The Salamanders faction in Kings of War offers a fiery mix of durable infantry, monstrous creatures, and versatile units that can adapt to a variety of battlefield roles. With the Clash of Kings 2025 update now out, I’m continuing to update faction reviews. For this review, I re-ran the Elo simulation function for 1.25 million simulated combats to identify Elo ratings for each unit. There are likely still mistakes that I’m working out with the changeover in COK 2025, so please speak up if you see any anomalies.
Today, we turn to the Salamanders, a fun list with a lot of variety and balance. With a focus on Crushing Strength and keywords like Fireborn, Steady Aim, and Pathfinder, Salamanders strike a balance between offensive power and tactical utility. Here’s an in-depth analysis of their key stats and unit performance.
Faction Summary
- Faction: Salamanders
- Total Units: 42
- Units with Crushing Strength ≥ 1: 30
- Units with Piercing ≥ 1: 5
- Average Points: 159.9 (Global Avg: 146.3)
- Average Defense: 4.2 (Global Avg: 4.3)
- Average Melee: 4.0 (Global Avg: 3.7)
- Average Speed: 6.2 (Global Avg: 6.4)
- Unique Keywords (count): 22
- Top Keywords: Crushing Strength (30), Fireborn (16), Steady Aim (15), Vicious (13), Pathfinder (12)
Note: This summary only includes non-individual units.
Salamanders excel at dealing damage in melee, leveraging their superior Crushing Strength, though their average Melee of 4.0 is slightly worse than the global average. Their overall speed and defense are slightly below the global average, emphasizing their role as a faction that thrives in mid-field skirmishes and heavy infantry engagements. While they don’t have much piercing shooting, their abundance of Crushing Strength makes them effective against high-defense armies—provided they can close quickly and start putting out damage.
Most Cost-Effective Units
Here are the Salamanders’ top-performing units based on their cost-effectiveness. This metric evaluates a unit’s Elo rating and battlefield impact relative to its point cost:
| Unit Name & Size | Speed | Shots to 6 Nerve | Avg Hits | Points | Elo | Cost Effectiveness | % Kills vs Def 4, 13/15 | % Kills vs Def 5, 16/18 | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancients, T | 4 | 42 | 9.1 | 120 | 1996 | 1.57 | 35.5% | 2.6% | Crushing Strength(1), Inspiring |
| Ancients, R | 4 | 66 | 10.3 | 185 | 2585 | 1.24 | 41.6% | 3.9% | Crushing Strength(1), Inspiring |
| Salamander Primes (2HW), H | 5 | 34 | 14.3 | 215 | 2815 | 0.79 | 88.1% | 39.1% | Crushing Strength(2), Fireborn |
| Salamander Primes, H | 5 | 51 | 14.2 | 215 | 2783 | 0.75 | 70.2% | 16.6% | Crushing Strength(1), Fireborn |
| Greater Fire Elemental, M | 6 | 36 | 7.7 | 175 | 2129 | 0.66 | 36.5% | 8.5% | Crushing Strength(3), Pathfinder, Shambling, Vicious(Melee) |
- Ancients (Troop and Regiment): These units combine Inspiring and Crushing Strength to offer high reliability at a low cost. They’re excellent anchors for your battle line. They’re not going to take off anything in one go, but defense 6 on an inspiring, fearless unit that’s not too expensive is a fantastic way to anchor your line.
- Salamander Primes (2HW): This horde is a standout example of how two-handed weapons shine on large units. Upgrading from Crushing Strength (1) to Crushing Strength (2) makes their 25 attacks hitting on 4s exceptionally potent. At only 215 points with a solid 21/23 nerve, they can absorb punishment and deliver devastating countercharges. Check out my detailed discussion on the value of two-handed weapons on hordes here.
