1850pts. Eldau vs. GK

In my quest to cram as much 40k as I can in this week before the tournament this Saturday, I got another P.U.G. with my Stormcrons to test out how it would fair vs. a "normal" army @1850.

I played John's Eldau up at the bookery. I pitched my preference for BAO style missions and we ended up playing The Emporer's Will Primary and Purge the Alien secondary. Tertiaries included of course. We also rolled up Vanguard deployment. He won the roll to choose sides and I won the roll to go first.

Deployment.
I had all of x2 pieces of terrain in my deployment zone...adding a 3rd only when I placed my Void Shield Generator. In the big piece of area terrain blast crater, I placed all 3 psyfleman and my Annibarge. Behind the VSG I placed one unit of Acolytes. In ruins at the top of my deployment zone, I placed another unit (far from the action).

He deployed behind his Aegis Defence Line with everything but his reserves. His farseer attached to his dark reapers. His buffmander deployed with is XV88's but close enough to his Riptide to swap around later turns if need be. On the corners were his x2 Wave Serpents. One was boxed in by terrain on it's flank. He had x2 units of bikes and a unit of kroot all in reserves. His powers were pretty much primaris powers for buffing.

He failed to seize and we began w/out the effects of Night Fight.

MT1: I used a central massive building to gain some cover and manuvered my dreds as best I could for some fire lanes. My turn consisted of me killing x2 Dark Reapers and a couple drones.

HT1: His shooting consisted of him stripping my VSG down to nothing and then getting First Blood! on one of my dreds. He moved his Wave Serpents around for better angles but managed to immobilize one on terrain.

MT2: I got all of 1 of my reserves to come in. That was a night scythe. It threw it's might into more drone kills from the Broadside unit. They passed moral, just barely, by having his buffmander attached. My other shooting was inspirational! Taking his Dark Reapers down to just the Exarch and Farseer. They again held on moral test. Interceptor fire was a dud for him rolling a big fat '1'.

HT2: He got everything in. Bikes danced behind his LOS terrain but his kroot went aggressive with his choice of entry sides. He came in against a lonesome acolyte unit I never thought would make this report (it was really alone up there). He rapid fired them off the board. His buffmander ordered up tank hunter and after rerolls, he blew up my Nightscythe. His reaper exarch and riptide managed to take x2 HP off one of my remaining x2 dreds. His mobile wave serent whiffed pretty bad but his immob. Wave Serpent did strip another HP off a different dred. (the LOS was horrid over the middle of the board).

MT3: I got all but 1 Storm Raven in. Coteaz's ride was intercepted but the shot failed to damage his pimpwagon's armor. They proceeded to blow up the mobile Wave Serpent and then PotMS down the second Wave Serpent. The dred ID'd his Exarch and Farseer despite him going to ground. My AB finally had range on something...that something was his kroot. They killed only 3 due to alot of 1's to wound. My last nightscythe finished them off however. My backfield was filling up with necrons and acolytes. I regen'd a Void Shield this turn!

HT3: He doesn't have alot to deal with all the flyers I have. He shuffles over his buffmander and XV88s. They don't make it there due to the Immob. WS wreckage but they do manage to again, take out my second night scythe! That kinda sucked...Now I was going to have to drop down into hover if I had the stones to contest his EW objective. I did no such thing however.

MT4: Game kinda was over after this point. I manage to take out his XV88s and commander. I also generate another shield. Lastly, I took out his Icarus, too. I peppered his bikes now with whatever I could get to see them and have the range. I never did kill an entire unit and they also never did fail another moral check.

HT4: Having nothing but flamer templates and x4 units of scoring troops camping a difficult to see objective, he conceeds.

We tied Primary, I won secondary, I had Line Breaker and Warlord while he had First Blood!. Final score? 5-1.

My final thoughts...Too bad I couldn't contest his objective or shoot him off. The terrain was limiting what I could do back there. Going to hover was risky unit I took out everything that could harm me. That took too long as Eldar/Tau have plenty of good shooting. My MVP, oddly enough was the night scythes. Each one died tragically but they did both explode to single failed jink moves followed up by him rolling a '6' both times. I could have really used those 'crons in his face.

His final thoughts...Too many flyers. A balanced all-comers isn't going to cut it in his opinion vs. a strong flying army. I think he wants to melt down his dark reapers. They just rolled up and died. He also was too stubborn to GTG with them but he felt he just needed them to shoot better.