For anyone that knows me, you’ll know that this day has, in my mind anyway, been a long time coming. Since our first batch of podcasts back in 2016 I’ve been crying out for a Codex for one my one favourite units and bits of lore, The Inquistion. Not since the days of the old Daemonhunter Codex have we come anywhere near close to such a thing.

And yet here we are, up for preorder right now is Codex Imperial Agents. The Emperor shines down on us this day!

Our thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a copy of this Codex to review.

As always, if you want to save some money and give us a big helping hand you can preorder through our affiliates at Element Games using this link here. You save money, we get a kick back which helps fund the website and all the other stuff we do. Win-win!

Onward to the review!

1. What are Imperial Agents?
2. The Lore
3. Combat Patrol
4. Army Rules and How Allying Works
5. Detachments
   1. Ordo Xenos | Alien Hunters
   2. Ordo Hereticus | Purgation Force
   3. Ordo Malleus | Daemon Hunters
   4. Imperialis Fleet
6. Datasheets
7. Crusade
8. Points Values
9. Summary

What are Imperial Agents?

I say onward to the review, but before we REALLY get stuck in to proceedings, lets take a moment to highlight exactly what this box offers and exactly who Imperial Agents are.

Imperial Agents are in short, units that can fight for the Imperium but don’t fit in to any of the established armies, such as Space Marines, Astra Miliatrum, Imperial Knights and the Adepta Sororitas. Over the editions there has been various ways to include Imperial Agents, such as Inquistors and Assasins.

More recently we have seen a heck of a lot more of these types of units, such as Rogue Traders, Imperial Navy Breachers and Inquisitorial Henchmen.

So the Imperial Agent keyword was born and was gifted to all these weird, wacky and awesome units.

This book brings all of them together, for the first time, and gives Imperium players the option of bringing these units along for the ride. Or, should you be inclined to, you can run an army of Imperial Agents, mixing and matching all the fun stuff.

Not only does the above refer to Inquisitors and friends, but for the first time it also includes Deathwatch Kill Teams, Grey Knight Terminators and units of Battle Sisters. Yes, that’s right, you can ally a unit of Battle Sisters and an Inquisitor to your Guard army, should you wish!

As I progress through this review I will be tackling all the data sheets, so you’ll see exactly who and what you can take.

The Lore

Now we are finally going to start checking out the book, and as with all Warhammer 40K Codexes it opens with a lot, and I mean A LOT of lore surrounding all the different aspects of Imperial Agents.

It delves in to the mystery and ranks of the Inquisition, details each of the major Ordos (Malleus, Xenos and Hereticulus) and the adventures of the Rogue Traders out in the galaxy.

I have read a lot of Inquisition-centred novels (including the Eisenhorn and Vaults of Terra novels) yet I still throughly enjoyed everything I read in this book. The writing is utterly spot on, and makes for fantastic reading whether your a veteran like me, or someone who is new to what Imperial Agents are, It perfectly encapsulates the essence of the different units in this book and really gives you the flavour of how you would imagine they’d play out on the battlefield.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that these first few pages include some truly stunning artwork, both new and old. This includes some dramatic artwork of the assassins and other units from the book.

Combat Patrol

As with all 10th Edition Codexes so far (such as the Orks and Space Marines) we get an accompanying Combat Patrol to go with it.

In this case it’s a brand new box which gives you a variety of very different units, fitting for this army book. It contains Preacher Teguen (Ministorum Priest originally from Blackstone Fortress), an Eversor Assassin, 2 x Vigilant Squads and a unit of Inquisitorial Agents.

This section of the book gives you some narrative built around the units in the box, and includes all the special rules and data sheets you’ll need to field them in games of Combat Patrol.

I’ve recently taken part in a Combat Patrol tournament, and from what I learnt playing in those games, and what is presented here, I think they could be a very balanced and very fun army to play. The great thing about Combat Patrol is you have the whole army in a box, and it can be played in an hour. It’s a great way of testing the water, to see if you’d want to take on a full army (or in this case, take different units as allies to your bigger Imperium force)

We then move on to the meat and potatoes of the book…the army rules.

