Salamander Battle Armor - Technical Readout 3058U page 47
For many players, when you say Salamander, they think about the Lyran Assault BattleMech from Technical Readout 3055U, but for the Battle Armor fans, particularly those that are Clan players, it's the Fire Mandrill's Salamander Battle Armor that comes to mind. Possessing a striking appearance, it's a design that has become better over time, with new rules turning it from merely dangerous to an object of nightmares for any conventional infantry that might stray into its crosshairs, while retaining its pyromaniac utility against other foes.
jymset: When sillybrit started this series, there was one single unit which I requested to have a say on: the Salamander, aka divinity in battle armor form. Of course, since then sillybrit's furious debut has become a fully-fledged series of highest quality, so I will do the only sensible thing and let him write the bulk of this piece, too! I thank him for still letting me wax on a little bit about this special little battle armor.
When it was first published, the Salamander instantly became my favourite suit, and it has survived the test of time very well indeed. In his first specific article on the Elemental, sillybrit clearly established that the Elemental sets a universal bar for all battle armor; essentially, all following designs featured some form of specialisation or changed the perfect balance of mobility, armour, and weaponry. The Salamander falls squarely into the former philosophy by being an incendiary design and it excels in that parameter. I must confess that unlike jymset, it was the Salamander's Crusader partner, the Gnome, that earned my passion when the two designs were first published, although the venerable Elemental remained my favorite. Even so, I still acknowledged the Salamander's superb capabilities, fielding Points of all three designs when I ran Clan troops. I already had a tendency of setting fire to enemy troops, innocent buildings and just about anything else that didn't have my faction's insignia painted, stitched or tattooed on its side, so in that regard the Fire Mandrill's design did gain my favor, despite its lighter armor.
The Salamander we know today wasn't the first Battle Armor of that name, sharing it with an earlier anti-infantry incendiary design, that had fell out of favor as the Elemental not only drove conventional infantry from the frontline Clusters of most Clans, but also asserted its dominance over all the other Battle Armor types that had appeared in the late 29th century. From the beginning, one thing that caught my eye was that the new model Salamander was originally described as a guerilla fighter and counter-insurgency weapon, which shows how far the Clan Fire Mandrills were willing to stretch the traditional Clan code of warfare. It's hard to imagine there being much need for either counter-insurgency or guerilla troops in the typical combat Trial, but Kindraa Faraday-Tanaga clearly recognized the benefit of units designed for those roles on the wilder worlds of the Inner Sphere. Another notable feature was the appearance of the suit itself, in particular its legs, which seemed to me to be purely mechanical and presumably requiring that the wearer crouch inside the torso, although the body appears to be too small to hold an Elemental warrior in such a manner.
jymset: The Salamander first appeared in Field Manual: Crusader Clans and was the first new Clan battle armor next to the Gnome, which simply increased weapons and armour of the Elemental at expense of speed. As such, the Salamander is the Clans' first truly specialised suit, which is the very reason why it always stood out amongst its contemporaries. It retained the speed/mobility of the Elemental, but gives up armour protection in order to change weaponry and abilities. While the armour change from 10 to 7 points may seem questionable, it makes a good deal of sense in a Clan environment, retaining some threshold protection versus two of the most common anti-battle armor weapons, the Clan Pulse and ER Medium Lasers. And the frills of the suit were downright sexy.
Dual flamers as the main weaponry truly underline the incendiary aspect of the design, with a theoretical maximal capability of causing +20 heat in 'Mechs (capped at 15 in Total Warfare). Beyond that, its direct-fire weaponry essentially represented a doubling of the Elemental's sustained firepower. To add insult to injury, the SRM – downgraded to a single tube with a single shot – was originally automatically of incendiary type.
But this fearsome arsenal was not all, for the Salamander introduced two special abilities which have since then translated into construction materials, one of which has become of essential importance to Jade Falcon Clan designs. The Salamander was immune to flame-based attacks, resurrecting a concept initially integral to the Elemental, but lost in one of the early rules changes. Once construction rules were devised, this translated into fire-resistant armour, which has become possibly the most valuable protective gear ahead even of various stealth devices, as it eliminates the most lethal danger to armoured troopers. The armouring of the suit also indirectly caused one of the two subtle rule changes in the Salamander design: nowadays, its Inferno missile tube is simply a (OS) SRM1, but by virtue of the fire-resistant armour, there are no drawbacks using it with Infernos (whereas non-fire-resistant suits face nasty penalties when carrying the volatile ordnance).
The Salamander originally also received a -1 to hit bonus for leg and swarm attacks, which has since translated into magnetic claws. The other change in rules, slightly more significant, is that these claws nowadays only convey that bonus for swarm, but no longer for leg attacks. Of course, with its glorious weaponry, the one thing that the Salamander should never do is perform leg attacks. I'll disagree a little with jymset there, but only a little, and it's more a matter of personal preferences than a strict guideline. While I do acknowledge that the Salamander is at its best when Swarming, and indeed one of the best at Swarming, I do use them for Leg Attacks in circumstances when I need instant results or I want to cripple a 'Mech instead of killing it. If I do gimp a 'Mech after such an assault, I do then like to follow up with a Swarm where possible, a combination that one victim called a "shake and bake", but that's only if I feel I can afford the delay before the Battle Armor start inflicting damage. Against vehicles, I show no such reserve and will happily pile on them until the paint blisters.
