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I'd like to start an army of Space Marines, but I'm a bit discouraged due to the (seemingly likely) chance of Primaris Marines phasing them out in the future. I was wondering if any of you have the same feeling, or if it's just a superficial concern and shouldn't discourage anyone from starting an SM army.

If you're starting a new Marine army, then just get Primaris Marines from the get go.

I only buy Primaris Space Marines and not normal marines units like terminators, bikers, vehicles, etc...

You should be reasonably safe, despite all the "rumors" I suspect it'll be ages before old school marines are removed. that said expect new shinies to be Primaris specific. There are, IMHO 2 ways to start a marine army right now. depending on if you want old school or primaris.

The first (for old school) is to snag yourself a copy of Betrayal at Calith. This will give you 2 HQs (a captain and a Chaplain, although the Chaplain could be used as a mace wielding Lt if you'd rather I suppose) 3 full tatical squads (or 6 5 man tac squads if you'd prefer) a Contemptor dreadnought, and a cataphracti Terminator squad. This is a GREAT starting point IMHO, and gives you a full Battalion out of the box. won't be the most compeitive list but it's a good place to START.
Burning of Prosperio is IMHO not quite as good for this as you lose out on the dreadnought, for custodes and sisters of silence. and the HQs are very chapter specific. still it might be worth as an alternative.

Now if you're looking to build around a foundation of Primaris Marines, The Dark Imperium box (or know no fear if you wanna save some money and are willing to get slightly less models) is the way to go. It'll include some death guard stuff so you might be able to go halfers on a box with a friend.



Now me, I ended up going full silly and bought both B@C and dark Imperium and started working towards a mixed battle company of blood ravens.

The reason I'm not just buying Primaris Marines is because I prefer the old marines over them and they don't look right when combined with units like the Sanguinary Guard, Deathwing, etc.

Buy what you want for whatever reason - it is your money.

The Calth suggestion is an excellent one. As an alternative to just tactical squads, you'll get enough heavy weapons for a squad or two of devastators (with missile launchers/heavy bolters) as well as plenty of specials/combi-weapons. If it were me, I'd kit them out as 3x5 tactical marines with plasma/combi-plasma, 2x5 devastators (of which 2-3 have heavy bolters, and 2-3 missile launchers, with each squad having 1-2 marines aside from the sergeant without heavy weapons), and then use the final 5 either as more ablative wounds for your squads, or do some light converting/kitbashing and make yourself some veterans. Meltas aren't great, but I've been toying with the idea of some Company Veterans armed with meltaguns and power fists to smash some tanks. If you equip your sergeants with swords or chainswords, you'll have 3 spare power fists as well as 3 meltaguns. Company veterans also have the benefit of being able to take wounds for characters within 3". Also, you can use some of the bits to make yourself a lieutenant; if you make some company vets as well (unit minimum size is only 2!), you've got yourself 2 detachments (with the terminators and dreadnought) with some juicy auras to take advantage of!

Now as BrianDavlon said this may not be the most competitive list, but it's a solid start and has a variety of units to play with.

 TapedTempest wrote:
The reason I'm not just buying Primaris Marines is because I prefer the old marines over them and they don't look right when combined with units like the Sanguinary Guard, Deathwing, etc.

Just buy what you like the look of. If in the future they squat the current line of Marines, they will no doubt just make the current Primaris stat line the normal marine stats. Play your old models as Primaris and hobby on.

 Porphyrius wrote:
The Calth suggestion is an excellent one. As an alternative to just tactical squads, you'll get enough heavy weapons for a squad or two of devastators (with missile launchers/heavy bolters) as well as plenty of specials/combi-weapons. If it were me, I'd kit them out as 3x5 tactical marines with plasma/combi-plasma, 2x5 devastators (of which 2-3 have heavy bolters, and 2-3 missile launchers, with each squad having 1-2 marines aside from the sergeant without heavy weapons), and then use the final 5 either as more ablative wounds for your squads, or do some light converting/kitbashing and make yourself some veterans. Meltas aren't great, but I've been toying with the idea of some Company Veterans armed with meltaguns and power fists to smash some tanks. If you equip your sergeants with swords or chainswords, you'll have 3 spare power fists as well as 3 meltaguns. Company veterans also have the benefit of being able to take wounds for characters within 3". Also, you can use some of the bits to make yourself a lieutenant; if you make some company vets as well (unit minimum size is only 2!), you've got yourself 2 detachments (with the terminators and dreadnought) with some juicy auras to take advantage of!

Now as BrianDavlon said this may not be the most competitive list, but it's a solid start and has a variety of units to play with.

