Warhammer 40K: Primaris Companies Have Mindblowing Firepower
Let’s take a look at the firepower of a Primaris Marine Battle Company vs. a Classic Marine one.
As Primaris units are slowly taking over the Space Marine list, I wanted to take a little time to look at how that is transforming the firepower of the army. I’ve looked at how a Classic Space Marine Company acts vs. a Primaris one before, but today I want to specifically look at the amount of firepower they can bring to the tabletop. Today lets take a look at how many guns they have and what their damage output could be.
The Companies
To compare these two types of Battle Company, we are going to look at the most classic configuration of each. Also, we will be looking at only assets that are an integral part of the company, not ones that come from Chapter Command. For the Classic Marine Company, this is relatively simple. Taking the organization of the Ultramarines 2nd Company, which you can see above, as an example, we can deduce the following about their firepower.
The Company contains six Tactical Squads, each squad includes one heavy and one special weapon, for a total of six of each as well as on average eight bolters (we will address sergeant weapons in a bit) for a total of forty-eight. The two Assault Squads carry a total of four special weapons and sixteen bolt pistols. The two Devastator Squads add eight more heavy weapons and another twelve bolters. Chapter Command seems to add, let’s say two special weapons, three bolters and a bolt pistol. Two Dreadnoughts give us two more heavy weapons and two Stormbolters. At default, the ten attached Rhinos give us an additional ten more Stormbolters. I am here only counting what we might consider the Primary ranged armament of each unit as virtually every Marine listed also carries a sidearm and several grenades not listed here.
For the Primaris, we will go with what we might call a “stock” Primaris Battle Company (pictured above) includes six Intercessors Squads, each equipped with ten of some pattern of Bolt Rifle and two underslung grenade launchers. For the purpose of determining “primary” weapon, we will count this as eight Bolt Rifles and two special weapons, for a total of twelve special weapons and 48 Bolt Rifles. The Company also contains two ten-man Reiver Squads, the stock loadout for them would have them with Bolt Carbines for twenty bolt carbines. Also, we have two ten-man squads of Hellblasters for what we can count as twenty heavy weapons (though arguably it could be twenty special weapons). We don’t know of any Company Command for Primaris Companies outside of a Captain, two Lts, and an Ancient, so that adds one more special weapon and three bolt rifles. Assuming two Dreadnoughts, for fairness, that would add four more heavy weapons and four Stormbolters (we will go for Stormbolters over frag launchers for ease of comparison).
Lastly, the Companies ten Repulsors add a staggering amount of firepower in the form of five heavy weapons, two special weapons (the Krakstorm Launchers), and two Stormbolters each for a total of fifty heavy weapons, twenty special weapons, and twenty Stormbolters.
Comparing the Guns
Looking that the equipment of the stock units above we get the following comparison:
Classic Company
- 63 Bolters
- 12 Special Weapons
- 16 Heavy Weapons
- 17 Bolt Pistols
- 12 Stormbolters
Primaris Company
- 51 Bolt Rifles
- 20 Bolt Carbines
- 33 Special Weapons (53 if we count Hellblasters as Special Weapons)
- 78 Heavy Weapons (58 if we count Hellblasters as Special Weapons)
- 24 Stormbolters
This is a pretty staggering swing in firepower to the Primaris company, which carries a more considerable amount of guns – even if we remove the transports from the equation, the Primaris Company still carrier more, and often better, weapons in every category.
Alternate Load Out
Both companies do have some standard options they often take advantage of. For the Classic Company, the most is that all ten sergeants could exchange their stock weapons for a special weapon of some type (such as a plasma pistol or combi-weapon). Also, the Rhinos could all be equipped with both an extra Strombolter and a Hunterkiller missile.
