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I'm in the process of taking the SM from 2 AOBR sets and turning them into my first WH40k army. I'm aiming to make a salamanders army and I'm just looking for advice on any units that have worked well for other players in the past and what shades of paint tend to work well for the look of the army (I painted a dread knarloc green and had to repaint it ). Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated.

Well I find, with Space Marines, the Venerable 'Rifleman' Dreads work well.

a Chapter master with orbital bombardment is fun to play around with if you like random outcomes.

Termoinators with Thunderhammers and Stormshields are a solid unit.

Tactical squads are going to be your all around troop choices. The Scouts are okay for their points, but the Tac Marines with the Missile launcher are a bit better for the points.

Devistator squads with 3 or 4 missile launchers work well.

A librarian can enhance your gunline with a Psychic power that gives a 5++

and predators or vindicators are a solid choice as well.

So.. 2 AOBR give you 20 Marines, 10 Tac-Termies, 2 Captains and 2 Dreads, right?

Some suggestions to leverage that would be

- I think useful additions could be 1 box of Assault Termies. As you probably don't want 10 Tac-Termies, you can use the spare weapons from the Assault Terminator box and the 10 Tac-Termies from ABOR to build yourself 5x LC-Terminators, 5xTH/SS-Terminators & 5x Tac-Terminators. Those should last you a while.

- 1 -2 Rhino's and/or Razorbacks to transport your Marines are also a good investment. As always, buy the Razorback box even if you want only a Rhino as you get more for the same cash.

- Buying 5-man box of Devastator can be used to make yourself a 10-man unit of Devastators with 5 Tac-Marines from AOBR.

- The AOBR-Dreads are close-range stuff. A Drop Pod could help them get where you want them. Alternatively, you could try to scavange for more long-ranged weapon bits and build them with autocannons, possibly Las-cannons/Missile-Launcher instead. Alternatively, you could also buy another Dread-box and use spare-weapons to make yourself 3 better Dreads. You'd be stuck however with 3 Dreads and 15 Termines which you cannot all use in one army/FoC unless you also get a Master of the Forge (Techmarine) as HQ (which wouldn't be unfluffy for Salamanders).

Assemble, paint & play and see what you like.

DeathReaper wrote:Well I find, with Space Marines, the Venerable 'Rifleman' Dreads work well.

a Chapter master with orbital bombardment is fun to play around with if you like random outcomes.

Termoinators with Thunderhammers and Stormshields are a solid unit.

Tactical squads are going to be your all around troop choices. The Scouts are okay for their points, but the Tac Marines with the Missile launcher are a bit better for the points.

Devistator squads with 3 or 4 missile launchers work well.

A librarian can enhance your gunline with a Psychic power that gives a 5++

and predators or vindicators are a solid choice as well.

Gonna have to disagree on a few points here. Chapter masters are a complete and total waste of points. You need to stand still to call in that single orbital bombardment, and you want to be moving with him every turn. If he's not fighting in close combat, he's wasting his points. Also, venerable isn't necessary on riflemen. Rifleman dreads are as netlisty and liked as they are because they're cheap; venerable makes them too expensive. Also, they're already twin linked and don't really need the BS5 that much. Librarians shouldn't be enhancing gunlines; they should be giving a 5++ to units that need it out in the front lines. Marines don't do gunlines terribly well.

OP, to buff your collection, you could definitely use some heavy weapons for your Terminators. Get some assault cannons or cyclone missile launchers and convert up two to carry heavy weaponry. I'd also get two rhinos to give your tactical Marines some mobility. Finally, to make them more "Salamandery" or what have you, get Vulkan and some TH/SS assault Terminators and run them in a Land Raider Crusader or Redeemer. Have this be your big assault unit, and use his army-wide ability to buff the flamers in your tac squads and meltas on your dreads and Land Raider. This is enough to get a solid foundation for an army and you can build from there afterwards.

Brother SRM wrote:Gonna have to disagree on a few points here. Chapter masters are a complete and total waste of points. You need to stand still to call in that single orbital bombardment, and you want to be moving with him every turn. If he's not fighting in close combat, he's wasting his points.

For the record I did mention 'fun to play around with' and nothing of competitiveness on the chapter master.

Brother SRM wrote: Also, venerable isn't necessary on riflemen. Rifleman dreads are as netlisty and liked as they are because they're cheap; venerable makes them too expensive. Also, they're already twin linked and don't really need the BS5 that much.

In your opinion.
I find the ven dreads I run into never die when I shoot them.
Also, the BS 5 helps when you slot an Assault cannon instead of the one Autocannon.

Brother SRM wrote: Librarians shouldn't be enhancing gunlines; they should be giving a 5++ to units that need it out in the front lines. Marines don't do gunlines terribly well.

They do gunlines well enough.

They are a solid army all around.

They do gunlines okay, but their numbers aren't high enough to really do an IG level gunline. They're designed as more of a strikeforce and do well in a mobile role. Then again, you can do a nasty mech gunline with them too. You are right in that they can do just about anything, it's just what they do well that's the question.

Venerable always seems like more of an upgrade for something that's in the front lines where it'll get shot with meltas, hit with fists, and so on. A rifleman can often sit in cover and be plenty durable without venerable rules.

