Anyone who knows me know I love making my own divergent
fluff for my armies. My new Raptor Nth Company
is no exception. They were borne about 6
years ago from an idea to have a subset marine chapter working clandestinely
with a subset Tau faction (Kind of like a more extreme Farsight enclave). I always loved the raptors basic Olive Drab color
scheme. As their background became more pronounced as an elite mobile raiding
force relying on tactical firepower and surprise…they became a lock for me.
When My Tau gained their Time Travelling component in their background, it only
seemed fitting to push my semi-heretical marines into the fold as well receiving
this shared technology from their secret Tau Allies.
I started the Nth company as my first “Tru Scale” marine army
wanting my marines to actually dwarf other army units as they are supposed to.
When Primaris Marines were announced and they looked so similar in design to
what I had already been building for myself…I knew I would be making heavy use
of the Primaris in my army of further technologically enhance super marines.
Since then I’ve been making healthy use integrating the Primaris
marines into my Raptors army and wanted to discuss some of my general findings
to date.
Primaris in Summary
I think the Primaris perform well as their own army. They play somewhat like many xenos designs,
focused less on traditional dispersed weapon upgrades and tactical flexibility. Rather each unit has a defined role in the
army and they are specialized to perform that role.
As part of a mixed Marine force, they also perform well, but
it’s important to make sure the army as a whole has enough diversity that too
heavy a focus on only particular Primaris units may give the army certain vulnerabilities. I tend to take lots of tactical Intecessors
for my core troops (taking 20-30 in a standard game). This makes my armies become very reliant on
other key units (like my flyers) to accomplish their tasks and then continue to
support the intecessors.
I really like that GW has drawn a hard line on transport
options being mostly separated between primary and regular marines. It creates
a push to have them as their own army rather than being a new supplemental unit
to existing marine armies.
In general, Primaris design components seem to be:
·
lack of customization
·
Increase durability of typically marine units,
but less so than more durable elite marine units like terminators and land
raiders.
·
Above average capabilities on a model basis.
·
Reliance on utliziing the different types of
Primaris units to support each other making them a “Value exceed a sum of their
parts” army.
·
In many cases wield more firepower than their
point cost might suggest.
I think as a “new army” in their current state, their lack
of options makes them a tad drab in design.
I expect hat as their product line develops, they will develop more into
the role of traditional marine units, only being fewer in number(point cost).
Primaris Units(in
order of potency)
The listing below are my current appraisal of Primaris units
in order of value(best to worst) as I currently see them and may be subject to
change the more I use them.
Inceptor squads (Fast
Attack)
They are at the top of my list despite having not yet seen
them on the table. They are flying heavy
armor troops toting a brace of short ranged powerfull heavy weapons. They make
use of the potent Gravis Armor, which provides a +1 Toughness bonus.
Their Mobility and Keyword fly in tow thier their potent
close range firepower makes them very useful at taking the fight to the enemy. Either
brace of guns (Essentially assault 6 heavy bolters or 2d3 Plasma guns) give
them incredible firepower that can even be used after fallback moves. Their Crushing charge rule, which lets them inflict
1 mortal wound on a 6+ (up to the number of models in this unit), sis just
icing.
They are very costly (10 PL for 3 models) is their greatest deficit,
as they will always be few.
Aggressor squads
(Elite)
These are the ground troop variant of Gravis armor. They may be my favorite unit in the army and
can’t wait to field some. They are also armed with impressive short ranged
firepower, either being equipped each with 2 flamers or a potent boltstorm
array augmented by fragmentation grenade launchers. The unit does not suffer penalties for
shooting while advancing and should they have the luxury of being in range
WITHOUT having to move, they fire twice in the shooting phase which seems nearly
terrifying. (the bolt gun/grenade variant would get 12 +2d6 18” range str
attacks PER MODEL!). they are also
equipped with powerfist, making it no simple task to just count this unit by
charging them.
As a Primaris player, though, it is easy to mistake these as
a Primaris version of terminator. This should be obvious from their relatively
cheap point cost (2 PL per model, purchased in 3 man chunks) This mistake can
be costly, as despite their numerous advantages, they lack of 2+ save, lack of invulnerable,
and small unit count prevents them from absorbing the punishment terminators
are known for.
Still, I see them being quite valuable as “in your face”
units that you force an opponent to deal with.
In my raptors army, I can see utilizing my “Strike from the shadows” stratagems
to infiltrate 1-2 units of these into an opponent’s back field to disrupt their
plans.
Repulsor Grav-Tank
(Dedicated transport)
I fell in love with this model the instant I saw it(only a
tad bothered by it having too many guns on it)
It is the only Transport option for Primaris short of thunderhawk and
Stormbird Drop ships. It is Very
expensive for this role (at 16PL), but I think it is a high value unit
regardless of it’s monopoly on Primaris transporting. It’s is a very durable model, though not
quite up to speed with it’s brother Land Raiders. It’s weapons systems are also
very strong, but are misleadingly underpower from what it’s 9-11 weapons might
imply (most of these are small storm bolter/Frag grenade-esque weapons
systems). Either way, it deploys an impressive array of firepower.
