You can do all kinds of stuff without touching primaris marines. Lots of those models are good, some are medicore, some not so hot. I only use firstborn and occasionally use them to proxy primaris units 'counts-as' style. If you do that the obvious would be scouts or tacticals as incursors. I may come back to this and make a 2k list but for the moment some quick hits:
Goodstuff:
-Terminators are good in general, but I probably wouldn't bring assault cannons. Chainfists, powerfists, storm bolters, cyclone missiles, lightning claws and THSS all have a useful niche. Your guys may be yellow but you have the pieces to make a very credible Dark Angels Deathwing detachment. 2-man Terminator Command Squads are also particularly excellent, one claw one THSS guy come to a neat 80 points and are very troublesome for the enemy to deal with.
-Captains and Librarians are useful staples. Lieutenants are solid. The gear may not be optimal but they aren't bad by any stretch.
-Dreadnoughts are probably the best vees Space Marines have right now. DCCW and shooty variants both see a lot of play.
-Devastator space marines (your tacs) are solid heavy support. Slightly outclassed by some Primaris options but not so much they won't perform and you still occasionally see them on podiums.
-Rhinos & Razorbacks are both usable, Razorbacks in particular provide good fire support
Badstuff:
-Scouts got brutally punished in the 9th book. Moving them to elites means they compete for the most oversaturated spot in the game, lost their obsec and no longer satisfy your troops requirement. They also are very expensive for the only infantry in the book still sitting at 1W.
-Tactical marines aren't bad per se but they're not exactly good either. They've always been a mediocre unit and continue that tradition, the only difference is now they have competition from many flavours of primaris marines which are, shall we say, more focused in their utility. Intercessors are better riflemen, assault intercessors are superior foot assault marines, heavy intercessors are good objective campers, incursors are scouts in power armor (the best troops atm). Tacs are cheap, at least. I use my bolter marines as incursors usually.
-Assault marines are kinda bad as they have been for a long time but vanguard vets are solid, especially with claw/shield. I have some de-packed marines I use as assault intercessors.
TLDR
You could make a very playable list with what you have.It may not be the most competitive thing out there but neither is baby's first primaris army, since they've got a ton of mediocre units in their range as well.
If you really want to buy stuff the current meta involves a lot of:
Relic contemptors with volkite
Redemptor dreads
Incursors
Eradicators with heavy melta rifles
Attack bikes with multi-meltas (wild, right?)
Bladeguard vets
Vanguard vets with shields and claws
Plasma Inceptors
Just be mindful that meta chasing is rough and any unit good today could be a shelf-warmer tomorrow. Automatically Appended Next Post: I can't believe I forgot apothecaries. Either buy or convert an apothecary. They're probably one biggest auto-include in marine lists these days.
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