We don’t tend to think of the Primus as a combat piece; but he has access to a range of offensive relics, including one that only he can take, and two others that he shares with the Locus. So just how nasty can the Primus get?
The Primus comes with an interesting combination of weapons. Of his two combat options, the bonesword is superficially better: better strength, better AP, better damage. But the toxin injector claw has one advantage – it always wounds on 2s (unless you’re hitting a vehicle or titanic unit). Assuming that you’re going into infantry, which of the two weapons is going to generate the best results?
Incidentally, I ran this comparison last year, using the 8th edition version of the codex. Back then, the bonesword was a less effective weapon – it didn’t have +1S, and was only damage 1; its only advantage over the toxin claw was an extra point of AP. As a result, the toxin claw was always the better option, against any toughness and any save. Let’s see if the improvements to the bonesword have levelled the playing field at all.
[We should note that the toxin injector claw also offers an additional attack, which must be with the claw. However, that doesn’t affect the overall decision. If the toxin claw is the better option, then great, we’ve gained an extra attack with it. If it isn’t, then it’s still worth hitting with, even if all the other attacks are with the bonesword.]
BONESWORD vs TOXIN INJECTOR CLAW
First up, let’s compare the chance of inflicting a damaging hit with each weapon:
Here, the toxin claw is the better option against anything T5 or better (where the bonesword drops to wounding on a 4 or worse). The claw is also better against lightly-armoured targets at T3/4, where the lower AP matters less. The bonesword is only the better option against T3/4 with a 3+ or better save (marines, or heavy aspect warriors, for example); so that ‘only’ should be taken in the knowledge that it still covers a significant range of basic infantry models.
However, we’ve also ignored the extra damage caused by the bonesword. If we now look at the crude average damage per attack (rather than just damaging hits), we get a different picture:
The bonesword now looks like the better option against anything with T5 or less, or against 3+ and 2+ saves at any toughness. The toxin claw is only advantageous against T6+ with a 5+ or worse save. That extra point of damage makes a significant difference.
And that’s worth bearing in mind when deciding which weapon to use. Against targets with a single wound, the claw is usually the better option (with the notable exception of ‘not that tough, but well-armoured’). Once we move to multi-wound models, the bonesword comes into its own. The toxin claw remains useful into ‘tough but lightly-armoured’ targets, but otherwise we should be going with the bonesword.
[Given that the bonesword has better stats across the board, except for the claw’s ‘wound on 2s’ mechanic, the bonesword is the better option into vehicles or titanic units (where the claw wounds normally). Why you’d be hitting vehicles or knights, I don’t know; but if you are, use the bonesword every time.]
To make this a touch more concrete, let’s run those numbers against the usual benchmarks – guardsman, marine and Gravis captain. Here, we can either make four attacks with the bonesword, and a fifth with the claw; or we can make all five attacks with the claw.
Against guardsmen, it’s a close thing. The claw just edges it mathematically, but both are likely to kill three guardsmen – the bonesword’s strength and damage advantages are wasted here, but AP-2 (which completely denies a save) does a lot to counter-balance the toxin claws better wound roll.
Against tougher, multi-wound targets, the bonesword has a clearer advantage. Into marines, both weapons are likely to cause a single damaging hit: for the toxin claw, that’s a wounded marine; but for the bonesword, it’s a kill. Into the gravis captain, the bonesword drops to a 4+ to wound, but stills gets the advantage with AP (Armour of Contempt meaning that the extra AP isn’t lost to the invulnerable save – a curious perk). Both are likely to cause a single damaging hit, so again, the extra damage of the bonesword counts for a lot.
Overall, it’s as we expected. The toxin claw is (just about) better into single-wound opposition; the bonesword is better into most other things.
SWORD OF THE VOID’S EYE and SWORD OF THE FOUR-ARMED EMPEROR
Both of the Primus’ weapons may be exchanged for relics. The bonesword has two options. The first is the Sword of the Void’s Eye, and it’s a significant upgrade: a second bonus point of strength, another point of AP, and full rerolls to hit and wound. That’s quite the package.
The other option, the Sword of the Four-Armed Emperor, is locked to the Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor, so is necessarily less accessible. It’s an interesting weapon, offering increased AP, extra attacks, and automatic wounds on hits rolls of 6, but at the cost of dropping to a single point of damage.
How do they play out?
The Void’s Eye pushes the Primus to S6, so guardsmen are wounded on 2s; but as the bonesword was already doing okay, the net result is one additional dead guardsman. That’s also the likely outcome against marines, where a second damaging hit means a second kill (making the relic sword twice as effective here). And into the captain, where the effective loss of the third point of AP is balanced by wounding on 3s, the Void’s Eye almost doubles the average wounds.
