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1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
Assault Squads carry out the Codex Astartes doctrine of the decisive strike. A Codex Chapter's Battle Companies each hold two Assault Squads, and the 8th Company is a reserve made up entirely of close-assault squads. In the Codex progression an Assault Marine has already served as a Devastator. He learns aggression and timing here before he joins a Tactical Squad.
Jump-pack warfare predates the Codex. The Raven Guard and Blood Angels Legions both fought this way during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, and their successor Chapters still favour airborne assault.
Assault Squads are Space Marines equipped with jump packs, trained to strike from the air and fight up close. Under the Codex, Marines serve in Assault squads after Devastator squads, learning aggression and timing. Assault formations date back to the Great Crusade, when every Legion fielded jump-pack troops. Vanguard Veterans are their elite.
Assault Marines receive additional specialist training and gain melee experience over countless engagements. Their sergeant must keep track of the wider battle even while knee-deep in bodies, so that his squad is not left stranded among enemy hordes. In the Great Crusade, Legion Assault squads used jump packs to fly past terrain and open defences and hit enemy lines with savage force.
Appearance & wargear
Assault Marines wear power armour with a jump pack strapped to the back. Its turbines and jets let the warrior leap across the battlefield. Each carries a bolt pistol and a chainsword. Sergeants may carry power weapons, lightning claws, thunder hammers or combat shields, and a pair of Marines may swap their pistols for flamers or plasma pistols. Some squads go to war without jump packs and ride in a Rhino instead.
In the Era Indomitus the role is shared with Primaris Assault Intercessors (with or without jump packs) and with Vanguard Veterans.
They wear power armour with jump packs and carry chainswords, bolt pistols, plasma pistols and eviscerators. Assault squad markings appear on their shoulder.
Weapons & Vehicles
The brutal motorised tooth-bladed sword carried by Space Marines, Imperial Guard officers and Chaos renegades, chewing through armour a…
The signature .75-calibre rocket-propelled mass-reactive firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, firing self-propelled explosive bolts that de…
A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…
A volatile liquid-promethium projector that floods bunkers, trenches and xenos swarms in clinging, self-oxidising gouts of cleansing ch…
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
A massive warhammer whose head releases a deafening concussive shockwave and disruption blast on impact, shattering Terminator plate an…
A heavily armed VTOL assault gunship and flying transport of the Adeptus Astartes and Grey Knights, capable of carrying both a full squ…
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
The squad's task is to strike where the enemy is weakest, usually after the Tactical and Devastator Squads have pinned it in place. Jump packs let Assault Marines bypass terrain, land behind a firing line and destroy artillery or command units before the enemy can react.
Chapters such as the Raven Guard use them for "decapitation" strikes against enemy leaders. The Blood Angels use them for the furious charges that suit their gene-seed's appetite for close combat.
They jump into combat to tie up enemy units, kill infantry and seize objectives. They are mobile but less durable than heavy troops.
Jump packs let them redeploy in a series of hard-hitting attacks, or drop from low-flying Thunderhawks. Assault squads can also fight as bike or Land Speeder squadrons, or deploy from Rhinos and Razorbacks. They are best used to catch and finish weakened units, threaten enemy firing lines and contest objectives. Against heavy melee units, they need support.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary The squad's task is to strike where the enemy is weakest, usually after the Tactical and Devastator Squads have pinned it in place. Jump packs let Assault Marines bypass terrain, land behind a firing line and destroy artillery or command units before the enemy can react.
Chapters such as the Raven Guard use them for "decapitation" strikes against enemy leaders. The Blood Angels use them for the furious charges that suit their gene-seed's appetite for close combat. asset of Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters), Assault Squad relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Raven Guard: Kayvaan Shrike's campaigns rely on jump-pack squads striking from the shadows.
- Blood Angels: entire companies may take to the air, and Commander Dante himself fights with a jump pack.
- 8th Company: in the Codex structure this reserve company of Assault Squads is held back for decisive blows.
Related
Characters (4)
Corax · Primarch of the Raven Guard, the Deliverer
Kayvaan Shrike · Former Master of Shadows (Chapter Master) of the Raven Guard
Commander Dante · Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, Regent of Imperium Nihilus
Sanguinius · Primarch of the Blood Angels, the Great Angel
