[HH1.0] Salamanders Tactics

[ElectricPaladin]

 

New Generic ROWs

• rite making jetbikes troops, all units must be skimmers, jetbike or flyers  (no Deep Strike makes this a forgettable choice)
• rite allowing assault squads to deep strike turn 1, on the turn they arrive, they can only be snap fired at, and gain hit and run from turn 2 onwards, all units in the army must be able to deep strike or be transported in flyers (no Deep Strike = can't use this ROW)

Hold on, I think I missed something; what's this about no DS ?

 

Oops! I forgot - that's a quality of the rite of war, not a quality of the legion. Let me go back and change it - especially now that we have a second legion-specific RoW option.

[1ncarnadine]

Still reading through Book VI and trying to get a grasp on everything, but something I noticed...

 

Cassian Dracos Reborn has Legiones Astartes (Salamanders). A Dreadnought has LA rules. Is this a portent of the future? I'm not even sure what it implies rules-wise, haven't looked into it much, but it's interesting.

 

He also has Cybertheurgy and a unique power that can steal the guns on enemy automata for a round of shooting.

[ThatOneMarshal]

Shouldn't this be in the tactics section?

 

I think the new legion ROW is kinda wierd. Fear is a rule that's lovely to have when it works however maybe it's because I haven't managed to play a game yet but I haven't found so useful that it's a lynchpin. I'm not sure if the salamanders basic rules were changed at all though.

[Caillum]

 

New Generic ROWs

• rite making jetbikes troops, all units must be skimmers, jetbike or flyers (no Deep Strike makes this a forgettable choice)
• rite allowing assault squads to deep strike turn 1, on the turn they arrive, they can only be snap fired at, and gain hit and run from turn 2 onwards, all units in the army must be able to deep strike or be transported in flyers (no Deep Strike = can't use this ROW)

Hold on, I think I missed something; what's this about no DS ?

I think ElectricPaladin is getting the Sallies Legion traits mixed up with "Covenant of Fire" restrictions. The Jetbike Rite of War would be awesome for them - mass S6 heavy flamers!

[God-Potato of Mankind]

I am starting to think the Fear RoW is good by default, it has no restrictions so if you're not running CoF just enjoy having Fear for whenever it's useful.

 

I'm just gonna apply it to my Xenocide Cadre force.

[Caillum]

For all us Salamanders fans, I collated a bunch of info about the Salamanders/Iron Warriors bro-team in one of the Book VI campaigns. Pretty much guaranteed to be my next project, as I have Cassian Dracos, Nârik Dreygur and the old Chaplain Xavier model to use as Xiaphas Jurr. Warning - some minor spoilers ahead...

 

Campaign "Upon the Anvil of War"

The Salamanders send the cruiser Ebon Drake back to Isstvan V to search for their fallen Primarch, under the command of Chaplain Xiaphas Jurr. Upon reaching Isstvan V they do not find Vulkan, but instead find the sarcophagus of Cassian Dracos buried under the surface, inside which Dracos is still alive. Upon bringing Dracos back to the Ebon Drake, he becomes the de-facto commander of the ship, and rather than return directly to Nocturne instead commanded that they make their way to the Forge World of Mezoa.

  Meanwhile Autilon Skorr of the Alpha Legion has been tasked with the conquest of Mezoa. Nârik Dreygur, Commander of the Iron Warriors 114th Grand Battalion, and under the command of Skorr, begins a ground assault on the forces stationed there...

 

Cassian Dracos Reborn: The Dragon Revenant, the Twice-Dead, Avatar of the Sacred Flame

• Originally Cassian Vaughn, Chapter Master of the XVIII Legion before Vulkan was found. He was interred in a specially-crafted Castraferrum Dreadnought by Vulkan, but fell at Isstvan V. He is recovered by Xiaphas Jurr, who had visions that someone was buried alive there, and thought it might be their Primarch.
• He has all his previous rules, and exactly the same side and rear armour, despite what you may have heard. Gains 4 Cybertheurgy powers (at Ld7) - Rite of Celerity, Rite of Eternity, Rite of Fury and a unique Rite of Rededication which allows him to possess enemy automata and shoot with them if he wins a roll-off.
• He can still be the selected as the Warlord if there is no other HQs in the army, and has the Bloody-handed Warlord Trait (you can, however, take Nârik Dreygur and Xiaphas Jurr, as they must defer to him). He also has Legiones Astartes (Salamanders) now, and gets all this for +4 melta bombs over his old price.

