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Hey all,

I saw that centurions got an extra wound with the new codex drop. Does anyone think they may be viable now? If so, for what roles? I’m starting out a new space marine army and just really like the look of this model, so I’m curious if they are viable units in a fairly competitive list,

I’ve got a box unbuilt so have been pondering this myself.

Assault Cents with flamers and hurricane bolters look like they could get some work done.

Dev Cents with hurricanes and either grav or HBs seem they might also be viable

Magnets, of course, is the real answer. But might now I’m leaning towards the assults as my primary build.

On paper assault centurions are good, like really good, at close assault and combat. Flamers and hurricane bolters and a crap load of CC attacks seems tasty. However, I say on paper though because they need some form of delivery system which leaves only a land raider or a stormraven. This in essence adds 200+ pts which obviously knocks them back to hard to justify.

Dev centurions are a bit better in the dakka load out of HBs and hurricanes. However, you can get almost 6 aggressors for that coat and it is very clear you should just take aggressors. Centurions with Las borders on the insane of cost and grav is done so much better by devastators when can take a pod.

In sum, no, there are more efficient options that does their job better and cheaper.

They are very very viable now. There's no doubt about that, and they benefit from being infantry in lots of ways too - apothecaries, Strats, ancients, etc.

Are they competitive? Yes, I think assault cents now are, if you can use them right. 6 for 312pts is a real bargain if you can a) support them and b) leverage them. They shred infantry and mutilate heavies in cc. They are bullies. Can you get close enough to bully people though?

Finally they love love love the IF Siegebreaker detachment. That tips them over into the 'serious AT' bracket.

It will all come down to how you and your opponent manage range.

I am building a stormraven themed list anyways. I figured I could use them to deliver my centurions.

iron hands centurions should be good, better overwatch and more resilience ...

dont know if theyre still overcosted

Assault cents are strong now, pts and statwise. But like buddha said..
Their ride is gonna be target priority 1 because killing it effectively kills the cents ability to contribute beyond the hurricane shots. Cool unit but risky.

Dev cents were ok before but now I feel are very solid. 4w in cover is a pita to dig out and puts out serious pain. Then theres the potential apoth.

The dev cents with the (twin linked I believe) HB is OK but the hurricane bolter has one HUGE thing going for it: attached to infantry: Angels of Death rule needs a look.
"Bolter" rapid fire weapons can fire twice (any circumstance) on infantry.
Then if you Happen to be Ultramarine you can fire like standing still so the HB's get good shooting.

Pretty effective points cost for what you get.

Same holds for the Aggressors, it will be interesting to see how the points to effectiveness works out.
Think I will look harder at this.

REALLY good point brought up here.
I had seen them used in some top winning lists so wanted to know why they are seeing a comeback: thought it was a Stratagem I missed or something.

I disagree with the dogma that they need a transport. People only think they need a transport because they think their only use is to.throw them into the enemy deployment zone. You don't need a transport if they are being used defensively in the mid field.

What does the bulk of the codex do? It advances into the mid field, dumps out dakka, and starts to assault by turn 3 or 4. It's a steam roller not a bullet train. Assault centurions on foot are fast enough for the following.

#1 walking into the mid field with intercessors, tactical marines, stern guard, or scouts. If the enemy gives up mid field in ITC you will score more objectives in an ITC format.

#2 They also have a 54" diameter threat range on the bolters and put our respectable dakka. They might need to advance on turn 1 but after that they should be able to shoot every turn.

#3 They have incredible synergy with scouts. Normally they are vulnerable to being assaulted. Assaulting those units when they are deployed or move 10-12" in front of the centurions is absolute suicide and will just rocket the centurions closer to your deployment zone after you give them a free charge.

#4 The threat range on assault centurions babysitting is 4+ D6 +10-12+ the dakka range of whatever is in the pod. So for example a nice juicy target is 38" away from the centurions. Walk forward 4" and bolter something. Drop pod in a dev squad with gravity cannons 10" from the centurions. They are in range so unleash the gravity dakka. Now on your opponent's turn the assault centurions are 10" away from the grav cannon dev squad. Assaulting the dev squad is now suicidal.

I think Centurions of both varieties are viable. Okay I haven’t got any but they do look good on paper. If it wasn’t for the large pile on unpainted stuff, I would be really tempted…

Per point both varieties (usually) offer a reasonable number of wounds at T5 and 2+. The extra wound makes them that little bit more durable (especially to small arms), okay they’ll still die to 2 overcharged plasma shots, but against lots of things will take an extra failed saving throw.
With the CENTURION keyword, when equipped with Hurricane Bolters each model can spit out 12 bolter shots on the move at a respectable 24”. To put in to context that’s as much dakka as a basic 5 man tac squad with a storm bolter on the sergeant,

Assault Centurions are in a bit of an interesting place. As others have said without a transport they make an excellent counter attack unit. In C:SM armies that are successor chapters and choose the extra 3” of range of weapons then flamers are equipped units are excellent for counter-assault and deep strike charge protection; Opposing units can choose to Deep Strike 9” out to get the best chance to make the charge but means those flamers are in range for toasty overwatch (unless they don't trigger OW), or they need to deepstrike at least 11” away which makes the charge significantly more difficult.

Offensively yeah, they’re really slow so a transport does seem to be in order, which does make the package considerably more expensive. The key here would seem to be armour synergy, have other armoured targets.


Devastator Centurions offer lots of options. For 70 pts per model you can have a large amounts of dakka (Hurricane Bolters and 2 Heavy Bolters), or can go Hurricane Bolters and the Grav Cannon. The later offers 2 Shots less, but there is range synergy of 24” between the two weapons systems, and the increase AP (and damage potential) of the Grav Cannon will hurt heavily armoured targets a lot more than the heavy bolter shots they replace (and it’s not as if you are doing poorly for shots with hurricance bolters), so to me seems like a pretty sweet spot.

