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Melta and flamers are great for sallys. But i think it really belongs in pods. There very short ranged weapons, and pods help overcome this big problem. Alpha strikng with sternpods armed with heavy flamers is probably better for taking out scatbikes then hurling a melta bike squad across the table. Because trying to beat the most overpowered codex at its own game, isnt gonna work.

Everyone's talking about eldar. Will you actually be facing eldar on a regular basis? Because if you're not, I wouldn't worry about it. The internet has a weird hard-on for the eldar. Sure there an over powered, skilless newb hack, auto win button. But there not the boogey man. They arnt lurking at every lgs.

Im gonna have to agree that all that meltas not as helpful as you think. Against MCs you really, really need grav. Like really. Instead of fixing MCs Games Workshop just gave us grav. Something new and shiny that we didn't have before, so we had to buy it. Monstrous Creatures are everywhere, & instead of fixing terminators (because killing big nastys used to be there job) we got grav. And thats what should go with your bikes.

 Red Marine wrote:
Melta and flamers are great for sallys. But i think it really belongs in pods. There very short ranged weapons, and pods help overcome this big problem. Alpha strikng with sternpods armed with heavy flamers is probably better for taking out scatbikes then hurling a melta bike squad across the table. Because trying to beat the most overpowered codex at its own game, isnt gonna work.

Everyone's talking about eldar. Will you actually be facing eldar on a regular basis? Because if you're not, I wouldn't worry about it. The internet has a weird hard-on for the eldar. Sure there an over powered, skilless newb hack, auto win button. But there not the boogey man. They arnt lurking at every lgs.

Im gonna have to agree that all that meltas not as helpful as you think. Against MCs you really, really need grav. Like really. Instead of fixing MCs Games Workshop just gave us grav. Something new and shiny that we didn't have before, so we had to buy it. Monstrous Creatures are everywhere, & instead of fixing terminators (because killing big nastys used to be there job) we got grav. And thats what should go with your bikes.

Grav pretty much is the best thing vs Scatbikes. Wounds on a 3+, removes armor, good range, and with you getting to choose where to drop, you can be sure you're in range.

 Red Marine wrote:
Melta and flamers are great for sallys. But i think it really belongs in pods. There very short ranged weapons, and pods help overcome this big problem. Alpha strikng with sternpods armed with heavy flamers is probably better for taking out scatbikes then hurling a melta bike squad across the table. Because trying to beat the most overpowered codex at its own game, isnt gonna work.

Everyone's talking about eldar. Will you actually be facing eldar on a regular basis? Because if you're not, I wouldn't worry about it. The internet has a weird hard-on for the eldar. Sure there an over powered, skilless newb hack, auto win button. But there not the boogey man. They arnt lurking at every lgs.

Im gonna have to agree that all that meltas not as helpful as you think. Against MCs you really, really need grav. Like really. Instead of fixing MCs Games Workshop just gave us grav. Something new and shiny that we didn't have before, so we had to buy it. Monstrous Creatures are everywhere, & instead of fixing terminators (because killing big nastys used to be there job) we got grav. And thats what should go with your bikes.

My current setup doesn't call for bikes (com squad with flamers+He'Stan, sternguard with combi-meltas and an HF, and three tac squads with MG and MM), but I'll keep that in mind. I'm not sure what I'll be facing in the future. I only know two players personally, the eldar player and another relatively new one that runs CSMs. Once I get the hang of the game, I plan to start a search for other opponents, and I'll adjust my build accordingly.

In a more general sense, how viable is a drop pod-centric army? It seems very appealing if one has enough points to field 2 demi-companies in a Gladius formation, and/or with Stormhammer Annihilation. If attempting to remain versatile, is there any sort of ideal ratio of flamers/meltas/grav?

Drop pod armies are good at taking and holding objectives. Salamanders enjoy annihilating you with their high-powered weaponry, so they create a good balance. With the new codex, you can take just about one of everything in a tactical squad, allowing it to deal with a lot of things.

Typically, you want to try and keep your tacs somewhat cheap (to have more of them, and because they will already be fire magnets since they have objective: secured). Even so, things that tend to be useful for tacticals:

A meltagun/multi-melta. Because reasons. Multi-meltas are nice because when you combat squad (and you will) they can drop back a bit and fire from range a little more safely. Yeah you're snap-shooting the turn you arrive, but you're not right next to everyone waiting to be multi-charged. Meltaguns will get you up close and personal quite nicely. With vulkan, both are master-crafted

Some sort of close combat weapon for your sergeant. Remember to try and make use of your chapter tactics, granting a free master-craft. You don't want to master-craft a bolt pistol or melta bombs, but you can if you don't have the points for anything else. I typically fill out the close combat weapons last with the points I have.

Melta bombs. A little more situational, but it helps in combat a lot vs MCs that would slowly tear you a new one (or quickly for some MC). Plus you can murder any vehicle/building that escaped the wrath of your army's melta. If you can get one per 10 man squad, that's usually fine.

A decent amount of flamers. Should you have a whole squad of them? No. But since your tactical squad can take that AND a melta, for a mere 15 points, just do it. When you combat squad, flamer goes in one; melta the other. They're not always super useful, but you'll miss them if you don't have any. As for the ratio in other squads such as sternguard, one at most. The thing about sternguard is that you can master-craft a combi-melta via Vulkan, and then the sternguard's gun will be master crafted for the whole game. Fun times. Why yes I am double tapping you with my special ammunition, and re-rolling a missed to-hit.