Fleet for tournament

[Sigoroth]

Against the Tobmship it won't matter at all.

Unless you're locked on, in which case you do slightly more damage when it's unbraced.

[Ghuda]

VICTORY!!!!

On the field there were three astroid fields on one quadrant of the field. Therfore, they were close together
 
Battle in short:
The necrons started with AAF. But two leadership checks failed and he had to use his two rerolls right away. I hid behind the astroid fields and fired some torpedoes and bombers (and fighters) to pervent him from coming to my side of the astroid fields. He passed the astroid fields on the other side and only his shroud was not yet behind the astroid field. Therefore I could attack it with my weapon batteries and some lances. He did not BFI and I got two hits. In the ordnance fase I sent my bombers for the kill. He still did not BFI and I got two other hits. Bye bye Shroud! In his round he AAFed again and fired everything on my Eclipse and crippled it. In my turn the eclipse disengaged and I turned around the astroid fields. He followed but he was to close to the edge of the field and had to use CTNH and BR special orders and therfore cold not follow me with his cruisers and tombship. His escorts were on BFI and he engaged my nightshades killing one of them. Next turn I engaged his two squadrons escorts with all of my ships, destroying his all jackals and killing all but one dirge (all his BFI's failed).
He disengaged his last dirge and fired at me with one scythe and destroying two nightshades (of the other squadron). Next turn I disengaged with my fleet.

Victory points Eldar:
destroyed shroud: 310
destroyed jackal squadron 150
crippeled dirge squadron 30
total: 490

Victory points Necrons:
crippeled eclipse 72
crippeled nightshade squadron 38
disengaging fleet 115
total: 225

Next battle vs tyranids or vs tau.   

[AndrewChristlieb]

Sweet sounds like a lot of fun! Why was he aaf so much tho? Seems like a bad idea with you hiding behind the fields to me. He seems to have had some really bad luck with the dice also, missing all of his bfi.

[horizon]

Good! Fun is most important.

Shows Shrouds are good targets.

Soon I'll face Necrons.

[Ghuda]

It was good fun!
@ andrew He Aafed so much because he wanted to get close a.s.a.p. and the second time he wanted to follow me around the astroid field.

@horizon You don't have to fear Necrons that much (I did before the battle). They are tough but Cosair Eldar can outmaneuver them. I had some luck with the astroid fields and him failing his BFI's. Maybe the dice gods will be on your side too. With which of your fleets will you fight them?

Next battle is vs tyranids.
His fleet:

11 Kraken with bio-plasma and Tenacity upgrade
10 Kraken with massive claws and Solar Vanes upgrade
11 Vanguard Drones with feeder tentacles and Extra Spore Cyst upgrade

I don't know what to do. They will be everywhere on the field. My first idea is to try stay out of his reach and cripple one kraken squadron with ordnance and then disengage. Otherwise I have to get close to his ships and I don't want to. I think all three squadrons are very dangerous. Any ideas?

[horizon]

(Do I really have -2 karma??? cries cries cries)

I dunno. He upped the option of a Necrons vs Eldar battle due them being arch enemies. I think I'll use my Craftworld fleet to emphasize this feud.

The bio-plasma Krake is most dangerous to you. The close combats can be avoided due range. So keep that 30cm reach and never in his prow (unless you want to ploy a trap with a bait vessel).

[AndrewChristlieb]

Ya I would try to keep my distance also. Long range ordnance + working your way around their rear should work well for you. Check out their synaptic chart you may be able to take advantage of it.

[Ghuda]

It has been a while, but I've played another battle. Not versus IN or Tyranids but versus Tau. And I did loose

His fleet:

Custodian   330
upgrade logic given by ld   10
ld Kor‟O Vash‟ya Y‟eldi Mesme   110
Protector - Tolku   185
Protector - Tolku   185
Hero - VASH’YA   180
Hero - Tolku   180

Emissary - IL‟PORRUI SA‟CEA   110
"+prow upgrade"   10
Warden   90
Castellan   100

On the field there was only one large astroid field.

