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.

Anyone else disappointed with the direction Primaris are going in. I love the Primaris marines, they are true scale, the models are great, they look more realistic and less static, the only thing I don't like are the knee pads but you can't have everything. Love the look of the aggressors and the Inceptors, but I'm worried that gravis armour taking over terminators, loved terminator armour since 2nd edition and that gravis captain looks terrible, I also don't want to see inceptors taking over jump pack models. I don't want to get into the whole argument of whether Primaris are going to replace normal marines, to me its obvious they are.

Inceptors - A fast unit that isn't assaulty.

Reivers - An assaulty unit that isn't fast.



I don't know what direction Primaris is going, but if you ask me GW never has known.

If Primaris Marines replace standard marines by time it actually happens I expect the range will be considerably expanded. So far for example we have NO "vetern" primaris marine options

BrianDavion wrote:
If Primaris Marines replace standard marines by time it actually happens I expect the range will be considerably expanded. So far for example we have NO "vetern" primaris marine options

It will take about 5+ years before the completely replace marines I would think. The range is so large, I don't see them replacing them until they have everything replacement for Primaris, characters, units, vehicles etc. Its just what they replace them with the worries me, for instance I would really miss terminators, but them again I collect chaos, but still love my loyalists.

I don’t think they’re going to fully replace Classic Marines, but we’ll definitely stop seeing the old marines getting toys.

It’s not like what happened to squats in 3rd or Necron Pariahs in 5th, the Classic Marine/terminator are too recognizable to be removed completely. I feel like the Primaris will the the Loyalist Equivalents Of Cult marines.

" I feel like the Primaris will the the Loyalist Equivalents Of Cult marines."

That's the first thing that anyone has said about Primaris that makes sense.



I bought the Primaris Marines from the Dark Imperium box set on Ebay. I'm painting then as Space Wolves. That way I'll make all my painting mistakes on THEM. Then when I buy a load of classic Space Marines and paint them, they will look nice.

I think the only ways for them to move forward are to:

1) Either focus on both lines equally, ideally by removing some of the things that sperate them like lack of transports and heavy weapons and perhaps even some kind of mixed unit. This seems messy to me but it could work.
2) or combine the statline so it's just "Marines" again and start coming out with primaris versions for old units one at a time. Tacs, assault squads, devastators, all of it. I can't really see them getting rid of those units, so updating the models to look like primaris but letting old armies still function seems like the only way to get rid of small Marines without having half of the community rage quit.
3) the dream: retcon and buy back all the primaris and pretend it never happened lol...

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
I don't want to get into the whole argument of whether Primaris are going to replace normal marines, to me its obvious they are.

10/10

It'll eventually be a pretty comprehensive line, I wouldn't worry about it. If anything I'd be excited to be a modern marine player - knowing you have dozens of kits coming over the next few years. Genuinely something new and interesting to look forward to.

 Elbows wrote:
It'll eventually be a pretty comprehensive line, I wouldn't worry about it. If anything I'd be excited to be a modern marine player - knowing you have dozens of kits coming over the next few years. Genuinely something new and interesting to look forward to.

this is doubly true when you consider what the alternative is. for all the complaining people liked to do about things like centurions, really we'd reached a point where GW only had a few options to expand the Marines range. Uber specialized things thtat likely won't sell very well, marines taken to 11, resculpts of stuff we already had (and remember they did the basic marine types not that long ago so they'd be resculpting things like I dunno.. maybe the rhino.. and that'd be a best case scenerio))

Primaris Marines allow them to do new things with space marines, maybe shift the apperance a tad, well not killing the golden goose

The point above is true, marines had everything they needed for a while, and the expansions to the line felt forced. I dont think I've ever even seen a Hunter/Stalker on the table, and Flyers other than a Storm Raven only incredibly rarely.

The current Terminator kit needs help though.

BrianDavion wrote:

this is doubly true when you consider what the alternative is. for all the complaining people liked to do about things like centurions, really we'd reached a point where GW only had a few options to expand the Marines range.

They had a few options, though. Like releasing plastic versions of the slowly disappearing 'Fine'cast models, and recutting plastic kits to actually include all of their options.

Or, crazy I know, but they could have released Xenos stuff instead...

Personally I am not really a fan of the Primaris Marines, imo the old marines looked better, so I hope the old Marines and Terminators, however I'm not going to criticize until the whole sort of plan has unfolded.

I prefer the scale/proportions of the primaris in relation to other factions, but the armor is too sleek. Not gothic and gritty enough. The helmets with the grill and almost vader like mouth were iconic to me. And by bringing the maximus style helmet look as a norm into the 40k era you kind of take away from the visual cues that made the heresy era distinct. Overall i'm not happy with the lore and whatever 40k changes they've been doing the past couple years. Luckily Necromunda has been modernized, but there hasn't been any changes I felt were questionable or close to being terrible.

