Space Marines Intercessors are back with proper back banners for the first time in the kit’s history, and Vanguard Veterans finally get more bits.
Back banners are here once again, and somehow, it took GW about nine years of Primaris kits to get there. Space Marines players have been asking for that little bit of old-school Marine kit since the suits showed up, and now there’s one hanging off an Intercessor sergeant like it never left.
Both boxes are the multipart versions of the push-fit squads from the Armageddon box, so all the options missing from those starter-set models finally get room on the sprues. They’re also arriving as Codex: Space Marines goes up for pre-order, which means anyone who held off after Warhammer 40k 11th Edition and the 11th Ed Armageddon launch finally gets to see what the proper kits can actually do.
Vanguard Veterans Finally Get the Shields Armageddon Skipped
- Combat shields: The Vanguard Veterans multipart kit finally includes the shields the Armageddon push-fits skipped, alongside five power swords and three axes.
- Any arm, any body: All 10 Intercessor bodies can take any arm on the sprue, with 10 two-handed bolt rifles, three one-handed versions, and four spare left arms.
- Back banners: First time in a box of Intercessors, arriving right as Codex: Space Marines hits pre-order.
The Armageddon Vanguard Veterans were always missing one pretty obvious piece. Those push-fit models shipped without combat shields, even though the unit has carried them since the old metal Assault Marine days. The multipart kit fixes that and gives the squad the loadout people were probably expecting the first time around.
The weapons, though, really are where this box starts earning the multipart title because every veteran carries a master-crafted power weapon, and the sprues cover quite a bit:
- Five power swords, one with a bionic arm marking the warrior as a veteran
- Three power axes
- A sergeant’s pick of an ornate relic weapon, thunder hammer, or power fist
- Plasma pistols for the sergeant and two other veterans per five-man squad
Three plasma pistols across five bodies is a pretty big change from what the Armageddon datasheets let you build straight out of the starter box. Then you get 19 heads, with MkVI and MkVII helmets mixed in among the bare-headed veterans.
So if you’re already magnetizing jump packs or raiding kits for an assault-heavy Marine army, a lot of those extras are going straight into the bits box (and then probably right back out again.)
The New Intercessors Borrow the Ork Boyz Sprue Philosophy
GW actually pointed to the Ork Boyz kit as the customization benchmark for these Intercessors, and once you look at the sprues, the comparison makes a lot of sense. Now any of the 10 bodies can take any arm in the box, which is a big change from how Intercessors have worked up to now for sure.
The arms break down like this:
- 10 two-handed bolt rifles, two of them with auxiliary grenade launchers
- Three one-handed bolt rifle arms
- Four left arms pointing or holding things
- Chainsword, power sword, or power fist for the sergeant
Anyone who’s built the older Intercessor box knows how much of the pose was already decided before you clipped the first part. This one gives you a lot more room to mess around, and the cosmetic bits keep that going with older helmets and armor pieces mixed into the Mk X Tacticus look, just like the Armageddon models.
There’s even the top half of a helmet made to hang from a belt, which feels exactly like the kind of pointless-in-the-best-way detail that ends up on every sergeant you build afterward.
Then there’s the back banner, and even its own footnote cracks a joke about copying the trendsetting Sternguard.
Final Thoughts on Space Marines Intercessors
Now if all the Primaris Marine kits eventually get the same multipart treatment, those Armageddon push-fits start looking a lot less like two starter-box squads and a lot more like a preview of where GW wants the wider Marine infantry range to go.
There’s also the question of whether any of these shields, banners, or cosmetic bits ever escape onto upgrade sprues for people who already own piles of Marines. Nothing says they will, and GW doesn’t usually go back and retrofit an existing box that way, but Sternguard did get their extras.
Either way, the next Space Marine infantry kit preview is probably going to tell us more about the direction of the range than another round of rules previews will.
🔗 Related Reads:
- New 40k Codex Release Schedule: 2026 Roadmap for 11th Edition
- New Warhammer 40k 2026 Roadmap, 11th Edition Release Schedule
- Space Marines Codex 11th Edition Sends 17 Units To Legends
- New 11th Edition Space Marines Detachments Drop Big Buffs
- Warhammer 40k Armageddon Box Set: Contents and Savings
- What to Buy After Armageddon For Orks and Space Marines
- Every New Ork Model in the Armageddon Box, Revealed
What do you think of the back banners coming back to the Intercessors kit?
