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Greetings Dakkaites
Having just read through Codex: Inquisition a few times I've decided to give you all a run down on the ins and outs of the 'book' so that people have an idea on how to face it/decide if they want to buy it.

Ratings:
For the purposes of the run down, I will give everything a rating out of 10 that describes how TAC I believe a particular element to be, with 1 being extremely specialist tools and 10 being about as TAC as you can reasonably expect. It makes no presumption on the effectiveness of specialist items in their best-case scenario.

Warlord Traits

First, it is worth pointing out that C:I has three tables that can be rolled on and that each inquisitor type can only roll on its respective table (so Xenos inquisitors on the Xenos table only etc.) and that Inquisitors may always be chosen as your warlord, even if they are not in the primary detachment, which is one of the things that makes them such a strong choice in the first place, since most books have no table of their own, or garbage tables.

Since the first three results on all three tables are the same, I will talk about those first:

1. Unqestionable Wisdom: Warlord and their unit choose to pass or fail any morale tests, its basically combat tactics from C:SM 5E, very nice to have imo. 7/10

2. Reader of the Tarot: Roll two dice for reserves, outflank, mysterious terrain and mysterious objectives, nice if you have a whole army built out of reserves, although I can't quite remember, I'm 90% certain that affecting reserve rolls is limited to your detachment only, if that's the case it is a shame, since this would be one of the best traits in the game for reserve based armies. 4/10

3. Burner of Worlds: Once per game you get to declare exterminatus drop a S;10 AP:1 Large Blast, Barrage, Ordnance Template on a foe of your choice, you can move and shoot this puppy and if the target survives, you can even charge it, overall its a free death from the skies and that's exactly what you get. 8/10

And now onto the specifics of each table

Ordo Herecticus

4. Witch Hunter: Exactly what it says on the tin, you get preferred enemy psyker, limited usefulness even against psyker heavy armies. 2/10

5. Will of Iron: Adamantium Will, again exactly what it says on the tin, but since you yourself are probably a level 1 psyker, a 4+ DtW is quite nice, certainly nicer than preferred enemy psyker, but still limited. 3/10

6. Master of Interrogation: Enemy cannot deploy infiltrators within 24" of your warlord, great against infiltrate heavy armies, but then, who infiltrates much of anything anymore? 3/10

Ordo Malleus

4. Daemonhunter: Preferred enemy daemons, almost as much as a joke as preferred enemy psykers, but since you have daemon armies frequent tournaments, this is very likely to come in handy, if you can get it. 5/10

5. Incorruptible: -1 to Daemon invuls if they are within 12" of your warlord and this is cumulative with other modifiers. If you can get this against a screamerstar, then you've just made an up hill battle into an up ramp battle and lets not forget that oblits and the avatar are also daemons. 5/10

6. Forbidden Lore: +1 Warp Charge if you are a psyker (which you should be), Adamantium will if you aren't, since you have 1 power anyway, you essentially get your force weapon in your turn as well as the enemy's. 4/10

Ordo Xenos

4. Xeno Hunter: Preferred enemy against all Xenos books, except their vehicles, but still, a great trait to have, may help you more effectively deal with Tau and Eldar dominance. 6/10

5. Xenotech Collector: 6+ Invul and one of your ranged weapons gets +1 S and Rending, very cool trait and gives your warlord a much needed invul, if it is just a 6++. 7/10

6. Purity of Mankind: Hatred, for you warlord and friends, but unless you've paid for a LR or are expecting your enemy to come to you, limited in usefulness overall. 6/10

TLDR: Witch Hunters get terrible situational traits, Daemonhunters get situational traits that are more likely to be useful and aren't all terrible and Xenos get great traits vs. nearly everybody.

Equipment

Starting with common wargear first:

Servo Skulls: Can take up to three of these counters that do many, many great things, infilitrators, stay 12" away, scouts cannot redoply within 12", friendly DS within 12" scatter one D6 less than normal and blast templates within 12" roll one D6 for scatter, almost every Imperial Army can find a use for these little buggers, oh and they can only be destroyed by an enemy moving within 6" of them. 9/10

Power Swords: Why are you in combat again? A good inquistor will never risk his life so recklessly. 2/10

Plasma Pistol: Nice punch and you get it cheaper than most too whilst still being BS4. 6/10

Combi-Weapons: Nice in a special weapons acolyte squad in a Chimera, or if you just have points to burn, all three varieties are available to you. 5/10

Power Armour: An ok choice if you have nothing else to spend the points on, probably the only model in the game that doesn't pay a huge tax for a 3+ armour too. 6/10

Power Fists (Not Xenos): Again why are you in combat? At least this is more efficient than a power sword for 5 points more than a sword. 3/10

Psyker: YES YES YES, you 100% want this all the time, this is why you take inquisitors in the first place, when you buy your mastery level, you pick either Hammerhand (like the GK version, only doesn't apply before power fists) or Psychic Communion and you can at deployment choose to roll on Divination (read: Prescience), Pyromancy or Telekinesis what makes this choice even better, is that prescience isn't always going to be your first choice, some armies can get great use out of Hammerhand which makes this a very powerful choice in all environments, plus free force sword, which is cool. 10/10