Brother SRM wrote:Venerable always seems like more of an upgrade for something that's in the front lines where it'll get shot with meltas, hit with fists, and so on. A rifleman can often sit in cover and be plenty durable without venerable rules.

Yea, i can agree with that.

my opponent takes them fairly regularly, and I never manage to get the KP from them.

last game I had one Immobile, with both weapons destroyed and could not get that last Immobile/Weapon destroyed/destroyed result.

The dreadnaught from the AOBR set is perfect for a Salamander army. Just chop off the storm bolter and add a heavy flamer. I just took two flamer bits and cut them from the IG bits, and glued them in place of the storm bolter barrel. Two twin linked weapons on one dread, perfect.

Thank you everyone for the tips so far.
Alot of the reason I got into salamanders was the prospect of having a kind of armored collumnarmy with dread escorts because even in dawn of war that kind of force always worked well for me. Ii like an army that I can divide into 2, 3 or 4 smaller forces for objectives without loosing potency in each force (im a little alpha legion like that) and then reunite without much trouble if needed.

Then perhaps a Master of the Forge as well. While not optimal it allows for more Dreadnoughts in a list.

Hmm, I don''t have the codex yet but I'll definately look into him.
I'm also looking at having something of a pyramid of armor
Something like:
-1 land raider crusader
-2 battle tanks (predator and/or vindicator)
-4 dreads
-8 armored troop carriers (mix of rhinos and razorbacks)

Well, the problem with that idea is it's a little illegal:
- The Land Raider and two battle tanks take up your 3 heavy support choices - that's fine! I would probably take 2 vindis or 2 preds though, and not one of each. That's just me though. If you take Terminators, you can use the Land Raider as a dedicated transport for them though, and free up a heavy support slot!
- 4 dreads uses 4 elites slots, and you only get 3! You'd have to cap off at 3 dreads, or take a Master of the Forge who would let you take them as heavy support choices in addition to elites choices.
- 8 APC's is a bit much - you can only take one per squad of troops generally, so even a big army might only have 4 or 5.

You should be fine though, most of what you want to do is perfectly legal in the codex, and actually pretty solid from a tactical/competitive standpoint.

Sweet!, it's actually more legal than I thought itd be.
Isn't there a unit you can take to have termies be a troop choice? Or am I just being crazy?

While painting, remember that their skin is pitch black and their natural eyes (not the ones on their helmets) are blood red. I'm a fan of the salamanders and this is a classic mistake that makes me cry myself to sleep at night.

Thanks Squid. Though i dunno why someone would pass on every helemtless character being that epic.


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I came up with this list that I think works:
-Assault Termies w/ LR Redeemer
-2 Preds or 2 Vindis
- Devastator squad w/ Razorback
-2 Dreads
-2, 10 man squads of Tacs w/ Flamers in Rhinos
-4, 5 man squads of Tacs 2 w/ Meltaguns and 2 w/ Las Cannons in Las Razorbacks
-Vulkan (with Termies)
-Librarian (with Devastator squad)
I'm not sure how I'd like to kit out the dreads and I'm not sure on points cost yet. That's due to waiting for my codex though.

Here's the thing with your list - I'm assuming the 5 man squads are 10 man squads split into two combat squads? In that case, sticking the 5 marines with the lascannon in cover while driving up with the melta guns in the razorbacks is a good call. What would you arm the devastator squad with? Multimeltas and missile launchers are sanely priced, but I wouldn't buy any other weapons for them really, aside from heavy bolters if you think you'll be fighting hordes. The librarian also doesn't compliment the devs in any way; stick him with one of the melta combat squads or with Vulkan and his buddies if you want him to be a little more useful. Librarians are best used in reasonably close quarters. Other than that, everything's gravy!

I was also curious about some painting and modelling tips for salamanders in particular. I really got into the full hobby start to finish.

If you want an easy way to paint Salamanders, here goes:
- Prime the model black, using whatever spray primer (Primer! Not paint! There's a difference!) you like - I recommend Krylon.
- Paint the whole Marine with Dark Angels green. This is a basecoat to build your next green off of.
- Paint the whole Marine with Snot Green, leaving some Dark Angels green showing in recesses to give the model some shading.
- Highlight the very edges of the armor with Goblin Green; Scorpion Green is very, very bright, and looks a little too Tron-like for my tastes.
- Paint the bolters black, with gun metal barrels, magazines, etc. And highlight the edges with Adeptus Battlegrey.
- Paint the eyes yellow; Iyanden Darksun is a bit understated and will look good.
- Paint the shoulderpads black, but leave the trim green. If you want to paint the chapter logo or flames in the black field, that's up to you!

This is how I paint my salamanders:

Black primer coat (I use Krylon, never had a problem)
1 coat of orkhide
2 coats of snot green
heavy drybrush of scorpion green
Paint the eyes blood red. I know GW does yellow, but I think it makes them look pale, and the red is so much more menacing.

This technique has served me really well, and looks great on marines and vehicles. Hope it helps!

My problem with red and green is that it ends up looking too Christmas-y!

I rather like the contrast in red and green myself.


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Allrighty well I have a good idea on colors to try out on top of a few of my own. I hope that I'll be able to create some awesome minis once I get everything together and thank you guys so much on advice I really appreciate it.