The Inquisitor Grand Tournament 2016

Saturday the 9^th of April saw a gathering of Inquisitor-playing enthusiasts descend on Warhammer World in Nottingham. An entirely unofficial, non-GW affiliated event nowadays, the tournament has been run by a selfless volunteer. I've had a turn before, but this year it was Conclave user Cortez who took the reigns and did a great job with planning the event, as well as time- and score-keeping on the day. Thanks must also go to Marco Skoll for booking the tables, creating a poster to advertise Inquisitor to passers-by and for printing off more leaflets for those interested in the game.

Displaying huge 54mm scale vehicles always draws people in!

The day was split into three game rounds, where participants are expected to run a scenario of their own creation, and take their characters into the thick of things in 2 games run by another participant. Scores are awarded for creativity and running a tight ship by players for the GM, while they score how well a player stayed in character and helped towards creating a fun story in the game. A painting and modelling round where participants judge the work of their peers is also included in the final tally. Lastly, the fiendishly tricky Inquisition quiz tests a participant's knowledge of 41^st millennium lore and is used as a tie-breaker.

Commissars attempt to unravel the secrets of my scenario...

I had the honour of running one of the first round games. The Tzeentchian von Ravensburg siblings of Cortez and the errant Commissars of Greenstuff_Gav descended on the Hall of the Cryptologists tasked with having an encrypted message decoded by the titular Cryptologists. Highlights of the game included Daniel von Ravensburg briefly becoming possessed by his daemon weapon, Isabella von Ravensburg using sorcerous powers to run through walls, and the Commissork (you read that right) Gitsnik shouting “anyone that is a 'eretic throw down ya weapons!” The game was played on the Zone Mortalis table, which was great for forcing characters into narrow alleys in search of the Cryptologists. Although the admittedly gorgeous Forgeworld scenery is out of my price range, I do fancy trying to put something similar together myself.

The Alpha Legion are now a confirmed presence in the Carthax Sector.

In the second round I used my Alpha Legionnaire, Constantin Jágr as my PC (with the GM's permission I should add). Tasked with preventing the radical Red King under Lord Borak's control from getting secrets from a contact by GM Cortez, Jágr took it upon himself to kidnap the contact. Unfortunately, McJomar's Mondominant Mordecai had the contact under armed guard, and extraction via Valkyrie was moments away. Using blind grenades and duplicity, Jagr managed to isolate the contact and convince one of her guards to hold off the Oblationist enemy. Highlights from this game included Jágr shrugging off a krak grenade, Mordecai using his flaming power fist to swat away Pyonidas in revenge for setting him on fire, and Violet and Verena unsuccessfully playing hot potato with a krak grenade.

The Blood God demands his worshippers massacre all those that oppose him. 

In the third round Lord Borak requested I take my alternate warband, led by the Khornate pirate Ergun Malloch in search of a lost minion. Unfortunately, said minion had some sort of head injury and now led a band of Redemptionists! Malloch was tasked with extracting him, but once the heads started rolling and the daemonhost Sacarlax spilled blood in anger, only death would do for the traitor! While I failed in my objective, and Marco Skoll succeeded in his by shoving a krak grenade down the target's throat, all the bloodshed surely pleased Malloch's patron. This game was most memorable for the number of injuries to left arms suffered by NPC goon and PC alike. Biceps for the bicep throne!

Bony appendages make for deadly weapons, as lots of Redemptionists found out!

The final scores were soon tallied, and amazingly I took home the Best GM and overall winner awards. Cortez was the Best Player and third overall, while Lord Borak was the Best Hobbiest and second place. Personally, this was a great end to a great day. Inquisitor gaming is alive and kicking! Thanks to everyone who made it along and turned it into fantastic day.

More pictures will appear on the Facebook page.

The Carthaxian Inquisitor 

The Xanthite Sourcebook

Ladies and Gents, I'd like to present version 1.0 of the Xanthite Sourcebook.

This has been a project that has been ongoing for at least 4 years following the release of the Amalathian Sourcebook, and had its inception some time before that during discussions with Conclave user Dosdamt (Slaanesh_Ben in earlier incarnations of the forum).  It's been held up quite a bit due to a determination of mine to have new miniatures built for illustrating it, and because of that passion-killing feeling big projects have from time to time.

