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HQ:

Vulkan He'Stan - 190

Epistolary, Terminator armour, Storm Shield - 190
Powers: Quickening & Null zone

Elites:

5 Assault Terminators, TH & SS (5) - 200

5 Stern Guard, 2 Heavy flamers, 1 combi-melta, Drop Pod, Locator beam - 195

Troops:

10 Tactical Marines, lascannon - 180

10 Tactical marines, Melta gun, Combi-melta (for Sergeant), drop pod - 220

8 Scout Marines, sniper rifles (8), camo-cloaks - 138

Heavy:

Thunderfire Cannon - 100

Whirlwind - 85


Points total: 1498

The thinking behind:

This army list will be put into action as i am a long time player returning after a few years away. Marines felt like a nice way to get back into the swing of things, and I chose Salamanders, as the short range fire and brimestone approach to their army really grabbed my attention.

The choices were roughly split into 3 catagories:

1. Close combat monsters with staying power
2. Close range fire
3. Crowd control

1. The close combat role will be filled by the librarian, with the termie assault squad as bodyguard. The Epistolary is really tooled up to taking down the biggest of big bugs/deamons. The plan being, teleport within assault range, use the power the quickening to make sure he gets there, and to get first strike (initiative 10, yay), followed by the power of his force weapon if he's not invulnrable to instant death, or null zone to re-roll successfull invulnrable saves. The thunder shields on him and his termie bodyguard should help the survival of these guys, but if they're swarmed, i'm not expecting them to last too long.

This tactic could be helped by either by lossing the whirlwind and adding 1 more Sternguard, or by dropping the Epistolary perk, with one of the powers. If the later, i would be keeping null zone if large numbers of invulrable saves, and keeping the quickening if there's a multiple wound target I can kill with one wound. This will free up enough points for 3 teleport homers on the Sternguard, the melta tactical squad ad the scouts. These 2 alterations are less appealing than having an Epistolary, and i'd prefer to leave it as the list above. I could also model him will from an old GW model:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1400017&prodId=prod1140152 which could be easily modified and looks great.

2. The close range fire option is filled very well by a drop podded pair of 10 tac marines, with the melta and combi-melta as well as Vulkan and his Sterguard with 2 heavy flamers (3 if you count Vulkan's Gauntlet of the Forge), and another melta gun. The idea here will be to send the tactical marines in first (turn 1 as compulsory drop pod), especially if objective siezing is required, thining numbers and attrating danger to them. This will hopefully allow enough time for Vulkan and his Sternguard to drop nearby, melt/burn/hellfire bolter the attracted troops, and apply those melta weapons to any nearby dreads or tanks. Lots of lovely assault weapons, so there should be some manoeuvrability there too, with no penalty.

These troops are meant for short range firing instead of assaulting, so no penalty for not being able to assault when they land, and those templates really help with the fire theme of a Salamander army. I've given consideraton to replacing the heavy flamers with combi-meltas/flamers, but i really like the idea of Vulkan running at troops, with 2 heavy weapon guys spouting strength 5 templates whilst running along side.

3. Crowd control will be accomplished by the remaining 2 troop choices, the Whirlwind and the Thunderfire cannon. The scouts allow for pinning opportunities and infiltration if needed, the 2nd tac squad provides more bolter fire and a lascannon for armour, and the 2 heavy choices give me some blast markers to have fun with, thinning large numbers of infantry, and tailoring their firing modes to the situation and enemy troop placements.

Possible weaknesses i've initially thought of, were the real lack of long range damage to armour, as well as the low model number fielded, but i'm pretty happy with the line-up as a whole.

So guys and gals, what do you think? Any helpful criticism and comments welcome.

Well, you thought a lot about tactics.
However, two HQ's in 1500 point games is a bit much.
I'd take a Codicier w/ terminator armor, storm shield, null zone, gate, and drop Vulcan or vice versa.
For the points safed, I'd beef up the Assault Termies to a full 10 men squad.

Cheers for that, i've had this Salamander army in my mind for a while, and I could easily accomodate only 1 HQ if it seems a bit much.