 

Xiaphas Jurr: Initiate of the Igniax, Son of Proximal, the Prophet of Fire

• Chaplain of the Salamanders, remained behind on Nocturne when Vulkan left for Isstvan. Sent on the cruiser Ebon Drake by Lord Chaplain Nomus Rhy'tan, Keeper of the Keys, to investigate the Primarch's disappearance post-Isstvan.
• In-game he's a Ld10 Chaplain who is a Repressed Psyker (like Sevatar), with the Prescience and Precognition powers. Comes equipped with AA, a MC power maul, an "iron halo" that burns models in base contact when he makes an invulnerable save, and a Dragonscale storm shield (for that sweet 2+/3++).
• He costs 2 melta bombs more than Saul Tarvitz.

 

Nârik Dreygur: The Gravewalker, once Consul-Praevian of the Iron Warriors, the Revenant's Pawn

• Iron Warriors event character. He may be used as a Traitor in an Iron Warriors army, or as a Loyalist in a Salamanders army, as he survives an Alpha Legion assassination/abandonment on Mezoa and joins them, taking his Battle-automata with him.
• If you have a Salamanders army with Cassian Dracos Reborn or Xiaphas Jurr as the Warlord, he can be included, retaining his Legiones Astartes (Iron Warriors) status. As long as he is within 12" of Dracos, he also gains the Rage and Zealot rules - very nice having re-rolls on a squad of Castellax or Vorax! Finally, he can bring a unit of Veteran Tactical Marines that have Legiones Astartes (Iron Warriors), and they don't use up a force org slot. As a side-effect, the Vets and Dreygur counts as Desperate Allies to all but Dracos and Jurr.

 

So what does this all cost you, apart from the points cost of all 3 HQs (including Nârik's automata), the IW Veterans and your compulsory Troops? Well... you cannot run a Rite of War - neither Cassian Dracos nor Xiaphas Jurr is a Master of the Legion. This isn't such a big deal though, as "The Covenant of Fire" has some serious restrictions, and "The Awakening Fire" is still being figured out. Plenty of lists don't run Rites or War, so I'm sure this will be easy enough to work around.

 

What could be worth looking at is the Onslaught and Castellan Force Org Charts. Both have only 2 HQ slots, so if you drop Xiaphas Jurr, then you will have some interesting flexibility there:

- Onslaught only requires 1 Troops & 1 Heavy Support choice, and has 2 Lords of War slots available! No Allies though.

- Castellan has Allies available, as well as 4 Fortification slots, but requires 3 Troops & 1 Fortification.

 

What do people think? Going to work up a list tonight and see what I can come up with!

[God-Potato of Mankind]

Thanks for the write up. 

 

I think we're not really that blessed with the new rules. They're nice to have more options, but none of them seem that amazing compared to what other legions got. 

[caladancid]

Thanks for posting that! Seems really interesting, though I have no clue how to make that into a decent list.  Using Iron Warriors would be great though, and a fun way to put some cyborgs in a list.

[ElectricPaladin]

This is really interesting... I like the idea of kit-bashing together my own Gravewalker to use alongside Jurr or Dracos. It will give me an opportunity to paint up some Iron Warriors and use them with my loyal Salamanders!

[God-Potato of Mankind]

Good day fraters,

 

In efforts to renew love for the burniest of Legions, I've been wanting to combine the joy of our Legion Uniques - Pyroclasts and Firedrakes.