There also isn't any real reason to replace the current marine range. The models are still great, the tactical squad did get an update some years back and the detail is crisp. Marines also sell well enough I don't see why they would just axe them anytime soon. Maybe this will be something to worry about in 5 -10 years.

ShadowPug wrote:
Personally I am not really a fan of the Primaris Marines, imo the old marines looked better, so I hope the old Marines and Terminators, however I'm not going to criticize until the whole sort of plan has unfolded.

I will! Aggressors and Inceptors look poopy.

 Insectum7 wrote:
The point above is true, marines had everything they needed for a while, and the expansions to the line felt forced. I dont think I've ever even seen a Hunter/Stalker on the table, and Flyers other than a Storm Raven only incredibly rarely.

The current Terminator kit needs help though.

they can't do an aweful lot with the current terminators because being able to mix and matcha bit more is kind of the space wolves and dark angels schtick. so sort of giving termies some new heavy weapon or something.. yeaaah.. not much they can do with the kit

The problem is that instead of just making Primaris the new standard and making all marines share the same statline, regardless of scale, they had to differentiate them. And now they have to keep developing the Primaris Marines as separate entities to justify their own terrible marketing idea, when the clear goal from the beginning was that they were meant to phase out the stuntymarines.

So GW's stuck holding the ball because they wanted to take the piss about Primaris being this unique and separate thing when we all know exactly what they're meant to be, and the Primaris marines themselves are stuck being developed with units that don't have much of a niche in the face of an already over-developed Space Marine range, or are left with undeveloped options so that GW can pretend that old marines still matter for now. Unfortunately, the longer GW waits to consolidate the two ranges into one, the bigger this problem ends up becoming, as there end up inevitably being more elements that need consolidation.

Simply put, GW really doesn't have much of a direction in mind for Primaris Marines. Gorgeous and much needed models when you consider how buggered regular marines have been by scale creep (and in general their basic frame's ability to keep up with GW's own sculpting technology), but from a fluff, game design, and marketing perspective, GW handled things in the worst way possible.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Insectum7 wrote:
The point above is true, marines had everything they needed for a while, and the expansions to the line felt forced. I dont think I've ever even seen a Hunter/Stalker on the table, and Flyers other than a Storm Raven only incredibly rarely.

The current Terminator kit needs help though.

they can't do an aweful lot with the current terminators because being able to mix and matcha bit more is kind of the space wolves and dark angels schtick. so sort of giving termies some new heavy weapon or something.. yeaaah.. not much they can do with the kit

They dont need more equipment, they just need better sculpting and posing. The current tactical terminator kit is really dissapointing.

I mean, it was good well over a decade ago. I'm not sure when the kit came out, but I'm pretty sure it's got to be close to 15 years old now. They were one of those boxes that came out after GW had established some really solid plastic production, but before they started getting real artful about it.

Not only are they really poorly dated, but the mold slippage as time has gone on really shows.

 Fafnir wrote:
The problem is that instead of just making Primaris the new standard and making all marines share the same statline, regardless of scale, they had to differentiate them. And now they have to keep developing the Primaris Marines as separate entities to justify their own terrible marketing idea, when the clear goal from the beginning was that they were meant to phase out the stuntymarines.

So GW's stuck holding the ball because they wanted to take the piss about Primaris being this unique and separate thing when we all know exactly what they're meant to be, and the Primaris marines themselves are stuck being developed with units that don't have much of a niche in the face of an already over-developed Space Marine range, or are left with undeveloped options so that GW can pretend that old marines still matter for now. Unfortunately, the longer GW waits to consolidate the two ranges into one, the bigger this problem ends up becoming, as there end up inevitably being more elements that need consolidation.

Simply put, GW really doesn't have much of a direction in mind for Primaris Marines. Gorgeous and much needed models when you consider how buggered regular marines have been by scale creep (and in general their basic frame's ability to keep up with GW's own sculpting technology), but from a fluff, game design, and marketing perspective, GW handled things in the worst way possible.

Yeah I wish they just gave us true scale marines, instead of the Primaris, which has been terrible lore, plus if they wanted to give them a new look all they had to do was change the armour and addet new units rather than writing contrived lore with Cawl etc.

I guess I might in the 'limited?' few that actual want to see Primaris replace old marines or get their version of older marine units, like aggressor's getting storm shields and melee weapons, or primaris on bikes or Primaris rhinos (which is needed as nothing else beside repulsor can transport them).
As I just personally prefer the whole look to them then normal marines.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Anyone else disappointed with the direction Primaris are going in. I love the Primaris marines, they are true scale, the models are great, they look more realistic and less static, the only thing I don't like are the knee pads but you can't have everything. Love the look of the aggressors and the Inceptors, but I'm worried that gravis armour taking over terminators, loved terminator armour since 2nd edition and that gravis captain looks terrible, I also don't want to see inceptors taking over jump pack models. I don't want to get into the whole argument of whether Primaris are going to replace normal marines, to me its obvious they are.

