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So I decided to start a force of Primaris Marines that will be painted as Blood Angels. So far I have:

10 Primaris Reivers (built, each marine is armed with a heavy bolt pistol, combat knife, and grenades)
3 Easy to Build Primaris Aggressors (Built, each marine is armed with flamestorm gauntlets)
10 Primaris Intercessors (unbuilt, I want to arm each marine with Auto Bolt Rifles and grenades)
3 Primaris Aggressors [not the easy to build kind, will be ran separate from the Easy to Build Aggressors](unbuilt, I want to arm each marine with Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets and Fragstorm Grenade Launchers)
10 Primaris Hellblasters (unbuilt, I want to arm each marine with an assault plasma incinerator and the sergeant with a Plasma pistol and an assault plasma incinerator)
1 Easy to Build Primaris Redemptor Dreadnaught (unbuilt, I will build it as it shows on the back of the box)
1 Primaris Librarian (unbuilt)
1 Primaris Chaplain (unbuilt)

I want to buy:

Another box of Easy to Build Primaris Aggressors (to complete the squad of Aggressors with Flamestorm Gauntlets)
Another box of Primaris Aggressors [not the Easy to Build kind] (to complete the squad of Aggressors with Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets and Fragstorm Grenade Launchers)
A box of Primaris Inceptors (for more Plasma firepower)
A Primaris Captain

What do you think of what I have and want? How powerful do you think this Primaris Force will be? What should I change? What should I keep the same apart from what has already been built?

Primaris marines suck as a whole right now. Even worse with the nearly useless ba trait.

They are great models, though.

*Ray of Sunshine Breaks Over Dakka*

For every 100pts of primaris deduct 20% from your win percentage.

If you run this list please apologise to your opponent for wasteing there time


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The good units in BA are smash cpt, scouts and mephiston

Cases can be made for includeing sanguinary guard and death compan y

maybe a librarian dreadnought or baal predator

Anything else is better in another army or weak altogether

Aggressors with Flamers don't work. I'd avoid them at all costs. If you're going to take Aggressors, take them with Boltstorm and Frag Launchers. Otherwise, the BA chapter tactic benefits Aggressors when hunting tanks and such (anything in the T6-T9 bracket) as you are now wounding on 2's instead of 3's. Anything less than that it's wasted as you're already wounding on 2's.

Blood Angel Reivers might do some work and perform better than other chapter reivers.

Hellblasters are probably the best Primaris has to offer. Build them with rapid fire or assault, avoid the Heavy rifle. If you build them with assault version, they *might* (and I stress, MIGHT) end up in a couple situations throughout your games where it almost makes sense to charge with them to leverage the BA chapter tactic. For the most part though I'd let them hang back in cover with someone carrying the Standard of Sacrifice and just let them pew pew.

I've had good success with Redemptor Dread in casual to semi-competitive games, but I play Raven Guard where he gets a -1 to be hit, which helps his survivability immensely. Sadly, the BA chapter tactic is wasted on RedDread as he wounds almost everyting on 2's anyway.

I don't have any inceptors but they are generally regarded well owing to maneuverability and damage output.

Libby's are libby's; primaris doesn't really change it that much except a little more durability.

Primaris Chaplains, Captains and Lts are generally garbage since they can't get anything to boost their speed and are locked into much tighter wargear options. Thus, their only real use becomes army buffs, and since that's all you really want from them, BUT you're paying for their great statline you basically have an inefficient option in them.

Intercessors can work as generalists in blood angels for shooting things and then getting into punching range. Don't send them against stuff with high armor saves though as they still don't have the volume of attacks to get through armor.

All that being said, yes, Blood Angels are very high on the rule of cool meter. But as others have pointed out, Astartes are really having problems right now in general and Primaris-only is particularly tough to make work; they are just all too expensive for what they bring.

Martel732 wrote:Primaris marines suck as a whole right now. Even worse with the nearly useless ba trait.

They are great models, though.

