Dusting off my Salamanders - Drop Pod Assault list

[Souffle Girl]

Hi!

So, after playing mostly Warmachine for a couple of years, I'm in the mood for getting my Salamander chapter back on the table. I don't know much about the current meta, so I went with a pretty standard Imperial hammer-and-anvil list, consisting of:

Primary Detatchment: Combined Arms. Salamander Space Marines.

HQ:
Vulkan He'stan

Elites:
6 men Sternguard Squad w/5 combi-melta, drop pod.

Troops:
6 men Tactical Squad w/flamer, combi-flamer, drop pod.
6 men Tactical Squad w/flamer, combi-flamer, drop pod.
6 men Tactical Squad w/melta, combi-melta, drop pod.

Fast Attack:
6 men Assault Squad w/2 flamers, drop pod w/locator beacon.

Heavy Support:
Thunderfire Cannon

Allied Detatchment. Imperial Guard (yes, I know that's not their name anymore, but you'll catch me dead before I call them Astra Militarum)

HQ:
Company Command Squad w/4 plasma guns, Master of the Fleet, Chimera w/multi-laser, heavy flamer.
- Commissar w/bolt pistol, ccw, attached to Infantry Squad #1

Troops:
Infantry Platoon
- Platoon Command Squad w/3 plasma guns.
- Infantry Squad w/Lascannon.
- Infantry Squad w/Lascannon.
- Infantry Squad w/Lascannon.

Fast Attack:
Vendetta Gunship w/3 TL Lascannons.

Heavy Support:
Wyvern w/Heavy Bolter.

General tactics:

As I said, hammer and anvil. The Astartes drop in on turn 1 and start torching stuff. Specifically, the Sternguard drops in to kill the opponent's highest value hard target - heavy armor, monstrous creatures and the likes. Assault Squad should drop in on turn 1 to get more mileage out of their flamers. Third DP carries either a flamer or melta Tactical, as needed. Pray the Emperor they kill what they need to kill or you're doomed.
At the same time, the IG platoon, Vendetta, and arty provide support from your deploy zone.

If you do this right, your opponent is caught in between a Stubborn IG platoon and three special weapons equipped teams, with the chance of a couple of their teams having been crippled or wiped out on turn 1.

Plasma gunners are my hard counters to heavy infantry, especially termies and/or GKs.
I have troubles, however, deciding where I should deploy Vulkan. If he's with the Guardsmen, he can deter a charge, but that makes my backstabbing Space Marines even more of a target.

Pros:
Aggressive list that puts your opponent on the defensive from turn one.
Lots of concentrated close range firepower.

Cons:
Lack of dedicated close combat units (drooling on a Honor Guard converted from FW Pyroclasts), or at least another dedicated melee character.
DP units are vulnerable -> Consider swapping the Sternguard with an Ironclad? Less killy, tougher.
Vendetta provides barely enough AA capabilities.
Tau gunlines make me cry.

[Alaric]

Nice list. Got a bit of everything. Here are some things I have to say aboot it, I have many points of Salamanders and play them alot.

How will you deal with knights?

How will you deal with psykers?

I would add some grav if possible.

An Ironclad in a dreadnought drop pod cannot be ignored and is simply a beast to deal with. Highly recommend. 6 attacks on the charge, hur Hur Hur, and it can sit inside the pod, shoot out and Assault anything dumb enough to stick around.

Id put Vulkan with the sternguard and make someone else the warlord, then with the Ironclad you can have a really good alpha strike.

Just my thoughts, you have a good handle on this so I bet you could play as is and do well unless you play a power gamer of some sort, then you really get to see how good yer list is ;)

[Souffle Girl]

All of them are good questions...


How will you deal with knights?

Focused melta and lascannon fire should do the trick. If things get ugly, a charging Ironclad with chainfist.


How will you deal with psykers?

Good question. I'd take a Librarian, but I don't have the point for it, unless I take it bare, and we all know how bad an idea it is. And a level 2, termy librarian with storm shield starts to get pricy.


I would add some grav if possible.

Points, points, points. Everything is so pricy, compared to when I used to play Guard alone! I considered a full grav devastator squad though.


An Ironclad in a dreadnought drop pod cannot be ignored and is simply a beast to deal with. Highly recommend. 6 attacks on the charge, hur Hur Hur, and it can sit inside the pod, shoot out and Assault anything dumb enough to stick around.

