So in Dark Heresy, players have the option to summon reinforcements in the form of a Deathwatch space marine, Grey Knight, etc. All they have to do is pay the appropriate influence costs (in addition to possibly meeting prerequisities by the GM), and they're good to go.

However, after reading online, I've found that a number of people are unsatisfied with the type of reinforcement that can be called upon. Players are only able to call upon one space marine, one grey knight, one Canoness, etc. Suggestions were made that Inquisitors be able to summon regiments of Imperial Guard to storm a Chaos citadel, or an entire battlefleet to hold off to stave off an encroaching Tyranid hive fleet. Perhaps I may be exaggerating on the scale a bit but hopefully you get my point.

So my question is this, are there any homebrew rules that allow for the summoning of large group of reinforcements to aid the acolytes/Inquisitor? I know the rules encourages players and the GM to create their own type of reinforcements, but it doesn't seem to encourage the act on this large a scale. I would definitely be eager to try my hand at creating rules/influence costs that might work, but I thought it best to ask first.

Also as a bonus, how would you work that into your campaign? If the acolytes decided they wanted to summon a large force to assist them, how would you imagine that playing out (if at all)?

Many thanks in advance!

Considering no-one has answered I'll tell you what I'd do.

At low levels requisitioning resources of that scale should be left to the acolytes' superiors. At higher levels it's almost a scenario in and of itself. Turning naval formations to your will requires a lot of looking and convincing and even bribery. In theory an inquisitor of enough rank can just requisition what he wants, in practice that puts a lot of noses out of joint and makes him/her a lot of enemies. On the other hand if he/she can convince those needed that this course of action is the one they want to take then the same goal is achieved while making allies along the way.

Basically, I would quote some silly high influence cost for the group to requisition what they need, then drop the hint that the governor’s fleet has been in dry dock for well past the time it would take for routine maintenance, for example, and allow that to run into a mini-scenario. The party might still have to spend some influence to get some stuff done (bribe a tech-magos with some archiotech or something) but for the most part they are paying for what they want in favours, time and brainpower.

I think the Reinforcements are simply meant to provide players with alternate characters - sort of codifying the "house practice" of some GMs who have switched between Dark Heresy and Deathwatch, alternating characters depending on which point in the plot the players were at. It did not go down well with the majority because, as you already mentioned, it doesn't exactly touch on the reinforcements most teams would actually requisition, and might even feel a bit silly when the players call in a single Space Marine as if he's supposed to be some sort of superman.

My own thinking is close to PhilOfCalth's, although I would go as far as to drop Requisition entirely and rather make it depend on roleplaying choices, with the players having to figure out just how far they can push when trying to gather allies, with the risk of being turned down entirely if they're asking for too much without good reason or additional backup in the form of influential Contacts.

It'd probably easy to come up with a system using Requisition, too, but I am not aware of anyone here having done so yet.

At a certain point the scale becomes a little abstract anyway.

For example if the PCs are assaulting a rebel governors palace, sure they can call in and receive Imperial Guard regiments maybe even an Astartes squad or two but in a way that can be handled as a cut scene by the GM (or even a full blown WH40K TT or Epic battle if you're feeling ambitious) .

Once the PCs get into the corridors of the Palace there is likely to be a scene where the Astartes Sgt goes 'Brother Halek you accompany the Acolytes to defeat the governor the rest of Squad Pegasus will hold the gateway' That way RAW can be adhered to without it compromising the fluff.