The Aquiescent Salamanders: Construction, pt.1

To create a force, you need to find a key strength to build
upon as its foundation

Part 1: Vulkan He'Stan and Heavy Support
Hey y'all, BurnTide here. This is the first blog-series I'm doing. This and following articles in the series will be discussing my thought-process and ideas in constructing a 2000pt Space Marine: Salamander Army. I will be doing different units of the army, and discussing what led me to choosing them.

Now, let’s first lay the plans for this army. By no means am I creating a list for any sort of competition, other than to play against local players. However, I am not making an army that is lacking in strategic design. This army will not be made for tournaments, but will be made for decent competition among average level gamers, like myself. 

            To begin, we need to assess the strength of the army;

Meltas, Flamers, and Thunder Hammers.

Vulcan He'Stan

VULKAN HE'STAN
            When building your Salamander army, the first choice you have to take is the HQ Vulkan He’Stan. What this special character does is allow all Flamers, Heavy Flamers, Meltaguns, and Multi-Meltas to be twin-linked – and all Thunder Hammers become mastercrafted.

Vulcan He’Stan	HQ, 190 pts
WS 6| BS 5| S4| T4| A3| I5| W3| Ld10| Sv2+(3+)

            What this allows us is a superior medium-to-close range fire power over many of our enemies. With the Thunder Hammers providing the finishing touch, we have a very solid foundation for our army.

            Seeing as Salamanders are relatively short range specialists, we need to find some way to counter balance our lack thereof.

            There are a good number of useful units in the Codex: Space Marines; Sternguard, Whirlwind, and Damned Legionnaires, etc. But what I have found the most fun and so far fairly effective units are the Devastators and the Predator.

           

THE DEVASTATORS

Around 80% of our army will be carrying either flame template weapons, 12-24” meltas, or Hammers (all benefiting from Vulkan’s Chapter Tactics). This cued me to not worry so much about using those special abilities in my Devastator Squad. I decided to go with the longer ranged weapons in the Devastator’s arsenal. Below is the load-out I landed on.

Devastators	Heavy, 161 pts
x6 Marines
Missile Launcher
Missile Launcher
Plasma Cannon
WS 4|BS 4| S4| T4| A1(2)| I4| W1| Ld8| Sv3+

             When I was building this unit, the first aspect I looked at was the ability to deal with transports as well as the crew inside. The Missiles, havingS8/krak shots, allow for decent anti-armor abilities, and the plasma cannon’s S7 is also decent against light vehicles. Once that armored transport has been eliminated and the troops inside are forced to move on foot, the weapons chosen allow me to pelt those forces with template fire. The missiles have alternate S4/AP6/small blast/frag shots, and the Plasma Cannon is by default a S7/AP2/small blast. Three blast templates allows me to force the opponent to make more saves, which helps soften the load for my short ranged weapons and combat troops.

            THE PREDATOR

Predator taking aim

            The Predator is a multi-purpose tool on the battle field. My goal for it is to slow down powerful armored vehicles like land raiders or monoliths; or weaken large multi-wound creatures like Trygons and daemon princes. When we use the predator, we will need to be mostly concerned for its LOS (line of sight) over the battlefield so that it can provide heavy, supporting fire to units preparing for major engagements. Seeing as it has strong front armor, only minor, adjacent cover is needed. Below is my load-out for the Predator;

Predator	Heavy, 160 pts
Laz-Cannon Sponsons
Autocannon Turret
BS 4| Front 13| Side 11| Rear10

            One of the most useful aspects of the Predator load-out above is the long range. Against armies like Necrons, Tyranids, and Orks you will have the longer range advantage, and can plan your maneuvers accordingly. The most down trodden aspect of the Predator is the over-priced upgrades and weak side armor, but those do not make it an unviable choice. Though many people put down the Predator, I believe it can be a very useful unit, as any unit can be, if only used correctly.

            Devastators, Predator, and Vulkan are the first three units I added to my 2000pt Salamander Army. This is by no means an end-all, be-all army list, just my ideas and thoughts on the uses for Heavy Support options in a Salamander Army (Note – Land Raider is being taken as a Dedicated Transport:D)

 Total Points: 511/2000pts