Centurion Squad

At least it looks better than the Dreadknight...

Hey, you! Tired of just one heavy bolter? Wish to crush your foes with their own armour? Wonder why your devastator sergeant doesn't have any heavy weapons? Crave GIANT FUCKING DRILLS? Then the new centurion warsuit is for you!

Centurion Squads

A centurion squad is a new type of space marine squad available with the release of 6th edition, which are a real pain in the ass to paint. Centurion armour is a warsuit whose STC printout was discovered after the Age of Apostasy. After getting the "not heresy" stamp from the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Imperium of Man began supplying space marine chapters with them, who dubbed them "centurion" after the former officers of the Legiones Astartes. The centurion is a specialist piece of equipment used for sieges or line-breaking. Despite not interfacing with the space marines' black carapace, which has no in-game benefit anyway, it gives the marine durability (+T and +S) that is rivaled by that of a dreadnought, without the requirement of losing their spine and three out of four limbs in a heroic but probably avoidable last stand. Instead of recruiting out of the chapter's First Company veterans, centurion pilots are recruited from the assault or devastator squads, as centurions are only useful in specific roles of assault and heavy weapons, and their pilots need to be immersed in a specific type of warfare. This doesn't make much sense as an explanation though, since tactical marines already went through being devastators and then assault marines. Unfortunately, only the sergeant can be upgraded to a vet, which makes assault centurion cry, as that extra attack would be nice.

While you won't be blam'd for calling them "reasonable dreadnoughts", it should be noted that their current status makes them inferior to true dreadnoughts DUE TO THE LACK OF HEROIC SACRIFICES.

They are also commonly referred to as "Space Marine inside a Space Marine" or "baby Dreadknights" by fa/tg/uys. Sometimes "tubinators" by less fa/tg/uys or "Matryoshka Marines" by Russian wannabes. Actual Russians call them "Kolobki".

Those who hate how it looks compared to the awesome to fail art can kitbash cataphractii and some weapon bits. Those who are lazy and have some money can use graviton weapons Forge World bits to to represent grav-cannons, maxim bolters or rotor cannons for hurricane bolters and cyclones for missile launchers. Just buy a squad of cataphractii, the special weapon sets, and the Iron Hands Forge Lord to represent the sergeant and paint them the colors of your chosen chapter.

If you don't mind how they look you may as well kitbash from other models anyways. Seriously, as selling a kidney or becoming a drug dealer is required to afford two centurion squads and the land raider or flier you want to put them in. Ass-cen kitbashing will require some extra cash and searching to represent the drills with meltaguns or flamers. However, you might happen to be a masochist, as they are not as good as their shooty battle-brothers.

Tabletop

So how are they on the table? Well, it's complicated. You see the squads have a lot of power but come with drawbacks that you're not used to seeing in marine armies. Both squads are very durable with T5 W2 and 2+ saves, have a wide selection of mostly twin-linked weapons, and can move, and fire both in the same turn and still assault thanks to Slow and Purposeful.

Dev-Cens wreck armor with access to lascannons, and missile launchers, or pump out tons of bolt shots, or both if you mix and match, which is generally a terrible idea. They also can be equipped with grav-cannons, which are the ultimate MEQ and TEQ killers. Ass-Cens, meanwhile, can wreck anything in assault, particularly asses, with 2 S10 AP2 Armorbane (specialist weapons, not that that matters) attacks, at initiative, along with twin-linked flamers, or meltas, with either hurricane bolters, or ironclad assault launchers.

On the other hand, both squads are very expensive, clocking in at just under terminator cost before wargear. It costs a fortune to take a 5 man unit of either, the Dev-Cen especially, having to pay an extra 20 pts per if they're replacing their base heavy bolter. Now for the drawbacks. Slow and Purposeful keeps the squad from running, sweeping advancing, or overwatching, which with the exception of the restriction on sweeping advance are very foreign concepts to marine units.

In summary Centurions are marines cranked up to 11, but marines that don't fill any roles their army didn't already have covered by another, cheaper, unit. They have their uses but can be very situational. Dev-Cents are the ultimate TEQ deleters, if you get them close enough, and can also carve chunks out of strong-armored Monstrous Creatures. Ass-Cens, sadly, are useless. (Kidding aside, these guys were released coinciding with Stronghold Assault; they break buildings and do a pretty fine job of it. At-initiative S9 AP 2 and a 2+ also means the serge can hunt for all kinds of challenges. They're a specialized unit, but not a totally useless one.)

A certain build called the Grav-Star has four to six of them with Grav-Cannons and Hurricane Bolters paired with Tigurius rolling for Gates of Infinity and then whatever goodies he can get on other tables, then paired with whatever other HQs you feel like having (such as a beatstick build chaptermaster and/or some psykers for more buffs) that can then be further paired with a Tau buffmander. This can become very expensive (nearing 1000 points for a six cent build with all the bells and whistles!), but has the durability and firepower to devastate just about anything it meets while weathering the storm itself.

Mathhammer Minute

For the table below, assume bolters are at single-shot range. Graviton weapons are counted as dealing two glances on a 6 but no glances on a 5-down. This list doesn't count Imperial Fist Centurion devastators, who would get tank hunters which would be a pretty substantial boon for lascannon and missile launcher loadouts and basically make them Ersatz Railgun Broadsides (well before the 6th edition nerf) in terms of lethality to tanks.

Average Number of Glances and Penetrations Dealt

Name	Points	AV
		10	11	12	13	14
2 Centurions with TL Lascannon and Missile Launcher	160	2.89	2.37	1.85	1.33	0.81
2 Centurions with Grav-Cannon/Amp and Hurricane Bolters	160	4.96	4.07	4.07	4.07	4.07
4 Lascannon Devastators + Sergeant (Signum)	150	2.83	2.36	1.89	1.42	0.94
4 Missile Devastators + Sergeant (Signum)	130	2.36	1.89	1.42	0.94	0.47
4 Heavy Bolter Devastators + Sergeant (Signum)	110	2.83	1.42	0.00	0.00	0.00

As you can see, the incredible rate of fire of grav-cannons (particularly wielded by a Relentless model), combined with, for their BS of 4, the superiority of Shred (multiplies wounding by 1.83) to Twin-Linked (multiplies accuracy by 1.33), combined with their ability to deal 2 hull points when they do get through, means they are consistently the best choice against any target. They are usually paired with hurricane bolters, as neither hurricane bolters nor missile launchers will help significantly against most hard targets but the hurricane bolters help much more against light infantry swarms.

For comparison, how they do against infantry (same range):

Average Number of Wounds Dealt

Name	Points	Armor Save	Toughness
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
2 Centurions with Grav-Cannon/Amp and Hurricane Bolters	160	-	6.48	6.48	5.59	4.70	3.81	2.93	2.93	2.04	2.04	2.04
		6	6.48	6.48	5.59	4.70	3.81	2.93	2.93	2.04	2.04	2.04
		5	8.15	8.15	7.26	6.37	5.48	4.59	4.59	3.70	3.70	3.70
		4	7.22	7.22	6.78	6.33	5.89	5.44	5.44	5.00	5.00	5.00
		3	7.41	7.41	7.11	6.81	6.52	6.22	6.22	5.93	5.93	5.93
		2	7.22	7.22	7.07	6.93	6.78	6.63	6.63	6.48	6.48	6.48

External Links

• This completely unassociated video predicts the coming of the Space Marineception

Gallery

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  Devastator Centurions

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  Assault Centurions

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  Daaaaaaawwwww.....

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  The Emperor's finest.