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Hi all, I’m struggling to understand the new organisation of Primaris Battle Companies.

So the Codex Astartes has also been 100 space Marines for each company. They were typically 6 Tactical Squads, 2 Assault Squads and 2 Devastator Squads. All ten man squads making 100 per Company.

However with the new Primaris it is very unclear to me how this will work.

So the new Codex shows:

6 Frontline Squads,
2 Close Support Squads,
2 Fire Support Squads,

This doesn’t add up to 100 all the time. For example I love Inceptors and Aggressors. So Inceptor and Aggressor Squads are 3-6 man squads.

6 x 10 man Intercessor Squads
2 x 6 man Inceptor Squads
2 x 6 man Aggressor Squads

That’s 84, so where are the other 16 Space Marines in this Company formation?

Your help here would be much appreciated
Thanks

Didn't you know every Primaris marine have their own personal lieutenant?

So a company is even bigger than before!

10 squads in a company isn't a thing anymore. The previous Marine Codex showed that the Ultramarines 2nd Company had 12 squads.

Since the Ultima Founding the Codex is more what you might call guidelines.

So does that mean I can add more squads of Close or Fire Support to bulk out a company? Obviously I can’t go overboard lol

Azkallean wrote:
So does that mean I can add more squads of Close or Fire Support to bulk out a company? Obviously I can’t go overboard lol

Yes. The example Ultramarines 2nd Company consisted of:

1st Squad (Tactical)
2nd Squad (Tactical)
3rd Squad (Intercessor)
4th Squad (Intercessor)
5th Squad (Tactical)
6th Squad (Tactical)
7th Squad (Assault)
8th Squad (Inceptor)
9th Squad (Devastator)
10th Squad (Hellblaster)
11th Squad (Intercessor)
12th Squad (Assault)

Although the 11th and 12th squads are from the 6th and 8th Companies respectively, which have been seconded to the 2nd.

also the codex allows for the use of more smaller squads, such as instead of 1 10 man tac squad you could have 1 5 man tac squad and 1 5 man intercessor squad.

also any marines left over from that (such as if you've got 3 inceptor squads) pilot vehicles and walkers. such as the new Invictor walker.

Azkallean wrote:
So does that mean I can add more squads of Close or Fire Support to bulk out a company? Obviously I can’t go overboard lol

You can do whatever you want.

Make your own paint scheme & name, say they're a successor chapter of _______, & set your Co. #s up however you see fit.
The only thing you really need to keep in mind is being able to fill the required slots in the various detachment charts.

Azkallean wrote:
So does that mean I can add more squads of Close or Fire Support to bulk out a company? Obviously I can’t go overboard lol

yes it can, the big OOC reason for these codex changes is to make life easier for guys like you (and me!) who want to build our army as a battle company. Prior to 8th edition it was very common to fall into a "my armies actually breaking canon" trap, because you'd just for example, have 3 ultramarine devestator squads all with gold trim, now that's ok because presumably the one fielded from a reserve company is using the 2nds colours.

Things are a lot more fluid these days. Aim for ~100 guys (plus command) and keep a mostly 3:1:1 ratio of troops/fast/heavy.

Brothers splitting up into specialist squads has been around forever. It used to be assault squads could be fielded as bikes, or piloting speeders. There are just a lot more options these days.

The whole concept of the standardised codex-compliant battle company went out out the window when the Primaris arrived.

I would like to fill out a Demi-battle company with Primaris, but they are inconsistent even within their own new categories, which doesn’t jazz well with my OCD, so I am leaving it until it all makes more sense.