Fleet for tournament

[Sigoroth]

@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?

Couldn't find the fleet, but that could be due to laziness. I would recommend a last minute refused flank. Particularly useful if you have cover from his torps/NC on the approach. This would entail a head to head start, then as you pounce, move forward and to one side and then back in, like this; x^y (where x is your fleet, y is his fleet and ^ is the approach path), so that your fleet hits his side armour, preferably at close range. Even if you don't get ideal line on the closest ship, you should be in a better position for your torps. The main benefit of this sort of flank approach is that he won't get to break your line and fire both broadsides. This will leave him turning to hit you with some ships and only 1 broadside and few LOs. Don't be afraid to brace any return fire. Next turn you should fly at maximum to get range on him before turning to line up another attack run (reloading as you can). This will give you time to drop BFI and leave your opponent in a poor position. AC should be used to screen your ships and again, escorts should be the first target. Dauntlesses are another high priority ship, as are carriers.

[horizon]

Hi,

I think it is this fleet:

Next battle vs Imperials
The imperial fleet:
50       Captain (Ld8)
345     Victory Class Battleship
260     Dominion Class Battlecruiser
220     Dictator Class Cruiser   
195     Dominator Class Cruiser (+Turret)
195     Dominator Class Cruiser (+Turret)
210     6x Viper Class Destroyer
25       1 Reroll

Sigoroth his advice is sound allround.

Looking at above fleet we see a battleship with lances at long range, assisted by long range lances from the Dominion.
It also has 3 Nova Cannons. Plus 2 x 4 launch bays.
The Dominion, Dictator have both torps + ac.
The Vipers are fast 3torps strong zipper.They can cause real havoc.

For this fleet I would recommend the following target priority:
Vipers - Dominion - Dictator - Victory - Dominators

Just try to negate the strong Dominator broadsides.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Your fleet has a Void stalker and an Eclipse right? That should more than give you superiority as your fighters are resilient.

The iffy one here is the cruisers Your ships are not going to be affected badly by bombers so if your maintaining ordnance superiority I would focus on Vipers (the best ships he has to help counter your maneuverability) - Dominion (ranged lances can be a pain even with your save but the main objective is to guarantee ordnance superiority for the game) - Dominators (these are the real pain for you seeing how you have to close, best left to the void stalker's ranged guns and massed bombers/torpedoes) - Victory (the only thing left with any teeth) - Dictator (garbage as soon as the Dominion falls)

When you make your flank attack you should have enough fire power to hit several ships at once, Aconite and Hemlocks on the Vipers, Void Stalker and Eclipse on the Dominion and Bombers/Nightshades on the Dominators, if you can line up the torps to hit both all the better, send a bomber wave to both then. At the best (for him) all of those ships should be braced next turn.
If you have the chance to cripple or destroy a ship after shooting tho you may want to focus your ordnance on that instead of hitting the Dominators, whatever is going to work best for you.

Don't let him get you in his front arc if you can avoid it after you have made your flank attack, move away form him while moving towards his rear arc the only thing he should be able to hit you with is his lances (you have a save against) and he should not be able to get a lock on.

The only time I wouldn't go for the Dictator last is if he attempts to disengage and fails, trying to get vps as its easier to kill than the Victory or if you lose fighter superiority as the Dictator really has crap for weapons without a partner (like most IN ships actually) and you should be able to avoid his prow torps entirely leaving only the ac which will almost guaranteed be used for fighters as their bombers would be wasted on your ships.

[Sigoroth]

To be honest, against that fleet, I'd say the target priority looks more like this: Vipers (kill!) -> Dominion -> Dictator -> Victory -> Dominators. The Vipers are highly mobile, dangerous, and would soak up too much of your own ordnance to manage. Kill these first. The Dominion's long range lances, AC and torps makes this a very dangerous ship to the Eldar. In destroying this ship you free up a good deal of AC to go on the offensive as well as reducing the incoming fire when you're regrouping. The Dictator provides the same threats as the Dominion apart from the long range lances. Destroying this ship removes the last threat of ordnance attacks and frees up the remainder of your ordnance for offensive duties (against the Dominators no doubt).

The choice between the Victory and the Dominators is pretty situational. Up close the Dominators are deadly, but if you're successful in refusing his flank to only allow a single broadside, and bracing freely when up close, then they're manageable. Their Nova Cannon will most likely never get a shot off after the initial approach as you'll likely be well out of arc or well inside minimum range. If you have cover on the initial approach then they'll likely do nothing all game. The Victory on the other hand could continue to annoy you at long range when you're trying to regroup and let your BFI's fall off. So this would make it a continual threat. Since your bombers would be going after the Dominators at this point (much more effective), direct fire could well be saved for the Victory. On the other hand, if you do manage to destroy/negate the Dominators then you'd be free to tailgate the Victory and forego the hit and run tactic. If I had success, or anticipated success, with bombers against one Dom then turning direct fire on the other Dom is a reasonable choice.

