Hammers of War, Primaris Heavy Support

Choosing Your Primaris Heavy Support

Your decisions for Primaris Heavy Support infantry aren’t nearly as complicated as they were in previous articles. Each of them deals sledgehammer blows to your opponent’s force. It comes down to the targets you want to destroy and how much you’re willing to pay. Just remember to protect your Primaris Heavy Support units. Your opponent knows how they’ll hammer him and they’ll want to do it to you first.

Hellblaster Squad

Similar to Intercessors, Hellblasters trade their bolt rifles for a pure armament of plasma. With a strong -4 AP rating you’ll want to use Hellblasters against heavily armored targets. Regular 3+ saves and worse just don’t get one against a Hellblaster hit. Also, like Intercessors, their plasma rifles come in three varieties each with advantages and flaws.
Assault plasma incinerators have the lowest Strength, at 6, but may fire 3 times and are assault weapons. They even have a 24 inch range, putting them on par with most small arms in the game. A great pick for mobile units fighting heavy infantry or light vehicles.

Regular plasma incinerators are rapid fire and have one more Strength. Squads equipped with this weapon have some mobility and shooting, but cannot do so when Advancing. they have an extended range, engaging units at 30 inches. They’re best for units you’ll swap between moving and holding ground.

Finally, the heavy plasma incinerator fires at heavy 1, but has an 8 Strength and 2 Damage before supercharging. You won’t want to move the squad much since it reduces accuracy. Like other heavy fire weapons you’ll want to keep them in spots with good long fire lanes to make the most of your shooting. Their 36 inch range gives them a commanding presence of open boards and makes them a priority target for your opponent.

Now, despite everything I’ve said, Hellblasters aren’t very popular. They are very expensive, occupy a Heavy Support slot, and tempt you to supercharge those incinerators. While supercharging increases Strength and Damage, especially for the heavy plasma incinerator, it always carries the chance of eliminating one of your expensive models. If you want to do it, keep your Captain, and his Rites of Battle reroll, nearby.

Eliminator Squad

Phobos armored Primaris Maries with camo cloaks sneak in everywhere, and here they are in Heavy Support. Your squad is very small, limited to three Primaris marines. Their camo cloaks will help keep them in play, but they need to keep way back from the enemy. For weapons, Eliminators carry multi-role bolt sniper rifles or las fusils.

The bolt sniper rifle negates the Look Out, Sir rule, giving you free reign to single out enemy characters. It also comes with a variety of rounds making this a versatile weapon. Executioner rounds ignore cover and add 1 to your to-hit rolls, effectively negating the penalty for moving.. Hyperfrag rounds permit you to engage larger units with 3 attacks each against any unit with 6 or more models. Finally, the mortis round gives improved AP, Damage, and scores mortal wounds on a 6 to-hit. Altogether a nice, rounded package.

Now, the las fusil doesn’t have any of the bolt sniper rifle’s abilities or versatility. However, each shot comes with a deadly profile, Strength 8, AP -3, and 3 Damage. With this profile, target heavy infantry, vehicles, monsters, and isolated characters.

The last point of consideration is your Sergeant’s optional weapon. Instead of one of the above weapons he can carry an instigator bolt carbine. While shorter ranged and less powerful than your other options, it has one favorable property, Covering Fire. After the unit shoots, and the Sergeant doesn’t need to have shot, the Eliminator Squad may conduct a normal move. In other words, you can move away from enemies or into better firing positions. Is that worth 1/3 of your firepower? Probably not, but it captures the feel of a running gunfight. I like that.

At the moment, Eliminatorss are only found in Start Collecting! Vanguard Space Marines.

Eradicator Squad

This is the squad Hellblasters wish they were. Eradicators carry melta or heavy melta rifles, ie 24 inch melta guns. Like all meltas, these are Strength 8 with -4 AP and a D6 Damage. The regular melta rifle is the standard assault 1. The heavy melta rifle, however, is heavy 1, but gets a +2 to damage. Both rifles score an additional 2 Damage when at half range!

While the squad is absolute murder on vehicles in range, their Total Obliteration ability, may rip apart a whole squad of Terminators, Tyranid Warriors, and similar heavy infantry. So long as the Eradicators did not advance, they may select a unit. Models in this squad may fire twice at that unit and only that unit. The restriction isn’t much considering how devastating that Shooting Phase will be!

Sadly, Eradicators are only available as part of Indomitus. Since they were not included in the Recruit, Elite, or Command editions, I’m hoping for a 2021 release.

Entries in this series

Space Marine Primaris Beginners Overview – Your Troop selections and what differentiates Primaris from regular Space Marines.
Primaris Marine Leaders, Your HQs
Best of the Best, Primaris Marine Elites
Lightning Strike, Primaris Fast Attack
Hammers of War, Primaris Heavy Support
Heavy Metal, Primaris Tanks and Transports