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Hello dakka, I'm stuck at a cross roads. Unlike the last time I made one of these, I whole-heartedly love both chapters.

From a modeling standpoint, both offer great conversions/ kitbashes (scales, lava bases, capes, etc/ tons of Power fists, the Imp/Crim fist conversion packs, etc) and I love the Vulkan and Pedro models
From a game standpoint, I care about fluff more than competition, and both offer fluffy armies (lots of flamers and melta, many dreads/ tons of vets + Pedro)
From a painting standpoint, I love both of their schemes, and though I already have some stuff painted as Sallies, I'm leaning a bit toward the C fist scheme
From a fluff standpoint, I like both their fluff

So I ask you dakka, what should I make my army, Salamanders or Crimson Fists?

Tough call. I agree with the awesomeness of melta, but I love sternguard. Both armies look awesome, but if you want to go conversion heavy, it'll be Sallies. I don't think you can go wrong with either. Why not start one now, then do the other later?

Hmm, that might just work. I wouldn't want to repaint all the Sallies I do have right now, but I want to have one large army, rather than two smaller ones...
Think I should add a poll so people can just vote if they dont want to post?

Polls are good. People can click a button instead of full posts. It has come to my attention that people are generally lazy and want the easy option.

I voted crimson fists, after reading the book Rynn's World I couldn't resist starting to collect the army. Also, if you want one big army there's nothing to stop you from painting a blue Vulkan.

True, but If I do make Sallies, and then do Cfists, I can't really mix them together except in apoc or themed games. My dream goal is to have approximately a chapter of Space marines (which would be easier with C Fists )

I would go Sallies. That is what I am doing.
Don't forget Vulkans rules. Makes your army a force to be reckoned with at close range.

I do love his rules, makes th/ss termies own harder, and melta and flamers totally own.
However, I love the fluffy aspect of Pedro's rules, and there are tons of cool models/ conversions I can do for sternguard

In the end, it is YOUR army.
So do whatever you would like the most
These are, after all, suggestions.

But thats the problem, I like both equally
I'm crossing my fingers that someone will show up and post an epic break down of one or the other and shift the balance in that army's favor

Salamanders. You can talk like this guy:

I laughed pretty hard
+1

That depends entirely on what you want to do with your army. Do you like Sternguard? Do you really, really like Sternguard? Are you stubborn as hell? If so, Crimson Fists are for you. That and they look fly and not all too many people play them. A lot of folks play Salamanders, but I've only ever played against one other Crimson Fists player. Salamanders are a little more metagamey, as they buff meltas, flamers, and TH/SS terminators, who honestly don't need the help.

Which would you prefer painting? Reds and blues or greens and blacks?

I prefer Salamanders, for fluff, wargear and looks And forgeworld has so many shiny things for them.

I've been a Sally player for quite some years, and when my brother and I started back in 3rd Ed, he played Crimson fists, so I have a soft spot for both.

The new Vulkan He'stan rules are bittersweet for me. I enjoy that people are playing Sallies more, but it seems for solely gameplay reasons. Vulkan He'stan =/= Salamanders (granted after reading Firedrake, He'stan is a boss and a half.), and upon asking a few people about why they play Sallies it almost always comes up as oh they get MC Melta/Flame/TH. Assuming your using Vulkan Hestan every game yeah, but to me that's not being a true Salamanders player. No want wants to play a bad army, but you shouldn't make your choice upon one character.

For me fluff and looks come first since I enjoy the modelling and painting aspect greatly. But hey, different strokes for different folks. Do something whatever force you think you'll have the most fun with for a long time

Depends if you want an optimistic, friendly feeling (but likes to burn things) army or a hard bitten, unlucky but ambitious and determined feeling army. Both are very nice chapters, but for a game standpoint salamanders are probably more competitive (Vulkan with melta, flamer and TH SS terminator spam)

I play salamanders. When I first started in 40k, I bought the space marine codex before anything else. I read the whole thing front to back, and when I got to the color pages I said "I like the green guys. I'm going to play them". Turns out they are one of the best builds for vanilla right now.

Go Salamanders. Their fluff is good, they look great, and they play even better.

Soladrin wrote:I prefer Salamanders, for fluff, wargear and looks And forgeworld has so many shiny things for them.

+1 this. I agree, sallies are really very very solid and still not cheesy

Fists chapters best chapters. Go CF and never look back.

Salamanders are mor humanitarian and green like the Irish!

I vote for salamanders. The humanitarian nature of their chapter and the whole volcano deathworld we love fire thing is just awesome. If I ever start another marine army it will be them and not just cause of Vulcan's rules but mostly cause I like flamers. Don't get me wrong I like crimson fists also but a well done Salamanders army would just look so badass.

Corrode wrote:Fists chapters best chapters. Go CF and never look back.

Actually, Crimson Fists are a descendant chapter from the Imperial fists. They never existed until after the Codex Astartes Crisis.

That being said, go Salamanders (who were an original legion, by the way). They have my favorite SM HQ ever, they get asesome rules, they have an awesome colour scheme, they're all black with red eyes, they have a LOT fo master crafted and relic weapons, they're actually good guys, they're not afraid to tell the Inquisition to go feth themselves... What's not to love?

Belexar wrote:

Corrode wrote:Fists chapters best chapters. Go CF and never look back.

Actually, Crimson Fists are a descendant chapter from the Imperial fists. They never existed until after the Codex Astartes Crisis.

What exactly does that have to do with, well, anything? Was just saying Fists chapters are the coolest, Crimson included.

I play Salamanders. Do it.

Brother SRM wrote:

Belexar wrote:

Corrode wrote:Fists chapters best chapters. Go CF and never look back.

Actually, Crimson Fists are a descendant chapter from the Imperial fists. They never existed until after the Codex Astartes Crisis.

What exactly does that have to do with, well, anything? Was just saying Fists chapters are the coolest, Crimson included.

Ohhhh... I had read "first" like in original legions. xD

Hmm, how many people in here play Sallies, and how many play the Fists?

10,000pts and counting of the blue boys.

One thing to consider is that as GW changes editions and inevitably switches up metagames, melta/TH/SS will probably become 'less' than top-of-the-heap dominant and something else will become the Marines' schtick.

A jack-of-all-trades chapter like the Fists can more easily adapt to those kinds of fluff changeups than can something with more specialization like the Sallies.

Very true.
I also read somewhere someone suggested always doing codex chapters, because you can use different dexes for each 'company' yet still have one big force
(like, assault company = BA dex, normal companies = vanilla, etc )

Why not do both? I saw an army profile here on Dakka, where it had a contingent of Ultramarines with a contingent of Blood ravens, including a scratchbuilt/converted Blood Ravens' Vulkan He'stan.

Do something like this, where you have a small section of Crimsons on a planet overrun with the remanents of Waaagh! Snagrod, when the Salamanders show up, and Vulkan shows the Crimsons how to get the best from their Flamers.