1850 Eldar vs Marine + Tau

After working on my Eldar for a couple of weeks, I managed to find some time to organise a game with Patrick. He is an avid tournament goer and constantly ranks high on the Singapore tournament circuit. He is also a good teacher and patient one. He knows his combos well! 

We both brought 1850 lists. I went pure Eldar while Pat brought a Marine (6th ed) with some Tau Allies. I'll use the pics for the army run-through. There are some proxies so but the subtext will explain. 

Gaunts are Kroot, 3 units of 10 men Tacticals in Rhinos, 1 unit of 3 man Centurion, Riptide, 3  Broadside Battlesuits, Tigurius and a Tau Commander armed with something called the Spectrum Suit which bypasses cover saves

All Tactical squads have a missile and plasma

We rolled for mission, psychic powers and Warlord Traits:
Mission: The Scourging
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Eldar: Guide, Prescience, Scrier's Gaze
Space Marines: Prescience, Perfect Timing

Pat went for a strong central firebase. Rhinos at the back of the ruins ready to dart out to capture objectives

As for the objectives, Pat managed to get a total of 8 points in his field (3, 3, 2) while I managed to get 8 as well (3, 4, 1) which means that it was down to other objectives such as First Blood and Slay the Warlord.

This was going to be interesting.

Also, Night Fight was in play.

Just a higher lookout point of his field. Pat put his Tau HQ in the crumbled down building in the middle as well. 

My army has a few proxies, namely the Warp Spiders. I have heard so many good things about them and I do like the models. Am painting a few up now and have a few in the mail. The Dire Avengers and purple Rangers you see are actually Warp Spiders. The White Rangers will be playing real Rangers this game (they have not deployed yet as they were infiltrating). The rest of the army was deployed with the Fire Dragon's Wave Serpent at the bottom left, Fire Prism, 2 Wave Serpents with Guardians

All Wave Serpents were armed the same:

• Twin Linked Scatter Lasers
• Holo Fields (not much use in today's meta game since most of Pat's shooting ignores cover)
• Shuriken Cannon

5 Rangers held my backfield with 1 VP

Pat deployed his Kroot up front to contest my 4 point objective

Tried to cast Scrier's Gaze but a Daemon came out and took a bite out of my Farseer

Casted Prescience and Guide on my Wave Serpents with Guardians

And this is why you need to play with your army. Two powers wasted on units that didn't need it. I wanted to give my Rangers the Guide but did not realise that you need to cast it at the START of your movement phase, meaning deployment is key.

End of my Movement. Clustering the tanks like that was a big mistake. Moved my Warp Spiders up front to take midfield and put some pressure on Pat. Took some shots and managed to Panic the Kroot in the building

Pat advanced his army up with the tacticals leading the way. Centurions (proxied by Terminators) advance with the deadly G-guns

End of Pat's Turn 1 Movement Phase

Pat's shooting took out two of my tanks. Prism was gone including my Wave Serpent with Guardians

Turn 2 Eldar. Reserves arrived, the ones that I did not want: the Jetbikes. Advanced my Fire Dragon's up the right flank supported by my Guardians. Jetbikes as a 3 wave to cap the points if required. 

Rangers took a few shots at the Centurions

Wave Serpent managed to take out the Rhino and Warp Spiders killed off 4 Tacticals

Jumped the Warp Spiders into cover. The white Spiders advanced into the building to take pot shots at the Centurions and managed to take 3 wounds off them, leaving 1 model (managed to remove 1 wound in Turn 1 shooting)

In Turn 2 Patrick drove his tank into my Warp Spiders and both units RAN! WTF...that left them in the open for the Thunderfire cannon to kill them. Did I mention I hate the Thunderfire? YIKES! 

Pat managed to destroy the two other Wave Serpents and kill off a few Spiders as well. 

Turn 3, my War Walkers turned up together with my Crimson Hunter. Sent my CH on the left flank to go for his Riptide while the Walkers went mid ground. I needed to take the Riptide out

Riptide aims for the Crimson Hunter with Interceptor rounds. Managed to do 2 Glancing hits. 

My Fire Dragons popped open his Rhino - Battlefocus is awesome here as it allowed me to close the distance and get into Melta range. 

I love the War Walkers in this edition. It ripped open one of the Rhino's

Allowing my Guardians to then shred the remaining Tactical using their pseudo rending guns

After shooting they Battlefocus away from the tactical squad

In Pat's Turn 3,  he moved up his Tacticals to start holding objectives

The white Spider has to flee as it was Last Man Standing. The Farseer was unfortunately the only individual standing after the rain of death from the Thunderfire Cannon

My Turn 4 saw me regrouping my position trying to move my Jetbikes up to contest and capture the objectives. The Fire Dragons supported by the Spiders were doing their best to push up field. 

After combining fire with 2 War Walkers, my Rangers finally managed to gun down the Riptide! 

In Pat's Turn 4 he took out two of my Dragons

In my Turn 5, the remaining Dragon moved up into the terrain with the Sergeant. The purple Spiders moved up to support

Shuriken fire managed to kill the Sergeant leaving my Dragon and Spiders to mop up the other Tactical Squad

At the end of Turn 5 this is what my table looked like

In Pat's Turn 5 he managed to Thunderfire my Jetbike squad on the left and finished up my other Jetbike squad on the right with the Battlesuits. 

Rolled for Turn 6 and it was game over. Well played!

Pat took the game back in Turn 5 when I raced for the objectives. While I had the mobility, I am still not familiar with WHEN to use it. I was debating the entire game if I should hold back and shoot or dash for it. In the end it was a mix of both.

Lessons for me:

1. Warp Spiders are very powerful and will work very well in tandem with jetbikes and Wave Serpents. Their offensive shooting is superb
2. Was not impressed with my Crimson Hunter - with the amount of Skyfire recently, I lose it in 2 turns. That's almost 200 points gone which did not do much. I could have field another unit of Guardians in Wave Serpent for a little more
3. Holo-fields: not the best in tournament settings. Expect your opponents to come with weapons that will deny your cover saves. Either that or they will chance Perfect Timing
4. I need to press the fire power on one flank and then mop up the other. Eldar excel at redeployment, use it

I will be working on the actual models over the coming weeks and will put them up for you guys to see!