Grand Inquisitorial Retinue - Death Cult Assassins (The Sisters of Slaughter)

One of the big units in my army is 9 Death Cult Assassins backed by a Ministorum Priest and my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in terminator armour (more on him in a later post), all hopping out of a land raider.

These girls rock.

The fact they all have power swords and attack at initiative 6 with a weapon skill of 5 and strength of 4 makes them something to be feared even by Terminators. The priest praising hymns to the emperor makes them even more deadly. I could go on what makes these girls so awesome on the tabletop.

So I was able to build 9 of them from some bits I ordered. I think they turned out great. I followed pretty much the same formula for the first 2 I made in a previous post.

Grand Inquisitorial Retinue - Crusaders

Next members of my retinue are the Crusaders.

Crusaders are elites of a secret ecclesiarchal order called the Cardinals Crimson. They are a rare few who wield Storm Shields outside of the Space Marine Terminators. Their role is protection, and they will be protecting one of my Inquisitors. Which one that will be is up to playtesting.

You may recognize the one on the right as being Hagar the Devout. The one of the left is new. Thaddeus the Pure uses about the same parts as Hagar, with the exception to the new cloak. I was particularly proud of the way this one flows around his torso. It is from the Cadre Fireblade plastic kit. The sword is also a standard power sword from the Tempestus Scions kit. It's too late for me to keep Hagar as wysiwyg, but I can at least do it for Thaddeus.

Grand Inquisitorial Retinue - Servitors w/ Plasma Cannons

As I said in a previous post, I plan on making a full Inquisition army. That's 1850 points using 2 Inquisitorial detachments. I think the inquisition army has a lot of strengths, but it would also have a lot of weaknesses. It is true that when reading through the codex, it doesn't seem 'complete', and whatever it is lacking is meant to be filled in with allies, or a main army it's allying with.

My goal with this army is to take it to a grand tournament, and prove they can hold their own... pretty well. This series of posts will outline the different units in my Grand Inquisitorial Army, and my progress for the upcoming tournament, as well as playtesting results.

First are 3 servitors with plasma cannons.

These 3 servitors are cheap for what they bring, but when not grouped with an Inquisitor they have a chance of succumbing to mindlock and freezing the entire unit. But for 20 pts each, they pack quite a punch, toting a plasma cannon, instead of just the regular infantry plasma gun.

The conversion was inspired by something similar I saw on the internet. The legs are made from the Sentinel kit's chainsaw arm. The plasma cannon is from the Leman Russ tank kits. The camera top is a battlesuit target lock. The back unit is from Grey Knights, and the side cabling is from Tempestus Scion cables used for the hot-shot lasguns.

Commander Truestrike's Fi'rios Expedition Cadre (Part 2)

(Part 1 here)

These are my XV88 Broadside conversions. I don't like the 'missile fist' look, and love the giant rail rifle holding stance, so I found online someone who was able to make them work together. Good thing is this is magnetized so I can choose to give it the twin-linked heavy rail rifles instead just by pulling off the missile pod and sticking the rifle barrels on. These guys pulled in a really nice kill number for my games and were the basis of my gun-line.

You've seen these before in my previous post. Not much said about them other than the fact that I loved how well they performed. Do not underestimate their basic Burst Cannons configuration.

The riptide conversion and posing I am particularly proud of. Under its feet is an old Imperial Guard Sentinel kit I had and bashed it up to look like it was vanquished by the battlesuit. My frined, Timo, is a Guard player and so this was an homage to our many battles together.

The final part of my army is are my Lizard Kroot. Their job, like the Fire Warriors, was objective camping. Despite being pretty weak, they are cheap and can hold that role well in a pinch, but they are cheap and don't expect a lot of durability from them. The conversion is pretty much a combination of Lizardmen Skinks and Kroot. I think they turned out very well.

This is me (on the left) in one of our games. My first win in the tournament against an Ultramarine player. Boards like these were common and every single one was unique and had different rules on them.

I had an excellent time and I do plan on going back next year. This time I will be bringing an all Inquisition army. A chellenge to say the least, but I am passionate about it.

Commander Truestrike's Fi'rios Expedition Cadre (Part 1)

In October I took my Tau army to the Harvester of Souls in Spokane Valley Washington. It was a ton of fun. The game store there is amazing with a dedicated Warhammer room, decked out with wall paintings dedicated to the grimdark future. If you ever find yourself near Spokane Valley, I recommend you give the Gamer's Haven a visit.

That's me, in the red.

Overall I took 9th place out of 36. I only won 2 out of my 5 games I played, but a good portion of your score goes toward the painting, presentation, sportsmanship, and people voting favorite opponents and favorite armies. I loved this format because it encouraged good sportsmanship over minmaxing a game and being a rules lawyer. Even with those 3 losses, all of my opponents were good sportsmen and a blast to play with. Fortunately I didn't see any of the ugly side of a tournament scene most people complain about.

About my army:

My Tau were Truestrike's Fi'rios Expedition Cadre. Commander Truestrike (Shas'o Fi'rios Kono're) is my own character that I love to forge a story with for every game, and this is the 1850 point single Combined Arms Detachment he took with him to the Harvester of Souls.

We had to submit our armies on a display board for overall appearance, and while I like tradittional sand, I went with a not so traditional color. I have an obsession with Mars, so I did go for a red martian sands basing. Overall I think it turned out well. The entire appearance as a whole just popped.

This is Commander Truestrike. Here he is attached to a unit of 3 Crisis suits all with missile pods (Those little rail rifle things are counts-as missile pods). He is a buff build, so he does no shooting. Just gives plenty of awesome bonuses to whoever he is attached to, like twin-linked everything and ignores cover. In his right arm is a counts-as Onager Gauntlet, but I made it from some stolen Necron tech from a previous story campaign.

These are 2 6-man fire warrior squads. Their job was objective camping and a way to bring in 2 Devilfish trooper carriers, both of which proved to be excellent objective takers and defense themselves. The shield wall was my counts-as Aegis Defense Line and Comms Relay.

This is my Fusion Blaster squad. Their entire role was for tank hunting. Depending on the type of enemy, I would either attach my Commander to these guys or my missile pod guys. If I was facing a lot of tanks and heavy armor, my Commander would be attached here when they dropped in. If I was facing a horde army or a lot of light vehicles, then my Commander would be where he was pictured. It worked out pretty well for a lot of situations.

More on next post.