So Codex: Inquisition is kinda a big deal. Maybe not as much of a game-changer as a couple of the other big drops this past month (*coughcoughEscalationcough*), but still fairly huge for a lot of armies and a lot more likely to actually get used. While none of the units included in it are at all revolutionary- in fact, they are almost all just copy-pastes from the Grey Knights book- it's their ability to widely access them in addition to whatever ally force you decide to bring along.
For most Imperial armies, an Inquisitor is something of a no-brainer inclusion these days, and even for some Xenos armies he will be well worth considering. With a plethora of options you may see many different builds for Inquisitors, but you can be quite assured that youwill be seeing them.
Overview and Basics
Codex: Inquisition is a new game supplement that allows most armies in the game to include an Inquisitorial component as well as allowing a base army of such units. However, the Inquisitorial forces are organized very differently than most- in fact, they don't use the same Force Org chart as either a primary or as an “allied” force (we'll get to the reason for the quotes in a moment.) An Inquisitorial detachment has 1-2 HQ selections, 0-3 Elites selections (i.e. henchmen bands) and that's it- no troops, no HS/FA, nothing else. Bizarrely, this is the case for both fielding it as a primary detachment as well as attached to another force- so it is possible to have a fully-legal army that costs 25pts and consists of a single model.
The special note about an Inquisitorial detachment when accompanying another force, however, is that it does not use up your ally slot (and thus effectively allows you to draw on three different codices) and the Inquisitor is allowed to be your Warlord no matter who or what else is in your army. Either or both of these can be important for a list, but the fact that they are a tertiary supplement to every army is the biggest deal of all. Also, unlike Grey Knights- from which most of their units are drawn- the Inquisition is Battle Brothers with all of the factions in the Imperium (including GK, who otherwise have no Bros), Allies of Convenience with the Eldar, and Desperate Allies with Dark Eldar and Tau (!). They will not work with Chaos of any sort, Necrons, Orks, or Tyranids- again, several changes from the status of their parent codex.
(Note that because the Inquisitorial detachment is considered to be an ally, but does not use up your ally slot, it interacts a bit weirdly with taking them in addition to allies, as they may have a different relationship- this may result in them being part of a unit with someone they consider Desperate Allies, although this probably is a bad idea. Also, although the answer is not completely clear, it seems very likely that you cannot include them in an army with anyone they consider Come the Apocalypse, even if the main army is fine with having both factions present individually.)
What's the big deal about all this, you might ask? Well, there's basically two- first of all, it lets EVERY Imperial faction get access to Divination, and most especially Prescience. Prescience is arguably the best psychic power in the game right now, and being able to bring it in for virtually no investment is absolutely huge. Secondly, it gives everyone access to Servo-Skulls, which can prevent enemy Scouts and Infiltrators for being able to effectively use their abilities. Kirby and Matt have both talked about some of this, but it bears re-emphasizing: shutting down enemy deployment tricks is a big deal. Twin-linking anything is a big deal. The Inquisition adds a lot for a little, and that's not even getting into some of the new stuff.
New Stuff
Seems like a good place to start a heading! Not everything in the book is copy-pasta'd from the old one; there are a number of unique options available as well as some units that have been roped in from other books. So, this seems like as good a time as any to start going over it.
The big one is of course the Warlord charts. There are three new tables available for Inquisitors, with each of the three main types (Malleus, Hereticus, Xenos) being able to roll on their own table. Three results on each table are identical; the other three are unique to each type of Inquisitor, though they share some similarities. All of them are strong tables, probably on par with the Tau warlord tables; you might not be able to take full advantage of them, but chances are whatever you roll up won't be completely useless.
The three “common” traits are all pretty general-use; Unquestionable Wisdom lets your Inquisitor and his unit pass or fail morale checks as they please, which Space Marine players may recognize as a pretty snazzy little trick. Reader of the Tarot gives you two dice to pick from when rolling reserves, outflanking, and mysterious terrain/objectives- with most armies fielding at least 1-2 flyers or reserve units, this ability should almost always be useful as well, especially in combination with their psychic powers. Lastly, Burner of Worlds gives you an Orbital Bombardment shot exactly like the one a Chapter Master has- S10 AP1 large blast barrage. With Ordnance helping it punch through tank armor and high stats all around, nothing is safe from it… unless it scatters, in which case you are likely to hit nothing at all. (Protip: use Prescience.)
