Salamanders Tips and Tactics

[Aothaine]

Hey everyone! So I've finally decided on Salamanders as my primary Space Marine chapter. Going to be building a guide of cool little tips and tactics that I find out while playing my Salamanders or just theory-crafting. If you have anything you want to add please feel free and I'll edit this first post so it has easy access for new recruits.

 

 

 

Hellfire Shells: While every Space Marine chapter can use the stratagem Hellfire Shells, Salamanders have an edge. We get to re-roll the attack roll greatly increasing the change to deal D3 mortal wounds.

- Use this with 5-man Scout squads with a Heavy Bolter. They are 65 points, hold objectives, can get in some cheeky wounds, and now can drop D3 mortal wounds on a target of your choice. 

 

Vulkan He'Stan: This character allows you to reroll hit and wound rolls for melta and flamer type weapons. This can be used to great effect with several units. One good unit is Aggressors with Flamestorm Gauntlets. Aggressors can be a little expensive, can only be transported in the Repulsor, but have a horrendous number of shots. (4d6 flamer attacks per model if they stay still.)

- One way to use this combo is below:

 

Spearhead Detatchment - 891 (PL 46)

 

[HQ] Vulkan He'Stan - 154 (PL 8)

 

[HQ] Primaris Chaplain - 85 (PL 6)

- Crozius Arcanum, Absolvor Bolt Pistol

 

[E] Primaris Apothecary - 68 (PL 4)

- Absolvor Bolt Pistol, Reductor Pistol

 

[E] Primaris Apothecary - 68 (PL 4)

- Absolvor Bolt Pistol, Reductor Pistol

 

[E] Aggressor Squad (6-man) - 258 (PL 12)

- Flamestorm Gauntlets x6, Fragstorm grenade Launcher x6

 

[E] Aggressor Squad (6-man) - 258 (PL 12)

- Flamestorm Gauntlets x6, Fragstorm grenade Launcher x6

 

 

 

Anyway, if I was going to run this unit I would run it similar to this. I would march them up the board. Each squad has an apothecary to help heal bring back models. You will advance every turn because the negative to hit will not matter since you auto hit with all 24d6 potential auto hits from just the aggressors alone. Now you will need other stuff in the list to provide threats. But this detachment is very scary. Enjoy!

 

Eggs in a Basket: The idea behind this is you put a bunch of characters in a rhino with a small contingent of Honor Guard. By doing this you can spread the chapter tactic to re-roll 1 dice over 5 units allowing this grouping to have 5 re-rolls

-3x Honor Guard
- Chapter Champion
- Chapter Ancient
- Chaplain or Captain
- Lieutenant or Apothecary

 

Flash Fire: Using a squad of land speeders to help clear chaff with the use of the Flamecraft stratagem. 

 

Land Speeder Squadron (3 Speeders) - Heavy Bolter & Heavy Flamer x3

 

They shouldn't appear as too much of a threat so if you don't go first they should be able to move 20" with the up-wash and get right into range to use Their Heavy Flamers causing 3d6 auto hitting S5 D1 +1 to wound hits. Not too bad imho. They also have the 3 Heavy Bolters that they can shoot at an enemy unit.

 

These things are great keeping at keeping your opponent from moving out of their deployment zone while you move out and start to entrench yourself around objectives. The unit itself is pretty expensive, but each model has 6 wounds and T5 with the normal 3+ save. I think they are better than most people give them credit for though.

[Indefragable]

One my perpetual frenemies in my meta plays mean Salamanders. He "cheats" with the number of re-rolls he can get with the Sallie Chapter Tactic.

 

Don't forget that the rule specifically says "whenever" the unit shoots/fights...so Overwatch, Auspex Scan, etc... all count.

 

I think the Salamanders in 8th are a great endurance army: your buffs remain and remain just as viable in T5 when so many units and HQ's are dead as in T1.

[Aothaine]

One my perpetual frenemies in my meta plays mean Salamanders. He "cheats" with the number of re-rolls he can get with the Sallie Chapter Tactic.

 

Don't forget that the rule specifically says "whenever" the unit shoots/fights...so Overwatch, Auspex Scan, etc... all count.

 

I think the Salamanders in 8th are a great endurance army: your buffs remain and remain just as viable in T5 when so many units and HQ's are dead as in T1.

 

For sure! And it is reroll any die you want. Free CPs. ^_^

[Slan Drakkos]

Primaris aggressors with dual flamestorm gauntlets are absolutely nasty when played with Vulkan He'stan.

[Claws and Effect]

Saw someone that leveraged the Salamander rerolls by running a butt ton of 2-man Company Vets squads.

 

For the same cost of a 10 man Sternguard squad, you get 5 squads (each with a free Sgt) that each get to reroll a failed hit or wound every phase. And as a bonus, they can eat wounds for any character within 3".

