Codex: Imperial Agents contains thematic Detachments that give your army special rules to reflect the unique ways many forces in the 41st Millennium fight. While every Inquisitor has their own particular ways of purging aliens, mutants, or heretics, the skills taught by their Ordos give them all some commonality, and the three most important – the Ordo Xenos, the Ordo Hereticus, and the Ordo Malleus – make up three of the four Detachments in the book.
The Ordo Xenos Alien Hunters Detachment makes plentiful use of the elite Deathwatch and their famously flexible fighting styles, switching between Mission Tactics to impart powerful bonuses like Precision, Sustained Hits, and Lethal Hits on their attacks when the perfect moment arises. The Ordo Hereticus Purgation Force prefers the purifying flame to root out cowardly foes, giving their ranged weapons Ignores Cover and becoming especially powerful when targeting hordes of Chaos troops.
The Ordo Malleus excel at rooting out daemons, so units from the Daemon Hunters Detachment reroll Hit rolls of 1, extending to rerolling Wound rolls of 1 against Daemons. They each have their own Enhancements and Stratagems, tailored to their unique fighting styles and the strengths of their Deathwatch, Adepta Sororitas, and Grey Knights allies.
The fourth Detachment is a little different. The Imperialis Fleet Detachment looks to the stars for the enigmatic Rogue Traders, whose unique skills and boundless assets can be requisitioned by Inquisitors whose investigations take them between multiple worlds.
This Detachment provides a flexible set of rules that use Voidfarer units like the Rogue Trader Entourage and Navy Breachers while still supporting every other unit in the Codex. The Detachment rule At All Costs rewards careful focus, either maximising firepower against dangerous enemies with Eliminate At All Costs or rendering troops defending a key objective immensely hard to shift with Acquire At All Costs.
Voidfarers use their expertise in orbital deployment to unexpectedly insert dangerous units deep into enemy territory. Characters equipped with the Combat Landers Enhancement can grant three Voidfarer units Deep Strike and drop them right into the action, but if you need to sneak other Agents of the Imperium around, such as Vigilant Squads or Assassins, the Masters of the Void Stratagem has you covered.
Once the shooting starts, you’ll need to get the job done, which can be a little tricky with lasguns and shotguns. Violent Acquisition provides a much-needed boost in firepower, and if you’re worried about burning through your Command Points too quickly, Fleetmaster lets you dip into this powerful toolkit for free.
Heed the call of the Inquisitorial Rosette when Codex: Imperial Agents goes up for pre-order this weekend.