Restrictions
No WE (bar the Avatar), no fliers (due to Eugene rustiness with Epic).
As a result I hastily changed the list, ditching the kroot, orca and barracuda's.
This was actually quite neat as I got to play with the sorts of formations I generally avoid (i.e. reinforced hammerheads with skyray which impressed me). Ironically I think the air list would have been weaker considering what I was up against.

The restrictions made for a different game, not sure how applicable it is to testing, but it certainly hammered home the firepower of Tau formations up close. I'm certainly on the side of high activations allowing for the 'killing punch' or whatever its called by the big hitting that has been set up by the smaller, probably ML formations. Saying that the idea of a WE markerlight dropped into the opponents side of the board holds an irrisistable attraction!

Still playing with ML/normal formation balance. Here I found myself coming up short on ML's towards the end which was a first, I think due to the lack of intergral ML units in formations.

This aspect of play was interesting and it begs the question should it be expanded on? The intergral pathfinders and certainly skyray (giving all you could ever want from an upgrade!) make life a lot easier. Part of me would love to see this type of attachment ended and force the use of co-ord fire and ML formations. The skyray is hard to tackle but maybe it could get its 4+ save and go up to 125 as an attachment, or stay at 100 and go to 6+, something to make it more of a risk than the current nigh compulsory upgrade.

The pathfinders incidentally never got to fire their weapons in anger.

400 hammerheads, Skyray
225 6 FW, 3 Devilfish
225 8 FW
025 Leader
250 Crisis
175 Recon 3/3
175 Recon 3/3
175 Recon 1/5
175 Recon 1/5
175 Pathfinders

000 AVATAR
050 WRAITHGATE
300 GUARDIAN WARHOST, Farseer, 4x Guardians, 3x Heavy Weapon Platform, +3x Wraithguard
350 GUARDIAN WARHOST, Farseer, 7x Guardians, 4 Wave Serpents
150 WAR WALKER TROUPE, 4x War Walker
175 NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE, 3 Night Spinners
200 WINDRIDER TROUPE, 4x Jetbike, 2x Vyper
250 SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE, 5x Falcon
400 ASPECT WARRIOR WARHOST, 8x Shining Spear, +Exarch, +Autarch
125 RANGER TROUPE, 5x Ranger

The Eldar suffered a lot of failed activations. Further the Tau on overwatch were too scary for the Eldar to charge and their fire prepping never degraded this enough.

Turn one was pretty awful. The tau went first and used the pathfinder markerlights to hit the warwalkers who never really recovered from the salvo and were later hit a few more times wiping them out. More troops from either side were fed in, the Eldar trying to get the wraithgate clear to run the aspects at a good target, eventually settling for the guardians emerging instead only to get beaten back.

Turn two the Avatar got shot up by some crisis and recon to break. The tau cheekily ran a 5/1 recon formation up, with the tetra sticking its nose of lighting up the nightspinners, who duly suffered. The falcons were as well lit I think and suffered.
The waveserpents tried to go down a flank only to be out activated and manoeuvred and caught in a point blank markerlit crossfire.

Turn three saw mopping up, the last eldar activation put the broken shining spears into my half, but I had so many activations bm's were due to kill them.

I look forward to playing Eugene again, this time with him more aware of the tau and with better luck with his activations!

Will he be using WEs and air the next time too? Revenants are usually a standard with Eldar.

Really? Revenants have been largely abandoned in the UK as inefficient and vulnerable. its phantoms with power fists or even warlocks by some brave souls instead.

I would hope any future games are more points and all the options on the table. I may of course bring a hero, manta and some barracudas

Hey Chris, was waiting for the report. Thanks for not going into all the gory details, it was a woeful showing.

I think I suffered most by not having any war engines, and therefore not being able to counter your long range fire-power. The usual low-armour Eldar suffered as a result. I remember the Falcons were hit on the first turn and breaking before they activated, and not recovering until the last turn, and your cheeky tetra stuck out by itself behind the wood did for the night spinners. A marching Storm Serpent could have allowed the large guardian formation to be dumped near your back line (though I've never used one as I don't have a model, but like the idea). As you mentioned afterwards the Void Spinner would at least have given the Eldar something to hit your long range missiles. In such a small game things like Exarchs were a bit wasted and I could have used the points elsewhere.

In terms of titans, I've only ever taken a Warlock once, and if I bring titans at all then it is normally the Revenants, though maybe it's because I like the old organic chicken dance.

Next game 3000 pts, all WEs and flyers. I'll also look at the Tau rules beforehand, so I know what everything is. That might be a good idea.