Which should be my Warlord?

[Father Mapple]

Hey all. Going to a tournament in 2 weeks. Made this list. Been trying it out. Am I missing anything? I can't decide whether Mephiston or Astorath should go in the Stormraven, be the only unit deployed, or most importantly, which to be the warlord.

• Astorath the Grim
  
• Mephiston, Lord of Death
  
• Furioso Dreadnought Frag Cannon, Blood Fist with Built-in Heavy Flamer. Drop Pod- Locator Beacon, Storm Bolter
  
• 8x Death Company 7x Bolter, 7x Chainswords, 1x Power Fist, 1x Bolt Pistol. Drop Pod - Locator Beacon, Storm Bolter
  
• 5x Death Company 5x Bolt Pistol, 3x Chainswords, Lemartes (so 6 total), 2x Power Axes, 5x Jump Pack
  
• Death Company Dreadnought2x Blood Talons with Meltagun and Stormbolter, 1x Magna Grapple. Drop Pod - Locator Beacon, Storm Bolter
  
• Stormraven Gunship Twin Linked Assault Cannon, Twin Linked Multi Melta, Hurricane Bolter Sponsons, 4 Bloodstrike Missiles
  
• Stormraven Gunship Twin Linked Assault Cannon, Twin Linked Multi Melta, 4 Bloodstrike Missiles
  

It plays like this: Normally, Mephiston is the only unit deployed. Two dreadnoughts come down in turn 1. Lemartes and 5 Death Co either go in 1 Stormraven and jump out on first move or come down with Descent of Angels on turn 2+. Astorath goes in the other Stormraven with the idea of jumping out on the turn it enters the board on turn 2+. Units inside the Stormravens always jump out to provide multiple targets for the interceptor fire. Death company in Drop Pod meet up with Astorath for rerolls, and come down turn 2+. 

 

My questions are: Do I make Astorath or Mephiston the warlord, and either way, who should be the one model deployed at the start of the game?

 

Astorath as warlord - 2+ and 4++, can be buried in a unit of other guys and guaranteed 12" movement, but T4, and an unweildy weapon if he gets into combat (he probably will), but he's not the instant fire magnet Mephiston is whether warlord or not.

 

Mephiston as warlord - 2+ and T6, fleet, and psker utility, but no invulnerable and can't be put in a unit. But can definitely fight his way out of most things, whether he has psyker powers or not, and makes people change how they deploy or react to him since he's such a bully.

 

Both can go in a Stormraven to be delayed a turn or two before coming on the board, but I feel like Mephiston is such a wonderful multi-use tool on the battlefield - but I don't want to give up First Blood AND Warlord if possible.

 

One lascannon will kill Astorath if I flub the invulnerable, but Mephiston will die to S8 AP2 shots... just need 5 of them and there's no invulnerable.

 

So which do you think should be warlord? Mephiston or Astaroth? And explain why, if you can. Thanks!

[Toomanyprojects]

My instinct would be to go for astorath as the warlord, and stick him in with a unit of death company.

 

Not entirely sure hey I believe that :) but I do believe that Mephy as your warlord is just too risky

[Ushtarador]

I would never make Mephiston my Warlord if I can ;) He is in my opinion equal to the Queen in chess - the strongest piece on my board, but always something I will willingly sacrifice if it is worth it. If the game is not one-sided, my Mephi almost never survives, so if I can keep that victory point from my opponent, all the better!

[Chaplain Admetus]

Mephiston. Your list can't win by objectives outside of Big Guns Never Tire when you can try and pinch some with the ravens, so you're going to be playing to table in pretty much every game. With this in mind, giving up Warlord is kind of a moot point. Mephy is also more survivable than Asty unless you're up against plasma, but if you can get him into cover you should be ok. Yeah, 5 S8 AP2 wounds will get Mephiston, but Astorath will go down twice over by that point. If you roll on the Personal warlord traits table, you've got a 1/3 chance of making back the VPs your army can't gain (Legendary Fighter and Immovable Object), both of which Meph makes better use of than Asty. He's also easier to hide (smaller model) and can get where he's going better thanks to fleet. You're also under no obligation at all to have a single model on the tabletop - you could deploy Asty/Lemmy/DC as a unit, and give Meph his own personal gunship to ride in. I'd say Meph any day of the week - harder to drop, and even if he does give up Warlord there's a better than even chance he's already pimp-slapped the opposing warlord into the middle of next week.

[Father Mapple]

The tournament has a very unique method of bidding by both players to pick the mission and deployment, so I can effectively ensure that I will never play multiple objectives. It'll be either Relic or kill points since no one wants a "random" default deployment where they can't put models where they want to (except other drop pod/null deploy lists) and if it looks like it'll be D3 objectives, I can bump it with my own bidding to another Relic type of mission. You can see the packet here: http://railheadrumble.com/The%20Railhead%20Rumble.pdf

 

So the warlord and other secondary points are pretty crucial to me, if my goal is to tie up the Relic (either by making them move to it and making it easy to assault them, or just going for kill points which I can win most days except versus Daemon MC Smash).

 

So 2 votes against Mephiston, and 1 for him.

 

There's a lot of good advice here!

[Xenith]

You're going to be throwing the DC (and Astar) into the toughest things your opponent has.

Mephy works better going after squishy scoring units.

 

Warlord should be a fluid thing. If there's enough LOS blocking terrain to keep Meph safe, pick him.

 

You can always keep him safe in the raven.

[Demoulius]

Having no experience playing Mephi I can appreciate the reputation he has with people. I think peeople will jump through hoops to kill him asap. Making him your warlord would make t he decision easier for them. If you make Astaroth your warlord you have a warlord with an invul save and one who has some very tough wounds to hide behind.

 

Make your opponent decidce between killing Mephi and your warlord, instead of just Mephi :p