Horus Heresy Tactica: Legion Assault Squad

As part of exploring the armies of the 31^st Millennium I would to provide the community with articles of how to best use (at least in my humble opinion) the squads of the Space Marine Legion Army List. Over the next several months I hope to cover all of the units in the Horus Heresy: Betrayal army lists. Check back for regular updates! We continue today with a look at the next entry in the troops section of the FOC, the Legion Assault Squad.

Like the Legion Tactical Squad, the Legion Assault Squad is a revamped version of the codex version.  It has moved from the Fast Attack section of the FOC to the Troops section and offers different upgrades than its codex counterpart. Lets take a look at the basics.

The Basics:

The Legion Assault Squad consists of nine assault marines and one sergeant. They are armed with bolt pistols, close combat weapons, jump packs, frag grenades, and krak grenades and clock in at 250 points.  Up to ten additional marines can be taken for 15 points apiece. As with many of the squads in the Legion army list it is cheaper to buy additional troops for a squad than to buy a new squad of the same number of troops.

Upgrades:

-Melta bombs: Expensive and deadly vs vehicles.

-Combat Shields: Nice way to give every squad member an invulnerable save and does not replace any weapons options.

Every five models may take one of the below:

-Exchange CCW for Power weapon: A solid choice

-Exchange Bolt Pistol for Hand Flamer: Nice too.

-Exchange Bolt Pistol for Plasma Pistol: It’s a plasma pistol ‘nuff said.

Sergeant Only Upgrades:

-Exchange bolt pistol for hand flamer: As above.

-Exchange Bolt Pistol for Plasma Pistol: It’s a plasma pistol ‘nuff said.

Swap CCW for the following:

-Power Weapon: A solid choice

-Single Lightning claw: Nice too.

-Thunder Hammer: I would leave at home for the price

-Power Fist: the only place where you can buy one for the squad

-Pair of lightning Claws: Nice but you loose the ability to take ranged weapon upgrades

-Melta Bombs: Always take these for your Sergeant to counter Contemptor Dreadnoughts.

-Combat Shield: Nice and cheap. Take it if you have left over points.

-Artificer Armor: Good for helping your Sergeant survive challenges

Conclusions:

There are a couple builds that work well for this squad.  The best in my opinion is 15 man close combat oriented squads. Twenty man squads are also viable but can get very unwieldy on terrain heavy tables. For upgrades I would go with close combat oriented ones such as power weapons.  Hand flamers are also a good choice.  I would avoid smaller squads due to the probative costs and the fact that large squads rule the battlefields of 30K.  

Since this is a close combat squad your Sergeant should be kitted out for close combat. Melta bombs are a must for the price and a power weapon, power fist, or lightning claw is also a must. 

As with 40k assault squad the general tactics with these guys is unchanged.  Though they are close combat oriented they are not unbeatable and should avoid other close combat units. Use their mobility to go after units that are optimized for shooting and not close combat. Even though they are now supersized the assault squad is still a scalpel, not a hammer.