Ciaphas Cain's Blog of Doom

Codex: Space Marines

Point Total: 2000 pts

-Vulkan He'Stan - 190 pts

-Chaplain - 130

-Terminator Armour

-5x Terminator Assault Squad - 450 pts

-5x Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields

-Land Raider Redeemer

-Multi-Melta

-Dreadnought - 150 pts

-Multi-Melta

-Heavy Flamer

-Drop Pod

-10x Tactical Squad - 240 pts

-Flamer

-Multi-Melta

-Combi-Melta

-Power Sword

-Rhino

-Extra Armour

-Dozer Blade

-3x Attack Bikes - 150 pts

-3x Multi-Meltas

-Whirlwind - 105 pts

-Extra Armour

-Dozer Blade

-Whirlwind - 105 pts

-Extra Armour

-Dozer Blade

Analysis:

-Vulkan He'Stan - Vulkan is hands down, the best character in the Space Marine codex. Say what you like about his fluff, or how unfair he is, the fact remains that point for point, Vulkan He'Stand cannot be beaten. Vulkan possesses the statline of a Captain augmented by some of the best equipment in the game, he has a 2+ armour save, due to his suit of Artificer Armour, along with Kesare's Mantle, which provides a 3+ invulnerable save. His weaponry includes The Gauntlet of the Forge, a Heavy Flamer, and The Spear of Vulkan, a Master-Crafted Relic Blade. But where Vulkan really shines, is his Chapter Tactics. Vulkan makes all your Thunder Hammers master-crafted, and all flamers, meltaguns, heavy flamers and multi-meltas in your list twin-linked. This is the single most abusive thing in the Space Marine meta today, and it's hilariously awesome. I'll let you stew over that for a second while every other Space Marine Chapter screams out in fury at that. Looking at you, Iron Hands.

-Chaplain - I chose the Chaplain to provide some extra firepower for the Assault Terminators, and for a little more personal reason. I don't know how many of you guys played back in the days of Chaplain Xavier, but he was the single coolest Chaplain ever (Grimaldus and Lemartes aside). This guy is my slight homage to him, even if I can't give him a Thunder Hammer too. But that aside, Chaplains provide the invaluable Honour of the Chapter (Makes your squad fearless) and the even better Liturgies of Battle, allowing rerolls to hit with your squad. Some of you might be saying "But Ciaphas, this ability is useless, because of Master-Crafted." Not so. My good friend Zeev (Thanks Zeev!) pointed out Chaplain Re-rolls allow for rerolls on ALL attacks on the charge, superseding Master-Crafted in that circumstance. After this point, Master-Crafted will take over for the subsequent turns of assault. On top of this, he has the Crozius Arcanum, a Power Weapon, and the Rosarius, boosting his 5+ invulnerable save to 4+. All in all, a solid unit.

-Terminator Assault Squad - This is a fantastic unit in any circumstance, but with the reinforcement of Vulkan and the Chaplain's bonuses, this unit is nigh unstoppable. 5x Thunder hammers with rerolls, 3++ invulnerable saves all around, the Terminator Assault Squad is easily the deadliest unit in this list. Riding in a Land Raider Redeemer with a multi-melta, popping a vehicle and annihilating it's contents has never been easier.

-Dreadnought - Dreadnoughts are awesome under any circumstance, but with the ability to twin link both of it's weapons (the weapons being a Multi-Melta and a Heavy Flamer), this unit is just deadly. And thanks to Drop Pod Assault, it can land on turn one and unload on a target of your choice.

-Tactical Squad - This... This unit is just abusive. With every special weapon (The Power Sword aside) being twin-linked, it is an incredibly reliable and deadly unit, and in a Rhino with both Extra Armour and Dozer Blade, you can nearly guarantee the unit will get close enough to tear apart any target. The Flamer, Combi-Flamer and Power Sword will allow the unit to take on any horde, and the Multi-Meltas will make any Mech Heavy list wish they had left their vehicles back home. Not only is this unit very fluffy, featuring the flamers and meltas the Salamanders are known for, but it is the most solid Tactical Squad unit in the game, when combined with the benefits of Vulkan's Chapter Tactics.

-Attack Bike Squad - This unit is always useful, but at first I was hesitant to use it. I had 150 points left and thought "What else could this list possibly use?" Bikes or Land Speeders. Speeders were out from the get go, being completely against Salamander's fluff. Bikes however, as my good friend Starminer pointed out, were mentioned in the original Index Astartes article as replacements that the Salamanders used in the place of Speeders, due to the high gravity of their homeworld. With three Multi-Meltas, this unit is the perfect supplement to the Tactical Squads firepower.

-Whirlwinds - The Whirlwind is another perfect piece to back up this list. Whirlwinds provide a plethora of anti-infantry fire (Including the ability to nail a target in cover), something that this list slightly lacks, with it's plethora of Melta fire. Adding Extra Armour and Dozer Blades for support, this unit has both staying power and heavy fire power to bring against any opponent.

-Closing Thoughts - This was a challenging list to make, mainly because I had to resist the temptation to be as abusive as possible, especially because being so, in this case, is technically fluffy. But still, it was a lot of fun to make the list, and it's a powerful one indeed. Later today, i'll be bringing you the 9th and final Legion of this project, the Raven Guard!

Star, at this point, you know what i'm going to say, so i'm just going to leave it at that.