Too bad they aren't true scale for original marines so for example you couldn't use them to make true scale marines for 30k. They are too big.

tneva82 wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Anyone else disappointed with the direction Primaris are going in. I love the Primaris marines, they are true scale, the models are great, they look more realistic and less static, the only thing I don't like are the knee pads but you can't have everything. Love the look of the aggressors and the Inceptors, but I'm worried that gravis armour taking over terminators, loved terminator armour since 2nd edition and that gravis captain looks terrible, I also don't want to see inceptors taking over jump pack models. I don't want to get into the whole argument of whether Primaris are going to replace normal marines, to me its obvious they are.

Too bad they aren't true scale for original marines so for example you couldn't use them to make true scale marines for 30k. They are too big.

Compared to every other infantry unit, the Primaris are the scale that original marines always should have been. The bit in the fluff about them being slightly taller than normal marines is just to justify people who might be otherwise miffed about running mixed forces. They absolutely would be true scale for 30k.

They are too big. Look at custodians. They are about size of primaris. Custodians are supposed to be to marines what marines are to humans.

Cadians are prime offenders in being too big. But primaris=oversized to be true scale original marines. If you try to use them for 30k you are oversizing your marines.

I actually really like Gravis armour, love the look of Inceptors especially.

But like the OP, I'm also a big Terminator fan. I'm not worried though, because I don't see Gravis as a Primaris replacement for Terminators. They do very different jobs. Gravis is essentially a powered rig for mounting specialised equipment - be that firepower or jet propulsion, and I'm sure we'll see it used in other ways.

Terminators are for elite tactical combat. I see this as quite a different role.

Combined with that, the look of Terminators is very iconic and I can't see GW ditching that. They've preserved the classic marine look in an updated way with the Mk X armour, and I think we are yet to see the next evolution of Terminator armour. I believe we will see Primaris Terminators eventually, upscaled and reproportioned but with the same iconic look.

tneva82 wrote:
They are too big. Look at custodians. They are about size of primaris. Custodians are supposed to be to marines what marines are to humans.

Cadians are prime offenders in being too big. But primaris=oversized to be true scale original marines. If you try to use them for 30k you are oversizing your marines.

Cadians... and all human models GW currently produces. Yeah, Primaris scale is fine, they're properly sized compared to GW's normal human models and that's what most people care about. If Custodes are supposed to be bigger, then it is them who are too small. Though I'm not sure they need to be bigger than Marines, I don't remember their codex saying that they are.

tneva82 wrote:
They are too big. Look at custodians. They are about size of primaris. Custodians are supposed to be to marines what marines are to humans.

Cadians are prime offenders in being too big. But primaris=oversized to be true scale original marines. If you try to use them for 30k you are oversizing your marines.

Nah .. Custodes are about human-sized



I'd be hilarious doing a Custodes army with the old minis actually

The models are great but the fluff is woeful.

If GW just said 'we are phasing out the old range and updating it' I would be more on board with it.

I think GW got really hyped and bought a bit too much into their own grox gak and when the community didn't respond the way they wanted us to the Primaris release stalled due to uncertainty on profitability.

Just my 2p.

 NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:
The models are great but the fluff is woeful.

If GW just said 'we are phasing out the old range and updating it' I would be more on board with it.

I think GW got really hyped and bought a bit too much into their own grox gak and when the community didn't respond the way they wanted us to the Primaris release stalled due to uncertainty on profitability.

Just my 2p.

What stalled?

GW was releasing rumour pics for the current Soul Wars Age of Sigmar stuff from before Dark Imperium / 8th Ed. hit the stores.

Whatever GW is releasing now for 40K was planned and in production before the community even knew there was such a thing as a "Primaris".

If GW "stalls"/rolls-back the Primaris production based on the first year of sales, we won't actually see evidence of that in their releases until late 2019 or more likely 2020

The biggest issue I have with primaris (and even before them with the Forgeworld heresy variants of a lot of stuff) is that GW seems to be actively trying to shift away from anything that doesn't strictly follow the "iconic" (cough cough copyrightable) strict rigid aesthetic of "this is a space marine. This is what a space marine looks like. All space marine things must look like this."

Look at old school scouts, terminators, dreadnoughts, and marines. Three totally different, and individually interesting aesthetics.

Now look at Primaris marines, aggressors, reivers, cataphract termies, and contemptor dreads.They all look like different sizes of space marine with the same helmets, similar proportions, and in a lot of cases that gets VERY goofy (centurions, lol.)

Just feels like they were designed more by a legal committee than an artist.