U02dah4 wrote:For every 100pts of primaris deduct 20% from your win percentage.

If you run this list please apologise to your opponent for wasteing there time

Ah, dakka. A place filled to the brim with people who think they're top 16 GT players, mountains of bull hyperbole, and where everyone acts like they're in the most competitive meta in the world.

OP, your list looks fun. It isn't super optimized or ultra competitive level efficient, but don't let Dakka dissuade you from your plans here if you think it'll be enjoyable for you. You can almost guarantee the answer for any thread like this will always be "abandon your dreams, build only tournament meta netlists" because this is a community of netlist love and zero imagination.

People could also give helpful advice...
Just a thought. Crazy I know.
(Not referring to those who posted while I was typing)

While 'mono' primaris might not be the most powerful choice to make its the choice this player wants to make.
So instead of useless answers why not something useful?

Now I'm no expert. So my options will be based on "that looks cool. I want it" also I don't know the fully correct unit names and terminology.
But I see nothing massively wrong with building a force starting with:

a Captain.
2× 10 man units of Primaris Tactical (intercessor?)
1× 10 man unit of plasma rifle primaris (hellblaster?)
And a Primaris Dreadnought.

Then adding what YOU want from there.
The Aggressors especially are super cool and the idea of lots of heavy flame death is very appealing.

The main issue will probably be Anti-Armour. So you might still need a Predator. Which might not look proper though.

While the hyperbole and exaggeration is a bit much, it IS important to set expectations and explain why Martel and others have the opinions they do.

My FLGS had 2 escalaation leagues over the summer. One was at 500,750, and 1000 pts. The second was 750, 1000 and 1500, I think. I didn't play in the second one.

We probably had somewhere around a dozen new people join in over the course of those 2 escalation leagues. And I would venture that we lost about 90% of those new players because they had no idea how tough and one-sided the meta would be. A couple guys started Thousand Sons only to find that Rubric Marines and Scarab Terminators were garbage. Both of them abandoned those armies.

As a favor to the OP, and without hyperbole, I'm telling him, for example: Flamer Aggressors will not work. They just DO NOT WORK the way he is probably imagining them in his mind and the way the fluff and artwork talks about them. You will not get them into position to use their guns, or if you do, you'll never get the double tap. Opponents will charge from 8.1" away and use a reroll of some sort or another to charge you and avoid your overwatch, or they'll just pewpew you down.

Most of the good (or even cool) BA stratagems (Forlorn Fury, Behold Golden Host, Death Visions, Upon Wings*, Lucifer Engines, Descent of Angels*) and relics do NOT work with Primaris units. They just DON'T. That's not an opinion. There is no Death Company Primaris stuff, for example, and thus no way to use any DC stratagem. Primaris dudes cannot use 3 of the 6 relics, and one of the 3 (Shard) they can use is garbage.

*These 2 stratagems work with 1 unit, Inceptors, and Inceptors don't want to be charging into combat.

Lemondish wrote:

Martel732 wrote:Primaris marines suck as a whole right now. Even worse with the nearly useless ba trait.

They are great models, though.

U02dah4 wrote:For every 100pts of primaris deduct 20% from your win percentage.

If you run this list please apologise to your opponent for wasteing there time

Ah, dakka. A place filled to the brim with people who think they're top 16 GT players, mountains of bull hyperbole, and where everyone acts like they're in the most competitive meta in the world.

OP, your list looks fun. It isn't super optimized or ultra competitive level efficient, but don't let Dakka dissuade you from your plans here if you think it'll be enjoyable for you. You can almost guarantee the answer for any thread like this will always be "abandon your dreams, build only tournament meta netlists" because this is a community of netlist love and zero imagination.

No i certainly don't advocate pure netlisting there its lots of scope for interesring list development...

but some units are objectively overcosted and functionally terrible theres a reason barring the exceptional single units you dont see primaris in the top 2 3rds of tournaments. A list bringing one or two weak choices is manageable. A list composed entirely of weak choices especially in the hands of a newer player is going to

1) get destroyed easily by everything and everyone.

