Mephiston with Biomancy

[L30n1d4s]

I am relatively new to BA, so wanted to see what others thought. Giving up Wings, Sanguine Sword, and Preferred Enemy powers, Mephiston can alternately take powers from BA available Pyschic Disciplines, among them Biomancy.

 

The three Witchfire powers (Smite, Haemmorage, Life Leach) are decent, not the greatest for Mephiston, with Life Leach being the best due to its higher strength and regenerating wounds for him.

 

Endurance is great for buffing Mephiston (or a nearby friendly unit) and Enfeeble tilts close combat even further in Mephiston's favor (against Nid MCs, he would wound them on 3+, base, and they would wound him on a 5+, base).

 

Finally, the really good ones.... Iron Arm and Warp Speed. Iron Arm grants EW (Outstanding on Mephiston!) and +D3 S/T, potentially making him S9/T9. Warp Speed adds +D3 A and I (also Fleet, but he alread has that), for a potentiall of 9 attacks on the charge, all at the highest Initiative.

 

In my opinions, the best ones would be Endurance, Iron Arm, and Warp Speed (he gets to roll for 3, according the updated iBook BA Codex). All those taken together would give him, on average:

 

-8 S8 AP3 attacks at I9 on the charge with WS7 (and Fleet for charge re-rolls)

-T8, 5W, with EW, FNP, IWNT, and a 2+ save

 

 

The problem of course, is losing Wings of Sanguinus, meaning he has to get a ride to get into combat (either a Stormraven or a Land Raider), which is quite expensive.

 

Still, I think it could be a pretty potent tactic... any thoughts on or experiences with Mephiston and Biomancy?

[SvenONE]

Mephiston and Biomancy is like peanut butter and jelly.

 

I play a fair amount of BA players, I face either Mephiston or dante.  I can't think of a game where Mephiston WASNT rolling on biomancy (I want to say I've played at least 20 games vs Mephiston).  Against MEQs, Iron Arm is just about all he needs, everything else is just an added bonus.

 

There are also worse things than having to buy a landraider or a stormraven.  I recall one particular game in which I shot him out of his Stormraven and Ezekiel actually got a mind worm off, he successfully tarpited him for the rest of the game as opposed to the usual routine where he jumps out, and then proceeds to lawnmow all of my units.

[Morticon]

Well- it has to be said that until the electronic BA dex, Meph only rolled twice on the Psy power table. So unless you have access to that, you may have difficulty proving to your friends he actually can.

 

That being said, the greatest crits of Meph lies in his inability to deal with 2+ saves and specific other units. 

 

Taking away his maneuverability for resilience may work in some cases, but it makes him a really slow and predictable unit.  Thats not to say he wont/cant work- just that you amplify his weaknesses.

 

All in all, id like to try him again with 3 rolls- 2 definitely wasn't worth it in my mind.

[sabbacca]

My experience with both biomancy and the BA powers has been pretty one sided. Biomancy is fantastic if you roll correctly, but you end up hiding him from getting shredded by heretics/xenos while you foot slog him up the board. Transports help but only so much. I have had much more success using the wings to move him around as opposed to crossing my fingers on the biomancy rolls. Granted my local play group consists of a poop (oops lol) ton of Tau/Eldar and *shudder* Dark eldar. When I used biomancy he was eating 10-30 poison/plasma shots every turn unless I hid him behind/inside a box.