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We've all seen threads about who would win one-on-one(and much of the time it seems to break down into a melee fight argument), but out of all the primarchs, is there any evidence to suggest that one might be particularly adept at ranged combat?

Slightly off-topic: If *I* were a primarch, I'd definitely be carring my super-customized STR 7 AP 4 long rifle into battle...

Pertuarbo would probably be pretty handy at long ranges.

If you count psyker powers as "ranged combat," Magnus has destroyed Titans dwarfing Warlord Titans with his powers on at least two separate occasions.

So if that counts, would say Magnus.

I'd think guerrilla warfare could be ranged combat, I think...

So Corax?

Magnus for me as well.

My initial thought was Perturabo as well. Siege warfare and the like leads me to believe he'd be good with some ranged firepower. I don't think Corax is our man, as his signature weapons are twin lightning claws....

Is this pre or post heresy? because i think in epic 40k magnus as a chaos primarch had a super lascannon to represent his eye beam. i dont think any of the others had such a long range weapon.

Magnus's psychic powers are absurdly strong at range.

If you want to go conventional it would probably be Perturabo or Rogal Dorn as they were extremely good at ranged warfare and sieges.

sorry but whatever makes rogal dorn or perturabo great at sieges doesnt mean they are great at range.
unless they are picking rocks up and throwing them catapult style.
the OP is asking for the best ranged primarch. i would stick with magnus simply because none of the others have any real ranged capability.

Hai guys i brough cookies to settle the problem *throws cookies at people*

On a side note i would say Guilman..

ChaosGalvatron wrote:sorry but whatever makes rogal dorn or perturabo great at sieges doesnt mean they are great at range.
unless they are picking rocks up and throwing them catapult style.
the OP is asking for the best ranged primarch. i would stick with magnus simply because none of the others have any real ranged capability.

But you can associate units such as the Vindicator to both Rogal Dorn and Perturabo. I do agree that Magnus is the best psychic wise. But those two are known for what they do with sieges and removing walls and defences and such. It takes massive firepower from range to accomplish such a feat.

I sorta hate the notion of Magnus having an "eye beam." I'm going to mentally delete that from existence.

Spartan 117 wrote:

ChaosGalvatron wrote:sorry but whatever makes rogal dorn or perturabo great at sieges doesnt mean they are great at range.
unless they are picking rocks up and throwing them catapult style.
the OP is asking for the best ranged primarch. i would stick with magnus simply because none of the others have any real ranged capability.

But you can associate units such as the Vindicator to both Rogal Dorn and Perturabo. I do agree that Magnus is the best psychic wise. But those two are known for what they do with sieges and removing walls and defences and such. It takes massive firepower from range to accomplish such a feat.

ur just not getting it. hes asking for the primarch who is most adept at ranged combat. hes not asking which legion/chapter is best at range. is there any other primarch you can imagine killing by range? they are all close combat gods. heck, much of the point of First Heretic was Lorgar becoming a CC killing machine like his brothers.

ChaosGalvatron wrote:

Spartan 117 wrote:

ChaosGalvatron wrote:sorry but whatever makes rogal dorn or perturabo great at sieges doesnt mean they are great at range.
unless they are picking rocks up and throwing them catapult style.
the OP is asking for the best ranged primarch. i would stick with magnus simply because none of the others have any real ranged capability.

But you can associate units such as the Vindicator to both Rogal Dorn and Perturabo. I do agree that Magnus is the best psychic wise. But those two are known for what they do with sieges and removing walls and defences and such. It takes massive firepower from range to accomplish such a feat.

ur just not getting it. hes asking for the primarch who is most adept at ranged combat. hes not asking which legion/chapter is best at range. is there any other primarch you can imagine killing by range? they are all close combat gods. heck, much of the point of First Heretic was Lorgar becoming a CC killing machine like his brothers.

Oh primarch gotcha. Chapter wise it could possibly be the chapters of the primarchs I stated earlier. It is Magnus psychic wise. But I really can't think of a primarch that was truly great at range.

i suspect part of the reason they were so suspicious of magnus was because he didnt do things the normal way (killing mooks by the hundreds/thousands in CC)
imperial fist and iron warriors would be great at range, on a fixed target.

Peturabo and Dorn seem more likely to use heavy ranged firepower due to their doctrine, though. That said, none of the Primarchs other than Magnus would have had much to gain from using range abilities - at best, they're going to be like heavy tank at range. Up close, they can cause much more damage.

