Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I just started collecting Salamanders, and the biggest hole in my list right now is anti infantry. I know the gold standard for SM is twin AC razorbacks, but I'm on a pretty tight budget and don't feel like shelling out 10-20 bucks for a third party or forgeworld bit on top of the cost for a rhino . What would you all recommend I take instead?

Here's what I own for reference:

Scout snipers or a vindicere assassin.

Conscripts are scary because of sheer numbers, but theyre actually effective because the officers give them extra shots and combat phases, priests give them bonus attacks, and commissars stop them running.

Slot the characters with a sniper rifle and morale checks will essentially double up the damage you do, in addition to making them far less potent a unit.

Yep, get some snipers in your list to knock out the Commissars. Once they're done, the rest of your army should do fine. That Dev squad, shooting heavy bolters and frag missiles, will chew through conscripts easily, as will the Intercessors and Inceptors.

Snipers will only counter conscripts if your opponents does not know what he is doing, or if you are playing without blocking terrain.

locarno24 wrote:
Scout snipers or a vindicere assassin.

Conscripts are scary because of sheer numbers, but theyre actually effective because the officers give them extra shots and combat phases, priests give them bonus attacks, and commissars stop them running.

Slot the characters with a sniper rifle and morale checks will essentially double up the damage you do, in addition to making them far less potent a unit.

That requires at minimum 3 Vindicares ready to go.

I'd say look at Tarantula turrets if you don't want Snipers. Each £20 you spend is a 6 shot Heavy Bolter that has the same BS as a Guardsman. Ain't too shabby and easy to spam.

Mass conscript lists are a special kind of 40K problem. Most TAC lists aren't going to be able to blast through that bulk of bodies. The good news is that massed fire is effective against a lot of targets, not just conscript spam. AC Razors are one of the best options, but not the only one. Massed bolter fire of various sorts will help get the job done. Stir in the right buffs and you're in business.

The trick is to build a list based around efficiently costed dakka. Vindicares would also help if you're OK taking them.

Veterans with double Chainswords

You can get bikers for pretty cheap at the moment it seems if your OK with Ravenwing models then just edit them a bit to make them more standard to the salamander army. Take a base squad of 3, give the 2 guys flamers and the srg a combi flamer, then run them straight into the conscripts face. That's 3d6 auto hits from the flamers, 12 bs3+ shots from the bolters on the bikes, and 2 bs4+ shots from the srg firing the bolter part at the same time.

Should get around 10 flamer hits, plus 9 bolter hits on average. That's a lot of conscripts dead for 3 guys. And if you snipe the commissars first that should be enough to remove the entire squad after morale. And if not you can always charge in after the shooting is done.

Or land speeders with dual heavy flamers, those do a good job at dealing with hordes as well. Even better because they can fly so if the enemy charges you you get auto hit weapons on overwatch and if they do get in you get to just fly away and flame them again.

Of course if your opponent sees you play these things on the field they probably know what's up and will target them quickly. So either other large scarry targets need to distract them or you need multiple squads so one can hopefully survive.

I don't think that the bikers work as well as you think it does.

10 flamer hits = 7 dead conscripts
10 bolter hits= 7 more

14 conscripts = 42 points. Even without morale, a 50 man unit isn't going anywhere.

Remaining 36 rapid fire back. 24 hits, 8 wounds, 3 failed armor saves and you just lost more points in bikers than they did in conscripts.

I don't know how much those bikes cost, but I suspect it is well above 100 points.

Its funny, but doing the math right now, I actually think the bikers were way more effective than I was expecting. 2 squads of this and a few more random bolter shots and maybe it would work.

Assault Cannon tarantulas, maybe. You need to convert the gun, there's no model.

With salamanders you should bring tons of flamers, heavy flamers, meltas and multi meltas, that's the theme of the army.

Heavy flamer with re-rolling to wound should be quite good against anti infantries while rerolling multimeltas are an effective anti tank.

Now I see you want to go with a primaris army, which has nothing in common with the salamander style. IMHO a full primaris army is below average and against AM you need other tools.

AM is the most competitive army at the moment, at any points format, keep in mind that even if you field a competitive list it will never be easy against them and you'll probably lose most of the times.

Wit salamanders you bring a ton of lascannons because that maximises their bonuses

U02dah4 wrote:
Wit salamanders you bring a ton of lascannons because that maximises their bonuses

Against single-wound, low-armour hordes that's not really going to do you many favours.

Aggressors with Flamestorm gauntlets are very Salamandery and will chew through conscripts pretty quickly. Delivery may be an issue though as they are short ranged and your only transport is the expensive Repulsor.

If you are happy with Forgeworld then a Leviathan Dreadnought with Grav Flux is an entertaining option. Its firepower increases the more models are in the target unit. Against a 50-man conscript blob, you get 11D3 shots hitting on a 2+ and wounding on a 2+. If you give both arms grav, that is 22D2. That is on average of 30 dead guardsmen in its opening salvo (more if you have a captain nearby for rerolls).

Frowny wrote:
I don't think that the bikers work as well as you think it does.

10 flamer hits = 7 dead conscripts
10 bolter hits= 7 more

14 conscripts = 42 points. Even without morale, a 50 man unit isn't going anywhere.

Remaining 36 rapid fire back. 24 hits, 8 wounds, 3 failed armor saves and you just lost more points in bikers than they did in conscripts.

I don't know how much those bikes cost, but I suspect it is well above 100 points.

Its funny, but doing the math right now, I actually think the bikers were way more effective than I was expecting. 2 squads of this and a few more random bolter shots and maybe it would work.

One problem with that math hammer. Bikes have 2 wounds each, so that's only 1 dead biker and 1 one wounded one. Bikes are only 34 pts a model with the flamers.

And yeah, in my salamanders army I run 2 squads of 3 bikes like that and 3 land speeders, 2 with multi-melta and heavy flamer 1 with dual heavy flamer and they just make hordes dissappear quickly. Followed with a large squad of scouts with sniper rifles I find they are effective at chr sniping, doing that 1 or 2 wounds so my opponent wants to get them out of sight quick.

Harder to do with Salamanders, but in theory it will still work. Take 6 Centurions, either Heavy Bolter Hurricane Bolter or Assault Centurions with the Hurricanes and Flamers. You'll kill 27 with the Assaults (without the flamers in) and you will kill 33 with the Devastators. This is assuming you are rapid fire though, so ymmv. I do this with my Crimson Fists though, so I am using Bolter Drill and +1 to hit from my Rhino Primaris. The 6 man Centurion Squad kills 56.53 conscripts in a single shooting phase on average if I am in rapid fire range. Not too shabby.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and they are almost immune to the return fire from the Conscripts. This is where you have to neutralize their artillery to stop the counter that will work.