Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey tactical minds, I'm thinking of deploying an allied Inquisition unit with my mechanized Sisters army. I have a half-built Chimera and some Kasrkin models kicking around, so I'm part of the way there.

I'm thinking they might fill a few gaps the Sisters have, namely plasma guns, lascannons, S6 shooting, and AV 12. Here's what I'm thinking:

Inquisitor (not sure what flavor)
Liber Heresius
3x Servo-skulls
3x Acolytes with Plasma and Carapace
2x Crusaders with Power Swords and Storm Shields
2x Jokaero with Digital Weapons
Chimera with 2x Heavy Bolters and Psybolt Ammo

My notion is that the Chimera allows the 3 plasma Acolytes and 2 Jokaero to fire each turn. The Liber gives them Scout on Turn 1 to get close enough for rapid fire plasma. Turn 2 they Split Fire so Jokaero can target 1 thing and acolytes another. AV 12 is slightly harder to pop than all my Sisters transports, and the S6 HBs can go after light transports or high T targets. Hopefully the Jokaero roll up something useful on their table. The Crusaders can soak up higher AP fire (though I see these as optional, perhaps wrongly) and the skulls allow me to deny cover to infiltrators and think about DSing Celestine and her retinue close enough to cover that their flamers will be useful.

The whole thing is 263 points, more than I had hoped, but seems versatile. For context, it will accompany lots of mechanized flamer and melta squads against everything but Guard and Orks. Thoughts and modifications? Thanks!

Personally my Inq squads look like this
Chimera 2x HB, Psy Bullets
3 Plasma Acolytes
1 Psyker (rolling telepathy primarily for the psychic shriek primaris)
1 Jokero
Plus however many bolter acolytes I want to be bullet sponges and add bodies to the unit.

One Jokero is good imo but I'm not fully sold on the value of multiple of them (other than the easy "metal bawkses of monkeys" jokes). Two is definitely not a bad idea (keeps the 1 result off the table so the jokero will upgrade at least something) but more than 2 seems very inefficient. I think Crusaders are amazing but are for those melee blobs of crusaders, assasins, and a priest. Them tanking with 3++ is nice but the biggest threat to your units is volume of fire and vehicle explosions. Would probably be better off with more bullet sponge acolytes to tank shots with their face (preferably with a cover save or jokero armor/invuln save upgrade)

Yep, that's my thinking on the Jokaero... the 1 result is so lame and all the others are at least potentially useful, plus 2 lascannons or multimeltas instead of 1 on the turn of split fire to ensure a hit.

I don't have bolter bodies, but the hot shot models from the Kasrkin look cool if I just need ablative wounds. If I can keep their metal box alive, the Crusaders would be fairly superfluous, and the Sisters do force the enemy to choose among lots of metal boxes, so that's a real option.

to be fair you could save points by not having bolter/hot shot lasgun acoloytes in that squad. Whatever your plasma gun acoloytes and joakeros are shooting at are probably going to be too high AV or toughness for your boltgun acoloytes to hurt and if you have your unit in a chimera then the extra bodies wont really add as extra wounds because no one can shoot at your unit inside the tank they can only shoot the tank and if the tank explodes the wounds are random anyway so the extra bodies wont save your plasma gun/joakero models.

If you plan on scouting your tank closer to the enemy and plan on just staying stationary each turn shooting out of the vehicle then you could add a plasma cannon servitor to be the 5th model who can shoot out of the chimera or give your inquisitor a weapon to shoot out of the chimera so either a combi plasma or a hell rifle (str 6 ap3) or even a conversion beamer

MacPhail wrote:

I'm thinking they might fill a few gaps the Sisters have, namely plasma guns, lascannons, S6 shooting, and AV 12. Here's what I'm thinking:

Inquisitor (not sure what flavor)
Liber Heresius
3x Servo-skulls
3x Acolytes with Plasma and Carapace
2x Crusaders with Power Swords and Storm Shields
2x Jokaero with Digital Weapons
Chimera with 2x Heavy Bolters and Psybolt Ammo

When I think of the Sisters lack of AP2 firepower and/or access to lascannons, it doesn't seem like much of a handicap when you can run entire units of meltaguns and 48" d6 S8 AP1 rocket launchers. A single Inquisitor (or Coteaz) for access to servo skulls has some merit, but blowing 263 points on some T3 chumps and BS3 chimps seems like points that could be better spent on more Sisters. Or allied drop pods if that's your poison.

