Mephiston, and my issues with him

[Whoop!]

I played against Mephisticon for the first time this week. That sucked! He was just chomping away at my troops, and that toughness 6 is a killer. I even reworked my Grey Hunters to take a powerfist to add a little more punch. I already have the guard with a PF attached. Ill be posting an updated list to my Storm Wolves 2500 to my blog, but only for play testing. So what Whoop! wants to know is this.

What ways has this made you guys change your armies?

[celldwellwer]

He has not made me chagne my army at all.

[Whoop!]

Thanks Jailbird, real helpful.

[fuzzbuket]

think of mestaphosion as a fex- arfter 2 turns of lascannons, meltas, plasma, massed bolters HE WILL DIE

killing him in CC is a bad idea! lure him with some cheap wolf scouts- then position your firepower within shooting distance!

[Whoop!]

I thought I had him cold, until I found out he was FLEET. Oops, my bad.

Hungry for some long fangs to wet the palette? Here, eat these! How bout a pack of bloodclaws as a main course, lead by a wolf guard and wolf priest? Still hungry? I guess gray hunters and a rune priest will make a tidy desert.

I took apart everything else in his army while that bllod sucker ate through three units, two IC's, and about 30 models in CC. He still had a couple of wounds on him too!

[DECOY]

The best way to deal with Mephiston or any "D-bag" character is to slow them with foder units and shoot them til their dead. I treat him just like a squad of terminators, fire enough at him and 1's will eventually be rolled. Hell the last time I faced him the guy actually killed himself from perils of the warp causing 2 wounds to himself. Granted I had to pump him full of lead for two turns from two different units, but ... 1 he was the only thing worth shooting at the time, and 2 the player was dumb enough to belive the guy is invincible. Yes he's a BEAST, but a killable beast. You shouldn't have to change your list just because "he's" running aound.

[Whoop!]

I just realized how I don't really have an answer for high toughness & high wound count in my army. I was alos surprised by the fact that a wolf priest and a wolf guard with a power fist still couldn't more than one wound assualt round on that monster.

Am I the only newer player that thought they had a awesome list going, only to be shown a huge flaw? I think playtesting is there so that I can get the most balanced army possible, able to deal with all threats. That and I love messing with my army list anyway.

[plawolf]

Well you will only ever get a chance to shoot Mephiston to death before he hits your lines if the controlling player is inexperienced or careless with him.

A good BA player will only expose him to firepower as a decoy.

For example, sometimes I would stick him in the middle of nowhere inviting the opposition to shoot at him when he is next to a stormraven with a priest and libby inside with an honour guard squad and dred.

With FNP and a cover save as well as T6 means shooting at him with small arms is next to pointless. So you can either use those autocannons, lascannons etc on Meph or the two Stormravens full of assault units and dreds.

Either way you are facing the prospect of something really nasty in your lines next turn unless you get amazing luck.

The best way to counter him is to get a Hood or take stuff like Runes of warding if you can.

Without his powers, its going to take him about twice as long to get at you without transport, and is very rarely in a transport. If you have Runes, you will probably get him to put a wound or two on himself from perils before he gets close.

[DarkLink]

What is it with people talking about killing stuff with weight of fire? Facing Mephiston? Rapid fire him with bolters. Grey Knight Paladins with an apothecary? Bolters.

Seriously, do the math. It takes 270 bolter shots to kill mephiston, on average. You could literally sit down 2 full tactical squads and rapid fire him 6 turns in a row and you would have a less than 50% chance of killing him.

Power fists kill Mephiston. Plasma kills mephiston. Lascannons and meltaguns kill Mephiston. Not one power fist, nor one plasma, but several over several turns whittling away at his wounds. Once you can ignore his 2+ armor and his T6, then he isn't all that frightening.

Not Bolters.



That's not to say that you can't get lucky and put a wound on him with a stray bolter shot. It's not to say that you can't get absurdly lucky and actually manage to force enough wounds to kill him.

But if "more dakka" is your response to "how will I kill mephiston", you might as well just give up now. Don't plan for luck. And especially don't plan to be absurdly lucky.

Edit: Oh, and I didn't even account for if Mephiston has FNP. Then it's 4 full tac squads for 10 turns just to get close to a 50% chance of killing him.

[isotope99]

AP2 or less shooting or hidden power fists/klaws etc. are your best bets. If you don't have these then you are in trouble.