My goodness, dos Reivers….I’ve always had a soft-spot for scout/SpecOps style units in wargames and these dude scratch that itch big time! Which are your favorite of the new models?
This article comes from the Warhammer-community site.
Hot off the heels of Dark Imperium there’s even more Death Guard and Primaris Space Marines landing soon. The releases begin next week with two new champions of humanity, and then in July an array of Getting Started products, making it easier than ever to get involved in the 41st Millennium.
The Primaris Captain is a stoic, indomitable commander, posed urging his army forward… It’s immediately clear that the Captain is as much a leader as he is a fighter, although a power sword and bolter imply masteries in both ranged and close quarters combat. This is a model that’s going to look right at home in the thick of your Intercessors and Hellblasters while managing to stand out on his own terms – perfect, given his role as a frontline leader both on the tabletop and in the background. There’s no Chapter specific iconography on the model, meaning whichever Space Marine Chapter you collect, you’ll be able to paint and personalise your Primaris Captain to match. The kit also has options for different heads and weapons, allowing for even greater customisation.
The Primaris Librarian blends the noble bearing of the Primaris Captain with a wealth of occult detail and baroque cybernetics indicative of a darker, more mysterious kind of warrior. He is a warrior-mystic, trained in both physical and psychic warfare, and this carries over to the positioning of the miniature itself; one hand wields a deadly force sword while the other is raised as if to smite the foe with psychic power. Like the Captain, you’re free to customise the Librarian to suit any Chapter you like (barring the Black Templars, who refuse to tarry with any such foul sorcery!). You can either build the Librarian bare-headed or with a custom helm linked to his psychic hood.
In July, both the Primaris Space Marines and the Death Guard are getting new units, starting with the Reivers of the Adeptus Astartes. Many of these Getting Started kits will be in the Easy to Build format, meaning they’ll be easy to assemble – they’re made of coloured plastic and you won’t even need glue. There are also two new Getting Started boxes and a Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000 book coming soon, giving you a range of options for beginning your journey in the 41st Millennium.
Our first Easy to Build kit of the new edition features the Reivers. These guys are the guerilla specialists of the Primaris Space Marines, and their miniatures have a threatening, predatory feel. In contrast to the stalwart Intercessors, the Reivers appear to be advancing forwards, equipped with suppressed bolt pistols and brutal-looking combat blades.
Stripped down Mk X armour allows for a good look at how this newest mark of Space Marine armour functions, with the midsection of the models showing thick bundles of fibrous cabling; this is the mechanical muscle that lets the Reivers punch through concrete, sprint in full plate and leap through ruins and jungles. Finally, each Reiver wears the visage of a leering skull – these guys aren’t just about stealth, but terror. Even if you’ve already got an Imperial army, Reivers will make a great addition to your force, and there are rules in the box to let you start adding them to your games straight away.
The Plague Marines Easy to Build offer features models as varied and as finely detailed as those found in the Dark Imperium box, bloated bodies all but spilling from rusting, ancient power armour. The Plague Champion is particularly grotesque and is one of the first Death Guard miniatures to go completely bare-headed, giving us a glimpse at what little remains of his humanity. The blight launcher in the kit is a great visual reference to the history of the Death Guard, and eagle-eyed hobbyists will notice the similarities to weapons from the Horus Heresy, blending design elements from the grenade launchers wielded by the Deathshroud Terminators and the rad-missile launchers equipped by Destroyers. It’s a great way to tie the Death Guard to their historical roots and an indication of the horrific weapons they bring to bear in the reaping to come. Whether you’re bolstering your forces from Dark Imperium or starting your own Vectorum, this Easy to Build kit is a great way to do it.
Finally, you’ll be able to bolster your plague-ridden hordes with Easy to Build Poxwalkers. Like their unfortunate compatriots in Dark Imperium, these miniatures are ridden with all manner of horrific diseases and go to battle wielding the last vestiges of their personal lives as improvised weapons. Poxwalkers make for a powerful choice in any Chaos Army and, thanks to their Diseased Horde rule, we imagine you’ll have quite a few of them, so these designs are a great way to add variety and character to a unit. Whether you’re yet to take your first steps into Warhammer 40,000 and are looking for the easiest way to start a new collection or you’re already looking for ways to bolster your armies from Dark Imperium, it’s going to be an exciting few weeks of new releases.
