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I want to run an 1850 Salamanders list, and so far I like the list. One thing makes me a bit worried.... the dreadnoughts.

The plan is, obviously, bringing Vulcan with me (not sure where to him... but not the point). The other HQ is MotF on a bike with a conversion beamer. A Marine Bike Squad will come with him. Staying in the back, and shooting things.

On turn one, 2 Ironclads HF and Melta drop to the front line, and a 3rd vanilla Dread with a MM drops in later as needed. Then drive my two tacticals and one Sternguard to the center as well and pop smoke. The Ironclads take out what they can, and on the next turn the Sterngaurd and the Tacticals murder everything else. All the meanwhile, MotF is blowing holes in everything.

Also, two Landspeeders, with HF and MM, sent where needed to murder or tank hunt.

My worry is that the Ironclads, having one wound, will die very fast, in comparison to their point cost. As opposed to the LS that is cheap as heck, and still get A job done.

Thoughts?

I cant imagine what with their heavy armor ironclads would be easy to kill if used right. Drop them close, fry something, weather one turn of fire (this might be tough if the enemy has close melta), then get tucked in if possible. Not much in CC can hurt armor 13. Your opponent should know this so even if you cant get tucked in it will provide a fire magnet and area denial.

Your confidence in my tactic is reaffirming. But, what do you mean 'tucked in'.

I think he means get in CC. Really though, the drop and pop Ironclad is used to take out one bad @$$ vehicle or unit (remember the heavy flamer) and then it's probably dead. if not, bonus! just think of it like this. If your opponent is going to shoot at him, that's the rest of your army he's not blasting.

Another option with drop-podding Dreadnoughts is to pop smoke on the turn that they come in. While you're denying yourself a free close-range melta or heavy flamer shot, you double the survivability of your vehicle for that first crucial turn before you close to close-combat. With two Ironclads dropping in and popping smoke, one is fairly likely to survive to close the distance.

True, I thought about popping smoke on the dreads.... I guess that be the idea if you land in front of a metla... maybe....

I would say the popping of smoke would be situational. If you drop in and are just out of melta or flamer range, go with the smoke. If not, blast away.

Because you are nought using them well.

Joking aside, Ironclads are really hard to kill, even with melta BTW. But the real true way to keep them safe is to present other threats.

In my Vulkan lists, my ironclad pods have homers in them - and I deep strike with my hammernators (not a huge fan of land raiders). Your opponent is now faced with the decision of killing the drop pods or the Ironclad dreads.

It takes a REALLY lucky shooting turn to insta kill an Ironclad on turn 1, and ofcourse you, as a competent player, would avoid dropping them near lots of melta guns.

As mentioned before one of the problems becomes your opponents target priority. If they rest of your army is camped out in the corner or working its way up as the pod lands then it becomes alot easier for him to figure out what he's shooting at, especially if he's got some melta that isn't in range or anything else anyway.

I see three possible fixes.

1) You mentioned sternguard, so maybe they should take a pod as well. Hell go all pods. More targets = harder target priority, so that could work.
2) Take empty pods, perhaps with some rifleman dreads or tac squads. Although not easy to shoehorn in, it would help delay the dreads until the rest of your army arrives to help out.
3) Lose the ironclads. Sad, but if they aren't synergistic with the rest of your list then maybe you should reconsider what you've got.

Hope it helps.

I like some of the ideas so far. Here is my list to further flush out what I'm talking about.

HQ

Vulcan He'stan - 190

Moster of the Forge - 155
- Bike
- Conversion Beamer

Troops

Tactical Squad x10 - 215
- Melta-bomb
- Melta Gun
- Multi-melta
- Rhino

Tactical Squad x10 - 215
- Melta-bomb
- Melta Gun
- Multi-melta
- Rhino

Heavy

Ironclad Dreadnought - 180
- Heavy Flamer
- Drop Pod

Ironclad Dreadnought - 180
- Heavy Flamer
- Chainfist
- Drop Pod

Dreadnought - 150
- Heavy Flamer
- Drop Pod

Elite

Sternguard x10 - 335
- Combi-Meltas
- Rhino

Fast Attack

Landspeeder - 70
- Multi-melta
- Heavy Flamer

Landspeeder - 70
- Multi-melta
- Heavy Flamer

Space Marine Bike Squad - 90


Total 1850

Not sure about the chainfist on the Ironclad as you throw away the initiative opening a weakness to powerfists, not to mention slower MCs like the Carnifex. The built in Melta should be enough.

The Dreads attacks are strength 10 anyway so it just means on double 2s you glance a Land Raider.

I do not like the sternguards and the troop choises in the sugested list. It is just to big a unit of stern guard not to get a good squad splitting. What do you ever need 10 twin linked melta shots at?

Eather put the sternguards in a drop pod as well (splitting upon enetering) or cut it down and put them in a razorback. Or get more dreadnoughts.

Same with the troop choises. Give one a missile lancher/lasercannon and out the 5 rest in a razobak. Also you need a place to stick hestan. A whilrdwind would also be great once the iron clads pop the transports.

More Dreadnoughts!

I'd seriously think about taking another 2 Dreads, 1 more Ironclad and a Dakkadread, all in Drop pods.

That's 3 Ironclads coming out turn 1, and 2 more incoming.

Homing Beacons on the bikers (who should become scouts IMO) make it easier to call in the last two dreads to where you need them.

And drop the Sternguard.

Other than Ironclads are scary. Your use of a forge master and ironclad equates pretty well to a squad of termies. If you want a stand out unit. Perhaps go down to 1 ironclad,
termies and sternguard as your elites, get a few more troop choices out there - flamers and meltaguns and heck cheap multi-meltas will do the job fine for them. Go combi-flamers on the sergeants and that will light up their day. I might even think about a drop pod devastator squad with 4 MM or 3 MM and a Las. That drops in first turn and lays a 24" radius claim to the center of the board and then you teleport home in the 5 termies or the DN.
MM/HF landspeeders are your friend, use those instead of more dreads.

First, I don't think you need the bike squad. You would want your Motf to stick outside 48" of the enemy to get maximum fire, and if the main objective of our bike squad is to accompan the MotF, then they're wasted since they can't even deal damage when the're far away. First off, not a lot of people would want to shoot at one unit with a 2+ save and second, not a lot of people can shoot at a unit that is so far away.

Second, Drop pod on the Sterns. That way they're in the enemy's face as early as possible and increases your chance of popping two tanks. also, Vulkan can ride with them, making them more survivable against an enemy charge.

Third, either Drop Pod on the Tacs, or add other vehicles for your opponent to pop (Rifleman dreads, Preds, whatever). Those rhinos look juicy now that you have a few vehicles except for the dreads that would either die earl or get stuck in combat, thus not available for them to shoot. So they'll shoot at your Rhinos, especially since the other vehiclkes (MM/HF suicide speeders) needs to be on their face first before they pose an actual threat.