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Hi all, I'm brand new to 40k and tabletop battling in general.

I've decided I would like to run Salamanders and I'm currently only playing against a few friends who mostly use IG in tanks.

What I plan so far:

Vulcan He'stan


2x Dreadnaught with ____________ in Drop Pods.

I'm still getting an idea of what I should use and I'll update this post with values asap.

Please feel free to offer an opinion, the only thing I'm set on is Salamanders and Vulcan at this stage.

The plan is for Sergeant Telion to man the Lascannon and upset the fliers and tanks I usually come across.

I want to take advantage of Vulcan, Master of the Forge and Salamander rules as much as possible.

Hello! And welcome to Dakka!

The first army I started collecting was Salamanders, and I've been collecting them for about 10 years now, so I'll give you an idea of what you're doing right (Of course there are other well experienced players out there)
So, lets start, shall we?

Vulkan, the obvious choice for a salamanders player, nothing to say there.
Master of the Forge, I like his special abilities and so on, but at a 1000 point game, it's not that good to have both Vulkan and MotF. Here I would go with Vulkan.

Aegis Defence Line with Lascannon, for anti air it is a good idea, but instead of a lascannon, I would go with the Quad Gun, simply out of experience, I'm sure many would agree
Sergeant Telion, totally pointless at this points level, not to be too harsh, but he pretty much sucks, and is too much of a point cost.
Scout Squads, they are not the better troops choice here, at 1000 points don't go with scout sqauds, they'll just be blasted right off

2x Dreadnaughts, I love bringing them in drop pods with dual flamers against a Mob army, but against tanks I wouldn't take them.

I don't have my codex around right now, but I'll try to give you an idea of what I run when I go tank-hunting

HQ:
Vulkan He'stan

Troops:
x2 Tactical squads, take meltas here

Elites:
Sternguard Squad with Combi Meltas and/or Multi Melta in Drop pod (2 of those if you can afford it)

Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Lascannon and Misslelauncher

Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

Pretty sure that's more than 1000 points, but if not, then great.

Tactics:
1 Tactical Squad hangs out in the back with Vulkan, and mans the Quad Gun, While the other goes up in the rhino and tries to contest objectives or destroy tanks. Dreadnought hangs back and shoots tanks off the table. Sternguard come down from the sky in their drop pods and cause havoc on the enemies tanks.

So that's pretty much it, hope there are other people that will help you as well

I should say that while I like Telion, he is Ultramarine specific, can't be taken with Salamanders. I would just put in more bodies into the scouts so they don't get shot off the ADL.

I agree with the above:

Telion is definitely out for the Sallies
QG > LC
I have remained unimpressed with scouts
Sternguard = yes
Honor guard w/ apoth = yes
Consider TFCs

Regarding dreds:
I don't the the Flamer is the best dread loadout. Dreadnoughts do not have USR "chapter tactics" and thus will not benefit from the master crafted rule. They would benefit from Vulkan's ability however. I generally try to put them in drop pods.

Regarding tacs
Something I'm toying around with is maximizing the salamanders master crafted chapter tactics rule for CHARACTERS. I've traditionally used squads of 10 marines, but the new rules for heavy OR special weapons decreases the relevancy of this need. Therefore, the more characters (ie more 5 man squads w/ Sgts), the more master crafted weaponry. So instead of 2x10 man tacs go for 4x5 man with different specialties (long medium short ranges anti inf or tank or MC).

Other Sally players might disagree. I have only minimal experience with them myself.

Welcome to Dakka.

Since you're set on getting Vulkan, you need to really focus on getting lots of Melta weapons in your army, and a way to get those melta weapons into range. Vulkan is only cost-effective if you do that. The Droppods are a good start at that, but you should probably make them standard dreadnoughts and give them Multimeltas - the heavy flamer dreadnoughts don't benefit from the Salamanders chapter tactics, nor do they benefit from vulkan's buffs.

Like Inari said, you can't take Telios in your army, he's Ultramarines specific. But scouts themselves are a good choice - if you do focus on melta, the rest of your army will be pushing up towards your enemy, and you need troops to hang back and score. Scouts with camo cloaks are good at that.

Get 3 or 5 drop pods, and fill them with Sternguards (/w combimeltas), or tactical squads (with flamer and/or meltas). You want an odd number, since you round up when determining how many drop pods come in. Stick Vulkan into one of those drop pods - he's an excellent infantry weed-whacker, but don't let the enemy hit him with S8 weapons.

You'll also probably want to focus on the Fast Attack slot, since they synergize well with Vulkan . Attack Bikes and Land Speeders are excellent sources of Melta firepower, and Bike Squads are excellent units all-around (you can focus either on melta, grav-guns, or flamers, they're all good in this list).

You don't really need an Aegis defence line in this list, but if you already have one, you can set up one of your scout squads behind it and score an objective, while simultaneously having your scout sergent man the lascannon (he has BS 4). Alternatively, you could set up a 6 man devastator squad behind your aegis defense line, and have the extra marine man the lascannon (you can boost him to BS 5 using the sgts signum).

Something I'm toying around with is maximizing the salamanders master crafted chapter tactics rule for CHARACTERS. I've traditionally used squads of 10 marines, but the new rules for heavy OR special weapons decreases the relevancy of this need. Therefore, the more characters (ie more 5 man squads w/ Sgts), the more master crafted weaponry. So instead of 2x10 man tacs go for 4x5 man with different specialties (long medium short ranges anti inf or tank or MC).

