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My boys just finished painting their 5 Tactical marines (5 Ultramarines w/ Plasma and 5 Salamanders with Heavy Flamer/Multi-melta) and are ready to expand.
They each also have a Primaris model converted to be a Captain w/ relic blade

For Xmas, I want to get them another unit, but given this is the extent of their forces and they will be painting slowly, what should I get them?
-Another box of Tacs so each can fill out their existing unit? The UMs would add a Missile Launcher, the Salamanders add a Melta/Flamer
OR
-5 Intercessors each

They both want Primaris Marines eventually, and those are easy to get cheap on eBay, but they won't come with the Transfers for their shoulder icon.
But I also like the idea of the Tacs to fill out their existing units and give varied models to paint.

Suggestions?

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It's massively down to personal taste.

I'd take the Primaris because I love the sculpts and this they're generally more viable than Tacs.

That said, I don't like the idea of mixing oldscale and Primaris in the same force...

Ultimately it's down to taste though!

I think that's part of my problem too. I got them each an easy-build Primaris Marine a while ago and as they built and painted their Tacs, those became their Captains due to the difference in aesthetics.
Part of me wants to just get them more Tacs, but with how cheaply I can get Primaris right now, that may be the better option.
Although adding Primaris now would be weird, it's probably the better way forward since regular Marines aren't likely to get much support in the next few years.

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Get Primaris. No point in getting old ugly models that will soon be phased out.

Betting that the flagship models of the flagship faction, in their flagship game are going to get better is a pretty safe bet.

Get normal marines. The customization can't be beat by Primaris, at least not for now. Primaris can be considered when they have actual options for customization.

Sir Heckington wrote:
Get normal marines. The customization can't be beat by Primaris, at least not for now. Primaris can be considered when they have actual options for customization.

This might not be a priority for younger players though. In fact not being able to mess up the loadout could be seen as a bonus!

I say the tactical box. If you have some other marine kits you have a ton of bitz to make some pretty cool models. Intercessors are a nice looking but incredibly samey.

Since my boys are indeed far from playing competitively or with anyone outside our home, it's entirely possible for us to get the Tacticals and proxy 5 bolter Marines as a unit of Primaris Marines.

But I definitely don't want to mix them in-game.

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 Stux wrote:

Sir Heckington wrote:
Get normal marines. The customization can't be beat by Primaris, at least not for now. Primaris can be considered when they have actual options for customization.

This might not be a priority for younger players though. In fact not being able to mess up the loadout could be seen as a bonus!

It could, but letting the younger players pick what weapon they think looks the coolest might also be seen as a bonus.

 Stux wrote:

Sir Heckington wrote:
Get normal marines. The customization can't be beat by Primaris, at least not for now. Primaris can be considered when they have actual options for customization.

This might not be a priority for younger players though. In fact not being able to mess up the loadout could be seen as a bonus!

Indeed. In my much younger years I remember building a box of tacticals and excited by all the weapon options. Ended up with a unit that had every weapon available. Thought it looked cool until I realised it wasn't usable in a game

Intercessors.

That way can mix and match up some balanced kill teams.

Also, the models are very nice. I love me some classic marines, but I’ve been enjoying painting primaris.

Primaris. When Intercessors get their price cut in Chapter Approved they'll be pretty cool.

Do both.
Give them the additional Tacs now for increased weapon options/to fit with their existing squads.
Pick up 10 Intercessors now because they're cheap. Hold onto them until needed.

ccs wrote:
Do both.
Give them the additional Tacs now for increased weapon options/to fit with their existing squads.
Pick up 10 Intercessors now because they're cheap. Hold onto them until needed.

this is kinda what I'm doing with my nephew.

I think the Squat Marines look pretty bad, so I'd go Primaris.

ccs wrote:
Do both.
Give them the additional Tacs now for increased weapon options/to fit with their existing squads.
Pick up 10 Intercessors now because they're cheap. Hold onto them until needed.

Not really sure I've got the fund-age for that at the moment, but it's something I'll be working towards.

Thanx for all the input so far gang! I'm leaning more and more towards the additional Tactical box, if for no other reasons than completing their existing units and potentially adding a 2nd Sgt to their collection for variety.

I also don't want to get the Primaris until they've painted some more models for practice.
After painting more Tacticals, my boys might have a better time making the Primaris look good.
Right now, I'm teaching them basic drybrushing/highlighting techniques

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 Stux wrote:
I'd take the Primaris because I love the sculpts and they're generally more viable than Tacs.

What the hey is going on in your local meta that Tacs aren't blatently the better choice? Not trying to troll, I just see too many D2 weapons to want to go all Primaris and I also see way to much armor to not have anything better than Krak Grenades on my basic troops.

I say go for the tactical box. Fill out the squads.

Go for the tacticals. Nice looking sleek armour, far more options, and greater poseability. A lot nicer than ugly chunky intercessors.