I'll try to keep the list as specific to the army, so i think i'd probably remove the librarian, beef the termies up to 9 man, and another Sternguard to stay under 1500, if i ha to choose. 4 More teleporting master crafted hammers with 2+/3+inv saves instead of a character killer, its a tough choice

You don't have NEARLY enough Meltas or Flamers for a Vulkan army!

Also, that Lascannon squad should have a Flamer. They're free, after all.

Looking back at the list, I don't appear to have any multimeltas or regular flamers. A flamer isn't really required in a 10 man lascannon squad, as I would not want that squad too near any pointy blades. Although if they were to split into 2 5-man squads, and seeing as a flamer is free, the change could quickly be made, and use the flamer team as a semi-assault orientated team (thinking objective missions here).

Hmmm, however, to squeeze in more meltas or at least melta combi weapons, i'd have to deplete the number of models I field, and they're still thin on the ground as they are.

I'm not a huge fan of the land speeders or attack bikes for this army, so i'm struggling to find a place for multimeltas, and putting them in a dev squad, seems a bit silly as they're only 24" range, and 12" if i want that extra d6 for penetration. Who'd be silly enough to park their prized tank infront that close to a static marine squad that close?

From the small but helpful feedback i've recieved, i've given the list a tweak:

HQ:

Vulkan He'Stan - 190
Epistolary, Terminator armour, Storm Shield - 190
Powers: Quickening & Null zone

Elites:

5 Assault Terminators, TH & SS (5) - 200
5 Stern Guard, 2 Heavy flamers, 3 combi-melta, Drop Pod, Locator beam - 205

Troops:

10 Tactical Marines, lascannon, flamer, Combi-melta (for Sergeant) - 190
10 Tactical marines, Melta gun, Combi-melta (for Sergeant), multi-melta, teleport homer, drop pod - 235 (Melta-tastic eh?)
5 Scout Marines, sniper rifles (5), camo-cloaks, teleport homer - 105

Heavy:

Thunderfire Cannon - 100
Whirlwind - 85

Points total: 1500

Please give any thoughts and reservations you have on version #2.

Major lose has been to the scouts, but to me, they'd only impact on the early game, and losing 3 of them for more combi-meltas and teleport homers seemed more than a fair trade. Think of the scouts as a wasp, distracting and hopefully pinning 1-2 units, whilst the bigger boys pop on the board and melt the majorityof the enemy, like the mighty fire lizards they're built to be (mmmm metaphor).

Have I gone overboard on the combi-meltas? I've tried to boost the melta and flamer number with the Salamanders fluff, and added a multimelta to the tactical squad, as it had the same range as the replaced bolter, and the combat squad it'll be left with will be used as a stationary unit. With the complsory 1/2 drop pods on turn 1 (I only have 2, the other with Vulkan and Sternguard as close support impact - 3 heavy flamers templates and 3 combi-meltas on the when they pop out) the tactical squad will be first to drop. This tac squad would drop on an objective, split into 2 combat squads as required, the melta gun, combi-melta and 3 bolters move out as needed, remaining 4 bolters and multi-melta hole-up and lay some fire down. The second tactical squad would do the same, but would hoof it on foot, and have a ranged edge compared to the drop squad.

I've kept the 2 HQ choices, as losing Vulkan would take a huge advantage for the Salamanders, and the librarian is such a specialised powerhouse, especially with his choice of powers, I couldn't let him go. The heavy support didn't need altering, and i'm looking forward to them thinning hordes with some very welcomed blast markers.

This list really isn't taking advangtage of Vulkan's special rules and doesn't really seem to be geared for 5th edition.

Over 25% of your army is in HQ choices. 2 models for 380 points. By having the fully tooled up libby you waste 190 points that could be put into more flamer & Melta fun. The libby is still only a 2 wound model.

Also, the libby will be worthless against big bugs & daemons by himself. His force weapon will need 6's to wound most of the big stuff and then they are already immune to instant death.

A lone lascannon does next to nothing in 5th edition. with the exception of Range a lascannon is worse then a multimelta in every way. You don't have 2D6 penetration dice, you arn't AP1, and you don't take advantage of twin linking them with Vulkan in your army.

Deep striking assault terminators die. They can't charge the turn they land, and whatever terminators survive the next shooting phase will generally get charged and die before they ever get a chance to charge themselves.

