8th Ed. Salamanders

[Troggs]

So far, the few games I've played my salamander has done very little.
It's been slaughtered by clan rats or bashed in by boar boyz.
The strength of the flame is pretty low, and makes it only good for taking out very weak, compact units of enemies.
In combat it seems to fare well for a single unit, especially considering it's a skirmisher, but it still gets it's butt kicked.

What are your favourite salamander tactics? I'm quite confused on how to use mine.

 

[Rhodium]

It sounds like your sallies are getting destroyed in combat, it is usually best to avoid combat with them, they aren't great combat.

I also find if you are playing a experienced player, they will make sure the sallies are killed by magic or shooting very early. This is useful as it can save other units from shooting.

However, in games where the opponent hasn't killed them early, they have caused havoc in the opponents army

I like having my sallies on my flanks or just to the side of my combat blocks. I try to get them forward then flame across his battle line. Although they are only strength three, they are -3 to armour, flaming and autopanic.
In a recent game, an empire player ignored a sallie, turn 3 he had moved up the flank, turned inside and flamed the halbadier horde, 24 or so hits, about 12 wounds, no armour save and the unit failed panic and fled. Basically changed the game and allowed my saurus to destroy his smaller combat blocks and cleaned up the board.

Another useful tactic is to tried to wound a regen monster, remove regen with flaming and then pepper the monster from skinks.

I usually always flee if charged, sallied hardly are ever useful in combat.

It is brutal against T3 elves, and good against larger groups of T4 units. Against small units or high toughness it can be of limited use. It is great if you get down a flank and get a shot down the side of his units, often no matter what you roll (except misfire) you can a hit on at least one unit.

 

[Scalenex]

http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/maximizing-the-value-of-salamanders.8907/

 

[Jabru]

I run a shadow slann so i just lower a units toughness then go crazy for exampl WOC take hem to T 3 and wounding on 4s with -3 to their armour one salamander pack killed a block of 20 chaos warrior in 3 turns of pestering

 

[Moniker]

In my experience, a Salamander is worth its 75pts if it gets ONE good shot off in a game. If it gets TWO, amazing, or one GREAT shot, that's fantastic. My record is 22 elves in one round with two Sallies. That said, once their shooting usefulness is gone, they can redirect, fight against other skirmishers, ect. Wouldn't recommend wading in on important combats unless it's ESSENTIAL and the opponent isn't too strong.

They're grand.

 

[zamtap]

as with most shooting posistioning of salamders makes a diffrence, as they are skirmishers they fire while marching and can free reform as often as they wish,

you want them to be hitting the flanks of the targets, however a cheeky shot on the way into posistion half the time does nothing 1/3 hits the unit and 1/6 you lose skinks favorable odds i feel

once they are in the flank keep dancing with them i try and keep them 8 and a bit inches off the foe so they can always march and the template will hit even on a 2.

throwing them into a combat is something to be considered carefully, a salamnder unit in the flank or rear can help with a combat, perticullarly as it will add to the combat resoloution of an ongoing fight, putting them into the front of a foe means they will generally suffer and not do as much themselves

i think they are working better for me now as i have learned what works for me

anything that rolls for the panic test can fail the panic test, i've had pheonix guard turn and run twice in one battle and as a result my skinks reached that unit and shot it to peices