Let's ignore Magnus, because he cheats.

Guilliman is the only Primarch who ever killed anyone or anything important with a ranged attack. So, by evidence of actual events, he's the winner (in this case, that means second place to Magnus).

None of them had a sniper rifle or anything like that?

They had pistols and things like that. Mortarion had a short ranged weapon called the Lantern which he uses in Flight of the Eisenstein. Vulkan used a master-crafted cannon-flamer thing on Istvaan V.

So would it be fair to say that none where really adept at range weapons?

It wasn't their chosen way of smiting, no. I would say that they would all be crack shots with ranged weapons, they prefer to beat things down hugely improbable hitting sticks instead.

I think they are pretty much all up there on accuracy and weapon handling, they just preferred being beat sticks.

cincydooley wrote:My initial thought was Perturabo as well. Siege warfare and the like leads me to believe he'd be good with some ranged firepower. I don't think Corax is our man, as his signature weapons are twin lightning claws....

Very true, was just puttin ideas out there!

I'm sure it's just the thinking that range weapons = pussies

If you can't kill a person with your own hands then you're not worth anything

Depends how we define 'long range attack'. Lorgar does an awful lot of long range attacks by proxy with his brainwashed cultists... from my Nid perspective, it's no different to a Carnifex killing you at range with Briainleech Worms

I was thinking which would basically be the best shot.

It's odd that most(or all?) of the primarchs and indeed all hero-type characters in 40k fight with a pistol and melee weapon combo. But then again, this IS 40k.

Corax does pick up and wield a Heavy Bolter like a normal marine uses a normal bolter. And I bet he was pretty darn good with it too.

It is more likely that the Primarchs all excel at combat with the standard Astartes bolt-weapon, as well as with las-cannons, plasma cannons, rocket launchers, missile launchers, meltas and everything else... but, guns being guns, it's really hard to say that this guy was better than that guy, when all of them can do everything the weapon was designed to do, and do it better than normal guys... but, all things considered, if a weapon has a maximum range of 500 meters, you cannot make a 600 meter shot with it. It simply cannot be done.

Now, melee combat... that is where things come down to the abilities of the individual, where one's personal strength and mettle matter the most. This is why Primarchs get into close combat more often. It's where they can truly prove themselves.

Ronin-Sage wrote:I was thinking which would basically be the best shot.

Peturabo, maybe? Wasn't he supposed to be the most calculating and logical (and so maybe better at calculating wind change and projectile drop over distance)?

It's odd that most(or all?) of the primarchs and indeed all hero-type characters in 40k fight with a pistol and melee weapon combo. But then again, this IS 40k.

Not really. A Primarch sitting back at range will not be able to apply much more firepower than the average Astartes. He might be able to reload quicker and hit moving targets a bit more often, but the difference will be negligible when compared to the difference between Primarchs and Astartes in close combat (for instance, being capable of taking down an Avatar). Not to mention the psychological aspect of the Primarch in close combat.

Psienesis wrote:It is more likely that the Primarchs all excel at combat with the standard Astartes bolt-weapon, as well as with las-cannons, plasma cannons, rocket launchers, missile launchers, meltas and everything else... but, guns being guns, it's really hard to say that this guy was better than that guy, when all of them can do everything the weapon was designed to do, and do it better than normal guys... but, all things considered, if a weapon has a maximum range of 500 meters, you cannot make a 600 meter shot with it. It simply cannot be done.

Now, melee combat... that is where things come down to the abilities of the individual, where one's personal strength and mettle matter the most. This is why Primarchs get into close combat more often. It's where they can truly prove themselves.

Now this ^

This is good explanation!

Psienesis wrote:It is more likely that the Primarchs all excel at combat with the standard Astartes bolt-weapon, as well as with las-cannons, plasma cannons, rocket launchers, missile launchers, meltas and everything else... but, guns being guns, it's really hard to say that this guy was better than that guy, when all of them can do everything the weapon was designed to do, and do it better than normal guys... but, all things considered, if a weapon has a maximum range of 500 meters, you cannot make a 600 meter shot with it. It simply cannot be done.

Now, melee combat... that is where things come down to the abilities of the individual, where one's personal strength and mettle matter the most. This is why Primarchs get into close combat more often. It's where they can truly prove themselves.

The ranged primarch would be the guy using a gun with the max range of 1200 meters. They just didn't have a ranged primarch.