Mephiston Lord of Death

[The Duck]

Mephiston Lord of Death

Hi All
New to blood angles and I am looking to start using Mephiston Lord of Death as my HQ and wondering if you could give some tips on the best way of using him as he is pretty heavy of the points but I understand when used right he is a good piece to have ! My first game is only 500 points, then going up in 250 points increments until 1000 points when I can bring in some heavy’s going up to 1500 points.

Any help or advise would be great.

Cheers

[Splug]

At 500 points Mephiston should be pretty much invincible and capable of singlehandedly killing your opponent's whole army. The biggest thing you'll have to worry about is your opponent possibly picking the model up and embedding it into your face.

In a larger game (1500+), he's much more balanced. He's capable of smashing tanks, infantry, IC's, and walkers with equal effectiveness. The biggest things to watch out for are AP2 shooting, particularly lascannons, plasma, or melta/fusion guns, as well as squads with multiple power fists / thunder hammers. Rending/poisoned attacks are potentially bad as well. TH/SS Assault terminators, Fire dragons, Wraithguard, and poisoned Genestealers are all examples of scary units for Mephiston. Remember you have a potential 24" assault range (12" jump infantry move, 1-6" run, 6" assault), so the best way to avoid getting shot by things like fire dragons or wraithguard is to assault them first - just be aware that you're prone to kill them all and be standing there vulnerable to return fire. Don't finish a turn where you won't be able to get cover from long range AP 2 like lascannons, or where scary assault troops can reach you. While you CAN assault pretty much anything and do damage, your target of choice will be troop units with no invulnerable save. Tactical squads are an excellent victim - the power fist guy might score a random wound, but he'll lose 3-5 guys first and the squad will probably be stuck in combat to shield Mephiston from retaliatory fire, dying out in a turn or two.

[The Duck]

Cheers Splug for advice. I just need to get to grip with what he can do and against what. Need to do some research on the best use of his powers.
Cheers again

[addamsfamily36]

personally, and don;t take this the wrong way, but i think that taking Mephiston at 500 points is both incredibly cheeky and a bad tactic.

Cheeky because well it jsut is.

Tactically, its half your force. And trust me He can and will die, if your opponent jsut has the right things.

right as for bigger games 1500 + heres what i have found him useful and strong against, and also what ive found him weak at.


Strong points:
- character killer! he will take on most characters and some monstrous creatures in the game and he will kill them before they can lift a finger. a combination of transfixing gaze and force weapon is great for this.
- he can fleet!! yup, with wings thats a 12" move, a 1-6" fleet and then an assault (if in range ) of 6". He has the potential for a minimum of 19" charge range to a maximum of 24"!!!
- Sanguine sword, strength 10? yes please. Tank hunter by himself. Is that a wraithlord? yup wounding on 2's!!!
- Tough nut, can be used to draw fire/lead units on a wild goose chase because people fear him!



Weak points:
- character retinues: the problem with retinues is that Mephiston can't kill everyone in one turn. he either doesn't have enough attacks, or he will occasionally fail to hit or wound. so do you pick the character or the reinue? it really depends on what your facing. if the retinue packs low strength weapons which are not power weapons, then target the character. if there are alot of power weapons such as power fists, thunder hammers etc, then perhaps its best to target the retinue. In these situations its best if Mephiston has some support or to target the most threatening unit, either character or retinue. In this way you can reduce the risk of being swamped in a combat.

- Cannot be joined by another unit as has no independent character rule.

- No invunerable save - His biggest weakness, but one that i think is fair considering the monster he is.

- keep him shielded with terrain etc, from shooting armies/units. 3 war walkers guided and then Mephiston doomed, will make mince meat of him. Obviously your psychic hood can counter the powers, but those war walkers could have scatter lasers two each thats something like 24 strength 6 shots.



A few additional notes - try to keep him near a priest if you can. feel no pain on mephiston is a very very WISE move.

He has a plasma pistol. it might be good but the amount of times you might get an over heat and then lose a wound because of it is highly annoying (or i might just be unlucky)

Well those are my thoughts. hope that helps.

[Nungunz]

I'll approach this from a different angle. I play primarily IG and Tyranids and I have never had a problem killing Mephiston. When I play IG, he's usually dead on turn 1 and when I play nids he's dead by turn 2 (or I hold him up with cheap/expendable units).

Remember that he isn't an IC so you can't attach him to a squad......he also doesn't have an invulnerable save. Lascannons, Lances, Plasmaguns, Meltaguns, a lot of ordinance, powerweapons/fists/claws/etc., a ton of poisoned attacks, Monstrous Creature with Lash Whips, can all bring him down without much effort.

A group of 20 toxin sac hormagaunts can easily put 2-3 wounds on him in a round of combat and keep him stuck there a game turn or two. A 160 points unit just kept him busy for a good chunk of the game and maybe inflicted 2-4 wounds on him.

A lash-whip Tyrant with hormaguant or termagant support can drop him in a round before he can even attack.

A pair of Vendettas can put 4-5 wounds on him in a turn. And then melta/plasma/tanks will finish him off.


He can be crazy deadly, but be careful with him. He isn't invincible by any means. The Sanguinor can take more damage than Mephiston can.

[Fueldrop]

a friend of mine plays blood angels and sometimes proxies mephiston. one game in particular stands out as my farseer almost killed maphiston from the other side of the board, while safely hidden in a tank! how, you may ask.

runes of warding. maphiston managed to fail every psychic check he was called on to make, taking a wound every time. it got to the point where he was too scared to use his powers.
so my advice: make psychic defenses a top priority target, particularly if they can make you suffer PotW.