You can turn them into mini-dreads with two lascannons and the centurion missile launchers… This does get rather pricey though.

An overcharged plasma hit has about a 70% chance of killing an intercessor or 44% chance of wounding a centurion.

10 plasma hits will kill about 119-126 points of intercessors depending on their rifles or 122 points of assault centurions with hurricane bolters. They are not that much more vulnerable than the rest of the army to plasma they will just attract a lot more because they are crazy resistant to bolter fire.

Dev cents with chappy for +1 wound against closest enemy with seigebreaker cohort dealing extra mortal on 5+ or 4+ with HB - thats under reroll bubble 16 mortal wounds (i didn't distinguish hb from bolter - so even more mortals) against knight.
Im waiting till IF suplement come out

I’m thinking of adding two squads of them to a list that uses two stormravens. I want to add at least one, but I wonder if two assault centurion squads is relying too heavily on them.

 deltaKshatriya wrote:
I’m thinking of adding two squads of them to a list that uses two stormravens. I want to add at least one, but I wonder if two assault centurion squads is relying too heavily on them.

This was along the line of thinking I had. For my Minotaurs, I was thinking 2 squads of 4 in two Stormravens, with Asterion and possibly 5 TH/SS Terminators in a third one. It would be super expensive though to pull off with the Stormravens.

So the missile launcher is not worth it right? Everyone just keeps talking about hurricanes.

I just happened to have a conversion in mind which could make the Centurions to look tolerable, but it would work better with the missiles than hurricane bolters...

So, why can't you A. Landraider them or B. Drop pod them? Asking for a friend. Also asking for me. I don't follow SM rules...

 FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
So, why can't you A. Landraider them or B. Drop pod them? Asking for a friend. Also asking for me. I don't follow SM rules...

Drop pods can only carry basic power armor. No jump packs, no Terminators and definitely no Centurions.

Land Raiders are so far as I know one of the only ground units that can transport them. Some of the FW superheavies might, but Im no that familiar with them.

 FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
So, why can't you A. Landraider them

You can, it just is expensive.

B. Drop pod them?

They're not allowed to ride Drop Pods anymore.

 Crimson wrote:

 FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
So, why can't you A. Landraider them

You can, it just is expensive.

B. Drop pod them?

They're not allowed to ride Drop Pods anymore.

Thank you, for the help!

Was there ever a time when land raiders were "Assault transports" or whatever the new rule is?

5th edition they were, that was the whole reason to use Land Raiders. Th/ss assault termites in Crusaders could even charge out with the assault ramp rule. I know nothing about 6th or 7th and once Cents got added.

Transhuman Physiology plus an Apothecary makes a unit of six incredibly difficult to remove. The Apoth keeps bring back dead models, and any weapon at Str6 or above is nerfed against them by the strat.

Someone above said that they are for mid-field defense, and that's completely correct. They put out an insane amount of overwatch and hit hard back in melee.

 Crimson wrote:
So the missile launcher is not worth it right? Everyone just keeps talking about hurricanes.

I just happened to have a conversion in mind which could make the Centurions to look tolerable, but it would work better with the missiles than hurricane bolters...

My 7th edition ones with that loadout have put in some work a number of times, however it really depends on the other weapon and what's lacking in your list as playing ultramines with dpuble battalions I don't tend to find myself looking for more chaff clearing potential I'm after anti armour or monsters, but on a mathhammer the bolters are better.

I feel that if you've got centurions, you may as well have an apothecary. There really isn't a better unit for an apothecary to babysit. Especially if you're looking at devastator centurions, which are 70 points minimum of memory serves.

I also find myself wondering about comparisons between land speeders and centurions.

Oh yeah Apothecaries are an investment you absolutely have to do. Keep that in mind if you do bring Centurions.

I’m considering assault centurions as well actually. I feel like those things with meltas and a captain could be knight killers.

 deltaKshatriya wrote:
I’m considering assault centurions as well actually. I feel like those things with meltas and a captain could be knight killers.

Not sure if melta has come down in price enough to be worth fielding. I love the stuff, buy alway feel like I’m being robbed when I pay the points to equip it.

 Nevelon wrote:

 deltaKshatriya wrote:
I’m considering assault centurions as well actually. I feel like those things with meltas and a captain could be knight killers.

Not sure if melta has come down in price enough to be worth fielding. I love the stuff, buy alway feel like I’m being robbed when I pay the points to equip it.

You might as well pay the extra points for the Melta as the Hurricane Bolters are enough for Horde units, and the Melta compliments what they want to whack with their Drills.

I'm still undecided on how to put mine together though. The box is just sitting there while I decide that and to how best remove the hands and replace them with the drills.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

 deltaKshatriya wrote:
I’m considering assault centurions as well actually. I feel like those things with meltas and a captain could be knight killers.

Not sure if melta has come down in price enough to be worth fielding. I love the stuff, buy alway feel like I’m being robbed when I pay the points to equip it.

You might as well pay the extra points for the Melta as the Hurricane Bolters are enough for Horde units, and the Melta compliments what they want to whack with their Drills.

I'm still undecided on how to put mine together though. The box is just sitting there while I decide that and to how best remove the hands and replace them with the drills.

The jump from 156 to 204 for 3 guys is pretty harsh though. I fully agree that the meltas are the better tactical option, and works well with the role they need to fill. But tacking an extra ~50 points on to the squad is a hard pill to swallow.