Hi everyone, Michael here with the first article in my attempts at a Primaris Space Marine army. For more tactics and analyses, check out the Tactics Corner.
When the Frontline Gaming Primaris Project started, I was intrigued and inspired to start my own force. I was wanting to add a few Primaris units to my Dark Angels (particularly those Hellblasters!) to see what they could add to the force.
I must admit, I wasn’t too enthused with the Primaris Marines when they were first announced. However, on getting some of the models and painting them up, my attitude has changed. They are simply beautiful models to paint up. The increased scale of the Primaris Marines compared to regular Space Marines makes them much easier to paint, for me.
I like the nice, crisp lines of the models and the lack of clutter on them. I’ve never been a big fan of “bling marines”, adorned with tons of purity seals, swinging chains, banner poles, etc. For this reason, the Primaris range had a good appeal to me.
It would also be a nice tactical challenge to do well with an all-Primaris army. They lack a lot of tools that regular Space Marine armies have access to, so I think they will prove rather challenging to play with in most games.
I decided I would add the Marines to my Dark Angels army. I like the Dark Angels in 8th edition. I think they are a strong force, but not ridiculously overpowered. Grim Resolve is a solid Chapter Tactic, giving me essentially “free” Captain re-rolls if the unit did not move. In addition, you can’t lose more than one model from a failed morale test. This allows you to go for big squads if you want, without losing half of them to a bad morale test, allowing you to maximise the bang for your buck with stratagems.
I started off with the Dark Imperium boxed set. This is a great way to get a number of Primaris units for cheap (especially if you use the discount at Frontline Gaming and/or sell off the filthy chaos scum you get in the box!). I added a number of units to the army over time, most of which are awaiting assembling and painting. At the moment, the units for my army consist of:
- Primaris Master
- 2 Lieutenants
- Primaris Ancient
- Primaris Apothecary
- 25 Intercessors
- 10 Hellblasters
- 3 Inceptors
- 6 Rievers
- Redemptor Dreadnought
- Repulsor
As you can see, this forms a strong basis for the bulk of the army. All I am missing is a unit of Aggressors and a few characters to complete the Primaris range.
This gives me a good mix of units to test out in my games, to see what works and what doesn’t. Another benefit of the Primaris range is the “easy to build” range of kits. These give you a cheaper way to fill out your army. They are a bit more limited in posing and wargear compared to the regular kits, but come at a good discount compared to the full kit. I was also able to pick up a few issues of Warhammer Conquest to bulk out the army, getting some cheap models and paints to add to my collection.
With the models in hand, I painted up an Intercessor as a test case. I used the Warhammer TV video to get an idea of the scheme I wanted.
I was quite happy with the test model, so continued to painting up a number of units for the army. At the moment, I have one Lieutenant, the Ancient, 10 Intercessors and 10 Hellblasters painted. The army is not legal yet, so I need to get the Master and a few more Intercessors painted up.
I hope to bring you regular hobby updates as I get the force together, as well as tactics articles and battle reports from the army when it is put together.
If there is anything you would like to see, please let me know in the comments below.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