The three Hereticus traits are easily the weakest of the three, which unfortunately is in keeping with many of the other trends. Preferred Enemy (Psykers) is a pretty nice little bonus, but even now many armies will be running without a psyker and it mimics the effects of the Psyocculum, one of their better pieces of gear. Adamantium Will is cute, but most of the best powers are buffs and thus don't allow Deny anyways; moreover, the Malleus version is pretty much just better. Lastly, Master of Interrogation makes it so that no Infiltrators can set up within 24″ of the Inquisitor… but given that the radius is already 18″ and you have super-cheap Servo-Skulls, this may as well be blank. Basically, the lesson here is “don't bother taking an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor.”
Ordo Malleus gets Preferred Enemy (Daemons) for their first trait, which is fairly relevant seeing as how Daemons are doing quite well on the tournament scene these days. It will be very hit-or-miss based on the opposing army, but it at least has some relevance, even if it's not ideal. Incorruptible gives all Daemon units within 12″ of the character -1 to their invulnerable saves; this can REALLY mess up a Daemon list if you can keep him alive, and Screamerstar especially will find it painful if you can pull the trick off. But, like Preferred Enemy, most of the time it won't help you. Forbidden Lore, on the other hand, gives you a free Warp Charge every turn or the Adamantium Will rule if for some reason you're not a psyker- this one is pretty good, since it lets you pop off the Force Weapon when you need to. All in all, the Malleus traits are a bit specialized, but very good at what they do.
Now, Xenos Inquisitors, they get all the real goodies. Xeno Hunter gives you Preferred Enemy against all non-vehicle aliens; it doesn't count Chaos or Daemons, but everything else falls under its umbrella. This is extremely strong, since it's a bonus that should apply… well, in more games than not, really. Xenotech Collector is probably the weakest link, giving them a 6++ and +1Str/Rending on a single ranged weapon. If it worked on melee weapons it'd be golden, but most Inquisitors are lacking in ranged shooty, so it won't come up a lot. (Though the Conversion Beamer is a humorous exception.) Purity of Mankind is just straight-up Hatred for them and their whole unit, which is generally going to be pretty strong. With all three unique traits being at least useable and at best excellent, Xenos seems like the natural faction to default to.
Beyond the additions of the warlord table, Inquisitors also have access to a set of relics, much like other factions. Unlike others, none of their relics require giving up other wargear, so you're free to take any of them you want. The Liber Heresius is probably the best of them; it's a mere 15pts and lets you make a Leadership test once per turn to gain one full turn of use of a special rule (you have to pick a different rule each time.) Scout (used before the game), Hatred, Split Fire, Counter-Attack, and Fear are all available, but even just getting one of them on a critical turn can really change the tide of things. For the price, you're unlikely to do better.
The Tome of Vethric is similar, but distinct in a number of ways. It's slightly more expensive (20pts) and rather than giving a different rule each turn, it gives you one or more rules for the duration of the game based on what army or armies the opponent is using- Dark Eldar give Night Vision (pretty handy and fitting), Eldar give Split Fire (eh… could be worse), Orks give Counter-Attack (again, seems to mesh with what you need to beat them), Necrons give Tank Hunter (YESSSSSSSSSSSSS), Tau give Furious Charge (blech) and Tyranids give Monster Hunter (because you're damn well gonna need it.) With the exception of Tau, all of the bonuses are quite relevant and possibly even exceptional, so the Tome is a strong contender against the Liber. I think I would generally consider the Liber to be slightly superior, since you can rely better on it giving what you need/want, but I can see either getting the nod depending on circumstances.
They also get the Grimoire of True Names (because apparently Inquisitors are all about books), which gives -5 WS, I, and Ld to any daemon you fight in a challenge. This does at least give your poor, squishy little guy something resembling a chance at winning, against a lot of daemons you still are going to get your face squished in due to their having tremendously higher stats. At 5pts it could be pretty hilarious if it somehow worked, though.
