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.

Hi folks, i have finally decided to update my salamanders and want to clear up / see what people think on certain rules.

The first is as part of a salamanders chapter tactics, I can upgrade a weapon to Master crafted (MC) for free on my characters.

So as a melta bomb can be used as a melee weapon in combat against monstrous creatures and vehicles, so can i make it a MC melta bomb.

In the same concept, as the rules are written it sounds like i may take a special character and upgrade one of his weapons to be MC, so vulkan hestan may have his bolt pistol upgraded to be a MC bolt pistol. Upgrade one of brayarth ashmantles DCCW to be MC.




The next is to do with the lucius pattern dreadnought drop pod. now in the rules it say that when it arrives its doors must be opened automatically, but differs in description from the drop pods in codex: space marines as makes no mention to having to automatically disembark. so may it deep strike in, wait a turn and then have a dreadnought disembark? this would make sense as it is an assault vehicle and seems to be the only difference between a regular drop pod.

The lucius pattern dreadnought drop pod is a dedicated transport for any imperial dreadnought for codex: space marines (among others) and as Brayarth asmantle is a HQ for codex: space marines, may he take one as a dedicated transport?


references for the units / rules mentioned.

Salamander chapter tactics: Codex space marines, page 78

grenades: Warhammer 40000 rulebook, page 61, 62

lucius pattern drop pod: Imperial Armour apocalypse, page 24

Brayarth ashmantle: Forgeworld download, badab uppdate-v2, about half way through



Thanks for reading.

Yes you can Master Craft any one weapon on all of your characters. Master crafting you combi-weapons on your sergeants is the best bet as even after you use your combi-shot, the bolter remains MC'd for the whole game. Melta-bombs are also a pretty good choice.

You do not have to exit the lucius pattern pod when it lands, meaning your dreadnought can stay inside, shoot the enemy, then disembark and assault the following turn.

Eihnlazer wrote:
Master crafting you combi-weapons on your sergeants is the best bet as even after you use your combi-shot, the bolter remains MC'd for the whole game.

Not sure about that one, the rules for Combi-weapons refer to them as being seperate weapons.

Codex: Space Marines wrote:"...each character in this detachment may upgrade one of his weapons..."

BRB Combi-weapons wrote:"The extra weapon carries only a limited charge..."
"...choose to fire either the primary boltgun, or the secondary weapon."
"...the secondary weapon can only be fired once per battle."
"You cannot fire both weapons in the same turn."

If the "combi weapon" is master crafted then the whole weapon is master crafted, if a specific part of the weapon is master crafted it was specify, check out codex dark Angels for some examples of master crafted combi weapons.

 grendel083 wrote:

Eihnlazer wrote:
Master crafting you combi-weapons on your sergeants is the best bet as even after you use your combi-shot, the bolter remains MC'd for the whole game.

Not sure about that one, the rules for Combi-weapons refer to them as being seperate weapons.

Codex: Space Marines wrote:"...each character in this detachment may upgrade one of his weapons..."

BRB Combi-weapons wrote:"The extra weapon carries only a limited charge..."
"...choose to fire either the primary boltgun, or the secondary weapon."
"...the secondary weapon can only be fired once per battle."
"You cannot fire both weapons in the same turn."

hehe only vulkhans ability mastercrafts the combi-melta, not just the melta part.

same with the tactics, regardless of the fact the singular item is composed of two weapons, it is in and of itself still a single weapon for the purposes of the rule.

I'd never thought about mastercrafted grenades, but I suppose there's no rule against that.

You can def master-craft your melta-bombs. The general consensus on combi-weapons is that if you master-craft them, both the 1-time shot and the bolter are master-crafted.

RAW, you could also master-craft Vulkan's bolt pistol as he is a character, don't see anything that may deny that although it had never occurred to me to master-craft a unique character's weapons; good call.

Bray'Arth can in fact take a Lucius pattern pod. As a matter of fact I would say that you have to from a tactics standpoint. If you foot-slog him he's gonna have everybody's lascannons and lances stabbing at him.

