I’ve finally managed to make some progress with my first actual Inquisitorial retinue. May I present Inquisitor Kraller of the Ordo Xenos and her Inquisitorial Sturmtruppen:
The Inquisitor is based on GW’s Inquisitor Greyfax with a Statuesque head and a weapon swap to give her a Tau Pulse Blaster (and crikey, isn't she tall!). The original plan had been to use the GW Tempestus Scion models for the Sturmtruppen, but I wanted to add stocks to their weapons (stockless rifles look a bit daft to my eyes). However, with the way the arms are posed, it turned out my artistic inspiration was writing checks my hobby skills couldn’t cash. Whilst faffing around trying (and failing) to make this work to a standard I was happy with, I had a flash of inspiration that Anvil’s Regiments range might help. I was initially only looking at the armoured arms, but a test fit with some arms I did have showed they wouldn’t fit over the bulky Scion chest plates. This prompted a bit of a rethink and I ultimately ended up using the Medium Armoured torsos, Armoured legs & arms, Heavy Angular Shoulder Pads and various accessories. The only bits of the original Scion kit that survived were the heads and hot shot weapons.
Here’s the (quite extensive, as it turns out) fluff for them:
Inquisitor KrallerManuela ‘Manu’ Kraller is an Inquisitor within the Ordo Xenos. As committed to protecting humanity from the xenos threat as the next woman, she doesn’t interpret that as implying all xenos must therefore be purged at the barrel of a gun. She is more than willing to make use of xenos technology (especially of the high-powered weaponry variety) where it is demonstrably better than its Imperial analogue; whilst this alone would raise eyebrows in certain circles, it is her choice of employee in her retinue that places her firmly within the more radical wing of the organisation. She not only consorts with xenos, but actually invites them into her confidence and incorporates them into her retinue. Although there are many that would disagree with her (to wit, she has charges of heresy pending against her in several sectors), she reasons that where deals can be made, and mutual interests coincide, then her unconventional companions can play their part in protecting humanity.
As with many Inquisitors of all stripes, she takes a somewhat broad interpretation of her remit to protect humanity. Over the years fighting the xenos threat in the shadows, she has observed that in practical terms, the more mundane abuse of authority and misfeasance by those in positions of power and responsibility often poses a far more immediate threat to the average Imperial citizen than the more distant xenos menace. To this end, she will often broaden her investigations (and resultant sanctions) to take in the more egregious examples of corrupt and despotic Imperial governance.*
A very flamboyant woman, Manu sports a highly distinctive suit of pink power armour with stylised boob plate and 7” stiletto heels. The latter add to her already imposing height and, due to the gyro-stabilisation of her armour, infer none of the impaired mobility more traditionally associated with such footwear. The boob plate is purely cosmetic, being soft composite shaping over a sensible (flat) armoured chest plate. Since she took a Tau Earth Caste engineer into her employ, she has gained access to a small pool of Tau weaponry, of which her favourite is a Pulse Blaster (if you favour the close-range fight, who wouldn’t want a plasma shotgun?). The weapons required modification for human physiology and, to compensate for less efficient human battery technology, are charged from backpack-mounted power sources (they also received sweet new paint jobs).
The remainder of Inquisitor Kraller’s retinue will follow in due course (hopefully before Christmas, but I’m not making any promises – least of all to myself). They will include several xenos, including the afore-mentioned Tau Earth Caste.
* This being a shameless bit of fluff to permit her use in my very human-centric Inquisimunda setting that is not exactly replete with xenos plots and threats.
SturmtruppenMaj Alissa White-Gluz & her Sturmtruppen are the sole surviving members of the elite Sturmtruppen Kompanie of the 324th Grenadier Regiment that was raised by the Imperial world of Weltraum Deutschland IV. The Regt was raised in the aftermath of the The Word of the Emperor incident, during which the Adeptus Ministorum came to be aware of certain failings in the planetary governor’s interpretation of the Imperial Creed.** As part of the reparations imposed upon the planet, a Regt (above the standard tithe to the Imperial Guard) was raised and seconded to the Adeptus Ministorum, which promptly dispatched it as part of a much larger force embarking on a crusade to liberate a Shrine World from a Waaagh in the adjacent sector.