jymset: If anything, the Salamander had too many capabilities. Back on its release, I was not a constant user of battle armor, but I certainly turned to the Salamander more often than all other suits, combined. And when I did, I almost always used it in the incendiary, nay, heat induction function. I would aggressively attack 'Mechs and cause as much havoc (heat) within the shortest possible time span, until the troopers were all killed by return fire. Treating them as expendable worked too well to consider any more subtle modus operandi and at first I never used the ability to swarm at all. Swarming and incendiary attacks do represent two key abilities for the Salamander, but with the new damage rules for conventional infantry that were introduced in Total War, it finally earned its reputation as an incredibly powerful anti-infantry design. Assuming both Flamers hit, on average a Point of Salamanders could kill 61 infantry, or to put it another way an entire platoon per Flamer. All but ignored by some players, or fired off as soon as possible almost as an afterthought, the single SRM shot offers another useful ability when loaded with an Inferno, with a salvo capable of automatically killing a single Battle Armor suit. Unlike other attacks against Battle Armor, Inferno hits simply accumulate during the Turn, and once all attacks are done then for every three Infernos one suit is destroyed, no matter how thick its armor, unless it also possesses fire resistance. With the release of Tactical Operations, it was also apparent that the Salamander was a capable marine boarding suit, with its paired Magnetic Claws offering superior capability than the Elemental's single Battle Claw.
With such formidable capabilities, it's easy to understand why the Salamander has managed to spread throughout all the Clans. However, two Clans weren't content with the standard suit and developed their own variants to suit their particular battlefield needs and doctrines, with one of those variants spreading to two more Clans. The first of these redesigns was initially fielded by Clan Wolf during the FedCom Civil War, before eventually being taken up by the Snow Ravens and Goliath Scorpions; dubbed the Salamander (Laser), this variant simply replaces one of the Flamers with an ER Micro Laser, exchanging the incendiary anti-infantry firepower for slightly better range. From an in-universe perspective, I can see this model working well as a marine suit for the Snow Ravens, able to use its Flamer for room clearance, while its laser provides a more precise recoil-free attack. In the case of the Wolves and Scorpions, they presumably felt that the single incendiary weapon provided enough heat and anti-infantry capability, and instead wanted another weapon that expanded the other aspects of the design, however modest that improvement might be.
The second variant of the Salamander did not appear until after the start of the Jihad and apparently is only found in the ranks of the Jade Falcons, who are keen users of fire resistant Battle Armor. Presumably designed or at least conceived before Total War was finalized, when machine guns were the only weapons to inflict bonus damage against infantry, the Falcon's variant is designated the Salamander (Anti-Infantry), but here I will defer to jymset to describe its performance.
jymset: TRO 3058U was released one or two months before Total Warfare with its updated anti-infantry weapon rules. In conjunction with these new rules, I was utterly underwhelmed by both variants, including the Jade Falcon's (Anti-Infantry) version. The straight swap of the flamers for heavy machine guns no longer represented an upgrade, but in actual fact a downgrade of anti-infantry capabilities, leaving me scratching my head. The upgrade in firepower for a loss of AI capacity, range, and most importantly, the incendiary aspect of the design seemed unacceptable.
The label of (Anti-Infantry) is not deserved and indeed surely is a mischievous attempt at deception, for upon returning to it recently, I had a moment of clarity. I stated above that I had never really used the Salamander's excellent swarming capabilities, but the (Anti-Infantry) variant is a brilliant attempt at reconciling the suit with the anti-'Mech potential. And boy, does the (Anti-Infantry) variant excel at it. The swarm rules stipulate that swarming suits cause all damage of all arm-mounted weapons in a single location. Well with 2 guns at 3 damage for each of the 5 troopers, a full squad of Anti-Infantry Salamanders will cause gigantic 30-damage hits. Beyond that, two surviving troopers will suffice to cause a 2/36-chance headcap on a hapless 'Mech victim.
I revisited this design when I was looking at magnetic claws while pondering on their optimal use. The Salamander already does it, already uses them optimally. I was unable to come up with any realistic modification that would further improve the design. The bottom line is: the Salamander (Anti-Infantry) is the single most deadly canon suit as far as swarm attacks are concerned. Clan Fire Mandrill was one of the casualties of the Wars of Reaving and, with Shadow apparently abandoned after the destruction of the Society, unless one of the surviving Clans relocated the factory or builds a new facility, it appears that the Salamander is in danger of sharing its parent's fate, at least in Clanspace. Luckily for the Inner Sphere Clans, Sudeten emerged from the Jihad unscathed, so at worst it's just a matter of negotiating with the Falcons or defeating them in a Trial to obtain new supplies. It's not certain that the Wolves' Salamander factory survived the nuclear strikes by the Blakists in their Scouring of Tamar, but given that some factories on the world have survived, it's a hopeful sign.
Despite the increasing diversity of Clan Battle Armor, the Salamander remains the design to beat in its particular niches. No other suit, whether Clan or Inner Sphere, can compete with the ferocious Swarm attack of the Anti-Infantry variant, while the standard model remains the incendiary design par excellence. Among the Medium Battle Armor class, none can match the Salamander's brutal performance in close quarters against conventional infantry, and despite its lack of space adaptations it's still one of the better choices for marine boarding operations. As this impressive pedigree shows, the Fire Mandrill's legacy remains strong, even as the Clan itself is consigned to the history books.
Next up:
- Sylph
- Undine
- Enhanced Sylph
- Elemental II