These products will be released alongside our new ways to get started. The first of these is our Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000 handbook – this 103-page guidebook is the perfect guide for any Warhammer 40,000 beginner, giving a thorough overview of the universe of the 41st Millennium, how the game works and the different armies you can collect. It also comes with an Easy to Build Intercessor and a set of core rules, allowing you to take the first steps of your journey for around the price of a White Dwarf.
First Strike, on the other hand, is a great boxed set for both new and experienced players of Warhammer 40,000. For new players, there’s everything you need in the box to start playing, including miniatures, rules, and a guidebook taking you through a series of handy scenarios to teach you to play. There’s a double-sided gaming mat in the box, and it’s printed so that it doubles as a set of cardboard Munitorum Armoured Containers – meaning you’ll have somewhere to play your first few games. The box itself contains all our new Easy to Build miniatures, but for almost half the price you’d pay if you got them all separately – it’s a great way to get your hands on all the new releases in one place! There’s also a pocket-sized Battle Primer that’ll be helpful for you whether you’re playing your first few games or you’re a seasoned veteran in need of a quick-reference guide.
Finally, Know No Fear is great for players looking to make a comprehensive start, containing full armies for the Death Guard and the Primaris Space Marines. As well as getting a Patrol Detachment’s worth of miniatures for each side, you’ll get rules, your guide to getting started, a gaming mat and card scenery – all for nearly half the price of Dark Imperium. Combined with the Easy to Build kits, you’ll be able to assemble a diverse and powerful force of Death Guard or Primaris Space Marines in no time.
You can expect to see the Primaris Librarian and Primaris Captain available for pre-order next weekend, while the new Getting Started products will be available shortly after that. For those of you who want to get involved with the complete Warhammer 40,000 experience, Dark Imperium contains two full armies of miniatures alongside the complete rulebook, which features detailed background and advanced rules – get yours now in store or online.
Man, I’m really hoping they come out with a CSM Revier Night Lord equivalent. The Reiver fluff is so similar to Night Lord tactics it would be a real shame to not see that style of combat on the battle field. Maybe give them infiltrate, bolt pistols and chainswords, and a morale debuff aura. Or maybe enemies have to take 2d6 on morale, and have to take the hihher to keep the highest roll, which could be brutal.
Right?! That’d be awesome. Perhaps that’s why I love the Reivers and Night Lords so much, haha. Similar function.
These dudes are stylish but i am pretty disappointed of the other primaris marines. They are so expensive and i have no idea how to use them in a matched game.
There are 2 problems with Primaris at the moment: 1) No transports for them besides Thunderhawks; 2) Intercesser Squads are good in numbers, as they’re basically Sternguard marines, except they trade -2 rending for -1 rending and an additional Wound for 1 extra PPM. I think they would perform better once players have access to more squads of them besides just getting them from the Starter kit, as well as some options for transport. I’m not talking about spamming them, but two squads just doesn’t cut it.
I’m thinking 3-4 squads at 2000 would be pretty handy. Especially if you support them with a nearby captain & Lt to re-roll the ones.
I’m holding my final conclusion regarding the usefulness of all primaris force until after I see the costs and rules for Reivers & Aggressors.
The Repulsor is a critical piece of the puzzle as well.
Pah, enough with this “easy-to-build” and starter kit stuff.
Give me my Mortarion and my true MPPK plague marines and terminators! We know you have them locked away in GW HQ!
The non-scouts look awesome. I´m just curious if their rules will make them any better then just a knife and a pistol.
As for the other primaris marines they are overpriced, especially the primaris tacticals at 20p each.
They are 2W tacticals with a tad beefier bolter that is still at a sad S4 and they have NO flexibility, no upgrades, no special weapons or wargear. You basically pay through the roof for a mediocre squad whos only game role is to sit and hug an objective at the far back of your deployment taking pot shots at weak low T enemies.
All in all for what they loose vs normal marine tacs they should cost the same a piece as a regular tac marine since 2W is more then offset by utter lack of flexibility.
