Warhammer 40K: New Rules for New Marines?
Today let’s shamelessly speculate on what those new Primaris units do.
Oh boy, was this a big old weekend. At last 9th Edition, an edition I was assured would never happen, has been announced and with it a whole slew of new releases and information. It’s the information we’ll be digesting for a little while, and no doubt getting more of each day. For today I want to take a look at the newly teased (and some leaked) Space Marine units. While the models are great, a lot of people are curious about what they could do on the tabletop. So lets put our thinking caps on speculate a bit here.
Assault Intercessors
The first of the newly announced units is the rather straightforwardly named Assault Intercessors. Rules wise I would guess these are also the most straightforward of the new units. They appear to be just Intercessors who have swapped their bolt rifles for chainswords and heavy bolt pistols, making them a one for one match to non-jump pack equipped classic Assault marines. It’s possible that the simple weapon swap is the only change from regular Intercessors; however, based on their close support unit markings, I’d guess these will fill a fast attack slot rather than troops (Marine troops are already a crowded slot). I also wonder what they will do to set them apart from Reivers as they will effectively have the same loadout just missing a few, mostly useless special rules. 
Interestingly this Warhammer Community article says they are armed with “Astartes chainsword.” While this is the technical name for all Space Marine chainswords, it’s rarely used, and it does have me wondering if they’ll get a version of the chainsword that’s better then what classic Marines use. I’ll also be interested to see if they get access to the Veteran Intercessor stratagem and if their sergeant gets the full range of close combat options. If they do, I think they’ll be a solid assault unit. If not losing the bolt rifle and not being a troop slot is a bad trade-off for being a worse close combat unit than Veteran Intercessors.
Primaris Bladeguard Veterans
These elite First Company Veterans are pretty rad looking dudes and invoke a lot of classic Space Marine iconography. Equipment-wise, it’s clear that they have a stormshield and confirmed that they have master-crafted power swords. It looks like they carry either bolt or heavy bolt pistols, as well. This means we are looking at a 3++ on the unit (they also seem to have Iron Halos, but normally the stormsheild makes them redundant). With their D2 and Ap-3, the swords are pretty decent but lack real punch, though Blood Angels will love them no doubt.
For the rest of their stats, I would look towards the Ultramarine Victrix Honor Guard for ideas. This unit gives us an idea of what these kinds of elite veterans do. I’m not sure if the Bladeguard will get the bodyguard rules. The two units are pretty similarly equipped (the Bladeguard have better weapons), and I wouldn’t be surprised to see very similar stats.
Primaris Outriders
The Primaris are going all Akira on us. I’ll be honest; this isn’t a unit I’m super excited for even if it looks pretty cool. Bikes, IMO, have a very mixed rules history in 40K. But we are getting them none the less. Rules wise we have a pretty good idea of what a bike does.
Unless they really break the mold, we should expect to see a regular Space Marine Biker but with an extra wound and attack. Also, they would have a pair of bolt rifles instead of two bolters. Looking at the model, this seems to be about what we should expect. I am interested to see if they are stuck with bolt rifles or can take the variants. Overall, Bike Squads aren’t that great right now, and I don’t see that making them more expensive and slightly better is going to change that. It also makes the Outriders very similar to Inceptors, with a nearly identical stat line and worse guns. Other than weapons, the only real difference would be that the bikes are faster, but that Inceptors can fly and deep strike. Hopefully, the Outriders will get a little more going for them, either some special rules or alternate gear, to make them useful. Otherwise, while White Scars might love them, I’m not sure of their use in most armies. Let us wait and see if GW can give them a unique role in the army.
Unknown Unit – Hellfury?
Unannounced but not unnoticed, this Marine unit was spotted by keen eyes hiding in some of the leaked pictures. While it has not been confirmed, I would guess this is the Hellfury mentioned in the most recent Codex as being a mysterious Fire Support Unit. We don’t have a whole ton to go on, but they appear to be wearing a variation on Gravis armor and using some kind of melta gun. I’m guessing this is some new type of weapon as it looks heavier than a regular meltagun, yet lacks the double barrels of a classic multi-melta. The unit’s base stats are likely the same as those of Aggressors, with the weapons being the main difference. With these new guns, it is not clear if the unit is a close-range or long-range unit, though I would bet that they will get some other weapon options. Regardless of specifics, it appears that Primaris are finally getting a good anti-tank unit. Nice!
Judiciar 
The guy with the coolest new model is also one we don’t have a ton of hints about. We know he’s got an executioner sword, likes to lop heads off, and helps keep Marines in line. My best guess is that he’s the loyalist version of the Chaos Master of Executions.
They’ve got a pretty similar vibe going on here and are both executioners. Given that It’s quite possible that he Judiciar will have some character hunting rules, which is a slot that Primaris don’t have filled right now. It’s also possible that he has some leadership buffs – helping him keeping the Marines in line.
Other New Characters
In addition to these new units, we’ve also seen some new character models. We’ve got the inevitable new LT: 
A new Ancient:
A new Chaplain:
And a new Captain: 
Other than the new sculpts and equipment options, which the Captain in particular needs, it’s not clear that any of these models will have new rules. It’s possible that the new Ancient is a Chapter Ancient, or that all these new characters will get some kind of first company designation/bonus, but right now, I’d bet on just cool models and weapons. So far, that’s all we’ve seen, but its a lot, and I’m excited to find out what other secrets the future holds.
Let us know what you think these new units do, down in the comments!
