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This is intended to be a space for both general discussion of how to use any of the AGENTS OF THE IMPERIUM units in any IMPERIUM army (via the assigned agents rule) or, if you're dedicated enough, how to build and use an AGENTS OF THE IMPERIUM faction army.

There's a lot to unpack in the faction, particularly its huge selection of characters, some of whom are surprisingly capable.


As a 'pure' faction you do have a couple of major weaknesses:

1 - no vehicles or heavy units of your own (barring the Throne of Judgement who's basicallya sentinel scout walker with attitude)
2 - limited anti heavy unit firepower, especially at long range.
3 - no unique stratagems or detachment (also no enhancements but those aren't free so that's less of an issue)

A pure Agents army is a meme and nothing more. Which is unfortunate but fits the fluff as it would be rare for a lot of these disparate forces to assemble and battle against an actual army.

The main way they'll see play will be as points fillers, when the army they are plugged into simply doesn't have anything else cheap enough to fill a points gap. Exaction Squads and Voidsmen-at-arms will be common for this. Assassins are also pretty decent this edition, so those will likely see play too (already have as of last weekend). A lot of the other stuff seems situational at best, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

I like the idea of putting a squad or two of Adeptus Arbites in my Imperial Guard army. However until they get options for transports I don’t really see the point. Better to spend the points on more infantry squads (whether it’s Cadians, or whatever). I am planning to field an Acolytes squad led by an Inquisitor though.

As for characters, I will continue to use at least one Inquisitor. Rather than taking a second Inquisitor I think I’ll take an Assassin instead, probably a Vindicare for now.

I think the lack of transports is one argument for Navy, not Arbites. A Rogue Trader gives her squad infiltrate as well as some redeployment shenanigans. Plus whilst they only get 12" range shotguns not 18", the option of meltagun, demo charge and grenade belts is scarier up close and reroll to wound targets on an objective is a nice ability to have.

Someone pointed out that arguably inquisitors ARENT a legal faction because there's no AGENTS OF THE IMPERIUM detachment, and unlike ADEPTUS TITANICUS there's no exemption from the 'select detachment' step.

They need to allow Agents of the Imperium to recruit other armies infantry and some vehicles.

For example: access to Grey Knight Terminators, Valkyries/Chimeras, perhaps 1 or two Leman Russ variants, infantry squads, sister battle squads and their rhinos, deathwatch veterans,...

Have such units (except imperial guard ones) into one of the 3 Ordo... Malleus access to some GK units, Deathwatch for Xenos, Sisters for Hereticus. If you bring one of these Inquisitors, you get access to such unit. Or perhaps force the ordo through detachment, but would reduce the army composition.

They'd still be a faction weak to heavy armor, but would perform much better, much more fun to play, and some players who own such armies (grey knights, deathwatch, imperial guard, sisters...) could play as Imperial Agents if they invest just a little into them.

Waiting for my Coteaz + 50 Jokaero army to be viable again. Third edition in a row it gathers dust.

 Guillérmidas wrote:
They need to allow Agents of the Imperium to recruit other armies infantry and some vehicles.

For example: access to Grey Knight Terminators, Valkyries/Chimeras, perhaps 1 or two Leman Russ variants, infantry squads, sister battle squads and their rhinos, deathwatch veterans,...

Have such units (except imperial guard ones) into one of the 3 Ordo... Malleus access to some GK units, Deathwatch for Xenos, Sisters for Hereticus. If you bring one of these Inquisitors, you get access to such unit. Or perhaps force the ordo through detachment, but would reduce the army composition.

They'd still be a faction weak to heavy armor, but would perform much better, much more fun to play, and some players who own such armies (grey knights, deathwatch, imperial guard, sisters...) could play as Imperial Agents if they invest just a little into them.

If I remember correctly, sometjing like this was a legit way to build Inquisitorial Crusade Armies during 3rd or 4th ed ition.

Mellon wrote:

 Guillérmidas wrote:
They need to allow Agents of the Imperium to recruit other armies infantry and some vehicles.

For example: access to Grey Knight Terminators, Valkyries/Chimeras, perhaps 1 or two Leman Russ variants, infantry squads, sister battle squads and their rhinos, deathwatch veterans,...

Have such units (except imperial guard ones) into one of the 3 Ordo... Malleus access to some GK units, Deathwatch for Xenos, Sisters for Hereticus. If you bring one of these Inquisitors, you get access to such unit. Or perhaps force the ordo through detachment, but would reduce the army composition.

They'd still be a faction weak to heavy armor, but would perform much better, much more fun to play, and some players who own such armies (grey knights, deathwatch, imperial guard, sisters...) could play as Imperial Agents if they invest just a little into them.

If I remember correctly, sometjing like this was a legit way to build Inquisitorial Crusade Armies during 3rd or 4th ed ition.

There were codexes for demonhunters and witchhunters that included both GK/SoB and respective Inquisitorial forces, which you could mix along with imperial guard.

Ah yes, that was the case! No space marines allowed?

 Fan67 wrote:

There were codexes for demonhunters and witchhunters that included both GK/SoB and respective Inquisitorial forces, which you could mix along with imperial guard.

The old witch Hunters codex was great! Really flavourful and gave a ton of build options.

That said, it was also incredibly broken. The old acts of faith the sister's had were crazy good... Plus the 'flying nun' Canoness being a menace to just about every army.

 Fan67 wrote:

Mellon wrote:

 Guillérmidas wrote:
They need to allow Agents of the Imperium to recruit other armies infantry and some vehicles.

For example: access to Grey Knight Terminators, Valkyries/Chimeras, perhaps 1 or two Leman Russ variants, infantry squads, sister battle squads and their rhinos, deathwatch veterans,...

Have such units (except imperial guard ones) into one of the 3 Ordo... Malleus access to some GK units, Deathwatch for Xenos, Sisters for Hereticus. If you bring one of these Inquisitors, you get access to such unit. Or perhaps force the ordo through detachment, but would reduce the army composition.

They'd still be a faction weak to heavy armor, but would perform much better, much more fun to play, and some players who own such armies (grey knights, deathwatch, imperial guard, sisters...) could play as Imperial Agents if they invest just a little into them.

If I remember correctly, sometjing like this was a legit way to build Inquisitorial Crusade Armies during 3rd or 4th ed ition.

There were codexes for demonhunters and witchhunters that included both GK/SoB and respective Inquisitorial forces, which you could mix along with imperial guard.

I suppose you can model this to an extent by adding in arbites or navy infantry and a few inquisitors to a sisters or knights army.

I'm wondering about the whole detachment thing. Because the App explicitly returns the army as legal and according to GW it is considered a valid source for tournament army lists

Oh - and if you want to do an updated witch hunter army you can use the new novitiates squads. Carapace armour, autoguns and flamers are a decent counts as for Inquisitorial stormtroopers.