Dark Eldar vs Tau

Dark Eldar vs Tau
2k Points, Dawn of War, Annihilation
Dark Eldar:2 , Tau:6



My first major loss with Dark Eldar was against my good friend Chad and his beautifully painted Tau. My resolve shaken after my previous game with Alex and his monstrous Orks; it was extremely apparent in this game with my lack of actual tactics. I feel that my biggest weakness is concentrated fire so I set out to see just how bad it would be, and worst-case scenario, annihilation popped.

The game I had been playing was to reserve everything and hope my troops remained off the table for as long as possible. I hate Warriors and I was purposely trying to avoid the liability they can become. I do not want to say I underestimated the Tau, because I know full well how brutal concentrated fire can be, and Chad has created the most competitive Tau list I have ever seen. He plays his army beautifully, and they are as elegant and precise as Eldar. That being said, I replaced tactics with a mad dash and hopes that I could last a turn of his shooting. I play High Elves in a come and get me approach. It’s not gun line per say, but the entire list is setup to avoid close combat and optimize my ability to rock yours. Chad will make an excellent High Elf general to say the least. My point is I should have known better, a death march is giving him the game he wants to play.

I figured the only way to keep jet bikes alive is to have the 3+ invulnerable save for going flat out, which I was heavily relying on to get me to the next turn. When Tau concentrate fire on 9 bikes, no save could have saved them from the sheer number of wounds I was forced to take. He simply backs up, in true Tau fashion, and shoots more at me. I was quickly outgunned and destroyed; it was my own fault for just pushing models forward without a real plan. Perhaps against less shooty armies I can try to get into close combat as quickly as possible, but that is honestly not the (dark) Eldar way.

So after a few list tweaks I am back with a sense of purpose. It took some sideline arguing/coaching from Alex to make me reexamine my tactics and I think that I simply missed the true purpose. I cannot just ignore my troops and hope they do not pop. That is 528 points I am trying to play a game without. My prejudice against Guardians transferred into a preconceived notion of Warriors, but unfortunately, I cannot simply pick another troop type. If I am going to play a raider army, I have to commit the entire force into one shock attack. It will take every Warrior, every miserable AV10 Raider; every unit in my force concentrated on a single point to break what is before me. I think it’s time for list 4.0 and a few new models.