2) make your opponent really board as their is no fun in decimateing someone again and again and if you bring that your going to lose big time.

3) make the new player frustrated at losing continuously in one sided games which are no fun for the new player

4) stands a good chance of encourageing the new player to leave the hobby. Because when you spend time and money to build lists full of comparatively useless models only to keep losing only to eventually understand they need to start from scratch after being given bad advice.

You dont help new players by being disingenuous. When you say

"your list looks fun. It isn't super optimized or ultra competitive level efficient"

You mean in a nice way that it mechanically stinks snd will lose to a mediochre breeze (but it has a coherent theme and some hobby players like that). You can have fun with any army but that list will lose a lot of time.

<snipped out preceeding bits>

U02dah4 wrote:


No i certainly don't advocate pure netlisting there its lots of scope for interesring list development...

but some units are objectively overcosted and functionally terrible theres a reason barring the exceptional single units you dont see primaris in the top 2 3rds of tournaments. A list bringing one or two weak choices is manageable. A list composed entirely of weak choices especially in the hands of a newer player is going to

1) get destroyed easily by everything and everyone.

2) make your opponent really board as their is no fun in decimateing someone again and again and if you bring that your going to lose big time.

3) make the new player frustrated at losing continuously in one sided games which are no fun for the new player

4) stands a good chance of encourageing the new player to leave the hobby. Because when you spend time and money to build lists full of comparatively useless models only to keep losing only to eventually understand they need to start from scratch after being given bad advice.

You dont help new players by being disingenuous. When you say

"your list looks fun. It isn't super optimized or ultra competitive level efficient"

You mean in a nice way that it mechanically stinks snd will lose to a mediochre breeze (but it has a coherent theme and some hobby players like that). You can have fun with any army but that list will lose a lot of time.

This is absolutely right. And points 3-4 are particularly problematic as it has a real human affect on someone, and makes them feel like they got duped for shelling out several hundred dollars on garbage.

I dont need to be top 16 to tell that primaris suck out loud

I really like this list a lot!

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
So I decided to start a force of Primaris Marines that will be painted as Blood Angels. So far I have:

10 Primaris Reivers (built, each marine is armed with a heavy bolt pistol, combat knife, and grenades)
3 Easy to Build Primaris Aggressors (Built, each marine is armed with flamestorm gauntlets)
10 Primaris Intercessors (unbuilt, I want to arm each marine with Auto Bolt Rifles and grenades)
3 Primaris Aggressors [not the easy to build kind, will be ran separate from the Easy to Build Aggressors](unbuilt, I want to arm each marine with Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets and Fragstorm Grenade Launchers)
10 Primaris Hellblasters (unbuilt, I want to arm each marine with an assault plasma incinerator and the sergeant with a Plasma pistol and an assault plasma incinerator)
1 Easy to Build Primaris Redemptor Dreadnaught (unbuilt, I will build it as it shows on the back of the box)
1 Primaris Librarian (unbuilt)
1 Primaris Chaplain (unbuilt)

I want to buy:

Another box of Easy to Build Primaris Aggressors (to complete the squad of Aggressors with Flamestorm Gauntlets)
Another box of Primaris Aggressors [not the Easy to Build kind] (to complete the squad of Aggressors with Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets and Fragstorm Grenade Launchers)
A box of Primaris Inceptors (for more Plasma firepower)
A Primaris Captain

What do you think of what I have and want? How powerful do you think this Primaris Force will be? What should I change? What should I keep the same apart from what has already been built?

Hi there, I'll give you my own humble bit of advice concerning these units.

I'll start by saying, as said before me, that a full Primaris army right now lacks options to be properly viable, these options being mobile characters. Your Librarian will need mobility to be in range for some powers, and the Chaplain wants to buff CC units, which, in your case, will be the Reivers who'll be outflanking most of the time, or Aggressors, which will welcome the rerolls well but are not really made for this role in the first place.