The battle:
The tau player placed it's fleet as far as possible from the atroid field. He started with moving minimal speed and fired all his ordnance. I hid my fleet in the astroid field and behind it. Next round he did the same. My Void Stalker, a squadron of hemlocks and a squadron of nightshades turned to face the enemy fleet and stayed put in the astroid field. The eclipse and the other two escort squadrons moved alongside the table edge to the other side of the table. I wanted to get behind his fleet. This was a dangerous manoeuver because of the large ammount of ordnance on the table. The next round I only lost one nightshade there, but the escort squadrons at that end of the table were braced. Next round I decided to attack with my fleet focussing on his battle ship with the part of my fleet that was hidden in the astroid field (including a locked on Void Stalker) and with the other part of my fleet I engaged his hero's. I got only 3 hits on his custodian and 6 hits on one of the heroes. He fired back and I had to brace. The Void Stalker got some hits and my escort squadron lost some escorts. The following round I attacked his battleship with allmost my whole fleet (only one nightshade squadron attacked the crippeled hero and destroyed it), but every hit was braced. Next the tau rammed my eclipse and Void Stalker (crippeling it) and destroyed one nightshade squadron and one hemlock sqaudron. Next round I disengaged.

Victory points Eldar:
Destroyed Hero 180
Total 180

Victory points Tau.
Crippeled Void Stalker 127
Destroyed Hemlock squadron 150
Destoyed Nightshade squadron 150
Disengaging fleet 69
Total 496

I believe I have made two big mistakes. Firstly, I started too soon with my pincer move and therefore my opponent could anticipate on that. Secondly, after the first strike I should have moved on and regroup for my next attack run, but I stayed to fight and lost 

[LuCarD]

It was a good battle, mistakes where made on both sides of the table.

Ramming was nice, but actually the worst option to choose at that moment.  But I never ever ever ever used ramming with my fleet. I should have destroyed his void stalker when I had the opportunity

Learning points...
- Eldar turret are annoying 
- Bomberwaves can be powerfull if combined with the treat of torpedo's
- Don't underestimate my own Ion Cannons,

[horizon]

Hi Ghuda & LucarD,

thanks for the reports.

Good fleets, both of you.

And yes Ghuda, attrition is nothing for Eldar.  The attack plan is crucial.

LucarD, I guess the gained mobility of the Protector's helped a lot thwarting the Eldar plans. Right?

[Ghuda]

Yes they did. Along with the Hero's they were my main targets, but he kept them out of my reach. Therefore I decided to attack the battleship. Not a good choice, two protectors together have a good dammage output. These guys slaughtered my escorts...

[Sigoroth]

I think you fell for a psychological ploy there. If you couldn't get at his Protectors because he held them out of reach to the rear and put his Custodian forward then you've lined up your attack poorly. What you'd be looking to do in that circumstance is hold back until you're able to strike at his Protectors. If he advances his Custodian such that it will be in range of your ships before you're able to get a move/strike at his Protectors then his fleet is sufficiently split for you to be able to dissect the Custodian without fear of his Protectors. Otherwise, don't let him dictate which ship you will target. Flying past the Custodian actually limits its usefulness. Without a target to its fore arc it will not be able to maximise its firepower. Combined with its relative deficiencies in speed and manoeuvrability flying past it while dropping out some CAP is the best strategy in most cases.

The Protectors have a formidable armament and manoeuvrability. Their only weak point is that they're fairly fragile for such an investment of points/firepower. So they should be your primary target after escorts. Emissaries are so fragile that you can leave them to incidental fire. Heroes are so tough compared to the rest of the Tau fleet that they should be ignored for the most part. Simply try to outmanoeuvre them using refused flank strategies. Ie, keep out of their front arc and don't give them a target on either side (note: remember to predict their next turn's movement for these purposes).

So the priority list looks like this: Escorts > Protectors > Emissaries > Custodians/Heroes. Assuming that all has gone to plan and you've eliminated his escorts, Protectors and Emissaries, if the battle continues then choosing which to target between the Custodian and Heroes is situational, depending upon position, how much weight of fire you can bring to bear and expectations of effect (crippled/destroyed thresholds, brace effects).

[LuCarD]

Oke I might be a bit biased because I was the Tau player

I knew that my Protectors would be the prime target.  So I placed them in corner as far away from the astroid field as possible. Left some 20-30 cm space between the protectors and the next ship Emissary, then my Custodian, Hero VashYa, Hero Tolku and then both my escort squadrons. The Hero's and the Custodian where slight turn towards the edge where also the protectors would be flying. I made sure that I could do at least 2 min moves and then turn without haveing make special command so that I wouldn't fly of the edge.

