Body of soldiers, tense, without means to ascend (5)
I believe the answer is:
troop
'body of soldiers' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'tense without means to ascend' is the wordplay.
'tense' becomes 't' (grammatical abbreviation).
'without means' becomes 'poor' (I've seen this before).
'to ascend' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (I've seen 'ascending' mean this).
'poor' backwards is 'roop'.
't'+'roop'='TROOP'
(Other definitions for troop that I've seen before include "Military group" , "Force" , "A company of people, soldiers or scouts" , "Cavalry unit commanded by a captain" , "(Of people) come or go in large numbers" .)