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As the title, are you still using the 1W marine models - as firstborn marines for your marine army?

If so, what infantry units are you still running?

For me it would be tactical squads, terminators and assault squads (with jetpacks), stuffed into rhinos, raiders and razorbacks. And at least one devastor squad (now that I've gotten over my "mad" of using them).

The original list I made at the start of 8th still gets brought out now and again. Vanguard, Lord Executioner, Chaplain w/jump pack, assault marines, a ton of scouts, two tac squads with dreadnaughts each in it's own Storm Raven.

It's my "40k" version of a Long Range Recon Patrol from Vietnam. The idea was the scouts and jump troops were on patrol and called in the support in the airborne troops from the ravens. It ... is not a good list, but it is fun!

I was using nothing but Firstborn when I came back to 8th. At this point I'm still using Firstborn, but almost none of the W1 power-armored models, I mostly still use Scouts, Terminators, Bikes, and Centurions.

I have taken the odd Tac squad to shave points in a Battalion when I ran out of scout squads or to suck up wounds for Centurions in case their Crusader got destroyed. ...oh, I've used Company Veterans with Stormshields, but that was to abuse the Salamander's Born Protector strat before it was nerfed.

I had a fun list near the start of 8th before Boots on the Ground ruined it, it was a Captain, two squads of Veterans, an Ironclad Dreadnought, a Stormraven to carry them all and a Stormtalon on fire support. Just two aircraft dropping a task force into the hot zone. Not often that you get to be finished deploying on the second drop, although that list had a bad habit of being crippled by turn 2.

Yes.

Until the other week when Indomitus launched the only Primaris I owned was a lone Hellblaster. He sits on the top shelf of the paint rack on the desk. And it's going to be a fair bit before I get around to building the Indom SM stuff - likely not even this year!
Even when I do get the Primaris stuff finished it won't replace my existing stuff. I'll keep using my Firstborn units until they're completely removed from the game. And then? I'll just call them Primaris....
So my Firstborns aren't going anywhere soon.

So what am I using?
Tac squads, assault squads, devs, vets, termies, scouts, / Grey Hunters, Blood Claws with jump packs (or whatever they call them now), Long Fangs, wolf scouts....

In my DA:
Characters etc
4 tac squads
1 assault squad
3 dev squads
up to 4 scout squads
1 vet/HQ squad - depends what they call them edition to edition
Rhinos/Razorbacks - I have 7 rhino hulls that are magnitized/convertable. I can do up to 4 Las/plas razorbacks, 1 vindicator, 1 wirlwind, & 1 twin-las pred with sponsons. Or some combo of these + rhinos What I use/who gets a ride depends upon pts & game. My 8th rhino hull is a dedicated lascannon pred.

My SW:
2 squads of Wolf scouts
3 10x Greyhunters
3 min sized units of Jumpclaws
3 5x Longfang packs
+ Wolfguard leaders for all.
Termies - though they hardly see use any more.
Everything that can be mounted in a drop pod is.

I use Primaris bodies with Firstborn helmets and weapon loadouts, in a dead edition that Primaris didn't exist during, so... maybe?

Yes.

I tend to play strongly themed lists, and sometimes that requires firstborn. I also try to include new paint in lists, which skews things a bit primaris, but not 100%. The last list I played was pure primaris, but the one before that was entirely RT era models.

Pure firstborn player. In a lot of scenarios they are actually the better choice over primaris.

Pure TRUEborn marines here, too.

I run mostly Tacticals, Devastators, Sternguard and light transports Rhinos, Razors, Pods.

For weapons my go-to's have been Grav Cannons, Plasma guns/Cannons, and Lascannons.

Haven't played 9th yet. Quarantine :(

I suspect good use can be made from Scouts, Bikes and Terminators too. Multimeltas look like they'll get a fat boost for 9th, too.

Vilehydra wrote:
Pure firstborn player. In a lot of scenarios they are actually the better choice over primaris.

shh don't tell people that, you'll ruin some peoples fantasy that GW is deliberatly over powering primaris to force them to buy marines.

When I want to play with a Firstborn list, sure I do.

Most of my Ultramarines are Firstborn, so if I want to play with the boys in blue, I break them out.

Yep; the only Space Marines I’ll use.

