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subtitled "A thoroughly unprofessional battle report".

Eldar forces (Iyanden pattern):

Eldrad Ulthran (although not in name, of course)
The Avatar

6 Harlequins, 5 with Kisses, 1 being a Troupe Leader w/ power weapon

10 Wraithguard, Warlock, Conceal, Spiritseer upgrade
6 Jetbikes, 2 cannons

Wraithlord, Shuricannon, Scatter Laser
Wraithlord, Shuricannon, Scatter Laser
Falcon, Starcannon, Holofield, Spirit Stones

Tau forces:

Shas'el, Plasma, Fusion

2 Crisis Suits, Plasma, Fusion, 2 shield drones
2 Crisis Suits, 1 with plasma/missiles, one with TL missiles and BS4
1 Crisis Suit, config. forgotten

10 Fire Warriors in a devilfish
10 Fire Warriors in a devilfish
12 Kroot with a shaper
10 Kroot with a shaper
10 Kroot
10 Kroot

Railhead with the appropriate upgrades; SMS
Railhead with the appropriate upgrades; SMS

The mission is Take and Hold, the level is Gamma.

All indications of "left" or "right" are from the Eldar perspective.

Deployment:

In the Eldar DZ, two forests, one running parallel to the deployment line, to the right of center, and one running perpendicular, to the left of center.  Some other hills and things that don't matter.  The Eldar deployment is: Wraithlords in each of the forests 12" in, Falcon behind the right-central forest, Harlies inside, Jetbikes surrounding the Falcon, Eldrad and the Avatar accompanying the Wraithguard in the open space between the forests.

In the Tau DZ, three forests, two to the left of center and one to the right.  Two Kroot units in the central forests, one Railhead behind each central forest.  10 Fire Warriors against the board edge between central forests; their Devilfish is nearby.  Devilfish with FW's loaded behind exteme left forest.  Suits and HQ using right central forest for LOS blockage for the Tau shuffle.

After deployment, Eldrad allows repositioning of Jetbikes and rightmost Wraithlord to create a tight phalanx of Avatar, WG, Eldrad, and both Wraithlords, with the Jetbikes within 6" of Eldrad but behind the left Eldar forest at the start of the game.

Turn 1:

Fortune is cast on Jetbikes and the WG, whom Eldrad joins.  Bikes move 12" directly forwards and shoot foremost Kroot.  WL's both struggle with the terrain, but one brings its scatter laser to bear on the Kroot in front of it.  Wraithguard and Avatar advance, but do not have targets.  Eldrad uses Eldritch Storm on closest Kroot, but doesn't succeed in pinning them or forcing them to flee.  The Falcon moves from behind its cover and scores a lucky cross-table immobilization on the leftmost Railhead.

The Tau stay still except for shuffling.  The Kroot claim a Jetbike in shooting, whereas the Tau fail to harm the Wraithguard and the Falcon, their two primary targets.

Turn 2:

The Falcon advances and knocks a wound off of a Crisis suit that sticks his head up too far.  Psychic powers are exactly as before.  All units advance, the Jetbikes assuming a flanking position to the left of the left-central forest.  The Wraithlords again are slowed by poor terrain rolls, however, their shuriken cannon are in range this turn, and the Kroot die multitudinously.  The Tau forces in the right-central forest are still largely untouched at this point.

Tau shooting claims a Wraithguard this turn, and the Falcon is shaken or stunned thrice.  The Jetbikes, foolishly exposed to the immobilized Railhead, survive a submunition blast that engulfs all of them flawlessly.

Turn 3:

The Falcon boosts 24" to regain its original cover while the crew sort themselves out.  Eldrad now fortunes only the WG and uses Eldritch Storm on the Kroot on the right twice, to little effect.  The Avatar attempts his new meltagun shot on the operational Railhead, to no effect.  The WG target the remaining Kroot in the left-central forest; they are not ideal targets, but a few deaths are caused.  The Jetbikes retreat from the Railhead around the left side of the very far left forest, threatening (and threatened by) the loaded Devilfish which is behind it.

Tau shooting from this point forward will cause no casualties.  Fire was mostly concentrated on the Wraithguard, with a few suits firing at the Avatar.  The loaded Devilfish begins to move towards the center of the Tauward table edge.

Turn 4:

The Wraithguard advance further, now having passed the board's center point in an attempt to control the objective entirely.  The Avatar assaults the Kroot in the right-central forest (but just barely).  One squad of Kroot in the left-central forest is brought down to 1 model by one WL's shooting, and the other is severely reduced by the other's flamers.  The Falcon re-emerges and shakes the operational Railhead.

The loaded Devilfish dumps its cargo in front of the Wraithguard in classic FoF style, however, all the shots bounce off.  The Avatar massacres one Kroot squad and consolidates into the other.  The Tau suits score shaken results on the Falcon again, but use their assault moves to go forward instead of backward this time, trying to reach the center of the table.

Turn 5:

The Falcon disgorges its cargo, who move, FoF, and assault two Tau suits.  The WG destroy the newly empty Devilfish with something like 8 glancing hits, and the Tau behind it have their LOS ruined.  Eldrad throws two Eldritch Storms onto the rearmost Fire Warriors who've been firing from the table edge, and both fail to kill a single model.  The Avatar massacres the final Kroot squad on the right, and consolidates into the Tau HQ, who exposed himself trying to reach the objective.  The immobilized Railhead is wrecked by the Wraithlords on the left.  The Harlequins destroy 2 suits and 2 drones in assault, wiping the unit and proceeding to move into the solitary Suit.  At this point, the Tau player concedes.

Tau casualties:
All but 1 Devilfish and 2 squads of Fire Warriors (both above 50%)

Eldar casualties:
A Jetbike and a Wraithguard; also, Eldrad took a Perils wound somewhere in there.

Your thoughts?   

A couple of thoughts,

First of all Psychic Protection is definietly needed against Farseers.  Eldrad is of course the nastiest of all, but with all the Doom and Fortune flying around, plus the preponderance of Drop-podding Librarians out there, my I.G. are going to be rolling with an Inquisitor w/psychic hood.  No doubt, the Wraithguard are tough, but without the protection of Fortune they would not have been able to take the hail of fire that they did.  Stopping the new Eldar seems to mean stopping their psykers.

Shooting at the Falcon seems to be a total waste of time.  The problem is that it is so mobile and is so expensive that it has to be dealt with at some point.  It really frustrates me that it is now a perfect VP denial tool that can't be stopped from claiming objectives.  I know if it were up to me i would say that there should be a rule that if a vehicle is shaken more than once it should count as stunned.  This would prevent the Falcons (and other vehicles) from zipping around the board without fighting and then landing on the objectives for the big win.  Its a sissy way of fighting.

The harlequins seem like an useful new unit, and i'm glad that GW included them in the codex.  I've always enjoyedm playing against them and love the fluff.  Do they have some sort of deep strike rule?  If so that would make total sense.

It sounded like a fun game, but the Tau player's strengths were thwarted by his inability to stop the psykers.  This seems in character for the Eldar and I look forward to getting a match in against them and hopefully knocking down a few of those bloody Falcons. 

Throwing a ton of T6 and T8 stuff against Tau is going to give them fits. My Zillas always do.

Looks like you've got a nice but not superpowered list. Well done

Thanks for the report, enjoyed reading about two xenos armies smashing heads . Also cool to see a 10-strong wraithguard unit - I'd run hardcore Iyanden if I ever went Eldar - but I was sad to see them do nothing more than suck fire. Of course they did that very well, no doubt letting their living brethren get down to work ...

Good job on the win, and thanks again.

- Boss Salvage