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As in the only figures you use are Primarchs.

Years ago my friends made a youtube video showcasing Angron vs Horus. You can watch the results here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlDqB_eJCcc&list=PL0Isi2b2ywdMQFJ7JxHt8RuPZIiEleKcv&index=2

They also did one of Angron vs a knight.

I've mathed the average results of a bunch of them out for purposes of Internet arguments, but I don't think I kept the math.

1d4chan has a bunch of fights on their primarch pages. Here’s the Angron one https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Angron#Angron_VS_other_Primarchs:

If this is just a Primarch vs. Primarch battle, it's tricky. A lot of Priamrchs get some really good bonuses the turn they charge, while others don't really care all that much. Typically, the high Initiative Primarchs do better unless they are fighting one of the Big 3 (or maybe 4). The support Primarchs really suffer in this kind of environment (Dorn, Guiliman). If Ferrus is in play, he'll never win, but you won't be able to kill him for many, many rounds. Vulkan can be the same way if his player rolls hot. Here's what I think are the top five Primarchs:

1. Horus
2. Sanguinious (depending on his load out and if he got the charge off)
3. Lion el Johnson
4. Russ
5. Magnus (depending on his psychic powers, he could be higher or lower on this chart)

Note that Sanguinious and Magnus depend heavily on other factors outside the duel. For Sangy, he wants Hit and Run, so he can charge, get all his insane bonuses for charging, then jump out, and repeat. Also, his load out. He has a distinct anti-Primarch loadout, and a "I'm going to kill everything except Priamrchs/Daemon Lords/Titans" loadout.

Magnus can be #1 if given his Unrestrained Might of the Crimson King kicking his points up to 670-points! The random rolls of his psychic powers can really, really make him difficult, or make him not all that great.

In the games I've played with Primarchs, they are surrounded by their Death Star of a special unit, inside a Spartan. And yeah, they pretty much roll up on each other and start fighting, and the game usually ends before they manage to kill each other. Primarchs are tough to kill- even the weak ones!

Perty is also absurdly strong as a duelist.

Depends.

If everything Primarch related is on the table, Lorgar curb stomps everyone. When upgraded to Lorgar Transfigured he straight-up beats all but Horus and maxed out Angron in fisticuffs due to Precognition. If he actually summons demons, gets possessed, or used any other psychic shenanigans than not even those two have a chance against him.

 morganfreeman wrote:
Depends.

If everything Primarch related is on the table, Lorgar curb stomps everyone. When upgraded to Lorgar Transfigured he straight-up beats all but Horus and maxed out Angron in fisticuffs due to Precognition. If he actually summons demons, gets possessed, or used any other psychic shenanigans than not even those two have a chance against him.

Nah. First, he has to select the right powers (easy enough), then he has to roll well to generate the warp charges, then roll well enough to manifest them... and of course, all Primarchs have Adamantium Will and Deny the Witch...

Logar's best psychic power is Precognition... but he still has a low WS (compared to the other Primarchs) Strength, Wounds, Initiative and Attacks compared to the other power house Primarchs and no psychic powers are going to change that. His Mace... gotta score that unsaved wound for Concussive to take effect. His psychic abilities are all too random, and his melee abilities are pretty lacking.

At the risk of this turning into a maths fight, Lorgars reputation as a premier duelist is very well earned. He's an absolute beast and very much top-tier when he brings his psychic game.
For starters, he chooses Precog rather than rolling for it, so he always has it. He's a level 3 psyker and harnesses on a 3+. At a bare minimum, he's going to get at least 4 attempts to harness it which is a ~99% chance to succeed, and you can't apply Adamantium Will because it targets him and not you. It's very realistic to assume that he will always have Precog up if he wants it.
5 Attacks, rerolling everything, and a rerollable 4+ invul is just too much for most people to deal with, including Primarchs.

Regarding the original post, Primarch fights tend to drag out a bit because their defences are normally sufficient to keep them alive for most of the game if they are stuck in a duel. It often only serves to take both models out of the game unless they have been softened up beforehand.

Mozzamanx wrote:
At the risk of this turning into a maths fight, Lorgars reputation as a premier duelist is very well earned. He's an absolute beast and very much top-tier when he brings his psychic game.
For starters, he chooses Precog rather than rolling for it, so he always has it. He's a level 3 psyker and harnesses on a 3+. At a bare minimum, he's going to get at least 4 attempts to harness it which is a ~99% chance to succeed, and you can't apply Adamantium Will because it targets him and not you. It's very realistic to assume that he will always have Precog up if he wants it.
5 Attacks, rerolling everything, and a rerollable 4+ invul is just too much for most people to deal with, including Primarchs.

Regarding the original post, Primarch fights tend to drag out a bit because their defences are normally sufficient to keep them alive for most of the game if they are stuck in a duel. It often only serves to take both models out of the game unless they have been softened up beforehand.

This is good until you come up against vulkan or sanguinius.
Both of which can survive an insane amount of damage and laugh it off.

5 attacks that reroll everything is nice, but even then he will likely die before killing some of the top tier combat ones.

Russ can also cause serious issues in drawn out fights due to his abilities.


While the top spots are highly debatable, perty is pretty low on the list for me as I’ve really never struggled to kill him with any primarch I’ve ran.



As I said, I won’t give the top answer as it’s impossible to really say.
I will say sanguinius is in the top 3 with ease though.
His threat range and his rules make him almost god tier, even more so against other primarchs.

Mozzamanx wrote:
...Regarding the original post, Primarch fights tend to drag out a bit because their defences are normally sufficient to keep them alive for most of the game if they are stuck in a duel. It often only serves to take both models out of the game unless they have been softened up beforehand.

I find it often comes down to how the rest of the bodyguard performs in full-size games; Primarchs can tank each other for a long time, but if, say, the Iron Circle finish eating the Justaerin in a phase or two Horus is going to have a lot of trouble holding off Perturabo and three or four grav-hammers.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

Mozzamanx wrote:
...Regarding the original post, Primarch fights tend to drag out a bit because their defences are normally sufficient to keep them alive for most of the game if they are stuck in a duel. It often only serves to take both models out of the game unless they have been softened up beforehand.

I find it often comes down to how the rest of the bodyguard performs in full-size games; Primarchs can tank each other for a long time, but if, say, the Iron Circle finish eating the Justaerin in a phase or two Horus is going to have a lot of trouble holding off Perturabo and three or four grav-hammers.

The OP did say only Primarchs. If you start adding in extras... Whew. Things start to get complicated really fast.

As a Sons of Horus player, I take exception to the notion that the Iron Circle would be able to take the Justaerin... unless you are talking the actual "Iron Circle" Battle-Automata Maniple. Then, well, yeah. 1,200 points of Monstrous Creature should just about wreck everything... unless you allow Horus to have 1,200 points of a body guard of Justaerin.

1D4 chan claimed that Russ was victorious against all primarchs due to the chilling effect and damage output. Unsure if that's changed or not.

Post-nerf (the chill effect now only gives -1 to hit no matter how long the combat goes on) Russ doesn't wreck everyone anymore. Horus and Sanguinius can take him, the match with the Lion is a toss-up, Magnus can beat him with the right powers.