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I have pulled the trigger on the master crafted flamer.

I have ordered bits to fully transform all of Calth and Prospero boxes into a Salamanders 30k army. So what I know I will use of that:
HQs from Calth
30 Tactical marines
10 man flamer squad
Cataphractii Terminators
Tartaros Terminators

Leftovers:
20 tacticals free for conversion to other units. (Heavy Support squads?)
Vanilla Contemptor

Planned future purchases:
Firedrakes 5x
Pyroclasts 5x
Salamander Contemptor
Predator Infernus

So what else? Every 30k army I see seems to have at least one expensive tank/dread. What other units would be needed and/or fluffy?

It looks like you have the core of any 30k force nailed down.

In general, infantry units need transports to get about. Grab a couple of rhinos.
Prepare to face down tanks of all sizes. Grab some heavy weapons and tool up ten of the remaining tacticals as heavy support marines.
If you want to blob up, grab an apothercary, FNP is a saviour.
Proteus land raiders can carry three TL lascannons and five terminators for less than the stock phobos. However, you lose Assault Vehicle. YMMV. The proteus is also pug-ugly.

What RoW are you planning to use, if any? This influences a lot of what you buy and how you play.

I think running a big centrepiece model is a personal preference, if you dont want to, the points can be spent elsewhere quite easily.

I asked a similar question recently about my Wolves and the advice I got was to put Russ with some termies in a spartan. So maybe Vulkan and a spartan to go with the firedrakes? Think this may be the only transport I get though as wolves can get to the enemy pretty quick.

I'm also looking into deredeo pattern dreads for my anti armour and anti air assault needs.

DaemonJellybaby wrote:
It looks like you have the core of any 30k force nailed down.

In general, infantry units need transports to get about. Grab a couple of rhinos.
Prepare to face down tanks of all sizes. Grab some heavy weapons and tool up ten of the remaining tacticals as heavy support marines.
If you want to blob up, grab an apothercary, FNP is a saviour.
Proteus land raiders can carry three TL lascannons and five terminators for less than the stock phobos. However, you lose Assault Vehicle. YMMV. The proteus is also pug-ugly.

What RoW are you planning to use, if any? This influences a lot of what you buy and how you play.

I think running a big centrepiece model is a personal preference, if you dont want to, the points can be spent elsewhere quite easily.

Unfortunately I don't own any of the books yet. So that kinda makes the wishlisting theoretical. I know I will end up with a Land Raider as apparently thats all Pyroclasts can take.

I see tanks like the Sicaran are very popular so I do need some kind of anti-armor. My problem is I love cool more than useful lol. I really want a HS squad of all autocannons becuase I just love those models. I have no idea if that is effective on the table.

I may think about the proteus for my Pyroclasts and a spartan or Phobos for the Drakes.

This is a general response as you haven't stated which Rite of War you will be taking, or the style of game you want to play.

Transports would help you out quite a bit, as you'll need someway to move at least a couple units from point A to point B (usually an objective). You could run the 30K deathstar- Spartan Land Raider, named Terminator squad, and your Primarch (or Preator). All your eggs in one basket, but the upside is that it's very, very good and extremely difficult to counter unless you are running a similar deathstar. Destroyer Squads and Assault Squads are actually very viable in 30K due to their jump packs. Being able to Deep Strike onto an objective is very handy. Stay away from Drop Pods until you know which Rite of War you will be using. Only certain units using a Rite of War can use Drop Pods- they are not an automatic transport for units! You can use the excellent Anvilus Pattern Drop Pod though- but it's a fast attack choice that costs over 100 points. It has some good weapons on it including my favorite- if it flies over an enemy unit, it can do auto hit d5 S5 AP5 shots on that unit.

You are light on anti-tank, which you recognize. Any of the Sicarian tanks are excellent choices to use. Other choices: The Leviathan Dreadnought, the Deredeo Dreadnought, and Vindicators with Laser Destroyers are all very popular choices. There are "outside the box" units for this job, but my experience uses the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. Trying to use Terminators for an anti-armor role is difficult, and hard to use. Or artillery- there is only one "hit" marker on that scatter die, and it's all too easy to miss what you are shooting at. One of the nice things about 30K: You hardly ever see the Suicide Squad in a Drop Pod landing behind your stuff and blowing tanks up. Another route you can take- use a flyer as your Anti-Tank. Either the Lightning or Xiphon will do the job, but they are easily shot down by Mortis Contemptors with Kheres Assault Cannons or Deredeo's with the missile launcher.

I run a 10 model Autocannon Devastator Squad in my lists (Sons of Horus- use The Long March RoW). Mainly they pop light transports (Rhinos), the occasional Dreadnought of whatever flavor, flyers (they mulch them!) and not much else. They are more of a "fun" unit for me because they can move and shoot with the relentless rule while in my deployment zone while using The Long March. They are not a "competitive" unit by any means.

Good luck, and get those Red Books ASAP.

Yeah I don't think I'm going to be able to resist getting a Leviathan. But I want to fight in the close quarters fighting the Salamanders are kind of known to favor. Not hand to hand but close in firefights and flame (with some melta of course).

Also since 8th got rid of templates I would like something that gives me a pie-plate to throw around as well. Was thinking Vindicators or the cool Legion artillery pieces.

I know Rhinos are useful but using them with 10 man squads kind of kills taking advantage of having 10+ man tactical squads available in 30k. I want to feel like 30k, not 40k.

 SickSix wrote:
Yeah I don't think I'm going to be able to resist getting a Leviathan. But I want to fight in the close quarters fighting the Salamanders are kind of known to favor. Not hand to hand but close in firefights and flame (with some melta of course).

Also since 8th got rid of templates I would like something that gives me a pie-plate to throw around as well. Was thinking Vindicators or the cool Legion artillery pieces.

I know Rhinos are useful but using them with 10 man squads kind of kills taking advantage of having 10+ man tactical squads available in 30k. I want to feel like 30k, not 40k.

Which is why I'm going to bump my 3x 10man grey slayers to 2x 15 and eventually get another box of mk4 and some more wolf bits to boost my 5man support squads and heavy support squad to about 7-8 each. Would rather spend points on big foot slogging infantry and transports for my termies and Russ

Things that you can never go wrong with really -

A Spartan, A-Grade primarch bus or any unit over 10 models (The only other options are a Kharybdis or Assault ram)

Sicirans (Either battle tank or Venator) - Venator is better at dealing with armor (Probably the best anti tank gun in the game)

Leviathan - Just general bad ass. Hard to kill, very scary and a ton of good weapon options

Though in all honesty all the options in HH are solid apart from a select few (Destroyer squads, anyone?)

Here's my 2 pennies.

Rhino's are good for any occasion. You may not want to use them for Tacticals, but they are still great for Veteran squads and Support squads full of plasma/melta/flamer goodness. Remember, squads like those probably won't be used for sitting on objectives, so they need a ride.

Spartans are ALWAYS a good choice for any army. You can't go wrong grabbing one of these beasties.

A Land Raider or two never hurts. It's the only option Pyroclasts have, and can be useful for Terminators as well.

If you are looking for an awesome Dreadnought, there is always Cassian Dracos. He is a special Salamander dread that is an HQ unit as well. He is the ONLY dreadnought in game with a front armor of 14! Also, he's a monster in CC, loves to burn things with fire, and is immune to the Lance, Melta, Armorbane and Sumder rules. As well as being immune to any effect that lets you roll more than one dice for armor penetration. Basically, he's a total beast!