Eldar POV: Eldar vs. Tau w/ Blood Angel Allies

The confusion of others leave me happy. In this case, I was going for points, basically the win. The objective for me was in pushing the enemy army to the objectives with fewer points.  It helped that they stayed away from the trees where the high point count objective were and simply my weakest side. I used the cover provided by trees and ruins to assist in protecting the weakest side of my force. It also helped that the Tau troops and 2 Blood Marine armored units clogged up in the middle of their table edge making movement to the side they needed to be on next to impossible.  

Once I took out the tank on the high point side and cut the one troop unit in half with the explosion caused by the destruction, that side was mine. All I had to do was hold it and concentrate my forces on the opposite side. That all happened on the first turn which I started. It also set their mindset as it really ruined their communication.  Note to other players, play against a team who have familial ties.  Its fun to watch when they start blaming one another for inevitable results.
 
Anyways, this all worked well as my Fire Prism, Vyper and 2 Wraithlords drew much of the ire from the enormous firepower of the Tau and Blood Angels. The fact the they took it well is what surprised me.  I lost the Fire Prism but it took three rounds for that to happen.  Once again, the Fireprism is an awesome weapon, only its useless.  The odds of hitting are minimal.  The awesomeness comes in by the sheer amount of wrath it draws from the enemy.  Its like a freaken magnet and the fact is,  it was cheaper than the waveserpent and the two wraitlords.  

The first tactical error I made came from the deployment of my wave serpent from reserves on turn 2.  The intention was to use it to cut the table in half and get to the enemy table edge on that turn and flank a troop unit.  The problem that I immediately saw with this strategy, but after deployment, was that my rear end would be left wide open for a half of a troop unit of Tau.  Their firepower, though not strong since they were reduced, is massive at close range and I did not want to make that move.  I hated to do it but I had to flank them on the far side of the table from where I entered.  This made the Wave Serpent useless for a round and susceptible to attack.  Ultimately the battle showed this to be a good choice, but also questionable as well.

The goal at this point was to unload the Wraithblades and SpiritSeer on the far table edge for a pincer move.  This initially appeared to be a bad idea as the Tau brought in reserves on that exact table edge and drilled the mess out of my unit.  At that point I knew they were a loss and this proved to be tactical error number two, though once again, I was able to recover.  
I felt they would be able to handle the firepower of the Tau. I found out that they simply cannot at close range unless something else absorbs those hits.  I moved them into HTH and though they won the battle with the Tau, it was costly in both time and point value in a troop unit that was lost in a highly objective based game.  That said, the fact that they did live for a time left me better poised to win the game on turn 5 since most of the enemy was on the low point side of the table.

On turn 5, my tactics proved out to be tried and true as I had the potential to walk away with between 8 and 10 points. Unbelievably though my Vyper wrecked out entering the ruins for the 4 point objective.  My jetbikes, full unit of 5, got taken out in a mass of Tau firepower from a pretty good distance and while in a ton of tree cover for worthless cover saves.  

Disheartened but still winning we went another round.  I wiped the last of their troops on the one objective they had with a Wraithlord loaded with flamers.  He did his job and flamed them to death.  The Waveserpent, advanced behind enemy lines and took on the last remaining troop unit available to the enemy.  

The remaining turn had them running for an objective and having to take down one of my other my wraithlords which was also my warlord which for some reason was ignored the entire game. They needed both to win.

They tied me up on the last round by advancing into a 2 point objective. But being unable to take down the wraithlord who got deny the witch +1 from his warlord trait which saved him from the Librarian.  

So once again.  My Eldar are good enough to win but dice gods hate me just enough to force balance into my world as my forces tie yet again.  

I mean seriously, at this point, I am hating jetbikes.  They cant take a hit on a small space and they are worthless in the way of offensive capabilities.  My Vyper and Waveserpent adds proved themselves worth the points.  My Wraithlords, are downright awesome and simply need to be considered walking tanks. I used them slightly improperly but this was my first battle with them so I live and learn. They will be great back line support. Finally, my Wraithblades. They are great in HTH, they are not so great at getting there. The idea of Waveserpent Wraitblade combo was key, and in a slightly different scenario, they would be awesome, and they will be seen again. All in all, I am happy with my force and feel that with some very slight adjustment on luck on turn 5, I would have annihilated the enemy in concern to points.



George