As far as the pod itself, think of it as a transport vehicle. On the turn it arrives you can keep the dread embarked and shoot but you'll only snap-fire (so no flamers from Bray'Arth, just his melta-shot) because the pod (and occupant) counts as having moved at cruising speed.
If you disembark on the turn it arrives then the walker counts as having arrived by deep-strike and can shoot normally (as per walker exception for DS in BRB) but still won't be able to assault until the next turn. Personally, I would disembark him on arrival, pop smoke (which will grant you a 3+ cover thanks to the Shrouded rule conferred by the pod) and then punch face on the next turn.
Even if you get marker-lighted to hell by Tau you got a very fair chance of surviving the shots and then absolutely rip face on your next turn.

Have fun!

 phoenix darkus wrote:
You can def master-craft your melta-bombs. The general consensus on combi-weapons is that if you master-craft them, both the 1-time shot and the bolter are master-crafted.

Right, in game terms they are both actually the same weapon. It just has multiple profiles it can use for firing (lots and lots of examples of that).

RAW, you could also master-craft Vulkan's bolt pistol as he is a character, don't see anything that may deny that although it had never occurred to me to master-craft a unique character's weapons; good call.

His flamer is already twin-linked, and his spear is already mastercrafted, so I guess the bolt pistol is "it". TBH I've never used Vulkans bolt pistol.

Bray'Arth can in fact take a Lucius pattern pod. As a matter of fact I would say that you have to from a tactics standpoint. If you foot-slog him he's gonna have everybody's lascannons and lances stabbing at him.

As far as the pod itself, think of it as a transport vehicle. On the turn it arrives you can keep the dread embarked and shoot but you'll only snap-fire (so no flamers from Bray'Arth, just his melta-shot) because the pod (and occupant) counts as having moved at cruising speed.
If you disembark on the turn it arrives then the walker counts as having arrived by deep-strike and can shoot normally (as per walker exception for DS in BRB) but still won't be able to assault until the next turn. Personally, I would disembark him on arrival, pop smoke (which will grant you a 3+ cover thanks to the Shrouded rule conferred by the pod) and then punch face on the next turn.
Even if you get marker-lighted to hell by Tau you got a very fair chance of surviving the shots and then absolutely rip face on your next turn.

Is the cruising speed arrival a special rule of the Lucius drop pod? I see no such rule for the regular drop pod (dreadnoughts using regular drop pods fire effect when they land, they just can't assault).

 DanielBeaver wrote:
Is the cruising speed arrival a special rule of the Lucius drop pod? I see no such rule for the regular drop pod (dreadnoughts using regular drop pods fire effect when they land, they just can't assault).

It's part of the standard DS rules. Vehicles count as having moved Cruising speed (except for Heavy vehicles).

 phoenix darkus wrote:
Bray'Arth can in fact take a Lucius pattern pod. As a matter of fact I would say that you have to from a tactics standpoint. If you foot-slog him he's gonna have everybody's lascannons and lances stabbing at him.

"Wrought by Vulkan: Bray’arth Ashmantle’s Dreadnought chassis, the ‘Iron Dragon’ is a unique relic immune to the particular effects of the Melta, Rending, Armourbane, and Lance special rules. Additionally, the Entropic Strike special rule only reduces his Armour Value on a D6 roll of a 6+, instead of the usual 4+. Any other rules which either reduce his Armour Value or allow attacks which target him to roll more than one dice when making an Armour Penetration check have no effect against the Dreadnought."

There's worse things. Also he's a dreadnought with a Smoke Launcher so he's going to be getting cover saves. He can footslog just fine. You'll still need a bit of armor saturation so he's not the literal only target anti-tank weaponry wants to fire at, but rolling him alongside some Vindicators or Land Raiders works pretty well I would think.

Not saying it's not worth putting him in one of the dreadnought drop pods, because it is. Just saying he can footslog pretty well.

Thanks a lot for the replies and going through how the drop pod works.

Will probably be running a three dreadnought drop list with the lucius drop pods. tacticals in drop pods and a fire raptor

So the 3 dreads come down turn one and wait in there pods, then turn 2 some other stuff shows up and the dreads jump out and assault.

May even use a mortis contemptor. for the extra fire power and skyfire.

Remember it may be worth getting the dreads out of the pod - while they lose the AV12 bunker, they gain the ability to pop smoke and gain a 3+ save from the pods shrouded. In some instances that may be a better option.

Sounds good, good luck!