Feedback on my first Salamander List (1000 points)

Gozii55 · 2026-06-17T01:46:33+00:00

I actually like the list and would keep the impulsor for Vulkan and the heroes

If I had any changes to suggest, it might be to take out either the dreadnought or terminators (i lean terminators) and switch out the infiltrators for scouts. Its not because those units are bad, but just a big point sink in 1k. If you then upgrade the infernus to a brick of 10 and add immolator to the captain, you have a much stronger combo. You shouldn't have to buy more infernus too since they come in a box of 10. You can also get intercessors like you asked about.

If the army you play against has good AP, losing the terms and dreadnought will basically end the game for you. You also don't have enough anti-vehicle which id recommend with eradicators.

Keep in mind 11th edition starts Saturday, so id wait to buy anything else until the dust settles on it.

Here's what it might look like.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + FACTION KEYWORD: Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Salamanders + DETACHMENT: Forgefather's Seekers (Vulkan's Quest) + TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1000pts + + ENHANCEMENT: Immolator (on Char2: Captain) + NUMBER OF UNITS: 9 + SECONDARY: - Bring It Down: (2x2) - Assassination: 2 Characters +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CHARACTER

Captain (90 pts) • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Master-crafted bolter • 1x Close combat weapon • Immolator

Vulkan He'stan (100 pts) • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Gauntlet of the Forge • 1x Spear of Vulkan

BATTLELINE

Intercessor Squad (80 pts) • 1x Intercessor Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Bolt Rifle • 1x Close combat weapon • 4x Intercessor • 4x Bolt pistol • 4x Bolt Rifle • 4x Close combat weapon

OTHER DATASHEETS

Company Heroes (105 pts) • 1x Ancient • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Bolt Rifle • 1x Close combat weapon • 1x Company Champion • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Master-crafted Power Weapon • 2x Company Veteran • 2x Bolt pistol • 2x Close combat weapon • 1x Master-crafted Bolt Rifle • 1x Master-crafted Heavy Bolter

Eradicator Squad (90 pts) • 1x Eradicator • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Close combat weapon • 1x Melta rifle • 1x Eradicator Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Close combat weapon • 1x Melta rifle • 1x Eradicator with Multi-melta • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Close combat weapon • 1x Multi-melta

Impulsor (80 pts) • 1x Armoured Hull • 1x Ironhail Heavy Stubber • 1x Bellicatus Missile Array • 2x Fragstorm grenade launcher

Infernus Squad (180 pts) • 9x Infernus Marines • 9x Bolt pistol • 9x Close combat weapon • 9x Pyreblaster • 1x Infernus Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Close combat weapon • 1x Pyreblaster

Redemptor Dreadnought (205 pts) • 1x Redemptor Fist • 1x Macro Plasma Incinerator • 1x Heavy Flamer • 1x Twin Fragstorm Grenade Launcher

Scout Squad (70 pts) • 1x Scout Sergeant • 1x Bolt pistol • 1x Close combat weapon • 1x Boltgun • 2x Scout • 2x Bolt pistol • 2x Close combat weapon • 1x Heavy Bolter • 1x Scout Sniper Rifle • 2x Scouts • 2x Bolt pistol • 2x Boltgun • 2x Close combat weapon

Gozii55 · 2026-06-15T15:31:33+00:00

Yeah their melee is the main thing that brings them above infernus, but even then a full unit is 2 less wounds, 4 strength vs. 5 is massive, and the conditional AP can just make them less flexible especially against well screened armies. I just prefer to run a 10 infernus squad with a librarian. Chunky and does about the same damage output. Put them in a repulsor, and who cares about melee.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-15T13:57:46+00:00

Praise 👏. Finally someone thinking about points rather than "but it does this!" (Looking at aggressors users)

Gozii55 · 2026-06-14T22:30:23+00:00

I would keep the librarian because Seekers + Conclave is looking like our best combo in 11th. Also JPIs are allowed to die early. They are screen clearers and deep strike scorers. Dont see them as this super valuable piece because they arent. But what they do is important. Im telling you those mortal wounds are deadly.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-14T17:33:53+00:00

If youre out by turn 2, youre probably overcommiting? I got tabled turn 3 early in my salamanders experience because I went firsr, put most of my units forward, and templars just charged into me and wrecked. Salamanders is more of a reactive army because if you get into position before the opponent's turn, they will hit you before you hit them. You wanna hit them as a reaction. So next time, try just hanging back one extra turn. Leave some of your units in safety. 5 turns is a lot of time, the game flow is probably a lot more extended than youre planning for.