Army Rules and How Allying Works

So this is where the fun really begins.

This book works in two ways.

– You can field an entire army of Imperial Agents. You’ll get to choose all the units from this Codex and be able to choose one of the four available Detachments. More on these shortly.

– Alternatively, you can pick and choose the units you want and ally them in to your existing Imperial armies. The number of Imperial Agents you can take depends on how big of a game you are having.

For Incursion sized games (1000pts) you can take 1 x Retinue units, 1 x Character units and 1 x Requisitioned Units. Stepping it up to Strike Force sized games (2000pts) you can instead take 2 x Retinue units, 2 x Character units and 1 x Requisitioned units. Finally, if you are stepping up to Onslaught games (3000pts) then you can field 3 x Retinue units, 3 x Character units and 2 x Requisitioned units. More on what each data sheet is classed as soon.

The Codex also notes that any Agents of Imperium Dedicated Transports can be included without taking up one of the above slots, however a unit has to be embarked in it.

Detachments

Decided you want to go all in on Agents of the Imperium? In that case you can choose from one of the four following detachments, which we are going to run through now. Each focuses on a particular aspect (Deathwatch, Grey Knights, Adepta Sororitas and the Imperial Navy).

We are going to kick off with the Deathwatch focused detachement.

Ordo Xenos | Alien Hunters

Want to take out some Xenos? Then this is the detachment for you, as it focuses on the Deathwatch.

Now…before we go any further, it’s important to face up to a really important note. From what we’ve read on Warhammer Community, we are not expecting a Deathwatch 10th Edition Codex. This is a massive shame. Deathwatch have been in a weird place. Back when I started collecting them they could only use a select number of Space Marine units, but in 9th Edition GW really opened up the faction, giving them access to every standard Space Marine unit (I say standard, as they could not use Chapter specific units, such as Death Company, for example).

To then follow this up by completely reducing the faction to just four units is devastating (again more on data sheets soon). Warhammer Community have said that you can use your full Deathwatch armies with one of the generic Space Marine detachments or by using Legends rules, however you won’t be able to use this specific Ordo Xenos detachment.

With this negative point now raised, let us carry on with discussing the detachment.

It’s very similar to the Deathwatch Index detachment rules, starting with the Detahcment Rule, Mission Tactics. At the start of the Command phase you can choose from one of the three mission tactics, each one granting an ability to your Deathwatch keyworded models. They are as follows:

• Furor: Sustained Hits 1
• Malleus: Lethal Hits
• Purgatus: Precision on Critical Wounds.

You can only choose these once per battle, so you will have two turns with no mission tactics.

There are 4 different Enhancements available, 2 of which can be given to an Agents of the Imperium character and 2 of which can only be given to a Watch Master.

The 2 Agent ones are Universal Anathema, which grants the bearer’s melee weapons with Anti-Infantry 2+ and Anti-Monster 4+. The second is Blackweave Shroud, which gives the model a 4+ Feel No Pain.

Alternatively, a Watch Master gets the choice of either Beacon Angelis, which grants the model and his unit the Deep Strike ability as well as the ability to use Rapid Ingress for 0CP. Or you may prefer the Amulet of Auto-Chastisement, which allows you to choose a Vehicle unit at the start of your opponent’s shooting phase. Your opponent then has to make a Leadership test for said Vehicle. If they pass, that vehicle is -1 to Hit when it comes to shoot. If it fails, it cannot shoot at all that phase. Very unique and a very powerful ability!

Again, following the Index rules, the stratagems available focus on the different types of rounds that the Deathwatch have been famous for using, such as Kraken Rounds (improve AP by 1 and increase Range by 6” on ranged weapons) and Dragonfire Rounds (gives ranged weapons the Assault and Ignores Cover special rules).

