What Does a Primaris Space Marine Chapter Look Like? (Update!)
Earlier today Bell of Lost Souls hosted an article about all Primaris chapters and arguing that they just don't make sense.
Now in actuality I agree with the author on several points. Essentially the typical organization of a Space Marine chapter does not fit the available Primaris units very well, the Primaris range is lacking in several areas to make it an effective stand-alone force and currently does not really fill out the traditional roles and company structures of a Space Marine chapter.
Currently a chapter of Space Marines should stand at a thousand battle-brothers strong divided into ten companies of roughly a hundred marines each divided into ten squads of ten. The first company is the veteran company composed of Vanguard and Sternguard veterans and any Terminator or Assault Terminator squads the chapter has available. The second, third, fourth and fifth companies are battle companies, each featuring six Tactical, two Assault and two Devastator Squads. The sixth and seventh companies are the Tactical reserve companies featuring ten Tactical squads each. The eighth is the Assault reserve company containing ten Assault Squads and the ninth company is the Devastator reserve with ten Devastator companies. The Tenth company is the Scout company and features a flexible number of Scout squads. Each company will be led by a Captain and feature a Command squad containing a veteran first Sergeant, a veteran battle-brother, a Standard Bearer, Company Champion and Apothecary. Each company should also have an attendant Chaplain, Librarian and Techmarine as well as a complement of transports, Rhinos and Razorbacks, and one or more Dreadnought. The entire chapter will be led by a Chapter Master, usually accompanied by an Honor Guard of five to twenty veteran warriors whose positions stand outside the company structure, as well as an Apothecarion, Reclusium, Armory and Librarius organizations that contain and train the chapter Apothecaries, Chaplains, Techmarines and Librarians. The Armory also serves to contain Servitors, heavy armor and aircraft that serve the chapter and these will be seconded to individual companies on an as-needed basis and includes all of the chapter's battle tanks like the Predator and Vindicator, as well as gunships like the Stormhawk and Stormtalon.
Following the Fall of Cadia expansion and the events surrounding the return of the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman it was announced that the author of the Codex Astartes was penning a new revised version of his work and was making modifications to the organizational structure of a chapter. Unfortunately not much is known about this revision yet and we have little idea about just how much is being changed. One of the few alterations that we do know about is that Guilliman now specifies that companies can be reinforced with additional battle-brothers from reserve companies taking their number above the normal one hundred marine limit with squad numbers now running upwards of twenty where they had previously been capped at ten. This change was in part to accommodate the addition of Primaris Space Marines into the structure of existing codex chapter companies which already featured the maximum Tactical, Assault and Devastator Squads. Now squads eleven through whatever can be made up of five man Intercessor, Hellblaster and Reiver squads as well as three man Inceptor and Aggressor squads. However it is not clear if these changes also push the maximum chapter size above a thousand.
While the existing chapter structure is now somewhat in question the larger question concerns entirely Primaris Space Marine chapters, particularly those founded during the Ultima Founding. These chapters possess no original pattern Space Marines or their weapons, armor, vehicles or anything. As the Bell of Lost Souls article correctly pointed out this is problematic because the units and armory of the Primaris Space Marines is quite limited and hardly serves to fill out all the necessary roles of a chapter.
For instance an attempt to build a Primaris chapter with the units available leaves us with no chapter headquarters, first company, tenth company or armory. Outside of Calgar and his two Honor Guard there is no non-Ultramarines Primaris Chapter Master profile, no Honor Guard to escort him, no veterans aside from Company Ancients, and no neophytes to fill the tenth company. For that matter there are really no vehicles that would fill the chapter armory either. The only flyer known to be used by the Primaris, the Overlord, has no model or in-game profile and the vehicles used by the Primaris are exclusively the Repulsor grav-tank which serves as an up-gunned Rhino, and the Redemptor Dreadnoughts, which would also be attached to each company.
So no Headquarters or First Company, but we could fill out the battle companies. Twelve five-man squads of Intercessors, four squads of Inceptors or Reivers, and four squads of Hellblasters or Aggressors to fill out the traditional Tactical, Assault and Devastator unit roles. Then we could fill the two Tactical reserve companies with twenty squads of Intercessors each, an assault reserve with twenty squads of Inceptors or Reivers, and a Devastator reserve with twenty squads of Hellblaters or Aggressors. Then of course there would be no tenth company. Thus critics are currently correct, an all Primaris chapter just does not make sense.
However we do not know that Ultima founding Primaris chapters follow the structure of existing codex chapters. It is entirely possible that Guilliman's revised codex outlines a completely different structure for Primaris chapters. Moreover, with the reveal of the Vanguard Primaris Space Marines it is clear that we do not have the full lineup of Primaris Space Marines yet and more releases should be expected. The Vanguard seem like a ready option to fill in the tenth scout company in a Primaris chapter. Going forward we may see in another year or so another Primaris release that provides a Techmarine, new vehicles or veteran assault units that could fill out the Armory and Veteran companies.
In summary I think complaints about Primaris chapters are simply premature. Given another year or two I expect we will have a much more fleshed out army-list for the Primaris Space Marines that fills in the existing gaps. It will likely be some time before Primaris have the dozens of options available to older marines but I think it highly likely they will get there in time. The future is Primaris people, just wait and see.
Update: Given that much has happened in the two years since I
first published this and it has gotten quite a few views over that time
it deserved an update so here it is!
As I originally summarized much has indeed happened over the last two years and we do now have some sizable updates to the Primaris range that help fill out the missing elements of the chapter structure rather nicely. First and foremost the Vanguard lineup provided a wealth of stealthy options that could fill out the 10th Company, and the Indomitus Box set provided several veteran assets to the Primaris Marines, notably Bladeguard Veterans and the Bladeguard Ancient. We have also seen the release of a deployable bunker, Techmarine mounted servo-turrets, Primaris Techmarine, a dedicated heavy support tank in the form of the Gladiator, bikes, a four-wheeled atv... thing, an as yet unreleased Primaris speeder, assault intercessors and eradicators and who knows what we will be getting this year. Rules changes have also permitted Primaris units to be upgraded to chapter command positions giving us Primaris Chapter Masters, Masters of Sanctity, Chief Librarians and so on. Really the only remaining gap in the Primaris lineup are possibly new recruits and more glaringly, a complete lack of aircraft, I also think we are missing a dedicated Primaris Company or Chapter Champion model. However, now that we do have these releases we could put together a more sufficient idea of an Ultima Founding Primaris Chapter, which could go as follows:
Primaris Chapter Master
First Company:
Captain
50 Bladeguard Veterans
Second Company:
20 Inceptors/Assault Intercessors/Reivers
20 Hellblasters/Eradicators/Aggressors
Redemptor Dreadnoughts
Impulsors
Repulsors
Seventh Company:
Redemptor Dreadnoughts
Impulsors
Repulsors
Eighth Company:
Chaplain on Bike
Redemptor Dreadnoughts
Impulsors
Repulsors
Invader ATVs
Ninth Company:
Captain
100 Hellblasters/Eradicators/Aggressors100
Redemptor Dreadnoughts
Impulsors
Repulsors
Company Ancient
Impulsors
Master of the Forge
Repulsor Executioners
Hammerfall Bunkers
Librarius:
Chief Librarian
20 Librarians/Vanguard Librarians
Reclusium:
Reclusiarch/Master of Sanctity
20 Chaplains/Judiciar
20 Apothecaries
Comments
Post a Comment