As with all Grenadier Regts from their world, the 1st Kp was the elite Sturmtruppen, heavily armed and armoured assault troops usually tasked with spearheading assaults and exploiting any subsequent breakthrough. However, the rather than employ them in that role, the military leadership of the crusade detached them from their Regt and tasked them with providing security for the HQ personnel. It made the leadership feel safe and important, but was an utter waste of the Sturmtruppen’s military capabilities.
When the main crusade fleet began its assault on the Shrine World, which first necessitated an orbital fight with the Ork fleet, the Sturmtruppen were held back on the command ship, rather than spearheading the landing. Whilst the fleets engaged above the planet, the command ship was held well back (justified by the commander as to give him a proper perspective on the battle). Unfortunately, the ship was so far back from the fleet that a brace Eldar Pirate ships that happened upon it felt confident enough to take it on and launched a boarding action with such numbers that they would inevitably seize the ship in the end. The Crusade’s commander dispatched the Sturmtruppen to hold off the boarders for long enough to enable the HQ’s evacuation, with promises to give the fall back signal when they were ready to depart. With the Emperors name on their lips, the Sturmtruppen joined the fray, ready to sell themselves dearly to buy the time for the HQ staff to evacuate. The Sturmtruppen fought well, but the numbers were against them, and as the casualties mounted they were slowly forced to cede ground, all the while wondering when the fall back signal would come.
Eventually, despite clearly having the tactical and numerical advantage, the Eldar began to disengage and fell back to their ships, being harried all the way by the few remaining Sturmtruppen. In an attempt to ascertain why their foe had retreated at the point of victory (and what the deuce had happened to the HQ staff), Maj White-Gluz cautiously led the survivors of her company to the bridge, whereupon she encountered a very tall lady in ostentatiously pink power armour, accompanied by two dozen Naval Armsmen.
It transpired that Inquisitor Kraller had been on the trail of these pirates in a requisitioned Imperial Navy corvette for several weeks and had finally brought them to heel while they were assaulting the command ship and destroyed both pirate vessels. As for the HQ staff, they had evacuated on their shuttles barely 10 minutes into the fight – Inquisitor Kraller’s corvette picked them up on long-range sensors, but was too far away to prevent their destruction by the pirate vessels. Given that the command ship’s comms systems were still fully functional there was no reason for the fall back signal not have been given, and Maj White-Gluz’s kompanie had died because the Commander didn’t give enough of a damn about them to send the signal as he fled.
Whilst inspecting the Eldar dead to see what could be learned and/or usefully salvaged for exploitation, the Inquisitor got the measure of the fight and how well the Sturmtruppen had acquitted themselves. Knowing that she would at some point need to give the corvette and its armsmen back, she decided to make the Sturmtruppen an offer.
Official Imperial records list the 1st (Sturmtruppen) Kp of the Weltraum Deutschland IV 324th Grenadier Regiment as having died to a man during the attack on the command ship. Maj White-Gluz and the handful of survivors of her kp now serve as Inquisitorial Sturmtruppen in the employ of Inquisitor Kraller. Operating off the books, they fight in the shadows to keep humanity safe.
Two are armed with the Sturmtruppen’s standard Höllengewehr (one with a UGL), one has a Schwere Höllengewehr (with a sidearm in the form of a Pulse Pistol), the marksman has a Pulse Rifle and the Maj is armed with her trusty chainsword, “Nemesis”, and a Pulse Pistol. (Making good use of the small stock of Tau weaponry available to them.)
** This incident was the subject of an Inquisitor campaign in my gaming group a few years ago. Whilst planning the Sturmtruppen, I thought it would be a nice fluff touch to tie them into the campaign and make the Maj the daughter of one of the player’s characters (Brigadeführer Wilhem White-Gluz, head of internal security).
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April 19, 2024, 03:31:51 PM