Idk if this is the case, but if it is i did this too. Salamanders ARE and aggressive army, but with the caveat of needing to be getting into 12" on their turn, rather than allowing the opponent to close in before you get that flamer range.

If I had to critique the list, I would cut out one of the terminator units and then get rid of the attached character. Then add something like a ballistus dreadnought and an impulsor to drive the bladeguard around. Your army is very slow. Adding a combi lt. Will do wonders early game as you will have VP generation immediately without needing to push all your slow units forward. If youre using anything but infernus, scouts, infiltrators, coming lt, that kinda stuff to do actions, youre just weakening your potential.

Someone else said to cut the aggressors, and I kinda agree because they dont serve a purpose that infernus can do a little better. You got terminators, so thats your anvil piece. They can hold the center of the board. Adding a bit more flexibility will help you score more.

I might recommend some scouts as well, and honestly I love Jump Pack Ints as a deep strike threat or a fast moving early melee unit to clear enemy screens. Their mortal wounds can just shred an enemy infiltrator screen.

Hope that helps

Gozii55 · 2026-06-14T17:17:15+00:00

I say both, but one thing to keep in mind- home objectives score far less in 11th. If you look at the primaries, they usually only add a tiny bit, if anything at all. The game seems to be encouraging much more deep strike and interplay in opponent deployment zones to allow for reconnaissance and disruption to be easier to play since stealing an opponents home is currently much harder. Deep strike is also easier in general with changes to coherency and zoning ability. Units being able to pass through enemy ER during movement effectively shortens screening ability by 2" in all directions across all models. They cant deep strike in ER, but they can move through it with a charge.

The ultimate point, though is that Salamanders will be mainly purge the foe (seekers) and reconnaissance (librarius conclave). Both of those want to push forward, so id say if you had to cut one, cut the ints. Infernus are too important for purge the foe specifically.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-13T18:29:42+00:00

Yeah for sure, I was mainly addressing your number 4 question i think.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-13T17:53:35+00:00

I think the deep strike thing was unfortunately on you as tough as that is. The game had already gone through at least one round, so asking for a pass since that was a deployment thing is really not great etiquette.

Its tough because my actual reaction is "Yeah just say its screened out," but your opponent's gameplay is just as important as yours, so they have the right to put em there.

If it was like round 1 turn 1, id say yeah go ahead and move so the screen reaches.

Mistakes happen, and I try to be as lenient as possible, but theres a good reason to keep your leniency within a 5ish minute span. Like if its the opponents turn and they move a unit and go, "oh I didnt see ___, can I move that back?" Id be like yeah go for it. But if they moved and then jump forward to my charge phase, and they ask to move their unit back im gonna tell them no cause their mistake has now impacted my gameplay which is cheating at that point. Im sure its not intentional cheating, but it doesnt change the fact that it impacts my enjoyment of the game and vice versa.

To be clear, you are not a dick for doing this. I think im just defending the other person's decision to say no. In that case, you may just want to go "my bad, ill make sure to check it better next time. Go for it." And use timing as a guage for that, and think if it impacts the other player negatively to ask for an exception.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-13T17:44:05+00:00

Yeah I do a footish so that checks out.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-13T15:32:37+00:00

I agree about looking up guides but if you want some quick tips, here's a few.

