I think this was a really interesting game and certainly the closest we have fought.

What it really illustrated to me was:

a) The power of the wraithship - There aren't many other ship bombardments with more than 3BP and aren't "slow and steady" that thing hits hard.

b) Wraithunits are dead hard to shift - no suprise to anyone who has fought them but all that reinforced armour combined with fearless makes them massively difficult to remove from the table. Have to admit that I disagree with Mick's thoughts on giving seers leader, the only weakness this unit has is the possibility of failed activation thanks to blasties. Sure they don't have ranged weapons etc but look at the tactics that mick used here. Castle up around the objective and just pick off target of opportunity. Until turn 3. I was finding it super hard to advance within range of that wraithgate in the knowledge of how easy it would be for Mick to triple some infantry out of there and back it up with a swooping hawk retain. They also combo super well with the avatar, I was lucky to win the initiative in that critical turn and take it out.

c) Eldar planes are awesome - 2 units of Tbolts managed to kill a grand total of 1 plane and Hydras just scraped the paint.

d) Artillery shits me - Not Micks which I think has it's pros and cons but mine which wouldn't rally for 3 turns with a supreme commander reroll... goddam... That unit is about the best thing I have to try and dig Eldar out of their inevitable campsites.

e) Mick's dice still shit me... I thought that sneaky forward run with the warhound to break the ranger unit was totally worth it untill Mick double 6's the saves... FFS...

Overall a really enjoyable game, Eldar proved again to be dead hard but fairly predictable in their tactics with only the aircraft adding a random element to their play style. Having played a range of other armies now I'd argue that Eldar are safely in a league of list strength well above many others that I've seen played. Not saying overpowered or anything like that, there wasn't a single component of Mick's list I thought was OP but in the hands of a good player they combine flexability, hitting power and reliability in fantastic quantities.

For my own part I think my biggest stuff up was not being aggressive enough. I was really concerned about the possibility of wraithgate/vampire carrier combos smashing my big units of tanks and Mick wasn't stupid enough to just wander out into the open. Without my arty to suppress his 2 units of disrupt arty advancing into a clearly established kill zone was always going to be a challenge.

I'm back to the drawing board in regards to list design. A lack of speed really hurt me in this game. Trying to take the wraithgaurd on in the face didn't work. A full sustained volley from the exterminators followed up by the warhound killed a grand total of 3 bases... more speed would have given me some better options in the end and perhaps I would have been less concerned about getting smashed in an assault.

Still struggling to get the balance right in gaurd but I was glad that Mick at least looked like he was thinking this game! An no goddam intermingle!

Not when he's playing me...

You would have great problems with getting this though the testing. What you might consider is introducing the Spirit Stone rule as implemented by EUK. I would suggest though that the initial points for a Wraith unit would be +50pts.

Thanks for the report.

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Great report as usual, and some insightfull comments from both - thanks.

I have also found that Wraith formations seem to be quite easy to break given the small formation numbers, and once broken they seem to be hard to rally (usually because of their proximity to enemy formations). I definitely agree with Tim that adding leader to the seers is a "no-no" given the direction that Eldar lists have taken since their inception. I also agree that providing Spirit Stones is well worth testing, though I am less sure of the costs.

I would certainly start with 50 points per formation both because they have not been given to Warhosts in the UK lists, and also because this will limit the number of such formations. There may just possibly be a case for reducing them to 25 points given the impact of these costs will have on the traditional 3K lists, though we should also check using 4K and ideally 5K armies.

Hi, brought the Iyanden to a recent tournament here in Sweden. There wasn't really time for any proper battle reports but I'll give you the highlights.
I played with this build:

SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST [475]
4x Wraithguard units, 2 Wraithlord, Wraithseer
SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST [375]
4x Wraithguard units, Spiritseer, 2 Wraithlord
SPIRIT WRAITHGUARD WARHOST [275]
4x Wraithguard units, Spiritseer
RANGER TROUPE [100]
4 Ranger
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [300]
4 Fire Prism, 2 Fire Storm
SWORDS OF VAUL TROUPE [300]
4 Falcons, 2 Fire Storm
NIGHT SPINNER TROUPE [175]
3x Night Spinner units
NIGHTWING INTERCEPTORS [300]
3x Nightwing Interceptors
REVENANT TITANS [650]
2 Revenant Titans
AVATAR [0]
WRAITHGATE [50]

The plan this time was to have an all round army that was fun to play with and against. Not sure if I managed that but I had fun anyway. Did some builds with Vampires, Waveserpents and Stormserpents to deliver the Wraithguards but didn't take any in the end. (I had just finished painting my Revenants and wanted to bring them, leaving only enough points for a single Vampire witch I think is to little. Waveserpents makes the unit too expensive as I wanted big units to avoid running around with broken 3 man gangs in turn 3. And I have played a couple of games when the Stormserpents were taken out on turn 1 before delivering their goods and they are not that fun so...)
I was quite pleased with this build but next time I might change the Night spinners and the Nightwings for something else...
I had problems when the opponent just sat still and made me come to him. So perhaps something to attack with longe range or something to draw him closer...

