Necessary Evil
The Radical Inquisitorial Warband Of Inquisitor Lord Tyraeus (1000 points)

Inquisitor Lord Tyraeus is equipped with a Master-Crafted Daemonhammer, Close Combat Weapon, Artificer Armour, an Icon of the Just and the psychic power Holocaust. He is backed up by a retinue of 3 Acolytes with Storm Shields and Close Combat Weapons, 2 Combat-Servitors with Power Fists and Close Combat Weapons, and 2 Familiars. Generally these guys are able to hold their own in combat, although they tend to be overwhelmed by horde enemnies (though not before taking out a few dozen with Holocaust). The only real problem is the slowness with which they strike! The Acolytes are very, very useful, and tend to extend Tyraeus' lifespan by about 3-4 turns in heavy combat. These guys are mounted in a Rhino to get them into combat at the right time, although this often tends to be their doom (I have lost 50-75% of the squad in a couple of games to an exploding Rhino).

Inquisitor Vordel and his fire support squad provide the anchor around which the assault is based. Equipped with Terminator Armour and a Master-Crafted Psycannon, he has a retinue of 3 Gun-Servitors (2 Heavy Bolters & a Plasma Cannon), 2 Sages and Mystic. Vordel himself hits on a 2+ with a re-roll, and his squad hits on a 3+ with one re-roll. With the Mystic there, and nasty Daemons or Deep Striking enemies within 4D6" often receive a nasty welcome of plasma and exploding bolter rounds (a trick that never works on the same opponent twice). Also, with the aid of Terminator Armour, if the squad ever has to move (ie an enemy gets too close for comfort) then Vordel can still fire at full effect. I always use one unit of Stormtroopers to screen Vordel and his squad, and keep Lelith and Drusala (Death-Cultists) close by to counter-charge any enemy that manages to make it into combat with the Stormtroopers.

When I first started playing Radicals, I immediatley purchased 3 of these kinky bondage mistresses. However I was young and foolish, and tended to throw them headlong at heavily defended positions, or at entire squads of enemies by themselves. Blaming everyone but myself, they went back on the shelf and a took an extra Daemonhost in their place. However, thanks in no small part to the wisdom of LonePilgrim, they have resurfaced in my army as a valuable way to protect Vordel and his screening Stormtroopers from assaults, by hanging within 6" to avoid being shot, and counter-charging any enemies. In a recent game Lelith and Drusala (affectionatley known as S & M) danced through Simon M's entire 6-man squad of Blood Angels Veteran Assault Marines in one turn, before the Marines could even strike back. They then went on to hack down 4 of his Death Company, along with their Chaplain, and take a wound off his Librarian. They will always have a special place in my heart for that alone.

Daemonhosts - signature unit of the Radical Daemonhunter. These creatures can be described in two ways: either really, really useful or really, really useless. In my 1000 point army, I take two, known as Baal and Mephisto (though there are three in the photo - see if you can guess the other one's name). In some games they will kick a Daemon Prince into the ground, teleport behind Dreadnoughts and rip them a new exhaust pipe or fight a mutated, frothing Hive Tyrant to a bloody, exhausted standstill for 6 turns. In the next game, they die to Guardians in close combat. I think you see the point. Here's an example: I was fighting Geoff The Friendly Killing Machine and his award-winning World Eaters. I had cunningly lured his bloodthirsty Daemon Prince into a position where it would have to attack my Stormtroopers, and knowing that he would win, I had positioned Vordel, Tyraeus, and my 2 Daemonhosts so that they could shoot the absolute bollocks out of him and then charge him and finish him off. However, my Daemonhost pinned Vordel in the next turn (double 6 for a Leadership test!!!) and he was unable to shoot. Trying to make the best of a bad situation, I charged in with Tyraeus, Baal and Mephisto and missed with almost all of their attacks. The moral of the story is: Daemonhosts are very versatile, very powerful and very useful, but also very, very random. And very expensive. Perhaps not the best example, in retrospect.

Stormtroopers are the compulsory Troops choice of the Radical Daemonhunter, so you may as well make the best of them. Fortunately, this is easy to do as they are very versatile and powerful in the right roles. Used to occupy a defensive position they can be almost impossible to budge, with a high Leadership and a good save. Or they can be thrown in a Rhino and given two meltaguns to go tank-hunting. Nobody usually suspects the danger these guys pose to tanks until it's too late. I have one meltagun and one flamer in each squad to maximise their versatility (if you hadn't noticed already, this is a tournament army). Often I use one squad to screen Vordel, and the other to hold a defensive position and draw fire away from Tyraeus as he closes in. You may have already noticed that I'm using the Cypher model as one of the Veterans, with the Unforgiven symbol filed off and replaced with the Inquisitorial symbol. This is purely because he looks good in the role, with the hood and the robe and all. I'm not suggesting Cypher joined the Inquisition or anything. Although....

Ah, the Orbital Strike. I don't actually use this in my 1000 point army, but it is a cool conversion and I'm very proud of it. For a missile as big as a Daemon Prince, it is extraordinarily inaccurate, which is why I don't use it in 1000 point games as there's not enough enemies to hit. The conversion is made from 90% non-GW components, mostly pieces of model aeroplanes and toy army jeeps.

The ubiquitous Rhino. I only use one in my 1000 point army, but I thought I'd show both of them. They are made from a combination of Chaos and Imperial Rhino kits, driven by Relictor Space Marines (hiding out from the Inquisition after the events of Extremis Diabolus (see White Dwarf #288 in Australia).

Questions? Comments? Email Tim at 30272519@student.murdoch.edu.au, or look for me on the Games Workshop forums under the user name Extelligence. While you're there, look for lonepilgrim as well, as he has a huge wealth of info on Radical Daemonhunters.

Have a look at Tim's conversion of Sehenesmet, Liche Giant.