 

How would you guys combined these guys? Would you even try? At 160pts Pyroclasts are only 10pts more than a tactical squad and so seem quite good value when combined with artificer armour & melta/plas invulns. Firedrakes are.. well we all know they're sexy as heck. Would it ever be worth running them sans TH/SS? A squad of regular Terminators kitted identically is 100pts less, but if you give the Drakes a compliment of "standard" wargear (combibolters/combiguns and a few chainfists) the gap lessens.

 

I then wanted to combine these units with Covenant. It clearly favours armoured assaults with melta-guns, so delivering FIredrakes or Terminators with combi-meltas seems promising. I still want to roll deep with Pyros, because if I sat them on the objective they would be hard to dislodge, supported by heavy fire from something scary and another assault unit to charge enemies (Firedrakes/Terminators).

 

Thinking Spartan with Firedrakes and swarms of Land Raiders with Pyros. I also thought about adding a Techmarine to the Pyroraiders for Rad grenades or repairing HPs?  Then a Typhon to nope things. It's just with a 300pt tactical tax it becomes tricky :(

 

What would you guys run?

 

Additionally I think the Primarchs Chosen RoW would be really good for Salamanders. I struggle to see how Vulkan is effective beyond being placed in a Spartan (instant fire magnet) or deep striked (no CoF then). He just seems infleixble compared to the beatstick utility of Angron to me. If used with Primarchs Chosen, he can roll in with triple Spartans loaded with Firedrakes. Perhaps add in a Deredeo or two for AA?

[amazarak]

*edit* my bad

Edited February 23, 2016 by amazarak

[Caillum]

^ Was wondering what you were on about! ;)

[amazarak]

Haha yeah, I lost my mind for a sec there. Great write up though Caillum, much appreciated!

[God-Potato of Mankind]

So now I realise I'm an idiot, and that only flyers have to start in reserve. 

 

So it makes me think Javelin attack speeders would suit sallies down to the ground. Not using their outflank might not be the best use, but the weapon options seem to outweigh that negative and outflank seems a bit random too. 

 

Multi-melta pintle - Master-crafted with CoF

AV values - gets a 5+ invuln to plasma/melta etc with CoF

 

Good compensation against the slow moving nature of the Legion to boot. 

 

Thoughts?

[Charlo]

Sounds really strong!

[God-Potato of Mankind]

Alright so with the Titan competition I'm finally settling on my Salamanders core of 2x Achilles Alpha Raiders filled with 6 Pyroclasts.

 

So I've tweaked my previous list to replace bikes with speeders, because my bikes went to the Angron's lot

 

List 2.5k

 

HQ

Delegatus - Artificer, Shield, MC Pfist, Refractor, Covenant of Fire

 

Troops

2x 10 Tacticals - Sargeants with Artificer, Vexillas, Rhino with Heavy Flamer

 

2x 5 Pyroclasts - Warden with MC Projector, Pfist. Melta Bombs squadwide

 

FA

3x Javelin Speeders - Multi-melta and 2x HKs apiece

 

HS

2x Achilles Alpha - with Multi-Meltas for that sweet, sweet MC rerolls.

1x Deredeo - Autocannons & Aiolos

 

LoW

1x Typhon - Armoured Ceramites

 

 

How would you guys enhance this to 3k? Maybe drop the Typhon and replace him with a Vulkan/Firedrake combo?

 

It seems both fluffy and tanky, lots of strong high AV tanks and firepower is adequate with the Nopehammer and 12 Pyroclasts. I think.

[caladancid]

I am assuming you would want to put Vulkan in a Spartan? I like that list, with the exception of the Javelins and that is just because I don't use speeders at all. I am newly infatuated with Scimitars, any thoughts about using those?