There are however a couple of other cools strats, including Rapid Tactical Relocation, which costs 1CP and is used at the end of your opponents fight phase. It allows you to choose an Inquistor or Deathwatch model, remove them from the battlefield, and then in your next reinforcement phase you can put them back down (with the normal Deep Strike rules). Adaptive Tactics is another 1CP strat that allows you to choose a Deathwatch unit and switch on a different Mission Tactic than the one being used overall, even if it has been used previously in the battle.

The major issue with this detachment is its pure focus on the Deathwatch. If you have bulked out your army with say Imperial Navy Breachers, or Sisters, or Grey Knights, they won’t have any applicable specific strats, and the mission rule has zero effect on them. Perhaps if you are running a small Agents army with primarily Deathwatch models then this detachment would work great, however I feel you’d have a very limited army for say a 2000pt force.

Ordo Hereticus | Purgation Force

Moving on to the second detachment, we have the Herecticus focused rules (look at you, Sisters of Battle!

The detachment rule is called Root Out Heresy and it gives any ranged weapons equipped by Adeptus Arbites, Inquisitor, Inquisitorial Agents and Ordo Hereticus the Ignore Cover ability. As well as this each time any if those above key-worded units makes an attack that targets a Chaos unit containing 5 or more models the attack has Sustained Hits 1. Straight away, compared to the Deathwatch detachment you have more utility with the different units that will gain the benefits of the detachment rule.

Again, you get access to one of four enhancements which can be given to an Inquisitor or to a Ministorum Priest (apart from No Escape, which is only available to Inquisitors, and forces your opponent’s units to pass a Leadership test should they wish to fall back from combat within 6” of the bearer).

The other enhancements are as follows:

• Liber Heresius: Allows you to choose up to 3 Agents of the Imperium after deployment has finished. You can place said units in to Strategic Reserve.
• Witch Hunter: Re-roll Hits VS Psykers for the bearer and the unit they are with.
• Ignis Judicium: The bearer’s ranged weapons have the following abilities, Devastating Wounds, Melta 1 and Precision.

The stratagems again, like the detachment rule, have more utility as they can be used on any Adeptus Arbites, Inquisitorial Agents or Ordo Hereticus units. And there are some tasty strats here.

Firstly, they get access to Stun Grenades, which forces an enemy unit to take a Battle-shock test and until the end of the phase that enemy unit must subtract 1 from Hit rolls. Dispense Justice simply gives the unit the Lethal Hits ability and Inviolate Jurisdiction, which grants the chosen unit a 5+ Feel No Pain should they be in range of an objective marker.

All in all, a fun detachment, with a lot of utility. Not the greatest detachment rule, but the Strats and enhancements I think make up for this.

Ordo Malleus | Daemon Hunters

I was a little concerned that, after seeing the Deathwatch detachment, we would have a similar case of a lot of this detachment being focused on Grey Knights, Whereas you have 4 Deathwatch units in this book, you only have the one Grey Knight unit (Terminators).

Luckily, my fears were somewhat squashed right away, as the detachment rule, called Destroy the Daemonic, grants Inquisitors, Inquisitorial Agents and of course, Ordo Malleus units get re-rolls of 1 to Hit, and should the attacks be targeting Daemon units then you also get reroll 1s to Wound too.

Switching to the Enhancements, these can only be given to Inquisitors, but we have some fun choices here:

• Formidable Resolve: Improve the bearer’s Wounds and Leadership value by 1. You also get to pick a Battle Shocked unit and make them not battle shocked anymore too. Not the sexiest enhancement, but useful.
• Daemon Slayer: Gives you + 1 Attacks on the bearers melee weapons and grants said attacks Anti-Daemon 3+.
• Grimier of True Names: An Aura ability which gives -1 Leadership to enemy units within 9”. Any nearby Daemon units are -1 to Hit and -1 to Wound too.
• Gift of the Prescient: Allows the bearer to use the Rapid Ingress Strats for 0CP, however it must be used on a Grey Knights Terminators unit in reserve. That unit can be set up on the board anywhere outside of 3” of enemy units.

The Strats are varied, with some useable by different units, whilst others can only be used by Grey Knight Terminators.

