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AoS Salamanders grouped or individual?

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Temple Guard

Blitzkriyg

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I'm looking at running 12 salamanders, and just looking for confirmation of my tactic is sound. I'm thinking salamanders should be run as individual units to stop any over kill as each unit only has 6 wounds, so either a lot of incoming attacks will be wasted or my opponent will have to split attacks and risk not killing a unit. I'm not running any battalions, so I'm looking at either a 19 drop army or an 11 drop, so either way I'm not picking first turn. I know I can't buff a full unit, but I feel like the survivability trade off night be worth it
 
Blitzkriyg said:
I'm looking at running 12 salamanders, and just looking for confirmation of my tactic is sound. I'm thinking salamanders should be run as individual units to stop any over kill as each unit only has 6 wounds, so either a lot of incoming attacks will be wasted or my opponent will have to split attacks and risk not killing a unit. I'm not running any battalions, so I'm looking at either a 19 drop army or an 11 drop, so either way I'm not picking first turn. I know I can't buff a full unit, but I feel like the survivability trade off night be worth it
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well the only down side i see is that you can't teleport more then 1 unit a turn i would keep a groop off 3 to drop down and snipe when you need it
 
If you're using individual sallies, keep them spread throughout your army as countercharge/shoot units behind the muscle. They do work, but in small units you don't want them getting into melee all at the same time.
I do think it's a decent idea, considering they aren't Artillery anymore.
 
Depends on your list I think. If they're grouped, they'll be more efficient in combat, but split they'll be harder to shoot off, since getting 6 wounds in on a unit with a 4+ save takes a bit of commitment.

I'd probably always go with at least 1 or 2 max sized units with 12 salamanders in the list, since they're better for teleporting, and with so many points invested, I'd probably be looking to put them in combat to contest objectives, just make sure to save some CP for battleshock in a coalesced list.
 
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I think both unit groupings have valid reasons.

If you are going coalesced and mostly concerned about enemy shooting and spells then I say split them. Making a few flamers waste their shots goes a long way. It also means you gain some advantage by avoiding overkill in how you declare shooting as well.
 
Well, killing enemy models is also a form of defence. Stacking buffs on salamanders is essential for consistent damage output. And you also can easily stack defensive buffs on them if you worry about their safety. And there are important movement buffs, spells, etc. etc. Teleporting overbuffed pack of 3 can win you the game.

And, tbh, why even take them, if you cannot buff them properly?

Maybe, there's a point at going MSU, if you already have single unit, that receives all the buffs, but I'd personaly won't even try to run full MSU, especially after testing.
 
Nart said:
Well, killing enemy models is also a form of defence. Stacking buffs on salamanders is essential for consistent damage output. And you also can easily stack defensive buffs on them if you worry about their safety. And there are important movement buffs, spells, etc. etc. Teleporting overbuffed pack of 3 can win you the game.

And, tbh, why even take them, if you cannot buff them properly?

Maybe, there's a point at going MSU, if you already have single unit, that receives all the buffs, but I'd personaly won't even try to run full MSU, especially after testing.
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Those buffs are better left to much larger units with more potential damage output. As a ms unit, they're great for hunting characters, elite troops in smaller units, and monsters.

edit- they're more cost effective, to be clear. 80 points doing a decent amount of ranged and possible melee damage, some of that possibly MW output.
 
Blitzkriyg said:
it's really only worth giving them +1 to hit anyway
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Just till the moment you roll like 5 2's out of 12 hits. It saved me lot's of damage today.

Of course, it depends on list, but as long as you run sallies as your hammer, you want everything on them, because every hit is so precious.
 
Nart said:
And, tbh, why even take them, if you cannot buff them properly?
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Because they don't need to be buffed to be good.
The only buffs they can get are:
+1 to hit + Run and charge (this is the big one) - skink priest
+1 to save - also skink priest, and also notable because they have a 4+ save base
6s to wound cause a mortal wound - pretty much worthless for them - Starpriest
+1 attack in melee - decent buff from steg chief, though probably worse than +1 to hit in most cases.
3d6 to charge - Not really needed with running and charging, but the spell for another +1 to save is nice - Starseer

In a thunderquake, you can bring them with the steg chief, which is nice for coalesced lists, where they're already getting an extra jaw attack, for potentially 6 jaw attacks with the battalion. 6 jaw attacks makes 3 salamanders put out ~30 damage at rend -2/mortal wounds with their shooting + melee without the +1 to hit. +1 to hit at 5 melee swings puts them at 33 damage; less mortal wounds, but more at -2. Without either buff, they're doing ~27 damage. With no buffs at all, they do ~21 damage in starborn, or 24 in coalesced.

The buffs just really aren't all that important for their output. Adding another salamander would technically always be better for output than a buff. The effective range buff from running and charging is probably the one that matters the most, with +1 save being the second most valuable, since it should be fairly easy to put them in cover, and a 2+ save is strong.
 
Making them immune to battleshock is pretty easy, but I agree it depends. A deathstar of fire sounds pretty hard to pass up though...
 
Asamu said:
Depends on your list I think. If they're grouped, they'll be more efficient in combat, but split they'll be harder to shoot off, since getting 6 wounds in on a unit with a 4+ save takes a bit of commitment.

I'd probably always go with at least 1 or 2 max sized units with 12 salamanders, since they're better for teleporting, and with so many points invested, I'd probably be looking to put them in combat to contest objectives, just make sure to save some CP for battleshock in a coalesced list.
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Okay, I think I'm a little confused on how Hunting Packs work. How are you getting 12 Salamanders? When I look at the book it says that the minimum number of models in a Hunting Pack unit is 4, max is 12. On the warscroll is says that for you get "any number of Skink Handlers" (which really starts out at 4). Then the warscroll goes on to say that "1 out of every 4 models must be a Salamander/Razor." So the max number of actual Salamander/Razor models in a max unit is only 3, with 9 handlers, correct?
 
Just A Skink said:
Okay, I think I'm a little confused on how Hunting Packs work. How are you getting 12 Salamanders? When I look at the book it says that the minimum number of models in a Hunting Pack unit is 4, max is 12. On the warscroll is says that for you get "any number of Skink Handlers" (which really starts out at 4). Then the warscroll goes on to say that "1 out of every 4 models must be a Salamander/Razor." So the max number of actual Salamander/Razor models in a max unit is only 3, with 9 handlers, correct?
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yes your getting 3 salamanders and 9 skink handlers for a unit size of 12
 
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