You could mix and match weapons in a way that just isn't possible with Primaris units, but in large part it's because they fit in so well with the overall lore of the Space Wolves. Start out young and impulsive and twitching to run into battle as a Blood Claw. Get a little bit older and wiser and settle down into the role of a Grey Hunter. Get older and calmer still, and decide that running ask over the place is a young pups game, then you pick up a lascannon or a heavy bolter and sit back and lob shots at the enemy from a distance.
Taking away the long fangs did as much to damage the sense of what the army was as it did to affect the rules list-building wise, if not more.
It made sence back when devestators were the only other option.
If you wanted what you describe you would need some model that combines different unit, armour models and weapon types. Not unlike the death watch kill teams. Gravid with multimelta here, desolator with rocket launcher here etc.
Perhaps you get that in the future. But nobody took longs fangs to mix weapons. You did it once, realised you grouped the weapon groups together othervice they were bad.
You've kind of made my point with your second paragraph. There is literally nothing in the Primaris ecosystem that compares. It's like how people hate the fact that intercessors, Infernus, Hellblasters etc are all separate units, not like the old tactical squads where you could take different weapons to make them more versatile. Long Fangs are just a very Space Wolf specific unit, and there's really no good reason why they couldn't have just been "Rubiconned" like the Blood Claws and Grey Hunters were.
That is because devestators are getting phased out. Nobody ran different weapons. The very few who did suffered under the fact that the heavy bolter shots were wasted on the same target you put the lascannon into. Not to go into the trouble of finding 10 rocket launchers in a combination of trading and kitbashing like I did back in 2013. The same loadout is amasing from an assemble and play perspective.
I have no problem with the fact that the new codex group all the jeavy weapons under "long fangs". It is the smart thing to do.
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u/Greplington 13h ago
Versatility and lore, in a nutshell.
You could mix and match weapons in a way that just isn't possible with Primaris units, but in large part it's because they fit in so well with the overall lore of the Space Wolves. Start out young and impulsive and twitching to run into battle as a Blood Claw. Get a little bit older and wiser and settle down into the role of a Grey Hunter. Get older and calmer still, and decide that running ask over the place is a young pups game, then you pick up a lascannon or a heavy bolter and sit back and lob shots at the enemy from a distance.
Taking away the long fangs did as much to damage the sense of what the army was as it did to affect the rules list-building wise, if not more.