Warhammer 40K: What We Should Expect for Primarchs & Marines
Goatboy here with what the smart money thinks the future holds for the 40K Primarchs, CSMs, and Marines as we head into 2026!
Goatboy here and we got awhile before we see another awesome 40K GW preview. I bet the next one we see will push the new 11th Edition pretty heavily with showcasing that supposed boxed set. It feels like we are retreading some of the old battlegrounds so will see if the rumors hold true for Armageddon. I don’t want to talk about that though. I want to instead see if I can guess what the future holds for the Iron Warriors tidbit we saw at the end.
Perturabo – the Next Chaos Primarch?
The big thing I think we need to talk about is the fact we haven’t had a Primarch released for 40k in a bit. This has me thinking Perturabo is coming and that has me asking a ton of questions on what this might actually mean. I wonder if this will be the first non giant Daemonic Primarch for Chaos. I ask this as the only way I can imagine Perturabo as a giant monster like Magnus, Fulgrim, or Mortarion would be if he has transformd into some kind of giant daemonic engine of destruction. I get that it would fit into the grand scheme of 40K’s ever escalating state of things. But instead of that, what if GW made him like Roboute or the Lion?
What if he is just a big dude sized like those guys and given rules that match up. What if he is more akin to a weird Daemon Prince table size wise with a bit more wounds and the ability to be hidden like the word skulking Lone Op? This would be a complete change in how we expect the Chaos leaders to be and something really unique. Heck we can just make him Lone Op if he is near Daemon Engines to make him feel a bit different from the other options in the CSM book.
He would then have a similar outline like the good guy Primarchs with a cascade of choices he can choose from. He would be built to help his army out instead of just being a giant supersized jerk that runs in the middle and smashes stuff. He could give out good machine auras to help them hit better. He could give out buffs to rebuke the enemy firepower to help his friends out. He would be able to smash through things if he got close but we shouldn’t see him as this giant flying monster of doom. It would also be a cool dividing line design-wise between the giant sized Cult Legion Primarchs, and the Chaos Undivided ones.
A Quick Leman Russ Aside…
It would be a pretty interesting flip to the whole design set up for Chaos versus the Imperium and would have him thinking we could go on the opposite side of things and create Leman Russ as the true daemonic sized threat. This would let GW create this monstrous werewolf warped by the energies of the Warp and give a whole new set of rules to the Imperial side of things. We could have him be a weird aura farm of angry energy to help push all his fellow Space Wolves into angry murder machines. I would let the GW sculptors go crazy with a giant Space Wolf kit. It would be a neat backdrop into pushing the new edition and the new year of 40k madness.
Lorgar, You Worm!
I hope we see a concerted effort to filling out the CSM side of things with the Legions that still feel Chaos but doing need their own book. I still would love to see a truly fleshed out Word Bearers as they are always the enemy in the fluff. Lorgar is an interesting one in that he should be some kind of giant mad preacher giving out his sermon from the back and driving his legion forward. He feels like another easy build but they still don’t have an idea of what a true zealot for Chaos would look like that isn’t just a carbon copy of a Black Templar. With Emperor’s Children now out, GW may decide to focus Codex: CSM on the five Undivided Legions, and give them some texture.
Classic Marines – Tick Tock…
I get the feeling we’ll see some crazy redone Primaris Space Marines soon. GW loves to add more to the Marine range and I bet the next edition will finally see a consolidation of firstborn stuff going to Legends – escorted out of the game quietly after almost 40 years. The Primaris range is now enormous, and the bloated Marine codex needs a haircut. I worry that some of this stuff might shift to just CSM or end up going away completely. I would hate to see my Rhino go away but understand if GW are just dog tired of cranking out that kit. Codex Space Marines need a ton of units cut out and I am sure it is coming soon. All the Marine supplemental codexes seem to have their own things that match up so just a few snips, some shifts of units, and we could have a much smaller and leaner Marine codex to build off of.
What are you hoping we see next year? What new reveals that are coming at Adepticon are you excited for?
