What are Primaris Space Marines, you ask? Good question! They are bigger, better and badder Space Marines, essentially.
Like "normal" Space Marines, they preserve the 3+ armor save, they use bolt weapons and the frag and krak grenades, have the same old 3+ WS and BS. But as you can see, their bolt rifle has a greater range and a better AP than the ubiquitous boltgun. They have 2 wounds, which make them more survivable than normal Space Marines, but slightly less so than Terminators. Do take note that they do not have additional wargear options like normal Tactical Squads so you can't bring specialist weapons like meltaguns, lascannons or flamers. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Can't let the Tactical Squads go totally obsolete, after all.
Oh, and the Intercessor Squad is also better at melee, with more attacks. 2 for the regular Intercessor, and 3 for the Sergeant. No chainswords or special melee weapons like power fists or power swords, though. On the other hand, they have a bolt pistol, which allows them to shoot during the shooting phase even when they are locked in combat (seen the new fighting phase rules yet?).
Oh, and if you see the <Chapter> keyword, that's because you can select Primaris Marines for any Chapter you want. Ultrasmurfs...I mean Ultramarines, Space Puppies...uh, Wolves, Blood Daemons...I mean Angels, Iron Hands, Dark Emos...uh, Angels, etc. Even your own self-created Space Marine Chapter (much in the spirit of my own self-created Draconian Armored Imperial Guard Regiment). Up to you, dudes. I dunno if you can use these guys for Grey Knights, but we don't need no Primaris Psykers...uh, Marines. We have Terminators for Troops! Hah!
Take note, though. The Intercessor Squad costs more than a Tactical Squad (obviously). So if you try to take an army of Primaris Marines, you'll have a much smaller but very elite army, in the spirit of Grey Knights. Don't forget, that Intercessors are only one type of Primaris Space Marine. There will be more coming up! Different types of Primaris Marines, such as Primaris Terminators, Primaris Dreadnoughts and even Primaris vehicles, will all be coming from Mars to help the Imperium in its darkest hour!
There's even a FAQ put up for the Primaris Marines. Wow. That was fast. Anyway, let's sum the questions and answers up.
Primaris Space Marines are new, better, stronger Space Marines, essentially. They do not replace the normal Space Marine (thank the Emperor), so you can continue to use your normal Space Marines and Tactical Squads, etc. if you want. Primaris Space Marines serve primarily as reinforcements, especially for depleted and almost destroyed Space Marine Chapters - I'm looking at you, Astral Knights. Oh, and let's not forget Raven Guard and all the others...
There will be many types of Primaris Space Marines, including vehicles. And they have new armor, the Mk X armor (means nothing to me, since we Guardsmen only have one type of flak or carapace armor). You can field an entire army of Primaris Space Marines if that's your thing. Some Chapters have whole battle companies of Primaris Space Marines. Roboute Guilliman also founded completely new chapters out of Primaris Space Marines. Hooray.
Any Chapter can use Primaris Space Marines, even the ones not compliant to the Codex like Space Wolves and Dark Angels. But what about Grey Knights? No one said anything about Grey Knights. Then again, we don't need non-psychic Primaris Marines in a Grey Knights army, so I guess the answer is pretty obvious.
You shouldn't throw away your Tactical Marines just yet, though. Even though Primaris Marines are better, they are more expensive (in terms of points) and have different, very limited weapon options. So Tactical Squads remain more...ahem, tactical.
You can also choose not to use Primaris Marines. That's perfectly fine. The kits don't seem very compatible with existing Space Marine kits because of the new armor, but you can certainly kit-bash the Primaris themselves.
Oh, and the most important thing - all Primaris Marines are available to be used alongside any Imperial army, including Imperial Guard! So even if I use Imperial Guard, I can field Primaris Marines to fulfil some battlefield roles that my army will normally struggle with. I mean, the Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought Warhammer Community mentions makes it so tempting... and obviously you can field them alongside the Adeptus Custodes too. What part of "available to use alongside all Imperial armies" do you not get?
Chaos will get their own awesome Marines (new Plague Marines? I dunno), so hold onto your horses and don't start thinking Games Workshop is favoring only the Imperium just yet...
Anyway, the Primaris Marines will be released alongside 8th Edition, both of which will have their release dates announced before the end of the month. Awesome!
The Emperor protects! All hail Lord Commander Guilliman and his Ultrasmurfs! Uh, Ultramarines!
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