For the Primaris, the six Intercessor Sergeants could swap their Bolt Rifles out for special weapons. Also, the Reivers could drop any of their Carbines for a combat blade, Changing their primary ranged armament to the Heavy Bolt Pistol. The Dreadnoughts could both add heavy weapon in the form of an Icarus Launcher, while the Repulsors can take an additional heavy weapon and two more Frag Launchers. They also come with one-use Hunter-Slayer Missiles, though it is unclear if this is stock or optional. With these changes we get:
Classic Company
- 55 Bolters
- 22 Special Weapons
- 16 Heavy Weapons
- 15 Bolt Pistols
- 22 Stormbolters
- 10 Hunterkiller Missiles
Primaris Company
- 45 Bolt Rifles
- 0-20 Heavy Bolt Pistols or 0-20 Bolt Carbines
- 39 Special Weapons
- 90 Heavy Weapons
- 24 Strombolters
- 20 Frag Launchers
- 10 Hunter-Slayer Missiles
This, as we can see, still leaves a pretty large gap towards the Primaris Company, which carries as nearly as many weapons as the classic company carries weapons.
Tabletop Firepower
So how does this translate into tabletop firepower? These are, after all pretty broad categories. To take a look at that, let’s break down the actual number of shots both Companies would get on the tabletop. For this, we will look at the “maxed” out version of each company. We will also look at them twice, once configured to take on hordes and once to take on vehicles. We will assume that each unit if firing its primary weapons at the optimal range and getting a maximum number of shots. (For ease we will also assume any combi-weapons are only firing one gun) For anti-infantry this gives us:
Classic Company – Anti Infantry
- 110 Bolter shots
- 120 Flamer shots
- 2 Plasma pistol shots
- 42 Heavy bolter shots
- 12 Assault cannon Shots
- 15 Bolt pistol shots
- 88 Storm bolter shots
- 10 Hunter-killer shots
Primaris Company- Anti Infantry
- 126 Auto bolt rifle shots
- 2 Bolt rifle shots
- 9 Master-crafted auto bolt rifle shots
- 72 Frag grenade shots
- 36 Hand flamer shots
- 40 Bolt carbine shots
- 40 Plasma incinerator shots
- 6 Icarus rocket pod shots
- 276 Heavy bolters/Onslaught Gatling cannons shots
- 60 Ironhail heavy stubber shots
- 96 Storm bolter shots
- 12 Krakstorm shots
- 120 Fragstorm shots
- 10 Hunter-slayer shots
Looking at the number of shots here is a really staggering difference laid out with the Primaris Company far out shooting the Classic Marine company, though both put out a ton of firepower. In total the Company can put out 895 shots in a turn (not counting the Hunter-Slayer shots which are limited to stratagems) In particular the heavy weapon output of the Primaris Company is staggering – though in all fairness the Primaris Company does cost about 3,000 more points to field. But what about with an anti-tank/heavy infantry loadout?
Classic Company – Anti Tank
- 110 Bolter shots
- 40 Plasmagun shots
- 2 Plasma pistol shots
- 18 Lascannon Shots
- 15 Bolt pistol shots
- 88 Storm bolter shots
- 10 Hunter killer shots
Primaris Company- Anti Tank
- 48 Stalker bolt rifle shots
- 2 Bolt rifle shots
- 3 Master crafted stalker bolt rifle shots
- 12 Krak grenades
- 40 Bolt carbine shots
- 40 Plasma incinerator shots
- 6 Icarus rocket pod shots
- 12 Macro plasma incinerator shots
- 72 Onslaught Gatling cannon shots
- 40 Las-cannon/Las-talon shots
- 60 Ironhail heavy stubber shots
- 96 Storm bolter shots
- 12 Krakstrom shots
- 120 Fragstorm shots
- 10 Hunter-Slayer shots
Again there is no real contest here. While the number of infantry Plasma shots is comparable, the Primaris Company carries more than twice the lascnnon shots, a host of extra midrange weapons, and keep a devastating array of anti-infantry firepower at hand.
Final Thoughts
Admittedly in both cases, these are not units you are likely to see fielded on the tabletop. Classic Marine Companies have been fieldable before, and you can still fit one in, but it won’t be decked out and have all its transports, though one could do it in a larger game. The fully Primaris Company meanwhile runs in the 6000 pts range; while you can field a stripped-down reserve company only a crazy large game will see a decked-out battle company like this fielded. Still comparing their firepower is a bit eyeopening. That these two somewhat comparable units have such a wildly different amount of firepower does go a bit to a show the power creep in Marine armies. Also, fluff wise it is no wonder that the Imperium is so quickly moving to replace the Classic Marines.
Let us know which company you’d rather field, down in the comments!
