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We have our final Tank Shock (summer event that GW did where you focus on having at least one vehicle or monstrous creature) fight coming up at 1,750. Going to be round robin where everyone plays everyone, so should take all day. Been trying to make an all comers list based on fighting a lot of leman russes, light vehicles, maulerfiends, and fast moving Tau/Eldar. Here's what I've got so far, feel free to gimme advice, it's greatly appreciated. I also need to know if everything is legal as I don't have a ton of experience in the game (been playing since 3rd however, this is only the second time I've played Space Marines and I'm still a little confused about army building options in 7th)

HQ
- Vulkan
- Bray'arth Ashmantle

Troops
- Tac Squad with melta, Sergeant with MC Bolter
- Tac Squad with melta, Sergeant with MC Bolter

Elites
- Sternguard Vet Squad with 4x Combi-Melta, Melta, Sergeant with Combi-Melta, MC Power Maul (Fluff reasons), and Drop Pod

Heavy Support
- Relic Leviathan Dread with Cyclonic Melta Lance, Siege Drill and Dreadnought Drop Pod

Necron Allied Detachment (Maynarkh Dynasty)
HQ
- Overlord with Warscythe

Troop
- 14 Gauss Warriors
- Night Scythe

Fast Attack
- 10x Canoptek Scarabs


The idea being that the Leviathan in Dread Drop Pod will come down turn one and try to provide as much cover to the board as possible, so I'm hoping to set up and go second. It comes in with Shroud, anything touching it has shroud (I believe), and anything being shot at over or through it has the shrouded rule (Providing a 3+ cover save as they are firing through a model). The Leviathan itself should be really hard to kill the turn it comes in, it also stays inside the pod for that turn and can also fire as the pod is open topped. This should keep the Leviathan alive (3 extra hull points and shrouded) to come out and wreck havoc the next turn.

Unfortunately the only way I can get Bray'arth into a pod is to buy another dread drop pod which i can't do with points so he'll have to slog it, however he should make it as he's extremely hard to kill having 13 front armor and immunity to any extra dice, lance, entropic strike.

The second drop pod is full of sternguard and vulkan with meltas so they should be able to take out a vehicle the turn they come into play. Lastly, the necron night scythe has a full squad of 14 warriors and the overlord to come in and rapid fire another vehicle. The scarabs are 10 bases strong to scare my tank loving friends and hopefully make them make some mistakes or wrong choices. If they can somehow get into base contact with a vehicle, they should be able to kill it as well.

Hey, can't really speak much with your choice in taking Necron detachment as I don't play them but I've played solely Salamanders for a few years.
I think you should swap the Relic Leviathan Dread for Bray'arth. Bray'arth's range is 12" max (his twin heavy flamer melta shot), so it's going to be a couple of turns before he get's to do anything.
Whereas that melta lance is an 18" heavy 3 so it's the shootier of the two plus the Relic Leviathan Dread has an invulnerable save so he'll be able to survive walking on a bit better.
I'd probably drop the sternguard, they're going to come in, blow their load to pop one tank and then probably not do much the rest of the game.
Invest the 200+ points elsewhere, maybe bring a flamer tac squad and mount up more stuff in drop pods. You really want to bring them in odd numbers because if you even get a third then two pods come on first turn.
Nothing in my Salamander's list is over 24", you want to be up close and personal playing the game within 12" to use all that melta/flamer goodness.
I've only recently got back into 7th ed but you need to look and see any formations.

 spacemarinehero wrote:
Hey, can't really speak much with your choice in taking Necron detachment as I don't play them but I've played solely Salamanders for a few years.
I think you should swap the Relic Leviathan Dread for Bray'arth. Bray'arth's range is 12" max (his twin heavy flamer melta shot), so it's going to be a couple of turns before he get's to do anything.
Whereas that melta lance is an 18" heavy 3 so it's the shootier of the two plus the Relic Leviathan Dread has an invulnerable save so he'll be able to survive walking on a bit better.
I'd probably drop the sternguard, they're going to come in, blow their load to pop one tank and then probably not do much the rest of the game.
Invest the 200+ points elsewhere, maybe bring a flamer tac squad and mount up more stuff in drop pods. You really want to bring them in odd numbers because if you even get a third then two pods come on first turn.
Nothing in my Salamander's list is over 24", you want to be up close and personal playing the game within 12" to use all that melta/flamer goodness.
I've only recently got back into 7th ed but you need to look and see any formations.