Solid advice all around-- thanks!

champagne_socialist, that is my hope... that those extra dudes just hang out because the enemy either chooses the easier AV 11 hulls to go after or the more threatening TL MM Immolators. I can imagine being glad for a few extra bodies on the turn after they get shot out of their tank, especially because one of my regular opponents just spent his tax refund on an AdMech force... so much Haywire! At 4 points each, maybe just a couple of them so I don't resent them if they're still sitting in the transport on Turn 5. That said, I could also probably cut the squad to 3 Acolytes and 2 Jokaero to save points.

Armyman, likewise good critique. When I saw the total at 263, I immediately balked. That's basically the price of Celestine and squad of Seraphim. I do have units of meltaguns, but they rarely last beyond Turn 2, and I'm hoping these guys would have some staying power; my Exorcists are so frustratingly random, it would be nice to have a couple extra S8 shots for turns when I roll straight 1s on the Exos. If I cut the Crusaders, minimize the Acolytes, and ditch the carapace armor, I can come in at 221 for the Inquisitor, 3x plasma guns, 2x monkey guns, and the upgraded transport guns... but that still may not be worth it. On a turn of stationary shooting, that's 2 shots at S8, 6 shots at S7, and 6 shots at S6, so I'd hope they could get their points back.

Your point about the solo Inquisitor is interesting, though. I could keep the Liber and attach him to my Rhino full of (sometimes) Rending Heavy Flamers who often get shot up just short of template range, just to give them Scout, plus the Servo-skulls can help guide the Seraphim down. That's about a 50-point model with no other upgrades... unless he needs some gear for getting up close?

MacPhail wrote:
Solid advice all around-- thanks!

You're welcome, it's sorta what we do here

Armyman, likewise good critique. When I saw the total at 263, I immediately balked. That's basically the price of Celestine and squad of Seraphim. I do have units of meltaguns, but they rarely last beyond Turn 2, and I'm hoping these guys would have some staying power; my Exorcists are so frustratingly random, it would be nice to have a couple extra S8 shots for turns when I roll straight 1s on the Exos. If I cut the Crusaders, minimize the Acolytes, and ditch the carapace armor, I can come in at 221 for the Inquisitor, 3x plasma guns, 2x monkey guns, and the upgraded transport guns... but that still may not be worth it. On a turn of stationary shooting, that's 2 shots at S8, 6 shots at S7, and 6 shots at S6, so I'd hope they could get their points back.

Remember though that all of these shots are on BS3 models. Half of all shots will miss, some will fail to wound/pen, and then practically everyone gets a cover or FNP save of some sort these days. Also, and this is a completely separate issue so take this with a grain of salt: I would feel slimey using the 5 fire points from the Inquisitorial Chimera. GW rules writing is lazy and half-assed, and they've never bothered to update the Inq. Chimera to current IG standards simply because they're GW, not because it's intended to have that many fire points.

Your point about the solo Inquisitor is interesting, though. I could keep the Liber and attach him to my Rhino full of (sometimes) Rending Heavy Flamers who often get shot up just short of template range, just to give them Scout, plus the Servo-skulls can help guide the Seraphim down. That's about a 50-point model with no other upgrades... unless he needs some gear for getting up close?

Nah, the Liber and servo-skulls are his only real purpose. I'm always a romantic when it comes to giving my Inquisitor all kinds of spangly gear, but the reality is that he should never get into a scrap. If he does, he just dies in some messy and embarassing way.