Whirlwinds don't do well unless you have something big & nasty (land raider or predator) to hide them behind. I personally like 2 thunderfire cannons myself.

Right now the one thing this list lacks more then anything is mobility. With the potential to have up to 5 objectives you need some added mobility to move things around.

Here is the list I run at 1500 points for league play:

Vulkan
5 assault terminators in a land raider redeemer with extra armor & a multi melta
10 man tac squad with Multimelta, Melta Gun & combi Melta in a rhino
10 man scout squad with heavy bolter & camo cloaks
2 attack bikes with multi meltas
1 land speeder with Multi Melta & heavy Flamer
1 land speeder with Multi Melta & heavy Flamer
2 Thunderfire Cannons

Meltas have mobility to get close, assault terminators have a hard to kill transport that can do some damage, and you have enough flamers, heavy flamers, and thunderfire shots to kill anything hiiding in cover.

Now that is a very maneuvarable build, and with my lists, relatively few models, but i guess, if you can move them quickly to target weakspots, so what, good list. Just out of curiosity, do you play 2 techmarines with those thunderfire cannons, or just use them in a battery, with one in the middle controlling both?

Looks like the death of my Librarian then, sigh.

2 wound, toughness 4 model worth 190 points. Ok, he's gone, and you make a good point asugradinwa with the termies, not attacking once they deepstrike in, also having intiative 1 with their thunder mallets. The plan will be to transfer them to a landraider - Redeemer build. Now thats 450+ points of close quarters ultra-death, and allows the mallets to hit on the turn they disembark, but again, 2 templates, an assault cannon + multimelta, plus only 5 combat models for 1/3 of the points of the whole army. These models would fit perfectly in a Salamanders detachment, and i'll give serious thought about this.

Troops wise i'm pretty happy with the 2 tac squads and scouts as is, there's a decent number of them for objective catching, and i'm never really fancied 10 man scout squads. The lascannon range is sorely needed, even if it is used to deny a transport coming down a particular route. Fair enough, 1 will scare no army, and i've come over to the idea of multimeltas in tactical squads. I'll leave the lascannon for predators/dreadnaughts, and i'll come to to removal of armour shortly.

I have to be blunt here, i don't like bikes or Landspeeders for a Salamanders army. Yes this does limit me for fast attack options, especially as jump-packs aren't floating my boat either. Some may find this super restricting, but think of it as a bit of a challenge for you Dakkites.

A possible remedy for this could be mobile transport options of a few troop choices & transports, either full 10 man squads with as much melta power put into them, within rhinos, or smaller squads in razorbacks, either lascannon for the razors, or even a multimelta for a bit of character.

In essence, what remains:

Vulkan (well obviously)
2 tac squads, melta builds throughout
Thunderfire cannon
Thunder mallets Termies

Possibly staying (I would like to keep):
Sternguard

Deffinately gone:
teleporting ability for terminators
lascannon in tac squad
Terminator Librarian (Urial Geller, i even had him named )

I'll give more thought to this, and base it arround a mobile melta and flame based platform, but with NO landspeeders/bikes. Help.

Ooo, and mad appreciation to anyone who's actually read all my posts here in full, i am known to waffle on a bit, cheers

Each thunderfire cannon is it's own seperate unit, however, as I generally but a land raider as a dedicated transport for the assault terminators I have plent of heavy support choices to fill in.

I do understand that there are some Salamander players that like to have the "old school" feel of little fast attack choices and that is alright. However, I'd still say that 2 twin linked multi meltas with the ability to outflank are a lot of fun to play with.

However, you could just add in more sternguard. Another option is a Multi Melta equiped dreadnought. For 150 points you can have a multi melta/ heavy flamer drop podding dreadnought if you wish.

I, however, tend to have horrible luck with drop pods so I generally field 120 point dreadnoughts with multi meltas, storm bolters and extra armor.

I have really been wating to add a dread into this list, as Ironclad's are most suited to Salamanders, due to the whole Hammer iconography, and a very useful unit in both CC and close range for the melta/flamer build dread podding down.

Cheers for the prompt reply, i salute you sir, and hope to return some faith to the podded Dread attack