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So I got really excited and ended up writing up a first draft for an Inquisitional kill team.

Now, I've yet to even play a game yet, so everything could be wildly off base, since it's mostly based on speculation from looking at the entries for other factions. Things are also a bit long-winded, since it's meant to be a more advanced response to the somewhat limited selection a lot of the official factions have to deal with.

I've tried to add some more diverse specialists, starting with Death Cult Assassins. If people like them, I might try throwing something for diversified specialists for other factions.

Special Operatives are not included yet (Daemonhosts?), and the Ordo Xenos don't get a huge amount of representation since they have fewer easily implementable source books for me to draw from.

So, feel free to take a look at it and let me know what you think. Maybe even test it out if it looks like it might be fun. C&C is appreciated, please be as vicious as you possibly can.

2nd Draft:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bsuTjJE8UY_ngVvuYHwH6qhedJ5DQmhkruQVsPXwmWs/edit?usp=sharing

Major changes for 2nd draft:

-Acolytes changed to Explicators, Throne Agent Specialists changed to Interrogators.

-Inquisitor death penalties relaxed. Interrogators may now assume the role of a new Inquisitor if the Inquisitor dies. However, if no eligable Throne Agents are available, then the kill team must still disband.

-Explicators may promote into Interrogators if there are no Interrogators in the kill team and there are specialist slots available.

-Special Weapon list removed.

-Excruciator and Digital Weapon equipment profiles added.

-Equipment restrictions altered.

-Daemonblade redesign.

-Servo-skulls can now be destroyed.

-Adjustments to other equipment profiles

Maybe choosing Ordo could have separate equipment entries.
The Inquisitor rulebook had some cool xeno equipment for inspiration, also Inquisimunda.

I agree with breaking the ordos up into different lists. More work for you but I think you can tailor the equipment and spec ops troops better to the different ordos.

I'll end up leaving the Ordo separation for now. The Inquisition doesn't formally enforce the its organization, and an Inquisitor who specializes in one field might end up doing plenty of work in others (for example, Eisenhorn is an Ordo Xenos inquisitor who chills with daemonhosts and hunts rogue inquisitors). If you want a stricter adherence to a specific Ordo, feel free to limit yourself appropriately, but for now, I'd like to keep the customization as open ended as possible. The most I'd be wanting to do for Ordo differentiation would be spec ops.

That said, I dream of a golden path for Shadowmunda as a whole where a lot of the less esoteric special operatives get baked into specialist positions, at which point such distinctions might be more valuable.

Thanks for getting the Inquisition train rolling on SW:A! It's really needed :-)

I have a very good feeling from this list. Plenty of flexible individuals and interesting equipment.

My main worry after a quick look-through is that it might be too flexible. It looks a lot like the AM list with a better leader and much more choices.

Have you tried building different lists focused on different aspects and then comparing to teams who can only do that aspect?

Make as shooty a list as you can, it should be weaker than AM and Skiitari and Taus best shooty lists.
Make a melee-focused list, it should be weaker than Wyches best melee lists.
Make an elite list, it should be weaker than a Grey Knight elite list.
Make a tanky list, it should be weaker than a Necon tanky list.
etc etc.

As for the special rule about the team disbanding. I'm not sure that is neccessary. Many epic Inq-stories are about a throne agent that steps up and takes on responsibility way over their pay grade, hoping that the result will justify her deeds. (And it is boring having to retire your team retired because of one single unlucky D6-roll on the Serious Injuries table...)

Maybe change that so a Throne Agent will be the new Leader with the title Interrogator? With that change the body guard rule is also less important. It's still interesting though!

I would like to see a rule that affects Leadership in some way. The Inquisition is well known for not giving up... Maybe they don't need to roll Bottle-tests until they have lost one more model than 25%? Maybe they always pass their first bottle test without rolling? Maybe they can reroll (some) Ld-tests? These kind of rules also makes it easier to go on after the Ld10 Inq has perished.

 Fafnir wrote:
Shadowmunda

Best name I've heard for it by far!

Regarding the disbanding, perhaps the new leader can't advance for 3 games, essentially becoming a "new recruit" inquisitor until they learn the ropes a bit. Then they get promoted to Inquisitor.

The disbanding rule is a little harsh, maybe select new leader as normal, they miss next battle as they are sent away for retraining. Problem with this is you'd have to then select yet another temporary leader for that battle, doesn't quite feel right.
Might see what kind of leader rules are in outlanders for inspiration.

