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how many regular astartes do you think they could get through before all 18 primarchs are eventually put down?

if you had to estimate

One. A Raven Guard scout hidden on a hill several miles away calls in an orbital bombardment, and the primarch problem is solved.

 Peregrine wrote:
One. A Raven Guard scout hidden on a hill several miles away calls in an orbital bombardment, and the primarch problem is solved.

And then Magnus stops the orbital bombardment, Perturabo's armour systems locate the comm signal, Corax uses his jetpack to go on-site, find the scout with his surnatural senses and experience, one shot him. And indeed, problem solved.

I'm going to say at least 6, and no more than 932,913,485,432.

Well it would be strange to put a number to it but in practice I can see it playing out like a super powerful death star slaughtering units left right and centre but gradually taking wounds as heavy weapon shots/mass bolters take their toll, and once all are weakened a couple would drop and quickly they'd all start falling.

That's if we're talking about a fairly open battlefield with astartes of all stripes and unit types surrounding them and pouring on the pain. The process would happen faster if the primarchs split up and fought in smaller units.

In an enclosed space the primarchs would do much better

Primarchs have IWND, so combine that with shuffling models around to play Wound Bingo and they could keep it up, in theory, forever.

Per JNA's statement, probably never on the tabletop. Per the fluff, I'd imagine it would take at least a legion (and probably multiple legions) to kill them, and that would be through a death by a thousand cuts.

Edit: Well, maybe not entirely impossible on the tabletop. In theory, couldn't all but 1 Primarch be removed from play through Tank Shock traps, ala the new FAQ, with the last Primarch killed conventionally?

360 all armed with plasma guns.

I like the Scout option, +1 for Peregrine idea.

 Peregrine wrote:
One. A Raven Guard scout hidden on a hill several miles away calls in an orbital bombardment, and the primarch problem is solved.

Pretty much this...

Didn't Sanguinius wipe out a Whole army of Chaos at Eternity's Gate by himself

Engrenages wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
One. A Raven Guard scout hidden on a hill several miles away calls in an orbital bombardment, and the primarch problem is solved.

And then Magnus stops the orbital bombardment, Perturabo's armour systems locate the comm signal, Corax uses his jetpack to go on-site, find the scout with his surnatural senses and experience, one shot him. And indeed, problem solved.

One does not simply stop an orbital bombardment - this is the stuff of fairy-tales. Also - if one can stop an orbital bombardment - one can most like do anything within the realm of imagination and the other 17 aren't required.

 Xenomancers wrote:

Engrenages wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
One. A Raven Guard scout hidden on a hill several miles away calls in an orbital bombardment, and the primarch problem is solved.

And then Magnus stops the orbital bombardment, Perturabo's armour systems locate the comm signal, Corax uses his jetpack to go on-site, find the scout with his surnatural senses and experience, one shot him. And indeed, problem solved.

One does not simply stop an orbital bombardment - this is the stuff of fairy-tales. Also - if one can stop an orbital bombardment - one can most like do anything within the realm of imagination and the other 17 aren't required.

That would be Magnus, when he remembers he's a Psyker, yes.

In fluff?
They couldnt.
For a start its impossible to kill vulkan, so the entire question is flawed.



In game?
I'd expect you would need reavers or hounds to be laying down as much S-D fire as possible.
But for regular marines?
Wouldnt like to even put a number on it as even killing 1 with basic marines is a pain, let alone all of them in a game.

Well, let's see. Each Primarch is something like 6 wounds on average, right? With a 2+ Armour and a 5+ FNP. (I know some have worse than that, but I'm just averaging them out.)

So that's 108 wounds. 5+ FNP makes that effectively 162. 2+ Armour makes that 972. And BS4 makes that 1,458 bolter rounds, fired in one round, or (assuming one third of them are in rapid fire range) 13,608 points of Tactical Marines.

Now, let's try Wraithguard with D weapons! You need 6 hits on average to take them down (one six on the D table) which means 9 shots per Primarch, or 162 Wraithguard. Only 5,184 points!

Now you have to factor in those wraithguard getting into range before being mangled
Might want to make that a square 10k points of them to be safe.


And tabletop wise we still dont have rules for all of them, so that would also change it alot.


Some also have extra abilities, like vulkan re-rolling IWND etc etc.
So the number of shots would go up again.

Rerolling IWND doesn't matter-this is enough firepower to kill them all in one turn.

Unless they have some way to survive a 6 on the D table (6+d6 wounds with no saves or FNP allowed) then the Wraithguard should gut 'em good.

Except thats with the primarchs sitting still while in the tiny range of the wraithguard and doing nothing.

In reality most of them would instead be in combat, thus not being able to be shot.

Corax and Curze both have more than enough speed to make it into combat before being in range, meaning they wont even be shot at.

Sanguinius has no rules yet, but having wings and all, i'd add him to that list.





So yes, standing still thats enough to kill them.
When they actually move and fight back, its still not enough.

 Xenomancers wrote:
One does not simply stop an orbital bombardment - this is the stuff of fairy-tales.

Clearly too unrealistic for the very down-to-earth 40k setting.

If the Astartes who is going up against the primarchs is the main character and is loaded with Plot armor it would only need one.

Magnus could just teleport his brothers away from the bombardment. Which means he'd have to be the first one killed, otherwise he'd just teleport the others away anytime the SM's got close.

The real question is how many guardsmen would it take? I reckon the guard would win by jumping into the primarch's mouths and suffocating them.

In fluff it would be impossible. The Primarchs have more plot armour than anyone else, so they are invincible.

Also, the orbital bombardment idea is stupid. If orbital bombardments were any good against Primarchs, I am sure someone would have tried it. Orbital bombardments are way too clunky and unreliable to use against such tiny targets as a Primarch (yes, compared to planets and spaceships, Primarchs are pretty tiny). It would be like trying to kill a fly by using a battleship...

Can they have grav cannons?

 Ashiraya wrote:

Spoiler:

A Salamanders Librarian flew into space and sliced a starship in half with his force sword in the Salamanders series.

Really?

*headdesk*

Please can we just shut down BL? Mat Ward is nothing compared to these guys.

2 marines is all it would take to kill them all, with zero casualties.

One marine to load a cyclonic torpedo and the other to push the big red button.

No more planet, no more primarchs.

 Crimson wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:

Spoiler:

A Salamanders Librarian flew into space and sliced a starship in half with his force sword in the Salamanders series.

Really?

*headdesk*

Please can we just shut down BL? Mat Ward is nothing compared to these guys.

I am not joking. It was the final book and the librarian is named Dak'ir. It was supposed to be some kind of supersaiyan-esque climax to the series. It is absolutely nuts, way too nuts even for me. But it did happen whether we like it or not.

DOes Black Library supercede the codecies canon wise

No, all 40k material is on the same level of canon.

I'd say they'd make it through about three before they started bickering and stabbing each other. Deciding to fight as a team in the first place is improbable enough, but staying as a team and not getting into arguments is another step entirely.

 Ashiraya wrote:
No, all 40k material is on the same level of canon.

Its a kind of "Schrodinger's Canon". Its both Canon and Non-canon until you open the box.