More to the point I think building PURELY to be compeitive is a mistake. compeitive is good and all but there is something to be said for being able to plunk down a thematic looking army too. I like the look of the Mk IV armor. it'll be a nice way to stand out a bit.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Porphyrius wrote:
The Calth suggestion is an excellent one. As an alternative to just tactical squads, you'll get enough heavy weapons for a squad or two of devastators (with missile launchers/heavy bolters) as well as plenty of specials/combi-weapons. If it were me, I'd kit them out as 3x5 tactical marines with plasma/combi-plasma, 2x5 devastators (of which 2-3 have heavy bolters, and 2-3 missile launchers, with each squad having 1-2 marines aside from the sergeant without heavy weapons), and then use the final 5 either as more ablative wounds for your squads, or do some light converting/kitbashing and make yourself some veterans. Meltas aren't great, but I've been toying with the idea of some Company Veterans armed with meltaguns and power fists to smash some tanks. If you equip your sergeants with swords or chainswords, you'll have 3 spare power fists as well as 3 meltaguns. Company veterans also have the benefit of being able to take wounds for characters within 3". Also, you can use some of the bits to make yourself a lieutenant; if you make some company vets as well (unit minimum size is only 2!), you've got yourself 2 detachments (with the terminators and dreadnought) with some juicy auras to take advantage of!

Now as BrianDavlon said this may not be the most competitive list, but it's a solid start and has a variety of units to play with.

More to the point I think building PURELY to be compeitive is a mistake. compeitive is good and all but there is something to be said for being able to plunk down a thematic looking army too. I like the look of the Mk IV armor. it'll be a nice way to stand out a bit.

I definitely agree! Getting curb-stomped over and over again is no fun, but building solely with competition in mind is a bad idea, imo.

I also agree about the look of the marines. My current project is to (eventually) complete a Raven Guard First Company comprised mostly of MKIV marines. They look so cool!

I've thought about grabbing some marines to go with my AdMech, but I would only get Primaris. However, looking through their limited selection - I wouldn't be very interested in doing a full Primaris Army. There just aren't enough units.

One could argue the normal marine vehicles still work, but they're in scale with stumpy marines. The full line outside of specific Primaris stuff is out of scale.

I hope they eventually do convert everything over to Primaris-Only, but considering how huge the Space Marine line is already, I'm thinking that it will take a decade or more for them to really switch over fully and get a nice full line of Primaris stuff.

If they aren't planning on phasing out shorty marines, I don't see the point of the Primaris in the first place. The scale difference is awkward.

"Primaris are going to phase out Marines" might as well be a conspiracy theory. Space Marines aren't getting squatted. The worst thing GW could do is keep buffing Primaris models until they're the more competitive choice in a particular role.

If, for some reason, you DO end up getting 'squatted' with 'traditional' marines, you can always play 30K, which is almost universally praised as a better balanced game. You may need to change up one or two loadouts, but most things will work just fine.

Squat Marines will be around for a while, but you will never again see a new non-Primaris Marine model. For all intents and purposes they are an obsolete model range.

They're kind of like Empire for Warhammer Fantasy. Yeah, you can still buy the models, but they aren't going to be continued as a faction. They just throw you a bone and give you rules so you can use some of your old stuff.

If you enjoy the models buy them, but if you are worried that they will be discontinued, then you may want to look elsewhere.

I personally used to be a huge Marine fan, now that Primaris is out it's totally killed any desire to buy marines. I can't stand armies that have a mix of the two, it's absolutely abhorrent to me, and I don't want to start a new army that doesn't have a complete range of miniatures.

Not to mention the fact that Primaris are WAAAYYY too technologically advanced for 40K. They aren't nearly blinged out enough, and none of them are wielding chainswords or power weapons. They just don't fit in. 40K is the dark ages of technology, stop trying to make things advanced.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:

that Primaris are WAAAYYY too technologically advanced for 40K. They aren't nearly blinged out enough, and none of them are wielding chainswords or power weapons. They just don't fit in. 40K is the dark ages of technology, stop trying to make things advanced.

How are they too advanced? NOTHING Primaris Marines have is all that far outside the tech level we've already seen from the IOM. The lack of Bling is debatable although I'll note you don't see a lotta bling on conventional tac marines eaither. (their clean aestetic has a lot in common with the HH tac squads you can buy actually which are very popular) and they ARE weilding power weapons. although yeah there is a mild lack of chain swords but at the same time I think GW is reckonizging that Marines aren't really a melee army and thus are equipping em as such

I've heard this complaint before I just think once you look at them, there's not a whole ton of genuine innovation here.

And the lack of bling is good. GW should generally understand that bling!=good. They are way overblinging their stuff. Too bad primaris are about only new releases lately without ridiculous amount of bling.

tneva82 wrote:
And the lack of bling is good. GW should generally understand that bling!=good. They are way overblinging their stuff. Too bad primaris are about only new releases lately without ridiculous amount of bling.

especially as we can always add bling on ourselves

Buy what looks cool to you and don't pay attention to anyone else's opinion. if you like it, thats all that matters.


I have a mixed company of 30k MKIII, mkvii, and primaris. they all look diff and that's what I think is cool. each different mark has a slightly diff paint scheme.

but you probably won't see any new "old" marine kits from here on.

