Home › Units › Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters) › Centurions
1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
The Centurion warsuit is a massive exoskeleton that a Space Marine climbs into while still wearing power armour. Imperial scholars disagree about when it was first used. Its origins lie in the Age of Apostasy, and Centurions appear clearly in Imperial records during the crusades of the Age of Redemption. The first Chapters to adopt them, after pacts with the Adeptus Mechanicus, were the Imperial Fists and the Iron Hands.
The Imperial Fists used them as the spearhead of their planetary assaults, dropping them from orbit to break through fortresses. The Iron Hands, with their love of machines, took to the warsuits easily. Today many Chapters keep Centurions in their armouries.
Centurions are Space Marines in Centurion warsuits, heavy siege armour worn over power armour. They were introduced in the sixth-edition Space Marines codex. Assault Centurions carry siege drills and flamers, and Devastator Centurions carry grav-cannons, lascannons and missile launchers.
The Centurion warsuit's background goes back to the Age of Apostasy, when the High Lords sought brutal new tools for breaking fortified rebels. The Mechanicus sent out the Voyages of Understanding in search of ancient knowledge. The two approved warsuit patterns were not ready in time for that war, and the Tech-priests guarded them as secrets for years afterward. A Centurion suit does not connect to the Black Carapace. It is an exoskeleton worn over power armour, and the pilot crosses his arms over his chest and controls it entirely through neural links. Suits that prove too powerful are quickly withdrawn by the Tech-priests for "decommissioning."
Appearance & wargear
A Centurion is wider than a Terminator, with a pilot visible in power armour inside a heavy frame of thick plates and armoured legs. Devastator Centurions carry grav-cannons with grav-amps, or heavy bolters or lascannons, plus a hurricane bolter or missile launcher on the chest. Assault Centurions carry siege drills on both arms, with flamers or meltaguns mounted alongside.
They wear bulky, armoured suits with weapon arms and shoulder-mounted launchers.
Weapons & Vehicles
The Imperium's premier long-range anti-tank laser cannon, firing a blinding lance of coherent light that punches cleanly through battle…
A belt-fed 1.0-calibre automatic support cannon known to Imperial troops as the "Backbreaker," scything down massed infantry and light …
A short-ranged thermal sub-molecular agitation weapon that flash-melts battle tank armour, bunker doors and heavy walkers into bubbling…
A volatile liquid-promethium projector that floods bunkers, trenches and xenos swarms in clinging, self-oxidising gouts of cleansing ch…
The signature .75-calibre rocket-propelled mass-reactive firearm of the Adeptus Astartes, firing self-propelled explosive bolts that de…
A heavily armed VTOL assault gunship and flying transport of the Adeptus Astartes and Grey Knights, capable of carrying both a full squ…
Space Marine heavy weapons teams that provide long-range fire support with lascannons, missile launchers and heavy bolters.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Assault Centurions are siege-breakers. They walk up to walls and bunkers and drill straight through them. Devastator Centurions provide crushing heavy fire. Their grav weapons are especially deadly against heavily armoured targets. Centurions are slow, so they often travel in Land Raiders.
Centurions are siege specialists. They break fortifications and destroy heavy targets. They are tough but slow.
Assault Centurions use siege drills to break bunkers, walls and heavy armour. Devastator Centurions use heavy weapons guided by the suit's machine spirit. Veterans are often unsuited to the work, because their experience is better used elsewhere and the suits are too bulky for many battles. Centurions are slow and need transports such as Land Raiders. Their great strength is durability.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary Assault Centurions are siege-breakers. They walk up to walls and bunkers and drill straight through them. Devastator Centurions provide crushing heavy fire. Their grav weapons are especially deadly against heavily armoured targets. Centurions are slow, so they often travel in Land Raiders. asset of Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters), Centurions 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
- Imperial Fists: Chapter companies used Centurions to spearhead orbital assaults against fortresses.
- Iron Hands: among the earliest Chapters to adopt the warsuits.
- Ultramarines: Centurions with siege drills appear in Ultramarines imagery in the 6th edition codex.
- The Centurion Siegebreaker Cohort: credited with bringing down the Ironfang Spire, the Impenetrabulum Obstinus and the Nightmare Citadel of Morrowmire.
Related
Characters (2)
Rogal Dorn · Primarch of the Imperial Fists, Praetorian of Terra
Ferrus Manus · Primarch of the Iron Hands, the Gorgon