The Four-Armed sword gives up strength and consistency for weight of dice. Against guardsmen, that pays off, out-performing the regular bonesword and the Void’s Eye. Into marines, the relic swords are broadly matched – the Four-Armed sword scores more damaging hits, but causes less damage per hit; both are likely to kill two marines. A similar thing happens with the captain; but here, slightly more hits are not enough to balance the reduced damage, and the Void’s Eye comes out ahead.
There’s no overwhelming winner here. The Void’s Eye is better into multi-wound models, but those aren’t really targets we want to be hitting, given that we’re unlikely to finish off most units, and any return attacks are likely to cause us significant damage. The Four-Armed sword is a stronger choice into light infantry, or even models with T4 and 3+ save, as long as they have a single wound – with our S5 and AP-4, we’d still wound on 3s and negate the save completely.
Interestingly, both the Void’s Eye and the Four-Armed sword do better than the toxin claw into all three targets. If you take the relic, you always want to be using it.
HAND OF ABERRANCE
Rather than replacing the bonesword, we could choose to swap out the toxin claw instead. The relic is a straight upgrade on the toxin claw – an extra point of AP, the same ‘wound on 2s’ mechanic, and significantly, 3 damage (giving it more damage than any of the bonesword options). In fact, it’s also a flat improvement on the regular bonesword, causing more damage at the same AP, and still wounds on 2s into everything (except vehicles and titanic units). As with the bonesword relics, if we do take the Hand, we always want to be using it.
Evidently, the Hand outperforms both regular weapon options. How will it fare against the other relics?
The Hand is less effective into Guardsmen than either sword. This makes sense – most of the damage is wasted, the Void’s Eye also wounds on 2s, and the Four-Armed sword has sheer weight of dice. Into marines, it’s a complete toss-up – all three relics will probably kill two marines: the Hand is perhaps least likely overall (scoring less than two damaging hits on average), but does have the advantage of remaining equally effective into three-wound targets (or anything with two wounds and damage reduction).
It's into the captain that the Hand shines – it ignores the increased toughness, doesn’t waste AP into the invulnerable save, and causes a lot of damage when it does get through. There’s a 23% chance of landing the three damaging hits needed to kill the captain, so we wouldn’t want to count on that; but the Hand is the most likely of the relics we’re looking at to put some hurt into tough targets like this. As before, this suffers a little from those tough targets not generally being something we want the primus going toe-to-toe with.
THOUGHTS
I think that what we’ve learned here is that the Primus just isn’t a combat character – killing three guardsmen or a single marine isn’t going to worry too many opponents. Even with a relic weapon, that only increases to five guards or two marines. Still nothing special, and now at the cost of a relic to boot.
Part of the problem here is the Primus’ fragility – with just a 5+ save and 5 wounds, he can’t take much of a hit. If he goes into combat and leaves survivors, there’s a fair chance he’s not going to see a second round. We could improve his defences by taking the Amulet of the Voidwyrm, or dipping into the Bladed Cog for their xenoform bionics, but then we’re burning up our relic slot or a CP, both of which might be better spent elsewhere.
There are other options – warlord traits like Biomorph, or Entropic Touch from the Rusted Claw (which sadly, can’t be combined with the Four-Armed relic sword), but again, it feels as if we’re trying to bolster something that’s not really there to be enhanced in the first place. On top of which, if I’m going to drop a warlord trait on the Primus, I really like Alien Majesty.
And that’s the thing: what I value most about the Primus isn’t his sword – it’s his aura, his role as a force-multiplier. I don’t want him in combat if I can help it; I want him hovering around 6” behind my core combat units, making them all a little bit punchier. A reroll 1s effect increases a unit’s overall damage output by 17% (so six wounds become seven), and if I can affect multiple units at once, then the resultant extra damage is going to be noticeably more than anything the Primus could achieve with his own weapons, even the relic versions.
So, can we up-gun the Primus? Yes, and we can even tailor our relic choice towards light infantry or characters (with marines being much the same either way). Should we up-gun the Primus? I’m not so sure. We’re sliding into tactics, which isn’t my strong suit; but personally, I wouldn’t use my relics here. Your mileage (and strategic sensibilities) may vary, of course, and in smaller games (like combat patrol), it may be worthwhile. But for now, I’ll stick to Alien Majesty and sheltering behind the front lines.
Whatever you do, I hope the Primus helps you plot (and fight) your way to victory.