At first I wasn't sure about the death cultist as a specialist, but the Harlequin kill team does something similar, so now I quite like it.
I had previously thought about a new fighter type, like 'Adviser" to throw in the random class of figure (for Inquisition this would the scribes and the like), but this sort of thing was a problem with additional gangs in Necro, too many sub-leader types making the gang too powerful.
I was thinking about some Alien Mercs for the Tau, and was just going to put them in SpecOps, but specialist might be more suitable. You could even just have limits on Trooper, for example: Kroot 0-2 Trooper, for fighters that arn't any stronger then you're other troopers.

Honestly, I'd like to replace spec-ops with diversified specialists entirely. Perhaps make it so you had to save up promethium caches to unlock them. But that's for another time and another place. For now, my plans are to make Daemonhost and Priest spec ops (although spec ops are the absolute least of my concerns for now).

Additionally, I'm wondering what people's thoughts would be if I were to remove the current special weaponry from the equipment list, and replace it with weirder fear and other funky effect based equipment like the psychotroke and rad grenades. While it does draw away from the Inquisitional Stormtrooper stuff, it would help to separate the army further from the Guardsman list.

I'm honestly baffled that GW didn't add an inquisitor and/or Imperial Cult Kill team, much akin to the redemptionists of necromunda.

Then again GW doesn't seem to care for the Redemptionist-esque imperial militias. *sigh* I just want to be God-Emperor loving terrorists, yanno?

 EnsignTuna wrote:
I'm honestly baffled that GW didn't add an inquisitor and/or Imperial Cult Kill team, much akin to the redemptionists of necromunda.

Then again GW doesn't seem to care for the Redemptionist-esque imperial militias. *sigh* I just want to be God-Emperor loving terrorists, yanno?

At the same time you can still use your necro minis in this game.. I am using my Delaque are GSC

In these rules, GSC IS Delaque. And vice versa.

I dig the Inquisitor rules, but it looks like trying to cram a full codex into a few pages of rules. I would simplify, by a lot. I guarantee the SW:A kill teams were designed starting with the the miniatures. NOT starting with the faction's codex. A team only has a few members. Especially teams with elites. And, they are supposed to fight teams with a few members. You don't need ultra-killy stuff. Or, super wargear. You aren't taking on 50 models. Gear is practically a luxury. And, I would be careful adding stuff that is really situational. Servo skulls will take away my GSC's special rule. That's harsh. But, otherwise may not be worth the price.

I think the lack of rules for an Inquisition team is because there is not a single box that you can buy to build it. And that has been one of the main "marketing points" and "buzzphrazes" of this product.

Related: I think Chaos would have been a cultists only warband, with chaos marines as Special Operatives if there were better chaos cultists single boxes available.

You have to know the same holds true for Space Marines. They have no "scrubs," for variety.

I've now released a second draft of the Ordos of the Inquisition kill team list, viewable here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bsuTjJE8UY_ngVvuYHwH6qhedJ5DQmhkruQVsPXwmWs/edit?usp=sharing

Major changes:

-Acolytes changed to Explicators, Throne Agent Specialists changed to Interrogators.

-Inquisitor death penalties relaxed. Interrogators may now assume the role of a new Inquisitor if the Inquisitor dies. However, if no eligable Throne Agents are available, then the kill team must still disband.

-Explicators may promote into Interrogators if there are no Interrogators in the kill team and there are specialist slots available.

-Special Weapon list removed.

-Excruciator and Digital Weapon equipment profiles added.

-Equipment restrictions altered.

-Daemonblade redesign.

-Servo-skulls can now be destroyed.

-Adjustments to other equipment profiles

First thing..

Too many options going on...

Next, Why does the Inquisitor get 2 wnds base?

3rd, you point costs are too low.. 70pts for an Throne Agent with that stat line and armour being only 10 points more then a GSC neophyte is a bit of a joke


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just saw the Death Cult assassin..


WAY TOO LOW point costs there...

man you just take 5/4 of them without upgrades and win the game

GodDamUser wrote:
First thing..

Too many options going on...

Working on cutting that. Right now, there are 31 unique items that can be bought in the equipment list. The CSM list has 26, not including equipment unique to Special Ops, and I'd like to have something more in line with that. The problem comes in that Inquisitors tend to rely on a very eccentric and eclectic selection of tools, while also requiring a baseline of standard Imperial 'workhorse' technology in order to get the job done on a fundamental level.

