few 40k related questions

[Lord Revan]

1.how large would the spacefleet of a spaceborne spacemarine chapter be (on avarge)?

2.could an inquisitor demand a SM chapter to assist him/her as an "act of penetance" for some (assumed) misdeed and if so could said inquisitor demend that certain officer lead that force?

3.could a inquisitor turn renege with being branded radical first?

4.can an inquisitor give the ability to investigate certain item/person/cult/etc.. to a person trusted by him/her if said person in not member of the inquisition per se?

[Ford Prefect]

2.could an inquisitor demand a SM chapter to assist him/her as an "act of penetance" for some (assumed) misdeed and if so could said inquisitor demend that certain officer lead that force?

An Inquisitor certainly could demand such a thing. However, a Chapter Master could very well say 'no'.

3.could a inquisitor turn renege with being branded radical first?

Certainly.

4.can an inquisitor give the ability to investigate certain item/person/cult/etc.. to a person trusted by him/her if said person in not member of the inquisition per se?

Inquisitors have very few limitations in how they go about their business. They can do whatever they like and get away with lots of it. They're not going to get policed by other Inquisitors unless they do sometihng outright heretical.

[Black Admiral]

1.how large would the spacefleet of a spaceborne spacemarine chapter be (on avarge)?

Roughly comparable to an Imperial Navy sector fleet; so about 50-75 warships, usually pretty impressive ones (the Soul Drinkers for one had as their flagship a pimped-out uber Battle Barge).

2.could an inquisitor demand a SM chapter to assist him/her as an "act of penetance" for some (assumed) misdeed and if so could said inquisitor demend that certain officer lead that force?

As Ford said, they could certainly demand it, but SM Chapter Masters are one of the few groups in the Imperium who can (although they don't most of the time) tell an Inquisitor to fuck off. And pressing the matter, especially with accusations of misdeeds being thrown about, could lead to the Inquisitor being quietly murdered - that's happened before.

[Shroom Man 777]

It also depends on who the Inquisitor is. No-name shitpieces get laughed at (or killed), but they know their place. While bigger names like Eisenhorn or something can do it, but it helps to be polite.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Others covered things well but I'll add this:

4.can an inquisitor give the ability to investigate certain item/person/cult/etc.. to a person trusted by him/her if said person in not member of the inquisition per se?

Power, both real and perceived, is a pretty pragmatic thing in the 41st millenium. You can do what you can get away with doing, regardless of whether or not your office or lack thereof says you can. A weak or low-profile Inquisitor with little political clout would be practically unable to defend any actions of such "deputized" individuals and would be best off disavowing any knowledge of their actions if caught. A powerful and high-profile Inquisitor can requisition small armies with the wave of a hand.

Inquisitors and everything surrounding them are very political; they're not police officers with legal procedure, codes of conduct and grounds for suspension. Asking if an Inquisitor "can" do something is fundamentally misunderstanding their role and status. It's like asking if human beings can play the piano, wherein lies all manner of semantic issues with the word "can".

[Ford Prefect]

And then there comes a point where even if you do complain, the Inquisitor may just kill you. Can you imagine trying to pin anything on Witchhunter Tyrus? He'd just set you on fire, then set people who are only vaguely related to you on fire as well.

[andrewgpaul]

4.can an inquisitor give the ability to investigate certain item/person/cult/etc.. to a person trusted by him/her if said person in not member of the inquisition per se?

That's basically the point of the Dark Heresy RPG. Of course, "member of the Inquisition" covers a multitude of sins; Members of the Deathwatch SPace Marine chapter are probably "members of the Inquisition" while not actually being inquisitors. Similarly, an Inquisitor's minions, while not actual Inquisitors, will probably have some sort of official identification, even if they don't go flashing it around.

[Ted C]

1.how large would the spacefleet of a spaceborne spacemarine chapter be (on avarge)?

I think a Battle Barge carries something like three companies, and a Strike Cruiser carries one company. A typical Space Marine Legion has ten companies, so work it out yourself (and toss in an appropriate number of escort ships).

2.could an inquisitor demand a SM chapter to assist him/her as an "act of penetance" for some (assumed) misdeed and if so could said inquisitor demend that certain officer lead that force?

Space Marines are rather notoriously un-reliable when called in by the Inquisition. Yes, an Inquisitor can call for support from a Space Marine chapter, but he'll have little control over how they handle the situation when they get there, and he probably won't be able to specify their chain of command.

3.could a inquisitor turn renege with being branded radical first?

Not sure what you mean, but as I said, once the Space Marines show up, the Inquisitor will have rather less control of the situation than he did before. The Inquisitor technically has authority, but the Space Marines will still only listen to him to the extent that they feel like it. Keep in mind that many Space Marine chapters are actually under Inquisition surveillance for heresy.

