Welcome back to the company, brothers! Ashes of faith introduces us to two brand new kill teams! This expansion pits the heretic cultist against a retinue of the Inquisition. So, come brothers… let me examine your sins and let us investigate those lost ones of the emperor’s light. In this review we’ll discuss the new team, talk about rules, and try to understand what secrets they are hiding. Many thanks to Games Workshop for providing an advanced copy of Ashes of Faith for review purposes.
Inquisition Kill teams
The Inquisition finally arrives in Kill team! With a brand new set of operatives and a lot of options thanks to their ancillary support they are ready to discover and purge all the enemies of the Imperium. They can pick from ANY tac-op archetype which is huge for them giving them more flexibility.
In terms of construction, the inquisition Kill team brings 12 models (with 2 servitors) if you want to play a full inquisition team.For more spice you can mix 6 members of the inquisition with the ancillary support. You can pick from 5 Sister of silence, 5 Scions, 5 Arbites, 5 Karskin or 6 Navy or 6 veterans to complete your kill team. Your Inquisitorial Mandate allows you to have 30 models on a roster, granting deeper customization on operative selection!
Abilities
INQUISITORIAL MANDATE
As an inquisitor you can ask help from 6 specific Imperial Killteams (Not you, novitiates), and your roster can get up to 30 models (In practice this means that you can carry all inquisition models and 3 support teams.)
The Operatives
Generally speaking, you will get the interrogator with book-bot, and five more operatives from the inquisition… then you will add some of the support troops to help adapt to any matchup or mission you will face. The inquisition team comes with 6 movement, 5+ armor saves and 2APL.
Interrogator and Tome-Skull:
Probably one of the worst leaders in the game in terms of stats, armed with a laspistol and fists, he is not going to be the beatstick that does the most damage. However he has two very interesting auras. First up, he has an aura of Denunciation of 2″ in which any shot that is made to that operative is made with an extra attack, on the other hand he can Sanctify allies (and himself) making that any attack made to allies at 2″ makes the enemy shoot or fight with one less die. In addition, he must choose a skill that will be activated, the other one will be activated by the book and if he is 1″ away from the book he can exchange skills, which makes them a very interesting combo.
Autosavant Agent
Another operative with little attack potential, but with interesting abilities. He can passively generate a CP passively if the enemy uses a ploy (that isn’t tactical Reroll). An interesting but exceptionally situational operative.
Questkeeper Agent:
Finally, a decent combat operative, equipped with an eviscerator. Hitting at 4+ with 5/6 damage is a power to be reckoned with, also thanks to Zealot it has the classic 5+fnp. This team lacks rerolls, so the unrelenting ability comes in clutch. If this operative is attacking it gains “balanced”. Even after being incapacitated it is still useful, since it is able to strike on death with one of its available dice.
Death world veteran:
Ahh finally Catachan in KT, but maybe not the way we want. Equipped with a polearm (4A 3+ 4/5 reap 2) and a knife to finish off enemies (1A 2+ 5/7 lethal 5+). This operative is great for fighting and charging, as he can do it in conceal. Weathered means this operative has a “Just a Scratch” in combat – which changes the tempo of combat. This operative is able to kill others without taking damage back!
Enlightener Agent:
Equipped with an autopistol and a pair of knives, this operative has 4a 3+ 3/5. He can prevent a Fall Back with a die roll. The cripple ability means that when making critical hits he will leave the enemy model wounded – ignoring any rule that says he cannot be! This is very especially especially against elites.
Gun servitor
BIG GUNS ARE HERE! Equipped with upgraded weapons, he has the ability to carry a heavy bolter with ceaseless, a plasma gun with blast 2”(!!!!) or a melta without range restrictions. All three ranged options are heavy – plus he has a claw with 4/5 damage which makes him an operative who can finish off wounded operatives.
On the other hand he is a lobotomized operative and will need to have another operative within 3″ to be able to have 2Apl at the beginning of his activation
Hexorcist Agent:
Equipped with a shotgun, this fervent servant has the ability to Hexorcise enemies making them unable to reroll at 6″. Meanwhile Chasten for 1AP can stop an opposing operative withing 6 from having a unique ability until the end of the enemy operative’s activation.
