The Emergence of Mephiston! How I play him.

We all know that Mephiston is a deadly foe. He can single handedly tear through entire armies. But his two major weaknesses have kept him out of most Blood Angels armies.  His lack of an invulnerable save, and his whopping point cost.  Most guys have him figured out, especially IG. Roll up a couple chimeras full of vets, and rapid fire plasma. One dead vampire.  T-hammer termies own him.

But I have to say, over the last couple months I have fallen into a renewed love affair with him, and he is kicking ass. He rarely dies, and when he does it is because I left him unsupported and in the open after wiping out a squad. Allow me to tell you how I have been using him to beat face. It's no big secret really, the Storm Raven.

Once the model came out, I started playing the unit in my list. To go along with it, I also started playing Meph and a Furioso inside of it.  This combo has been tearing it up.  I first used it at Templecon to go 2-0-1, finishing 2nd or 3rd, I forget. Why did I not win? Mephiston had two wounds left and had to kill a dread for me to win. I rolled Box Cars for preferred enemy, and box cars again for STR 10.  Dead Meph. Drawn game. Not much you can do about that!  Then I made some changes to my list and played him at Valentines Day Massacre. I went 3-2, with three undeniably overwhelming victories. I lost my two games because of mistakes I made. No excuses, I fooked up. I learned.  

Last weekend, I played in a local 3 game tournament, and won. Mephiston was a terror! I went 2-0-1, getting a draw in game three. (Another guy finished higher than me but with an unpainted army, giving me the win.) I sent in Meph to destroy a 5 man squad and failed to do so in two rounds... perhaps the luckiest 5 man marine squad in the history of the game. That tied me up long enough for a T-hammer squad to get in and whack a mole Meph. Again though, the draw was a mistake. I over extended and left Meph unsupported with two squads of hammertime sitting in raiders waiting for him to come. He used Lysander to pop my furioso at the same time by the way.  :(

More on that later.

Mephiston's Personal Ride.

So what am I doing? I equip the Storm Raven with multi melta and las. First turn is key. If I win the roll, I take it. Depending on how much fire power he has I will either turbo boost my Raven 24" right into his face and take a shot at a high priority tank with the Multi, or I will move 6 and fire all the missiles at juicy targets. I did this to help destroy most of a Dark Eldar army on turn one. Raiders hate Bloodstrike Missiles.  

Turn one cover save snag on the Raven!

Hopefully by next turn, my Land Raider has caught up enough so that I can disembark the raven and the raider and assault enmasse. I will usually send the Furioso after large infantry squads, and Mephiston after smaller ones.  Or send them in together. I send my termies after his hardest squad. Or simply after every thing I can.  Litinies and furious charge work well vs any thing, even tanks that moved 12". The Furioso is a blender capable of slaughtering dozens of models a turn. 

I typically don't send Mephiston after rock hard units. His lack of an invul save does mean he cannot take on a lot of power swords. I save those for the termies and send Meph after troops hanging around on objectives, and definitely after dreadnoughts. He is a dread killer. I will use him to take down threats to my Furioso, like enemy dreads or small squads with power fists. I will prioritize squads too. I will single out the squads that have lots of plasma/melta and assault those first. Don't want those rapid fireing on me when I wipe out a power fist squad. 

Mephiston is an IC killer. Provided that they are not eternal warrior, you send in Meph first and get base to base against the IC, then send in the furioso to get the squad. Preferred Enemy and STR 10 spell doom for any IC without eternal warrior or T6.  The odds are simply against him to make 3 to 6 invul saves at initiative 7 or 8. I always forget about Transfixing Gaze too which forces a -4 LD test and if failed Meph gets Preferred Enemy and Lightning Claws vs that IC. 

Units to avoid with Meph?  Hammertime. Unless you assault a squad of termies with a full squad of your own, with Meph helping out as well, keep him away. For that matter, avoid any squad with lots of Invul saves like Wychs.  

Be smart with your targets. It is crucial that after wiping out a squad, Meph ends up in cover. Ideally, you want to not wipe out the squad on the charge at all, instead finishing them up on your opponents turn. I will typically not even roll his preferred enemy power if I am against a soft squad because I want to stay in combat for a turn. On his turn I will use my powers and finish them off so that I am free to act on mine. 

Use vehicles wisely. When diving into a bees nest of angry IG or any other army that is packing a butt load of AP2, blocking Line of Sight with his massacre move is key. Try to aim your assaults so that you can massacre to the other side of dead tanks, or walls. Use his jump pack move and fleet to get to the other sides of units where there may be blocking terrain. Don't be happy with the closest starting assault position. Make sure you have a plan for after he wins. 

Remember he has fleet. You can move your Raven 12", disembark 2" from the base, fleet d6", and assault 6". That is a possible 26" threat range. If you deploy up in your zone, you can get assaults off on turn one. Very few guys are ever prepared for that. Just be careful with that tactic, a bad fleet will leave your butt hanging in the wind. He will almost assuredly not survive an entire army teeing off on him. 

Ok thats it for now. You guys tell me, do you want more of this Blood Angels Tactics stuff? 

Jawaballs