Yes. In my crusade army I'm using a tactical squad with a heavy bolter, a tactical squad with a plasma gun and combi-plasma on the SGT, a devastator squad with 4 missile launchers, a Razorback, and a Stormtalon Gunship. Oh, and I added a unit of bikers recently.

The Infiltrators I have do pretty good work, and the Eliminators aren't terrible. But I haven't gotten my Intercessors ready to go, so I don't have the ability to compare them yet.

Some. Basic Kill-Teams in my Deathwatch are still cheaper and more flexible than Fortis teams, and I'm using a lot of Razorbacks for long-range firepower anyway, so I've got bunkers to hide them in built into my lists. This may change when the new book comes out and expands the Primaris options for the Deathwatch, though.

Still using a lot of Firstborn vehicles, but that's mostly because I like mechanized armies and the Primaris don't have a lot in the vehicle department yet.

My Blood Angels 2nd company is all first born, led by the Valiant Captain Aphael and his command squad, with at least 2 full tac squads of 10 men and 2 five man combat squads. I often run a mix of vanguard vets and death company; Sanguinary Guard when I really want someone dead and it's a grudge match.

Sometimes I'll drop in assault squads with melts guns, but most of my firepower comes from a couple of lovely relic contemptors.

I've found the tac marines still have a lot going for them, and I'll either run them as the slightly cheesy MSU double plasma config, or as a 10 man squad with a heavy bolter and stormbolter on the sergeant - they make for solid machinegun nests, but are no slouch in combat either with the Red Thirst.

As a last hurrah in case Firstborn Marines get squatted in the next edition, I'm painting up my 30k army to use (as much as is actually possible) as a Crusade force in 9th edition. Should hopefully not take too long to paint up a sizable force.

They may be joined by my Guard army if necessary, but that will depend on how many I can paint while everything is shut down. We shall see.

Yes. Mainly grav devs, but also sniper scouts and plain tactical squads.

My last game (750 points) a tactical squad (sergeant with storm bolter and power fist, missile launcher) was probably close to be the most valuable unit.

Held a backfield objective all game, missile launcher made a meaningful contribution by shaving wounds of key heavies in opposing deathguard army and, thanks to careful positioning and smaller battlefield size, was able to use bolters to add a wound here or there to nasties tackling my up-front units. Bolter Discipline was available, as every model in its unit remained stationary in your previous Movement phase. So that was 3 x 2 bolter shots (6) plus another 4 from the storm-bolter sergeant for a total of 10 each round. Enough to more often than not add a point of a damage here of there to whatever my frontline units were tangling with.

So in that game, on my way to tabling my opponent in the 4th round, my plasma inceptors were wiped out, my infiltrators were wiped out, my intercessors lost 2/5 models, my whirlwind got backeted and my teeth of terra captain got down to 2 wounds, but the tactical marines only lost one model.

That's not a unique experience. With smaller battlefields, so long as you position carefully (and depending on terrain of course) the 24" range is enough to get good coverage. Pop a heavy weapon on and the squad can contribute an extra point of damage here or there almost every round (master artisans works well for that!) and, best of all, many opponents simply leave them alone, meaning they can make steady contributions all game.

So yeah, I still use them.

For my Salamanders in crusade I'll be running pure primaris. for anything else my;
jump pack chaplain, land raider Helios, Rapier battery, speeders with MKIII & IV squads in rhinos & Terminators teleporting in will always have a place for me in flgs pick up games.


If for nothing else other than I love how the models look and have painted, I love how they play on the tabletop and each is a storied veteran of the Salamanders 1st Company.

Yes. Primaris lore is an abomination. I run exclusively Firstborn Marines.

Yes, primaris are stormcast with goofy skull masks and guns in call of duty poses. Maybe in 10 years if they get all the proper heraldry and unique stuff to set the chapters apart otherwise hate the models and the fluff.

 MinMax wrote:
Yes. Primaris lore is an abomination. I run exclusively Firstborn Marines.