A couple of examples of this one Strats locked to Terminators are Steel Heart (Until the end of the turn, the unit can fall back, shoot and charge) and Psybolt Ammunition (gives ranged units Lethal Hits and Precision). Ritual of Warding (grants sticky objective and prevents Daemons from being setup within 6” of said objective) and Rites of Exorcism (select a Daemon unit within 12”, grant Devastating Wounds against that Daemon unit when any Agents units makes an attack against it) can both be used by Inquisitors, Inquisitorial Agents and Ordo Malleus units.

Again a fun detachment, but like the Alien Hunter detachment, perhaps best saved for smaller games.

Imperialis Fleet

If and when I do go all in on an Agents of the Imperium force, this is likely to be the detachment I go to. Simply put this detachment has the most utility, with a lot of its abilities usable by all (well almost all) of the book.

Starting with the Detachment rule, At All Costs, you can choose from one of two abilities in your Command Phase:

• Eliminate at all Costs: Select one enemy unit, All of your Agents units get +1 to Hit said unit, both at range and in combat.
• Acquire at all Costs: Select one objective marker. Any Agents units that are within range of that objective get +1 Leadership and Objective Control, as well as a 5+ invulnerable save.

I’d argue that, overall, it’s the best detachment rule in the book.

The enhancements are split between 2 which can be given to any Agents of the Imperium characters and 2 which can be given to any Voidfarers units.

The first two, which can go to any characters are called Digital Weapons and Clandestine Operation. The first one is pretty straightforward, when the bearer comes to fight you roll three D6. For each 4+ you deal a mortal wound (which you can allocate in the same manner as Precision) to an enemy unit. The latter grants up to three Agents units (excluding Grey Knights) the Infiltrators special rule.

For Voidfarers (Rogue Traders, basically) you have Fleetmaster, which allows you to use a number of the detachments Strats for 0CP once per battle round and Combat Landers, which allows you to choose three Voidfarers units in the deployment phase and grant them the Deep Strike ability.

I’m a big fan of the Strats for this Detachment too, as they vary in utility and can be used by a lot of the units within the army. For example…:

• Violent Acquisition: You can use this in the shooting phase for a single CP. You select any Agents units and it grants them until the end of the phase Sustained Hits 1, Ignores Cover and Lance so long as they shoot at an enemy unit within range of an objective marker.
• Displacer Field: This can be used on any Agents of the Imperium units (aside from Assassins) in the enemy shooting phase. It’s a little wordy, but in short it grants your unit a 4+ invulnerable save and, should your unit not be in combat, it allows them a free 6” Normal Move.
• Close-Quarters Barrage: This one is limited to just Voidfarers units, however it grants the selected unit +1 to Strength and AP to the ranged weapons they have when shooting an enemy unit within 12”

All and all, if you do fancy running a 2,00pt PURE Agents of the Imperium army, then I feel this is probably the strongest option.

Datasheets

With the detachments out of the way it’s time to check out the Datasheets within the Codex.

From what I can see, there isn’t a lot (if any) changes from the index aside from some keywords and abilities. I think what is important however is stating what each of the units are classed as for the purposes of allying them with other Imperium armies (as stated much earlier in the article).

A quick note, there is no Inquisitor Eisenhorn or Jokero Weaponsmith in this book, which is a massive shame. The reason probably being that Eisenhorn is an old fine cast model, whereas everyone’s favourite cybernetic monkey is even older and only in metal.

