The Horus Heresy, By Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The Horus Heresy, by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Staring:

Keanu reaves as The Emperor of mankind!

now hear me out

What are you guys talking about? Nothing happened in Tiananmen Square. These are clearly just trucks delivery water.

Western European myths versus Eastern European myths

same energy

Mercury: *Aggressively approaching Jaune*

Jaune: Hey, back off! I've accidentally done some pretty cool stuff before!

Fuck if that dosent sum it up, only reason I still play Marines is because I’m a heresy player and I’ve got more marine bits than I’ll probably ever be able to use. Hopefully GW is able to turn this shit storm around, but I doubt it.

Primaris Space Marines are a Botched Concept.

No wait, hear me out, this is advocating FOR Space Marine players, not being sour at their new release.

So there are no Primaris Bike equivalents being released this time around; if there are then they’re a glaring omission from the White Scars article this morning.

This truely highlights the issue with Primaris as a whole; GeeDubs were so afraid of alienating Space Marine players and hurting their profit margins that they damaged Space Marines as an army irreparabley.

Back at the dawn of 8th edition we got Primaris Marines; these guys were not replacements for Tactical, Assault and Devastator marines, but a new thing, with new statlines and fluff. They were also bigger than Space Marines. What we didn’t know back then was that they were not bigger, they were True Scale.

Compare a Primaris Captain to a Custodes, a mini-marine and and a Guardsman and you’ll see. Regular Space Marines are supposed to be as tall as a Custodes; they’re written as such in the Horrus Heresy novels. Plus or minus a few inches for individual heights and body sizes.

Primaris models are the scale that Space Marines are supposed to be. The new Chaos Space Marines are  Primaris scale as well (more or less).

But how does that make them a botched release?

Now that we’re getting more Primaris Space Marines questions are being asked. Questions like “where are Primaris bikes to go with my White Scars?”

The answer is you’re not getting Primaris bikes yet. The Vanguard Primaris and the Impulsor are the releases this time around and if those units don’t suit your chapter’s fluff then you’re out of luck.

This means that all White Scars are getting is a Primaris character and some Shoulder Pads.

So where are the bikes then? I’ll tell you where they should have been; on the molding machine that was used to churn out the Redemptor Dread and the Repulsor 2 years ago.

Back when we transitioned from 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition of 40k, we got replacement models for pretty much all of the Space Marine range. Tactical, Assault and Devastator marines, Landspeeders, Rhinos, Predators, Razorbacks… All replaced within a couple of years. We didn’t have social media back then, so I can’t speak for everyone, but I know my gaming circle were excited. We eagerly bought the new kits and built our new marines armies, leaving our old marine models in the dust.

This was repeated with most armies as Tyranids, Eldar, Imperial Guard and Chaos were all eventually updated and their models were replaced. It was kinda sucky replacing things we spent money on, but we did it again because “oh! New Shiny!!”

Fast forward to the Dawn of 8th edition and suddenly we have a problem. Primaris are not replacements. They’re new. Different units with different wargear and new things that weren’t in the range before. They’re continuing to support the old stuff as well. Except they’re not going to make new stuff for the old range, they’re just going to keep supporting them.

They took a simple concept of updating the old range with new sculpts and turned it into something convoluted and ambiguous.

Instead of having Tactical, Assault, Devastators, Terminators and Bikes you have Intercessors, Reivers, Hellblasters, Aggressors and Inceptors.

Intercessors don’t have the flexibility of Tactical Marines.

Reivers don’t have Jump Packs like Assault Marines.

Hellblasters don’t have the flexibility or range of Devastator Marines.

Aggressors can’t deep-strike and don’t have the flexibility of Terminators.

And Inceptors are bike replacements but no one realises it… Not even GeeDubs.

All of these units, except maybe Inceptors, try to do what their mini-marine equivalent do but don’t do it as well. Why is that?

At the Dawn of 8th GeeDubs’ rep was in the toilet. Even though social media had been a great way to talk to their customers for years, they ignored us. They put out one codex every 6 months and didn’t release new stuff unless they had to and they ignored whole armies for years.

What would happen if they suddenly announced that the whole Space Marine range was obsolete? They spent decades only supporting Space Marines regularly and building it up as their best seller but what if those sales suddenly stopped?

This is why we got Primaris. They knew it was time to update the range but didn’t want to just replace the existing range for fear people would just walk away instead of buying new things to replace their old minis. That’s why Primaris Marines don’t do the same thing as the old Marines. That’s why Primaris Marines can’t ride in the old transports. That’s why Mini-Marines are still in the game.

In the same vein, they do want Primaris to sell. That’s why Mini-Marines wont get an update. That’s why Mini-Marines can’t ride in Primaris transports.

Now that they’ve made their bed, they have to lie in it; which why we’re getting Vanguard Primaris. More new units that don’t make the old units obsolete so they can still sell their best sellers. They won’t release Primaris Bikes because they’re not confident that people will buy them and if the new thing replaces the old then no one will buy the old things anymore either.

So now we have a situation.

GeeDubs can continue this trend of adding stuff to Space Marines without replacing the old stuff or bite the bullet and discontinue the old stuff and replace it with things that aren’t as good or as flexible.

Or they can admit that Primaris was a stupid idea and release True Scale updates for Tactical Marines and alienate everyone who invested in Primaris.

Either way, they’ve made a complete horses-arse out of this.

It would have been better if they just released True Scale versions of the old Marines, like they just did with the Chaos Space Marines. They could have even said that the older models could still be used and kept their wargear options in the codex for a few years; like they did with the “las/plas” Razorback from 2nd ed that hung around until 6th.

At least that way, White Scars and Blood Angels would have Bikes and Jump Assault Infantry models that suit their fluff and don’t look dinky when standing next to Primaris units in the same army (or when standing beside the new Chaos Marines. Or custodes).

Raven Guard are the only chapter who got anything meaningful in this release. Vanguard Primaris are all stealthy which suits Raven Guard to a tee… and they painted all their Vanguard Primaris models as Ultramarines… And release Codex White Scars before Codex Raven Guard.

The saddest thing of all; Codex White Scars is being released for the first time ever in the history of Warhammer 40,000; this should be celebrated. But if you build your army with new Primaris models they will all be on foot; including the Master of the Hunt who leads them.

A sad state of affairs indeed.

Edit: at least we know the Sisters of Battle range will be fully replaced when they’re released. None of their current models are best sellers so replacing them with better stuff can only improve profit margins.

You shouldn’t be allowed to not have watched at least one of the classics

(Classics, just naming a few)

Mobile suit Gundam

Berserk (not the ones from this millennium)

Neon genesis Evangelion (not on Netflix, the new voice acting is terrible)

Trigun

Elfen lied

(Add more this is just what I can think of off the top of my head)