- Greater Fire Elemental: This monster delivers consistent melee damage with Crushing Strength (3) and excellent utility through Pathfinder, which isn’t widely spread across the list. The Fireball (8) with the potential for being surged after shooting provides some fun combos. While it only has 8 attacks, me 3+ and vicious with cs(3) means that anything that hits will stick, so it does more than you’d think.
Key Takeaways
- High Crushing Strength Density: With 30 out of 42 units possessing Crushing Strength, Salamanders have no shortage of tools for cracking armored opponents.
- Vicious Damage Output: Vicious amplifies the faction’s overall damage potential, ensuring that their Crushing Strength is fully leveraged in combat. This combination makes Salamanders exceptionally deadly once they’re able to engage their opponents in melee.
- Fireborn Grinding Synergy: The Fireborn keyword enhances thematic synergy and provides access to units with strong elemental damage potential. It also grants valuable grinding potential through Lifeleech (+1 for each friendly core unit with the Inferno keyword). While tricky to pull off, this allows Salamanders to sustain themselves effectively in prolonged combats. The trick, of course, is weathering enemy shooting to close the range.
- Limited Piercing Units: Only 5 units in the faction have Piercing ≥ 1, making Salamanders more reliant on melee to deal with armored foes. The scorchwings can shoot, but they were nerfed in COK 2024 and haven’t made much of a comeback since. That said, most of the tournament lists we’re seeing employ a mixed-arms approach and leverage shooting. It’s well-suited for clearing out chaff, but I don’t think the Salamanders can run anything resembling a gun line and still deal with high defense opponents.
- Tyrants are a Trap: I know 30 attacks on 4s with the brew of sharpness feels good, but similar to the Frostfang cavalry in the Northern Alliance, it just becomes a high-point magnet for enemy shooting. The Salamanders don’t have enough countershooting to keep them alive, so I suggest you skip the points sink.
Historical Tournament List Analysis for Salamanders
This analysis is based on 12 tournament lists. This section analyzes historical tournament lists for Salamanders from major events. The statistics below represent an “average” list, scaled to 2300 points for consistency.
Key Statistics (Scaled to 2300 Points):
- Average points spent on items: 59.1
- Average number of units: 12.9
- Average unit strength: 25.0
- Average number of scoring units: 10.9
- Average power concentration (Gini): 50.8
- Average defense concentration (Gini): 41.3
- Average speed: 6.6
- Average number of units with Nimble: 4.0
- Average number of units with Shambling: 2.2
- Average defense: 4.5
- Average total nerve: 207.1
- Average shots to reach 6 nerve: 338.2
- Average number of units with Regen: 1.7
- Average number of units with Heal: 9.2
- Average number of units with Iron Resolve: 0.0
- Average number of units with Lifeleech: 0.2
- Average number of units with Stealthy: 0.7
- Average total number of attacks: 139.0
- Average total number of ranged attacks: 61.7
- Average expected damage against Def 4+: 60.0
- Most common objective rating: B
- Most common movement rating: B
- Most common defense rating: B
- Most common offense rating: B
Visualizing Salamander Unit Trends
Cost vs. Combined Cost Effectiveness
This scatter plot highlights the relationship between unit point costs and their overall cost-effectiveness.
Unit Cost Distribution
A histogram showing the spread of Salamander unit costs. The majority of units fall between 100 and 200 points, emphasizing mid-tier options.
Unit Type Distribution
Bar chart illustrating the types of units available in the Salamander roster. Heavy Infantry dominates, reflecting the faction’s core playstyle.
Conclusion
Salamanders are a faction built around Crushing Strength and quickly closing to melee. Their heavy infantry and monsters excel at holding the line and delivering decisive blows. While they have some shooting, the lack of piercing and the nerf to scorchwing spam means they’re heavily reliant on using terrain and positioning to get into melee and grind. Players who enjoy dominating melee engagements and capitalizing on thematic synergy will find Salamanders to be a rewarding and competitive choice.
As always, feel free to share your thoughts, and let me know which Salamander units have performed best for you in your games!
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