Well not everything died. A small number survived, such as nearly all the incarnates. They basically found a new world outside the real world and in the Warp parallel to the Realm of Chaos, split into eight realms with one per Lore of Magic, and wound up as gods there with their Incarnate powers, led by Sigmar. Then Nagash was a dick and Chaos found the new world and fucked everyone over. That's the short version, anyway.
I wouldn't say that the Thunderquake Starhost favours either of the Steggy weapons. It favours the shit out of the Bastiladon, granted ...
I use an Engine, Sunfire Throwers, and Bastiladon for my Thunderquake. I've not had the chance to fry a horde yet with the Sunfire Throwers, though I plan to soon, but the Bastiladon is hilariously broken with it. Auto-rerolls for saves means fuck the priest's 50% odds, plus healing? The laser-turtle regenerates faster than my enemy can hurt him.
Salamanders all the way, they're brutal. List of accomplishments my Slamanders have done.
They fit any build really, apart from a Skink army (take Krox for that.) I play a specialised defensive army and I still use them, they're great for piercing heavy armour targets.
I wish I was as strong as you. I went through a phase of buying faster than I could paint and now a have too many unpainted models. And a severely depleted bank account that I'm still recovering from.
I have 80 warriors, 40 Guard, 30-45 skinks, a Slann, Kroak, a Carnosaur, an Engine, a Stegadon, a Bastiladon, 10 Chameleons, Oxyotl, 3 Salamanders, 9 Handlers, a converted Skink Priest (Starpriest now,) a Starseer, a small unit of 5 Cold Ones, and a Turtle Hydra which is a converted hydra that looks like a giant murder-turtle that I used for my 8th ed Priest to Transform into.
