THE ADVERSARIES OF THE WITCH HUNTER

In writing Codex: Witch Hunters we've tried to create an army list that is both characterful and capable of fighting in a flexible fashion. One of the most important things to bear in mind is that many Warhammer 40,000 armies you'll end up facing won't always have psykers in them, though by taking arms against the agents of the Ordo Hereticus they have already proved that they must be traitors...

Though the suppression of witches is the main task of the Ordo Hereticus, there are many other foes that merit their attentions. Treachery, heresy and mutation are ever-present in the dark millennium of Warhammer 40,000, and these threats can manifest in many guises. The Witch Hunters may find themselves battling aliens or corrupted Imperial forces that have turned from the Emperor's light. On occasion, they may even be deployed against a fellow Inquisitor who has trafficked with daemons or aliens or one who has cast off his sacred duty to keep watch on the Ecclesiarchy, seduced by the wealth and luxuries such a position can grant. In the pages that follow are a number of ideas, missions and special rules for using Witch Hunters in games of Warhammer 40,000, either as part of a campaign or as one-off games.

STAND-ALONE GAMES

For a stand-alone game you can tie in an appropriate Witch Hunters narrative very simply in one of two ways:

Witch Hunters Mission Use the Witch Hunters mission opposite. Here the opposing force are enemies of the Emperor bent on the destruction of a saint's shrine.

Standard Missions With Added Narratives The following narratives are some good examples of how to use Standard missions for Witch Hunters battles:

• Cleanse/Night Fight/Take and Hold: Heretics led by a charismatic leader (possibly a powerful psyker) are moving to take control of Imperial facilities, such as armouries, strategic junctions or communication nodes, as part of a global insurrection. The Witch Hunters must stop them before they can establish a strong resistance.
• Patrol/Recon/Meat Grinder/Bunker Assault: The Witch Hunters forces are seeking a Rogue Psyker or Apostate Cardinal, but their prey's minions have placed powerful defences in their way. These could be mercenaries, unwitting mind-slaves or crazed followers who believe the Witch Hunters to be traitors. Regardless of their motivations, the Witch Hunters must defeat this new enemy in order to take up the hunt once more.
• Rescue: A holy icon or important individual has fallen into the hands of a coven of witches, aliens or traitorous Imperial forces. Such an affront to the God-Emperor cannot be allowed to go unpunished and the Witch Hunters must return the icon or prisoner.

USING ADVERSARIES IN WARHAMMER 40,000

The enemies of the Ordo Hereticus can take many forms, and those who believe that the Ordo Hereticus exists purely to destroy witches are sorely mistaken. It is just as likely a force of Witch Hunters will be dispatched to combat a corrupted Imperial Guard regiment only to find that it has been led into base treachery by a rogue member of the Ecclesiarchy, or that a shambling horde of mutants has risen up against their rightful masters.

Given the sheer scope of all the foes the Ordo Hereticus must face, we can't hope to reproduce every enemy of the Witch Hunters on these pages. However, including some of these new units and/or powers is not only a great opportunity for new styles of gaming, but a perfect reason for the Witch Hunters to fight them in the first place.

Therefore we have included some HQ units for those who intend to fight as adversaries to Witch Hunters armies: the Rogue Psyker and the Apostate Cardinal, as well as an option for your leader to develop terrifyingly powerful psychic powers. Not only that, but you can also include units of Mutants and Traitors to represent those who have been seduced into treachery by their powerful masters.

These units may only be used when fighting against a Witch Hunters army. They are treated exactly as if they were part of the opponent's army, though they may not be taken as the compulsory choices from the Force Organisation chart. Therefore an army intending to fight Witch Hunters in a Standard mission could give their existing HQ psychic powers from the Psychic Apocalypse table or could take a Rogue Psyker or Apostate Cardinal as an additional HQ choice. They could also take units of Traitors or Mutants as Troops choices once the compulsory Troops and HQ slots have been filled by choices from their own codex or army list.

There's no hard and fast rules as to what a Rogue Psyker or Apostate Cardinal looks like, so you can pretty much use any ordinary human-sized model you think is appropriate (so using Space Marines is right out!) so long as your opponent is aware of what the model represents. Models such as Redemptor Kyrinov, Uriah Jacobus, Missionaries, Preachers or Priests will make ideal Apostate Cardinals, and obviously you can use your existing HQ model if you're giving them new psychic powers.

Players using a Chaos Space Marine or a Lost and the Damned army may only use the Rogue Psyker HQ choice from this book and should use the Traitors and Mutants as listed in Codex: Eye of Terror rather than the ones printed in this book. Necron players may not use the HQ rules at all, as psychic powers are an anathema to this race. Furthermore, characters with the Mark of Khorne may not use the HQ rules, as witchery is seen as the coward's weapon by the followers of the Blood God.