And you know what? It is actually pretty sweet. Not quite as amazing as last issue but.. mighty good nonetheless.
Let's get going before my attention span moves on to some other bit of shiny, shall we?
Still Four Bucks. 28 pages including covers. Actually a quarterly release from the last issue for a change. That Medium Mantrap terrain item looks really cool. They still sell it, currently for 20 US Dollars. Yay!
I have tried the URL there but no joy. Armorcast acts like it doesn't even want to remember this magazine. Come on Timmy Dee! Put this stuff online for us to enjoy! Hell, make PDFs we can buy for a buck or two! I have already had folks on the Oldhammer Community Facebook Page ask me if I had PDFs of this stuff. And I have had to tell them to contact Armorcast and ASK FOR IT. Or hell, just for Tim D. to give me permission to scan & share. As is, I am merely taking okish photos of a couple of pages just for review purposes. I went to the Internet Archive and the last known issue was issue 18.
This in 2004 being the last time even the Archive shows anything Inquisitor related from their site.
FREE THE KNOWLEDGE TIM. FREE IT.
(Or again, let me go through and scan issues 14-18 and share them. Course knowing Games Workshop they would fire off a Cease and Desist for a fanzine from 1996-1998 covering editions of Warhammer 40,000 that are well over 15 years out of print.)
Anyhow, Tim opens the issue up with mentions of Datafaxes only being allowed in this magazine and not included with the models. He mentions the super heavy tank datafaxes are well revised over the originals to be far more accurate to what is on the models. He gives an address for Simtac who made the Kryomek tanks he used for #15's Squat tanks. (A company out of East Lyme CT. The models still available from the line are now sold by MSD Games . The problem is? Can't tell if they are the same models or not due to the lack of photos. Only some of the figures have VERY small photos. Maybe I should email them and ask if they have any photographs of these kits? They are still located in Connecticut. I will do so and if I find anything out I will mention it.)
The first big article of this issue has Tim D. giving a pair of Datafaxes, and the rules plus modelling tips for making three different Imperial Guard Chimera variants. You are limited to one variant Chimera for every normal Chimera. The Chimerro doesn't have a proper Datafax with the rules and restrictions the other two do as Tim says it is just a Chimera with FOUR HUNTER KILLER MISSILES mounted on it. This basically breaks multiple rules for 40K even though the conversion pictured looks sweet as hell. I would say it is banned and shouldn't be allowed PERIOD. The other two are pretty cool and fair however. The 200 point Chimerax has Quad mounted Autocannons and the 170 point Chimadon gets a Battle Cannon for when your Guard army wants to get into battle without CS Goto's Multilaser fetish. (Check http://1d4chan.org/ if you are willing and able to put up with 4chan shenanigans covering tabletop gaming and more than likely enough NSFW content to make a whole army of Mormons "Lose their battle" if you know what I mean. But there is some fantastically useful or funny material there in between things to make you want to drink until you can no longer feel feelings.)
Then Leland Erickson is back with another Hot Lead installment. A mere two pages this time, mostly pictures. No star ratings this time but he gives praise to more Geo Hex, RAFM, and ICE models including many gorgeous Silent Death miniatures. Such an excellent "Machine Sheet" game deserves equally quality miniatures don't you think? He also covers some terrain and a Texas mail order retailer called Squadron Mail Order. ICE's plastic sci fi minis are still available from Red Shirt Games out of Canada and EM4 Miniatures out of the British Isles and are still a pretty good deal though with shipping outside of their home region it might make the decent but not fantastic mid 90s plastic sculpts not quite as great of a value.
We then get our corrected Eldar Phantom Titan Datafax, which was apparently mostly just a lot of fixed typos because in the age of Windows 95 I guess there wasn't any spell check features available. (Inquisitor has a LOT of these in nearly every issue.) Tim then explains the changes to the three Super Heavy tanks included, the point changes to Vehicle Wargear cards if used on these machines, and how a Tank Commander works for them. (Basically directing fire and providing a +1 to hit against a target.)