BrianDavion wrote:
You should be reasonably safe, despite all the "rumors" I suspect it'll be ages before old school marines are removed.

This, I agree.

Regular marines still sold a lot, they're GW poster boys. The primaris massive release just means that in the near future regular marines won't get new releases but GW have always had a politics of releasing marines so at a certain point I expect them to reintroduce regular marines again. It's unlikely that GW will produce super marines 3.0, I'm sure they will be focussed on releasing regular dudes once again when primaris don't sell tons of models.

Not even a chance that regular marines will be phased out in the rules, SoB are still metal models from the 90s and they've always been included in the rules.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

SirWeeble wrote:


If they aren't planning on phasing out shorty marines, I don't see the point of the Primaris in the first place. The scale difference is awkward.

To sell models, that's the point of the primaris massive releases.

Personally my marines are either Primaris or kitbashed with Primaris. So my jump pack/teeth of terra captain is based on a primaris frame. I'm putting together 3 grey knight strike squads atm, bashed with reivers.

I just don't want to buy into a line that a) looks out of scal when played with new releases and b) will never have a new release again.

Then you look at the actual units, and Primaris are pretty tasty since Chapter Approved came out. Intercessors have been in a few winning lists and can be competitive; hellblasters are legit, if a bit stiff; inceptors are the best unit Primaris have now. Finally, you're free to bring all the dreads to the party for their access to chapter tactics, and the fact that they don't give a damn about the scale differential between old and new marines.

In the lore there are major marine chapters who do not at all like the Primaris project, and outright refuse to upgrade. With this in mind, the notion that they'd squat normal space marines means they'd also have to kill off one or two Chapters that are actually /in/ the gameplay codex.

So, no. Primaris aren't going to take over completely in terms of gameplay. In models however? 99% of new Space Marine releases will be Primaris. So enjoy what you got, because what you got ain't gonna be updated.

SirWeeble wrote:
If they aren't planning on phasing out shorty marines, I don't see the point of the Primaris in the first place. The scale difference is awkward.

There is no scale difference; Primaris are simply bigger.

The point? Look at all the threads about "truescale" Marines in the P&M forum. That's why. However, simply releasing the Primaris models and saying "these are the new Marine" models would have gone over like a fart in a lift. So, they did the best they could to please both sides; release the Primaris models for those who like the proportions more, but leaving the original models still available so those of us with loads of the blighters already don't have to stop adding new models to the army because they're all different.

I think the existing non-Primaris marines will become a "legacy" range, though. They'll be around for a while longer, if only because the Codex is full of 'em.

They're making the Japan exclusive heroes range as proper marines, not primaris. They want the grow the hobby in Japan, and they chose to go with the old marines, not the new. If they were really going to be phased out, or even made into legacy, they would start the japan community with primaris.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
They're making the Japan exclusive heroes range as proper marines, not primaris. They want the grow the hobby in Japan, and they chose to go with the old marines, not the new. If they were really going to be phased out, or even made into legacy, they would start the japan community with primaris.

That line is older than the Primaris.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Seriously, old marines will be a thing of the past. A lot of people whined about the timeline not progressing, and now it is progressing, like it or not. The demise of the old marines if already in the fluff. The chapters have a tech to create Primaris, they have had it over century at this point. Just like no new old style marine minis will be created in the real world, no old style marines will be created in the setting either. The old marines will literally die out.

I am sure some legacy rules will be available for foreseeable future, but personally I'd not not invest time and money to a dying product line. It is like buying Bretonnians after the release of AOS.

Then again, if you really like the models, none of this should stop you. I'm sure there are some people building cool looking Bretonnian armies right now too.

Sales of Bretionians went shooting up after AOS released, and they're now some of the most expensive and desired Warhammer models ever made.

So. Like.

Bad point.

AdmiralHalsey wrote:
Sales of Bretionians went shooting up after AOS released, and they're now some of the most expensive and desired Warhammer models ever made.

So. Like.

Bad point.

OOP models can become desired collector items. Doesn't change the fact that Bretonnian line is dead, there will be no new Bretonnians, and the only rule support they'll ever get is some legacy list.

I think they will phase out primaris marines eventually and update regular marines, but it's no point guessing really. Popularity will decide. Just get the models you like.

The biggest issue with saying primaris is the future is that it would render FW obsolete overnight as they are mostly making new models focused on 30k

Ice_can wrote:
The biggest issue with saying primaris is the future is that it would render FW obsolete overnight as they are mostly making new models focused on 30k

I'm sure FW can continue to do HH stuff just fine. How would the Primaris affect 30K?

I don't understand why you would want to play with marinelets? They look fething stupid compared to a primaris marine. I mean...they are completely out of proportion and are barely taller than a guardsmen. I just don't see how you could prefer the look of a marinelet over a primaris.