Do you want to melt the opponent off the board into a pile of smoking ash? Yes, of course you do! You’re in for a treat with the new Space Marines Salamanders Forgefather’s Seekers detachment. Combined with a new datasheet and model, Vulkan and the Imperium’s best “good guys” are ready to lay waste to the enemies of the Emperor in a big way. Let’s get into why this new detachment has potential to make big waves in Competitive 40K.
Forgefather’s Seekers Detachment: What Does it Do?
This detachment is mostly just Firestorm Assault Force, but ramped up to 11. Forgefather’s Seekers features the same detachment rule as Firestorm giving all your Adeptus Astartes units weapons the ASSAULT ability and +1 Strength to ranged attacks made within 12″ of an enemy unit. It also features the added bonus allowing Infernus Marines in your army to Advance and perform an Action or Shoot and perform an Action. Similar to Firestorm, Forgefather’s Seekers gets the added bonus of +1 to wound the Oath of Moment target, which is great in an army that is mostly going to capitalize on using it’s Torrent weapons.
The Enhancements are mostly the same as Firestorm, dropping Champion of Humanity in favor of the new Immolator Enhancement which let’s you add 1 to the Attacks Characteristic of all models Torrent weapons in the bearer’s unit. A great choice for a Character leading a squad of Infernus Marines or Aggressors.
The stratagems also are very similar to Firestorm, dropping Rapid Embarkation and Onslaught of Fire and picking up Wrathful Inferno and Blazing Earth. Notably keeping Immolation Protocols in the mix, allowing a unit’s Torrent weapons to have Devastating Wounds for 2 CP (which I’ll get to later.)
Wrathful Inferno is a nice little stratagem allowing an Infantry unit to Fall Back and Shoot, something desperately missing from Firestorm. While Blazing Earth let’s you pick a unit in the enemy Charge Phase and subtract 2″ from Charge Rolls, which is a situational strat, but can definitely be useful.
Vulkan Lives: New Datasheet Gets a Glowup
The new Vulkan model is wicked of course and his datasheet really pushes this Detachment hard. Of note, is that his ability “Inspiring Commander” is missing from his Datasheet, but remains in the Balance Dataslate. Fortunately if you’re using the Warhammer App, it still shows up there on his Datasheet as opposed to being missing off the downloadable Datasheet off Warhammer Community.
“Inspiring Commander” gives Infernus Marines 2 OC which is a great bump in a detachment that really wants to use them–a lot.
“Seeker of the Unfound” let’s Vulkan pick an objective on the battlefield and, while he’s within range of it, he has an OC of 10, a Leadership of 5+ and a Feel No Pain of 4+. This makes him perfectly suited to lead a unit of Company Heroes, with their built in -1 to wound while he’s attached and +1 OC from the Ancient in the squad giving this unit 19 OC on an expansion objective makes them a hard target to pry off.
“Forgefather” This is the real sauce here. In your Shooting Phase you can pick an enemy unit within 24″ and visible to Vulkan and until the end of the phase, any time another Adeptus Astartes unit targets that unit with a Melta or Torrent weapon, you can reroll the Wound roll. This is such a great combo for a unit of Infernus Marines with Immolation Protocols stratagem to fish for Devastating Wounds.
His statline is pretty spicy too with a d6+3 STR 6 (so 7 with the Detachment bonus) AP -1 DMG 1 ranged weapon with Ignores Cover, Pistol and Torrent. His combat weapon is pretty good with 6 attacks at STR 6 AP -2 DMG 2 with Devastating Wounds.
For 100 Points you’re getting a value force multiplier who is a pain to remove with the attached Company Heroes.
Example List for Forgefather’s Seekers
So, all those abilities seem decent on the surface sure, but it’s when combined all together that you see this army packs a serious punch in the shooting phase. Let’s take a look at a sample list.