The book gives a history of Zaranchek Xanthus, and the founding of the faction. Details of the faction's related philosophies are given, so too its place within the Ordos and its interaction with the other major factions. Some of the forces of Chaos that Xanthites of the Carthax Sector may come up against are presented within the book. 4 characters with links to the philosophy of Xanthus are biographied next. Lastly, a large section on Xanthites on the table top includes rules for daemonhost and daemon weapon creation.

I am presenting this as version 1.0 as there are no doubt a bunch of mistakes in there that will need edited. Once I am happy they have been corrected I'll be releasing an updated version to the internet at large.

I would love some feedback, and correction of all my errors!

Thanks

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

Go the Facebook page, or Twitter, for more discussion!

LINK: https://www.mediafire.com/?rbe1g6zc9m20ze8

Rare Miniatures For a Niche Game

Inquisitor was always a niche game, with a limited number of miniatures that were not all available between the game's release and Specialist Games' demise a couple of years ago. The initial line of models released to coincide with the rulebook became available in 2001, with a number of additional models, and conversion kits for the original line released over 3 years until the demise of print support for Fanatic Magazine. As I recall, the Callidus Assassin and the Thorian Inquisitor were the last miniatures released, both coinciding with the Thorian Sourcebook (writing this, I have realised just how short a shelf life Inquisitor had, and it's quite incredible really that its short run managed to capture and sustain the imaginations of so many players). The availability of the miniatures dwindled over the years, as moulds failed and the components, or “bitz” catalogue was discontinued, until the plug was pulled on all the Specialist Games miniature ranges in 2013. Ebay and other trading sites are the only place to get models now, and the number of untouched kits is falling.

Even amongst this small window of opportunity, there were a number of kits that didn't make it through to 2013. There were a couple of reorganisations of Games Workshop's online store that saw models like the Unbound Daemonhost, the Purestrain Genestealer, and the Bodyguard disappear from the range. Kal Jerico famously became unavailable as it turned out GW didn't have the rights to sell the model as his image belonged to the artist of the comics. The mould for the Vindicare assassin died, but not before a number of very poor quality casts were sold. These models, and a few others like Inquisitor Scarn will fetch a high price on Ebay because comparatively very few were actually sold when they were available for purchase.

A converted Unbound Daemonhost

Amongst all these scarce models there are a couple that are like gold dust. The Imperial citizens were four miniatures released during the Fanatic Magazine run, as an attempt to populate the 41^st millennium with characters that had no place on the battlefield and would lend some authenticity to Inquisitor games in the deep and dark places of the Imperium. NPCs were in short supply and these four provided a welder, dock worker, rat catcher and messenger boy to litter the scenarios of eager GMs. Sculpted by Bob Naismith, they were nowhere near the prettiest and well-executed models of the range, but they had an ugly charm quite unlike the noble and dashing Inquisitors that would have to work around them in-game. The release window for these models was probably around 6 months or so, and therefore they sold in small numbers. The welder and dock worker were bundled together, and are occasionally seen online and in the wild; the rat catcher and messenger boy however are the rarest of all Inquisitor miniatures.

My Armageddon Ork Hunter with rat-catching bionic arm.

Chance would have it, I acquired all four in a big Ebay job lot in about 2004, long before it became obvious that the rat catcher and messenger boy simply weren't leaving GW's warehouse even when specifically ordered, as happened to an acquaintance of mine. At the time I split the lot with a friend, and he took the body of the rat catcher and head of the welder for a model of his own, which I don't believe I ever saw. I had the rat catcher's rather fantastic bionic arm which went on my Armageddon Ork Hunter, and the rat catching pole, which went on a mutant. The chest from the welder went on an arcoflagellant, and the legs on a scrap-armoured desperado. The docker never got painted and lies somewhere in a bits box. Which brings me to the messenger boy.

The rarest of the rare?

I slightly converted him with an auspex, some gubbins and Eisenhorn's scroll cases, and named him David Burrell, an archeotech prospector in service of Inquisitor Goddard. He was a mainstay of his war band, and despite his incredibly average stats, infamously blew the head clean off a cultist in the Dark Magenta battle reports of years past.

For years I have been on the lookout for another messenger boy model, as aside from David the only other pictures I saw of one were in the original Fanatic Magazine article. Does anyone else have one? Is he truly the only one ever sold to the public by GW? I'd love to know if anyone else has one.

The Carthaxian Inquisitor

Each GW Inquisitor sculpt can be seen at: http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Inquisitor_54mm#Citizens