As expected the Eldar setup at the far side of the astroid field.

In round one TAU, I did a min move of all ships firing ordance as much as possible. Moving the ordance no more than needed and towards the astroid.
In round one ELDAR, he moved half his fleet behind and in the astroid field. The other half he move a long the table towards my starting edge. He made sure that I was out of reach of my ordance . So I split my Ordance in two half still heading towards astroid other half I turned as far as possible to meet the eldar.

Round two TAU. Reloaded all ordance ( needed one reroll ), did another min move for all capital ships expect for the emissary. He turned to meet the eldar early. My escorts did a "Come to a new heading" and moved their full speed behind the fleet using the extra turn to make sure that they ready enage any enemy coming into range.
Round two ELDAR. ( not completely sure anymore.  ) but I think he moved a bit further down the far edge of the table and the rest of fleet only used there own ordance to shoot at some of my torpedo's. This time he made the first error. His fighter screen infront of the fleet along the edge is no match against the numerous torpedo's wave and bombers . It was about 1 complete full load of ordance partially made up from round 1 and round 2 shooting. Combined with two bomber wave of 1F/3B and 2F/4B and two solo fighters. The bomber waves where first one to shoot. I splitted them up in 3x 1F/2B  the solo bomber and fighters was used to kill his fighter screen.
I dared him to shoot at my bombers, but the my torpedo's scared him enough to not fire at them. So he did the only sane thing and BFI.  My bomber waves killed two escorts Most of the torpedo's were targeted at his cruiser but I only managed to do 2 damages due to his nice BFI rolls ;( Should have been at least 4 hits.

Round three TAU. Another reload ordance ( another reroll last one ). The Heros and Custiodian turned a bit so that I could make the angle to hit to current position of the secondary fleet in his ordanceround with my ordance. Forcing him to make his move. Protectors turned a bit to join the custiodian but made sure it was still 10-15 cm behind him. The Castellean failed to reload so didn't do anything helpfull.
Round three ELDAR. The trap has sprung. His secondary fleet was limping in for the attack. His primary fleet was full health. Crippeld my braced Tolku. His escorts fires  my Custiodian, doing some minor damage. Including bridge collapse Custodian got 3dmg and braced. The rest of the fleet nice and steady.

Round four TAU. Tolku tries to escape and fails. Complete madness on the table. I got some good hits from my protectors and from the braced VashYa. His Battleship was crippeld and braced Not much result regarding ordance. I managed to get his other cruisers to brace too....
Round four ELDAR. Where going for the big bucks, and tried to play though. They stayed and tried to kill the custodian, which somehow managed to succeed in his BFI (ld6 ) He only got 1extra dmg. still not crippeld The did manage to get two dmg on my Tolku, which turned in to a blazing hulk ;(

Round Five TAU: Two juicy targets infront of my protectors and my still standing unbraced full hit Hero. And I did the most stupid thing I could do, I tried to ram him Why why why?? I don't know maybe because I was tired or because of the heat of the battle. The ramming it self didn't do much good, only braced one his cruisers. And it put me out of position
My escorts & Emissary were able to kill and three escorts and brace two sqaudrons. I destroyed another with my braced custiodian.
Round Five Eldar: Cowardly moved away ( luckily for me ) 

Small note: If I didn't do the ramming thing. I would have had 20WB Locked on, 4Lance Locked with 15 cm of his battlecruiser. And 3x6 WB and 10Lances with 15cm which could all fire upon his crippeld battleship Something around 23 Dices for WB and 14 Lance rolls against armor 5+/ 2shlds

[Ghuda]

Nicely done LuCarD!!
A few minor mistakes

My bomber waves killed two escorts

The waves killed only one escort.

His Battleship was crippeld and braced

At this moment he Void Stalker was only braced (3 hits, none braced ). It was crippeled due to your ramming (again two hits and none braced )

[Ghuda]

@Sigoroth
Thanx for your comments! Setting up a good attack run with Eldar is quite difficult (I am still a beginner). What do you think I should do in my battle vs IN (fleet is posted somewhere in this thread) The same as with tau kill the escorts first and then destroy the dominators?