Inquisitors have another oddity to file away with all of their other unusual characteristics- unlike other 6E books, they not only have access to fixed powers, they choose their powers (mostly) at army list creation. You have the same Hammerhand/Psychic Communion options, but these can be traded for a roll on the Divination chart; the important thing here is that this trade is part of your wargear selections (apparently), so you'll have to decide in advance what you're aiming for. Not that this will change anything most of the time, but it's certainly a strange little tidbit.
Henchmen Warbands also have two distinctions of note from their Grey Knights incarnations. Death Cult Assassins are now forced to take a pair of Power Swords (as of the update) rather than picking and choosing their power weapons and Banishers have been replaced entirely by Priests (from the Sisters of Battle codex.) As part of a Henchmen band, Priests are not Independent Characters but otherwise have the same options and abilities- and Zealot is a fantastic tool for upgrading your melee squad, not to even mention the possibility of rerolls to wound, rerolling armor and invulns (on a 3++ potentially!) or I guess using Smash.
They also have new dedicated transport options; the Chimera, Rhino, and Razorback are all still there (in their GK versions, natch, so Psybolt and Fortitude) but they also have access to all variants of Land Raiders as well as the Valkyrie (but not the Vendetta.) The Land Raider is notable here because it is allowed to take a Dozer Blade, something very few others are able to do- aside from that, they are like their standard versions and can pretty much be considered as such. The Chimera has finally gained the ability to take Psybolt, though the Valkyrie has not.
But What Does It All Mean?
Okay, that's all well and good. Some things are different, but mostly they are the same. How does that actually change anything? Well, let's look at some basic Inquisitor loadouts and see.
Ordo Xenos- Power Armor, 3 Servo-Skulls, Psyker (Divination), Force Sword, Rad Grenades, Liber Heresius (102pts)
For about the cost of a generic HQ from most factions, what we have is a mad utility machine. This particular version is geared to be part of a squad like an IG blob, but you could easily subtract the Rad Grenades/Liber and save 30pts for use elsewhere. As-is, however, he gives a unit Scout (and some other rules as needed), hands out a reroll to a unit every turn, chops things up reasonably well in melee (five WS4 I4 AP3 attacks on the charge), and can soak a reasonable amount of damage as long as it's not S6+ stuff. He does a little bit of everything, including making your blasts more accurate, Deep Strikes more reliable, and shutting down all of those tricksy enemy advance units that want to get close to you. Plus he's got a great warlord table to roll on.
Ordo Malleus- Terminator Armor, Daemonhammer, 3 Servo-Skulls, Psyker (Divination), Psycannon, Tome of Vethric- 129pts
A little more pricey, but a lot tougher and more shooty as well as punchy. 2+/5++ is about as good as you can get, though you still pop to S6 stuff, so be careful. A Daemonhammer will ruin the day of most things in melee, giving you some deterrence there, and a BS4 Psycannon rerolling misses is always good times. The Tome is your optional bit here- but Split Fire and Tank Hunters are both pretty good tricks and you can expect to see them come up often enough, not to mention shifting around to give them to whoever needs them most. This guy adds a lot more direct firepower to an army than the Xenos version, at the cost of not making his friends better to the same degree. But if you're just hanging out with a Tactical Squad or some Grey Hunters, you may find him rather invaluable.
Ordo Xenos- 3 Servo-Skulls- 34pts
Sometimes you just don't want to spend any points, and this guy is the ultimate budget master. As a Warlord he can easily hide off-board for most of the game or stand behind BLOS terrain and just deny your opponent a point while you throw some other character onto the front lines, and if you've got artillery pieces, Drop Pods, or anything else you want to come down in a specific locale, he can really brighten your day. Cheapness is its own virtue, after all.
Beyond even what I've mentioned here, you can get Combi-Weapons, S6 AP3 guns, Psychotroke Grenades, the Plasma Syphon, a Conversion Beamer, a Psyocculum or Null Rod, or even an Incinerator if that's what you really want. Inquisitors have a wealth of options to pick from, letting you spend as many or as few points on them as your list can handle. You also can take what is perhaps the most wonderful utility badass of all times, Inquisitor Coteaz, who brings cheap scoring units, rerolls on Seize, Deep Strike defense, and excellent psychic powers to the table. While his lack of Servo-Skulls is certainly not ideal, he simply shuts down so many avenues of play for your opponents with no recourse that he can hardly be considered insignificant. Oddly, Karamazov is present, but Valeria is missing (at least as far as a unit entry goes); no obvious explanation presents itself as to why.