• Inquisitor (Character): Your best choice for a Warlord, and one of (if not my favourite) types of characters in the lore. It seems like such a shame they didn’t use this release to bring out a multipart plastic kit for one, as the Datasheet is basically going off the old Witch Hunter model from way back when, with limited weapon options. They can lead any of the units in this Codex. They can embark on any Imperium transport and still have the ability to refund a CP if you spend a strat on this model’s unit on a 3+.
• Inquisitor Coteaz (Character): The only new model which will be coming out with this release is Coteaz, and it is safe to say he has divided opinion. I wasn’t the biggest fan of it to begin with, but he has grown on me. His Psyber Eagle is now a separate model and can be used to represent his target for his new ability, Glovodan Psyber-Eagle, which allows you to stop an enemy unit within 18” from getting the benefits of cover.
• Inquisitor Draxus (Character): She seems to have lost her Lord moniker, but is still a fantastic Inquisitor. Her Xenos Hunter ability grants her unit +1 to Hit, so long as the enemy unit does not have either the Imperium or Chaos keyword.
• Inquisitor Greyfax (Character): Her Psyoculum grants her and her units ranged attacks the Anti-Psyker 4+ ability, as well as granting +1 to Hit should her unit target a unit below half-strength.
• Navigator (Character): A surprise addition, the Navigator is another model returning from Blackstone Fortress. He can lead Breachers or Voidsmen and he prevents enemy reinforcements from appearing within 12”.
• Ministorum Priest (Character): This profile represents both available plastic models (the one with the book and auto gun, as well as the one in the Combat Patrol box with the Zealot’s Vindicator). They can lead Inquisitorial Agents, Breachers, Arbites and of course, Sister of Battle squads. He grants his unit Sustained Hits 1 in combat, and once per game can go super-saiyan, giving himself +3 Attacks and +3 Strength!
• Inquisitorial Agents (Retinue): The originally released for Kill Team agents are back, however the rules have been scaled back a little to a bit more of a bland dataslate. You still have the range of weapons you get on the sprues, and they are still -1 to Wound if an Inquisitor is leading them. The Tome-Skull model is now used to represent a special rule which can either remove Battle shock from one of your units or force your opponent to take one.
• Imperial Navy Breachers (Retinue): Another Kill Team come 40K unit, the Breachers are a cool unit, and along with the Arbites, will probably make up what would be your ‘normal’ troops in the army. The get to reroll Wound rolls of 1 all the time, and upgrade that to full rerolls to Wound if the enemy unit is within range of an objective marker.
• Rogue Trader Entourage (Character): As with the Index, this unit incorporates both the Rogue Trader themselves, as well as her Death Cult Assassin, Lectro-Master and Rejuvenate Adept. This unit allows you to redeploy up to three of your Imperium Battleline units during the deployment phase.
• Voidsmen-at-Arms (Retinue): These are incredible looking models, who can have any Voidfarers characters added to them, and if you do so, they don’t count towards your Retinue limit. So long as this unit shoots the closest enemy unit you gain the Lethal Hits rule for ranged attacks.
• Vigilant / Exaction / Subductor Squads (Retinue): The Adeptus Arbites are all present and correct, and as mentioned previously you’ll probably have a few of these to be your mainline battleline troops.
• Grey Knight Terminators (Requisitioned): Never fancied a Grey Knight army, but always wanted some of those epic looking Terminators? Well now you can, as they can be allied in to your Imperium armies. Your unit can include a Banner and Apothercary, as well as a special weapon (either a psycannon, psilencer or incinerator). They get Lethal Hits when they charge, and should an Inquisitor join them, the whole unit continues to have the Deep Strike ability.
• Watch Captain Artemis (Character): Yes, the Deathwatch has Artemis again, and he’s still pretty good. He grants his unit Lethal Hits, and once he dies the first time, on a 2+, comes back with a single wound remaining, Sadly…no crazy bomb this time, however.
• Watch Master (Character): Grants his attached Deathwatch unit with fall back and shoot as well as having the Rites of Battle ability commonly seen on Space Marine Captains.
• Deathwatch Kill Team (Retinue): With all the sprue options available on the Datasheet, you can build the Kill team of your dreams. They get to re-roll Hits of 1, which turns up to 11 should they target Xenos units, granting them full rerolls to Hit.
• Corvus Blackstar (Retinue): IMHO the BEST flyer in the game, if only by looks, the Corvus is your only access to real anti-tank weaponry should you wish to go all in on Agents of the Imperium. It can transport 12 Deathwatch models. Importantly, it does not have the Dedicated Transport keyword, so watch your allowance if using as allies.
• Callidus / Eversor / Vindicare / Culexius Assassins (Character): All of the Assassins return, and they are as good as they were in the Index.
• Sisters of Battle Squad (Requisitioned): Again, all the options from the Sisters sprues are available here, including the Cherub (one use free Command reroll) and the Simulacrum Imperialis, which provides a +1 to Leadership. The unit also has sticky objectives too!
• Sisters of Battle Immolator (Dedicated Transport): The best flame tank in the game is here too, and ignores cover. It also has a rule which allows you to split your Sisters squads, as it only has a transport capacity of 6.
• Inquisitorial Chimera / Rhino (Dedicated Transport): Not a lot to say here, it’s the transport tanks of old!

