Goatboy here and we can finally talk about a new codex: Imperial Agents. Here’s everything you need to know about this strange codex.

The redacted codex from the GW product roadmap ended up becoming the Imperial Agents book, which I wasn’t really expecting. If there was some “heretical” Inquisitor fun in this book, I might be more excited, but for now I just see it as a set of orphaned models I got to paint for a client who loves Agents, and they’re now their own standalone army… sort of. Let’s dive into the codex review so you can read what I think of this book.

I’m not going to go into detail about the book here either. The gist of the Codex: Imperial Agents review is to break it down into the good thoughts of the book, the bad thoughts of the book, and the things I just find ugly about the book. Overall, I think this codex is a bit of a failure, but this army isn’t something I really want to play with either.

Imperial Agents: The Good Guys

First off, it’s good that this codex brings a ton of units together in one place with some updated rules. There aren’t a ton of updates, but there are enough cool ones. Some of these units really should have had updates, but we’ll talk more about that later.

Better Assassins

The one thing I like about Imperial Agents is that each of the Assassins has gotten some improvements and updates. The Imperial Assassins are really one of the cooler things in this game and I wish we had more options than the four we have. Can we get some of that cool stuff from 30K please, please? My favorite update is the Eversor, he got a nice glow-up to match his desire for wanton death and destruction. This little guy will dance across the table and beat up anything. He probably won’t kill it, but if you need a unit to harass the opponent, this one is a good choice. The Callidus will also show up often, and again, it’s good to have something that can go up and down. The Assassins have a rule that allows you to swap the Assassin in an Imperial Agents army for another as long as his points aren’t higher. This could lead to some fun things, but you can’t double up on a pick, which makes me kind of sad. Still, it’s cool to be able to just swap one for another in an agent army as needed. COLLECT ALL 4!

Imperial Agent Departments

The only really good replacement seems to be the Imperialis Fleet Option, as the rule applies to all models in the Agent army, which is a cool thing. I like any rule that lets you choose something to act on turn by turn, and being able to get +1 to hit against an enemy unit of your choice per turn is powerful. Choosing a target that gives you more power is also a strong choice. Really, just having the option to have all units in that army work in that department is a powerful thing.

On the other side of Detachments you will receive the update Ordo Xenos Alien Hunters one, also known as Deathwatch option (pour one out for the army), a Demon Hunter of the Ordo Maellus one (one with the theme Grey Knight) and one Ordo Hereticus Purgation Force (One focuses on Inquisitor/Sororitas). All the others aren’t that great and probably the other one to use is Ordo Xenos Alien Hunters as it has all the Deathwatch rules. That’s not really the good side of this book but it does have some things in it if you want to play the other stuff.

The Imperialis Fleet is the best and has some fun strategies. They have tons of defensive stuff that gives you 4+ inv protection for a unit, allows movement after a shot, and adds fun things like persistent/lance/ignore cover to your shooting when you target a unit. Most of the good stuff is really in this department as it lets you do anything with all the options in the book, making it useful and fun.

The sad thing is that the units in the codex have mostly stayed the same, meaning the options are what you’re used to, and if you used them before, you can use them now.

Double points… Interesting

This leads me to one of the good things GW revealed, which is that there will be two different points for the army. One is when you are pure agents of the Empire’s forces, and the other is the ally option. I find this interesting as I’m sure we’ll see this in the future for Daemons and other armies that can include an ally in their army. I also wonder if it will go both ways as well, as an Imperial Knight is cool but is much more powerful in an Imperial Knight detachment rather than just being a single choice.

Imperial Agents: The Bad Guys

I won’t sugarcoat it – this army doesn’t feel fully fleshed out for a single faction choice in Warhammer 40K. It feels like it has a bunch of datasheets, a few tweaks, but no real identity aside from a way to cram all that extra Killteam stuff into a codex. There’s really only one truly comprehensive division and then a few others crammed into a book. It just doesn’t feel like there’s enough there to really hang your army list on and be successful in competitive play.

I’m sure someone will take me down on this, but it just doesn’t feel right. I think a bit more baking in the oven, a few more units (maybe Scions or other AM options) and some updated datasheets would make a better book, but that’s not what we got. I’m having a hard time getting excited about it as there’s not enough interesting stuff.

The most exciting concept of the codex is the whole idea of ​​giving two different point costs for the ledger and ally option in an army. I think this is pretty ingenious and will help balance things out for future codexes – especially considering that allies are most commonly used to back up some things you might not get in your own faction’s codex.

I also agree that Deathwatch should be reworked and simplified as it was a really weird army with interactions that didn’t make sense in terms of the rules. Why wouldn’t those bolt weapons work with cool ammo? I feel bad for the players with large armies who now have to use them either as regular marines or as marines of other colors. My condolences on this half-staffing.

Imperial Agents: The Ugly Ones

How come we went from a cool but too small Coteaz model to this weird Option 1? It feels like a weird retro design and I would have rather seen something similar to a Cypher armor that looks old, unique and cool. The new mini just feels wrong to me.

And why don’t we have a cool custom Inquisitor kit with lots of options and the nice entourage of crazy people in the box? It feels like a huge mistake to just not have a unit with all the weird stuff in 40K. Let them take all the weird aliens and other bits. Why not have some options for an entourage based on the Inquisitor you’re playing? How awesome would it have been to really create a unique little unit of weirdos ready to destroy stuff for the Imperium?

For the emperor!

Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the eternally evil member of BoLS. I make art, play 40k, and even paint a lot. I’ve been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s and have won several national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Check out my Instagram to see what I’m working on – or what I’m working on for someone. I’m always doing something related to my hobby.

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