The new Strike Force Agastus box makes planetfall this week, packed with heavy reinforcements for Space Marine forces – from a customisable Primaris Lieutenant to a brutish new Dreadnought. Front and centre, however, is the Desolation Squad.
These armour-clad artillerymen are the latest addition to the ranks of the Primaris, laying down volleys of heavy firepower from across the battlefield. While Eradicators are forced to hustle their melta rifles into spitting distance, and Hellblasters must lug their plasma incinerators close enough for Rapid Fire, Desolation Marines can simply sit back and let the magic happen.
The magic, in this case, is explosions.
Traditional missile launchers – such as those available to the Astra Militarum – trade raw power for flexibility, swapping out frag and krak payloads mid-battle. The armourers of the Indomitus Crusade will brook no such compromise, so these new rocket weapons are specialised to fire one of two warheads, chosen when building your army.
In exchange, they boast the most powerful missiles ever available to Space Marine infantry.
More reliable, more powerful, and with an effective range that exceeds even a sniper rifle, the superfrag rocket launcher is the ultimate rebuttal to hordes of unwashed heretics and slavering aliens.* There’s nothing quite like reducing the enemy’s battleline to a smouldering crater with one pull of a trigger.
On the other hand, when your foe rumbles toward you with a spearhead of hulking behemoths, a volley from a superkrak rocket launcher will punch cleanly through any armoured shell – be it metal or chitin.
Whichever means of destruction you choose, Desolation Marines are all packing a little something extra under the barrel. The belt-fed castellan launcher saturates the sky with guided bomblets that rain down on the enemy wherever they hide. It’s perfect for flushing out cowardly targets – and it fires separately from your main rockets, allowing you to pick and choose your victims.
What’s more, the Desolation Sergeant can pair it with a vengor launcher for maximum indirect fire, wiping out whole squads before they ever come into view. And all while guiding the squad’s aim through his signum targeting system – now that’s multi-tasking!
The first chance to get your hands on a Desolation Squad – and their full rules – comes this Saturday, when Strike Force Agastus arrives on pre-order. We’ll soon have more details on the Brutalis Dreadnought and the new Lieutenant leading the crew, so sign up to the Warhammer Community newsletter to avoid missing out!
* Such as the Orks facing Strike Force Agastus in this week’s Battle Report.