Combat Doctrine
The Smoke Jaguars have spent the vast majority of their history fighting alone and as such have developed a vehement disdain for battles of attrition or bloody charges into the teeth of enemy fire, instead they favour lightning raids behind enemy lines seeking to disrupt the foe and keep them off balance. At all times they avoid being on the defensive and will withdraw entirely if in danger of being pinned down by a foe, only to return from an unexpected direction and with a new strategy.
When confronting a numerically superior foe they prefer to create confusion by striking at communication and transport links. When the enemy moves to counter, they will disappear, only to return with lightning raids on bases and munition depots. As the foe redeploys to guard their infrastructure, the Smoke Jaguars will launch a series of assassinations on key leaders or warlords. Then when the enemy moves to protect their leaders, the Space Marines will strike at exposed troop units.
When confronting enemies as mobile as they are, such as Traitor Marines, the Smoke Jaguars will become even more elusive. Disappearing into mist and shadow only to suddenly overwhelm enemy squads one at a time. So the Smoke Jaguars wear the enemy down piece by piece, never appearing where expected, never using the same strategy twice and they see no shame in withdrawing if confronted by an unwinnable battle. Yet ultimately their end goal is never to eradicate every individual enemy but rather to isolate and expose their central command, at which point the Smoke Jaguars will bring their full might to bear and obliterate the leadership in one fell swoop.
These tactics were tested and honed for millennia against the Ork menace and proved so effective that the understrength Chapter was able to keep the Greenskins at bay for six thousand years. Once they returned to the Imperial fold the Chapter gained access to the full panoply of Astartes war gear and the heaviest of equipment, yet they never truly favoured such cumbersome tools for at heart they remain a rapid infantry force. That is not to say they are incapable or unskilled in brutal warfare but rather that they hold such forces as tanks, dreadnoughts and Terminators back as a strategic reserve, only to be unleashed at the most pivotal moments of the war or when the time has come to crush the enemy's leadership with overwhelming force.
When working alongside other Imperial armies these tactics have proven devastatingly effective, disrupting and confusing any enemy so badly that they are left helpless before the grinding march of the Guardsmen or rapid strikes by other Astartes Chapters. In particular the Smoke Jaguars have proven exceedingly skilled in bypassing fortifications; walls, sensors and sentries presenting little obstacle to these Sons of Corax. Countless heretics and Xeno warlords have been cut down within their own impregnable sanctuaries by a single Astartes who disappears as swiftly as they appeared.
On the rare occasions that the Smoke Jaguars have been called upon to fight wars of total annihilation or perform the exterminatus the Space Marines have complied with grim, focussed dedication but they have never favoured such acts and these deeds are not celebrated within their walls. Though they do understand that the taint of Chaos must sometimes be burnt out, root and branch, they find such deeds wasteful and regrettable, an admission of failure and lax vigilance rather than a triumph to be celebrated. For the Smoke Jaguars, the ideal war is one that can be ended with a single shot.