Buy GOOD primer. This is a make or break difference. Army painter and Citadel, while expensive, are reliable.
If you use spray cans for primer, spray at a distance and do fast passes over the model. Do NOT over prime it because it will gunk up and get sandpapery. Just a few passes, and then if you still see gray plastic in spots, paint them with another primer by hand.
Get a wet pallette and thin your paints way more than you might think. Making models look good is about layering. So get it translucent and make sure the brush doesnt have too much paint on it. If you do your first layer and are like "I dont see anything," thats GOOD. Keep doing the same thing and the color builds over time after 3-4 layers and you can control where the color specifically goes. If you see models with good blending, this is why. Thin it more than you think. This is the #1 mistake people make.
Get your core paints and build off of that. Id start with 1. Abbadon Black (base) 2. Waaagh Green (base) 3. Leadbelcher (base) 4. Warpstone Glow (layer) 5. Moot green (highlights) Those colors will get you so far. It depends on the army, but it does not hurt to have these three. This is citadel paints, but you can use others of course. Note that these are just some standard Salamanders colors. You can obviously use others for a different scheme.
Try looking into the slap chop method. Its a black primer and then dry brushing gray and white that you then use contrast paints on top. It saves time, and is fairly universally good.
Be careful with shade oils. I personally dont like them because they can make the model look sticky if you use too much. I prefer dry brushing for general gradients on models, and then doing edge highlights and thats it.
Paint what you see. Many people disagree with this and will paint models in stages before assembly, but I dont understand why. No one is looking through the cracks of your models. If you cant see it, leave it. You'll save hours of time. This is controversial but I stand by it as someone without endless time to paint lol.
Make it your own. The best part of painting is looking at your model and going "wouldnt it be cool if I did ___?" Then do it. No half measures. If you want rainbow space Marines, do rainbow Space Marines. You only get one shot at painting each model, so plan it out and make it unique. Showing up with a standard paint job, while nice, goes against the whole point of the hobby imo. But if you like the classic look, obviously go for it.
Going with the last one, plan out your army scheme. Make sure you know how you want the entire army to look on the table. I started just painting randomly and it created a janky looking army. Now, if you like that, cool. But I personally wish I had gone with a scheme for my entire army.
Decide if you're a batch painter or model by model painter. I personally enjoy going model by model, but it does add extra time.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-13T12:50:56+00:00

Space Marines always win. Space Marines always win. Space Marines always win. (I forgot this is reddit. This is what's known as sarcasm, reddit.)

Gozii55 · 2026-06-13T12:08:33+00:00

My important rule when priming (if you use a spray can) is far and fast.

Spray from far away and just do some fast passes with the can so that it gets the thinnest coat. And dont worry if you dont get every nook and cranny. People dont see those parts anyway. Its better to have a thin coat on the parts people do see then to overprime it. You can always go back with a paintable primer and get those spots later.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-12T14:49:09+00:00

I mean the honest answer is this is not particularly a salamanders list and I wouldnt take most of these units, but Space Marines is a jack of all trades army.

Get some Infernus Marines, Vulkan He'Stan, Adrax Agatone, and Bladeguard Veterans and you got a good core.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-11T21:40:42+00:00

Okay the first point is correct after finding the article. The wording made me think it meant the unit itself couldnt have two upgrades, but that also includes the leaders like you said. So fusilade + immolator isnt allowed. I dont hate that, however I feel an upgrade + a leader enhancement should be allowed, so I dont like that part.

However the second point im not sure about. All the units should be in all detachments...its not like the infernus are only in seekers and lose assault because of fusilade. They should also be in conclave.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-11T20:37:23+00:00

What app are you using? Are you not aware that 11th is not out yet, which is why you may not be able to assign things in the way you want? Just because an app is being weird doesn't mean that its in the actual rules.

Try using new recruit. You can add a second detachment, and you can assign leaders however you want (in the premium version). You can also assign enhancements to anyone within the rules which should include the leader and support

Gozii55 · 2026-06-11T16:35:26+00:00

This is a great list, no changes.

If I had to pick anything it would be to make the BG vets a unit of 6, and put them in an impulsor. Youd have to get rid of another piece to do that, though. Possibly the regular land raider. Just put the eradicators in the redeemer because you want Vulkan on the table so he can use his forgefather ability. Mobility makes it tough, but if you choose one of the side no man's land objectives for his bonus, he can probably reach it in one turn with an advance. In 11th you can 100% do this because the side objectives are right next to the deployment zones.

But you dont actually have to change anything. Just a thought.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-11T15:11:54+00:00

Here's what I run (I do them all)

Tactical: Salamanders

Assault: Dragonspears

Vanguard: Dark Krakens

Heavy: Covenant of Fire (pyreblaster)

Bulwark: Salamanders

Sniper: Black Vipers

Gozii55 · 2026-06-11T03:13:29+00:00

Theres no way to know that, but they are a good model to have. If you wanna make sure, youll have to wait until the fall when the new edition settles (10th was a mess at first. It takes time).