Next, Why does the Inquisitor get 2 wnds base?

Because Dire Avenger Exarchs, Harlequin Troupe Masters, and Skitarii Ranger Alphas all get 2 wounds base while also having much better starting equipment and in most cases better stats. Toughness 3 leaders with 2 wounds are actually fairly common, comprising 3 of the 7 official factions with T3. I'd imagine this was intended by GW to function as an alternative to the bulk of 1W T4 leaders while still remaining fairly elite.

3rd, you point costs are too low.. 70pts for an Throne Agent with that stat line and armour being only 10 points more then a GSC neophyte is a bit of a joke

An Imperial Guard veteran has a fairly similar statline and starting equipment for 60 points. Also keep in mind that the armour they start with is no better than the starting armour of a GSC Neophyte. In fact, every fighter profile in the game comes with armour, even Tyranid Warriors. I was having a bit of trouble placing the point cost for the Throne Agents between 70 and 80 (since they fall somewhere between a Guard Veteran and an Eldar Guardian), but it's certainly not 'a joke.'

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just saw the Death Cult assassin..


WAY TOO LOW point costs there...

man you just take 5/4 of them without upgrades and win the game

Except for the part where they're a specialist, which means you can only take up to three, they cannot take any guns or armour (they get flakk, but it is literally useless for them), and that if you take all three, then you can't take Interrogators, which means that if your Inquisitor dies (which is more likely without Interrogators, since he can't use them as wound-sponges, although this is admittedly a minor point), the entire kill team is forced to disband.

Also, Eldar Harlequins have a considerably better and more versatile toolkit than the DCAs for similar price range, and also scale better. That said, while I had intended for the DCA to be a strong early game unit that tapers off once better guns become available, the inclusion of the free swords might be too much. I will remove those for now.

Why don't you make the interrogator the kill team leader instead of an Inquisitor?

...Because the Interrogator is a specialist.

I must have made an inadvertent delete attempt on the pdf when I highlighted Inquisitorial Bodyguard? Sorry. My bad.

That said, I'm glad you pointed it out. Got my attention on there long enough to put in a restriction against using the ability for wounds inflicted by template weapons (because no amount of meatshielding is going to eat a flamethrower blast).

I'm thinking Inquisitorial Bodyguard as written will cause problems. For instance, does it apply to all wounds (shooting, melee, exploding weapons, falling)? Plus, ONE shot could both Pin the Inquisitor and Down a minion, or put him OOA.. Not only that, remember that there is already a closest target rule. So putting a minion in front of the Inquisitor (or any model) can save him from even being shot at.

One thing I was thinking about this list is the special operatives.. one could be just like the Harlequin solitaire but use the Callidus Temple Assassin
that uses the basic same rules... so powerful you only get the one figure..
It would be just like a inquisitor to send in an assassin to clean up a mess..

Gobbla wrote:I'm thinking Inquisitorial Bodyguard as written will cause problems. For instance, does it apply to all wounds (shooting, melee, exploding weapons, falling)? Plus, ONE shot could both Pin the Inquisitor and Down a minion, or put him OOA.. Not only that, remember that there is already a closest target rule. So putting a minion in front of the Inquisitor (or any model) can save him from even being shot at.

I've changed the wording for more consistent interpretation.
As for the rule itself, while it might not be as strong as some of the special rules granted by other factions, I've opted to keep Inquisitional Bodyguard fairly low-key in order to put the focus more on the Inquisitional Armoury.

That said, I'm open to suggestion if you or anyone else has ideas for something fluffy and interesting.

Genoside07 wrote:One thing I was thinking about this list is the special operatives.. one could be just like the Harlequin solitaire but use the Callidus Temple Assassin
that uses the basic same rules... so powerful you only get the one figure..
It would be just like a inquisitor to send in an assassin to clean up a mess..

I'm a bit leery about using a Solitaire style assassin as a Spec Op. Not only are Officio Assassinorum operatives usually meant for bigger targets than most of the fighters you'd find in a kill team, but I don't like the idea of singe-model armies that can heavily polarize matchups (like how the Solitaire is basically an auto-win against elite armies, who can only hope to be beat by raw numbers).

Right now, the Spec Ops I'm considering adding at a later date are Daemonhosts and Priests.