Marines Are Doomed

            Okay.  A little over a year since the last post.

            I’m good at keeping to that schedule.

            So, I’ve slowed down a bit with my Relictors lately.  The classics anyway.  There was a point that I had a beautiful, long-range plan of making the full Chapter, with things get increasingly Chaos-esque as they moved higher and higher thought the ranks.  Six companies at the very (LINK) least.

            Of course, then GW advanced the story a bit, the Relictors were declared heretics and all-but-wiped out.  So my plans were put on hold.  Partly for financial reasons, yeah, but also because... well, I just wasn’t having much fun with 40K anymore.

            Then... 8th edition.  And Primaris.  And a quiet redemption for the Relictors.  Which also gave me some justification for including them as my new Second Company.  I spent a good four or five weeks, altogether, building and painting up all of those.

            And I have a lot of unbuilt regular, non-Primaris Space Marines.  Thirty or forty, easy.  So... yeah, I’ve been thinking about a full Chapter again.  My dear friend Marcus keeps creeping towards it with his Dark Angels.

            However...

            I find myself more and more reluctant to piece these guys together.  Definitely holding back on ordering more parts for them—the odd special chest plate, a specific helmet or head.  And any sort of vehicle... probably not in my future.

            Why?

            I think Space Marines are doomed.  Not just the Relictors.  All of ‘em.

            Allow me to explain.

            And please remember, this is just me pulling thoughts out of my butt that could explain recent design/ sales ideas while also explaining a few things in-story.  The Watsonian and Doylist views of tabletop gaming, if you will.  I’m up for hearing other thoughts, but if you just want to have a screaming argument, there’s lots of other places on the interwebs for that.  Go knock yourself out.

            Anyway...

            I mentioned a while back on my other hobby blog that I got to sit in on a Titan Comics panel about Warhammer 40,000, and they shared a few in-story aspects about the Primaris that had come straight from Games Workshop.  One of the key ones, I think, is that any existing Space Marine can be become a Primaris.  Once they get the extra organs implanted, their bodies change and grow and boom—a couple months later they’re even taller and wider.

            I think this is noteworthy for a couple of reasons.

            I scribbled up a little thing for The Atomic Warlords a few weeks back talking about how many Space Marine characters have effectively gone missing.  Pretty much all of them, really.  When was the last time you saw a Tigerius figure in the wild?  Or Lysander?  Shrike?  The Emperor’s Champion?  Pedro Kantor?

            So, going off the information in those last two paragraphs, what’s a likely thing we’ll see in the future?

            I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are Primaris versions of all these characters in the works.  GW needs to re-release them somehow anyway, and this way justifies all new plastic models and a revised Codex (with all the small tweaks that would be needed after a year or so of eighth edition play).  Plus, it wouldn’t be hard to rationalize a little size difference so Primaris Marneus Calgar is still wearing the only-slightly-retooled Armor of Atilochus and Gauntlets of Ultramar.  The Marines get to keep all their relic-esque weapons and armor while still getting Primaris upgrades.  Imagine a Primaris Lysander in gravis armor with his hammer and shield, or Primaris Pedro Kantor with the Arrow of Dorn.  Hell, I’d probably never play the army, but I’d be tempted to buy a Primaris Gabriel Seth with Blood Reaver just because I bet he’d look so friggin’ cool...

            Of course, once we’ve got all these command units... what’s the point of regular Marines anymore, right?  I mean, really, at this point there hasn’t been a “classic” Space Marine release in... three years?  The Deathwatch, right?  Dark Vengeance was back in 2012, and that didn’t really bring a lot of useful stuff to the table.  Even the current crop of codexes talk about Primaris assimilating into the Space Wolves, the Dark Angels, and so on.  Heck, we’ve been openly told this is a new founding with new, 100% Primaris Chapters.
            The whole Space Marine line could be quietly phased out and replaced with more Primaris options.  More weapon choices.   Bigger tanks and transports.  Dreadnaught variations.

            And at some point...we’re just saying all Space Marines are Primaris now.
            Really, I wouldn’t be shocked if in another two or three years regular Space Marines are pretty much gone.  From shelves and rules.

            And if you’re reading this thinking “hahahaaaa, they couldn’t do that with one of their biggest lines...”  have you seen the new Kill Team Commanders book?  All Primaris.  Heck, if you want precedent, look at how many armies and units from Warhammer were swept off the table during the shift to Age of Sigmar.  Bretonnians, Tomb Kings, the Empire, Dogs of War...

            And it’s not just loyalist Marines, either.  The most recent Chaos/Traitor/Heretic releases have been the Thousand Sons and Death Guard.  They’re both notably larger than previous versions, and much more in scale with the Primaris Marines.

            Plus, that idea of Primaris gene seed being able to enhance classic Marines?  There’s no stipulation that they have to be loyalist Marines.  The Alpha Legion intercepts a certain convoy, the Iron Warriors lay siege to a certain Mechanicus storage center, and look at this... suddenly we have Primaris Fabius Bile (another fig in desperate need of a resculpt/re-release).  Who could be quickly followed by (speaking of desperately needing a new model) Primaris Abaddon.

            So now we don’t just have new models—we’ve got an event to promote them.  A crisis.  A huge shift across the galaxy.  A new box set game to sell!

            Plus—if I may be so bold—this would be a huge chance to finally differentiate Chaos Marines from loyalists.  All along, the heretics have pretty much been “loyalists with horns” and most of the big differences have been about what the Chaos Marines don’t get.  They have very few unique (or at least unique and useful) units or wargear.

            But if the loyalists move on to this degree, it could mean a huge difference.  Heretics could still have all their old armor and heavy weapons and bolters while Loyalists go through a substantial shift in their weapons and tactics.  Chaos could finally, truly have a “retro” Marine look... which would also give them an in-story reason to up their own game and start making their own unique, Chaos-fuelled weapons.

            Anyway... just some random thoughts. 

            Feel free to toss agreements, counterpoints, or other forms of polite discourse below.