Thursday, July 18, 2013

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisition

By now most of you have probably read the rumor that Games Workshop is going to have an Inquisitor game for its now obligatory "Fall Mystery Box", instead of the long expected four team BloodBowl box.  If you have not, here is the rumor:

TastyTaste says:
Inquisition is designed for 2-4 players and each side will use custom cards and dice. Army sizes consist of about 5-10 models per side. A whole new set of models drawn from Blanche artwork will accompany. The game should be flexible as you can make and design your own Inquisitorial retinue. As for rules complexity that is anyone's guess, but the general marketing goal for Inquisition is a gateway game into the greater Warhammer 40k universe.
Beyond that GW, seems to be taking cues from Kickstarter projects like Sedition Wars and home-brewed rules like Inq28 for Inquisitor. This also might not end up as a limited edition run, but that all depends on sales, and if any support is continued will be done through digital expansions and updates.
As it is that is all I have for now, but if my sources hold true expect more information as it comes!

There are some supporting murmurs, TastyTaste is semi-reputable as a rumor monger, and of course some of the Ammobunker crew have been playing Inq28 and similar games with Blanche for a while now, and Blanchistu has featured pretty much only custom war bands... so it could be true.

I was thinking about how this game might work last night when I was supposed to be sleeping, and came up with the following wish list/guess:

£60/$100 box with ~30 figures.  Something like 4 Inquisitors, 8 retinue figures, 8 cultists, 8 guards, one main bad guy, two objective pieces.  Inquisitors would be multi-part pushfit, and one would be in power armor, one female. Retinue figures would be archetypes like The Penitent, The Arbiter, the Veteran, the Interrogator, the Daemon, the Fanatic, the Sage, the Mystic, The Harlequin, etc.  Cultists would be similar to those in the 6th edition box, but with lasguns, and with more bionics, and would have one special weapon, and one leader. Guards would be something more generic, but otherwise like the cultists, maybe with cyberhounds.  Most of the non-inquisitors would be monopose  two part pushfit, except the main bad guy, and if there is one, some sort of hulking beast.

Another sprue of terrain, which is sort of down-hive versions of the cities of death stuff, made similar to the buildings that came with the LotR boxes, i.e. thin walled, but detailed on both sides. Expect mostly ruined corners, like most terrain for 40k.

Game play as basic Necromunda/Mordheim, but with all character stats on large cards.  Stats as per current Warhammer 40k, but with movement and willpower.  Wargear and one shot weapons on wargear cards that attach to the character cards [grenades, refractor fields, Emperor's tears, etc.]. More cards for terrain effects/defenses, psyker powers, wound effects. Dice in the usual amount, and jam dice for multi-shot guns (Someone at GW clearly loves second edition lately).  Inquisitor/Retinue experience is limited to some sort of skill upgrade cards [inquisitors pick, and retinue gets them randomly].

To allow for 2-4 players, rules allow for the cultists/guards to be controlled by either a player as a side, or like sea monsters in Dreadfleet (controlled by alternating players)

Two books in the box, one of rules, one of missions and character backgrounds.  Blanche art throughout, but box cover is painted by someone else.

Features in one issue of White Dwarf, mentioned in a second.  If they ever do expansions, it would be a sprue of  one Inquisitor with two new retinue figures, and accompanying cards.

Yeah... I would buy that, and I suspect a lot of you would too.

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