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| Dakka |
"Hi Kirby,
I'm a regular follower of your blog, and your articles are what helped me develop my Tau Army into the force it is today. Thanks! I'm looking to start a second army (after bringing my Tau to about 2.5k) and the concept of Blood Angels really appeal to me. I commented a while back about Blood Rodeo, and I want to fully explore the options available in the codex before committing to units and starting to buy them. Above all else, I really love Mephiston. I understand he doesn't have eternal warrior and is more susceptible to instant death, with the abundance of GK players around, but I would still love to build a list around him. On paper he seems to be a close combat beast, but he may have other uses and applications that aren't instantly apparent. Could you suggest a 1750 and 2000 point list built around the Lord of Death, and a short explanation of tactics on how he should be used?
Thanks! Looking forward to receiving great input, as per usual!
Anand"
I can't really suggest a single list built around him as there are...well there are a lot! I would obviously avoid a foot army as Mephiston has two major weaknesses. He's not an IC and he doesn't have an invul. That said he has one huge advantage. He's an infantry-sized mini-MC which makes him really easy to hide. What hides Marine sized models? Rhinos and Razorbacks.
With this in mind I'd be looking to make a mechanised list (whether pure Mech or Hybrid Mech) with Mephiston as combat and utility support. Remember Mephiston has a psychic hood so is going to provide psychic defense. What mech or hybrid lists allow is a place for Mephiston to easily hide and from there, engage the enemy. Unfortunately he's not always going to be able to keep up with mech due to psychic defenses (Wings being hooded) but with proper placement he's going to be well hidden and hard to kill with shooting. When we get to combat however, the lack of invulnerable save becomes more apparent. Whilst T6 provides great protection against instant death from conventional means, Mephiston isn't beastly enough to be going toe to toe with assault units which are going to put out lots of armor ignoring attacks. For this reason, Mephiston is basically a beater unit and does well at chewing through squads but against specific targets, dies quickly as well.
With this in mind you can now apply him to your army. Do you want Mephiston to be your close combat security and run small ASM squads and allow Mephiston to be used as a beat-stick in combat or do you want Mephiston to run support to larger combat units? I'd personally prefer the former list style which allows your ASM more freedom to use their melta-type weapons and takes the pressure off them in assault. The army is still going to avoid assaults against good combat units but has more options in this regard.
There are of course other options surrounding Mephiston and you can often fit him into most BA lists by replacing the Librarian and point tweaking. As long as you look at what he brings to the army and remember what he is not, Mephiston should find a solid place in your army.