Yep, going with Tacs. Worse case: they want to try out Intercessors, so we'll just pretend 5 Bolter Marines are Intercessors.

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robbienw wrote:
Go for the tacticals. Nice looking sleek armour, far more options, and greater poseability. A lot nicer than ugly chunky intercessors.

Now that really is down to personal taste. There's an objective discussion to be had about whether Tacs or Intercessors are the better unit, but which one looks better is entirely subjective.

Besides, the Intercessors are easily the better looking models.

Well obviously it is down to personal taste. I just find intercessors (and indeed all Primaris infantry) to be ugly. Look at their massively oversized greaves and boots for example, it looks like they are wearing giant ski boots :lol: Tacs are a lot nicer looking.

robbienw wrote:
Well obviously it is down to personal taste. I just find intercessors (and indeed all Primaris infantry) to be ugly. Look at their massively oversized greaves and boots for example, it looks like they are wearing giant ski boots :lol: Tacs are a lot nicer looking.

That can't be objective. I'm not buying Primaris (everyone else is Mk2-5, so I'm using the FW Boarding Shield Mk3 for my Intercessor entries) but they're undeniably THE nicer models. It's like no contest. If they didn't have that blasted aquila on the chest I'd be sold.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Newman wrote:

 Stux wrote:
I'd take the Primaris because I love the sculpts and they're generally more viable than Tacs.

What the hey is going on in your local meta that Tacs aren't blatently the better choice? Not trying to troll, I just see too many D2 weapons to want to go all Primaris and I also see way to much armor to not have anything better than Krak Grenades on my basic troops.

Intercessors getting a price cut in the upcoming Chapter Approved will matter more than Tactical Marines getting a price cut because of density of wounds. Even assuming D2 weapons, Intercessors wouldn't give up that many more points.

Plus it's silly that, once melee is even slightly more viable with Orks on the rise and Tyranids getting supposed cuts, all your offense from Tactical Marines will be gone. Intercessors will hold their own slightly more.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

robbienw wrote:
Well obviously it is down to personal taste. I just find intercessors (and indeed all Primaris infantry) to be ugly. Look at their massively oversized greaves and boots for example, it looks like they are wearing giant ski boots :lol: Tacs are a lot nicer looking.

That can't be objective. I'm not buying Primaris (everyone else is Mk2-5, so I'm using the FW Boarding Shield Mk3 for my Intercessor entries) but they're undeniably THE nicer models. It's like no contest. If they didn't have that blasted aquila on the chest I'd be sold.

It’s entirely subjective. It’s your opinion that they are nicer, it’s not undeniable.

robbienw wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

robbienw wrote:
Well obviously it is down to personal taste. I just find intercessors (and indeed all Primaris infantry) to be ugly. Look at their massively oversized greaves and boots for example, it looks like they are wearing giant ski boots :lol: Tacs are a lot nicer looking.

That can't be objective. I'm not buying Primaris (everyone else is Mk2-5, so I'm using the FW Boarding Shield Mk3 for my Intercessor entries) but they're undeniably THE nicer models. It's like no contest. If they didn't have that blasted aquila on the chest I'd be sold.

It’s entirely subjective. It’s your opinion that they are nicer, it’s not undeniable.

There's certainly a subjective element, but I'd say there are some objectively better features to them, especially proportions.

Opinion of the aesthetics is one thing, quality of their sculpt is another.
Personally, I like the aesthetics of both, but am more found of the traditional Power armoured Tacs.
But the Primaris models being newer and bigger lends them to be the "nicer" models in terms of quality.

Based on this alone, we can say Primaris are the nicer models, even if you think their aesthetic is ugly.
Them being nicer models is why I'm getting more Tacs first. That way my boys get more painting practice before attempting to paint their Primaris

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There is nothing objectively better about them.

Them having close to ideal human art proportions in their legs and torso doesn’t make them objectively better, it just means they have proportions closer to ideal human art proportions. It’s entirely subjective as to wether you find this makes them better models or not to you.

Some people aren’t too concerned about head to body ratios and are used to the stylisation of standard marines. Others may like the proportions, but still find less proportionate models to be better because they prefer they way they look and/or find the more proportionate models to be ugly, mediocre or otherwise poorly designed.

I think the only factor in the subject of intercessors vs tactical that you could possibly argue is objectively better, is that the tactical have better poseability.

What DOES make them objectively better is that they've been designed from the ground up using more up-to-date modeling techniques, as opposed to older Marine models that had to adhere to the aesthetics of other techniques.

The quality of their design, and more importantly execution of that design, is better just based on the tech available now (CAD).

So we can subjectively say we don't like the design itself, but they were made with better techniques, which objectively resulted in a better model

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Exactly. Liking it is subjective. The quality of the design is objective. Quality isn't everything in evaluating aesthetics though.