Hello gamers and welcome back to Games Knight where we kick
of 2014 with a review of Codex: Inquisition by GW from the 40k universe. Before
we head into the review though, let’s take a moment to address what has been
going on at GW in January. Not a great start for GW as stock prices dropped by
24% leading many fans, and not so fans, to start predicting the end is nigh for
GW. I agree and disagree with this statement. I think it is the start of the
decline for GW that much is clear. Many gamers have simply had enough of GW’s
ever rising price lists and also the lack of imagination and lack of
development with their existing flag ship products. Although 2014 will herald a
new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and the new Dwarf miniatures do look
stunning, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. With the decision last year by
GW to kill off their specialist games like Necromunda, Battle Fleet Gothic and
Inquisitor, that leaves 40K, WFB and LOR as the 3 games GW have in their arsenal.
These are great games on their own but, again, nothing new for fans to get too
excited about. Rumour control has been running wild this past month and one of
the rumours I find interesting is GW to take on a concept of making the games ‘living
editions’ doing away with new edition releases. If GW were to do this would that
mean the end of new box sets or would we get them more regular with updated rules
books with new FAQ’s?
Despite all this and, as I say, I do think GW are on the decline
now, this is a decline we won’t see come to a head for another good 4-5 years.
Love GW or hate them, they are still leaps and bounds ahead of other games companies
such as Mantic Games and Privateer Press. It is a gulf that is shrinking year
by year and I personally predict Mantic Games will be the next GW but it is a long
way off yet. Another GW change this year has seen their monthly magazine
publication White Dwarf switch to a weekly release and a new monthly magazine
entitled Warhammer Visions. For me White Dwarf magazine was at its zenith in
the 90’s and I have brought it on and off since and stopped buying it the last
few months. The only reason I can see them doing this would to be tie in with the
‘living edition’ formats as this would herald weekly releases as opposed to
monthly. Remember to take this with giant salt rocks, just my opinion.
Anyway, without further ado here is this week’s review –
CODEX: INQUISITION 6TH EDITION
First things first with this release it is digital only
which I will be honest I am not a fan of at all. I am not opposed to their being
a digital option of a product but take serious exception to products being
digital only. I was very surprised that GW decided to make this release digital
only with the Inquisition being a firm fan favourite amongst ardent Imperium
players. I am confident a physical Codex would have sold very well but GW seems
to favour digital products more and more at present. There is plenty of fluff
on the history and origins of the Inquisition but this is all pretty much a
copy and paste from previous Daemon Hunters / Grey Knight codex releases
although there is background on some different Ordos not previously mentioned
in the Ordo Chronos, Ordo Scriptorum, Ordo Machinum & Ordo Sicarius.
Presentation wise it is good but again I feel making this a
digital only release has diminished the sheer brilliance of the work art
displayed in the Codex. Artwork always looks better on paper, period. The
anatomy of the Codex is easy enough to follow with it being familiar to recent
codex releases for 6th edition. I was very pleased to see the Inquisitorial
warbands left the same as they are listed in the current Grey Knights codex
along with Coteaz retaining his ‘I’ve been expecting you’ and ‘Lord of Formosa’
special rules. This now leads us to the very cool thing about this Codex…. At last
40k fans can without hindrance or restrictions field an Inquisitorial army. It
has been possible before but in a very painstaking way, this Codex makes it a lot easier and also allows you to add and
Inquisitor and his retinue to your existing army, even if not an Imperium based
force!
INCLUDING INQUISITORS IN YOUR ARMY
When you choose an army, Inquisitors may be taken as a
primary detachment or as a
special form of allied detachment known as an Inquisitorial
detachment.
If you take Inquisitors as a primary detachment, use the
Inquisitorial detachment Force
Organisation chart instead of the primary detachment Force
Organisation chart.
Alternatively, an army may include an Inquisitorial
detachment in addition to any other
detachments. Other detachments, such as allied detachments,
additional primary
detachments and fortifications can be taken normally. So,
for example, you could field an
army with an Imperial Guard primary detachment, an allied
detachment of Space
Marines, and an Inquisitorial detachment.
The Inquisitorial detachment Force Organisation chart has
boxes corresponding to
different battlefield roles. Each black box is a choice you
must take in order to include
this detachment as part of your army, whilst each grey box
is a unit you can include as
part of this detachment.
If you take the Inquisitorial detachment as your primary
detachment, then
Inquisitorial Henchmen Warbands are scoring units.
ORDO GAMES KNIGHT
Despite hating the fact this is a digital only product I
will give this product a 4 out of 5 rating as GW finally give the fans a
product they really want. Fans of the Inquisition, like me, have wanted this
for a long time and here it is. I think this gives a lot of scope to Narrative
driven 40k campaigns and kit-bashing projects to make up your own Inquisitor
and retinues. It certainly inspired me to do so and I will show what I came up
with next week here on Games Knight.
That’s going to do it for this week, have fun with whatever
hobby projects you delving into and if you feel like sharing any opinions then
get in touch – contactgamesknight@gmail.com