Sounds solid enough, just figured Bray'arth would have an easier time getting closer as he's really, really hard to kill. Bray would get 2 shots over two turns while being inside, but the leviathan would get 6, then each would charge. What if I drop the nightscythe, give the lord a Veil (allows him and his unit to deepstrike once per game) and bump the sternguard to a 10 man squad, combat squad them and melta two tanks? Someone pointed out in the other thread that normally you'd need 5 meltas, but with Vulkan, you can get away with 4, so that'd open up a heavy flamer slot also in each combat squad so if I did pop a transport I could also flamer the unit.

I should also mention it wont be ONLY tanks. I expect a lot of nids, and other non tanky stuff. It's just that the format emphasizes them. As far as formations, I've tried the flameblade, and that's what my collection is actually built on. But after a game against eldar with a lynx and 3 falcons plus a 2 squads of fire dragons and a squad of reapers, I figured for this series of games, flameblade detachment wasn't good enough.

Both the dreads are stupidly hard to kill unless you're as bad at rolling dice as me so your opponent is probably going to concentrate on trying to destroy/cripple them.
Another thing you could look at is taking a command squad and giving them all melta's. Definitely cheaper points wise.
I would only take sternguard if you really want the special issue ammo/or heavy flamers.
I'm building a flameblade list at the moment but I've always had a 2:1 melta:flamer ratio.
You could try to move stuff about and make the demi-company but you'd have to drop either one of the dreads or allies which you don't want.
I can imagine that's a hard list to play against.

 spacemarinehero wrote:
Both the dreads are stupidly hard to kill unless you're as bad at rolling dice as me so your opponent is probably going to concentrate on trying to destroy/cripple them.
Another thing you could look at is taking a command squad and giving them all melta's. Definitely cheaper points wise.
I would only take sternguard if you really want the special issue ammo/or heavy flamers.
I'm building a flameblade list at the moment but I've always had a 2:1 melta:flamer ratio.
You could try to move stuff about and make the demi-company but you'd have to drop either one of the dreads or allies which you don't want.
I can imagine that's a hard list to play against.

Thanks for helping, seems the wh40k forums dont get much action lately.

Ive built my collection to match a Flameblade and I tried it first against an eldar 1750 tank shock army. While I did good the round or two that I dropped in via pod, shortly after I got squashed. I did have some bad rolling but made up for it later when I dropped all 6 of his wraithguard due to his bad saves and my sternguard using the poisoned ammo. But basically a friend asked me why I brought anti infantry weapons to a tank battle lol and he had a good point. They were good for killing the jetbikes sure, but even with two squads of combi meltas, 4 devastators with multimeltas, and a land speeder and ironclad, it wasn't enough. I was just too squishy. So for this tank shock battle alone, I dont expect big armies, just big models. But I do like the options of the sternguard just in case I guess? Being able to pod in 10 and combat squad them to kill two tanks could be quite good and then put them on objective control/infantry killing.

As for stupid luck yeah... the other games in this event, I tend to lose my Wraithlord or Avatar first turn because I absolutely suck at armor saves.

*EDIT: I didnt know this, but apparently Legion of the Damned are good with Salamanders. And the fluff fits too, they could be spirits of those killed in the drop site massacre. But slow and purposeful with master crafted multi meltas?

I've only recently got back into playing since 5th Edition but good to know. Not intending to play competitively again yet for a while.
To be fair, a squad of 5 sternguard w/combi-meltas will usually do more damage than a 10 man tac squad.
Just not a fan of them myself, paying 8pts for special ammo, an a sergeant stat line. Mainly use mine as a very nice looking tac squad (fits the Salamander fluff).
Legion of the Damned do go quite nicely as they benefit from Vulkan's special rules but not Salamander's Chapter Tactics.
I've noticed they're a lot cheaper than previous Codexs.
There's a few theories on LotD. They could be marines from Traitor legions whose souls want redemption.
Or the lost Fire Hawks Chapter etc.