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No Thunderhammers?

Don't have my codex on me, so I can't be sure about points costs.

For character, the commander should probably have a thunder hammer.

I would swap one sniping rifle for a heavy bolter for the scouts, and try to squeeze an auspex onto the sergeant...  I have only had it work once, but having an enemy squad pinned on their first turn was fun.

The Assault sarge would be a lot scarier with a thunder hammer, plasma pistol, combat shield.  This has nothing to do with this very combination currently sitting on my work table waiting for the bits from GW (Iron Hands Thunder Hammer 1.50).  The squad goes from being a threat to infanty (flamers and lot of attacks) to a threat to everything because of the thunder hammer.

Just my .02$

I didn't realize Thunder Hammers were Salamander flufy, that is something I will 100% aim to rectify.

As a Salamander player, I will say that hammers are fluffy but that doesn't mean you should replace everything possible with thunderhammers. There's nothing in the IA article to suggest that is all they use. People take the smithing aspect and the free thunderhammer our chaplains use to have and take that to mean we should have a ton of thunderhammers. That simply isn't accurate.

However, I'd try and get one in there for flavor, preferably on a vet sgt. Int1 on your commander just plain sucks (and I know this from experience).

Also not a fan of the scouts. While there's nothing directly unfluffy about them, the Salamander doctrine of short ranged shooting doesn't mesh well with sniper rfiles IMHO. Plus, scouts kinda suck outside of Blood Angels.

Everything else is pretty fluffy. There's some tweaks I'd do from personal preference (Master in terminator armor, terminator turned into 4 man command squad, 1 speeder, use points for another rhino and maybe drop pod for dread, swap scouts for pred destructor) but overall it looks similair to what I run.

Hope that helps.

PS. I don't like to advertise other forums on another forum but in this case I think it'd be ok. There's a Salamander centric forum called the Fire of Nocturne. Google it and check it out. Lotsa tips on painting, tactics and general disscussion.

winterman; thank you for some excellent advice. One thing re: Terminators and the command squad. Do you think they should be deep strikers, or start on the table?  I was hoping to build somewhat a 'conquest' force; that is, one that is already deployed on-world and has been for some period of time, hence no deep striking termies or pods.

Depends on the situation. In some cases you'll want them on the table (when facing nids for example) and sometimes you'll want the flexibility of DSing them (certain missions). A teleport homer on the assault squad couldn't hurt.

Some would argue DSing them is a bad idea, as then you lose Rite of Battle. But in your case that's not a huge issue, as most (and possibly all) your units are led by ld9 sergeants. Still, something to consider when deciding whether to DS them or not.

Hope that helps!

I will look at your list twice, once from a Sallies perspective, and once from the perspective of making your list competitive. Then you can balance the two as you see fit. Salamanders at their most colourful are not very effective.


Traits as per Codex Space Marines: Cleanse and Purify, Never Despair, Eye to Eye

Salamanders - Keep this as normal
Competitive - Take Cleanse and Purify and Death before Dishonour. The moron who wrote the codex considered Never Despair an 'advantage', it isnt.

HQ
Master 'Reptaris' with Iron Halo, Power Weapon, Combi-Flamer, Frag Grenades: 126

Salamanders - Take thunderhammer and power weapon. This way you get to choose s4 I5 attacks or S8 I1 attacks. Very versatile if a little pricey.
Competitive. Takiing hammer and sword can be points effective as you are not painted into a corner with your characters capabilities. Combi weapons suck.

ELITES
Dreadnought with Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour, Smoke: 133

5 Terminators with 2 Assault Cannons: 240

Salamanders - The terminotors prefer heavy flamers. You can have as assault cannon on the dread so long as you keep the flamer.
Competetive - assault cannon all round.

TROOPS
8 Tactical Marines with 2 Flamers: 224
Vet with Power Fist
Rhino with Extra Armour, Smoke

8 Tactical Marines with 2 Meltaguns: 228
Vet with Power Weapon
Rhino with Extra Armour, Smoke

8 Tactical Marines with 2 Plasma Guns: 170
Vet with Power Weapon

Salamander- Give up one plasma gun for a multimelta. salamanders love multimetlas for their tacticval squads. The other two squads are ok, but swap over the power weapon and power fist. If you charge in after meltas you will need a powerfist, flamer targets are weaker and can die to a powersword.
Competetive - Two plasma guns, no thankyou, the reason to have them is to support a heavy weapon. Takle las/plas instead for the third squad.The other two squads are ok but give both sergeants powerfists.

6 Scouts with Sniper Rifles: 108

Salamanders - No comments, we have no data on prefered outfuitting of Salamander scouts
Competetive - Take a missile launcher, also take a squad of five so you only need the one boxset, but if you have six take six.

FAST ATTACK
2 Land Speeder Tornados with Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer: 150

Salamanders - Salamanders arent really into Land Speeders, no preferences.
Competetive - Assault cannon all the way. Split the units.

8 Assault Marines with 2 Flamers: 233
Vet with Lightning Claws

Salamanders - Two flamers check. Salamanders invented the flamer assault marine, initially only they could have them.
Competetive - Some prefer a powerfist, lighninmg claws are expensive and before on IC's

HEAVY
Predator Annihilator with Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Extra Armour, Smoke: 138

Salamanders - Like heavy flamer sponsons (dont listen to them)
Competetive - This will do ok, though a Destructor is better off with heavy bolter sponsons, more shots for less and at the same type of target too.

I've re-written the list, a lot of the advice I have taken on board, some I haven't. I am still determined to use the Sniper Scouts because they're a unit I've wanted to try.

HQ
Master of Sanctity with Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter: 330
- 4 Reclusiam Terminators with 2 Assault Cannons

ELITES
Dreadnought with Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour, Smoke: 133

TROOPS
10 Tactical Marines with 2 Flamers: 269
- Vet with Thunder Hammer
- Rhino with Extra Armour, Smoke

10 Tactical Marines with 2 Meltaguns: 268
- Vet with Power Fist, Teleport Homer
- Rhino with Extra Armour, Smoke

8 Tactical Marines with Multi-Melta, Plasma Gun: 165
- Vet with Power Weapon

6 Scouts with 5 Sniper Rifles, Missile Launcher: 128
- Vet with Auspex


FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder Tornado with Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer: 75

8 Assault Marines with 2 Flamers: 243
- Vet with Thunder Hammer, Teleport Homer

HEAVY
Predator Annihilator with Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Extra Armour, Smoke: 138

TOTAL: 1749

Can't argue with wanting to use models you have.

Main tweak I'd make (or try out) is losing the vet sgt in the MM/PG squad and turn them into infiltrating veterans (a bit easier to get some use outta the MM). Alternately with that same squad, lose 2 marines and the vet sgt (+some misc stuff) to give the squad a razorback. In general, I just don't see any need to give this squad a power weapon armed sgt.

Would it be worth swapping the Flamers on the first Rhino squad for another pair of Meltaguns? Not sure where I'd pull the eight points from to make it happen, but it's something that I thought of over the weekend.