How do you feel about Primaris?

[Warsmith Annüss]

I've been involved in the hobby for 21 years. I started with 2nd edition, left during 3rd and went on to other game systems. AoS and 8th brought me back to GW and I love Primaris marines. They are how I always pictured SM to be.

Now that I'm starting fresh, my Ultras will be purely Primaris. Of course, I need to find a home for my old marines.

[KBA]

Been around for just about 25 years. My initial reaction to the new marines was somewhere along the lines of, 'why didn't they just redo the classic armours in this scale?', swiftly followed by, 'those Intercessors look damn good'. I spent the next bunch of weeks trying really hard to like the Inceptors, Reivers, and Agressors. I've come to the realization that half the Primaris stuff just isn't my bag. Love the characters, troops, and vehicles though.

[Beta galactosidase]

A swing and a miss in my opinion. Some of the models look really good such as the Gravis Captain or the basic MK X armor used by Intercessors, but I don't like Reivers or Aggressors at all. But combined with lackluster rules and fluff I simply don't have any interest in them, they're just boring. The only Primaris unit I find actually intriguing is Inceptors, but that's because they're ripped straight from Starship Troopers complete with deepstrike from orbital drops without anything but their armor. Like Heru said, I feel they are just a desperate attempt to jack up the prices again, phasing marines out in the future to replace them with the uber expensive and boring Primaris Models with zero customization.

One of the things that I like about 40k is that you are meant to not like the way things look. even most eldar designs - striking scorpions, grill mouth guardians - are very gross.

 

There is something to that because one of the complaints about primaris is that they are too plain. On the other hand Inceptors look a bit like the original necron destroyer which was fairly menacing in its wrongness.

Edited August 7, 2017 by curvacious

[bluntblade]

 

 

 

 

 

That is a very different, and far less engaging way to tell a story.

My problem with that is that 40K is a setting, not a story. It doesn't need a developing arc, it doesn't get "re-told" every edition, it doesn't go anywhere or do anything, it just is. We set our stories within it.

 

Complaining about the repetitive nature of the grimdark setting is like complaining about the setting of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels or complaining that there's too many cowboys and indians in Western movies, or that there's too many soldiers in Dunkirk. There are certain native elements in any setting that are essential to the stories set within it.

 

To use Dunkirk as an example, since it sort of mirrors the lore we're given for the Primaris marines, imagine if instead of having to conduct a desperate evacuation under fire, the allied forces were saved. By Captain America style super soldiers. Who had been there the whole time, but just hiding. And they just rolled up and curbstompted the Nazis. And there were millions of them. And then they romped around Europe punching Germans in the face and saving the day over and over.

 

Like sure, in the real world that's a great result for the allied soldiers but from a narrative point of view it's just so DULL.

 

To use a different setting, in the Return of the King the Rohirrim turn up to the fields of Pelennor and realise they're all going to die. There's not enough of them to break the lines of Mordor. But they have to help their friends, so they charge anyway, and it's one of the most thrilling and moving scenes ever committed to film. We see their incredible loss and sacrifice and courage.

 

And the scene is almost instantly devalued mere moments later when Aragorn turns up with the Army of the Dead and this listerine green horde washes over everything and kills every orc on the battlefield in the blink of an eye. The Rohirrim could have had a sleep-in and a late breakfast, avoided the battle altogether, and the result STILL would have been the same.

 

The Primaris are the listerine green horde.

Nah, Aragorn would've found the city in ruins. The Rohirrim routed the orcs and prevented a total slaughter

[bc99]

I'm not interested, at all. I don't play a regular marine army, preferring Blood Angels. I think Primaris marines take away from the non-standard armies. I also don't care for the idea that the bad asses of the universe (space marines) weren't all that bad ass after all. Nope, enter giant marines who have now made the defenders of humanity for the last 10,000 years look like nubs.

 

I could care less about "true scale", but did like the slightly larger marines on 32mm bases compared to the old marines I used to play.

[Sete]

They wanted to update the look of marines to something more modern. Fair enough, intercessors look good. But God dammit what happened to the rest of it?

Jump pack troops could make a sub orbital drop. Terminators already had heavy flamers.

Where are my chainswords and Primaris crusader squads?

Scouts did the inflitrate thing quite nice.

 

GW went over the top. Way over the top.

I could easily run a Primaris army just with Bolters and chainswords. It's my style. But where the hell are the chaiswords geedubs? If the lack of one of the iconic 40k weapons does not bother you, you are a traitor and a heretic!

