Pure Primaris Army Viability

[Brother Scorpirus]

Hello, brothers! I'm fairly new to playing, but have been painting for a while now. I have flip-flopped between which chapter to play, but my first love was the sons of Vulkan for their incredible humanity and willingness to protect those who cannot protect themselves. I come to you today to ask about the viability of a fully primaris Salamander list. Now, I don't plan on going to tournaments, but I am curious if I can create something viable in the meta, and fun above all else. It doesn't have to win every game, but I would rather not get decimated at every turn. 

 

At the moment, I have:

Primaris Librarian

Primaris Captain

Primaris Captain in Gravis

Redemptor Dreadnought

30x Intercessors

5x Hellblasters

3x Inceptors

 

Happy to buy some more stuff, but would like to keep most troops in the primaris range, aside from Dreadnoughts (Because those bastards are amazing, and my favorite unit in the lore).

 

I thank you, fellow brothers, and hope you can enlighten me!

 

[SallyForth]

Drop the inceptors, they are too expensive for what they do. I’ve never had luck with them, but Suppressors are much cheaper and do well in the gunline.

 

If you are playing salamanders, you HAVE to run flamer aggressors. They are nasty once in range with our strats and can be kept alive with cover saves and stratagems.

[Frater Cornelius]

I think that if you want Primaris SL, then a melee mob is what you're looking for. The Agrax Earthshade guy has a wonderfully powerful melee buff, that complements Intercessor units with PF or TH. Include one big unit of Flame Aggressors to act as counter-charge unit and protect it with Self Sacrifice until you're there. Then it is just stacking buffs and marching forward. You may want to use Invictors or, dare I say it?, Impulsors to quicken the process of it.

 

The biggest issue is that operating a foot army that operates close to the enemy without means of speeding it up is an uphill fight. RG can do it, because 2/3 of the army is in your face turn 1. UM work, because they have effective dakka on the move, making melee just a bonus. SL suffer from not having speed. So leverage toughness instead.

[Jacques Corbin]

Ok, on an Ironclad Dreadnought, you can take 2 Heavy Flamers. They are T8 and with 8 wounds, do not degrade. The Assault Launchers are always worth it.

 

Salamanders Eliminators are terrifying with those free rerolls. 3 squads will have your opponent sweating.

 

Have you considered an Impulsor with the 4++ carrying a Librarian and a squad of Reivers? Zoom up, they disembark with Assault Vehicle, hopefully the Reivers can throw a Shock Grenade, but more likely the Librarian will be in range for some psychic powers. Incursors may appear to be a waste of Concealed Positions in place of the Reivers, but they can drop smoke grenades, which means not only to you have to shoot 10 wounds worth of unsaved damage to kill the squad, but the opponent is at -1 to hit that turn. Very resilient screen. Add Fire Shield buff.

 

Aggressors will serve you well, but you will need to invest in a transport for them. Add a Librarian Casting Drake Skin for +1T for T6, and the Fire Shield for -1 to hit. Even Heavy Bolters will need 5+ to wound, and Assault Cannons will need a 4+, and bot will be treated as AP0 because of Chapter Tactics. Autocannons, plasma weapons, and Lascannons will need a 3+ to wound, but with few shots, that -1 to hit will be daunting, and they will NOT want to overcharge that Plasma. Add an (upgraded) Apothecary for a unit that will not die. If your opponent does manage to focus them down, smile and ask him how many points he devoted to bring down a squad just over 200 points.

 

437 points for a Vanguard Detachment consisting of a Primaris Librarian (Master of Fire, Drake Skin and Fire Shield powers), a squad of 6 Flamer Aggressors, a Primaris Ancient, and a Primaris Apothecary. I like it.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Jacques Corbin

[Riddlesworth]

The special doctrine only applies to flamer aggressors and invictor warsuits from a primaris point of view, so including those is a bit of a no brainer - otherwise its pretty pointless playing Salamanders as you can duplicate the re-rolls from the chapter tactics with a successor of any chapter.

 

Depending on points, I'd start building around a core of 3 warsuits, 6 aggressors, Adrax Agatone and a Primaris Librarian with the tome of velcona, fireshield and drakeskin. That's 841 points for 39 T6 wounds and 6d6 S5 AP-2 auto hitting shots pressuring your opponent turn 1, with a T6 beatstick unit advancing behind that the opponent is -1 to hit..

 

Take your obligatory 15 intercessors to unlock a battalion and you're at 1096.

 

Where you go from there is up to you. You could drop 2 aggressors and take a repulsor so you're not relying on footslogging your deathball up the field. Or you fill the rest of your points with dreads - chaplain dread and ashmantle both being great picks if you can get hold of the models. You probably want to load up those dreads with anti tank weapons though to make sure you've got all your bases covered.

[sal of manders]

The special doctrine only applies to flamer aggressors and invictor warsuits from a primaris point of view, so including those is a bit of a no brainer - otherwise its pretty pointless playing Salamanders as you can duplicate the re-rolls from the chapter tactics with a successor of any chapter.

 

don't forget intercessor sergeants can take hand flamers, so they also benefit from promethean cult. 

[Jacques Corbin]

Again, I say Reivers, because while you can get the rerolls elsewhere, the Salamanders rerolls will really help when throwing that shock grenade. You really do not want to miss with that thing.

 

Then you could double down on the overwatch cancel, with a unit or two of Suppressors. Hide them, or drop them in and pop Big Guns Never Tire. They can also help with light vehicles.

[SallyForth]

I have been using an all primaris infantry brigade for the past few months and have had better than fifty percent win rate among my play group. Even the games I lose, are very close and I put a massive beating on my opponent.

 

My core is one six man man aggressor squad and one three man, backed by Adrax, and a chaplain with the +2” to charge litany and the relic Obsidian Aquila for 6+FNP. I have two five man veteran intercessor squads w/assault bolters and thunder hammer flanking them going up the board. Ahead of them is a five man squad of infiltrators. Behind all this is a librarian w/tome of velcona.

 

The strategy is advancing the aggressor core up the board, getting them into shooting range turn 2 and melee range turn 3. I use drakeskin and fire shield on the infiltrators, and pop Self Sacrifice in them, and they tank for the big aggressor squad. They pop smoke for another -1 to hit if I go first. If they drop below five man (the minimum to use SS) I switch to one of the veteran intercessor squads. This is how I keep my slow moving aggressors alive to get close, no transports needed.

 

The rest of the army is 3 eliminator squads, 2 snipers and 1 las fusils. 3 suppressor squads, targeting vehicles all game until they need to deny overwatch for whatever the aggressors are charging turn 3. 2 inceptor squads with assault bolters, ready to drop in from deep strike and kill/grab objectives. With Crucible of Battle giving them +1 to wound, you’ve got 18 ap-2 (in tactical doc) dropping anywhere on the field, hopefully wounding anything on 3s. I’m going to experiment between 2 three man squads and one big 6 man squad, only thing holding me back is it might be hard to get that many dudes into the field turn 2.

Quick add to last post, I also have three five man intercessor squads with stalker bolters to hold back field objectives.