The Radical Inquisitor List

Yeah, yeah, I know. The Grey Knights codex is a Space Marine codex. But don’t we already have enough of those?

My first army was from the Daemonhunters codex (may it rest in peace). I’ve fielded everything from Pure Grey Knights to the Radical Inquisitor. Before I switched to Guard I was playing Radical Inquisitor more than anything else, and up my last Apoc game, the Inquisitor, retinue, assassins, and Deamonhosts always made a showing.

I bought the Grey Knight codex in the hopes that a Radical Inquisitor list was still possible. At some point I’ll write a review on the codex itself (actually, I’’ voice my concerns – there are already enough reviews), but for now I want to discuss an alternative army build.

The one rule I have is that I do not want to field any Grey Knights. No terminators, strike squads, paladins, dreadnoughts, dreadknights, etc. Vehicles I am OK with, but I am trying to avoid Grey Knights.

The main reason for this is because I think it is fundamentally wrong for a Grey Knight to be aligned with a Radical Inquisitor. The Daemonhunters codex made it quite clear that if there are any Deamonhosts associated with the Inquisitor, Grey Knights will not share the field of battle.

This list does not have any Deamonhosts in it, but the concept is still the same in my eyes.

Here is the breakdown of an 1,850 Radical Inquisitor list:

Inquisitor Cortez

Ordo Xeno Inquisitor (Psychotroke Grenades, Power Armor, Power Sword, Hammerhand, Digital Weapon)

Henchmen (with Cortez) – 10 Death Cult Assassins

Henchmen (with Xeno Inq) – 10 Death Cult Assassins

Henchmen (shooty) – 2 Jokaero Weaponsmith, 8 Psykers, Rhino (Psybolt Ammo)

Henchmen (shooty) – 2 Jokaero Weaponsmith, 8 Psykers, Rhino (Psybolt Ammo)

Land Raider Crusader, Psybolt Ammo, Multimelta

Land Raider Crusader, Psybolt Ammo, Multimelta

Callidus Assassin

Culexus Assassin

Vindicare Assassin

This is just a simplistic list. The beauty of this codex is that there are sooooo many options that I can switch out units just to play around.

Coteaz is needed so I can bring Henchmen as troop choices and I am not limited by the number of Henchmen choices I can bring. Actually, that is probably not entirely true. Henchmen are Troops, so I am probably limited to only six.

He’s a human with terminator armor and a bunch of cool rules, including Hammerhand which gives everyone in the unit +1 strength in assault. He forces my opponent to re-roll the seize the initiative roll or allows me to reroll mine. It also allow his unit to take an out-of-sequence shooting attack on anyone teleporting within 12” of him. The Sanctuary power allows me to force assaulting units to take dangerous terrain tests when assaulting him. His psyk-out grenades also reduce any deamon or psyker’s initiative to 1 during an assault. Pretty mean close combat dude.

The Xeno Inquisitor allows me bring psychotroke grenades, which are just too cool not to bring. The effects of these grenades are decided by a D6, but basically it makes an opposing unit nearly useless during close combat. The digital weapon bling allows reroll of a failed to wound in close combat. And again, Hammerhand to improve the strength.

Each inquisitor will be sporting a crusader with a multi-melta, psy-ammo (increasing strength) and 10 Death Cult Assassins. The Death Cult Assassins have a WS 5, S4, I6 and 2 attacks with power weapons. They also sport a 5+ invulnerable save. With the inquisitor’s Hammerhand, that means 30 S5 power weapon attacks on the assault out of the Raider. And that is before the inquisitor steps in. There isn’t much that has an initiative higher than 6.

The only thing I am reconsidering is the psy-ammo on the Raiders. If the hurricane bolters are S5, they are no longer defensive weapons and will not be able to unload every turn.

The two shooty henchmen squads consist of two Jokaero Weaponsmiths and 8 psykers in a Rhino. The Rhino will ignore shaken and stirred results after a psychic test and has two fire points. The Jokaeros allow for some special ability to the squad based on a D6 at the beginning of the game, such as improving the maximum range of non-template weapons, reinforced armor, etc. Bringing two ensures I get something good on that roll. They also get to shoot a lascannon, multi-melta, or heavy flamer.

The psykers will be throwing a S10, AP1 large blast assault 1 out of the top of the Rhino. That is pretty brutal.

But the key to this list is the assassins. They have all been muscled up in this codex with a 4+ invulnerable save and a modified FNP save (6+ instead of 4+).

The Callidus is simply a unit removal system. When she reveals herself, the unit she comes into gets D6 S4 AP2 hits. She has the mind-killing template weapon as a pistol, and she gets 4 base attacks with a power weapon that causes instant death regardless of her opponent’s toughness. There shouldn’t be anything left standing when she is done.

The Vindicare is the sniper that gets to pick his individual targets. Bye-bye HQ choices. He also gets to choose his ammo each round and it’s not limited to having only one type of round per game like it was before. As a nice example, the Hellfire round will wound on 2+. Seeing as the rifle’s profile is AP1 and his BS is 8, only 1’s will keep you alive.

The Culexus is the protector of the Rhinos. And this takes a little explaining...

The two LRCs and two Rhinos will line up like this: LRC RHINO RHINO LRC

Then I simply drive across the board. The Culexus walks between the Rhinos, putting him close to 16 psykers. This will give him 18 S5 AP1 attacks at 12". So go ahead, try to assault my Rhinos. You'll never get close enough. You ain't shooting him either because in order to target him you need to pass leadership on 3D6. And if you do, who cares? You just killed a non-scoring distraction unit. Congrats!

The whole idea is not to win by objectives. It is simply to table my opponent. Assaults are very decisive and make or break the game. If I lose an assault, then I might lose. If I lose two, I will definitely lose. But my units have higher initiative and all power weapons. They would go toe to toe with Beserkers. Heck, the little assassins can take out an entire mob of orks before they get a chance to hit back unless I roll a crap-load of ones. FNP? Useless. Armor saves? Useless.

At 2000 points I'd probably add another squad of Death Cult Assassins to run naked down the field behind the Rhinos. They'd make either a great distraction (meaning folks aren't shooting at my other units) or an awesome counter-punch unit.

With this list I wouldn't be afraid of hordes, ranged shooty, mech, or assaulty armies. I think the eldars would give me issues, though, because they are fast long range shooty. I don't think I could get close enough fast enough.

And, of course, Deamons may actually give me some issues because of their invulnerable saves. Ironic, isn't it? An inquisitor army that is prone to lose against Deamons. Go figure.

***This article is a repost from earlier this year. It seems that others are now starting to look into alternative builds from the Grey Knights codex and I wanted to join in the discussion.***