The Marshal shows his status in fully personalised artificer armour, with layering, rivets, and cables to give him a brutal and archaic look. His left pauldron and the cloak are a reminder that all Marshals are selected from the Sword Brethren (as are the Castellans). Each miniature is covered with unique details, suggesting that they all have their own personal artificer to work on their equipment. “They even have nicer chains of devotion than the rest of the Chapter,” Maxime points out. A lot of thought has gone into the kit, which allows you to build every model with a chainsword and pistol or with a bolt carbine or rifle. “The latter option leaves enough leftover parts to upgrade a regular box of Intercessors or Assault Intercessors with chained weapons,” says Maxime. Here, the neophytes are put through even more gruelling trials as the Chapter's Initiates test their strength, martial skills and faith to the limits. Should a survivor of these trials impress one of the assembled Battle-Brothers, an Initiate may take it upon himself to personally mentor the Neophyte in the art of war.

All three squads are kitted out with as many pyreflamers as possible, as well as (heavy) bolt pistols and Astartes chainswords for close-range dominance. 40 angry Space Marines running at you at full speed, supported by a Marshal with the Crusader’s Helm (to ensure they’re all in range of his Rites of Battle aura ability), and a Primaris Ancient to keep them fighting to the last, is certainly an intimidating prospect. This jibes with the unit’s new datasheet, which lets you take 2 of each per 10 models. You’ll also have ample chainswords and heavy bolt pistols if you want to go that route, as well as auto bolt rifles and bolt carbines. Power Weapon ( Power Axe, Power Fist, Power Maul or Power Sword) (any type; 1 Initiate in the squad only)The galaxy is the Emperor's, and anyone or anything who challenges that claim is an enemy who must be destroyed." Alternatively, one Initiate can be built as a Sword Brother, who has a choice of helmeted and unhelmeted heads. He can be built with a power sword or power axe, and a heavy bolt pistol or pyre pistol.

The only 'niche' I've found is bringing two Pyreblasters and a Pyre Pistol. This is a funky flaming setup, but it's still on S4 with AP1 which just isn't worth the 25 points to bring it imo, and also requires a delivery method.

All three are core units, while the first two are troops and count as objective secured. The PCS is the most versatile and can be kitted for ranged shooting, melee or a combination of both. I would argue that PCS is always a better choice over AIS since it’s much more flexible and better at melee since you can take multiple powerfists. The one advantage AIS has is it can fight twice using a stratagem, which can be quite situational and not always advantageous. PCS offers everything desired for Veteran Intercessors, costs less points, is objective secured and again is more flexible. Remember that PCS get most of their wargear for free, such as the powerfists. Once you have selected an eligible unit to declare a charge, you must select one or more enemy units within 12" of it as the targets of that charge. The targets of a charge do not need to be visible to the charging unit. The old-school influences don’t stop there. The Marshal’s head and the axe are direct nods to the 1998 Captain who was originally introduced in the limited edition of the starter set that was released for the third edition of the game. From that point on, the Initiate takes sole responsibility for his pupil's training and conduct. He swears an oath to prepare the Neophyte for his entry into the brotherhood that is the Chapter, teach him of its history, and guide him through its holy rites of worship to the Emperor. The four Neophytes have four unhelmeted head options and can be equipped with either bolt carbines or bolt pistols and Astartes chainswords.