Primaris jump marines are also quite overpriced for their staying power in a game drowning with multi damage shooting which is sad because the models are incredibly good looking. 18 HB shots a turn will never earn their points back vs anything regularily sen that is voulnerable to HB shooting like hordes.
I wonder how the melee primaris marines will work. To bad they wont get terminator armours though, that would have been cool but most likely we will be stuck with primaris T5 deep dive aqua suits with those huge bullet catching helmet bulbs.
Its like the primaris point costs are made by the same guys that set points to FW models. Things are very fun and look nice but looking in the new FW IA 30k entries, so overpriced no tournament list will sadly ever see any relic predators or daredeos etc.
You can’t just compare the base costs of the models when you talk about the “added flexibility” that tactical squads bring.
It would be insane for tactical squads to be the same PPM as primaris marines as you suggest. As a basic model – primaris are much better with an extra wound, extra attack, and a much better weapon. Should they be 7ppm more? Maybe that could be tweaked down to 16 or 17 instead – but it still should definitely be more than a tactical costs.
Tacticals are much more flexibility but they’re also paying a lot for that. Have you seen the cost of heavy weapons? They aren’t cheap… if you want to actually use their flexibility and take something that isn’t a boltgun you’re going to very quickly find yourself costing just as much, if not more, than a primaris marine costs.
I don’t think Primaris should cost the same as Tacticals, but if we’re being entirely honest with ourselves he’s not wrong about most things- one of the biggest strengths of Space Marines is that you have a dangerous gun (i.e. heavy/special) buried inside every squad in your army, and you’re gonna have to kill the whole squad to get to it. If Bolters (excuse me, Bolt Rifles) are the only thing the unit has… who cares about them? They’re not gonna do any work against your army, so just ignore them until the game ends.
A Lascannon or similar weapon costs about as much as a single Primaris Marine. I absolutely will trade one body for a heavy weapon in any squad I take- Tau, Eldar, Necrons, etc, would KILL for that kind of flexibility.
I would quibble with the “who cares about them” bit because 30″ S4 AP-1 rapid fire guns aren’t exactly terrible. Plus the fact they’re on a MEQ platform with 2 wounds makes them fairly durable. Like I said before, could they be a few points cheaper? Absolutely.
But I think they’re still alright units for what they do. They aren’t there so you can spam 2,000 points of them and take different options to let them fill a number of different roles like you can with tacticals. Their appeal is different and, like most of the primaris releases we’ve seen so far, much more focused than the broad appeal of tactical marines.
Intercessors, in my opinion, exist to sit on an objective. With a 2 wound MEQ statline, they aren’t going to melt like some other objective-holding units will (I.E. something like Cultists) just because someone sneezed at them. They can even hold their own in assault with two base attacks if they don’t get attacked by a very strong unit. Even a CC-oriented unit like Wyches is going to have a tough time removing them without some luck.
Throw on top of that the 30″ range on their bolt rifles and they will likely be in range of at least being able to shoot SOMETHING each turn while they stand on the objective.
To me, that’s the reason I would include Intercessors in my army. Take a couple units of them designed to sit on the backline and provide a bit of cover while daring my opponent to leave them alone all game or force him to put a fair bit of firepower into them in order to get them off their objective. That will leave you plenty of points to take other Primaris Marines (of which it looks like there are going to be a million varieties) that fill more aggressive roles.
They seem just fine for shooting at things like cultists or even regular marines.
Hellblasters are better at removing tough targets but they cost almost double and can’t help you fill out troop slots for those precious command points.
They look alright for a generalist unit shooting at anything not T8.
That’s the thing that makes me dubious about Primaris in general; all the units we’ve seen are focused in a way non-Imperial armies tend to wish they weren’t. I don’t have to kill my way through ablative bodies to get at your plasma guns, I can just shoot at your Hellblasters, and every kill removes a powerful gun
People have been happily using 5 man devastator squads with 4 weapons for a while.
Doubling the wounds and giving the sgt a good gun should be fine.
can we talk about the cardboard Terrain Options? Kinda Cool that GW is giving people a cheap way to not play with bare tables to start the Hobby. I mean the Tomato Soup cans I started with were super cool and obviously contained Vats of some unknown volatile Chaos-Liquid of doom. But I really like this option! Another great idea for bringing in New Gamers!