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Hey all,

I am putting together a new space marine army and was looking for a competitive list I could run within the bounds of 1000-1500 points. I was hoping it would be salamander themed but I understand if this is not competitive. I mostly play against Imperial Guard (mech heavy) and Orks. Any ideas?

Well if you take Vulkan you get master crafted melta for the army, which with pods could put some serious hurt on a Mech IG army I imagine. As for vs Orks I have no idea but the reroll wounds on flamers at overwatch will be nice.

First off you'll want to start with an....

HQ: Vulkan is the most popular choice here. He works well with Salamander Tactics and is a weedwhacker on anything 3+ or worse. You could also take a Librarian in addition or instead of Vulkan.

Troops: Drop Pods, Drop Pods, and Drop Pods. To get your Flamers and Melta in range, you need a Transport, right? This'll get you in good range, Make the Tac Squads Melta/Mastercrafted Combi Melta or Flamer/Master Crafted Flamer. Best in 5x Mans but a 9 Man for Vulkans bullet shields is always good. If you're not running an all pod list, I'd run Scouts to secure a backfield objective.

Elites: Sternguard! I run 2x 10 Mans w/ 3-4 Combi Meltas an2x Heavy Flamers. Comabt squad, one bursts the tank and the other hoses the insides ith falme.

Fast Attack: 5x Man Assault Squads w/ 2x Flamers and a Drop Pod for 95 Points? Yes please.

Heavy Support: In all pod lists, I struggle to see anything good here.

Feasible gives good advice, however there is something in heavy support that is more than worth taking in a drop pod army!

Thunderfire cannons with Drop pods! The purpose is to buy a thunderfire cannon, a great choice anyway, and give it a drop pod. then choose not to embark on the drop pod. Now you have another drop pod, and since it is empty, you can get another pod full of troops to come down in wave one.

The advice above is solid. One thing I disagree with in the above 2 posts are the Heavy Support slots. As a Salamanders player that runs 5 drop pods every list (at 1850+), I run 2-3 stalkers.

The reason I run Stalkers with my Salamanders is Drop Pod (and everything inside) don't shoot or do very well against flyers, especially Heldrakes. A CSM player with a single Heldrake will cause you to lose the game in any competitive area.

Even someone running Vendettas/Nightscythes will ruin your day. Not for the same reason as the Heldrakes, but the fact that you can't hurt his flying transports. Since you can't stop them, he can out maneuver you. You drop in Turn1 or Turn2, where his troops don't have to come out of the transports til Turn4 or Turn5 so he has complete control of the board and since you lack AA, you essentially lose before the game begins.

You can choose to ignore flyers like I see more Salamanders players do, but I think it isn't the best idea. I currently have 8 drop pods built so I could run all Drop Pods at 2k, but I honestly don't see that being as strong as it used to be in 5th edition or even early 6th. The meta has changed too much to just drop your entire army and hope you do enough damamge in one turn. There needs to be more strategy involved. 3 Stalkers are almost as cheap as a single Tactical Squad (plus Pod) at 225 pts. They can hit Flyers (Heldrakes, Vendettas, Ravens) and Skimmers, (which seems to be getting more popular with E/DE). Even FMCs stand no chance when they can all split fire at BS2 and force 6 grounding checks. It's frightening how effective they can be. Worse case scenario, you shoot 12 (BS1) TL S7 shots at a ground unit. Throughout a game, you can easily kill 225 points with just "crappy" snapfires. Not only that, but with Heavy Guns Never Tire, you have mobile scoring units in your backfield.

Saythings wrote:
The advice above is solid. One thing I disagree with in the above 2 posts are the Heavy Support slots. As a Salamanders player that runs 5 drop pods every list (at 1850+), I run 2-3 stalkers.

The reason I run Stalkers with my Salamanders is Drop Pod (and everything inside) don't shoot or do very well against flyers, especially Heldrakes. A CSM player with a single Heldrake will cause you to lose the game in any competitive area.

Even someone running Vendettas/Nightscythes will ruin your day. Not for the same reason as the Heldrakes, but the fact that you can't hurt his flying transports. Since you can't stop them, he can out maneuver you. You drop in Turn1 or Turn2, where his troops don't have to come out of the transports til Turn4 or Turn5 so he has complete control of the board and since you lack AA, you essentially lose before the game begins.

You can choose to ignore flyers like I see more Salamanders players do, but I think it isn't the best idea. I currently have 8 drop pods built so I could run all Drop Pods at 2k, but I honestly don't see that being as strong as it used to be in 5th edition or even early 6th. The meta has changed too much to just drop your entire army and hope you do enough damamge in one turn. There needs to be more strategy involved. 3 Stalkers are almost as cheap as a single Tactical Squad (plus Pod) at 225 pts. They can hit Flyers (Heldrakes, Vendettas, Ravens) and Skimmers, (which seems to be getting more popular with E/DE). Even FMCs stand no chance when they can all split fire at BS2 and force 6 grounding checks. It's frightening how effective they can be. Worse case scenario, you shoot 12 (BS1) TL S7 shots at a ground unit. Throughout a game, you can easily kill 225 points with just "crappy" snapfires. Not only that, but with Heavy Guns Never Tire, you have mobile scoring units in your backfield.

I understand that, however I personally (and many others) believe that the best way to use Pod Armies is to with everything in Pods bar Flyers. You can horde out of Flamers, and AT out of Melta.

I wish I had your confidence

That sounds like an amazing list but isn't having more that half your army in reserve against the rules? Or is there a space marine specific rule that I missed?

Nevermind, I just read the FAQ. Thank you guys so much for the awesome list ideas