[Panzer]

Yeah that's the ultimate MSU to take advantage of the chapter tactic. I do kinda the same with my T'au with the Sa'cea Sept Tenet and Rail Rifle Pathfinder teams (tho I already used them before so it's legitly my army lol).

It's a great idea until you play a match with something like killpoints. ^^

[Aothaine]

Saw someone that leveraged the Salamander rerolls by running a butt ton of 2-man Company Vets squads.

 

For the same cost of a 10 man Sternguard squad, you get 5 squads (each with a free Sgt) that each get to reroll a failed hit or wound every phase. And as a bonus, they can eat wounds for any character within 3".

 

I'll add this to the first post by this weekend. Great idea!

[UnkyHamHam]

Saw someone that leveraged the Salamander rerolls by running a butt ton of 2-man Company Vets squads.

 

For the same cost of a 10 man Sternguard squad, you get 5 squads (each with a free Sgt) that each get to reroll a failed hit or wound every phase. And as a bonus, they can eat wounds for any character within 3".

Kind of sucks that the "Rule of 3" limits this now. It is a cool idea tho. Another similar version could be an assault element in a Rhino made up of

 

-3x Honor Guard

- Chapter Champion

- Chapter Ancient

- Chaplain or Captain

- Lieutenant or Apothecary

 

Lots of free rerolls there.

[Aothaine]

Yup yup! I'll get this added as soon as possible. I was super busy last weekend.

[Shu2jack]

I've with the idea of Land Speeders decked out with heavy flamers. Worth the points, even with the flamecraft strategm?

[AnImA8]

What do y’all think of Bray’Arth Ashmantle? At first I thought he was WAY overpriced, but then I started to put together just how tough he is and just how much damage he can actually do. He can maul Knights in CC (not gonna say he can win 1 on 1, but with a couple of lascannons put into it first, he can definitely come out on top). He can’t really be bogged down by gribblies. More and more, I want to drop him with a Lucius Pattern Drop Pod and use him as the hammer to a sizeable anvil. Does anyone on here have actual play experience with him?

[Medicinal Carrots]

Small Company Vet squads are awesome. They're the most point efficient way to take advantage of the Chapter Tactics for special weapons. The rule of 3 nerfs them some, but they're still pretty good. Prior to that, 5x 2 man squads with meltas, a storm shield, and drop pod were more point efficient than Plasma Tempestus vs almost all targets (even including the shield and pod costs). I haven't run the math since the rules changes, but 3x 3 man melta squads + melta Lt in a pod still make for an effective mini-nuke and make up a Vanguard detachment all on their own.

 

Our special characters, like most chapters, can be fun but aren't all that competitive. You're better off just taking more dudes with guns (and an Lt.) than He'stan. Ashmantle wrecks face and is tough to kill, but he's slow, short range, and eats a ton of points. Harath Shen is probably the best of the bunch when it comes to effectiveness. His gear wants him in close supporting something choppy or short range, and he'll keep a tough squad going even longer. For HQ in general, I like to keep mine fairly bare bones supports so I can spend more on dudes. Lieutenants are top dog, Captains are good to back up an Lt or for plasma, and a Techmarine (particularly with conversion beamer) can babysit the parking lot.

 

Like Hellfire Shells, our CT works well with the Flakk stratagem. With so many units having Fly these days, it's worth tossing in at least one Missile Launcher somewhere in just about any list.

 

Devastators are also particularly nice. Cherubs give another shot (so another CT re-roll) and can be used to get a second shot with Hellfire or Flakk (per the Codex FAQ). I tend to prefer 2 squads with 2-3 weapons over a single squad with 4.

 

Shooty dreads are another one of my go-tos. I'm partial to Venerables with the lascannon and autocannon setup, but the same setup works for regular dreads too if you want to shave points.

 

And for allies, I like taking a Guard Command Point monkey detachment. Make a Company Commander warlord with Grand Strategist and give him Kurov's Aquila, then throw out stratagems like candy. Either a Battalion for a few cheap bodies to max the CPs and/or let you focus points on the juicy Marine elites and heavies, or a Spearhead with mortar squads to keep them cheap and throw out some harassing fire from a safe spot. Since you statistically get +50% of your CPs and up to 50% of your opponent's, you can easily use 17+ Command Points a game.

[General Strike]

I'm thinking about how to best use our stratagem. I'm currently working on a Sentinels of the Forge army, and I want to build a very focused list at first to make sure I actually finish it. I was thinking something like:

 

Vulkan

Lt

 

4x Scout Squads

 

3x 5 man Aggressor squads with Flame gauntlets

 

3x Repulsors, 2 with las and one cheap.

 

That's like 1950, I could drop a scout squad for a ride for Vulkan.

 

What do you guys think, Oh, and the reason I chose Aggressors is that I want to focus on Primaris at first, then expand purely into Spellcrow bits and Mk3 plastics.

 

Mathammer says that a 5 man aggressor squad within 6" of Vulkan that stood still and used the stratagem can kill 19 MEQ on average.