Your army will also lack mobility in the whole, and trust me when I say it's important to score points or get in range of a threatening unit fast. As long as we don't have Primaris jet pack CC units or bikes the only solution is the Repulsor and it's a whole new story.

In terms of units, Reivers would be quite threatening due to volume of attacks and the +1 to Wound, they'll be great to threaten backfield units but don't expect miracles against 2+ units, they still don't have any AP. I've never played them but had a tank tied up in CC for three turns against the damn guys once, slowly dying to the knives.

Aggressors with flamestorm are indeed doomed in their very conception, your opponent will never stay in range long enough for them to fire twice, and if they fire only once they're only expensive flamers. Proxy them as boltstorm as they are easier to use and generally more versatile.

Hellblasters are fantastic in my opinion but definitely need at least a Captain to reroll their 1s to hit. If going the Assault version you'll have a mobile and effective way to deal with medium monsters and TEQ, but if you want dedicated anti-vehicle (T7 or more) use the standard Rapid Fire weapons that are cheaper and more designed to this role with the base S7. Heavy version is only better against T8 when supercharging, so highly specific. A Primaris Ancient nearby will allow them on a 4+ to shoot once more upon death of the model, this is really powerful as it makes them way more efficient because of the out of phase shots.

The Redemptor packs a punch in CC but is only a nice shooting platform when not moving because of Heavy weapons, if you're going to play them agressively you'd need at least 3 for redudancy, as the first one will get shot early if you don't have other targets for the opponent's anti-tank.

Inceptors with bolters are fantastic horde cleaners and the deep strike guarantee them to see at least a round of shooting. Nonetheless, T5 and a 2+ in cover is quite resilient on its own. Don't expect them to do miracles in CC though, they're best used at range. With plasma they're a reliable source of anti-tank power but need to overcharge to deal significant damage, and without rerolls you might lose your whole unit with a few unlucky rolls, so be cautious.

Intercessors are simply one of the only good Troop choices in SM codices along with Scouts. They are great objective holders with their resilience, can punch back (a bit) in CC if charged and the regular bolter rifles are potent. I love my 3x5 Intercessors so far in my DA army.

Hope this advice has been useful, don't let some negative comments discourage you. There's truth in what they say, they're warning you that you shouldn't expect to have major victories all the time with an all-Primaris army, but we don't know your local meta and such. Ask for advice from players in your area as they tend to be less blunt in their advice too.

U02dah4 wrote:
For every 100pts of primaris deduct 20% from your win percentage.

If you run this list please apologise to your opponent for wasteing there time


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The good units in BA are smash cpt, scouts and mephiston

Cases can be made for includeing sanguinary guard and death compan y

maybe a librarian dreadnought or baal predator

Anything else is better in another army or weak altogether

Death Company need Lemartes. Guard need an Ancient. Some of the flyers work well too.

Yes death company need lemartes but you never take him without death company and sanguinary guard need an ancient the ancient is pretty good in certain builds

They also aren't primaris...which is the whole point in the first post

Primaris aren't anywhere near as bad as the caliber of player that whines about them non stop

One day there will be Primaris Death Company.

U02dah4 wrote:

Lemondish wrote:

Martel732 wrote:Primaris marines suck as a whole right now. Even worse with the nearly useless ba trait.

They are great models, though.

U02dah4 wrote:For every 100pts of primaris deduct 20% from your win percentage.

If you run this list please apologise to your opponent for wasteing there time

Ah, dakka. A place filled to the brim with people who think they're top 16 GT players, mountains of bull hyperbole, and where everyone acts like they're in the most competitive meta in the world.

OP, your list looks fun. It isn't super optimized or ultra competitive level efficient, but don't let Dakka dissuade you from your plans here if you think it'll be enjoyable for you. You can almost guarantee the answer for any thread like this will always be "abandon your dreams, build only tournament meta netlists" because this is a community of netlist love and zero imagination.

