So in my endeavors to create a brutal yet fun and functional Drop Pod Salamanders Army I've read and Re-Read the codex and tried to glean as much as possible on how to construct this army in a way that is both Fluffy and Tournament Legal AND effective....
The results are the following:
HQ's:
First I wanted Vulkan, not only for his abilities, but to make it a true Salamander's army.
1 Slot Filled.
The Second slot took a while to fill, but in the end I decided on a Master of the Forge. It's very fluffy and for the build that I decided to go with, Extremely Functional. But what to equip him with? My first thought was to give long range support to the army by giving him a conversion beamer, after about 2 days of thinking on this though i decided that it really would not work for 2 reasons. 1 Why buy him if you're just going to sit him on a bike (not fluffy) or put him with a squad on my side of the board (counter-intuitive to the army build) so i scrapped that idea and tried another - Thunder Hammer and Combi-Flamer. I had almost settled into this idea for the purpose of if i put him with a squad i'd be able to drop 3 twin linked flamer templates on a squad before i charged another squad, but then i'd run into the fact that i'd be wasting the point of the flamers with dropping 3 on a single squad at one time. especially if i'm 6 inches away and the flamer template is only 8 inches long. so i'd be spending 10 points to cover 3 models at most with a template that re-rolls wounds. then it hit me, The master of the forge is Ballistic Skill 5. Let's do a Combi-Melta. it's now twin linked because of Vulkan so I'm hitting on a 2+.... With a Re-Roll. now i had something. along with the fact that now he is able to do VERY much and be quite successful at it. So i can drop 2 templates from the squad..... 1 flamer and the MoF's Flamer, and shoot his Twin Linked Plasma Pistol (yay for 1 dead model) into a squad then charge. while in combat he will always strike at Initiative of 1, but with some work this is not a problem as he has a 2+ save and when i charge i can usually avoid that power weapon in the squad. Now I've dropped (hopefully) 2 guys with him before the charge, I'm in combat and I have 4 S8 attacks. 1 master crafted re-roll to hit. WS 4 so I'll be hitting on 4's against everything but an Avatar or Bloodthirster. Awesome. then that last bit of briliance hit me. I'll be hitting roughly 3 of those attacks per turn, and then i'll be wounding on 2's against almost everything. with a power weapon. one last insurance policy...... Digital Weapons. 10 points gives me that last re-Roll to wound that can make or break a unit.
2 Slots filled.
Elites:
These guys were actually really easy to pick out.
Drop Dreads
I'll take 2. Dreadnought, Multi-Melta, DCCW, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod (Storm Bolter)
Troops:
These were not quite as easy as you may think.
I tried 4 tac squads with Flamer/Multi-Melta. It worked, but only until i found the secret of the Drop Pod (See Prior Post) so then it became a useless upgrade to take the multi-Melta (24" range was sub-par for this) so...... The Missile Launcher solved my problem. yeah 48" range really can help you out with a well placed krak missile or two.
So, 2 Tac Squads with Flamer and Multi-Melta and Power Fist
2 Tac Squads with Flamer and Missile Launcher
Fast Attack:
I've read that the Salamanders use Land Speeders Sparingly, and while this is the one option in my army that may seem "Un-Fluffy" nowhere does it state that they DO NOT use them. so i took 2 with a multi-melta and a heavy flamer each, but to stay true to fluff i did not take them in squadrons.
Heavy Support:
Back to the Master of the forge.....
Drop Dreads again, I'll Take 2. 1 the way above, and one that is slightly different.
Twin Linked Heavy Flamer (it's free from the Multi-Melta) and a Heavy Flamer (twin linked by Vulkan) this lets me do exactly what you'd think... Thin Hordes.
Great fun and an Amazingly well performing army for 1850 Points.
Warhammer commission painting Deathguard 40k
2 weeks ago
Interesting read. I like that you've seen to it to take something other than melta/flamers (a pitfall that many Vulkan users don't escape). While MM's are great, their lack of range can be problematic. Sure, with the pods, you hope to be close, but if you scatter too far, have a mishap, or are just playing against fast moving opponents, you can quickly be removed from the game with short range weaponry.
ReplyDeleteDid you consider using LotD in your army? The reason I ask is because slow and purposeful works well with MMs--since they can fire the turn they drop down. Also, with so many dreads, I wonder if you considered using sternguard (since you can take so many flamers/meltas in that squad).
Lastly (off topic), I'm curious about the blog name. Was delusionsofgranduer.blogspot.com taken already, or is there another reason you spelled it with an "i"?
I actually did think of LotD because of the weapons, but ultimately, the cost of the upgrades is what put me off. I'll likely pick some up anyhow just to do it, and i love the flame backpack, but it's just not for a tournament build.
ReplyDeleteThe name comes from the time I took 2nd place in a spelling Bee because I misspelled Delusion. I've always spelled it Dilusion since.
Thanks for the comments. Not many people come here, but all are welcome.
how do you run dreads in heavy support foc ?
ReplyDelete