4.can an inquisitor give the ability to investigate certain item/person/cult/etc.. to a person trusted by him/her if said person in not member of the inquisition per se?

That's the basic principle of the Dark Heresy RPG set in the WH40K universe, so yes, an Inquisitor can assign acolytes to carry out various investigations on his/her behalf.

[Imperial Overlord]

A typical chapter's fleet is(courtesy of Battlefleet Gothic):

2-3 battle barges
~6-10 strike cruisers
~10-20 rapid strike vessels (escorts)

The Souldrinkers, previously mentioned, scuttled their entire fleet and possess a space hulk and some small craft based on the hulk.

[Connor MacLeod]

1.how large would the spacefleet of a spaceborne spacemarine chapter be (on avarge)?

Roughly comparable to an Imperial Navy sector fleet; so about 50-75 warships, usually pretty impressive ones (the Soul Drinkers for one had as their flagship a pimped-out uber Battle Barge).

I thought that was only for larger Chapters or those who held Territory like the Black Templars or Ultramarines.

A typical chapter's fleet is(courtesy of Battlefleet Gothic):

2-3 battle barges
~6-10 strike cruisers
~10-20 rapid strike vessels (escorts)

Do you have a source for that?


Anyhow, the 5th edition SM Codex lists the Ultramarines as having:

3 Battle barges (they used to have 5 back in the BFG era.. they evidently lost two along the way)

8 strike cruisers (Numbers of these seem to vary dramatically)

12 Rapid Strike vessels

31 Thunderhawks.

[Imperial Overlord]

2-3 battle barges
~6-10 strike cruisers
~10-20 rapid strike vessels (escorts)

The Battlefleet Gothic Space Marine list, mainly the fluff, available as a free download from Games Workshops Specialist Games. The rapid strike vessel number is an estimate from a fluff passage regarding Space Marine activity in the Gothic Sector.

[Falkenhayn]

GW has reabsorbed Specialist Games. The multitude of stuff available for free there, is now available through GW for $30.

[andrewgpaul]

Huh? The rulebooks for all the Specialist Games are still available for free download. There's plenty of additional material for the games that isn't available at all, but there's nothing there that used to be free and is now charged for.

[Imperial Overlord]

GW has reabsorbed Specialist Games. The multitude of stuff available for free there, is now available through GW for $30.

Some of the free downloads are still available. The "resources" section of Specialist Games has them.

click me

[NecronLord]

It also depends on who the Inquisitor is. No-name shitpieces get laughed at (or killed), but they know their place. While bigger names like Eisenhorn or something can do it, but it helps to be polite.

Eisenhorn isn't really a big name in universe. The big names tend to be inquistor lords, or very famous, like Czevak (eldar expert) Kryptmann (Nids) Hoth (Necron).

I have little doubt that if Eisenhorn decided to start saying bad things about the Space Wolves, he'd have an unfortunate accident.

[Shroom Man 777]

Point. Eisenhorn routinely gets shot at and stabbed at by lots of people, including his won buddies.

(But Inquisitors don't need to pull rank to do stuff. Amberley-chan, for example, can get a lot of mileage by being *nice* and *kawaii* with Ciaphas Cain-kun! Who is totally badass. Yeah, reading Cain's Last Stand right now. )

[Falkenhayn]

That about does it.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I recall the Space Wolves laid their hands on an Imperial Navy battleship. What class it is I forgot but essentially, the Space Wolves told the Imperial Navy to "shove off" when the latter asked for the ship to be returned.

[Aaron]

I recall the Space Wolves laid their hands on an Imperial Navy battleship. What class it is I forgot but essentially, the Space Wolves told the Imperial Navy to "shove off" when the latter asked for the ship to be returned.

That would be Egil Ironwolf's Iron Wolf apparently captured in combat with a rebel fleet, the class isn't mentioned. It's in The Space Wolf Omnibus pg 557.

[andrewgpaul]

An Emperor-class carrier, apparently. Can't remember where I read that, though.

I think the Wolves were slightly more circumspect thanFingolfin puts it; IIRTC, they named it the same as a ship that was destroyed in the combat where they captured it, and when the Navy asked for the return of their battleship, they said "nope, not seen it. This one? Nah, we've had that one for ages, sorry."

[Aaron]

An Emperor-class carrier, apparently. Can't remember where I read that, though.

A codex maybe?

I think the Wolves were slightly more circumspect thanFingolfin puts it; IIRTC, they named it the same as a ship that was destroyed in the combat where they captured it, and when the Navy asked for the return of their battleship, they said "nope, not seen it. This one? Nah, we've had that one for ages, sorry."

All I have on it is the Omnibus which doesn't go into much detail and is from the POV of a Blood Claw. So it's not likely that he's privy to the politics beyond his Company.