Edit: @Andrew - don't underestimate bombers against Eldar. They have a slight advantage in their turrets but fighter support negates a large chunk of that. Otherwise they're just expensive ships with lower resilience. This makes bombers more effective against Eldar than non-Eldar.

[AndrewChristlieb]

In regards to his situation with bombers there should be no worries tho as his fighters should be able to handle any until he strikes at which point the Dominion should be out of the picture at least, really I doubt he will even get down to the dominators and victory tho as once that dominion and the vipers go down he really wont have anything that is maneuverable enough and in great enough quantities to defend his larger ships while they position themselves. Once they are gone you should be able to hang out in the rear arc indefinitely and bombard them to death with the VS, Torps, and bombers. If you keep a screen of abeam escorts between you and them any return fire will be very ineffective and they should never be able to lock on to you. Once your opponent realizes this he should disengage. Assuming you have good cover for the beginning of the game you should have minimal losses overall. Against the Dominators even crippling them will put them out of the game, 6wb just isn't going to do anything to you as we can safely assume that there will be blast markers between both of you and a holofield shift the best he will be able to manage is 2 dice (4 for both of them if they're both crippled) and thats against a closing capitol, something they should never be able to hit (void stalker can stand off a bit and the Eclipse is better off to also).

[Ghuda]

Thanks for your masterclasses on how to tackle the imperial fleet!!

As I said earlier I still see myself as a beginner (although I play BFG for a year now), since I have not played  more than 15 battles with Eldar (maybe 10 battles with MMS, mostly small battles). I've played some battles with my Chaos fleet and that is easier! Playing Eldar for me is difficult because I have so many options. I can almost strike wherever I like and I tend to make the wrong choices. You guys gave me a better idea of what is important in making my choices. Thnx!

Can we continue our masterclass on other (general) Eldar tactics?

I'm learning and I like it . Of course, I will keep you posted on my battles (and improvements). It will probably take a while before I will play the next battle in the tournament. We are all very busy at the moment (work, family, etc)  .

[Ghuda]

Again a victory!! This time vs the tyranids.

The tyranids:

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

The only phenomenon on the table was a small planet on the side of the tyranid player.

The tyranids started with AAF. The squadron in the middle (vanguard drones) straight ahead while the squadrons on the sides (kraken) started with a 45 degree angle towars the centre of the table. My fleet was positioned directly opposite of the vanguard squadron with in the centre my nightshade sq next to each other and on each side a capital ship. Next to each capital ship I placed a hemlock sq. In my first turn I did not move my nightshades and capital ships. They only fired ordnance (8 bombers and 6 two strength torpedo waves and 1 four strength torpedo wave) straight to the place where all the tyranid sq would come together. My hemlock sq moved to the sides of the table keeping out of range of the tyranids. In the second round all the tyranid sq tried to manoeuvre in such way that he could avoid the torpedoes and avoid being split up. The kraken with bio plasma tried to avoid the torpedoes by using AAF, but the squadron ended its move right in front of my torpedo waves. The torpedoes managed to destroy three kraken. In my second turn I reloaded everything en moved my Eclipse and Void Stalker away from the tyranids but within 45 cm of some kraken with bio plasma. The Void Stalker killed another kraken with its lances. The nightshades fired their torpedoes again and the hemlocks managed to get behind the enemy fleet and out of reach ot his vanguards and kraken. In this ordnance round the bombers attacked the kraken with bioplasma, killing 4 of them. In the next round the tyranids tried to disengage. The two undamaged squadrons were able to disngage, but the two kraken with bio plasma stayed and moved towards the planet. One of these was killed in the ordnance phase by my torpedoes. The other was killed in my third turn. My whole fleet could fire at it.

Victory points Eldar:
Destroyed Kraken with bio-plasma sq 605
Disengaged Kraken with massive claws sq 50
Disengaged Vanguard Drones with feeder tentacles sq 38,5
Total 693,5

Victory points tyranids: 0

[Sigoroth]

Ouch. He really should've disengaged in turn one. Feeder tentacles, massive claws and bio-plasma against the Eldar fleet? No AC cover? He never stood the slightest chance.

[horizon]

Indeed, and you just played it out like you should. Well done in that regard!

[Ghuda]

Thnx! I am beginning to understand how to play the Eldar! 

The poor guy... This is his fleet for the tournament and he lost every battle he played. The Tau (maybe LuCarD can report on how that battle went), Chaos and Eldar managed to destroy one squadron, while the IN destroyed two (a major victory!!). His last battle will be vs necrons maybe he has a chance to win in that battle but I doubt it.

Somewhere in Februari or March we will play the final round of our tournament with all three battles at the same time. I am looking forward to it!

Tau vs Chaos
Tyranids vs Necrons
Eldar vs IN

The IN (43 points) and the Tau (40 points) have the best chance win the tournament. Chaos (38 points), Eldar (36 points), Necron (34 points) have to get a major victory or a massacre to get a chance on winning the tournament and Tyranids (24 points) have no chance on winning at all.