Crusader Squad

The Galaxy's worst buddy system. Ever.

Should not be confused with Ecclesiarchal Crusaders and the more generic Crusader.

Crusader Squads are the backbone of any Black Templars formation with a Fighting Company and consist of varying levels of Initiates, and Black Templar Neophytes. They are also getting Primaris versions of the better firstborn marines.

Overview

The majority of the Chapter's Battle-Brothers are organized into these squads. Many are led by one of the Sword Brethren - veterans whose deeds and example inspire Initiates to even greater acts of assfucking. The squads are primarily armed with the holy Bolter, though given the Black Templars' preference for close combat, many choose to carry Chainswords and other melee weapons.

Crunch

In 6th Edition, these are your troop choice. You get these guys and nothing else. Rejoice. They're basically tactical marines (initiates), who can also have scouts (neophytes) in their squad. Awesome. Neophytes are great, they're cheap bodies to throw onto incoming power fists, or krak missiles. The initiates can be armed with either Bolt Pistol + Close Combat Weapon, or Bolter. Neophytes can be armed with Bolt Pistol + Close Combat Weapon, or shotgun. Additionally, you can take 1 special weapon, and either 1 heavy weapon or 1 special close combat weapon.

In 8th Edition, these guys were arbitrarily more expensive than Tactical Squads, but still retained some of the bonuses that they had in 6th. Particularly good is the fact that if you had as many neophytes as you did Scouts in that squad, then you get to reroll wound rolls of 1 in melee. In addition, one man in every 5 can take a Special weapon or can take a heavy weapon/melee weapon. This gave them a utilitarian build in comparison to other Tactical marines. With your superdoctrine, the best Loadouts are either lightning claws or Chainsword spam to take full advantage of the 6+ auto wounds.

In 9th, they were Arbitrarily CHEAPER compared to Tactical Squads, and can take up to 20 members. Take them and a Captain in a Land Raider Crusader for maximum kek. Additionally, Crusader Squads gain the Smokescreen Keyword if they have 1 Neophyte in said squad, meaning that they can spend 1 CP on Smokescreen to become -1 to hit from ranged attacks, which will give them extra survivability from incoming Blast weapons that will inevitably try to target you.

The 9th Edition Supplement also included a Primaris Space Marines version, providing a similar method, but now able to benefit from all the Primaris stratagems and transports. The loadouts for these bigger marines are pretty much identical, with neophytes using bolt carbines, shotguns, or chainswords+pistols at the same time while the initiates have their choice of either auto bolt rifle, chainsword, or the occasional pyreblaster (a souped-up flamer made for those special nu-marine boys).