Warhammer 40K: Fielding An All Primaris Company On The Tabletop
Today let’s take a look at how you can field an all Primaris Company on the tabletop – for under 2k!
Space Marine Companies are one of the iconic units in the game. They are huge part of the lore, and a major building block of Chapters. Now the idea of fielding a whole Company of Marines on the tabletop has always held a lot of appeal to me. The sheer impact of getting to deploy 100 Marines on the table and letting them got to work has always been fun. In some editions this has worked better than others, but it’s normally been possible to deploy a company. However the introduction of Primars units threw a wrench into this, not only are they more expensive, but they had an unknown organizational structure. Well it just so happens I’ve spent some time looking at how a Primaris Company might work. Lets take a look at some ways we might be able to field one on the table top.
The Battle Company
So the first idea I had was to look at if we could take a full Battle Company. It’s possible to do so with classic Marines, could we do it with Primaris? The answer is a pretty resounding no. To try to take a Battle Company, such as the one pictured above, would run you 2,995 points without Repulsors, or 5,855 points with them! That does include a Librarian, Apothecary and Chaplain that are not pictured above. It is also taking all units at the basic stock load-out without any upgrades at all. So while it would be cool to field a Battle Company like this, we just aren’t going to able to do it. So what other options do we have?
Other Variations? 
My next idea was to try out some variation of a Battle Company. Stripping out most of the command elements and the transports and dreadnoughts helped get us way down in points. Going with simply a Captain, Two Lts. and a Chaplain for our HQs (we need two battalions for all the slots) shaved off a lot of points. Since Reivers are a point less than Intercessors they also help out the overall equation. Still, even with just those four HQ choices, 60 Intercessors, 20 Reivers and 20 Hellblasters we end up a couple hundred points over our 2K limit. It was really the Hellblasters that killed the plan, but even playing with alternate Fire Support options couldn’t get us cheaper.
The Reserve Company
OK so a Battle Company is out of the question, that led me to look at the other Companies in the Chapter. For many of them the rule of three prevents us from even considering them. However we do have one option that could work. The Battleline Reserve Company, and here we can make a legal list, let’s take a look:
Meet the 6th Company
Battalion – Space Marines
Primaris Captain w/ Master-crafted auto bolt rifle – 82 pts
Primaris Lieutenant w/ Master-crafted auto bolt rifle – 69 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
Battalion – Space Marines
Primaris Chaplain – 77 pts
Primaris Lieutenant w/ Master-crafted auto bolt rifle – 69 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
10x Intercessors w/ bolt rifles – 170 pts
Total: 1997 Pts, 18/18 CP
So there you have it, the Company fits in at juuuust under 2000 points. It’s not quite the one pictured above, as its lacking transports and Dreadnoughts, and maybe most importantly, there is no Ancient. We had to sacrifice taking the Ancient in order to fit in the Chaplain we needed for the 2nd Battalion. So it is possible to make a 6th or 7th Company legal list. With the amount of CP we have we could also almost run this as a 1st Company formation. We’ve got just enough to make 9 of the 10 Intercessor squads into Veterans. I suppose we could make one of the Squads a Reiver Squad, and the rest vets and call it a First Company list.
Is It Any Good?
So is the list any good? Well, it’s not going to be winning tournaments but it’s also not the worst list I’ve seen. There are some armies out there that just won’t be able to deal with 100 Intercessors, and you’ll be able to grab objectives all day long. The list could really chew through most enemy infantry, either in shooting or assault, but will have issues with tanks. I think it is best run as Imperial Fists ( if you fire 200 bolt gun shots a turn, you’ll roll a few 6s), or maybe you could make a Blood Angel version. Even if it is not the best list, I think it could be a ton of fun to play, and it would certainly look impressive on the table. Who knows, if you try running it as one of the many Supplemental codex chapters – you may surprise some players!
Let us know what you think of the list, down in the comment!