I have an Inquisitor on the way and a plan for a few servo skulls out of my bitz box. I'll run him with the Heavy Flamers for now... there may be more benefit to scouting them up than any acolyte configuration.

I hadn't realized there was a difference in the two transports... is it fire points or something even bigger? I wasn't trying to be shady, I just haven't played Guard in 2 editions.

The only problem I see with this kind of set-up is the problem I always have, plasma. I HATE plasma guns, I avoid them constantly. Part of why I like the sisters and vanilla marines is that with all the grav/melta they get, I can avoid plasma entirely.

Not sure what a jokearo does exactly, maybe he mitigates the "kill your 15 point gun plus w/e point model everytime you shoot and fails to wound constantly P.O.S. goddam terrible bastard excuse for an awful melta wanna be; gravs ugly, unloved, mentally slow, ginger stepchild weapon.

Wow that got off topic, anyway, don't really trust plasma, and with the new cataphractii terminator captain giving slow and purposeful to a squad if I wanted extra firepower on the very cheap I would just bring a tac squad in a pod with a grav cannon, give the captain a SS and Powerfist and bam 275 points later you can kill a riptide a turn, and have a pretty beefy captain, up that to 500 points and you could start running some real shenanigans.

MacPhail wrote:

I hadn't realized there was a difference in the two transports... is it fire points or something even bigger? I wasn't trying to be shady, I just haven't played Guard in 2 editions.

When the Inquisition units were removed from the Grey Knights codex, it was just a straight copy-paste from the 5th Edition GK codex. Since then, the IG have gotten a 7th Edition codex, and they made some changes to the Chimera rules bumping it up 10 points, giving it 2 fire points, and making the lasgun arrays an unnecessarily complicated affair. It's not a big deal and you're playing by the rules as written, forewarned is forearmed.

MacPhail wrote:


Armyman, likewise good critique. When I saw the total at 263, I immediately balked. That's basically the price of Celestine and squad of Seraphim. I do have units of meltaguns, but they rarely last beyond Turn 2, and I'm hoping these guys would have some staying power; my Exorcists are so frustratingly random, it would be nice to have a couple extra S8 shots for turns when I roll straight 1s on the Exos. If I cut the Crusaders, minimize the Acolytes, and ditch the carapace armor, I can come in at 221 for the Inquisitor, 3x plasma guns, 2x monkey guns, and the upgraded transport guns... but that still may not be worth it. On a turn of stationary shooting, that's 2 shots at S8, 6 shots at S7, and 6 shots at S6, so I'd hope they could get their points back.

Rather than using Acolytes with Plasma Guns, use Servitors with Plasma Cannons. Inquisition get them cheaper compared to Space Marines and Guard and an Inquisitor is a much more useful 'minder' than a Techmarine or Enginseer is imo. 3x Servitors with Plasma Cannons, an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor with Hellrifle and a Chimera with dual Heavy Bolters and Psybolts only sets you back 160pts. Makes for a pretty effective "Medium Range Light Plasma Tank" that hangs back in your deployment zone lobbing Plasma blasts and the Hellrifle shot from the Fire Points along with the Heavy Bolters from the Chimera itself, without breaking the bank in point cost. Or you could drop the Chimera, maybe add some 4pt Acolytes to act as meat shields and just sit them back in cover somewhere.

I'm not particularly keen on Jokearo, because at the end of the day they're 35pts for a BS3 Lascannon shot. That they also have Heavy Flamers/Multimeltas and their unit upgrade table thing are just novelty side-effects that don't really play much into a small Henchmen squad.

Really good points, everyone. I think I'm convinced: Jokaero are overpriced, BS3 is unreliable, T3 w/ carapace is too squishy, high S / low AP are not things I'm lacking, and the whole thing runs up too great a price tag. Bummer, because I have some cool models and I love the fluff behind it. I'll stick an Inquisitor with Liber and Skulls with something worth scouting and save the whole unit until people start complaining that the Sisters are OP and that I win too many games.