But the only way to take it is to take away the the Sternguard. Decisions, decisions...


I'd put Vulkan with the sternguard and make someone else the warlord, then with the Ironclad you can have a really good alpha strike.

Except I can't afford another HQ. I guess I might swap the detatchments and use IG as primary and the Company Commander as the warlord, but that requires swapping a Tactical for a Veteran squad, reducing the drop pod count by one, and dropping the number of pods deployed on turn one by 1. Unless I buy an empty Drop Pod as Fast Attack, a horrible, horrible exploit now possible in 7th ed :D

A way to get around the problem is to ditch Vulkan altogether, but that makes my AT less powerful and kinda makes the whole "burning alpha strike" thing pointless.

[Alaric]

Awesome, as I said, good grasp.

Good tactics on the knight. If you dont go first tho a canny player could wipe the Las Squad, the vendetta will be your goto is my guess, better hope it arrives! Lol

I more put the psyker question out there as psykers can really screw your mojo up if they haven't been considered. I wouldn't add a Libby, just be aware of what spells they got. Stupid invisibility.

Yes grav is expensive but so, so worth it. I dont use it myself as I simply dont wanna buy and modify more but they ruin my day alot.

Now for the last one. I do believe (and please somebody correct me if im wrong) that HQs do not need to be the warlord. I believe it can be any character. Even a sergeant. Long as they are a character (rules that say they HAVE to be the warlord aside) they can be the warlord. So throw a Vulkan at em like u dont even care! ;)

[Souffle Girl]

I might have found a way to include both the Ironclad and the Librarian (with Eternal Shield, even!) by ditching one of the Infantry Squads from the Platoon, the Wyvern and one of the Tactical Squads. Pricey, but I have another character to make him my Warlord (only 2 W though :( ) and to put him in the Infantry Platoon.

[Alaric]

Awesome! Good luck, if you played WM this should be childs play to figure out your army in this newest edition.

[Souffle Girl]

Awesome! Good luck, if you played WM this should be childs play to figure out your army in this newest edition.

Heh. I'm not very good at WM, that's why I wanted to try a bit of 40k again. I figured that after playing a game that punishes every one of your mistakes brutally, good old GW might be easier. Also, GW models are far better than PP models, though they're getting there.

On gravs, I forgot to mention that I have two plasma gun teams that fill the same role as heavy infantry killers. Not as good at it, but definitely cheaper.

I could include everything you mentioned, along with three Scout teams, if I went full SM with a Gladius force. Unfortunately, I feel uneasy without air support, and the "anvil" portion of the list would be far, far less tough if it was composed of Scouts only.

Still, some day, I want to go full Battle Company and see my opponent cringe at the thought all my Drop Pods are free. :cool:

[Souffle Girl]

All hail the revamped version of my list! Yay!

Primary Detatchment: Combined Arms. Salamander Space Marines.

HQ:
Vulkan He'stan
Terminator Librarian, level 1 w/Force Sword, Storm Shield

Elites:
Command Squad w/4 combi-melta, apothecary, drop pod. -> Because if Vulkan isn't the Warlord he loses FNP!
Ironclad Dreadnought w/chainfist & close combat weapon, melta gun, flamer.

Troops:
5 men Tactical Squad w/flamer, combi-flamer, drop pod.
5 men Tactical Squad w/flamer, combi-flamer, drop pod.

Fast Attack:
5 men Assault Squad w/2 flamers, drop pod w/locator beacon.

Heavy Support:
Thunderfire Cannon

Allied Detatchment. Imperial Guard

HQ:
Company Command Squad w/4 plasma guns, Master of the Fleet, Chimera w/multi-laser, heavy flamer.
- Commissar w/bolt pistol, ccw, attached to Infantry Squad #1

Troops:
Infantry Platoon
- Platoon Command Squad w/3 plasma guns.
- Infantry Squad w/Lascannon.
- Infantry Squad w/Lascannon.
- Infantry Squad w/Lascannon.

Fast Attack:
Vendetta Gunship w/3 TL Lascannons.

The Libby is attached to the infantry platoon, so he can buff them and provide some melee help if needed. He's also my Warlord, so Vulkan can now be thrown at my opponent with impunity.

Into the fires of battle, unto the anvil of war!