[Fallen Dark Angel]

I welcome our new Primaris Overlords. 

 

I accept the challenge of playing any new faction GW adds to the game. Primaris aren't even a faction, I know. They're a new weapon in the Adeptus Astartes arsenal. New edition has shaken people, why not a few new toys? I'm not going to be offended by poorly written fluff or whether a model is pretty enough. This is war(gaming)! Or, to paraphrase an old movie:

 

Chapter Master Patton: "There's nothing wrong with these models. I won't have sons-of-namby-pambies who are afraid to play with new models *stinking up this table of honor!"

[turns to player] "You're going back to the game table, my friend. Your models may get shot, and your models may get removed from play, but you're getting stuck into the fighting. Either that, or go play a nice safe game of checkers!"

 

[bc99]

I welcome our new Primaris Overlords. 

 

 

Chapter Master Patton: "There's nothing wrong with these models. I won't have sons-of-namby-pambies who are afraid to play with new models *stinking up this table of honor!"

[turns to player] "You're going back to the game table, my friend. Your models may get shot, and your models may get removed from play, but you're getting stuck into the fighting. Either that, or go play a nice safe game of checkers!"

 

 

 

Chapter Master Patton's driver was a Primaris Marine.

 

Just saying.

 

[Race Bannon]

It's the .gif - that's funny stuff.

[Sevej]

I'm ambivalent about the fluff. The only thing concerns me that they're more closer to what Space Marines should be, which is great.

 

I really like the size and the proportion, however I don't like the helmet, nor the lack of variety of the armor. My biggest gripe is the overall aesthetic shift, which is really emphasized by the Inceptors and the backpacks. The Intercessor is my favorite model. However I don't really like the others, especially the vehicles. The Repulsor looks a little silly with all the guns and the Redemptor, well... I *really* like the current dread with the boxy body and short legs. I guess that Dawn of War intro left a huge mark in my heart. May be I'll grow to like 'em later.

 

The Grav armor simply doesn't awe me. I find it difficult to express this, but it doesn't match the impression when I first saw the Terminator armor.

 

But like I said, the overall aesthetic changed to appeal broader. More curved & angled plates.

 

Other things, I don't really like that a squad have to choose the same guns. That reeks AoS to me (which is not *always* a bad thing). 

 

That sounds like I hate them, but really I don't. I'll probably get them once the vehicles grew on me. Heck, maybe we'll still see the super heavy armor infantry.

[Strype]

I personally started an all-Primaris army myself after a couple editions of not touching the tabletop.  Personally I love the aesthetic, I like the look, the variation on a standardized suit, customized for the various specialized roles.  The armor is more of a base on which everything is built off of.  Like they give a standard suit to every new recruit and then tweak it to their needs.  The Gravis armor is fairly decent in my eyes as well, with a couple variants (Aggressor and Inceptor) and while not as iconic as the Terminator armors, it's sometihng I feel will grow on everyone over the years.   

 

On the table, I'm still getting used to the idea that these new units are not 1 for 1 with the older marines.  Intercessors are kinda like tacs, but the Hellblasters and Reivers are a whole new animal, not like Devastators and Scouts, so they need to be utilized in a different fashion.  But old habits die hard, and it's easy to see parallels, so one is often temtped to run the new units with the same strategies as the old ones.

 

I get the feeling that these are just the first wave of Primaris units as well.  In time, we'll probably see a few dedicated melee units (new jumppack type and chainswords, perhaps?) as well as new veteran units.  One of the things I noticed is there are ZERO Primaris units that sport veteran badges and markings (except the Ancient).  But this makes sense fluff-wise as the Primaris marines have only been on the field for a little over a century.  But I think the timeline is steadily rumbling forward, and in time we'll see some fancy veteran units... or Cawl will have some innovative ideas about things to strap onto the Repulsor chassis, or come up with some new flyers and/or skimmers (smaller, landspeeder-sized ones) as he soaks in a century or two of combat data.

 

Overall, I'm pretty happy.  but Ultima-founding chapters definitely have some holes that need filling as it stands now.  And as time rolls forward, so too does attrition mean the old marines will be phased out, along with a lot of their gear that lacks adequate seating for their vertically-enhanced brethren.  We'll definitely be seeing more units come along  

[TrexPushups]

What primaris marines need more than anything is affordable preferably infantry based anti-tank.

 

I was hoping aggressors were going to have anti-tank missiles.

 

Alas they did not.