Other Sally players might disagree. I have only minimal experience with them myself.

I basically agree. There are lots of shenanigans you can do with with the character MC weapons - for example, you can give all your sgts mastercrafted melta bombs, and then give them combimeltas (which will ALSO be master-crafted). If you use a combi-plasma, you get to re-roll those pesky gets hot results, and you have an almost 1/4 chance of getting a precision shot result. It's an excellent buff for melee HQ choices, giving them pseudo-twin-linked to-hit rolls (Master Crafted Power Fists become extremely reliable wound dealers).

@Daniel: I think the dreads will benefit from Vulkan.

 doktor_g wrote:
@Daniel: I think the dreads will benefit from Vulkan.

If they're carrying Meltas, yes. But ironclad dreads only carry a single melta gun, and the OP has them running dual flamers (in that configuration, they do *not* benefit from either Vulkan or the Salamander's flamercraft rules).

Heavy Flamers are still defined as a flamer type weapon and would thus benefit from flamecraft. Just saying.

Now for something a bit more helpful. Here's what I usually run (with a few mods, since you wanted to run specific things).

Vulkan
Master of the forge w/ Coversation beamer

Ironclad Dread (stock) in a drop pod
Sternguard w/ 4 combis (use what you like flamers or melta depending on your meta) in drop pod

5 man tac w/ melta, in drop pod
5 man tac w/ and flamer in drop pod

ADL w/ Quad gun

This is kinda light on bodies, but is quite devastating in the early game, plan is to cripple your opponant to the point they have too many threats in their face to handle them effectivly.

Now the changes I would make, drop 1 of the HQ's and 1 of the elites. At 1000pts you have to be very tight on what you are doing with them. And I'm not sure what missions you are used to playing but scoring troops are also very important.
I would drop the MotF, and Dread. That puts almost 300pts at your disposal. Personally I would add a thunderfire cannon and a dev squad to man the ADL. These are both amazing support pieces to hold the backline while you have the TAC squads and Sternguard holding the bad guys in place. Mix in special weapons and fill out troops as points allow. Looking like this:

Vulkan
Sternguard w/ 4 combi in drop pod

5 man TAC w/ flamer in drop pod
5 man TAC w/ melta in drop pod
5 man TAC w/ melta in drop pod

5 man Dev squad w/ Lascannon (manning the Lascannon you can use the captain skip his shooting to make 1 guy bs 5 for the turn, that guy mans the ADL gun)
Thunderfire cannon

ADL w/ Lascannon

this is 1000 on the dot.

ghilliemarine wrote:
Heavy Flamers are still defined as a flamer type weapon and would thus benefit from flamecraft. Just saying.

No, because Space Marine vehicles do not have the "chapter tactics" special rule, and thus do not benefit from flamecraft.

 DanielBeaver wrote:

No, because Space Marine vehicles do not have the "chapter tactics" special rule, and thus do not benefit from flamecraft.

Forgot about that, I run Iron Hands so my vehicles get my chapter tactic anyway.

@daniel. Yes. Vilkan Master Crafts Meltas only. TBH, I only run Melta dreads so I assumed thanks for clarifying for the OP.
DrG


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wow. I like Inari's list. Why devs? Rather than scouts? Just the BS buff? I need more pods!

 doktor_g wrote:

Wow. I like Inari's list. Why devs? Rather than scouts? Just the BS buff? I need more pods!

You get incredibly cheap special weapons. Currently I am running the 4 lascannons +2 random bodies to get in the way of any random fire at just under 180pts. Throw in a cheap libby to help with some powers and you really don't have to worry about armor and your flamers can really do some work.

As for why over scouts, scouts might be cheaper, but to keep them alive they often go to ground to get that 2+ cover, but then you aren't shooting, or atleast just snapfiring. With the 3+ armor you at least can just take those and keep shooting.

The list I posted is pretty much what I'm running in our doubles tournaments. My partner is also running SM and is running LofD and more drop pods. Turn 1 our opponants should have anywhere from 4-5 drop pods in their front line and more meltas and flamers then they know what to do with. Even Tau can't intercept that many units.

@Locksy

I actually do have some air problems from guard, my friend uses two Valkyrie, very scary!

Telion out then didn't read that he was Ultramarine specific. I was hoping to have him as I'd heard he carried something to stop drop pods scattering, however I'm led to believe that's not a problem now.

I'm still confused if Dreads are included with the twin linking meltas/flamers rules?

I'll update my preferred list tomorrow when I've got a moment but I'm loving all this feedback, many thanks!

Remember I'm brand new to all of this so some of what you say will go over my head

@Nix: So flame weapons and 1 weapon from each CHARACTER (sgts ICs etc) of your choosing (from a chainsword to a combi-gravgun) become master crafted if they have the "Chapter Tactics" USR in their profile. Dreads do not have chapter tactics, nor are they characters. So Salamander chapter tactics have no effect on them. HOWEVER if you take Vulkan in your army, his presence master crafts all Meltas in the detachment without the requirement of being a character or having the chapter tactics USR. Clear as mud?

@inari: would you care critiquing and giving a suggestion for my list in the forum? The heading is "2500pt Orks all comers tourney." The tourney allows Stronghold, escalation and forgeworld. Double FOC. I was going to desperately ally with Salamanders. Thanks.