Salamanders showcase and overview.

Salamanders are here! When building a themed army I usually build in restrictions depending upon what the background for the army is and what aspect of it I want to focus on. With Salamanders, therefore, I imposed a few restrictions with my army building and weapons selection. Also note that most of the bases are scratchbuilt, though painting all that lava was driving me mad so they're only about halfway painted.

For the army itself I’ve built it around a battle company with no bikes or jump pack included. There are lots of transports to aid mobility - 4 rhino/Razorback and a land raider redeemer (plus a drop pod not pictured) First company support comes in the form of sternguard and 10 assault terminators, while first company support is a mix of bolter and sniper scouts. 

I donated an ironclad to my imperial fists, leaving a standard dread and adding a leviathan. In terms of characters there is the usual selection but also including a cataphractii captain, vulkan he’stan (and Primarch Vulkan as I love the model) shen the chief apothecary, chaplain Xavier and a squad of company veterans. Lastly, air support comes in the form of a caestus assault ram. 

As you may have noticed this army lack anything that the fluff states they do not make much use of, such as bikes and anti gravs. It also leans heavily towards the use of thunder hammers, flame and melta weaponry. It is designed to be used in such a way that it is mobile with the transports, favoring close assault over ranged warfare. 

All salamanders units with chapter tactics benefit from a large amount of rerolls so it makes sense to min max and equip the squads for maximum damage output. Relic wise, one of your characters can benefit from the -+1 strength and your warlord (compulsory if Vulkan) gets +1 strength. Other things to consider are their stratagem which adds 1 to flame weapons to wound (such a shame blood angels gets heavy flamer devs and we don’t) and, the almost compulsory Vulkan in this list will grant you rerolls to hit and wound with flame and melta. 

As of yet they are untried in 8th edition. I think they will be tricky to play with the self imposed restrictions, relying on a few units to hold the backfield while the majority deep strike in or surge forwards. My friend Alex plays a very strong salamander list but it is a mixture of primaris and standard marines thar relies on a strong fire base with reroll bubbles and no unit restrictions. 

Cheers.