There is a small box out mentioning models they want Games Workshop to produce.
Of the twenty or so things they list a good half of them have been made either by GW or their Forge World subsidiary. (Primarchs, new Sentinel, Land Raider, and Rhino being the biggies. Some of the others like Chaos Androids and Slaaneshi Eldar became their own entire army of a sort! The Shining Spears Eldar Aspect was another one I am glad they finally did. Even at GW prices!)
Then we get the three big guys! The 400 point Baneblade! The 350 point Shadowsword! The 320 point Eldar Tempest Grav Tank!
These 38-60 dollar (as of the magazine's printing) terrors actually cause that effect in game and all of them are full of dead hard weapons and lots of them without being ridiculous. Though the Tempest follows the Falcon rules and can even make Pop Up attacks with its' turret mounted TWIN LINKED Pulse Laser. Each laser has a Sustained Fire die, Lascannon 60" range, S9, 2D8 Damage, -6 Armor save attack with a Targeter! Its Front Hull armor is a mere 22 however compared to the 24 of the IG Supers. The 18 Armor Shuriken Cannons and Grav Engines make this one a bit risky for Eldar to take in smaller games. It is just one giant target!
After that Chaos gets Datafaxes for The Cannon of Khorne & The Cauldron of Blood. I own both models though only the Cannon is painted to my poor standards. (And as the picture will show, both it and the Tempest need some touch up, extra linework, another coat here and there, and to be dusted more than once every 4-5 years!)
The Cannon is a slow and pokey S10, 2d6 Dam, -6 Save Mod UNLIMITED RANGE artillery gun that blows itself up if you roll a Misfire + Arrow and always hits on Hit with a D10 divided by two for blast radius. Its chaotic but could make many big resin toys cry.
The Cauldron is basically a Demonically Possessed, Destroyer vehicle that uses a slightly superior version of the Imperial Guard's Inferno Cannon. (Heavy Flamer template weapon with S6, D6 Dam, -4 Save Modifier.) It is a MUCH cooler looking model than the Cannon but of less actual gameplay use. Especially since half of its' Damage Tables have Armor of 20 or less for a close in unit.) The Cannon is a reasonable 140 points to the Cauldron's less useful 180.
Even with a bit of toothbrush cleaning these two special little guys need more dusting. But the Tempest might have been one of the first times I tried to Panel Ink.
Next up are the three Tyranid critters with a Subscription and Convention Schedule page in between them. Each model has a Datafax and a rules page. Two of these guys are available in normal 40K games now as a 73 Dollar dual build kit.
The Haruspex which is the coolest looking of the three Armorcast kits and is basically a line smasher with a nasty Acid Jet attack that can cause a S5 hit on secondary targets within 3", and being a vehicle for most purposes but allowed to ram with less risk. Also those nasty claws that can even grab Infantry units as it scuttles by!
The troop carrying Malefactor has Spore Cysts that explode when things get too close to it and gives 2nd edition Nids a troop transport for 80 points.
The 165 point Exocrine (Who shares a GW kit box with the Haruspex.) has the Cysts plus a S8, 3d6 Damage, -6 Save Modifier Bio Cannon that can keep damaging a location it penetrates at a -1 roll to the effect every Tyranid player's turn until you get a 0 result. Nasty!
These larger Tyranids lose access to Biomorphs and have their rules for how Psychic attacks affect them, and their Instinctive Behavior when the Hive Mind isn't nearby.
Overall this was a REALLY solid and useful issue of Inquisitor. Outside of that Chimera with all the Hunter Killer Missiles everything seems fairly pointed out and balanced.
Plus many of them are things you can purchase today at the GW price level of PAIN.
(The Exocrine isn't too bad. He looks more like a giant Tyranid Warrior who is VERY HAPPY to see you and wants to love you with his thing. That is on his back. Yeah.....)
So my rating for this issue? Good! Another issue 2nd edition players should probably try to get a copy of if they can.
Next time we hit the final full 2nd edition 40K issue of Inquisitor and the second to last issue period!
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