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Hello all, I am planning to start a marine army soon and after reading through the codex like the idea of vulkan and the abilities that he has to offer. I would like to build a space marine army based on using vulkan but I have a few questions which would help me start.

1. Is a vulkan based list competitive? ( I hear it is the most competitive but confirming).

2. Pros and cons of a salamandar based army

3. For 1500 Points what units are a must or seen good choice to take

4. Shopping list - where is a good place to begin buying and building the army, what units to buy, etc.

Thank's all.

1. He was very competitive in 5th when you turned up to a game with alot of tanks, and to be perfectly honest, he is still very competitive now

2.
Pros:
-Re-roll to hit Melta/Flamer/Thunderhammer
-Cool colour scheme (imo)

Cons:
-Short ranged (melta typically being 24" or less in range)
-The cost of vulkan means you have to ensure every unit takes advantage of his ability when making lists at or below 1500 points.
-The loss of combat tactics means you cant choose to fall back. Meaning alot of wasted turns in combat.

3.
-Dreadnoughts. Multi-Melta is basic wargear, can upgrade to include a flamer. Iron Clad is best (i think?), especially in a drop pod.
-TH+SS Terminators (with their Land Raider to ride in)
-Combi-Melta sternguard in a drop pod. effective suicide tank hunters
-Land Speeders w/ MM. Likely to be glanced to death, but 60 points a pop is not too much of an investment.
-Attack bikes with MM - Bikes have nice rules (relentless/jink etc.) combined with a re-roll makes them pretty good.

4.
Vulkan, well, it wouldn't be a 'vulkan' army without him...
Tactical Squads (around 2 in a 1500 point list). IIRC, they dont come with bits for a MM, so you'll have to get that seperately.
Rhinos/drop pods (which ever route you wish to go down)
The rest depends on where you want to go with it, tbh

Zambro wrote:

Pro's:
Con's:

It's pros and cons; there's no apostrophes in plurals!

Vulkan's Chapter Tactics are really good as long as you're building a list that takes advantage of them. If your army has like, one flamer in it then don't bother, but if your squads are tricked out with melta and flamer weapons and you can even cram some TH/SS Termies in there, then you've got some good stuff going on. A squad of Terminators with master crafted Thunderhammers is terrifying.

Honestly, Vulkan is probably the most competitive character in the codex for his Chapter Tactics and the fact that he's actually pretty tough in close combat. 2+/3++ with a relic blade and heavy flamer is tough! A solid start with him would be something like:
- Vulkan
- Tactical squad with melta, multimelta, Thunderhammer, Rhino
- Tactical squad with melta, multimelta, Thunderhammer, Rhino
- 5 Assault Terminators with TH/SS
- Land Raider Crusader or Redeemer, take your pick

Have the Terminators and Vulkan ride around in the Raider and have Tac squads in Rhinos with meltas and a Thunderhammer (optional, this is mostly for flavor) driving around. Then, add Land Speeders with heavy flamers and multimeltas once you have the basics down. It can make for a brutal, fast, and close ranged army. I've also been on the receiving end of Vulkan with Sternguard squads loaded with combi-weapons. I had squads drop pod into my line, combat squad when they hit the ground, then the 5 combi-flamers torched an infantry platoon and the 5 combi-meltas blew up a Leman Russ squadron. Vulkan's got some good tricks.