It is a grav-tank with Keyword FLY, so it can fire it’s guns
after falling back so you know it will be shooting until it dies. It also has Power of the machine spirit which
negate the moving penalty for heavy weapons and a repulsor field which shortens
charging units charge move by 2”, which might save it from some sneaky opponent
assaults.
Despite its above PL value the vehicle implies, it’s main
weakness is still it primary deficit, as including 1+ of these severely impacts
the total composition of a Primaris armies.
It is also the only Long ranged Anti-Tank Primaris unit, which also
makes it a near “must have” unit to include in a Primaris army.
Redemptor Dreadnought(Elite)
This is a beautiful beast of a model and were it not for
other Forgeworld Dreadnoughts, might feel like a king among other walkers in
the game. It’s 10PL cost reveals that it
is NOT A contendor for tru super-dreadnoughts like the leviathan and even most
contemptors, lacking the armor and durability to stick it out. It is better to think of it as a king among regular
dreadnoughts. It prices similarly to regular dreadnoughts. It has 13 wounds
which gives it some additionaly staying power, but it its mass of low caliber
fire power that distinguishes the units value.
It boasts a power main weapon (either a gatling gun or big plasma gun),
it retains a healthy powerfist attack and still boasts 4 supplimentatary guns
(though only 1 of them is much more than a stormbolter-esque weapon. Like the
Aggressor Squads, this is a good price efficient “in your face “unit that
performs best as a loss leader unit that an enemy has to deal with. Don’t
expect it to survive beyond turn 3 however, as it just doesn’t have that kind
of durability.
HellBlaster Squads(Heavy
Support)
Part of me REALLY LOVEs these guys. Another part finds them
very hard to field. They are essentially
marine squads equipped entirely with plasmaguns of 1 of 3 types (assault, rapid
fire, or long range heavy). They are
potent in the shooting phase as you might expect, and seldomly does a target
squad survive a volley from 10 of these models at short range. But their high
cost (8PL per 5) makes these units have a hard time surviving multiple volleys
from enemy units and susceptible to being mired in assault (having no weapon option
upgrades to dislodge them from a melee quickly.)
Intecessor Squads-(Troops)
My favorite unit in the whole marine army, it is on the near
bottom oy my unit potency list. They have the usual Primaris bonuses in
statline and a very similar PL value to Tactical squads. Additioanly, their primary rifle (in 1 of 3
forms) are all modestly, but still significantly, superior to a traditional
boltgun. It has limited upgrades of taking grenade launchers (extends the range
of their Grande throwing attacks) and a power sword option on the sergeant. The end results is a very durable cheap unit
that can combats by grinding in protracted combats with enemy units. They are good as attrition fighters but succumb
quickly to enemy units with massed or potent upgrade options. It only takes a
meltagun or pair of lightning claws to see the combat flip backwards on the
primaris squad. They are still a highly
capable unit and once I can deploy them as mechanized infantry, I expect them
to continue as a mainstay in my army.
Primaris characters-(HQ/Elite)
This includes the Captain/Librarian/Apothacary/Chaplain/Leitenant/Standard
bearer. They each have the Extra wound
and attack making them a bit cooler than their regular marine counterparts. In
all cases though, they suffer from extreme option upgrades, often only having a
SINGLE way to deploy the unit. Only the Captain has any options and they are
modest by any standard in other codices. (Even with the expended rules from the
“Store Birthday”, the captain is limited to 4 total options.(Gravis armor, take
a powersword, swap his storm botler-y boltgun with a Stalker boltgun, the
Powerfist/Plasma Pistol Birthday captain)
They are all nice models and mean in their own respect. In a army lacking options though, I almost
nearly find myself taking their Non-Primaris counterparts just to squeeze SOME
Meltaguns/powerfists’etc… into the army.
In a competitive sense, I feel the characters lack of options make them poor
choices, but I’ll still be fielding them a bunch.
their even fairly limited in the relics they can take (I think they have access to 3 and only the Armor Indomintus has any significant value for them)
Riever Squad-(Elites)
One of the coolest looking new squads (minus the skull
helmet IMO), I find this unit very hard to field. They kind of fall into a shout-like
infiltrator role. They can be kitted with a storm-bolter-esque carbine for
shooting or with pistol/Chainsword for assaulting. Even 10 strong, this unit
has a hard time punishing enemy units of any real caliber and lack the ability
to ever shift an enemy from their position. Lack of Sergeant upgrades really
makes this unit suffer in melee. It does
have a few modest rules making them slightly faster or inflicting morale
penalties on the enemy, but not enough to make them a really viable unit. This
is probably the only truly poor unit in the Primaris Army. I have 10 of them and will occasionally play
them because they look and feel like the kind of troops I’d have in the Raptor’s
Nth Company, but it’s never a choice based on merit.