The Perfect Combination of Invincible and Expendable
Henchmen are not required for an Inquisitorial detachment, nor do I think they will be standard to many lists, but they are certainly worth looking at; they let you bring in a strong melee unit, an extremely-cheap shooting unit, or a suicidal hunter of heavy targets, not to mention their excellent dedicated transport options. With Coteaz they can get you some incredibly-cheap scoring units, though no matter the iteration they will end up fairly fragile.
Warrior Acolytes are the bread-and-butter of the unit; they are cheap, have tons of options, and put no restrictions on what else the unit can do. Bolters (5pts per body) are a strong option, especially since the change to Rapid Fire benefits them so much, but Storm Bolters (7pts per body) are still entirely viable as well; both types like to be shooting out the top of a Chimera where possible. Melta/Plasmaguns, a bargain at 14pts per model total, offer you a way to deal with tougher targets without expending many points- BS3 is a limiter, but with three weapons per squad you can probably assure at least some of them go through. Even just generic Laspistol/CCW guys (4pts) can give you wounds to soak with, something that shouldn't be underestimated.
Servitors are another great shooting choice, coming in at 10pts base with a Servo-Arm that can be traded for a Heavy Bolter or Multimelta for free or a Plasma Cannon for 10pts. These prices are well below those that other books pay, and they come with 4+ armor as a bonus, so if you want some REALLY heavy firepower Servitors can do the trick. Both Plasma and Melta have their own advantages and firing out the top hatch of a Chimera is basically the only way to go (unless you buy a fortification or something.) Pairing them up with Acolytes is doable, though can get expensive quite quickly if you give everyone a special weapon; more commonly you'll just take some expendable guys to fill out a squad. However, Servitors require that an Inquisitor of some kind hang with them or they get all derpy and go silent half the time, so using them does limit your flexibility somewhat.
Death Cult Assassins and Crusaders can essentially put rolled together into one ball, since you'll almost always want both of them. DCA come with absurd combat stats (S4, WS5, I6, A3), though they lack grenades, Fleet, or some of the other niceties. Crusaders have a 3++ and that's basically good enough; between the two of them, you have a unit that is hard-hitting and tough to kill, and each body is only clocking in around the price of a general MEQ. However, Toughness 3 means that it's not hard to drag them down with Bolters and such, so be wary of where you disembark. Add in a single Priest is also generally going to be on the menu, though if you're trying to keep price down you could just run ~5 DCA and call it a day- that's 75pts that will blender just about anything it touches.
Psykers are worth noting just for the hilarity value- 10pts each buys you a large blast psychic power (albeit with Ld8 and BS3) that goes up in Str and down in AP (we can assume they will fix the typo there) for every additional one in the squad. With a full allotment of eight, you get a S10 AP1 blast that can be a real nightmare for anything it hits, although it is recommended that you slip at least one Acolyte into the squad because they have a tendency to roll Perils and have the whole unit vanish abruptly- and giving up First Blood or losing an objective because of one bad die roll is not terribly classy.
The other henchmen, while varying from acceptable to atrocious, generally can't compete with the above choices- Jokaero are amusing but too expensive, Arco-Flagellents are almost always worse than Death Cult, Daemonhosts just don't do anything all that well and can't be relied on, and Mystics are extremely specialized and thus only going to make it into some rare lists.
Final Thoughts
The Inquisition book is a rather weak release from GW in terms of actual content- though the fluff sections did have some interesting bits there- but its Special Unique Snowflake exceptions to the normal rules mean it is of exceptional significance for the tournament audience. If you play in a tournament, expect to see Inquisitors worming their way into a ton of armies and making things difficult in a variety of ways. Anything with Scout or Infiltrate has lost a lot of its ability to get out of the deployment zone thanks to Servo-Skulls and many weapons will be more accurate than ever thanks to omnipresence use of Divination. While it doesn't outright invalidate any archetypes, certainly it puts more than a little bit of a damper on many of them, so we shall have to see what this means for the meta as a whole from here on out.