40K Editorial: Primaris Marines – Grimdark Stormcast Eternals
Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger – The Primaris Marines are coming with the new edition and will be the way forward for Games Workshop’s Marine Line.
Games Workshop announced this morning that there is indeed a new batch of Super-Super-Humans on the way. These Primaris Space Marines are the future of the Imperium but also the future for Games Workshop. How so? Just follow the money.
Guilliman is good for business when your business is WAR
For the past couple decades Games Workshop has been producing Space Marine models for 40k. That means there are LOTS of these little guys floating around out there. I know I’ve contributed my fair share to the Space Marine pot, even as I moved over to other armies, and I’m guessing I’m not alone. I would wager that for the vast majority of 40k players, they have played with, owned, traded, or sold some type of Space Marine army in their gaming life-time. Space Marines, after-all, are the most popular army.
If you remember from the LVO Army breakdown then you might remember that Space Marines and their +3 saving variants made-up roughly 1/4 of the field of 400. That’s not counting any armies that used them as allies. That’s also not counting CSM. If you toss those in the mix, well…you get the idea. Oh and let’s not forget the entire Horus Heresy line that is devoted to Space Marines fighting in a previous era. Space Marines, it seems, are “hot right now” and will continue to be in the years to come.
The Primaris Factor
So what does this have to do with the new Primaris Space Marines? Simple: GW is a business and they want your money. If you have a huge percentage of your player base that has an army, it would make sense that you would want to make something they would be interested in purchasing. At the same time you don’t want to invalidate their previous purchases or you’ll make them all mad. That would be bad for business. And you’re also interested in a way to make the tertiary market (aka eBay) less appealing to players. How do you do that? Upgrades.
From the movie Soldier (1998)
Now, this goes beyond a simple re-boxing. Games Workshop has done that in the past. No, with the new edition they needed to do some thing BIGGER. These new Primaris Space Marines are perfect for that. If you already have a Marine Army, you can’t tell me it’s not tempting to want to get at least a box of these guys for your army. Do you need them for your existing army? No. But you want the new shiny plastic – Hey, I’m right there with you! According to the FAQ they won’t invalidate your previous army, they are just a new option after-all. So why wouldn’t you grab a box or two. You know…for fun.
If you’re looking to start a new army – then why would you bother with buy the old kits? Heck, if was a new player when 8th dropped, I’d be all over the new stuff – forget the old and busted. I wouldn’t have any of the attachment (aka baggage) of the old systems anyways. And these new models already look “head-and-shoulders” above the old ones…
On top of “updating” the standard rank-and-file troopers, GW has already hinted that they are going to be brining some vehicles along for the ride. They mentioned a Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought. You know there will be more on the way. Plus they already said this in the FAQ:
Will there be multiple types of Primaris Space Marines?
You bet. So far you’ve seen the Intercessors, the line infantry clad in Mk X armour, but there are plenty more on the way. And likely vehicles too…
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Moving forward, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more and more Primaris kits come out. Especially if they are compatible with the “other flavors” of Space Marine armies. New Rhinos? New Predators? New Land Raiders? Hey, Mars and the Ad Mech are involved, the sky is the limit in my mind. We could even see Primaris Wolfen!
Gene-Seed is a Helluva Drug
These Aren’t True Scale
Another interesting aspect of these miniatures is they don’t invalidate your hobby choices. If you were one of those crazy-awesome hobbyists that made True Scale Marines, guess what, GW just made your converting jobs easier! But for a lot folks the new size of these Marines will be the appeal. It will be easy to spot the Primaris Marines from the “regular” Marines when you put them on the tabletop. Maybe that was part of the plan the whole time. But in a strange way, I feel like GW respected the Hobbyists enough to not want to dump all over their work with these new Primaris Marines.
As far as the Loremasters are concerned, this might be a tougher pill to swallow. But, GW is the keeper of the canon and they are making it seem like these Primaris Marines were part of some scheme Guilliman and Cawl cooked-up 10,000 years ago. Now, I know a lot of folks probably won’t agree with me but I’m okay with this bit of lore. If that’s how GW is going to write it, then it is what it is. Besides, it’s not like the lore is even out, so how can we critique the “ret-con” if it’s not even official yet! Give it a chance is all I’m saying. Nothing will be worse than Team-Fist Bump:
Friendship IS Magic
Overall, I’m looking forward to having some new modeling toys to play with. As a veteran player, I probably won’t be redoing an entire army with these Marines – but that doesn’t mean I won’t pick-up a box to two. Everyone in the world that has Space Marines now has an entirely new army they can collect that will work seamlessly with their current army. If you want to make an educated guess at the future of Space Marine releases take a look at the Stormcast Eternals line. That doesn’t mean the old kits are going away, but expect any new kits for the Space Marines to be Primaris-based moving forward.
Sorry Chaos Space Marines, try not to be to bitter about it, I have a feeling Papa Nurgle has something planned for you.
Are you a veteran player with Space Marines? How do you feel about the new Primaris Models? Will you be picking them up or skipping on these marines?