[Xas]

dont play him in 500pts. it will not be fun. either for you (against ppl who know what to do against him. it would take my nids ~150pts to securely nail him in one round of melee) or your oponent.

at 1500pts +there is just two things to remember:
keep him out of sight (mephi loves landraiders to hide behind).
keep him seperated from other squads in melee. I once had mephiston charge a squad of gaunts that was also charged by death company. the next turn a brood of my tyranid warriors went in with boneswords and slaughtered the death company while mephiston only killed his share of gaunts, resulting in a -5 result for the blood angels and a fleeing death angel. this can happen with basically every army (even tau can, with help of kroot and luck kill more power armored dudes than mephiston alone kills kroot and therefore force a bad lds check on him without ever touching his t6 or 2+save) and is his 2nd big weakness.

3rd weakness is that all his powers rely on psychic stuff so be aware of shutdowns (IG has battlepsyker that redzue him to lds1, tyranids have both shadow that lets you roll with 3d6 AND deathleaper that lowers your lds by d3, eldar ahve runes, marines have hoods and space wolves have runic weapons. and yeah there is also mephistons best friend: bloodthirster with bessing of khorne that grants him a 2++ save against force weapons :D ).

[The Duck]

Cheers guys for the feedback.:D

What it is as I have only just started playing the shop is running a tournament starting at 500 points and increasing 250 points each week and finishing at 1500 points. Then after that a championship will be played at the 1500 points mark. The only rules are no heavies until 1000 points and you must keep the same HQ throughout the tournament.

[Tynskel]

I am not a fan of tournaments restricting access to the FOC. What if I play Blood Angels and Bring: 5 Man Assault Squad, Power Weapon, Flamer, Priest, Land Raider Redeemer w/Extra Armor and Multi-Melta, 5 Man Assault Squad with Power Weapon, Flamer, Land Raider Godhammer Lascannons and Extra Armor, and Mephiston----1000 Points.

I didn't bring any heavies, but it sure feels like I did! and, you better hope you packed enough firepower that are not heavies to take me down!

Well, I guess 1000 points you can take heavies.

Ok: 750 Land Raider Redeemer Ex Armor, Multi-Melta, 5 Man Assault Marines, Power Weapon, Flamer. Mephiston, 5 Man Assault Squad, Powerfist, Flamer, Razorback.

I'd bet you'd still wish you had heavies!

[Xas]

actually nowadays only a very few races bring their anti-tank in the heavy support slot because the stock meltagun is so much better.


but on the OP: if they have the restriction that your 1500pts HQ has to be present in the 500 army then by all means take mephiston. it is not YOUR fault when people are not haveing fun because of restrictions :).

[Tynskel]

I am well aware that short ranged anti-tank is in fusion weaponry. However, effective long range anti-tank in most armies is in the Heavy Support-- which is generally what you want when you are fighting short ranged land raiders.

[The Duck]

Played two games last night (Grey knights and Choas) and in both games i won ! The grey knight player just could believe how fast i got to assault and when i hit him with strength 10 attack it left him speechless !
Thanks again guys for you help

FTM The 500 point army i ran was Mephiston, 2 squads of assaults marine and a land speeder.
Next week is 750

Thanks again guys :D

[dannyat2460]

I played a little game of a 1000pts the other week against a lad that isnt the best gamer and ive been putting off playing him so to save time unpacking I only brought Mephiston to the table deployed him 12" in in area terain letting him go 1st from all his fire power took a wound then used wings which i took a wound for perils but i passed on D1s then failed the terain test so down to 2 wounds I then fired my Plasma pistol again rolling D1s so losing yet another wound unfortuantly for him tho i was in charge range and got into combat with a squad that started moving on my position and from there proceded to mop up the rest of his squads, now even with my extreamly bad 1st turn rolling loseing 2 wounds to my own rolling i still won the game with only losing one other wound in a round of combat to a power fist, now if this isnt an overpowered super character when used correctly then i dont know what is

[DarkLink]

Played two games last night (Grey knights and Choas) and in both games i won ! The grey knight player just could believe how fast i got to assault and when i hit him with strength 10 attack it left him speechless !
Thanks again guys for you help

FTM The 500 point army i ran was Mephiston, 2 squads of assaults marine and a land speeder.
Next week is 750

Thanks again guys :D

You were surprised:confused:? There's absolutely nothing that a GK player can do against Mephiston whatsoever at that point level, except pray you roll nothing but 1's for your armor saves.

[addamsfamily36]

I played a little game of a 1000pts the other week against a lad that isnt the best gamer and ive been putting off playing him so to save time unpacking I only brought Mephiston to the table deployed him 12" in in area terain letting him go 1st from all his fire power took a wound then used wings which i took a wound for perils but i passed on D1s then failed the terain test so down to 2 wounds I then fired my Plasma pistol again rolling D1s so losing yet another wound unfortuantly for him tho i was in charge range and got into combat with a squad that started moving on my position and from there proceded to mop up the rest of his squads, now even with my extreamly bad 1st turn rolling loseing 2 wounds to my own rolling i still won the game with only losing one other wound in a round of combat to a power fist, now if this isnt an overpowered super character when used correctly then i dont know what is


No, that guy just doesn't know how to play 40k

[Caldera02]

You know who kills Mepphy? Vect does....

[dannyat2460]

No, that guy just doesn't know how to play 40k

that is true hes not the most confident gamer in the world but we all started somewhere and im sure when you first started you wernt exactly putting people to shame with your tactics...



You know who kills Mepphy? Vect does....

mephiston: "vect and what army..."

<looks slowly around him>

mephiston: "... oh that army"

Vect: "lol"