Crusade

Warhammer Community have recently done a very good job of summarising what you can do with the Crusade rules in this book, but it’s safe to say I’m a massive fan.

You can run these rules alongside another Crusade mechanic, allowing you to play out your main armies Crusade whilst your allied units have their own agendas. There’s some really cool stuff in here, such as unique agendas, relics and abilities.

Depending on which characters you are using, the book also helps you to build a narrative around your agendas, giving them a proper flavour and making your Crusade more inline with what you are running.

It’s really easy to incorporate your Agents Crusade with your own, or a larger scale narrative that you may be playing with your friends.

Points Values

To finish off the sections in the book, we have the points values. Now, WarCom have already basically overwritten these, as a recent article stated that units in this book would have two points values. One for if you are running a pure Agents army, and a second value should you be adding them to another Imperium army. The book only includes one set of points, and I think it is safe to say the page is going to be redundant from day one.

In the next edition, or potentially future Codexes in 10th, I can see them removing this page altogether and just having the QR code that takes you to the latest points online, much like the new Age of Sigmar Battletomes.

Summary

There is an awful lot to take in with this book, and overall…I’m happy.

I really like the rules for adding these units to your existing Imperium armies. I think they have the right balance with the number of certain keywords you can include. It is also amazing that you can now bring squads of Sisters, Deathwatch Kill Teams and Grey Knight Terminators to the party.

Whilst I do really fancy building a full Agents of the Imperium army, I do feel like they will only really work at 1000pts. Now of course, like the rest of this article, it is only my opinion, however I just think anything larger than that, your army is just an odd combination of different units with no real aesthetic to tie them altogether. I’m not sure if I have explained that well enough, but hopefully you are following me.

The detachments are OK, again really feeding off my above comments. 3 of the 4 make use of multiple units in the book, whilst the 4th, the Deathwatch, you are really relying on the 4 Deathwatch units in the book, 2 of which are characters.

It really does not make sense to me what they have done with the Deathwatch. We already have a Adepta Sororitas Codex, and it’s been confirmed a Grey Knights Codex is also on the horizon at some point in this edition, whilst the Deathwatch miss out. As explained earlier, you can still use your full Deathwatch armies legally, but you cannot take advantage of the Deathwatch detachment in this book.

I’d have really liked to have seen a multipart plastic Inquisitor instead of / as well as Coteaz, with different weapons options and perhaps parts to represent each of the main Ordos, instead of relying on a model which has been in the range for sometime. They are the key characters in this book, and it feels like a missed opportunity.

The main purpose of this book, clearly, is to give a home to all the units which don’t fit anywhere else, and the rules to form a full army around them has been added as a…well…added bonus.

For me though, the main strength of this book is in the use of the units as allies and the fun narrative aspect of the Crusade content. I’ve already got plans to run an Inquisitor and a Deathwatch Kill Team, loaded up in a Corvus, in my next big game with my Astra Militarum, and look forward to picking up some Grey Knight Terminators and Breachers too.

I’m glad the book of my dreams is here, and it’s almost…ALMOST, exactly what I wanted.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the Imperial Agents Codex, Our thanks again to Games Workshop for sending this over to us, and don’t forget, if you want to pick a copy up for yourself please check out our Element Games affiliate links.

Published by David Jennings

Born and raised in Crewe in Cheshire, Dave is a geek through and through. Enjoys designing and managing websites. View all posts by David Jennings