This year I set myself a target to build and paint enough salamanders to turn my random collection of fun minis into a functional army. I have a thread documenting my progress but I keep forgetting to update it so I’m quite a bit ahead of that thread! I recently hit the 1500-point mark so I decided to hit the field with them and have a game to celebrate.
My opponent for this game has been working on some Twilight Kin recently and decided to push himself to reach 1500 points for this game. So we were both bringing armies we’re not used to using, made up of just whatever minis we have table-ready!
The armies
I’ve been working on nice big blocks of troops. Nothing too fancy, just solid dependable soldiers. If nothing else, it’s nice and easy to pilot this army!
By contrast, my opponent has gone a bit more tricky. With wind blast and weakness he seems to be hoping to disrupt my plans, then he has his ranged units and some hard-hitting melee attackers to punch holes in my line.
Scenario, Terrain, Deployment
We decided to do long table edges, then set up the terrain as shown here. We rolled for scenario and got Bulldog, which neither of us had tried before!
My opponent deployed quite wide, offering lots of pressure everywhere and giving himself maximum versatility for where to place his loot token. I did the opposite, and bunched up my army around the centre-left of the field. I did leave one regiment out on the right wing to oppose his units there. And good thing I did - I gave my loot token to my Primes horde and he gave his to the soulflayers way out on that flank. My opponent won the roll-off for first turn, and took it.
Turn 1
My opponent rushed forwards with his forces to threaten me across the battleline. The crone cast weakness on my primes and showed off her “Essense of the Bloodshrine” rule which let her apply a bit of damage too. The weavers shot at my ember sprites and did a chunk of damage, enough to make me glad the sprites are fearless!
For my part I rushed forward too. I couldn’t move the primes with the token their full speed without exposing their flanks, but they went as far as they safely could. In my shooting phase the komodon and left unit of sprites did some good damage to the voidwalkers, and the lancers even joined in thanks to the cleansing flame command and brought them up to 12 damage. It wasn’t enough to waver them but I think it really put some pressure on my opponent.
Turn 2
This is when the charges happened! Feeling the pressure, and wanting to stop me pushing forward, the voidwalkers and mutants both charged my primes. The ravagers charged one unit of ceremonial guard and the butchers charged the other. While all this was going on the soulflayers snuck a bit further forward with their loot token. The crone cast weakness on my primes again and added a bit of damage but even with that, the chargers weren’t able to get the rout.
My sprites rushed forwards to distract a couple of units, my komodon shot bile at the crone for a couple of damage, and the lancers charged into the flank of the voidwalkers. They killed the voidwalkers and the primes killed the mutants (even under the effects of Weakness and Flesh Hooks!), allowing them to roll forward a couple of inches. My tyrants nipped across to flank the butchers and killed them, and the ceremonial guard pivoted to threaten those soulflayers with the loot token.
Turn 3
My opponent’s army was looking pretty sparse but the remaining units did their jobs well. The soulbane and the weavers killed the sprites in front of them, and the crone put a bit more damage on the primes. With a lucky nerve roll they managed to waver them and stick them in place. The soulflayers crossed the midline, turned to face the ceremonial guard, and used their wind blast to push the tyrants back out of charge range. The Twilight Kin bagged themselves 2 VP and took the lead.
The komodon shot the crone again while the lancers charged the soulbane and my ceremonial guard got stuck into the soulflayers. The other guard finally finished off the ravagers and prepared to move over to support the rest of the line. I got 1 VP from the primes, putting the score at 2-1.
Turn 4
The weavers and crone shot at my primes again but this time failed to waver them - luckily for me! The combats proceeded apace but no routs. Still though, by the end of this turn I was 4-1 down and feeling nervous!
On my turn I withdrew the lancers through the primes horde, making room for the primes to zip forward past that field at the double. My ceremonial guard and clan lord took up the fight against the soulbane and killed him on that hill. The komodon managed to waver the crone this time and prevent her adding any more damage to the primes. Over on the right, my tyrants got stuck in and routed those soulflayers. The ceremonial guard took the loot token and shimmied to their left. That gave me 3 VPs, taking us up to 4-4.
Turn 5
The weavers shot at my primes again and wavered them. We were up to 20 damage out of 24 and struggling to pass nerve checks!
On my turn I advanced the ceremonial guard with the loot token to cross the midline. The primes were wavered so no movement there, but everyone else converged to support. Once more, the crone was wavered by my komodon. That put the score up to 8-4 to me.
Turn 6
The weavers charged at the primes! They’re more of a ranged unit than combat but my opponent figured (rightly in my view) that he only needed to deal 1 damage in melee to rout me, whereas he’d need to deal 4 at range. Unfortunately for him he didn’t score any damage thanks to the Shield of Kthorlaq command, meaning I held the token for one more turn.
On my go the primes struck back and killed the weavers. My komodon also finally finished dissolving that crone with its bile - not a nice way to die. We ended the game with the score at 12-4 and no Twilight Kin left on the board.
Final Thoughts
- It looks like a good result but to be honest, the dice were VERY biased towards me. It felt like all my rolls were either average or better and all my opponent’s rolls were average or worse. My ceremonial guard were consistently turning 15 attacks into 6-8 damage for example. It’s hard to feel good about winning when the dice make it so difficult to lose!
- That said, I think my strategy was pretty solid. Supporting the primes to help push the token forward, diverting the tyrants to help on the right. I don’t feel like the dice ever bailed me out of a silly decision, they just gave me a big boost to effectiveness.
- The salamanders have a good solid selection of commands. I made good use of Shield of Kthorlaq and Rekindle, and of course Cleansing Flame made a big impression right at the start. And the old reliable Tenacity came out a few times too.
- I was a bit worried whether the Komodon would really earn its points but I was fairly impressed with it. It may not have strictly been worth it but it wasn’t bad and it was definitely fun!
- I quite like this points level. I know 2300 seems to be popular widely but I think 1500-2000 is probably my preferred range.