Brand new to HH, starting out Salamanders ZM

[Frostglaive]

I found out there's a group near me that does HH once a month (well, they will again once people can go back to the hobby store...). I'm looking to join in and build a 30k Salamanders army.

 

Wanting to start small, just a 1k list for now for the ZM games they run. Not trying to be competitive or anything, just something that'd be fun to run for my green scaly boys.

 

Any suggestions on where to start?

[N1SB]

Brother, I know where you're coming from, because my friends also used Zone Mortalis as an on-ramp to Horus Heresy.  Going in, even though we were making ZM lists, we kept an eye on the ball for the full-scale Age of Darkness games in the near future.  We didn't want to take anything purely for ZM, we wanted things to scale up into the future.  So what I tell you now is in that vein, this is experience sharing specific to ZM, but they should remain relevant into the future.

 

 

+++ Our Big Takeaway from ZM +++

 

 

The biggest learning from ZM was there's a false impression that ZM was an all-infantry game with no vehicles...but the fact is (unless your meta deliberately house-ruled this otherwise) rules-as-written Dreadnoughts ARE allowed and often DO dominate ZM.

 

Once you realise that Dreadnoughts play a big role in even ZM, then everything kinda falls into place.  Let's say you're actually using Zone Mortalis terrain, either the old big tiles or the much more affordable Newcromunda modular stuff (we ourselves used Space Hulk tiles), a Dreadnought taking up a whole hallway can do whatever he wants (watch out for difficult terrain, there are special rules against Dreads for that).  Even in open terrain, because of the way the HH Legion army lists are set up and the ZM org chart allows you only HQs, Elites and Troops, Heavy Weapons to take down a Dreadnought are in short supply.  Remember, this was all before Guilliman wrote the Codex Astartes that encouraged Tactical Squads that can at least take a Heavy Weapon, so a Legions Troops choice relies solely on a Squad Sergeant with a Power Fist or Melta Bomb.  Then also consider Contemptors are plentiful in HH (and to us now, ever since GW released the plastic kit), to the point they have these budget versions called Cortus Contemptors.  Pretty much everyone in our circle started taking Contemptors or Cortus Contemptors in our lists...but what did we watch out for...what could stop the might of the Contemptors?

 

It turns out, Terminators with Power Fists or better.  Whereas Heavy Weapons are limited, almost all Terminators can take Power Fists.  And in tight quarters it very quickly ends up in melee.  A squad of Terminators get more Attacks in than a Dreadnoughts and those encounters usually favour the Termies.  Add on to that the fact that HH is full of fancy legion-specific Terminators.  But in the same way those big Dreads are countered by Terminators...maybe a smaller unit could counter Termies...like perhaps power armour?

 

It turns out, no, not really, power armour units actually had a very limited role.  Your normal Legion Troops squad are at least scoring units, but under ZM RAW, even Elites can score...so you're better off with Dreads or Termies instead as described above.  Even Breacher squads with their big shields and "hardened" armour that are designed specifically for ZM are of limited use because they lack the offensive melee ability against, say, Dreads and Termies.  In my case, I was Iron Hands during this stage, and I used Medusan Immortals.  With their shields and their Feel No Pain, they held the line...but could never forward past that.  I wished I had went with Gorgon Terminators instead...or more Dreads.  The power armour units that are of use are actually the support ones, like maybe a Techmarine to fix the Dreads or maybe an Apothecary to join the Termies, standing way in the back.  So I'd take only power armoured guys to fulfill the HQ and Troops requirement of the ZM Org Chart, and maybe a Techmarine and/or an Apothecary.

 

 

+++ Recommended Course of Action For Salamanders, Like You (for ZM) +++

 

 

As stated at the start, knowing ZM is just the starting stage for your broader HH games, I'm recommending units that are most useful now that you probably plan on getting for full AoD games anyway:

 

1. Contemptor (perhaps Cortus?) Dreadnoughts - for budget reasons, you might want to consider the standard plastic one, but the Forgeworld Salamanders Contemptor looks awesome.  A cheap and easy way to represent a Cortus Contemptor that my friend used was to buy the GW plastic one and simply leave off the chest plate, so it looks slightly unfinished, because that's what Cortus Contemptors are.

 

2. Firedrake Terminators - your Salamander Termies are pretty cool, I reckon you definitely were planning on those.  Power Fist or Hammers, whichever you plan on using in large games, both are relevant to ZM.

 

3. Minimal power armoured marines - so probably just your mandatory Troops choice, and a cheap HQ to hang out in the back as to avoid giving victory points.  If you have points to spare, a Techmarine or an Apothecary to support the Dreads and Termies.

 

Even within those parameters, plenty, plenty to play with.  Like you notice I didn't mention the HQ much or Rites of War, because that's a very personal narrative choice.  I don't think any of the above requires going out of your way to get them.  I reckon these things are what you want at some point anyway, and my suggestions are just to move their workload order (to buy, build, paint) early on at this ZM stage of your HH experience 

[The Scorpion]

Do not underestimate the breachers. The entire squad can take melta bombs, and the only dreadnought that can take armored ceramite is the Leviathan, who is too CHONK for Zone Mortalis games. Not only that, but they can take special weapons like plasmas or meltas to deal with Terminators and Dreads.

 

Speaking of Rites of War, the best one for ZM is "The Awakening Fire". The Salamanders are very good at close range fighting, but they're slow and bad at melee. Having "fear" can help them if they get locked in combat.

Aditionally, "Unto the Fires" allows you to delay the game for an extra turn.

[No Foes Remain]

The standard box Dreadnought can take armoured ceramite, it can also take a flamestorm cannon which is brutal in ZM.

[The Scorpion]

The standard box Dreadnought can take armoured ceramite, it can also take a flamestorm cannon which is brutal in ZM.

 

True, but the MKIV boxnaught is out of production, which means the modelling difficulties of the Flamestorm cannon will make it a relative rarity. The Castaferrum-pattern dread is also kinda boring outside ZM, people are not bound to have a lot of them in their collections.