Primaris Lieutenant

Primaris Lieutenants AKA Primaris Captain lite.

The Primaris Lieutenant (pronounced "leftenant" for some reason) is an officer rank first found amongst the formations of the Primaris Space Marines, and are often the most experienced in a Primaris Squad. In the wake of the resurrection of Robo Gigglyfist and his revisions to the Codex Astartes, the rank has been introduced to all the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and Primaris since the start of the Indomitus Crusade. Their role is to take command of demi-companies when the Captain is absent, freeing Chaplains and Librarians to focus on their own specialties. Lieutenants are differentiated from their fellow marines by a red-on-white stripe on their helms. Some of them can be helmetless which often showcase an extreme amount of Hair-esy.

The Primaris Lieutenants are made to bridge a gap between the regular Astartes and the Primaris. Offering some kinship of brotherly companionship in order to keep a cohesive bond within a Chapter. Thus, Space Marine Battle Companies are frequently divided into two Battle demi-companies of 50 Astartes each in order to spread their forces across multiple combat zones. In most Chapters, command of each demi-company falls to a Lieutenant, who leads his brothers unflinchingly into battle. Some Space Marine Chapters assign additional roles for Lieutenants. The Salamanders, for example, have given these warriors a ceremonial duty as bodyguards to their company's Captain, the three fighting as one. Within the Iron Hands Chapter they are charged as Naysmiths, questioning their Captain's battle plans so as to probe for human errors within his logic.

The Primaris Lieutenants are noted to be slightly better armed than a normal Space Marine Lieutenant as well as having better wounds (But not by much). In function some in /tg/ can assume that Primaris Lieutenants are a rough analogue to a Space Marine squad leader. However, as mentioned before, Primaris Lieutenants lead entire demi-companies, not singular squads. They are also sometimes confused with Adeptus Astartes Seargeants and their various counterparts and sub-variants due to their similar names and looks.

The matter of truth is that they are basically a more budget version of the Primaris Captain, but with a different (and complimentary) buff aura.

Geedubs seems to have an enormous hard-on for these guys. As of April 2019, they've released no less than six generic Primaris Lieutenants (including a Vanguard Lieutenant in Phobos armour), and a unique version each for Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, and even Space Wolves (technically he's a Primaris Wolf Guard Battle Leader, but Battle Leaders fill pretty much the same role as Lieutenants do in other Chapters). GW itself has made fun of this, releasing a trailer for the "Primaris Lieutenant you've always wanted" only for it to turn out to be a corpse that Abaddon is standing on and making a joke Twitter feed "for all your Primaris Lieutenant news". This is probably due to all of them being Monopose so GW has to release a new one for each weapon combination. It wouldn't be so egregious if they weren't 30 USD for one model.

Equipment

As mentioned before, Primaris Lieutenants are slightly better armed then normal Space Marine Lieutenants despite wearing the same Mark X: Tacticus Pattern Armour but have fewer wargear choices available to them.

They are usually armed with a normal Bolt Pistol and a Power Sword. However, they can also swap that Power Sword with either a Master-crafted Auto Bolt Rifle (Think a Bolt Rifle's SMG) which has a shorter range and worse ap than a normal Bolt Rifle, but better rate of fire at long range, fireable after Advancing, and more damage per shot from being master-crafted; or a Stalker Bolt Rifle which is like the direct opposite, having a longer range and stronger ap values at the cost of fire rate and close quarters effectiveness. The Primaris LT that came with the Indomitus boxset for 9th edition is kitted for close combat, with a master-crafted power sword, storm shield, and a Neo-Volkite Pistol, since apparently Cawl's been poking around in the archives again. The Primaris LT that's coming with Strike Force Agastus in 2023 is stated to address some of the gaps in armory, like a power fist, heavy bolt pistol, and plasma pistol for non-Dark Angels.

Primaris Lieutenant Inundation

All of the Primaris Lieutenants until now sometime during 2019. Including the poor sod under Abaddon's foot.

• Primaris Lieutenant A/B - Dark Imperium
• Primaris Lieutenant Tolmeron - Blood Angels Lt.
• Primaris Lieutenant Zakariah - Dark Angels Lt.
• Primaris Lieutenant Calsius - Ultramarine Lt. Found in Warhammer Conquest.
• Primaris Lieutenant - Space Wolves Lt. - Tooth and Claw boxset/start collecting primaris space wolves
• Primaris Lieutenant with Power Sword - Wake the Dead boxset.
• Primaris Lieutenant with Stalker Bolt Rifle - Limited release, for 500th Store Opening.
• Primaris Lieutenant - AdeptiCon 2018
• Dead Primaris Lieutenant - On the base of Abaddon's new model
• Primaris Vanguard Lieutenant - Shadowspear boxset / start collecting vanguard marines boxset
• Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos armor - Released as a stand alone unit in September of 2019
• Primaris Lieutenant with Storm Shield and Neo-Volkite Pistol - Indomitus boxset
• Dead Primaris Lieutenant - Optional base decoration for Be'lakor's new model
• Black Templars Castellan - "I Can't Believe He's Not Firstborn" Primaris lieutenant
• Black Templars Castellan with auto-plasma and master-crafted power sword - Sword brethren box
• Captain Lieutenant Titus - Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II‎‎ vidya + board game (2023?)
• Primaris Lieutenant - Battle Force Agastus (2023)
• Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos Armor - Leviathan box set (2023)

Vanguard Lieutenant

The sneaky version.

Like all Vanguard Marines, Vanguard Lieutenants wear the lightweight Phobos Armor which makes them extra sneaky and less of a big target (the reductions to the PAULDRONS decreased their target profile by 30% alone).

Unlike regular Primaris Lieutenants, Lieutenants of the Vanguard formations provide support and tactical flexibility for their Captain. Often, when a strike team is engaged in a complex, multi-faceted operation, a Lieutenant will be assigned to oversee one or more critical aspects.

Beyond their leadership qualities, Lieutenants are skilled blade-fighters with their Paired Combat Blades (which score extra hits on a 6), and dead-eye shots with their master crafted Occulus Bolt Carbines (which ignore cover).

In addition to this, these Vanguard Lieutenants can deploy via grav-chute to enact multiple-simultaneous-devastating-defensive-deepstrikes. Like Steel Rain, but far more tactical and sneaky. However, he doesn't have Concealed Positions, so unless you're holding him in reserve with Reivers, or only deploying within your normal deployment zone, he's going to arrive a turn later than the other Vanguard troops you'd want him to support, Infiltrators and Incursors.

Speaking of Reivers, you can alternatively equip him with a Heavy Bolt Pistol, a standard Combat Knife, and the spooky faceplate that gives them the Terror Troops ability. He'll even gain the REIVER keyword. However, he'll also be forced to trade the grav-chute with a smoke grenade, meaning any Reivers he might want to pal around with better either be carpooling or walking to their target.

All in all, it's a nice model that may disappoint some for the sheer fact that it is yet another Primaris Lieutenant model.