Imo loyalist primarchs coming back takes away from the idea that the Imperium is a place of crumbling decay. Between Bobby G & primarus (a rant for another day) it feels like they want to have their cake and eat it too. The Imperium is falling apart, barely functioning, technology is stagnant at best, but somehow they also get a flood of new recruits (here I thought suitable marine recruits were supposed to be somewhat rare) with shiney new wargear & vehicles and the primarchs that is basically Emperor Jr is back in charge.
Maybe marine fans have a different perspective but the contradiction between the Imperium's ostensible decline & suddenly every chapter gets a flood of recruits & new advanced gear takes away from it for me.
I play Black Templar and I don't like the Bobby and Primarus stuff for the reasons you've said (that's been shared by a billion other people every time it comes up). I also dislike how it takes away from each factions' playstyle.
Loyalist primarchs are basically greater demons/demon princes. Coupled with mono-weapon units, there's not much difference between Chaos and Loyalist marines except how many spikes are on each. Then there's factions like Craftworld Eldar. Marines basically have better Aspect Warriors than they do, plus the dumb anti-grav tanks.
And from here we get Grey Knights/Death Watch, who are space marines but cooler. But that's not enough, so we have to have even cooler Custodes. Eventually we're going to end up with bigger Custodes with all the special weapons who are super duper cooler and will totally beat up your dad.
You bring up a great point about how they affect playstyles, and I think it's not just marines that are victims of this. Recent years have really seen GW pushing "centerpiece models" that they want to be almost essential to play a faction on the tabletop (Silent King, Norn emissary, Lord Solar, etc).
Between that, eviscerating wargear/loadout options, & a general focus on "competitive play" 🤮 it feels like there's way less customization/variety in army lists.
I haven't played tabletop in well over a decade, I just read books and play the roleplaying games now. That being said I agree that the loyalist primarchs coming back isn't great but I guess they have to maintain the stalemate against chaos.
Imo loyalist primarchs coming back takes away from the idea that the Imperium is a place of crumbling decay. Between Bobby G & primarus (a rant for another day) it feels like they want to have their cake and eat it too. The Imperium is falling apart, barely functioning, technology is stagnant at best, but somehow they also get a flood of new recruits (here I thought suitable marine recruits were supposed to be somewhat rare) with shiney new wargear & vehicles and the primarchs that is basically Emperor Jr is back in charge.
Maybe marine fans have a different perspective but the contradiction between the Imperium's ostensible decline & suddenly every chapter gets a flood of recruits & new advanced gear takes away from it for me.
I play Black Templar and I don't like the Bobby and Primarus stuff for the reasons you've said (that's been shared by a billion other people every time it comes up). I also dislike how it takes away from each factions' playstyle.
Loyalist primarchs are basically greater demons/demon princes. Coupled with mono-weapon units, there's not much difference between Chaos and Loyalist marines except how many spikes are on each. Then there's factions like Craftworld Eldar. Marines basically have better Aspect Warriors than they do, plus the dumb anti-grav tanks.
And from here we get Grey Knights/Death Watch, who are space marines but cooler. But that's not enough, so we have to have even cooler Custodes. Eventually we're going to end up with bigger Custodes with all the special weapons who are super duper cooler and will totally beat up your dad.
You bring up a great point about how they affect playstyles, and I think it's not just marines that are victims of this. Recent years have really seen GW pushing "centerpiece models" that they want to be almost essential to play a faction on the tabletop (Silent King, Norn emissary, Lord Solar, etc).
Between that, eviscerating wargear/loadout options, & a general focus on "competitive play" 🤮 it feels like there's way less customization/variety in army lists.
I haven't played tabletop in well over a decade, I just read books and play the roleplaying games now. That being said I agree that the loyalist primarchs coming back isn't great but I guess they have to maintain the stalemate against chaos.