Getting back into 40K
Obviously, I am thinking about getting back into 40K. It's been 4 or 5 years at least; the last time I played, they had just redone the Rhino and Necrons were new. I decided that keeping up with this hobby was too expensive, met a girl, and moved. Moved all the damn 40K stuff too... twice. Now I have a house, have a basement, have a family, and they just popped out Warhammer 40K v. 5. People I know from LARPing play 40K and I was talking to one of them last Saturday evening and it kinda got me in the mood again as it were. So Sunday, I dusted off and unpacked my Warhammer stuff and started going through it. Picked up the new rulebook ($OUCH!).
So, as you may realize depending on how much you know about 40K, I am considering "reactivating" my Salamanders army. Partially this is because I tend to rgard my Blood Angels as being a bit cheesy. The brand new Space Marine Codex comes out next month making it a better choice over the Tau (which would have been my other option). I'd choose these over my Sisters because the Sisters are the least painted of my armies). The Dark Eldar have been a long time since the last update. If I continue to get more enthused, I'll probably pick up the Tau and the Dark Eldar. Still, I'm going to actually try to gte one army painted before I get the next army started. For a change.
The Salamanders, per their fluff, ("fluff" is the non-rules stuff written about the various armies like the army history, philosophy, etc.) are one of the nice guy Space Marine Chapters. Many SM's are arrogant, mutuated, etc. The Salamanders believe in self-reliance, loyalty, and they live with the population of the planet where they are based. They are solid, uncomplaining, and a good, reliable ally. That's why I like them.
In terms of combat doctrine, they are fans of "close range shooting." This is where I don't like them. I'll be the first to admit that my understanding of 40K is a bit out of date, so maybe what I'm about to say is out-of-date. Still, it seems to me that if you are a shooty army, it behooves you to have as much range as you can, especailly against assaulty armies. Open up the range and keep open the range as long as possilbe to maximize your strength. If you are an assaulty army, you close range as fast as possilbe to stop yourself from being shot up. In those terms, close range shooty is kind of an oxymoron. The ONLY reason I can see to do it, is if you were facing a long range guess-range template weapon and you wanted to give them a chance of hitting their own guys. I tried that, it did not work well.
The bigger problem is that the close range shooty weapons like meltas and flamers require you to close to 12" or less which is assault range. You'll get one good round of shooting and then next round they will assault you and, in assault, the attackers have all the advantages. Even if they are a shooty opponant, they will assault you because they don't want to BE assaulted. Against an assaulty enemy like the Blood Angels, well, they'll carve through me in an assault. So, one turn of shooting (if I'm lucky) and then it;s hand-to-hand. Old School (Armageddon) Sallies were even -1 initiative so they always went last. With such bad HTH troops, I would have preferred to have shot from long range, with Lascannons. Of course those are not fluffy weapons for Sallies nd if I use to many of them, I will get mocked or called a generic Space Marine Army in Salamander Colors.
The other thing is whether I want to play a true Salamander army. Space Marine chapters often have daughter chapters called foundings. The biggest founding was the second, but their have been others. Because the Sallies were one of the smallest chapters, they had no second founding daughters, but the fluff implies they may have had other, later, foundings. I could play a later founding daughter chapter... call them Storm Dragons or Storm Hammers. OR I could keep my good old Salamanders.
Things to ponder.
So, as you may realize depending on how much you know about 40K, I am considering "reactivating" my Salamanders army. Partially this is because I tend to rgard my Blood Angels as being a bit cheesy. The brand new Space Marine Codex comes out next month making it a better choice over the Tau (which would have been my other option). I'd choose these over my Sisters because the Sisters are the least painted of my armies). The Dark Eldar have been a long time since the last update. If I continue to get more enthused, I'll probably pick up the Tau and the Dark Eldar. Still, I'm going to actually try to gte one army painted before I get the next army started. For a change.
The Salamanders, per their fluff, ("fluff" is the non-rules stuff written about the various armies like the army history, philosophy, etc.) are one of the nice guy Space Marine Chapters. Many SM's are arrogant, mutuated, etc. The Salamanders believe in self-reliance, loyalty, and they live with the population of the planet where they are based. They are solid, uncomplaining, and a good, reliable ally. That's why I like them.
In terms of combat doctrine, they are fans of "close range shooting." This is where I don't like them. I'll be the first to admit that my understanding of 40K is a bit out of date, so maybe what I'm about to say is out-of-date. Still, it seems to me that if you are a shooty army, it behooves you to have as much range as you can, especailly against assaulty armies. Open up the range and keep open the range as long as possilbe to maximize your strength. If you are an assaulty army, you close range as fast as possilbe to stop yourself from being shot up. In those terms, close range shooty is kind of an oxymoron. The ONLY reason I can see to do it, is if you were facing a long range guess-range template weapon and you wanted to give them a chance of hitting their own guys. I tried that, it did not work well.
The bigger problem is that the close range shooty weapons like meltas and flamers require you to close to 12" or less which is assault range. You'll get one good round of shooting and then next round they will assault you and, in assault, the attackers have all the advantages. Even if they are a shooty opponant, they will assault you because they don't want to BE assaulted. Against an assaulty enemy like the Blood Angels, well, they'll carve through me in an assault. So, one turn of shooting (if I'm lucky) and then it;s hand-to-hand. Old School (Armageddon) Sallies were even -1 initiative so they always went last. With such bad HTH troops, I would have preferred to have shot from long range, with Lascannons. Of course those are not fluffy weapons for Sallies nd if I use to many of them, I will get mocked or called a generic Space Marine Army in Salamander Colors.
The other thing is whether I want to play a true Salamander army. Space Marine chapters often have daughter chapters called foundings. The biggest founding was the second, but their have been others. Because the Sallies were one of the smallest chapters, they had no second founding daughters, but the fluff implies they may have had other, later, foundings. I could play a later founding daughter chapter... call them Storm Dragons or Storm Hammers. OR I could keep my good old Salamanders.
Things to ponder.
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