Dark Eldar v.s. Eldar (Saim-Hann) 1500pts

My first 2 games in 8th edition.

The DE list was;
Battalion Detachment (3cp)
Air Wing  Detachment (1cp)

Archon: Agoniser
Succubus: Archite Glaive (+1A)
Wyches (5): (+1T)
Raider: Dark Lance,Shock prow

Kabalite Warriors 8: Blaster in a Raider
Kabalite Warriors 8: Blaster in a Raider
Kabalite Warriors 8: Blaster in a Raider
Kabalite Warriors 8: Blaster in a Raider

Razorwing Jetfighter: Razorwing Missiles,Two Dark lances,Twin Splinter Rifle
Razorwing Jetfighter: Razorwing Missiles,Two Dark Lances,Twin Splinter Rifle
Razorwing Jetfighter: Razorwing Missiles,Two Dark Lances,Twin Splinter Rifle

The Eldar list was;

Autarch on a jetbike
Farseer on a jetbike

6 Eldar jetbikes with shuriken cannons
6 Eldar jetbikes with twin linked shuriken catapults
6 Eldar shining spears

6 Fire dragons in a Wave serpent

10 (12?) Guardians (shuriken catapults) in a Wave serpent

War walker

Game 1 turn 1;
Eldar went first and killed a raider and 3 kabalite warriors.
In retaliation every dark lance went into the wave serpent with 5 fire dragons, but 11 dark lances only did 5 wounds on the tank. 3 blasters and 18 splinter rifles shot at the jetbikes (at 12 inch range) but only 1 wound was caused. All models were placed out of charge range of the shining spears

Game 1 turn 2;
With use of doom and fortune 2 raiders were killed along with all kabalite warriors that were on board.
In retaliation 5 wounds were done on the war walker (due to ruins) and 2 more jetbikes were killed.

Game 1 turn 3;
Dark Eldar were tabled (only flyers were left on the table).

Game 2 turn 1;
Dark Eldar went first and killed 4 jetbikes with shuriken cannons (using dark lances). 3 jetbikes with twin linked shuriken catapults were killed with splinter rifles and blasters.
In retaliation the Eldar doomed a razorwing jetfighter and half killed it with shooting (I had 3 of 4 successful invulnerable saves against wounding bright-lances/missile launchers. The autarch finished it off in melee and the shining spears were hiding in cover. Because both Jetbike squads were whittled away The farseer guided a wave serpent instead.

Game 2 turn 2;
Dark Eldar killed the 2 shooting jetbike squads and the autarch with the 4 kabalite warrior squads and their raiders. The 2 Jetfighters went bananas and and killed 3 shining spears with dark lances/splinter rifles because the first 2 dark lances against the war walker killed it. (Note to self, don't try and kill the wave serpents first.)
In retaliation fire dragons killed the Archon/Wyches raider and the gaurdian squad killed 5 wyches.
The wave serpents and the shining spears killed another Razorwing Jetfighter and half killed another. The farseer did a super charged smite against the Archon and left him on 1 wound.

Game 3 turn 3;
The 3 Raider gunboats and the succubus killed the guardians. The Archon and the 4th raider gunboat killed 4 fire dragons and did 3 wounds to the farseer in melee. The dark lances crippled a wave serpent. (6 dark lances and a re-roll did 8 wounds, which was far better than turn 1 game 1).
The Eldar realised the game was lost and just killed the Archon and tried to stall as best as possible.

Game 3 turn 4; Some fortunate dice rolls saw the eldar tabled (The farseer failed an invulnerable save to a blaster shot that did 3 wounds and some incidental dark lances rolled 6 and 5 for damage which allowed for 15ish wounds to be taken off the last 2 wave serpents with the combined shooting and combat of the rest of the list).

Summary; Turn 1 shooting is really swingy in 40k. It was obvious that I was going to lose at the bottom of turn 1 in game 1 and I felt really confident from the bottom of turn 1 in the second game after getting a few hot 5+ invulnerable saves. Even though tanks have a more reliable wounds/armour profile compared to previous editions, anti-tank shooting turn 1 really swings a game for fragile eldar/dark eldar armies.

Excellent battle reps, congrats on the win, and sorry for the loss. What do you thing would change the swingyness of games? Add more LoS blocking terrain?

I shouldn't bother to target wave-serpents as Eldar have far too many frail but high damage dealing targets to waste my first turn hurting the most survivable thing in their army. I think I deserved to lose by committing this mistake but at the same time it was my first 8th edition game so I don't feel bad making it.

I think the swingyness is inherent to dark eldar vehicles. The 5+ shooting invulnerable saves are amazing, and even with 11 dark lances, it's not unreasonable to do less than 10 points of damage (and fail to kill the tank you're shooting at). I think I was in the bottom 5-10% in terms of damage turn 1 game 1 and in the top 10-20% of damage turn 1-2 game 2 which sealed the outcome of the game.

First turn game 1 I rolled a 1,2,2,3 for the 4 dark lances that did damage to the wave serpent (therefore doing 1,1,1,2 damage). I spent my re-roll on a blaster shot that failed to wound (I re-rolled a 1), so basically my alpha strike did nothing.

I noticed that half killing his 2 eldar jetbike squads was really helpful as their weapons are ideal at chewing through dark eldar vehicles.