Most powerful Forgeworld primarch?

[BobMorton]

Hi,

I am a lurker and do not play war hammer 40k but I do collect the miniatures extensively. I have been collecting the primarch minis and it is my understanding from the rules that they are appropriately powerful.

Question which has been haunting my dreams: which of the primarchs that have rules is the most powerful on the table top. Can you rank them in terms of power level in game?

Cheers.

[Baneblade]

Depends of what you mean by most powerful. Some are combat beat sticks, others can tank a titan, and others provide buffs to the army in general.

[BobMorton]

Depends of what you mean by most powerful. Some are combat beat sticks, others can tank a titan, and others provide buffs to the army in general.

Good question. I think what I mean is if you were to put them against each other in an arena of death who would come up as the winner in one on one. Obviously the army buffers would lose out against the pure brawlers. The rules would be start a table length away.

[Kirsten]

I'd be inclined to say Vulkan, high toughness, good all round stats, and a nice hefty S10 hammer that doesn't have unwieldy. most of the other primarchs with high strength weapons are unwieldy, so he would strike first. and those that strike in initiative order are often wounding him on fives.

[Alaric]

I'd be inclined to say Vulkan, high toughness, good all round stats, and a nice hefty S10 hammer that doesn't have unwieldy. most of the other primarchs with high strength weapons are unwieldy, so he would strike first. and those that strike in initiative order are often wounding him on fives.

This. I have used him often and he has never died.

[YorkNecromancer]

'Best' is kind of a weird thing - like others have said, it requires qualification: 'best' at what?

Primarchs that stand out to me as particularly good:

Ferrus Manus - he's effectively T8 against all shooting attacks, then has a 2+/3++ on top of that. Plus he should be mounted in a tank, because that's what his army is defined by... In which case, he gives that tank IWND and heals it like a Techmarine, only he succeeds on a 2+. He's got good shooting, and strong melee, and is effectively indestructible. So yeah, pretty powerful.

Angron - he's not exactly tough compared to his peers: only 3+ save, BUT, if you can get his Butcher's Nails fully 'levelled-up' by going after hordes (which is what he's for) then he's pretty much the most dangerous melee fighter in all of 30K or 40K. I mean, that's ALL he can do, and he goes down to shooting like a (relative) punk. But in melee, no-one can f**king touch the guy.

Roboute Guilliman - excellent force multiplier. He can't really handle hordes as well as some of his peers, but that's not his thing. He affects his whole army, and significantly so.

Horus - see Gulliman. On his own, he's dangerous. But - as it should be - it's the buffs he brings make him very dangerous.

Vulkan - a very strong all-rounder. He's tough like Ferrus Manus, but in a different way. Vulkan resists the usual 'character killer' weapons, like melta; Manus is resistant to everything. I'd say the two of them were pretty equal... Assuming Manus' player isn't using some hideous Heresy-era superheavy as Manus' personal transport.

Alpharius - just a horrible b*stard. He's another Gulliman or Horus: not as dangerous as some of the other primarchs in terms of sheer 'making things die' power, but Christ alive, Alpharius allows tactical shenanigans like nobodies' business.

Bottom line: assuming the Primarchs are fighting with an appropriately synergised army, they're all equally horrifying, just in subtly and not-so-subtly different ways. There is no 'best' Primarch; they're all the best at what they do and what they all do is very different indeed.

Put them one-on-one in a 10'x10' white room with no cover and just have them go at each other?

If Vulkan doesn't shoot a fully-leveled up Angron to death, Angron takes the win.

[AnEnemy]

I don't know about the best, but I think Dorn is the worst.

[Vlad78]

I don't know about the best, but I think Dorn is the worst.

But Dorn is also the cheapest and his ability to make any imperial fists squad add + D3 to their assault result (combined with the absence of ATSKNF) is quite stunning imho.

[AnEnemy]

Mmm, true that is nice.

[YorkNecromancer]

Dorn also conveys his Ld to all Imperial Fists on the battlefield; no small thing in a world without ATSKNF. Where other Legions get chased off the battlefield under fire, the Fists never waver beneath Dorn's gaze, and that's something you just can't overlook in 30K games.

He also makes Terminators into Troop choices, and in a game where only Troops can score, that's pretty huge.

Plus, except for D weapons, he can't ever be wounded on anything better than a 3+, so while he doesn't seem as tough as someone like Vulkan or Manus, he's actually not too far behind them. He's certainly almost as resilient against things like Melta and Plasma. He doesn't hand out the pain like the others, but that's because he - like his Legion - is all about defence.

I've not mentioned Aetos Dios either - which other Primarchs can rock up in their own personal Thunderhawk that has IWND and a Void Shield for cheaper than a regular Thunderhawk? Sure, no bugger's going to have one because SWEET MERCY HOW MUCH MONEY? but the option's still there.

Dorn isn't a beat stick, true. But if he was, he wouldn't be Dorn.