Click to See the List
Vulkan Lives (1990 Points)
Space Marines
Salamanders
Forgefather’s Seekers
Strike Force (2,000 Points)
CHARACTERS
Captain (90 Points)
- 1x Bolt Pistol
- 1x Master-crafted bolter
- 1x Power fist
- Enhancements: Immolator
Captain (80 Points)
- 1x Bolt Pistol
- 1x Master-crafted bolter
- 1x Power fist
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon (70 Points)
- 1x Combi-weapon
- 1x Paired combat blades
Vulkan He’stan (100 Points)
- Warlord
- 1x Bolt Pistol
- 1x Gauntlet of the Forge
- 1x Spear of Vulkan
BATTLELINE
Intercessor Squad (80 Points)
- 1x Intercessor Sergeant
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Hand flamer
◦ 1x Power fist - 4x Intercessor
◦ 1x Astartes grenade launcher
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 4x Bolt rifle
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
DEDICATED TRANSPORTS
Impulsor (80 Points)
- 1x Armoured hull
- 1x Ironhail heavy stubber
- 1x Shield Dome
- 2x Storm bolter
Impulsor (80 Points)
- 1x Armoured hull
- 1x Ironhail heavy stubber
- 1x Shield Dome
- 2x Storm bolter
OTHER DATASHEETS
Centurion Devastator Squad (165 Points)
- 1x Devastator Centurion Sergeant
◦ 1x Centurion fists
◦ 1x Centurion missile launcher
◦ 1x Twin lascannon - 2x Devastator Centurion
◦ 2x Centurion fists
◦ 2x Centurion missile launcher
◦ 2x Twin lascannon
Centurion Devastator Squad (165 Points)
- 1x Devastator Centurion Sergeant
◦ 1x Centurion fists
◦ 1x Centurion missile launcher
◦ 1x Twin lascannon - 2x Devastator Centurion
◦ 2x Centurion fists
◦ 2x Centurion missile launcher
◦ 2x Twin lascannon
Company Heroes (105 Points)
- 1x Ancient
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Bolt rifle
◦ 1x Close combat weapon - 1x Company Champion
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Master-crafted power weapon - 2x Company Veteran
◦ 2x Bolt pistol
◦ 2x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Master-crafted bolt rifle
◦ 1x Master-crafted heavy bolter
Infernus Squad (90 Points)
- 1x Infernus Sergeant
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Pyreblaster - 4x Infernus Marine
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 4x Pyreblaster
Infernus Squad (90 Points)
- 1x Infernus Sergeant
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Pyreblaster - 4x Infernus Marine
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 4x Pyreblaster
Infernus Squad (90 Points)
- 1x Infernus Sergeant
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Pyreblaster - 4x Infernus Marine
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 4x Pyreblaster
Infiltrator Squad (100 Points)
- 1x Infiltrator Sergeant
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Marksman bolt carbine - 4x Infiltrator
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Helix Gauntlet
◦ 1x Infiltrator Comms Array
◦ 4x Marksman bolt carbine
Invader ATV (60 Points)
- 1x Bolt pistol
- 1x Close combat weapon
- 1x Multi-melta
- 1x Twin bolt rifle
Invader ATV (60 Points)
- 1x Bolt pistol
- 1x Close combat weapon
- 1x Multi-melta
- 1x Twin bolt rifle
Invader ATV (60 Points)
- 1x Bolt pistol
- 1x Close combat weapon
- 1x Multi-melta
- 1x Twin bolt rifle
Land Raider Redeemer (285 Points)
- 1x Armoured tracks
- 2x Flamestorm cannon
- 1x Hunter-killer missile
- 1x Multi-melta
- 1x Storm bolter
- 1x Twin assault cannon
Scout Squad (70 Points)
- 1x Scout Sergeant
◦ 1x Astartes chainsword
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Close combat weapon - 4x Scout
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 2x Combat knife
◦ 1x Heavy bolter
◦ 1x Scout sniper rifle
Scout Squad (70 Points)
- 1x Scout Sergeant
◦ 1x Astartes chainsword
◦ 1x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Close combat weapon - 4x Scout
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 2x Combat knife
◦ 1x Heavy bolter
◦ 1x Scout sniper rifle
This is a mobile but devastating army with tools galore and lots of efficient shooting redundancies. Let’s talk about the obvious head scratcher, the Centurion Devastator Squad. They only move 4″ but they get Assault on their weapons in the detachment allowing them to Advance and shoot. Further their datasheet doesn’t require Oaths to work, as they reroll hits of 1 and all hit rolls against units within range of an objective marker. Further their Twin Lascannons are Twin Linked letting you get those clutch rerolls. Suddenly a slow and usually unreliable unit, becomes a dangerous threat to the opponent’s Vehicles and Monsters.
Next up, the Invader ATVs. Again having the ability to Advance and shoot Multi-Meltas at +1 STR and possibly +1 to wound ramps up their potential damage output and because of their speed it gives the opponent some difficult choices to make. Invader ATVs also come in at a cheap 60 Points, giving them flexibility to be a early turn trade piece or secondary scorer without sacrificing too much in the process.
Obviously we talked about Vulkan and the Company Heroes. Moving up onto the first expansion objective creates a big problem for the opponent to try to shoot off being -1 to wound with 19 OC on the point. This works in both Shooting and Combat which makes the opponent really have to commit some heavy resources to remove and take the objective from you.
Infernus Marines with Captains to help reduce the intensive cost of Immolation Protocols while Vulkan picks the target for the unit to reroll their wounds. Suddenly this 90 point squad is potentially putting out a ton of damage on the opponent with Dev Wounds.
Final Thoughts
Salamanders are here in a big way. Is this detachment strong enough to throw Ultramarines off the mountain top of Space Marine codex lists? Maybe not, but with tons of redundancies in shooting with rerolls and efficient units, it really ramps up their power on the battlefield. Finally a use for Infernus Squads after all this time! How do you think Forgefather’s Seekers will hold up in the competitive scene?
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See you on the tabletop!