And onto Ordo specific options:

Malleus

Incinerator: Strength 6 HF, that's exactly what you expect and exactly what you pay for, has the problem of limited range unfortunatley, but can ID puny Eldar characters which can be funny, doubly so on overwatch. 4/10

Nemesis daemon hammer: Why would you pick a power fist when you can pick this bad boy, which is concussive, has force and has Daemonbane on top of that for the same price, and although you don't want to be in combat, Malleus is the best at it. 5/10

Daemonblade: A cool weapon that can give you a myriad of different abilities, but ultimatley is unreliable which is bad when without its special powers its AP - and prevents you from taking terminator armour. 3/10

Hellrifle: A single shot S:6 AP:3 weapon with sniper rifle range, its an ok ranged weapon if you are sitting back in a stationary squad, but like all the choices above, prevents you taking terminator armour, but still a decent weapon. 4/10

Psybolt ammunition: Very cheap too, +1 Strength to bolt weapons and assault cannons (not that you can take one) if you got a spare 5 points, then you may as well take this for you inquistor, to make those one or two bolt shots coutn, also lets you wound WKs and WLs with shooting. 5/10

Empryean brain mines: Nominate an enemy in the assault phase before striking blows, iniative test or he can't strike, if its a daemon or a psyker, than your psyk-out grenades make it even funnier since they are I:1 for the test. 2/10

Terminator armour: Also storm bolter and daemon hammer but requires you to give up your bolt pistol, CCW, carapace armour, frag and krak grenades, not bad for the points and the only armour save that can be bought across the 3 Inquisitor types.

Psycannon: Requires terminator armour, but allows you to put one of the best heavy weapons in the game on your warlord, it combines decent range, firepower and fire rate for a modest fee, you will always find a use for this gun. 6/10

Hereticus

Condemnor boltgun: Kinda eh, but since you need the wound to get through on the model first is very unreliable, although, since most psykers have 3 W or less, is very punishing. 2/10

Thunder hammer: Like the daemon hammer, but more expensive than the power fist for some reason, getting concussive, force and daemonbane = 0 pts, getting just concussive = 5pts, just buy the fist instead if you want to punch face. 2/10

Psyocculum: Allows you and your unit to essentially not miss any unit with a psyker in it, but costs an absurd amount of points for this benefit, if it was way cheaper, you might see Hereticus inquisitors much more often. 2/10

Xenos

Needle pistol: A las pistol, except its AP:2 and it always wounds on a 2+ and it costs you what every marine pays for a plasma pistol, except it doesn't get hot, if your taking Jokaeros, this could be hilarious if you get +12" range, a solid choice if you are up for some spending on your Inquisitor. 7/10

Scythian venom talon: Poisoned 2+ CCW, why buy this, when the needle pistol is the same cost and doesn't require you to risk yourself in combat? 3/10

Conversion beamer: Mediocre weapon is mediocre, especially when no. 3 on the Warlord Traits table gives you a free, max range version of this once per game, although, if it was cheaper and its get stronger the further away the target is gimmick wasn't as limiting, then sitting back presiciencing some heavy weapons could be feasible, but as it is, terrible choice, good against too few (read: none) targets to be worth a mention.

Digital weapons: We all know what these do, maybe worth if you are taking a venom talon, but then, why is your fragileness in combat again? 3/10

Ulumeathi plasma syphon: Unlike the GK version (the awesome one), which affects all plasma weapons within 12" (including Tau pulse weapons, burst cannon, plasma missiles from an EML and starcannons as well as anything plasma sounding) this version is not awesome and only affects plasma weapons as defined in the BRB, pass. 1/10.

Rad grenades: And here is why everyone takes Xenos Inquisitors (well, this and their warlord table) -1 T to all enemies in the first round of combat, HELL YES you want this, additionally you can always stack this with hammerhand, if you are making him join a combat unit, take these, no exceptions. 9/10

Psychotroke grenades: Grenades that cause your enemy to go crazy in the first round of combat, 1/6 chance of doing nothing though, when it does go off it's all good and if you are going in all out to give him rads for a mega cc unit, you may as well fork out for psychotrokes as well. 8/10

Inquisitorial Relics

There is one relic to 'represent' the three major ordos, although any inquisitor can take any relic.

Grimoire of True Names: Severley handicaps the WS, I and Ld of a daemon if you are fighting a challenge with it, although the intiative penalty is kinda useless since you have psy-out grenades, it is however a miniscule points investment so if you know you are fighting against daemons, may as well take it, but very little application in a TAC environment. 2/10

Liber Heresius: At the end of deployment and the start of every turn, take a Ld test, if you pass you get scout (if in deployment) or one of, split fire, hatred, counter attack, pinning, fear, cannot pick the same rule more than twice but you can test every turn. Limited useless as apart from scout, you don't get very good rules from it. 3/10

Tome of Vethric: Force each xenos detachment the bearer gets different special rules depending on which book the detachment comes from, regardless, they are all surprisingly good and appropriate to the army. In a Xenos heavy meta, this is a must buy. 7/10

That's all for now, will finish in a couple of days with the two special characters (Coteaz and Karamazov) and the Henchmen warbands.

