Editing Breacher Siege Squad (section)

==Specialist Breaching Formations==
[[File:HoldThisLine.jpg|900px|center|thumb|Walls come in many flavors.]]
===[[Phalanx Warder]]s===
In the [[Imperial Fists]] Legion, breaching and siege units formed a core part of their organisation and training. The VII Legion may have even pioneered the use of Breacher Squads as a regular formation, as [[Horus]] was said to have noted their effectiveness in battle during the early Great Crusade and adopted the practice of arming some of his squads with breacher shields afterwards.

The Phalanx Warders were an elite company of Breacher-trained Astartes who were nominally assigned to the defense of the [[Phalanx]], though they were frequently dispersed to other VII Legion units across the galaxy to keep their skills sharp and to also provide an immovable line of defense. They were most often found in the kind of close-quarters, ship-to-ship boarding actions in which the Imperial Fists excelled. Indeed, the unique Imperial Fist [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marine_Legion_List_(30k)#VII_Legion:_Imperial_Fists|Rites of War]] frequently feature Phalanx Warders as a core part of their battleforce. Aside from their shields, the Phalanx Warders carried power axes and bolters as standard kit, though they also employed thunder hammers, special weapons such as meltas and flamers, and Solarite power gauntlets.

===[[Medusan Immortal]]s===
A specialized unit of Breachers that were unique to the [[Iron Hands]] Legion, Immortals were Iron Hands who had been shamed by experiencing defeat or suffering grievous wounds (but not grievous enough to put them in a Dreadnought) and who were given Breacher equipment along with very extensive cybernetic augmentation. Pre-Heresy Iron Hands had a very rigid and extreme set of standards that promoted strong-willed individuals and weeded out weaklings. If a Marine was, as mentioned before, shamed in either of the above ways, their [[Ferrus Manus|Primarch]] would strip them of any ranks and titles, give them a serial number, and remove them from their original companies to fight on their own as, essentially, living marks of shame.

For such Marines, being an Immortal was the only way to gain redemption in the eyes of their Primarch and brethren, usually in the form of an honourable death in combat and thereby a final chance at glory. Formations of Immortals were often treated as forlorn hopes (i.e., units that were first into a breached fortification or the entrance into a Zone Mortalis and not expected to survive due to the often-ferocious defenses and cramped environments they would encounter), and accordingly the Immortals fought with determination in warzones so extreme that even standard Breachers would have had little chance of coming back alive.

During the Horus Heresy, the ranks of the Medusan Immortals swelled dramatically with embittered volunteers after the Drop Site Massacre, as the survivors of that battle saw the deaths of Ferrus Manus and the Clan Council as their greatest shame and humiliation, a failure beyond any hope of redemption or forgiveness. However, those who came from Clan Morragul were allowed by Autek Mor to fight alongside their brothers (which was actually unusual). And unlike other Immortals, they were allowed to wear a [[Red Talons|red talon symbol]] to further distinguish themselves (and these Marines were the base on which the Red Talons Chapter would be founded).

Despite these inauspicious beginnings, Immortals were not in fact generally equipped as expendable units, useful only to shed as much blood of the enemy's as they could before drowning in their own while carrying only the weapons they could scavenge, with more capable equipment assigned to "worthier" units. The fact that Immortals had extensive cybernetic augmentations allowing them to infrequently endure wounds that would have downed unaugmented marines while remaining combat-capable, as well as the fact that they could all be equipped with the increasingly-uncommon [[Volkite|Volkite Chargers]], allowed them to retain a certain tactical niche within the environments they were suited for, and allowed Iron Hands forces another option when Terminator armour was too valuable (as it inevitably became after the Dropsite Massacre) to deploy in close-quarters battle situations. It is also evident that enough Immortals survived repeated engagements to begin to adapt to and specialize in their preferred combat environments, eventually learning to forego the usual "run them down" tactics ill-suited for their Void-Hardened Armour, and instead adopting "gun them down" tactics against fleeing enemies, so whatever Ferrus Manus originally intended, the record is clear that the Immortals eventually became a useful and experienced combat asset in their own right.

===[[Praetorian Breacher Squad]]===
The [[Ultramarines|Smurf's]] own take of a Siege Squad. This time, their [[Rome|Roman]] [[LARP|Cosplay]] has gone completely overboard with the Praetorian Breacher Squad, as they eschew ranged weapons entirely for some good-old fashion fisticuffs. They are close-combat wall-huggers, making them formidable defensive units as anyone trying to LEEROY JENKINS them in CQC will get a face full of shields, power swords and power axes. Whilst this makes them deadly in defensive formations, on the offense...while...the lack of range weapons will start to ''really'' feel its pinch on these guys.
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{{Chaos Space Marines}}
{{Imperial Fists}}
{{Salamanders}}
{{Iron Hands}}
{{Iron Warriors}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
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