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Primaris marines are what happens when product decisions are made by a committee of marketing, legal, and finance teams while the design team waits in the hall.

They would have been better off just making all marines two wounds and upping points accordingly. Numarines should have just shown up as new armor variants in a larger scale to slowly replace existing model lines and gw should have focused on different regions and factions rather than turning the entire universe into a soap opera with a dozen main characters... But they did what they did because that is how marketing, legal and finance teams think. They worry about flash, property and luring investors so we got the next gen for a new gen of kids raised on collectible card games and with the attention spans of stoned gnats.

My guess is that if/when NuMarines get melee units (with power weapons) and the full range of Imperial special/heavy weapon options, the older marines' days are numbered.

I just hope that you could make a marine army with 13 point marines instead of 20 point models... if I want a head count that low, I could just go full on Custodes. Ugh.

I'd be surprised if, at this stage, they didn't start phasing out the old marines and pushing the focus even further onto the Primaris ones. Personally, I think it's a shame – I think the Primaris Marines are goofy as heck in terms of design and background – but it's not like anyone's going to come round and smash the Proper Marines army I'm working on, so I'll just finish that off and keep playing with it, and do my best to ignore the new background. Not that fussed about oldmarines not getting any new stuff either; they've plenty of cool options and there are very few gaps in the range.

The only primaris units that aren't better than their counterparts are agressors and inceptors.

Intersessors are superior to tactical marines.
Hellblasters are superior to devastators.
Primaris heros > non primarius heros.
Redemptor > Ven Dread.
Repuslor > Landraider (this one is pretty laughable).
Rivers > Scouts.

I think they make for a good option. The ability to spread those wounds around can be pretty good, but the smaller squad size can really hurt.

 ChargerIIC wrote:
I think they make for a good option. The ability to spread those wounds around can be pretty good, but the smaller squad size can really hurt.

Realistically you want small squad size anyways. 10 man tactical takes 7 unsaved wounds. It's probably wiped even with reroll leadership. A 5 man intercessor will practicall never have to take anything worst than a -4 leadership after 8 wounds and they still get rerolls - plus it's only 1 guy left so who gives a gak. My Ultras have +1 leadership too so - they are essentially immune to battle-shock.

Sure - primaris get beat up bad by 2D weapons. However - tacs get wrecked by non overcharged plasma...so it's kind of like saying - different weapons have different rolls...DUH. There is 1 thing that every weapon in the game is good at removing. It's called expensive 1 wound models.

 ChargerIIC wrote:
I think they make for a good option. The ability to spread those wounds around can be pretty good, but the smaller squad size can really hurt.

How are you spreading wounds around.

you kill off any that has a wound already

Primarus feels like horus heresy marines rigid equipment on tacticals whos only job is to hold objectives and kill infantry, while hell blasters are there with the heavy guns.

and it kinda makes sense since rowboat is missing 10k years worth of memory.

it also makes them diffrent to current marines which gives you a reason to take ether or.

the only thing they dont have going for them at the moment is dedicated assault unit with power weapons (we just got reivers which are more like scouts) and anti tank (we did just get the repulsive though)

 Nazrak wrote:
I'd be surprised if, at this stage, they didn't start phasing out the old marines and pushing the focus even further onto the Primaris ones. Personally, I think it's a shame – I think the Primaris Marines are goofy as heck in terms of design and background – but it's not like anyone's going to come round and smash the Proper Marines army I'm working on, so I'll just finish that off and keep playing with it, and do my best to ignore the new background. Not that fussed about oldmarines not getting any new stuff either; they've plenty of cool options and there are very few gaps in the range.

See this is weird to me because I've pretty much always looked at the old Gakmarines and though 'did...did it melt? They can't ACTUALLY look this...can they? Why are they all bowlegged? guh.' I mean I played gakmarines for most of seventh 'cause battle company, but outside of the landraider and dreadnoughts I've never actually liked any of the models. Then primaris came out and the entire line (except reivers) looks better AND has the bonus of being UP so I can play casual games without worrying about feel badsies like I have to with my much MUCH stronger SOB force.

Primaris marines exist for a few reasons

1. Expand the marine line in a meaningful way that can be used to add new models for a significant period. Centurions showed fitting in entirely new ideas so suddenly is tricky, and flyers/fortifications have already been fairly tapped out. So why not create a single justification for entirely new lines of marines you can use for decades? Sure, people will be annoyed by the lore for a bit, but give it a few years and people will have moved on like they did for necrons for example.

2. Freedom with new designs is a big one. Given the origin, they are free to create new models without feeling bound to old designs. Not just with the space marines themselves, we now have pistols and rifles that look like something approaching a real gun. More than that, they look distinct from the weapons we've gotten used to for a couple decades now, just just slight variations.

3. Hours hersey was fairly popular, and I think GW is currently pulling bits of it into 40k proper to see what people like. You see this with primarchs, traitor legions, and even primaris and their loadouts to a degree. I'm not sure if anyone actually thinks this was a big part of the HH line's appeal, but GW seems to be trying everything out.