 

My personal feelings on raiders are that they should be taken when available as dedicated transports and not as heavy choices (just because we have so many choices in HS). But I do think that list will do well against lots of different armies.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Scimitars in a small 3 man squad have access to a MM and 3 MB's. When MC'd it can help snipe light-medium tanks who risk not running AC to avoid overspend when they are still taking a S8 AP1 shot regardless of melta, and as a T5 2+ Save 4+ Jink unit they are uite resilient and often soak up a massive amount of firepower considering their otherwise low threat. Late game they can turbo boost deny which is brilliant if you get to go second and face 2 less shooting phases and get an unanswered movement.

[1ncarnadine]

Scimitars in a small 3 man squad have access to a MM and 3 MB's. When MC'd it can help snipe light-medium tanks who risk not running AC to avoid overspend when they are still taking a S8 AP1 shot regardless of melta, and as a T5 2+ Save 4+ Jink unit they are uite resilient and often soak up a massive amount of firepower considering their otherwise low threat. Late game they can turbo boost deny which is brilliant if you get to go second and face 2 less shooting phases and get an unanswered movement.

 

+ you can replace the heavy bolters on the jetbikes with S6 heavy flamers, so there's that

[Hesh Kadesh]

That too. I'm nit entirely sure if it's worth it. A Pair of Heavy Flamers can't do much against a tank, though. Heavy Bolters can't either, but it can increase their place in the opponents threat matrix (and often artificially) which could lead to your opponent making more of an effort to kill them, which harms their late game objective grabbing potential.

[Charlo]

Vulkan in a Dreadclaw would be pretty insane. Even if it's wrecked he'll take one wound tops that could then be regenerated.

 

The only thing that's going to put the hurt on him is lascannons, massed autocannons and.... Well maybe a few ad Mech guns and Phosphex. But none of these are often in abundance.

 

Drop him in front of an enemy plasma team and laugh maniacally as his laser destroys most of them before he hammers the rest and they can't hurt him back.

 

Props to Hesh for the Primarch in a Pod concept.

 

Its just a major shame you can't run this in Covenant or the new RoW.

[God-Potato of Mankind]

Vulkan in a Dreadclaw would be pretty insane. Even if it's wrecked he'll take one wound tops that could then be regenerated.

 

The only thing that's going to put the hurt on him is lascannons, massed autocannons and.... Well maybe a few ad Mech guns and Phosphex. But none of these are often in abundance.

 

Drop him in front of an enemy plasma team and laugh maniacally as his laser destroys most of them before he hammers the rest and they can't hurt him back.

 

Props to Hesh for the Primarch in a Pod concept.

 

Its just a major shame you can't run this in Covenant or the new RoW.

 

Primarchs? In my Drop Pods?

 

It's more common than you think.

 

*trundles to FW to buy a Dreadclaw*

 

*weeps*

[Carlson793]

Vulkan in a Dreadclaw would be pretty insane. Even if it's wrecked he'll take one wound tops that could then be regenerated.

<snip>

Props to Hesh for the Primarch in a Pod concept.

 

Its just a major shame you can't run this in Covenant or the new RoW.

Great... Now I've got the image in my head. The XVIIIth are in the middle of battle, smashing faces and torching things. Meanwhile, Vulkan sits alone in a drop pod, on its way to the planet surface, hands feathered together, maybe occasionally checking his weapons or thumbing through a magazine, while a muzak version of "Girl From Ipanema" plays through the speakers...

[God-Potato of Mankind]

 

Vulkan in a Dreadclaw would be pretty insane. Even if it's wrecked he'll take one wound tops that could then be regenerated.

<snip>

Props to Hesh for the Primarch in a Pod concept.

 

Its just a major shame you can't run this in Covenant or the new RoW.

Great... Now I've got the image in my head. The XVIIIth are in the middle of battle, smashing faces and torching things. Meanwhile, Vulkan sits alone in a drop pod, on its way to the planet surface, hands feathered together, maybe occasionally checking his weapons or thumbing through a magazine, while a muzak version of "Girl From Ipanema" plays through the speakers...

 

 

It seems to be quite the rave for Primarchs during the Great Crusade.

 

Chilling in the drop craft, watching Netflix and waiting for the most dramatic moment to arrive.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Netflix and Kill.