inq and have a 4+ invu save very handy
inquis can be cheap and nasty my fav is for well under 100pts you get an inq with psycannon, terminator armour , deep strike him on his own for rear armour shots or have him hang around for fire support
most henchemen are very fragile
word of the emperor can be nasty as well vs lower ld enemies
null weapons can really ruin your farseers day as well

Firstly:

Thankyou very much. :)

Secondly, yes I was looking into the Daemonhunters codex and not the witchhunters. It was the Daemonhost that lured me to doing a radical army (thus the name of the story), and though they aren't involved in the main plot as much as I origionally might have liked, I still want to field at least one if not two in my force.

I don't even know the difference between Force Weapons and Nemesis Force Weapons, but I take it that the Nemesis puts the Srength up? For psychic powers I am probably looking at Scourging and Hammerhand. Mostly I will be facing Eldar and Imperial Guardsman with this guy, but its likely I will come up against Space Marines and Necrons, so I'll need a higher Strength.

Cal

but hammerhand means no armour pen, personally i prefer lightening claws , power weapon and off sets the low str somewhat
i do have an inq i use as the Grey knight chaplin from the novels , a converted chaplin in term armour with lightening claws
hammerhand is good vs light vehicles

Yes, Nemesis Force Weapons give Strength Bonuses, Power Weapon Bonuses and Force Weapon Bonuses, depending upon the user. Inquisitors are not psychically potent enough to use such an arm. Even the mightiest Inquisitor would be trounced by a Grey Knight in a psychic duel with their chosen powers.

Scourging and Hammerhand are good choices in my opinion. Hammerhand has its uses, especially against units which rely on their stats to survive, instead of saves.

Demonhosts are an Elite Choice, with 1-3 filling each slot. They're random as hell, but fun to use.

So you can't ignore saves with Hammerhand? :( Might have to get the codex before I make up my mind on that one.

For my force I was thinking Lucien and his retinue, a Daemonhost (or two) and a couple of Inquisitorial Storm trooper squads. If they fill out nicely, and I have the money and means, I will further expand it with an allied lost and the damned force using mutants, Chaos Space Marines and maybe Daemons if I'm able to. (Haven't seen the Lost and Damned rules yet.)

radical inquis are still imperial so legally you cant use them and lost and the dammed (i have the rulebook for them, eye of terror) nor chaos marines.
A radical also cant use marines, but could use inducted guard and storm troopers
so they could represent rebels or traitors
the henchmen in an inqusi retinue affect his stats so a familar , a warrior (such as stormtroopers) will boost his stats

I agree. While they are strong, at 200 pts for a regular squad, 500 for a termie squad, and not a lot of diversity, they really are more showey than playable. They were my first army, choosen purely for fluffy reasons.

Problem being that they got kicked by the 180 lasgun weilding Guardsmen of Pops, the only person i really play against. So then i went to the Guard, and kept my Inquisitor and my Callidus.

Now that i have my competition army, i really want another really good fluffy army. GO GO DARK ELDAR BABY! So far i've stuck to Imperial (With a brief treck to the Tau, because my GF said she liked the models. Long story short, I HATE THOSE LITTLE BLUE COBALT BASED FISH FACES!!). So now its time to branch out. I've been helping a fellow Camper to find Dark Eldar models on e-Bay, and i just got Smitten by them... (This is where the "I love it" emoticon goes... :P )

As for Radicals, i tried to make a Radical force. Only problem being, its basically impossible to make an army over 1500 points. Seriously, try it. Unless you do start inducting, its impossible to make an 1850 just from the DH codex.


EDIT: Sorry Eagle, I'd prefer if you didn't use that word on this forum - Cal

lol last time my pure grey knight force took on Dark eldar (3000pts each) it was a slaughter few DE even reached my lines and this was against an experienced DE player , Grey knights are hard to play and suffer from the old 40k rule of numbers count

i have also wiped out Death wing armies with my pure grey knights as their termies are so much better than death wing ones so just remember that with the new dark angels codex commig