Mystic Agent
A super interesting operative, he is an icon bearer that has two abilities which greatly improve the offensive or defensive capacity of another operative. An operative that should always be in our KT, because it gives us security when fighting or defending ourselves.
Penal Legionary agent:
Another interesting operative (especially in ITD), equipped with a handflamer and a chainsword. Thanks to his Chem-mask he does not suffer penalties to modifiers. Even better, this operative is Cruel and gains relentless against operatives who have lost at least 1 wound.
Pistolier agent:
The desperado, armed with a scoped plasma pistol. They can shoot at long range with a “krak” profile on 4+s or go to 6″ and shoot as a normal plasma pistol with 3+s. Additionally armed with a suppressed autopistol that has the Silent keyword. As a gunman he can always shoot without penalties and thanks to pistol barrage. For 1ap, he can shoot with his normal pistol and his silenced pistol in the same action.
The Ploys
Denounce:
Once per battle you can delay an enemy activation. You can only use this once, but on any operative. A great tool for this kill team.
Intense Scrutiny:
At 4″ operatives are considered as having an Engage order, instead of 2”. I don’t think you have enough long range weapons to use it, but it can be useful against full combat teams.
Quarry:
A bouncing reroll on a team that does not have access to it? Yes please! If you are able to eliminate the operative you designate as a quarry, you can choose another operative to be quarried. It’s going to be tricky to plan who to put it on, but in the right hands… it will differentiate the good players from the bad.
Irrefutable Jurisdiction:
With this ploy you choose a target, and on it you can reroll one of your dice in defense. It is not a great ploy since you have a 5+SV but it can help against some shooting hordes.
Embedded Agent:
This tactical ploy allows you to have an extra scouting OR allows you to play your scouting after you see what the enemy has played and therefore gain the initiative. Pretty nice but maybe not worth the CP, but still a nice to have, specially for preventing alpha strike moves.
Absolute Authority:
Well, WELL WELL here we have the real winner of all ploys. When your opponent plays a ploy you look him in the eye and say Nope. Just a Scr..Nope! and just like that, he will hate you, he gets his CP back but he can’t play that ploy this turn.
Relentless in pursuit:
This ploy allows you to perform a free action if an enemy falls back from you, this can be very useful but it is of course very circumstantial.
The Emperor’s Will:
Another very circumstantial tactical, that allows an operative to ignore all negative modifiers. This can be decisive for specific moments.
Equipment
A lot of classic equipment, the olde Krak/Frag/Stun grenade, but ALSO Smoke(And this is huge), they also have access to some Inquisition only equipment (Not for the ancillary support), they can get a power knife (with 3A 4+ ⅗ lethal 5+), a +1dmg for the autopistols, a servo-skull for easy mission actions, a refractor field+ for a 4+ invuln (Really tasty on your servitor) and an armored bodysuit(A worse improvement to your armor than the carapace one).
Tac Ops:
As usual 3 tac-ops at our disposal:
Seize for Interrogation:
Seems very affordable, as it only asks to defeat an enemy operative within 3″ of his allied operatives – then collect a token. If we control that token we gain 1vp if an operative carries it the 2nd.
No Witnesses:
You have to kill all the enemy team for 2vp. A very fluffy and very hilarious for a competitive player. Best mission ever.
Investigate Lead:
You will have to investigate 2 objective markers with an operative for 1Vp, and to protect that allied operative until the end of the battle for the second one.
How They’ll Play
This faction will play completely differently depending on who pilots it.
The choice of operatives fundamentally determines how it will be played. Do you want to contain melee operatives? Play arbites. Do you want more combat damage and psychic cancellation? There you have the sisters. You want special weapons? Karskin. You want bodies and wonderful specialists? Navy. If you want bodies and one of the best demolitions in the game, you have the old old guard. It’s going to be very interesting to see the different players develop different play styles and knowing how to adapt to each faction, mission is going to require a good understanding of the game (also to know which ploy to deny) to bring it to its maximum expression.
Final Thoughts
This is going to be my next main faction, so beware! I’m really excited about it! I think they are going to be an excellent choice for players who want to invest a lot of time in mastering it and a very fun faction to play in any type of environment. Be prepared as the inquisition has arrived, and there is no one who can stop them. Got any suggestions for which operatives to run alongside the inquisition? Any questions about the new team? Drop us a line at Contact@Goonhammer.com.
