Back banners for squads

[Blissful Brushes]

Howdy one and all!

 

I’m having a bit of a dilemma about back banners for my Luna Wolves.

 

I’m making a mechanised force - combo of sicarans and razorback/rhino mounted infantry. My squads are organised into platoons of 6 squads of 6, with one of those squads being the command squad.

 

I had originally envisioned just the command squad having a back banner, representing the platoon but realistically I’m probably not going to get more than 2 platoons at the rate I model and paint so I was pondering switching to having a back banner for each 6 man squad and something a little bit more substantial for the command squad. 
 

What do people think? Part of me think 5 back banners and something handheld for  36 marines seems a bit flashy/much but the flip side is that there’s going to be a lot of vehicles which might drown out the infantry a little bit. 
 

This is the crew so far (yes I use primaris, don’t judge me I just like the proportions a bit more and I greenstuff them back to HH as best I can)

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

Personally, I like the idea of having a back banner for each squad and something different/bigger for the command squad. I put vexilas in nearly every squad.

But depends of the back banner you are planning to use. An actual vexila or something more W40K 2nd/3rd edition?

 

[Sonder76]

I am all for back banners but i tend to try and use them "sensibly".

 

Back banners on stealthy troops is probably a bit counter productive it in my opinion and back banners on my Space Hulk Terminators seems like a silly move... its just gonna hit every cross beam and get stuck on a door.

Pendants only on fast attack troops as i dont want my fast attack trooper flying off like he is paragliding.

1 banner per squads is my usual limit however if its a fantasy regiment a main standard bearer and maybe a couple of personal back banners looks good.

 

Again... IMO.

[LameBeard]

I feel there is a compromise here: we assume each squad is actually a Demi-squad and give half the squads back banners. Still a bit awkward on the rhino door but rule of cool trumps all.

[Blissful Brushes]

Thanks for all the input fellas!

 

Vexillas on my squads rather than just the platoon command section wins the argument. I now need to have a proper ponder of the iconography on them as it was very simple just being a I or II for platoon numbering.

 

They don’t look quite so big on primaris proportions either compared to the firstborn sized models:

 

[Xenith]

On 9/15/2025 at 6:29 PM, LameBeard said:

I feel there is a compromise here: we assume each squad is actually a Demi-squad and give half the squads back banners. Still a bit awkward on the rhino door but rule of cool trumps all.

I did this with my 40k blood angels, each squad was a demi combat squad and the squad leader had their own back banner with appropriate heraldry. 

 

Massive fan of banners, I think the Luna wolves would be also, definitely ultramarines. 

[Mysterion]

I'm going to go the other way and say I'm personally not a fan of back banners; I don't think I've ever used them (nothing against those who do, just personal preference). In HH, I run IW with a bit of homebrew mixed in; to me, IW wouldn't mess about with banners once they turned traitor. 

 

That being said, I do like the proportions on the Primaris