Game 1. Against Orcs. (EpicUK)
They brought a Great gargant...
This was a very close and funny game. On turn 1 I suffered some losses and didn't manage to do much damage and in the end of turn 1, the orcs had me cornered. They had raced across the field with battlefortresses and was ready to assault! I thought this game ould end very quick but then I managed to win the initiative and could start my rolling assaults. That way I managed to get almost every unit in FF instead of CC and did break his three warbands. I had to sacrifice my Revenants in the process but as one managed to survive it was a good tradeoff. I tried to avoid the Gargant throughout the game and with so many formations in close combat in my own field in turn 2 I had little hope in grabbing objectives so when turn three ended I the Gargant watched the blitz and a couple of Stormboys managed to sneak in to my side of the table so the game ended 1-0 with me winning the draw on points. Had I not won the initiative in turn two I think the game would have been lost and had I brought some more activations I would have been able to hunt down the stormboys and win the game.
Good: Wraithguard in FF is really good. Especially the first time when the opponent really doesn't know exactly how good yet. I am always pleased with my Revenants.
Bad: Few activations and most of the mobility is in the Falcons makes it hard to counter last turn "objective contesters". I need to learn how to play the Nightwings, they are really good as interceptors but in this game they had almost nothing to intercept so they were just expensive units that put blastmarkers on stuff.

Game 2. Against Steel legion
This game was probably my hardest match-up. The IG player just waited for me to do the moves and then waited some more. He had two artillery units inside a AA bubble behind some ruins that I never managed to take out. Perhaps I should have made a kamikaze attack with the nightwings on turn 1 but I didn't so the artillery shot down both the Falcons and the Fireprisms over time. I was also very outnumbered in activations so it was hard to get some good assaults in. Rushed out of the gate and forward so I managed to threaten the back line in turn three and managed to kill some Mec Co. but in the end it didn't mattered. It was against an inexperienced player so I managed another draw but a loosing one. Had he played a little more aggressively on turn 3 I think I would have lost.
Good: Revenats again. Wraithguards managed to do what they do best, they got broken but never died so the opponent wasted a lot of shots on a broken unit instead of breaking some more. The Fireprisms was also good before they broke...
Bad: Need to figure out a way to deal with waiting armies with long range weapons. (This one did't have deathstrikes but artillery and a shadowsword) Shot down some thunderbolts with my nightwings but they didn't feel worth 300 points, thats two units of thunderbolts...
Overall another fun game with a lot of brain activity on how to break the guards.

Game 3. Against Biel-Tan
Almost a mirror match. He didn't have Wraithguards but aspects in Waveserpents and didn't boost his Falcon units to 6.
This game was very strange with me having some bad luck but anyhow managed to get yet another draw. I belive the opponent was quite new to the game or the army, forgot to ask afterwards. He started with the aspects mounted inside the waveserpents so I saw my chances and went for it. Doubling the Fireprisms and sending in the Nightwings but only managed to shoot down one Waveserpent and killed a single Dire avenger... Then the activations begun to fail me and the opponent played a good "hide and seek" game but he never really managed to threaten my side of the field. The game ended 0-0 and I won the draw on points mainly because all my formations managed to rally in the last turn and was at half strength or more. Had he focused fire a little bit more in the last turn, as I did, he would have won on points instead.
Good: Nothing really, maybe the Revenants. Most units made it through the game on hold actions. The Wraithguards was stable.
Bad: Dice and the general Eldar weakness that you do not have any leaders so you never get rid of the last blastmarker...


General thought:
Wraithguards is still a very good unit. This tournament I played against two opponents that really didn't know how good they are and against a third that brought a Close combat army so he had to engage them so they were really made to good use. All had several engagements in most battles. (Supporting or attacking/defending) 2 attacks on 4+ in FF is really good and so is fearless and 4+ RA. When I play against my friends they are better at avoiding them, due to practice I guess.
9 activations is a little on the low side. Especially as I started with 2 units in the warp.
Fireprisms is good at the move-fire-move thing but I still think th Falcons is better overall. I generally take 2 firestorms whenever I take falcons so 3-4 Fireprisms is not that good. With falcons the whole unit has the same range and you get so many shots that they are a "safer" bet, performing what they should all the time. I guess the optimal mix is 1 fireprism and 2-3 falcons and 2 firestorms to exploit the extra range on the whole unit that it gives...
In all my games I had a hard time claiming objectives. Compared to what I usually play this army was slow (I used both my Swords of Vaul to move around in my back yard sniping units as I think they have weak armour and is a good target for the opponent, perhaps I play them wrong)

I did end up in the middle (5 out of 10) but it was not that many points that separated number 3 from number 7 so it could have gone ether way

Thanks Uvenlord for the Batreps and feedback.
Eldar vs eldar always makes for a real cagey game that often leads to only marginal wins.
Hey did you enjoy using the list? Did your opponents enjoy playing against the list?

Cheers

Mic

The list is fun to play with, I want a little more mobility but they need some drawback and it might be my listbuild...
And the opponents didn't complain at least
I think the limitation with the Vampire and the 1+ tripple retain has made this list much more fun to play against. But it sometimes also makes this list a little boring to play with having no leader and small units mean you activate a 375 points unit on 3+ most of the time or if you buy the smaller formations it also means you will be broken and rally on 5+. Since the Wraitguards is made for engaging I think a 4 unit is a little to few, you will often find yourself outnumbered 2:1 in the end.

But as a whole I think they are better now then before

Thanks for a great game Uven. The BT player was indeed new to the game, his sixth game ever I believe, fourth not counting Minigeddon.

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Uvenlord thanks again for the Batreps and I am glad your enjoying the list.
Karegak it's great to see new players getting into game

Cheers

Mic