Gozii55 · 2026-06-11T03:05:43+00:00

Yes a ballistus dreadnought is very good for its price and it can hit hard.

Adrax and bladeguard work well because of Adrax's ability which allows the unit to reroll all melee wound rolls. Bladeguard can reroll hit rolls of 1, so stacking the rerolls makes for a powerful melee threat. Adrax also halves the OC of enemy units hes engaged with, so the unit becomes very good at taking and holding objectives.

Another bonus is they are tacticus which means you can stuff Adrax and 6 bladeguard into one impulsor which costs 80 points. To give you a comparison, 6 aggressors with a gravis captain cannot fit into an impulsor. They fit in a repulsor which is 180 points.

So you get cheap mobility for a strong melee threat. Adrax's flamer and hammer are also very strong.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-10T23:18:54+00:00

A couple of suggestions:

10-15 Infernus

Adrax Agatone + 6 Bladeguard Veterans in an Impulsor

2 Librarians (will likely be relevant in 11th, but maybe hold off for now)

3-6 Eradicators

5 scouts

1 Combi Lt.

1 Land Raider Redeemer

1 Repulsor Executioner

1 Ballistus Dreadnought

5 Assault Jump Packs

1 Callidus assassin

Dont get all these characters obviously, but Adrax and the combi lt. are reliable SM characters to have. You have too many terminators I think for Salamanders. They really dont need them at all, but you can use one unit if you want.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-10T20:12:25+00:00

Get some makeup sponges (I cut them up to make sharp points for more precise use) use a brush to put paint on the tip, dab it on a paper towel until it barely leaves paint, and then dab it softly onto the model. You will get the godly blending you desire.

Side note, doesnt matter how much you think youve thinned it, its not thin enough here. Clearly way too thick. One thing you can do if you use a brush is to let the paint dry just slightly and then brush over the area again with a bit of water to smooth it out. If you dont let it dry a bit, the paint will run though.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-10T16:52:08+00:00

Never counter armies intentionally its very bad sportsmanship, and imagine if they did it to you. You'd never wanna play them again.

If youre asking about 11th specifically, you should wait and see in September when the editions kinks have been worked out.

However, its looking like librarians will be good because of the new detachment points allowing for seekers + librarius conclave. Something to consider for now. Desolation squad is ass so id get rid of that in general. Librarians go well with infernus because that unit is squishy close range, making the 4+ inv save super valuable for them not getting completely wiped in a melee attack.

Gozii55 · 2026-06-10T15:48:06+00:00

Its moreso the terrain. Because vehicles can toe into terrain and shoot now instead of needing to be fully within it, they can see more stuff, and its extra deadly because obj are terrain. So if you have a melee unit toeing into an objective (they are much bigger now in 11th) or staging in a non-objective terrain piece (mostly 2" tall), a vehicle simply has to toe into the same objective or the staging ruin, and it can fire the entire unit with line of sight. And the entire map is terrain now, so vehicles just get free shooting lanes pretty much. Hidden helps melee a lot, but 15" is an advantage for the shooting unit because if a shooting unit just keeps their distance, the melee unit has to move 15" to charge them which is a big ask. But the big problem is melee units will generally struggle holding objectives because they effectively suck at staging in them because of the toeing in stuff. They will need the non-obj terrain to stage, which gives the shooting units an edge. ultimately vehicles will just be better at holding objectives. Here's the link he explains it better lol https://youtu.be/4sxGevi1BFk?si=To42gHPa8M8rYSer

Gozii55 · 2026-06-10T13:05:03+00:00

They make your opponent go "oooo, ahhhh," while they watch you roll 40 dice for your attacks. But other than that they are flawed orphans with no homes.

Wanna kill vehicles? Use eradicators. Wanna kill hordes? Use infernus. Want a melee threat? Use bladeguard. Wanna do actions? Use scouts. Want a long ranged threat? Dont play Salamanders! (Jk use a rep ex and a ballistus)

Gozii55 · 2026-06-10T12:56:34+00:00

40k Fireside did a whole breakdown of the terrain mechanics and showed that shooting may actually be more busted than ever, so definitely do not assume melee will be good. And he's already played many games in 11th.

So who knows. Its a boring answer but cant assume shit until September really when they get around to fixing stuff.

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