Warhammer 40K: The Fate Of Classic Marine Vehicles
Classic Marines are on the way out, but what’s going to happen to all their vehicles?
It’s a sad fact that Classic Marines, the loyal defenders of the Imperium for so many years, are on the way out. It’s been clear for some time that GW, both in lore and on the table, intended Primaris to replace the older, smaller, Marines. With yet another wave of Primaris launching alongside 9th, that goal is coming ever closer. By now, most of the Classic Marine infantry units have a replacement among the Primaris ranks. This time around, we are getting replacements for Veterans, Bikes, Assault Marines, and even Devastators/Centurions. In truth, unless you already own a large army, there is very little reason to field the older Marines. However, there is one area that Primaris are distinctly lacking vehicles. Let’s talk about what could happen to the Classic Marine vehicles.
A Large Host
Classic Marines boast a considerable armory of vehicles. The 2019 Codex contains 21 Classic Marine vehicles versus only five Primaris vehicles. Imperial Armour provides another 41 Classic Marine vehicles and only a single Primaris vehicle. This does not even include chapter specific Vehicles, such as the Baal Predator, or a handful of other vehicles whose rules are not found in either of these publications. All told this is huge 60+ vehicles that have an uncertain future, both model and lore-wise. Most of them do not have direct replacement among the Primaris line. Both tabletop and lore-wise, it would be strange for these vehicles to continue unchanged- how and why would an all Primaris Chapter, for example, continue to rely on tanks that require Classic Marines to operate them.
One possible suggestion is that the vehicles could just be “made” to be Primaris. After all, most of them don’t have any visible crew. Who is to say if the driver is a Classic or Primaris Marine? Even the simple addition of a new vehicle upgrade spruce (a common tactic at GW to spruce up old tank kits) could give them Primairs crew. However, this fix won’t work for everything. Let’s take a look at a few of the most important/iconic tanks and what their fate could be.
Rhino Chassis Tanks
Sadly it seems as if this, one of the most iconic of all 40K tanks, is probably the most doomed. The Rhino is one of those few tanks that has been replaced. Between the three Primaris transports – Repulsor, Repulsor Executioner, and the Impulsor – there just isn’t much room for the Rhino anymore, the same is likewise true of the Razorback. As for the other tanks that share the chassis, well, they are likely goners. The Predator hasn’t been good since…. maybe 3rd Edition and is woefully under-gunned for modern 40K, as is the Vindicator. The Whirlwind and the Anti-Aircraft variants do hold a unique place, but one new combo kit, which has been rumored for a while, could replace them in one fell swoop.
Droppods
Droppods are another big question mark. They are an iconic unit/model and represent an entire way that Space Marine wage war, the rapid orbital drop assault. Since they are uncrewed already, they are also an easy one to swap over to being able to carry Primaris Marines, with any size issues handwaved away. The models are pretty decent and new..ish (OK, they seem new to me since they came out well after I started playing, but they are around 12 years old… god). On the other hand, the models are complex to build, and the unit has been very hit or miss on the tabletop over editions. They aren’t really needed in the game right now as Marines have plenty of ways to deep strike, or outflank. Lore wise Repuslors can carry out orbital drops, so it would be easy to just dump the old pods and say that’s how Marines arrive, give them a rule to that effect, or just leave it in the fluff as you like.
Land Raider Chassis Tanks
This is another classic line of tanks that I fear is in danger. Land Raiders have fluctuated between being good and bad for the entire time I’ve played 40K. They, like the Rhinos, are under-gunned and fairly redundant with the existence of Repulsors. Even if they magically gained the ability to transport Primaris units, I’m not sure why you’d take one over a Repulsor. The best bet might be for some of the more esoteric Land Raiders to get refit to be driven my Primaris and lose their transport capacity if they had any and stick around as a… lighter tank. Odd to think of the heavy Land Raider that way.
Dreadnoughts 
Dreadnoughts are a vast category in the Space Marine arsenal and recently an essential one. Classic Marines can field around a dozen versions of these armored walkers. Since they only contain bits of a Marine, I don’t think it would be a huge step in the lore to say that Primaris Marines can now pilot the older Dreadnoughts. Despite this, I think most of the older ones are going to die off pretty quickly. If for no other reason then that they use older, and significantly smaller models, and in many cases haven’t been useful for editions. Some of the larger FW ones might get upgraded to Primaris or stick around longer; we will have to see.
Flyers
One of the biggest holes in the Primaris line up is flyers. We only know of a single Primaris only flyer, the massive Overlord Lander. Not only does this unit not have a model, but it’s also so big that if given one, it would not be usable in most games, relegated to display cases to live among the few rare Strombirds of the galaxy. Yet, Primaris units would have some kind of air support. Here I suspect we have the most likely place that GW might just convert the existing models to be Primaris. Space Marines have a large number of flyers, many of them in plastic. Most of these, all the plastic ones, are relatively new kits, the bulk of them have come out during 7th Edition. It would be pretty uncharacteristic for GW to get rid of a bunch of newer models like these, especially with no replacement lined up. Making the older flyers Primaris would require only some minor changes to the pilot models that are viable, rather than making a whole new model. This would be a pretty easy upgrade all told and seems likely in some form.
Super Heavies
These are rare enough that you could keep them Classic and just assume anyone who buys one won’t care. The big old question mark here – it would also be pretty easy to handwave these are being used by Primaris Marines now, say in an upcoming new Forgeworld rule book? Hmm…
Let us know what you think is going to happen to your favorite Classic Marine tanks, down in the comments!