Good information. Thanks for that.

You forgot the null rod.

Also, I like the Hereticus Relic the most, only because I can choose what I get and I usually build the list around the idea that I can one-off those powers.

 Krellnus wrote:
Psycannon: Requires terminator armour, but allows you to put one of the best heavy weapons in the game on your warlord, it combines decent range, firepower and fire rate for a modest fee, you will always find a use for this gun. 6/10

This is rated way too low. If you're taking terminator armor then spending the points for the pyscannon is pretty much mandatory. This is an easy 10/10 if you have the option available.

Conversion beamer: Mediocre weapon is mediocre, especially when no. 3 on the Warlord Traits table gives you a free, max range version of this once per game, although, if it was cheaper and its get stronger the further away the target is gimmick wasn't as limiting, then sitting back presiciencing some heavy weapons could be feasible, but as it is, terrible choice, good against too few (read: none) targets to be worth a mention.

I have to disagree. In a lot of armies inquisitors are going to spend most of their time sitting in the back casting prescience on something, which means you'll almost always get the second-best shot and you'll often get the best one. The point cost isn't cheap, but having a good heavy weapon instead of nothing is not exactly a small benefit.

Ulumeathi plasma syphon: Unlike the GK version (the awesome one), which affects all plasma weapons within 12" (including Tau pulse weapons, burst cannon, plasma missiles from an EML and starcannons as well as anything plasma sounding) this version is not awesome and only affects plasma weapons as defined in the BRB, pass. 1/10.

This should be rated higher. Don't overreact to the stricter limit on what weapons it cripples, an anti-plasma shield is great in an MEQ army and the point cost is fairly cheap.

Liber Heresius: At the end of deployment and the start of every turn, take a Ld test, if you pass you get scout (if in deployment) or one of, split fire, hatred, counter attack, pinning, fear, cannot pick the same rule more than twice but you can test every turn. Limited useless as apart from scout, you don't get very good rules from it. 3/10

Actually these are pretty good benefits. Scout alone can justify the point cost for some armies, split fire is good for the static heavy weapon units a divination slave is likely to join, hatred is great for assault units, and even pinning and counter attack can be useful. So look at it this way: you get to scout move a key unit (and even if you don't want to move up you can always just reposition within your own deployment zone), and then you get 1-2 turns of a useful USR.

Tome of Vethric: Force each xenos detachment the bearer gets different special rules depending on which book the detachment comes from, regardless, they are all surprisingly good and appropriate to the army. In a Xenos heavy meta, this is a must buy. 7/10

I think this one should be a bit lower. Unlike the previous book you can't count on having a given rule available, and some of them are pretty situational. I don't see any way you can rate the liber heresius a 3/10 but rate this one a 7/10 when they're IMO about the same in power.

Honestly some of your analysis is very short sighted. I disagree with the implication that the main reason to take the Inquisitor is for the Psyker ability, as the ability to give any unit LD10 Stubborn for 25 points is worth it on its own.

The Psyoccolum should be rated higher, in a TAC environment it means that you're well prepared for Psykers on top of all the threats you're aiming to tackle with your list; you can't make everything do everything.

The Liber Heresius has great synergy with some units like IG Infantry Platoons, say you have meltaguns/AT heavy weapons you can fulfill two roles at once and/or decimate two kinds of units at once in a pinch.

Happygrunt wrote:You forgot the null rod.

So I did, thanks for that.

Peregrine wrote:

 Krellnus wrote:
Psycannon: Requires terminator armour, but allows you to put one of the best heavy weapons in the game on your warlord, it combines decent range, firepower and fire rate for a modest fee, you will always find a use for this gun. 6/10

This is rated way too low. If you're taking terminator armor then spending the points for the pyscannon is pretty much mandatory. This is an easy 10/10 if you have the option available.

That's the problem though, sure if you take terminator and thus a psycannon you get a good gun, but to take said equipments costs the same points as a second divination inquisitor and guess what is both better value for money and fits easier into more lists.

Conversion beamer: Mediocre weapon is mediocre, especially when no. 3 on the Warlord Traits table gives you a free, max range version of this once per game, although, if it was cheaper and its get stronger the further away the target is gimmick wasn't as limiting, then sitting back presiciencing some heavy weapons could be feasible, but as it is, terrible choice, good against too few (read: none) targets to be worth a mention.

I have to disagree. In a lot of armies inquisitors are going to spend most of their time sitting in the back casting prescience on something, which means you'll almost always get the second-best shot and you'll often get the best one. The point cost isn't cheap, but having a good heavy weapon instead of nothing is not exactly a small benefit.