Firstborn Space Marines sent to Legends keep their rules, but the ones GW called close enough lost theirs. Here’s what all that does to your 40k collection.
Firstborn Space Marines sent to Legends keep their datasheets, while Tactical Squads and Devastators are basically being told to go pretend they’re something else.
The Vindicator came out of this better than the Tactical Squad did (sort of), and that’s kind of sad for one of the oldest units in the game.
GW now has two different groups for Firstborn, and the units that get fully retired are the ones that keep their names and datasheets. The models GW decided were “close enough” to something newer lose both and become Primaris proxies instead. Somehow, though, neither will be fully “tournament-legal”.
But before anyone starts writing off a shelf full of Firstborn as expensive paperweights, it’s worth separating what GW actually announced from people’s reactions to it.
- Legends beat the proxies: the models GW dumped entirely kept their identity, while the ones it called close enough lost theirs. That’s pretty backward for a retirement list.
- The split is 12 and 5: twelve units get working Legends datasheets in the app this October, while five more are now treated as completely different units with completely different weapons.
- What it changes: your Firstborn collection now depends heavily on which list your models are on now, while permission to use the Legends half at events comes down to the organizer.
GW Split These Space Marines Into Two Very Different Groups
The first set of models are going to Warhammer Legends, and where most of them are ending up. Twelve units, mostly tanks, the Dreadnought, and flyers, keep their own datasheet inside the Warhammer 40,000 App when the codex lands in October. Which is somehow an upgrade from how this used to go when Legends meant a PDF nobody could find. If you’re wondering what’s leaving, here’s the full list in our breakdown of the cuts.
The other group gets the new Legendary Proxy label, and this is where things get a little strange, to be fair. Tactical Squads become Intercessor Squads, Devastator Squads become Desolation Squads, and Suppressor Squads become Inceptor Squads. Pedro Kantor and Uriel Ventris both become a generic Captain.
Kantor himself has had rumors of a new model for ages, and maybe, if we’re lucky, he will get the same treatment as the Captain on Bike or even Commissar Yarrick’s big return.
Either way, those five don’t keep their datasheets, but GW isn’t really saying the models are gone. It’s saying you can keep using the plastic as long as you’re willing to pretend it’s somebody else.
Your Predator Still Has Rules & Your TO Still Has an Opinion
First, the whole “these models are illegal now” thing isn’t 100% true. Legends and Legendary Proxies are fine at home, at stores, clubs, and in campaigns, while competitive events can allow them if the organizer wants to. But what it does mean is that GW is probably not going to update the datasheet again.
Nobody’s coming for your Predators, well… other than GW.
Anyone who’s played tournaments knows how it goes, though. Most TOs stick with the current competitive rules because a room full of players generally expects everyone to be pulling from the same pile of datasheets. You can absolutely ask whether Legends are allowed, but almost all of the event packs are going to answer that question before you ever email the organizer.
So unfortunately, if you’ve got a couple thousand dollars and hundreds of hours of painting sitting in a Firstborn army, that’s probably not the answer you wanted.
Putting Legends rules straight into the app does give those units a better shot at actually showing up in casual games, leagues, tournaments, and campaigns, though. That’s because nobody has to dig around for a forgotten PDF anymore. The catch is that Legends sit outside the regular balance cycle, so a Vindicator that’s perfectly fine in October could be overpowered or complete trash by the next big balance Dataslate.
A Lascannon Devastator is Apparently Firing a Missile Launcher Now
There is another funny take on these new “proxy rules” though, because if you have a Devastator Squad with two lascannons, a plasma cannon, a heavy bolter, and a sergeant, then put it on the table as Desolation Marines. GW has officially said that’s fine.
But the problem is that none of those guns match what the unit is actually firing.
Devastators could carry lascannons, plasma cannons, multi-meltas, grav-cannons, heavy bolters, or missile launchers. Desolation Marines fire missiles. Once GW itself says all of that can count as the same thing, the old WYSIWYG argument gets pretty, well, awkward.
