Need Help with New Competitive Environment

[AnImA8]

Hey all! I'm a long-time 40K player who has been out of the game for the past 4 years and recently moved to a new area where I'm hoping to start my first Salamanders army. I've played a few different test lists and so far I'm having a blast with the Sallies. My problem is that the area I've moved to seems to be dominated by Xenos (Eldar and Necrons specifically), and I'm more accustomed to playing against Chaos and other marine variants. What's more, this area is purportedly very competitive, so I anticipate more WAAC players than where I last played. Do you have any recommendations for weapons or tactics to bring to bear against those pesky Xenos? Or even how to deal with units of theirs that WAAC players tend to bring en masse (I've heard Dark Reapers are the bee's knees now-a-days)?

To give you an idea of what I've got I bought the SM starter box, so I'm looking at a Terminator Captain, 10 Tacticals, a Dreadnought and a Razorback to build out from. Thanks for your help ahead of time!

[N1SB]

Thx for asking.

 

I can't speak for all Xenos, nor all WAAC players, but a combo I saw that was very effective against Necrons was:

 

A full squad of Hellblasters, the new Primaris Marines Heavy Support with those fancy plasma guns

+ Captain, for the re-rolls on 1s, very useful when Supercharging plasma thingies

+ Company Ancient, with that banner that gives dying Marines a chance to make a final parting shot

+ Space Marine banner relic that increases the chance to score that extra parting shot

 

The idea is as these Hellblasters die, they have a good chance to score that parting shot, which will be Supercharged; since they're dying anyway, they really don't worry about it overheating.  I thought of this because our local Warhammer Store manager actually uses this combo with his custom Primaris Chapter, and for Chapter Tactics, he chose what he thought worked best with that combo: Salamanders.  Very effective against all things, but happened to watch him melt some Necron armies in succession.

[Aothaine]

It all depends on how competitive they are and how competitive you want to be. 

 

If you want to go crazy you could grab two relic Levi Dreadnoughts with double storm cannon arrays with two of the smaller mortis dreads with a smattering of Intercessors and scouts with heavy bolters. We also have a tips and tactics thread on this forum that may help you out.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/346451-salamanders-tips-and-tactics/

[AnImA8]

Thank you for the help guys!

 

@N1SB that combo does sound pretty gnarly! I’ll have to give it a shot! I was trying to stay away from Primaris, but i imagine I’ll give in eventually lol.

 

@Aothaine it’s funny that you mention the Mortis dread because I’ve been drooling over the prospects of a 2x missile launcher + cyclone Mortis dreadnought—it just has a cool mech warrior feel to it lol.

 

I apologize if this thread seemed redundant with the other tips/tactics thread but I was looking for more specifics on play: units to prioritize, units to be weary of, Etc... and i didnt want to derail the other thread at the time.

[Aothaine]

You're good ^_^ Don't ever be sorry for asking questions.

 

Against Eldar: Depening on how competitive they are going you are either going to have a hard time hitting or a really hard time hitting them. You're best bet here is to have a moving firebase and load the board with scouts and Intercessors(if you can). Otherwise Scouts and Tactical Marines. Get Heavy Bolters on the scout squads and just leave the Tacticals with bolters. The goal here is just to have as much Obsec fire-power you can field. Then take some fast attack choices. I recommend Land Speeders with Heavy Flamers. Then for your anti-tank take three squads of Devastators (10-man) with a cherub and four lascannons. Depending on your points you might have enough for an anti-air fighter or maybe two. 

 

Against Necrons: Focus on killing units. Do not worry about overkill. It is very important to kill the unit when you're playing against Necrons or you might just see that unit pop back up to full strength on their turn. Most competitive Necron lists are going to have their mobility split. They will have three troops of Necron warriors, a few swarms and then the destroyer wing with a few other parts of nasty. Snipe characters when you can but you want the destroyers and wraiths out of the fight asap. Wraiths are very difficult to kill. Just be ready to spend almost an entire turn's worth of shooting to take them out and even then you might need to finish them off in melee. 

 

Hope that helps a little bit.