Sons of Vulkan

 

The Salamanders was one of the most widely used SM force in 5th Ed . There is a good reason for this because what Vulkan He'Stan added to the force was awesome in that book for the time.

Now He'Stan is still awesome but basically what he offered is reduced and now part of the Chapter tactics.

Flamecraft allows to re-roll failed armor saves against all flamer weapons and to allow re-roll to wound or penetrate with all flamer weapons as well. There is an extensive list of what is actually a flamer weapon included with the rule for this. I did not see the bale flamer or tzeentch warp flame listed, must not be considered flamer weapons and maybe magic based or something.....

Master Artisan allows for all characters (sergeants, techmarines, apothecary) can all make one weapon master crafted for free. Not a bad deal, but not the greatest of abilities.

Now I still think He'Stan is awesome and I would always take him in a Salamanders Detachment. He is a beast in combat, can soak up wounds with the best of them and if he is the warlord (doesnt work as an ally) can make all melta weapons in the army master crafted.

I have two ways that I would like to run this guy. Either take him with a unit of assault centurians in a land raider redeemer. Between the flamestorm cannons, He'Stan's heavy flamer and the twin linked flamer this unit will kill roaches dead... Then can assualt for the S9 AP2 siege drills. The other way is to attach him to a command squad with all flamers or combiflamers and drop them in with a drop pod. If you feel like the combiflamer method you can use a unit of sternguard instead for a little bit more points and get that extra versatility with the special ammo.

As for troops I was thinking that I would take scouts over tacticals (you may notice that I like scouts) unless you want to get multimeltas in the tactical squad. The reason for this is that you can take land speeder storms as dedicated transports now for 45 pts and can take a heavy flamer on it for free. Also, you can get a heavy bolter w/ hellfire rounds (poison 2+) which is awesome for taking out all of those monsterous creatures..

I really like Land Speeders for a mobile fire base. With the speed of movement  in 40k picking up with flyers and all kinds of units adding +3, 6 or +d6 inches for movement it can feel like a SM force can get swamped if there is a bad turn of shooting. The extra movement you get from these guys while being able to keep up the rate of fire is great. I like to have the multimelta and typhoon launcher combo.  

All and all this force should work basically the same as it did in the last codex. There are some new toys and new options but not much has changed overall. If there isn't enough diversity here you can add a few new things that fit really well from FW. Bray'arth and the infernus predator come to mind right away.....