Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello,
It has been awhile since I have followed the game and I know the landscape has changed a bit with updates, new models, and CA. I am intrigued by Primaris Marines and am wondering two things:

1. Are Primaris Armies or mostly Primaris armies decent/competitive?
2. What would you recommend as the best units to include in a mostly Primaris Marine list?

Thanks all!

Primaris focussed deathwatch are decently competitive. I can't speak to other marine factions, but deathwatch are pretty much Marines +1, so usually better.

If you play DW you can take 5 intercessors for 90 points that put out 10 shots with one of the following profiles:

30" AP-1 always wounds on 2s vs none vehicles
36" S4 AP-2
24" s$ AP -3

You can also mix other units (such as Hellblasters and Aggressors) into the squad and use the intercessors as ablative wounds. BEing DW also gives you reroll wound rolls of 1 against a chosen unit type (HQ, Troops, Elites etc.)

As to units to include in a mostly primaris DW army I'd say 3 units of Intercessors, a Watchmaster and whichever other HQ floats your boat is a good start. Watchmaster gives reroll all hits and some other benefits.

 Havok210 wrote:
Hello,
It has been awhile since I have followed the game and I know the landscape has changed a bit with updates, new models, and CA. I am intrigued by Primaris Marines and am wondering two things:

1. Are Primaris Armies or mostly Primaris armies decent/competitive?
2. What would you recommend as the best units to include in a mostly Primaris Marine list?

Thanks all!

1. No, right now Adeptus Astartes aren't competitive.
2. Hellblasters or really good.

dkoz wrote:

 Havok210 wrote:
Hello,
It has been awhile since I have followed the game and I know the landscape has changed a bit with updates, new models, and CA. I am intrigued by Primaris Marines and am wondering two things:

1. Are Primaris Armies or mostly Primaris armies decent/competitive?
2. What would you recommend as the best units to include in a mostly Primaris Marine list?

Thanks all!

1. No, right now no Adeptus Astartes aren't competitive.
2. Hellblasters or really good.

This is a double negative. "Right now no adeptus astartes aren't competitive." This means all adeptive astartes are competitive.

Anyways, a full Primaris army is solid. They aren't top tier right now, but they are the future of the Space Marine line, so I am sure they will be top tier sooner or later. Of course, that isn't what you were asking. They are definitely decent. Not highly-competitive in a tournament setting, but competitive in more friendly pick up games certainly.

 Grumblewartz wrote:

dkoz wrote:

 Havok210 wrote:
Hello,
It has been awhile since I have followed the game and I know the landscape has changed a bit with updates, new models, and CA. I am intrigued by Primaris Marines and am wondering two things:

1. Are Primaris Armies or mostly Primaris armies decent/competitive?
2. What would you recommend as the best units to include in a mostly Primaris Marine list?

Thanks all!

1. No, right now no Adeptus Astartes aren't competitive.
2. Hellblasters or really good.

This is a double negative. "Right now no adeptus astartes aren't competitive." This means all adeptive astartes are competitive.

Anyways, a full Primaris army is solid. They aren't top tier right now, but they are the future of the Space Marine line, so I am sure they will be top tier sooner or later. Of course, that isn't what you were asking. They are definitely decent. Not highly-competitive in a tournament setting, but competitive in more friendly pick up games certainly.

Sorry for the that I wasn't paying enough attention well typing. I went back & edited the previous post.

Collect what you want. The meta is in constant flux. New Marine codex is whispered to be coming soon.

 Ishagu wrote:
Collect what you want. The meta is in constant flux. New Marine codex is whispered to be coming soon.

this. don't fall ijnto the compeitive/not compeitive trap. yesterdays super units are todays trash tier. and vice versa. chances are by time you finish an army GW'll have released a FAQ and shifted things up.

Space Marines as a whole a kind of okay.

If you're sticking to Primaris-only though, you might be in for a bad time.

I've seem some success from mostly-primaris lists. Intercessors are fairly decent troops, though expensive. and good at pushing the front line and at killing infantry. However, SM non-primaris characters are much better than Primaris characters, and regular SM tanks and support units are better.

I also definitely wouldn't go pure Intercessors for troops anyway. They're expensive, so holding the backfield with them isn't something you really want to do. Some are good; their general resilience for cost goes a really long way actually, but you have to be able to leverage it.

For what it's worth, Intercessors are one of the few units that can win a standoff with Guardsmen. However, they will drop pretty quickly to fire from big guns, like Battle Cannons, or special weapons, like Plasmaguns. This is something you can work with, though. It's definitely part of why I wouldn't go all-primaris, though.

Guiliman and three squads of scouts to nab any desirable marine traits barring Space Mutts.
Two Deathwatch HQs as cheap as you can get them with Intercessors and Hellblasters.
Re-roll anything that doesn't hit or kill.

1. Decent and competitive in casual play. Which is all that matters here for you since you would have not asked if you were serious in finding your way through winning tournaments.
2. Depends on what type of force you want to build.

IMHO there is nothing competitive about a primaris army. Gunlines with Gulliman are about as good as that's going to get, and some people have had some success with them, but for the most part, too expensive, too fragile, and not fast enough.

with some luck, a new marine codex will come soon and help them out a bit, until then, competitively, they are little more than shelf warmers.

Now, that said, I have a primary BA army and I love to play them, they are fun and look amazing, but I wouldn't try to play in an ITC tournament with them.

The competitive arena falls to IG, IK, Orks, Eldar, and Dark Eldar mostly.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Ishagu wrote:
Collect what you want. The meta is in constant flux. New Marine codex is whispered to be coming soon.

this. don't fall ijnto the compeitive/not compeitive trap. yesterdays super units are todays trash tier. and vice versa. chances are by time you finish an army GW'll have released a FAQ and shifted things up.

It doesn't seem like it though. It is more like good armies rotating good units or builds, and bad armies staying bad. Unless the perspective spans for two decades. But who knows, if they are going to even be alive in 20 years.


DW primaris seem to have been doing ok, up until SS vets came around.

Karol wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

 Ishagu wrote:
Collect what you want. The meta is in constant flux. New Marine codex is whispered to be coming soon.

this. don't fall ijnto the compeitive/not compeitive trap. yesterdays super units are todays trash tier. and vice versa. chances are by time you finish an army GW'll have released a FAQ and shifted things up.

It doesn't seem like it though. It is more like good armies rotating good units or builds, and bad armies staying bad. Unless the perspective spans for two decades. But who knows, if they are going to even be alive in 20 years.


DW primaris seem to have been doing ok, up until SS vets came around.

And yet Yinnari were just nerfed into the ground. Imagine if you built a whole list around the Ynnari rules and no other reason.