I wouldn't go THAT far, but I do think first born armies and units are much more competitive than people think. In case you are interested, 'Play on Table Top' (the dude that do '40k in 40 minutes') recently did a pure firstborn (Imperial Fists) vs pure Primaris (Ultramarines) 1750pts battle report in 9th edition rules here: https://youtu.be/MyzT2rRwO0I

Funny story behind this. Some dude made a comment on their Necrons vs Blood Angels 1750 point battle report to the effect of 'please do a 2,000 points pure ‘old’ marines vs pure Primaris Marines battle' and they were like 'this spurned a 30-minute discussion in our group and rekindled a friendly feud between two of our members. Stay tuned' and one month later... VOILA!

I won't ruin it for you other than to say (1) it was really close (2) the dice made a big difference and (3) it was AWESOME and (4) dozens of people requested a rematch in the comments to the video! It's definitely worth watching, it's on 38 minutes long, the guys involved are both highly experienced and ITC ranked marine players in Canada and it really shows how first borns can be super competitive.

So yeah, since that video I've deliberately run a few more OG-marine units and you know what? They do alright, sometimes even more than alright. I know at least one TO in my local area is thinking of running a first-born vs primaris tournament, which would be cool for marine fans


Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Play on Tabletop in anyway, but I do love their work!

I use both and usually mix them up, salamanders still rely on firstborn for their melta and flamer needs mostly.

Core usually consists of Vulkan, LR Achilles, 2 Razorbacks and 3 Tacticsl squads with melta/combi melta

I tried to keep them separated at first, but both are made by better by combining them.

 Stormonu wrote:
As the title, are you still using the 1W marine models - as firstborn marines for your marine army?

If so, what infantry units are you still running?

For me it would be tactical squads, terminators and assault squads (with jetpacks), stuffed into rhinos, raiders and razorbacks. And at least one devastor squad (now that I've gotten over my "mad" of using them).

For me, no. I only use my Primaris units. I don't even own any first born models, save for a HH LE Praetor in Terminator Armor.

Nope. I only had the ones from Black Reach era, and they looked like midgets. I gave them all to my son.

Well except a few I use in kill team. And they're a mishmash of deathwatch and devestator plus leftover bits from the black reach era.

Yes and no.

In my regular 40K army that's all i have since i started building it in 5th and i still play 5th edition (or 30K) and my left over dark angels.

in my DIY chapter i have
14 tac marines
15 scouts
.4 servitors
.master of the forge
.terminator librarian
.10 assault marines
.1 land raider
.1 razorback
.8 dreadnoughts
.2 land speeders
.1 storm eagle
.1 storm hawk

For my dark angels
.azrael
.deathwing chaplain
.sammael on corvex
.sammael in sableclaw
.5 deathiwng terminators
.6 bikes
5 attack bikes
.1 land speeder tempest
.4 landraiders
.2 whirlwinds
.3.dreadnoughts



In fact i own no actual primaris models. and i do not plan to since i will never play 9th

On the flip side thanks to vanguard miniatures i am playing epic scale 40K using index 8th ed rules, that force has some micro scale "primaris" marines.

Sure. Firstborn are much more fun to kitbash, I'm loving how my BA's are shaping up. Going to be heavily Rogue Trader inspired, beakie-heavy army with vintage land raiders/speeders. Since Primaris cannot use vintage vehicles, I am making a separate army out of them.

However, I like Inceptors alot so will probably add those to my firstborns. Their unit sizes are small and they are specialists so I don't think they'll look too much out of place as long as I also include some terminators.. And alongside some jump pack assaulters and DC, they'll fit the BA shock assault role nicely as mobile fire support to soften up units before the charge.

I have Dark Angels Firstborn, and I’m doing a Legion Of The Damned Primaris force just now. The DA still do OK! Won my first two games with them. The LOTD should be good, excited to field some Primaris alongside custom Leviathan and Relic Contemptors. Didn’t want to mix them on the table hence diff force.

I run lascannon Long Fangs because well, there really is no Primaris replacement. But other than those my whole army is going through the rubicon. I just can't stand the stunty marines anymore, they look so goofy alongside the primaris. Don't really care about the lore that much, the primaris models (at least those based on the intercessor armor) look great IMO.

Not really.
Although I have some nice BA Tacticals with 32mm bases.

I still don't own any Primaris models yet, and I really hope most of the old scale models remain available for a while, as I still intend to add a lot more to my army.

If I do ever get into collecting Primaris marines someday, it'll almost certainly be as another army altogether. I'm not overly fond of the idea of mixing different scales in the same army.