No i certainly don't advocate pure netlisting there its lots of scope for interesring list development...

but some units are objectively overcosted and functionally terrible theres a reason barring the exceptional single units you dont see primaris in the top 2 3rds of tournaments. A list bringing one or two weak choices is manageable. A list composed entirely of weak choices especially in the hands of a newer player is going to

1) get destroyed easily by everything and everyone.

2) make your opponent really board as their is no fun in decimateing someone again and again and if you bring that your going to lose big time.

3) make the new player frustrated at losing continuously in one sided games which are no fun for the new player

4) stands a good chance of encourageing the new player to leave the hobby. Because when you spend time and money to build lists full of comparatively useless models only to keep losing only to eventually understand they need to start from scratch after being given bad advice.

You dont help new players by being disingenuous. When you say

"your list looks fun. It isn't super optimized or ultra competitive level efficient"

You mean in a nice way that it mechanically stinks snd will lose to a mediochre breeze (but it has a coherent theme and some hobby players like that). You can have fun with any army but that list will lose a lot of time.

except you just told him to strart from scratch, the posts in response to the OP are ENTIRELY negitive, ikf I was in his shoes when I started I would have shelved 40K right from the start.


Here's how you PROPERLY enchourage and guide "hey you're off to a decent start with X unit, they'll make a decent core, the falme gauntlet agressors by the way are agreed to be a little weak, I'd proably see if your opponent doesn't mind your using them as dakka agressors instead. the units you want to buy are alright, but you'd be better off looking at X instead as it will compliment your army better"

in short guide future purchases don't just tell him everything he has sucks and he should feel bad.

BrianDavion wrote:
except you just told him to strart from scratch, the posts in response to the OP are ENTIRELY negitive, ikf I was in his shoes when I started I would have shelved 40K right from the start.


Here's how you PROPERLY enchourage and guide "hey you're off to a decent start with X unit, they'll make a decent core, the falme gauntlet agressors by the way are agreed to be a little weak, I'd proably see if your opponent doesn't mind your using them as dakka agressors instead. the units you want to buy are alright, but you'd be better off looking at X instead as it will compliment your army better"

in short guide future purchases don't just tell him everything he has sucks and he should feel bad.

Someone else with humanity, thank you

But really, I know how this feels to play an army or unit you find awesome but with rules that lack punch, when you face a list that is well-designed and you see your favourite unit get slaughtered time after time it's pretty disheatening. It's why I transformed my Ruststalkers to Infiltrators. My DW Knights feel the same, I just had to learn how to maneuver them with maximum efficiency if I want them to work, and now they at least get to kill something shiny before dying.

So please, OP, answer us and say you're not stopping 40k because of this. Building a new army is a long process that shouldn't be rushed, buy some boxes you like, paint them and give yourself time to think about your next purchase and the way you want to play. Blood Angels are built around CC units with jet packs and Primaris just lack that for the moment.

If you want to do this for aesthetic reasons nothing (except money of course) prevents you from kitbashing/converting your own Sanguinary Guards or Death Company using Primaris bodies.

So much terrible hyperbole in here.

The most negative posts ever haha, every time I ask about a unit in dakka I get told that its a terrible choice.

 Aaranis wrote:


So please, OP, answer us and say you're not stopping 40k because of this. Building a new army is a long process that shouldn't be rushed, buy some boxes you like, paint them and give yourself time to think about your next purchase and the way you want to play. Blood Angels are built around CC units with jet packs and Primaris just lack that for the moment.

If you want to do this for aesthetic reasons nothing (except money of course) prevents you from kitbashing/converting your own Sanguinary Guards or Death Company using Primaris bodies.

No, I won't stop playing 40k just because of negative responses in this thread. I've actually started building the Intercessors. And I've not played a single game of 8th yet...mainly because of lack of motivation to play a game of 8th.

Well, BA and Primaris do not synergize well. Primaris are too slow and the BA trait will not help them as it works better for cc oriented armies.
There are better chapter tactics out there.