Salamander "Fire Base"

[L30n1d4s]

We haven't even seen the Salamander Supplement yet (which is sure to have all kinds of ways to enhance their playstyle) and I can already think of a very solid detachment that can be plugged into any Astartes army as a better than average anti-Tank/Monster "Fire Base:"

 

 

--SPEARHEAD DETACHMENT--

 

-Phobos Captain with "Marksman's Honours" WL Trait

-3 x Rapier Carriers with Laser Destroyer  

-3 x Eliminator Squad with Bolt Sniper Rifles

 

 

With the Salamander Chapter Tactics, all of these models ignore AP-1 on any attacks against them, making them 16% more durable in those situations, and they also can re-roll one to Hit and one to Wound per unit per phase. This means that the Captain and Laser Destroyers, which only get one shot anyway, re-roll all their to hits and to wounds when shooting. Given that the Captain has a Dmg 4 Sniper Rifle and the Laser Destroyers are S12 AP-3 Dmg D6 (with the chance to become Dmg 2D6 or even Dmg 3D6). this gives you some highly accurate, reliably Wounding one shot weapons that can kill multi-wound units, vehicles, and Monsters from a distance while the rest of the army maneuvers to seize Objectives, get into Rapid Fire Range, Charge, etc.

 

As for the Eliminators, between the re-rolls of all 1s to Hit from the Phobos Captain and the ability to "natively" re-roll one to Hit and one to Wound per squad, you can threaten the entire range of characters quite effectively from Turn 1 on. Specifically, if all three squads target the same T3 or T4 character, you should average around 8 hits, around 1 x MW and 7 x AP-3 wounds (if using Devastator Doctrine), and, assuming the character has a 4++ save, 6-7 total Damage inflicted, which is enough to kill the majority of all the T3/T4 characters in the game right now. With the ability to reliably "snipe" an enemy character each turn, you can chip through them all game long and, by mid-game, have your opponent's forces significantly "defanged" with the loss of many of his key buffing units (this is particularly true of all types of Astartes armies, AM, Tau, Necrons, Genestealer Cults, Orks, all the different types of Eldar, and Daemon armies, all of which generally rely heavily on their HQ and Elite Characters).

Edited August 29, 2019 by L30n1d4s

[Xerxus]

Eliminators ignore ap-1 while in cover, thanks to the 1+ save.

[Kallas]

Eliminators ignore ap-1 while in cover, thanks to the 1+ save.

 

Yup. I'd recommend going Successor, instead, with Master Artisans and probably something like Stealthy or Stalwart (as it's likely that Plasma will get pointed at the Eliminators, considering their resilience).

[Are Verlo]

The Salamanders reroll is (and was) incredibly usefull for a lot of choices. The rapiers are prime examples of what kind of weapon profle gets a huge increase in reliability. 

Sicaran venators also springs to mind with their 3 shots.

[Kallas]

The Salamanders reroll is (and was) incredibly usefull for a lot of choices. The rapiers are prime examples of what kind of weapon profle gets a huge increase in reliability.

Sicaran venators also springs to mind with their 3 shots.

And that's what Master Artisans does.