Tactical Marines aren’t any better either. A special weapon and a heavy weapon were part of what made the squad work for decades. If those models now count as Intercessors, every plasma gun, flamer, melta, and lascannon in the unit needs to be counted as something else.
And then you’ve got Suppressors becoming Inceptors, with long autocannons standing in for close-range jump infantry. Even the silhouettes (becasue they are on flying stands) don’t match all that well.
The base-size (and actual size) question might be the messiest part once you get away from casual games. Firstborn are noticeably smaller than Primaris, their silhouettes don’t match, and the announcement doesn’t say which base size a Legendary Proxy is supposed to use, but we would imagine you’d have to go with the bigger size.
Around the kitchen table, that’s easy enough to sort out. At an event where coherency, “screening”, Engagement Range, and deep strike placement all depend on base size, it can get messy fast, especially after players were just being told to buy the last of these kits.
Pedro Kantor Survived as a Model, but Died as a Character
Kantor and Ventris hurt for completely different reasons.
They’re named characters with chapter identity, unique abilities, decades of lore, and actually did something different from a generic captain. Crimson Fists players didn’t buy Pedro Kantor because they needed another guy in power armor who could pass for a Captain.
Now that’s exactly what he is.
The miniature survives, but the character doesn’t. Sadly, this isn’t really new or too surprising, since they folded the Marine ranges together and the first Firstborn Legends rumors started making the rounds years ago.
The Tactical Squad Might Be Getting Quietly Rebuilt Inside the Intercessor Datasheet
There’s one way this could get more interesting once the codex actually shows up, so it’s probably time to put on the tinfoil hat.
GW spent the entire Primaris era splitting the old Tactical Squad into specialist units. Intercessors got bolters, Hellblasters got plasma, Infernus Marines got flamers, Eradicators got melta, and Desolation Marines got missiles.
One box used to cover most of that territory, but now you’re looking at four or five different kits.
Now, there’s a new multipart Intercessor kit coming; bolt rifles are getting two firing modes at Strength 5 and Strength 6, and Space Marine datasheets are being rewritten across the board for 11th Edition. So there is a chance pieces of the old Tactical Squad will find their way back into Intercessors once all those rules are in front of us.
Who knows, maybe those weapons we said won’t work for WYSIWG from the Devastator squad will have a place after all.
We wouldn’t bet the army on it yet. Nothing GW has shown so far says Intercessors are suddenly getting special or heavy weapons, and until the codex is actually in hand, anything beyond that is just wild speculation.
Final Thoughts on Firstborn Space Marines and What Playable Actually Means
October will tell us a lot more than whether these Legends datasheets are decent on day one. The bigger thing to look for is what players, stores, leagues, and tournament organizers actually do with them once they’re sitting right there in the app beside everything else, but not “fully supported by GW.”
If Legends starts showing up regularly outside competitive events, putting those rules in the app may give older Space Marine collections a few more years to play. If organizers mostly shut the door and Legendary Proxies remain awkward enough that players don’t bother, then this starts looking a lot more like another step toward Firstborn being gone for good.
The Intercessor datasheet could change that picture too. If GW starts folding some of the Tactical Squad’s old flexibility back into the newer unit, the proxy options might make more sense once the full codex is in hand. If it doesn’t, we’re going to spend 11th Edition watching lascannons pretend to be bolt rifles and wondering how long “close enough” stays good enough.
Either way, October isn’t the end of the Firstborn discussion. It’s when we find out whether GW actually gave these armies another actualy way to keep playing, or just found a “cleaner” way to move them off the main road.
🔗 Related Reads:
- GW Pulls The Plug on More Space Marines, Sends 16 Units to Legends
- New Warhammer 40k Legends in 11th Edition: Rules & Datasheets
- Warhammer 40k 11th Edition Rules: Release Date, Detachments + Every Change
- Firstborn Space Marines Moving To Warhammer Legends
- GW Liquidates More Space Marines Models to Legends & Last Chance to Buy
- Kings of 40k: All The Warhammer Legends Models So Far
- All New 11th Edition Space Marines in the Armageddon Box
What do you think about Firstborn Space Marines getting split between Legends and Legendary Proxies?
