I enjoyed the battle report!
Had a few comments on the lists.
For the nids:
I see the Toxicrine so he's using the newer models. Just wondering why he didn't use any of the added mobility to the nids. The new pods for the Dima would be nice, the option for 3-5 flyrants, etc. Keeping some mobile units in reserve really add to the nids strategic plays. When everything starts on the table, the enemy (especially a droppod army) can really pick and choose how he wants to react.
Seems like he has a large variety of unit types but most of the time one of each unit type ends badly. For example, if the enemy player was scared of
AA, he'd simply aim at the Crone then the Flyrant. If he was scared of
AT, he'd aim at the zoanthropes and Exorcrine. As "boring" as it is, spamming 2-3 of the same unit generally gives opponents more trouble. Just food for thought.
Edit: I know the Nids player won, but the Salamanders player played into the Nids weakness. The Salamanders split their army in half and worked with the lack of mobility this particular Nids list had. Against other lists, the lack of mobility would show. Even if the Salamanders army deployed his pods differently, the foot slogging, well everything, would be more apparent.
For the Salamanders:
Might want to consider swapping one of the Sterns with a Command squad with 5 Meltas with Vulcan leading. Not only do you get to shoot your meltas for consequitive turns but Vulcan can tank incoming fire on 2+ and has a AP3
MC Digital weapon which can effectively kill any of the
MCs in the Nids codex. He only fears the Instantdeath from a single smash attack or the carnifexes. Just deploy the pod far from the carnifexes and you'll be fine.
Command squad is cheaper than the sterns as well.
For a pod army, you might want to consider bodies over toys. I personally own 20 Sternguard and I rarely use them anymore. They are so expensive for what they do and cover saves/invulns are everywhere. It's better/cheaper/more effective to run Tacticals/
LotD. The tactical all come with Kraks and 2 meltas per squad. The Legion has a crap ton of AP2 and Ignore Cover. Stern have their uses but usually never pay back for themselves. When I used to run them, I run 1 10man and I use it for first blood. However, they usually never last longer than a turn and I gave away 300+ points!
As a side note, you could not drop pod so aggressively, especially with the Stern. You effectively gave him 700+ points on Turn1. Deploy your empty pod and tactical on your side and wait for him to spread out his army a little before you go for a kill target. His army isn't very mobile, use that to your advantage and wait for him to spread his line out too far.
Drop Pod armies like layers. Dropping the tacticals turn one, watch where he runs to, and drop the Sternguards behind the tacticals in double tap range. Those poison shots will do work on almost any Nid
MC. Move the tacticals up (leaving 2" gaps in the stern) and combat squading the tacticals. This is where more bodies come in handy.
Edit:
My most recent list usually run 7 pods: 1 Command,10 Sternguard (3 C-Melta), 5 Tacticals (4 10man, 1 7ma - All Melta/C-M/M-bombs), and Legions to fill. Drop pods have a lot of objective control and can split the board however they chose. That is what I see as their greatest strength at least.
Well, I obviously typed too much! I was a nid player in 5th and switched to Sallies for all of 6th. Have a lot of experience from both sides of the report xD
Cheers!
